c r e a t i n g h e a l t h n o w

The public is confused about nutrition. Who is most to blame?

Walter Willett is professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, and the author of Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating. He is also one of the principal investigators on the Nurses Health Study, one of the largest, long-term studies to look at the effect of diet on health. Willett explains how his research on the Nurses Health Study led him to become one of the USDA food pyramid's greatest critics. "The food guide pyramid that was developed in 1991 really is based on the idea that all fat is bad," he says. "This pyramid is really not compatible with good scientific evidence." In this interview, he explains the reasoning behind his revision of the food pyramid to include exercise at the base and to separate out "good" and "bad" fats and carbohydrates. This interview was conducted on Jan. 9, 2004.

	The amount of disease that could be prevented through modifying one's diet? The potential impact of healthy diet, when you combine it with not smoking and regular physical activity, is enormous. For example, our studies have shown that we could prevent about 82 percent of heart attacks, about 70 percent of strokes, over 90 percent of type 2 diabetes, and over 70 percent of colon cancer, with the right dietary choices as part of a health lifestyle. The best drugs can reduce heart attacks by about 20 or 30 percent, yet we put almost all of our resources into promoting drugs rather than healthy lifestyle and nutrition. Do you think the government agrees with you about what's at stake? I think the government has under-funded research in diet and nutrition. In some ways we blame the abstract government for it, but in some sense it's also the scientific community that's partly to blame for it, because we often tend to fund the novel, exciting science, the new gene discoveries, the new mechanisms of drugs, for example. Often diet and nutrition and lifestyle are perceived to be sort of pass¬é or too simple, and yet they are very important topics. There is interesting science behind it, but because it's not regarded as so novel and new, it's often neglected in scientific funding. What caused the shift from how much you ate to what you ate? If we look back at the beginning of the 20th century, over 100 years ago, the main problems were under-nutrition, even in the United States. During the first few decades of the last century, we discovered vitamins and minerals and the necessity for having those, and it was clear that many people were not getting enough of those critical nutrients. But we solved most of those problems, in fact, and about the middle part of the last century we started to appreciate that there was a huge epidemic of heart attacks, coronary heart disease and strokes emerging. … Tell us about Ancel Keys, looking at different countries. One of the ways that we appreciated that diet and lifestyle might really be important was the work of Ancel Keys, who looked at 14 different populations across Europe and Asia. What he realized was that there were some groups -- for example those living in Crete and some villages in Japan -- where heart disease rates were extremely low, only about one-tenth of those in the United States. And yet we also knew, when people moved from those environments, those lifestyles, and lived in the United States, they developed heart disease rates that were very high, just like everybody else in the United States. So that was powerful information telling us that there was something about the diet and lifestyle, way of life, that was extremely important in determining our risk of heart attacks. Where did the idea of saturated fat come from? The idea that saturated fat was a major underlying factor for heart disease did come about largely from the work of Ancel Keys, where he looked at various countries around the world and looked at their heart disease rates, and found that they were strongly correlated with saturated fat in the diet. However, even Keys recognized that it was difficult to point the finger totally at saturated fat, because there were many other aspects of diet and lifestyle that were different among these various population. ... It was suggested we would do better with more vegetable oils? Building on the work of Ancel Keys that showed that countries with high saturated fat had high heart disease rates, there were a number of detailed studies looking at, if we fed different types of fat, how would they affect our blood cholesterol? And it was found that saturated fats increased our blood cholesterol, and polyunsaturated fats from liquid vegetable oils reduce our serum cholesterol. And so in the mid-1970s, the predominant dietary advice was to replace saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat. As it turns out, that advice was probably very good and had additional benefits beyond just those that influence serum cholesterol levels, in that [the] increase in polyunsaturated fat was probably largely responsible for the major reduction in heart disease rates we had during the '70s and early '80s in the United States. In fact, the rates of heart disease death went down by about 50 percent during that time. The movement to get people to switch the types of fat: isn't this a heroic struggle that we should feel proud of? Actually, I think we should be very proud of the achievements that were made during the 1970s, early 1980s, changing the type of fat in diet. We really made some very major national changes, and it did have some important benefits in reducing heart disease rates. This low-fat dogma was incorporated into the USDA food guide pyramid in 1992? Well, there's a little bit of complexity. It's interesting. In the '70s and early '80s, while heart disease rates were going bad, we were not talking about low-fat diets. We were talking about replacing saturated fat with a healthy fat, polyunsaturated fat. But somewhere in the mid-1980s, we lost that message. It's perhaps partly because some nutritionists felt it was too complicated to talk about different types of fat, and developed the notion we should just reduce all types of fat across the board. That was really the beginning of the low-fat, high-carbohydrate crusade. From the beginning, people said you should limit total fat but the amount of saturated fat was less? There wasn't always a distinction? If we go back to the 1960s, 1970s, it was really not so much even limiting total fat. It was really a replacement, and a strong belief that polyunsaturated fat was good. In fact, it really turned out to be that that was right. [What are] examples of the types of fat? What we were talking about when we meant replace saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat was reducing foods like butter, lard, the fat in red meat, with liquid vegetable oils and things made from liquid vegetable oils. How is the simplification -- eat less fat -- manifest in this food guide pyramid? Well, the food guide pyramid that was developed in 1991 really is based on the idea that all fat is bad. Therefore [if] fat is bad, and you have to eat something, carbohydrate must be wonderful. So the base of the pyramid is really emphasizing large amounts of starch in the diet. We're told we can eat up to 11 servings a day, and if that wasn't enough starch, the pyramid puts potatoes along with the vegetables, so you can have up to 13 servings a day. That's a huge amount of starch. Where's fat? Fat's up at the top of the pyramid, and where it says explicitly "fats and oils, use sparingly." It doesn't make any distinction about the type of fat, and it tells us to eat basically as little as possible. From a public health standpoint, how would you characterize this pyramid? Well, this pyramid is really not compatible with good scientific evidence, and it was really out of date from the day it was printed in 1991, because we knew, and we've known for 30 or 40 years that the type of fat is very important. That was totally neglected. [What were the] unintended consequences? The food industry started using vegetable oils, but baking was difficult so they made a technical modification. In some ways, we do have to credit the food industry with being responsive to what nutritionists were saying. They did believe or accepted the evidence that vegetable fats, vegetable oils, would be better than animal fats, and that really led to the development and promotion of the margarine industry and Crisco, baking fats that were made from vegetable oils. But they were made by a process called partial hydrogenation, which converts a liquid oil, say like soybean oil or corn oil, to something like margarine or vegetable shortening. As it turns out that was a very disastrous mistake, because in the process of partial hydrogenation, a totally new type of fat is formed called trans fat. The evidence has now become very clear that trans fat is far worse than saturated fat. So when people were told to switch from butter to margarine? Unfortunately, as a physician back in the 1980s, I was telling people that they should replace butter with margarine because it was cholesterol free, and professional organizations like the American Heart Association were telling us as physicians that we should be promoting this. In reality, there was never any evidence that these margarines, that were high in trans fat, were any better than butter, and as it turned out, they were actually far worse than butter. People read on the label "cholesterol free." Right. This is a good example where just focusing too much on one particular piece of the diet, one particular substance or nutrient, can really mislead us. It is true that these vegetable shortenings and margarines were cholesterol-free, and that was pushed. ... Even though these products were cholesterol-free, the trans fats in them raised our blood cholesterol much more than actual cholesterol in the margarines would have done. "All fat is bad" led to many low-fat products, some of which had beneficial value. Talk about one example. This campaign to reduce fat in the diet has had some pretty disastrous consequences. ... One of the most unfortunate unintended consequences of the fat-free crusade was the idea that if it wasn't fat, it wouldn't make you fat. I even had colleagues who were telling the public that you can't get fat eating carbohydrates. Actually, farmers have known for thousands of years that you can make animals fat by feeding them grains, as long as you don't let them run around too much, and it turns out that applies to humans. We can very easily get fat from eating too many carbohydrates, and the public was really directed to only focus on fat calories, when we really have to keep an eye on calories no matter where they're coming from. With more fat-free products than ever, Americans got fatter. Right. The reality is that during this campaign for fat-free and reduced-fat products, actual fat consumption did go down, but Americans got much fatter during this period of time. Now of course lots of things were going on at the same period in time, but I think it's highly likely this focus only on fat calories to the neglect of carbohydrate calories has contributed to this epidemic of obesity. Is it fair to blame the food pyramid when people don't follow it anyway? The food guide pyramid has actually had a substantial impact on the diets of Americans. If we look back compared to 20 years ago, the percentage of calories from fat in the American diet is quite a bit lower compared to earlier days. Second, there're some important indirect impacts of the food guide pyramid, in that many tens of billions of dollars of federal food policies have to be compliant with the food guide pyramid. So many programs -- for example, what's fed to young children, to pregnant mothers, to low-income families -- have to be consistent with low-fat diets. So the impact really has been, overall, substantial. Behind the food pyramid were a collection of constituencies. Were people receptive when you raised these criticisms in the '90s? There was not much receptivity in the 1990s, when we raised these criticisms of the food guide pyramid. It was almost an accepted religious belief that fat was bad and carbohydrates were good. Then there were lots of economic interests behind the food pyramid as well. Clearly the dairy industry is extremely well represented in the food pyramid. The beef industry is there, and it's very convenient that beef is combined along with fish and poultry and nuts and legumes. So each one of those industries can say: It's healthy to have three servings a day of our product. What makes it so difficult to study the relation between diet and health? The relation between diet and health is unusually complicated to study, and that's probably why we don't have all the final answers even yet. In a trial of a drug, for example, you can randomly assign people, one group to a placebo and another [group] to the new drug, and see what happens to them. But obviously you can't do that with nutrients or a whole diet very easily. Second, we have to follow people for many years to learn all the consequences of diet, and perhaps even almost a lifetime, because some of the effects of diet may be operating during childhood and not be manifested until adult life. So there's no one simple kind of study that will give us all the truth about how diet influences our health, and we need to combine the results of many different studies to have the best and most complete picture. One [kind] of study, for example, involves feeding small groups of people very controlled diets for short periods of time, and seeing what happens, for example, to their blood cholesterol levels. But blood cholesterol levels are only part of the picture, so we are also conducting very large studies where we enroll tens of thousands of people and follow them for many years, all the way along, finding out what they're eating, and then what happens to them in terms of their risk of heart attacks, cancers, and other conditions. And of course in those studies we need to control for many factors, like whether they smoke, how much exercise they have, their family history of various diseases. It's really only when we put those kinds of studies together with the more detailed metabolic, biochemical studies that we can have the best information about the effects of diet. So you find out what they eat, rule out the bad things they do, and look for associations? Right. What we do is find out what people eat through very detailed, structured questionnaires, observe what happens to them in terms of disease rates -- heart attacks and cancers, for example -- and then put these together, controlling for other aspects of lifestyle like diet and activity. What did you notice that seemed to clash with the low-fat dogma? When we began our studies back in the late 1970s, we expected that we would find a relationship between, say, fat intake and breast cancer, because that was almost an accepted relationship. But as the data started coming in over the years, we just did not find any higher risk of breast cancer among women who consume more fat in the diet. And the same was true for colon cancer and for heart attacks and risk of type 2 diabetes. In fact, the percentage of calories from fat in a diet has not been related to any important health outcome. Amount of fat has no relationship to coronary heart disease? The amount of fat had no relationship to risk of coronary heart disease, but the type of fat was extremely important. So the advice we were getting was not just misleading but dangerous? Right. The evidence that we accrued really suggested not only that the type of advice that people were getting was not useful, but it actually could be dangerous, because some people were eliminating the very healthy types of fat that actually reduce heart disease rates. Certain fatty acids can dramatically reduce the incidence of cardiac arrhythmia? One of the important findings, not just from our studies but several trials conducted by other people in Europe and also some careful animal studies, have very clearly indicated that some types of fatty acids in the diet, in particular the omega-3 fatty acids, can actually reduce the heart arrhythmias that really cause people to drop dead in the street. We call that sudden death. And that's very important because some people were eliminating those critically important fatty acids from their diet because they were told that all fat is bad. ... Traditionally people think of carbohydrates as made up of simple sugars and complex starches. What's wrong about that? Right. The thinking in nutrition about carbohydrates really had broken them down into two classes: sugars and so-called complex carbohydrates, which are mostly starches. ... The idea has been pushed that all forms of so-called complex carbohydrates are really the poster child of nutrients, and we should be eating them in large amounts. That's what the pyramid tells us to do. But in fact, these kinds of starches -- white bread, white rice, potatoes -- are starches that are very rapidly converted to glucose, really pure sugar, and almost instantly absorbed into the bloodstream. And these are the kinds of carbohydrates that we really should be minimizing in our diets. A sugar rush from a potato? Actually, careful studies have shown, demonstrated that you get a bigger rise in blood sugar after eating potatoes, a baked potato, say, than you do from eating pure table sugar. Really! Really. That seems pretty extreme. Why is that? ... There are several problems with these rapid rises in blood glucose after you ingest large amounts of a rapidly digested form of carbohydrate. First of all, when the blood sugar goes skyrocketing up, the body wants to bring it back down. So our pancreas pumps out a big blast of insulin, and as a result, the blood sugar comes crashing down rapidly. In fact, in many people, after three and four hours, it overshoots and actually become a little hypoglycemic, and that rapid crashing down of blood glucose and insulin stimulates hunger. That would be no problem, except that it's often all too easy to go in the refrigerator or find a snack, and if we do that frequently throughout the day, that can add up to too many calories over weeks and months and years, and contribute to obesity. Second, these high rises in blood glucose and insulin have a bad metabolic effect on the blood cholesterol fractions. Specifically the HDL, the good cholesterol, is driven down, and triglycerides, another type of fat in the blood that leads to heart attacks, goes up. Third, after many years of demand for high amounts of insulin, the pancreas tends to give out. And at that point in time, we've got type 2 diabetes. [What is the role of insulin?] The role of insulin is to transport glucose from the blood into the cells, like into muscle or into fat cells. What can go wrong with this system? Well, the problem really comes about when we develop insulin resistance. And that means that the cells, like the muscle cells, become more resistant to the action of insulin transporting the glucose inside the cell. And we can become insulin-resistant in several different ways. There's some genetic component, and as it turns our, for example, many Asians tend to have more insulin resistance. Also if we have overweight or low levels of physical activity, we'll be more insulin resistant. Many people argue the virtues of Asian diets, with a lot of white rice. Right. The Asian diet as it's traditionally been used raises some very interesting issues in nutrition, in fact, some of the most important findings during the last several years. What we've come to realize is that if we have a higher degree of insulin resistance, then we much less well tolerate a high-carbohydrate diet. Interestingly, in traditional Asian societies, people were very lean, very active, and therefore had low insulin resistance. They could eat large amounts of rice, even white rice, in the diet and have low heart attack rates and have low rates of type 2 diabetes. But if you take that same person, and they [now] may be living in Beijing and driving a car and watching a television, and they put on a few pounds, they're going to have much more insulin resistance. So if you take that same diet, high in carbohydrate and white rice, they will have a much worse metabolic response and much higher rates of type 2 diabetes. If you're American and overweight, won't you be put on a low-fat diet? If you're overweight and living in the United States, and you go to a hospital and see a dietician, almost for sure, you're going to be put on a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. What's your view of that? The problem is that that's really the wrong diet for an overweight person. Because the person is overweight, in general they're going to have quite a bit more insulin resistance and much less well able to tolerate low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. But fats have twice the amount of calories per gram as carbohydrates. Doesn't it make sense to push the low-calorie diet and therefore a diet low in fat? There's been a very simplistic idea: Just because fats have more calories per ounce than carbohydrates, we should be eliminating fats or reducing fats to control our total caloric intake, in other words, to help control our weight. What's really important though is how satisfying a diet is, because we have very complex mechanisms that control our total intake of calories, and it's become pretty apparent that if we have a high-carbohydrate diet, particularly high refined carbohydrate, it makes it much more difficult to control our total caloric intake. That's probably because when we eat refined carbohydrates, we get these swings in blood glucose and insulin that lead to hunger between meals; whereas if we have a diet that's somewhat higher in fat, we tend to be more satisfied over the long run. Is this what Dr. Atkins was saying 30 years ago? Dr. Atkins was saying as much as 30 years ago, that if we reduce our carbohydrate intake to quite low levels, that will make it easier to control our caloric intake and thus promote weight loss. As it turns out, there is a strong element of truth in that. A number of studies in the last year have looked in a very careful way, comparing low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets with reduced-carbohydrate diets, and in general people have done better on the reduced-carbohydrate diets in terms of their weight. Even though each ounce of fat has twice as many calories, you eat fewer calories because they're more satisfying? Yeah. Well, first of all, this idea of how many calories per gram of fat versus how many calories per gram of carbohydrate is a little simplistic, because we almost never eat foods that are pure fat and pure carbohydrate. They come in foods as mixes, and often with a lot of fiber and a lot of water, and all of those things make a difference as well. But what is really important in the long run is how satisfying a food will be. And as it turns out, that many high-fat foods -- sometimes like meat, but even think of a handful of nuts -- are often very satisfying even though the physical amount is not very great. One of the interesting observations in the recent studies that have compared high-fat diets with high-carbohydrate diets is that there are a lot of differences between people; that it's not that everybody loses a certain amount of weight on a reduced carbohydrate diet. Some people lose a lot of weight. Other people hardly lose any, so one of the things we have to come to understand better is the reasons why there's such a difference in response to these diets. Talk about your food pyramid. We've tried to put together an alternative food guide pyramid that would be based on the best available science. And of course it is a little bit challenging to boil down a tremendous amount of complex science to a simple graphic, and you really have to focus on the things that are well established and important. Right at the bottom, we put weight control and regular physical activity, because overweight is the number one nutrition problem in the United States. Almost everyone is going to need to exercise on a regular basis if they want to control their weight over the long run. And this also is a message that all forms of calories are important. On the next level, we put healthy forms of carbohydrate, meaning whole-grain carbohydrates and healthy forms of fat, meaning from vegetable oils, in the recognition that in most people's diet, most calories are going to be coming from some source of carbohydrate and fat. And what's really important is that those both be healthy sources. Some of those fats have come right from the top of the other pyramid. Right. What we've done is, we've brought some of those fats from the top of the pyramid down to the base, because healthy fats are an important part of a healthy diet. The rest of the pyramid? Our alternative pyramid, like the USDA pyramid, does emphasize plenty of fruits and vegetables, but we've taken potatoes out of the vegetable group. We've put legumes and nuts as a layer. If you want to be a vegetarian, those are good protein sources. But moderate amounts of poultry, fish, and nuts can also make a diet be a non-vegetarian diet and still very healthy. And up at the top we've put red meat and dairy products, dairy fat, because those are high in saturated fat. ... At the top of the pyramid, we've put foods like white bread, white rice, white pasta, and sweets as those that should be used sparingly. And that was really the base of the USDA pyramid. Some nutritionists have criticized your pyramid as "floating on a lake of olive oil." The formal studies that had compared a more moderate fat intake as we've suggested, with low-fat diets, have actually consistently shown that people did as well or better controlling their weight on a moderate-fat diet compared to a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet. Even good fats are more fattening than good carbs. So they think you're contributing to the obesity epidemic, or there's a risk of that. A tablespoon of olive oil is 14 grams of fat. There are all kinds of beliefs about the amount of fat in a diet, tremendously strong opinions. What we really need is sound data, and the studies that have been done show that people actually end up controlling their weight at least as well, and usually better, on moderate-fat diets compared to low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets. Is it okay to get more than 30 percent of your calories from fat? The evidence is quite clear that it's perfectly fine to get more than 30 percent of your calories from fat, and probably, in fact, it's even better to be getting more than 30 percent of calories from fat, if it's the healthy form of fat. ... When you look at the causes of obesity, what do you find? The causes of obesity and the obesity epidemic in the United States are extremely complex. In fact, obesity is sort of a tip of the iceberg of tremendous social change that's been going on during the last few decades. First of all, our activity patterns have changed greatly. We have children and adults now watching on the average, about four hours of television per day, and in study after study, we've seen just the number of hours of television watching being the strongest predictor of obesity. When I was young and came home after school, we'd all go out and play, and our mothers would have to drag us in for dinner. That doesn't happen very often anymore. Often the mothers are not there. Kids are inside. The television is used as baby sitters. We've also made it dangerous and uninviting to walk to places, to walk to stores, to ride bikes in urban areas, and that's removed an important amount of physical activity from our lives as well. So the physical activities pattern's changed, but the food environment has also changed. We have food available fast and very low-cost and very convenient, almost everywhere. The food industry has invested many tens of billions of dollars in making their products more attractive, more sweet, more salty, more sexy, more seductive in every way that they can, and we're vulnerable to that promotion, and we are eating more. So you put these two factors together -- reduction in activity, heavy promotion of food -- and you've got, not surprisingly, an epidemic of obesity. Which we're exporting to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, what we've created is now being exported to the rest of the world. And in almost every country, in Europe as well as Africa, Latin America and Asia, rates of obesity are climbing rapidly. When you think about solutions, how can we proceed? The causes of obesity are very complex, and therefore any response is going to have to be complicated and multi-faceted as well. There is no single solution to this, but we have to do many things to really solve this problem. We've actually looked at this in a very detailed manner over the past two years in the New England states, and identified eight different areas that we have to really modify. For example, schools have to change what's served, what's promoted in schools. The healthcare providers -- physicians, nurses -- have to be providing much better and effective advice to their patients about controlling their weight. Work sites have to change. The whole food environment and what we promote to children has to be somehow modified, and we do have to protect children from these aggressive advertisements. We have to change the physical environment to make it more conducive, more attractive to bicycle to work, to destinations, not just drive places. Many other things need to be done if we're going to solve this problem, and it's time we really began. The national obesity crisis, I mean, it's really severe. And to hear you talk about it, it sounds like it's hopeless to overcome it. The crisis we're facing is severe, and it's getting worse. Interestingly, the full consequences won't be seen for another 30 or 40 years, because it takes that long a time for the risk of diabetes and the complication of diabetes to play out. But it's not hopeless, and I think that's the good news. There are places, if we look around the world, where people have been controlling their weight. For example, in Japan and in Sweden, women have really not been gaining weight as they've gone through midlife and gotten older, so we do need to learn more about how they're doing it. Also in the U.S. there are many people who are controlling their weight successfully. Not everybody is going to be as successful, even if they do the same diet and do the same amount of physical activity, but many people are doing pretty well. And one piece of evidence we have is that upper-income groups actually only have about half the rate of obesity compared to lower-education groups. So it's not hopeless, but we are going to have to devote many more resources to doing this if, as a whole country, we're going to be successful. ... The advice for so long was: Buy something that says "fat-free," or at least "low-fat" on it. All these [salad] dressings, fat free. But not necessarily a good idea? In fact, a pretty bad idea, and that was really unfortunate that the crusade against fat really led the food industry to produce all these fat-free salad dressing products. The problem is that the fats that were in the salad dressings were the healthy fats, the ones you should be including in the diet. They were the unsaturated fats that reduce our blood cholesterol levels, and we've also seen that they reduce heart attack risk and type 2 diabetes, as well. So people were giving up these healthy fats, and what we've seen is actually an increase in risk of heart disease among people avoiding full-fat salad dressings. Of course one of the important roles of a full-fat salad dressing is that it makes salads taste good, and we want people to be eating those vegetables. So it's not that we're telling people to gulp down bottles of salad dressing. We want them to use it on a salad and enjoy it. ... [At] the base of your pyramid, after exercise: whole grains. Right? Right. On the base of our pyramid, side-by-side, we put healthy fats and whole grains. And that's because we do see positive benefits in study after study, that there's lower risks of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and probably better weight control as well, with some whole grains in the product. And that's because these carbohydrates are generally absorbed more slowly, they give less of a spike in blood glucose, and they come with a whole package of minerals, vitamins, and fiber that all have positive health benefits. ... Some of these diets, even South Beach, for instance, say you're going to lose weight on this diet even if you don't exercise. They're not advocating that I don't exercise, but they're de-emphasizing it. You, however, are saying exercise is really central. It's the base of your pyramid, right? Right. Exercise is absolutely essential. Even though we might think of exercising half an hour a day, and I ride my bike to work, might be quite a bit compared to the average American, it's still really pretty modest compared to what my grandfather did, who worked in the fields for 10-12 hours a day. ... Okay now, in the great tradition of American reporting, I'll focus this all on myself again. I love nuts. My wife harasses me. She's got great advice on most things, but she says, "Don't eat nuts. Lay off nuts." You're my only hope. Okay. Well, let me help out, because nuts are really one of the neglected health foods on American grocery store shelves. They've been given a bad rap by nutritionists because they are high in fat. Most of the calories in nuts are from fat, but it's almost all healthy fats. And what we've seen, interestingly, study after study is that people who eat more nuts do not weigh more than people who don't eat nuts. And it's probably because even a small amount can be very satisfying, and we unconsciously replace other forms of calories with the nuts when we consume them. Now of course, you can overdo any good thing. So being a little bit sensible about that is important. What's also useful is to think of nuts not as a sort of added on snack, but as a protein source. For example, I often have it with a salad and that combination is a good meal. And there's ways to put nuts into mixed dishes and casseroles and things like that. So with a little creativity, they can really be an important part of a diet and a very healthy part of a diet.

America's Changing relationship with food........

	Chronology....America's Changing relationship with Food   A look at how Americans' eating habits -- and the dietary advice we've received -- have changed over the years. 1890s-1960s Americans advised to eat more Dietary advice during this period is mostly targeted to persuade Americans to eat more nutrients and to consume from the full range of American agricultural products. The earliest studies from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggest that a balanced diet should contain 15 percent of calories from protein, 33 percent from fat and 52 percent from carbohydrates. In 1917, the USDA releases a pamphlet "How to Select Foods," which contains its first set of dietary recommendations. The document organizes food into five categories -- fruits and vegetables, meats and other proteins, cereals and other starches, sweets, and fatty foods -- which set the standard food groups that the USDA still uses. 1950s Pioneering research on diet and heart disease Dr. Ancel Keys, a physician at the University of Minnesota and a pioneer in the study of heart disease, launches the Seven Countries Study, which surveys men in Finland, Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy, Netherlands, Japan and the U.S. and concludes that heart disease correlates with diet and exercise. He also finds that in countries where people don't eat as much fat, heart disease rates are lower. Keys and other scientists begin to argue that Americans are eating too much animal fat. Their theory is that this contributes to high cholesterol levels which contribute to heart disease. 1963 Weight Watchers is founded The group is founded by housewife Jean Nidetch of Queens, N.Y. She invites her friends over weekly to discuss how best to lose weight. The group now estimates it has 1 million members worldwide. July 1968 McGovern committee established to fight war against hunger After CBS airs a 1967 documentary, "Hunger in America," about malnutrition and hunger among the poor, there is a public outcry for greater federal food assistance programs. Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.) is chosen to lead a Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. His committee, which meets for nine years, creates the food stamp and other federal assistance programs. The McGovern committee also takes notice of the research emerging from Ancel Keys and others and gradually switches its focus to "over-nutrition," or dietary excesses, in the mid-1970s. It holds hearings in 1973, 1974 and 1976 on the relationship between diet and diseases including cancer, diabetes and heart disease. 1972 Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution published Atkins recommends eating a diet high in protein and fat and low in carbohydrates. He argues that in reducing carbohydrates, the body will burn excess fat for fuel and that the diet's adherents will feel satiated. Although the book is a bestseller, the Atkins diet is considered outside of the medical mainstream for the next 30 years. 1976 Nurses' Health Study Begins Dr. Frank Speitzer establishes the Nurses' Health Study to examine the long-term use of contraceptives. The study tracks 122,000 registered nurses, who fill out detailed surveys every two years about their diet and health. It is one of the only long-term studies to track the relationship between nutrition and disease and a second investigation is started in 1989 to target a younger population. Among the findings of the Nurses Health Study is a relationship between increases in body mass index (a measure of body fat) and increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, gallstones and type 2 diabetes. 1977 Controversy over "Dietary Goals for the United States" The McGovern committee releases a document "Dietary Goals for the United States," based on its mid-1970s hearings. The report, which recommends Americans increase carbohydrate consumption, but decrease fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sugar and salt consumption, immediately causes a stir. Members of the food industry who would be directly affected -- including cattle, egg, sugar and dairy producers -- insist the report be revised. Scientists also protest that the recommendations are based on unproven science. The committee responds by holding follow-up hearings and a second report is published later in the year. The revised version allows for increased salt and egg consumption and changes the advice from "reduce consumption of meat" to "choose meats, poultry, and fish which will reduce saturated fat intake." 1979 Pritikin Program for Diet & Exercise published Nathan Pritikin and his son Robert develops the Pritikin Longevity Center and its strict low-fat diet and exercise program in response to Pritikin's belief that such a regimen reversed his own heart disease. 1980 "Dietary Guidelines for Americans" issued The USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) jointly release the "Dietary Guidelines for Americans." The document's recommendations include: "Eat a variety of foods; Maintain ideal weight; Avoid too much fat, saturated fat and cholesterol; Eat foods with adequate starch and fiber; Avoid too much sugar; Avoid too much sodium; If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation." Because the guidelines do not recommend reducing intake of any particular food, they prove to be much less controversial than the McGovern committee's "Dietary Goals." Early 1980s America's obesity epidemic begins During the 1960s and 1970s, 13 to 14 percent of Americans are classified as obese. However, during the 1980s, that number rises by 8 percentage points and it continues to rise throughout the 1990s. Currently, one-third of the American population is considered to be obese. View a series of maps from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that show the growth of the American obesity epidemic from 1985 to 2002. 1980s-1990s Low-fat dietary recommendations continue During this period, numerous scientific studies -- including a study of meat commissioned by the American Meat Institute, the National Cattlemen's Association and the National Pork Producers Council and the "Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health" -- confirm the need for Americans to reduce the amount of fat in their diet. Groups including the American Heart Association, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and other advocacy organizations also issue recommendations to lower fat intake to fight conditions including cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. April 1992 USDA publishes food pyramid The food pyramid is scheduled to be released in 1991 but is withdrawn after pressure from meat and dairy producers who are upset over its recommendations. A storm of controversy ensues over the perception of corporate favoritism on behalf of the USDA, although Agriculture Secretary Edward Madigan maintains that he blocked the pyramid's release because it would confuse children. The pyramid is released in April 1992 after a year of evaluation by the USDA. The bread, cereal, rice and pasta group forms the base of the pyramid, which recommends Americans eat six to 11 servings from this group each day. The next level suggests three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruits per day; followed by two to three servings each from the "milk, yogurt and cheese group" and the "meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts group." At the top of the pyramid is fats, oils and sweets, which are to be used sparingly. In recent years, critics have suggested that Americans' wide recognition of the food pyramid during the 1990s may correlate with the nation's obesity problem because of the pyramid's recommendation that carbohydrates should be the foundation of healthy eating habits. Read what FRONTLINE's experts believe about the need to reassess the food pyramid. 1992 Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution published In 1992, Atkins publishes an updated version of his diet and during the mid-1990s, the Atkins diet takes off. In 1998, he forms Atkins Nutritionals to sell food products created for his followers and revenues from the company reportedly reach $100 million. By 1999, four other high-protein diet books -- Sugar Busters!, Protein Power, Eat Great, Lose Weight and The Zone -- join Atkins on the bestseller list. 1993 Eat More, Weigh Less published During the height of the low-fat era cardiologist Dr. Dean Ornish, the author of Eat More, Weigh Less recommends a low-fat, plant-based diet to protect against heart disease and other medical conditions. Ornish also recommends meditation and support groups as part of a wellness regimen. 2000 Diet wars heat up at USDA conference In February, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and the USDA sponsor The Great Nutrition Debate to try and clear up public confusion regarding diet advice. Dr. Atkins and Dr. Ornish are among the participants at the conference. The participants agree that Americans need to lose weight and that they should exercise and avoid sugar. Beyond that, the debate is contentious. "There was no consensus," Glickman says. "I recall that Dr. Atkins and Dr. Ornish just about went at each other physically. It was amusing to me, but I don't know if it was edifying to the people who buy books and try to find ways to lose weight." 2001 Eat, Drink and Be Healthy published Harvard nutritionist Dr. Walter Willett, who launched the second phase of the Nurses Health Study in 1989, publishes Eat, Drink and Be Healthy to explain why he believes the USDA food pyramid recommendations are wrong and potentially dangerous. He argues that the USDA food pyramid is based on "shaky scientific ground" and that it does not recognize the difference between "good" and "bad" fats and carbs. Willett offers his version of a revised food pyramid with daily exercise and weight control at the base. He recommends whole grain foods and plant-based oils (such as olive, canola, corn and other vegetable oils) at every meal; vegetables "in abundance;" two to three daily servings of fruit; one to three daily servings of nuts and legumes; up to two daily servings of fish, poultry and eggs; and one to two daily servings of dairy or calcium supplements. At the top of Willett's pyramid are "red meat, and butter" and "white rice, white bread, potatoes, pasta and sweets," which are to be used sparingly. 2003 The South Beach Diet published As the low-carb trend heats up, The South Beach Diet by Florida cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston is published. Agatston, who maintains his diet is not a low-carb diet, but rather a diet that "teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats," develops the diet after he becomes disillusioned with watching his patients fail to lose weight and reverse heart disease on low-fat regimens. Early 2005 Revised food pyramid expected to be published Sources: Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, Marion Nestle (University of California Press, 2003); "What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?" (The New York Times Magazine, July 7, 2002); and news reports

The World's Oldest Living Man.......THE CORAL CALCIUM STORY

The World's Oldest Living Man
(documented by Guinness Book of Records)

In l979, a British journalist from Guinness Book of Records went on assignment to the islands of Okinawa and Tokumoshima off the coast of Japan to interview Shigechiyo Isumi, the world's oldest documented living person. What he found was a man 115 years old with remarkably good health and vitality who had worked until the age of 105. Investigating further, the journalist discovered Mr. Isumi was not the exception. Most of the island's inhabitants were physically fit, had low incidence of serious illness and enjoyed long life spans.

Interested in studying this further, the journalist persuaded Mr. Isumi to submit to a medical check-up. The results were even more amazing. How could a person of his age possibly be so healthy? Soon, a team of researchers arrived and made an important discovery. They found that all the islanders had one thing in common. The water they drank was different from water found anywhere else in the world!

Sango Coral is the only coral
out of 2,500 species
with life-giving benefits

The key was to find why the water was so different. They learned these particular islands were built up from the coral reefs like so many other islands. But there was a difference. These coral reefs weren't found anywhere else in the world. The reefs were Sango Coral, the only coral out of 2,500 species with life-giving benefits. A study of Sango coral shows it is composed of calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, essential trace minerals and many other microscopic elements essential to human life. The composition of the Sango Coral is identical to that of the human skeleton and is widely used for bone grafts throughout the world.

Japanese Government Authorizes Mining of Sango Coral

Over a decade ago, the Japanese government authorized the mining of the coral sand accumulated on the sea floor around Okinawa. A unique patented process was developed to extract the Sango coral sand and preserve all its minerals and trace elements without disturbing the living coral reefs. This coral sand is called Coral Calcium and is packaged in one gram packets, similar to small tea bags. When placed in any non-carbonated liquid the life-giving properties of the coral are immediately dispersed into the water. Each packet contains 973 mg of calcium and other essential trace minerals in ionic form.

HTN obtains exclusive rights to distribute Coral Calcium direct from world-wide patent holder

Today over four million people in Japan benefit from the Sango coral by adding these tiny packets to their daily drinking water. It is taken by thousands of people in Britain, Sweden and Norway. In Europe this product is referred to as "Magic Sand."

Now, you too, can benefit from this exclusive Sango coral product. Dealing direct with the original Japanese patent holder, HTN has the exclusive rights to distribute this product in the United States, Canada, and Mexico under the name Coral Calcium Gold and Coral Calcium.

IMPORTANT

Supplemental calcium intake may interfere with the effects of calcium-channel blockers, digitalis derivatives and specific antibiotics such as tetracycline. Be sure to check with your prescribing health professional if you are currently taking any of these products before starting on any calcium supplementation.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Acid / Alkaline Balance

Use HTN Coral Calcium to balance your body's pH

Over acidity, which can become a dangerous condition that weakens all body systems, is very common today. It gives rise to an internal environment conducive to disease, as opposed to a pH-balanced environment which allows normal body function necessary for the body to resist disease. A healthy body maintains adequate alkaline reserves to meet emergency demands. When excess acids must be neutralized our alkaline reserves are depleted leaving the body in a weakened condition.

The concept of acid alkaline imbalance as the cause of disease is not new. In 1933 a New York doctor named William Howard Hay published a ground-breaking book, A New Health Era in which he maintains that all disease is caused by autotoxication (or "self-poisoning") due to acid accumulation in the body:

Now we depart from health in just the proportion to which we have allowed our alkalies to be dissipated by introduction of acid-forming food in too great amount... It may seem strange to say that all disease is the same thing, no matter what its myriad modes of expression, but it is verily so.
William Howard Hay, M.D.
More recently, in his remarkable book Alkalize or Die (see recommended reading), Dr. Theodore A. Baroody says essentially the same thing:

The countless names of illnesses do not really matter. What does matter is that they all come from the same root cause...too much tissue acid waste in the body!
Theodore A. Baroody, N.D., D.C., Ph.D.
Understanding pH
pH (potential of hydrogen) is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 14—the lower the pH the more acidic the solution, the higher the pH the more alkaline (or base) the solution. When a solution is neither acid nor alkaline it has a pH of 7 which is neutral.
Water is the most abundant compound in the human body, comprising 70% of the body. The body has an acid-alkaline (or acid-base) ratio called the pH which is a balance between positively charges ions (acid-forming) and negatively charged ions (alkaline-forming.) The body continually strives to balance pH. When this balance is compromised many problems can occur.

It is important to understand that we are not talking about stomach acid or the pH of the stomach. We are talking about the pH of the body's fluids and tissues which is an entirely different matter.

Test Your Body's Acidity or Alkalinity with pH Strips
It is recommended that you test your pH levels to determine if your body's pH needs immediate attention. By using pH test strips, you can determine your pH factor quickly and easily in the privacy of your own home. If your urinary pH fluctuates between 6.0 to 6.5 in the morning and between 6.5 and 7.0 in the evening, your body is functioning within a healthy range. If your saliva stays between 6.5 and 7.5 all day, your body is functioning within a healthy range. The best time to test your pH is about one hour before a meal and two hours after a meal. Test your pH two days a week.

Urine pH
The results of urine testing indicate how well your body is assimilating minerals, especially calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. These are called the "acid buffers" because they are used by the body to control the acid level. If acid levels are too high, the body will not be able to excrete acid. It must either store the acid in body tissues (autotoxication) or buffer it—that is, borrow minerals from organs, bones, etc. in order to neutralize acidity.

Saliva pH
You'll also want to test the pH of your saliva. The results of saliva testing indicate the activity of digestive enzymes in your body, especially the activity of the liver and stomach. This reveals the flow of enzymes running through your body and shows their effect on all the body systems. Some people will have acidic pH readings from both urine and saliva—this is referred to as "double acid."

Keeping the Balance Right for Excellent Health
Your body is able to assimilate minerals and nutrients properly only when its pH is balanced. It is therefore possible for you to be taking healthy nutrients and yet be unable to absorb or use them. If you are not getting the results you expected from your nutritional or herbal program, look for an acid alkaline imbalance. Even the right herbal program may not work if your body's pH is out of balance.

What Causes Me to be Acidic?
The reason acidosis is more common in our society is mostly due to the typical American diet, which is far too high in acid-producing animal products like meat, eggs and dairy, and far too low in alkaline-producing foods like fresh vegetables. Additionally, we eat acid-producing processed foods like white flour and sugar and drink acid-producing beverages like coffee and soft drinks. We use too many drugs, which are acid-forming; and we use artificial chemical sweetners like NutraSweet, Equal, or aspartame, which are extremely acid-forming. One of the best things we can do to correct an overly-acid body is to clean up the diet and lifestyle.

Most people who suffer from unbalanced pH are acidic. This condition forces the body to borrow minerals—including calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium—from vital organs and bones to buffer (neutralize) the acid and safely remove it from the body. Because of this strain, the body can suffer severe and prolonged damage due to high acidity—a condition that may go undetected for years.
Mild acidosis can cause such problems as:

Cardiovascular damage, including the constriction of blood vessels and the reduction of oxygen.
Weight gain, obesity and diabetes.
Bladder and kidney conditions, including kidney stones.
Immune deficiency.
Acceleration of free radical damage, possibly contributing to cancerous mutations.
Premature aging.
Osteoporosis; weak, brittle bones, hip fractures and bone spurs.
Joint pain, aching muscles and lactic acid buildup.
Low energy and chronic fatigue.
A recent seven-year study conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, on 9,000 women showed that those who have chronic acidosis are at greater risk for bone loss than those who have normal pH levels. The scientists who carried out this experiment believe that many of the hip fractures prevalent among middle-aged women are connected to high acidity caused by a diet rich in animal foods and low in vegetables. This is because the body borrows calcium from the bones in order to balance pH. — American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Take responsibility for your Health starting Today!

Each of us is responsible for our own health - every action affects our health - the amount of time we devote to maintaining/improving our health (yes both minutes ) should count, BIG TIME, that's our job. My view of a healthy nutritional life style is probably about the middle of the road. "Organic" - when practical, Natural - when possible, Plant based - when available, Taste and Appearance - as good as you can make it with the time available. Even with these attainable goals, it is impossible to get everything you need without supplementation. As time passes the medical community is putting more and more emphasis upon nutrition as the single best method of preservation and enhancement of your health. Nutritional supplementation enables you to become, and/or stay fit. They are also giving nutritional supplementation a greater role in the treatment of many pervasive diseases. The human body needs 93 nutritents each day; 62 minerals, 16 vitamins, 12 amino acids and 3 fatty acids. If you want your body to function as it should, it is YOUR responsibility to not only swallow these every day, but to make sure that they are in a form that your individual body can use. We call this individual bio-availability. What do we mean by the previous paragraph ? First you need to be aware of what your body needs daily. Second you need to do your best to supply these nutrients in a form that your body can utilize. The third consideration is; " I don't need one more pot to watch" this should not be a chore for you, you don't have the time. Each of our body's digestive efficiencies varies with age, condition, and how well we have met our nutritional requirements during our life. Generally speaking the younger we are the more efficient our digestive systems will be. Our bodies have about a zillion functions to do every day - to do these jobs our bodies need " tools " or " nutrients " to perform all of these functions. Please browse the articles on this weblog to make better informed decisions about how you can actively participate in creating a healthier you and start the preventative maintenance that will assist your body into degenerating into disease.While absorbing these materials also check this link where you can find many of the cutting edge nutraceuticals discussed and the opportunity to purchase these at a substantial discount and possibly open up a new awareness how you can get paid to share the wealth of this information by becoming an independant distributor.
http://gohtn.net/creatinghealthnow

CHROMIUM nutrition,Help your metabolism overcome Diabetes & Obesity

	As we have already discussed, high blood sugar levels result in a spike in the hormone insulin, leading to cellular disruption and obesity. More than 90 percent of North Americans are deficient in chromium. When you combine low chromium consumption with blood sugar levels that are high due to a high consumption of sweets, breads and refined foods, the result is a staggering increase in Type II diabetes, overfatness and obesity. Most soils contain little or no chromium. As a result, the plants we eat contain very little chromium. The best way to boost the level of chromium in your cells is to take a supplement. If you are over-fat, there is a good chance you are insulin resistant. Your cells just do not let the sugar enter their interiors as well as they used to. This results in the pro-fat insulin spike that keeps the fat pounds on despite vigorous exercise and diet routines. Chromium is essential to reducing the cells’ resistance to insulin. It helps your cells function better, allowing blood sugar and amino acids in and keeping blood insulin levels lower. GTF— Glucose Tolerance Factor by totalhealth editors It is important to understand that although chromium is essential, to be most effective it should be in the form of GTF (Glucose Tolerance Factor). This means that the mineral chromium in its organic form, which is trivalent chromium (Cr+3), must combine in the body with nicotinic acid/B3 and three other amino acids which are glycine, cysteine and glutamic acid. Studies have revealed that GTF binds both to the insulin molecule and the insulin receptor, which increases the hormonal effect of insulin up to threefold, thereby enhancing glucose tolerance. But as people grow older, and due to other health complications, they can no longer form the GTF in their own bodies, contributing to diabetes and/or elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, increasing the risk of cardiovascular complications. To insure proper blood sugar control, glucose tolerance, oneshould take chromium that is already in a GTF form.   The following information contains important facts about chromium nutrition and ChromeMate®, a superior source of bioavailable, biologically active chromium that can help you attain your performance goals.   Chart 1. Chromium-activated insulin increases the rate of glucose transport inside muscle cells for energy production nearly twenty fold. What is Chromium? Chromium, like iron, copper and zinc, is one of 16 essential trace minerals your body needs to keep healthy and fit. And for athletes, chromium may be the most precious metal of all. In its biologically active form, chromium helps insulin metabolize fat, turn protein into muscle and convert sugar into energy. In fact, chromium-activated insulin increases the amount of glucose available for energy production nearly twenty fold (Chart 1). In other words, it optimizes energy output to give you more power for a longer, harder workout. What else does Chromium do? "Muscle burn" or "hitting the wall" occurs when the body's energy-producing capacity is stretched beyond its limits. By increasing the efficiency of glucose utilization, chromium expands these limits so you can push ahead, farther and faster. Chromium is also the "master" nutrient for controlling blood sugar. It helps overcome sugar cravings, a problem many people experience due to diets high in sugars and refined carbohydrates. It also helps level out the highs and lows of a high carbohydrate diet, promoting a steady stream of available glucose for continuous, prolonged energy. Do YOU need Chromium? A lack of chromium can impair insulin function, inhibiting muscle development and energy production. Worse, it can lead to type II diabetes and even heart disease. ChromeMate® is a superior source of bioavailable, biologically active chromium that can significantly enhance your chromium nutritional status. It can promote insulin function and boost your physical performance. Chromium is rapidly depleted as a result of vigorous exercise. Following a strenuous workout, chromium loss has been shown to increase five times the normal rate. And consumption of sugars and refined carbohydrates, a major part of many athletes diets, can increase chromium loss up to 300%. Are you getting enough Chromium in your diet? U.S. Government studies show that the diets of nine out of ten Americans are deficient in chromium, containing less than the minimum safe and adequate amount established by the National Research Council (50-200 micrograms/day). The problem is even worse for athletes whose nutritional requirements are far greater than most people. Worse yet, normal food processing removes up to 80% of the chromium in those foods and less than 2 percent of the chromium from most food sources is actually absorbed. Even by eating well, it is difficult to replenish depleted chromium stores. How can you increase your Chromium intake? Foods rich in biologically active chromium (the form that activates insulin action) are Brewer's yeast, black pepper, liver and wheat germ. But even Brewer's yeast, the richest known source of biologically active chromium in nature, contains only a few micrograms of chromium per gram. Less than 10% of this is in the biologically active form. Higher potencies of biologically active chromium (up to 200 micrograms) are available in HTN products that contain ChromeMate. Not only is ChromeMate absorbed significantly better than any other dietary chromium, it's also very convenient to take.   Chart 2. ChromeMate was absorbed and retained significantly better than chromium chloride or chromium picolinate. What do the experts say about ChromeMate? Dr. Walter Mertz, former director of the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center and discoverer of biologically active chromium, identified niacin-bound chromium as the active chromium ingredient in Brewer's yeast. Independent university studies have now found ChromeMate's patented oxygen-coordinated chromium-niacin complex to be the most bioactive of all - up to 18 times more potent than other forms of niacin-bound chromium! Recently, a study at the University of California found that ChromeMate was absorbed and retained more than 300% better than chromium picolinate and 600% better than chromium chloride (Chart 2). Where can I find ChromeMate? ChromeMate is a high-potency nutritional ingredient used in a variety of HTN health and dietary products. Look for the logo on the label. You'll know you're getting genuine, oxygen coordinated niacin-bound ChromeMate. M2000 is HTN's original formula designed to promote fitness, fat loss, and boost energy. If your goal is to manage your weight, increase energy and / or become healthier M2000 is what you want. This product will help to "supercharge" your metabolism in order to burn more calories, increase energy, boost stamina, control appetite, decrease calorie intake, and maintain muscle fitness and potential. M2000 may also help to decrease lactic acid build up as well as maintain proper blood sugar balance. So, whether you're lacking enough energy to make it through the day or simply trying to maintain your ideal weight, M2000 is a great choice. Discover for yourself why our M2000 product line has been an HTN "best seller" for over 11 years! ChromeMate® and Citrimax™ are Trademarks of InterHealth Nutraceuticals, Inc. SUGGESTED USE: Take 1-2 capsules during the morning by 10:00 a.m. and one capsule between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. For optimum benefit, take 6 capsules daily. Notice: adjust dosage according to energy levels. Drink plenty of good water (distilled water is recommended). Supplement Facts Serving Size: 1 Capsule Servings Per Bottle 90    Amount per Serving % Daily Value Beta Carotene 1666 iu * Thiamin (Vitamin B-1 as thiamin mononitrate USP) 633 mcg 33% Riboflavin (Vitamin B-2 as riboflavin USP) 633 mcg 33% Niacin (Vitamin B-3 as niacinamide USP) 6.67 mg 33% Vitamin B-6 (as pyridoxine hydrochloride USP) 667 mcg 33% Folate (as folic acid USP) 133.3 mcg 33% Vitamin B-12 (as cyanocobalamin USP) 17 mcg 33% Biotin (as d-biotin USP) 50 mcg 33% Pantothenic acid (as calcium pantothenate USP) 3.33 mg 33% Vitamin C 40 mg 67% Vitamin D 133 iu 33% Vitamin E 10 iu 33% Vanadyl sulfate 1000 mcg * CitriMax™ standardized extract of Garcinia cambogia fruit (50% hydroxycitric acid) 250 mcg * ChromeMate® (chromium polynicotinate) yielding 10% elemental chromium 1000 mcg * M2000 Metabolic Herbal Blend 350 mg * Korean ginseng extract (Panax ginseng), Spirulina, Bee pollen, Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus), Ginger root (Zingiber officinale), Hawthorn berry (Crataegus oxyacantha), Fo-ti (Polygonum multiflorum), Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens), Ginkgo biloba, White willow bark (Salix alba). Fat-binding fiber blend 50 mg * Vegetable cellulose, fenugreek seed fiber (Trigonella foenum-graecum), Scandinavian beet pectin (Beta vulgaris) Water balance blend 50 mg * Potassium citrate (supplying 25 mg potassium), buchu leaf 4:1 extract (Barosma betulina), uva ursi leaf standardized extract (20% arbutin) (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie Diet. * Daily value not established Other ingredients: vegetable stearic acid, vegetable magnesium stearate, rice flour. Energy, Endurance, Stamina - Ideal for Athletic Performance A diet of refined processed foods promotes poor sugar and fat metabolism. This can lead to imbalanced blood sugar levels and a build up of lactic acid, which can cause muscle soreness, fatigue and a reduction in endurance. Formulated with CitriMax® and ChromeMate®, Endura-Max helps improve glucose utilization, boost energy (enhanced glucose oxidation), endurance and stamina, while sparing lean muscle mass, burning fat and reducing unhealthy appetite cravings. An ideal choice for athletes, body builders and those who engage in regular exercise. ChromeMate® and CitriMax™ are trademarks of InterHealth Nutraceuticals, Inc. SUGGESTED USE: support take one capsule twice per day 1/2 hour before meals or workouts. Stressful lifestyles needing maximum nutritional support take two or more capsules twice per day 1/2 hour before meals or workouts. Cap bottle tightly and store in a cool, dry place. Endura-Max™ formula contains high-potency, oxygen-coordinated, niacin bound GTF (Glucose Tolerance Factor) chromium, with 1000 mcg of ChromeMate® per capsule, the most bioavailable chromium tested, 311% more bioavailable than Chromium Picolinate, in a unique blend of herbs, sea vegetables and amino acids to assist balanced energy production. Supplement Facts Serving Size: 1 Capsule Servings Per Bottle  30    Amount per Serving % Daily Value CitraMax™ 320 mg * ChromeMate® (chromium polynicotinate) yielding 10% elemental chromium 1000 mcg * Trace Mineral Powder 1.2 mg * Proprietary Blend 190 mg * Sea Life, Inosine, Trans Ferulic Acid, Muira Pauma, Carnatine base, Sipernat * Daily value not established Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Other ingredients: Magnesium stearate.

14 Keys to a Healthy Diet

Developing healthy eating habits isn't as confusing or as restrictive as many people imagine. The first principle of a healthy diet is simply to eat a wide variety of foods. This is important because different foods make different nutritional contributions.

Secondly, fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes—foods high in complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, low in fat, and free of cholesterol—should make up the bulk of the calories you consume. The rest should come from low-fat dairy products, lean meat and poultry, and fish.

You should also try to maintain a balance between calorie intake and calorie expenditure—that is, don't eat more food than your body can utilize. Otherwise, you will gain weight. The more active you are, therefore, the more you can eat and still maintain this balance.

Following these three basic steps doesn't mean that you have to give up your favorite foods. As long as your overall diet is low in fat and rich in complex carbohydrates, there is nothing wrong with an occasional cheeseburger. Just be sure to limit how frequently you eat such foods, and try to eat small portions of them.

You can also view healthy eating as an opportunity to expand your range of choices by trying foods—especially vegetables, grains, or fruits—that you don't normally eat. A healthy diet doesn't have to mean eating foods that are bland or unappealing.

The following basic guidelines are what you need to know to construct a healthy diet.

1 Limit your total fat intake. Fat should supply less than 30% of your total daily calories. Limit your intake of fat by having a semi-vegetarian diet. Choose lean meats, light-meat poultry without the skin, fish, and low-fat dairy products. In addition, cut back on vegetable oils and butter—or foods made with these—as well as on mayonnaise, salad dressings, and fried foods.

2 Limit your intake of saturated fat. This is the kind of fat, found mostly in animal products, that boosts blood cholesterol levels and has other adverse health effects. It should supply less than one-third of the calories derived from fat.

3 Keep your cholesterol intake below 300 milligrams per day. Cholesterol is found only in animal products, such as meats, poultry, dairy products, and egg yolks.

4 Eat foods rich in complex carbohydrates. Carbohydrates should contribute at least 55% of your total daily calories. To help meet this requirement, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and six or more servings of grains (preferably whole grains) or legumes daily. This will help you obtain the 20 to 30 grams of dietary fiber you need each day, as well as provide important vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals (plant chemicals essential to good health).

5 Avoid too much sugar. Besides contributing to tooth decay, sugar is a source of "empty" calories, and many foods that are high in sugar are also high in fat.

6 Make sure to include green, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables—such as broccoli, carrots, cantaloupe, and citrus fruits. The antioxidants and other nutrients in these foods are regarded as increasingly important in helping protect against developing certain types of cancer and other diseases. Eat five or more servings a day.

7 Maintain a moderate protein intake. Protein should make up about 12% of your total daily calories. Choose low-fat sources.

8 Eat a variety of foods. Don't try to fill your nutrient requirements by eating the same foods day in, day out. It is possible that not every essential nutrient has been identified, and so eating a wide assortment of foods helps to ensure that you will get all the necessary nutrients. In addition, this will limit your exposure to any pesticides or toxic substances that may be present in one particular food.

9 Limit your sodium intake to no more than 2,400 milligrams per day. This is equivalent to the amount of sodium in a little more than a teaspoon of salt. Cut back on your use of salt in cooking and on the table; avoid salty foods; check food labels for the inclusion of ingredients containing sodium.

10 Maintain an adequate calcium intake. Calcium is essential for strong bones and teeth. Get your calcium from low-fat sources, such as skim milk and low-fat yogurt. If you can't get the optimal amount from foods, take supplements.

11 Try to get your vitamins and minerals from foods, not from supplements (with the exceptions listed below). Supplements cannot substitute for a healthy diet, which supplies nutrients and other compounds besides vitamins and minerals. Foods also provide the "synergy" that many nutrients require to be efficiently used in the body.

12 Consider taking supplements of the antioxidant vitamins E (200 to 800 IU daily) and C (250 to 500 milligrams daily). Even if you eat a healthy diet, it's unlikely you will get these amounts of E and C. Also consider taking a basic daily multivitamin/mineral supplement, especially if you are a woman of child-bearing age (who needs extra folic acid, a B vitamin) or over age 60 (because of decreased nutrient absorption by the body).

13 Maintain a desirable weight. Balance energy (calorie) intake with energy output. Eating a low-fat diet will help you maintain—or lower—your weight, as will regular exercise.

14 If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation. That is one drink a day for women, two a day for men. A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits. Excess alcohol consumption leads to a variety of health problems. And alcoholic beverages can add many calories to your diet without supplying nutrients.

Scientific View.....Ionic minerals, Free Radicals, Acids, & Calcium

	A Scientific View of Ionic Minerals, Free Radicals, Acids, & Calcium There is a time when your knowledge of chemistry will have significance in your life. Now is the time. Our knowledge helps us to make intelligent decisions regarding our health and our lives. The current model of what is being promoted regarding health is failing us. We are living only approximately half of our potential for the reasons presented here. With what we know now, it is a simple thing to remedy the problems underlying the disease problem, but only if we can understand the problem first of all, and second of all to have the diligence to put the new principles to work for us. At our seminars we stress that the understanding of the problem is the beginning of the solution. But the solution is a path that must be continued all the days of our lives.  The purpose of this article is to understand ionic minerals and free radicals, their similarities and their differences, more details about how acids cause disease, and also to understand the unique properties of calcium, the most important mineral to our bodies. Try to understand it one paragraph at time. Some of this will probably be a review of your high school chemistry. This information is very much simplified but will help you to understand the topic at hand. The Structure of the Atom What I'm going to start with is the structure of the atom. An atom is basically made up of three parts, protons, electrons, and neutrons, Protons have a positive electrical charge, electrons a negative charge, and neutrons have a neutral electrical charge. The protons and the neutrons combine together to form the nucleus, or the central part, and the negatively charged electrons orbit the nucleus like the planets orbit the sun. Understanding the electrical charges is very important. Normally there are an equal number of positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons in an atom leaving a net neutral charge. There are times when an atom will become imbalanced, that is there will be fewer or more electrons than protons giving them an electrical charge thus making them reactive. Sometimes that is beneficial and sometimes it brings disastrous results as you will see. Electron Shells Electrons are arranged around the Nucleus in SHELLS. For simplicity they can be thought of like mini-planets orbiting a central sun, but it is closer to the truth to think of them as "clouds" of electric charge around the Nucleus. The shells are thought to be concentric rings as shown in the diagram below. The shells are numbered outward from the Nucleus. The maximum number of electrons found in each shell can be calculated by 2n2 where "n" is the number of the shell. This is the theoretical maximum. Most of the time with the simpler elements we are dealing with, the shells start filling up with only 8 electrons and then start the next shell. However the first shell will always hold only two. The Octet Rule: In general, atoms are most stable when they have 8 electrons in their outer-most shell. The exception is the first shell which is most stable with TWO electrons. We will be dealing with only the first five shells in this presentation since most elements in biology have electrons in these five shells. The following chart shows the theoretical maximum atoms in each shell. Shell Number Maximum Number of Electrons in the Shell 1 2 x 1 = 2 2 2 x 4 = 8 3 2 x 9 = 18 4 2 x 16 = 32 5 2 x 25 = 50   Free Radicals Free radical is a term that is often misunderstood. It is actually quite simple. A free radical is an atom that has an unpaired electron in its outer shell, or the atom is unstable because its outer shell is not filled. This makes the atom reactive and causes it to search out and "steal" electrons from other stable atoms. This, in turn, causes the stable atom to become unstable and a free radical itself. This new free radical will do the same thing, and a chain reaction of electron stealing takes place. Every time an electron is torn from the atom a small atomic explosion takes place and most often it causes cellular damage. The free radical is the starting place for virtually every disease, illness and aging. Scientists have known this for years but medicine is refusing to acknowledge it. At least in the medical textbooks there is information about free radicals being the cause of disease but it doesn't mean a thing when it comes to treating the effects of free radical damage. Some doctors will acknowledge that free radicals are the basic cause of disease, but since they don't have any drugs to treat free radicals with, they continue to administer drugs which are often sources of more free radicals. Dr. Denham Harmon, M.D., Ph.D. is regarded as the father of the free radical theory of aging. He first proposed that the indiscriminate chemical reactivity of free radicals led to biological damage. Anti-oxidants. The most common form of dangerous free radicals is oxygen. Hence the name anti-oxidant. We must have oxygen to live but it can become actually a source of disease and death. Since oxygen is the most common type of free radical the method of neutralizing all free radicals has taken on the name "anti-oxygen" or "anti-oxidant." An antioxidant can be thought of as an "electron donor". That is, it is an atom that has "extra" electrons that it can give to neutralize the free radical and not become a free radical itself. That last part of that statement is the most important. Common antioxidants are Vitamin C and E, phytonutrients such as Proanthocyanidins, beta carotene, ellagic acid, and minerals like calcium, magnesium, selenium, zinc, cesium, and rubidium. It is absolutely imperative that we consume antioxidants in our daily intake of food because of the high number of free radicals we are exposed to every day. Antioxidants can slow down and destroy free radicals. In 1954, when Dr. Harmon made his free radical and antioxidant discoveries there were only a few antioxidants known. Today it is known that a wide variety of antioxidants are needed to neutralize the vast number of free radicals that are found in our environment. No longer are Vitamins E and C, zinc, and selenium going to do the job with the tens of thousands of complicated chemical substances that surround us, the make-up of these chemicals is so complex. pH, Acids, and Alkalis The effect of acids is one and the same as the effect of free radicals. Acids are free radicals with (only) hydrogen being the substance doing the damage. Hydrogen, with only one electron in its outer shell is a free radical in its natural state. An acid is a fluid that has a high concentration of hydrogen ions. To further explain acids I need to discuss the pH scale which measures the potential of hydrogen, that is the positively charged hydrogen ions (H+) and secondarily, the negatively charged hydroxide ions (OH-). Notice that if you were to combine the two, you would get a water molecule, (H+ + OH- = HOH = H2O) Again, I am going to keep this very simple so we can focus on our topic and focus on what it means to our health. But this needs to be understood. First of all, the pH (potential of Hydrogen) scale is a number line from zero to fourteen. Seven in the middle of the scale is regarded to be neutral, neither acid nor alkaline. Alkaline is also known by the word basic. Anything above seven on the number line is regarded to be alkaline, while anything below seven is regarded to be acidic (or basic). A pH test involves the use of litmus paper or some other means measurement to determine the amount of hydrogen ions present in a solution. Each pH unit represents a tenfold difference of the H+ and OH- concentration. It is this mathematical feature that makes the pH scale so compact. For example a solution of pH 5 is not twice as acidic as a solution of pH 7, but a hundred times more acidic. So when the pH of a solution changes slightly, it actually changes the concentrations of H+ and OH- substantially. The pH of your blood has to remain constant at 7.4. If it were to drop to 7.3 you would probably die within a short time. That is only one tenth of a unit on the scale but it represents a doubling of the amount of hydrogen ions in your blood; you are twice as acidic as you should be. So even small changes can be disastrous. When we have people do saliva pH tests and the reading comes out at 6.5 some people say, "That's not too bad." It is bad. Their saliva is nine times more acidic than it should be. Another way to say it is: Their saliva is 900% more acidic than normal. When you put it that way people will put it into proper prospective. The pH levels of the saliva can be a fairly accurate indicator of the health of the body. People with known diseases almost always check acidic…between 4.5-7.0. Healthy people usually register an alkaline 7.0-7.5. The exception to this is with people who smoke. Their bodies are so acidic that minerals are being pulled out of the bones and concentrated in the mouth area where the free radical substances are concentrated, and this gives a false reading to the test. It is astonishing to discover that one puff off of a tobacco or marijuana product, or any other kind of smoke cause more than 375,000 free radicals to form in the body. Read that again, that's every puff. These free radicals make the body very acidic, and that leads to degenerative disease. It is always important to keep the fluids in our bodies slightly alkaline in order for all the functions to take place. If we even become slightly acidic we would immediately die, so the body compensates by pulling minerals from the bones to keep us alkaline. Here is a quote from Dr Arthur Guyton, MD, one of the most recognized authors on human physiology, from his book Textbook of Medical Physiology which is used to train medical students: "The first step in maintaining health is to alkalize the body. The cells of a healthy body are alkaline, while the cells of a diseased body are acidic, below a pH of 7.0. The more acidic the cells, the sicker we become. If the body cannot alkalize the cells they become acidic and thus disease sets in. Our bodies produce acid as a byproduct of normal metabolism. But our bodies do nor manufacture alkalinity, so we must supply the alkalinity from an outside source to keep us from becoming acidic and dying." What Dr. Guyton said is the key to maintaining health, supplying your minerals from an outside source. This is easier said than done! Not all mineral forms are bioavailable, and our food is generally being raised on land that is minerally deficient and therefore our food is minerally deficient. Study after study has shown how much our food has decreased in quality. For example, did you know that in 1948 a cup of spinach contained 158 mg of Iron? By 1965, a cup of spinach contained only 27 mg of iron. Today, a cup barely contains 2 mg. You would have to eat 79 cups of spinach to get the same nutritional content from food from just over fifty years ago. This is a problem that is not going to get better. Supplementation is not just an option anymore. It's a requirement, if you want to be healthy. Ionic Minerals It is common sense that if the minerals are not in your food anymore you can't absorb them into your system. What is not so easy to understand is that the minerals have to be in the proper form or the body cannot use them. When you see "calcium" on all the labels of all the prepackaged food in the grocery stores, is that calcium good for you? Most of that calcium is very poorly absorbed. So why do they add it to the products? The answer is, because it is cheap and they will sell enormous amounts of the product because people think that it is good for them. To illustrate this I'm going to use a water molecule. Just about everyone knows that water is made up of two atoms of Hydrogen and one of Oxygen. Now the atomic weight of hydrogen is 1.008 and the atomic weight of oxygen is 16. There are two atoms of hydrogen, so that adds up to the atomic weight of 2.016, and one of oxygen, so that's 16 atomic weight. So, by weight, there is about eight times as much oxygen in water as there is hydrogen. Water is, by far, mostly oxygen. Now can you breathe water? The answer is, of course not! What I've just made known to you is that elements can be bound up in a chemical formulation that makes them unusable to the body. You would have to split up the water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis before you could breath that oxygen. The same thing happens with minerals. They are locked up in forms that are unusable to the body and they pass through undissolved and unused. Any mineral you take into your body has to either be in an ionized form or it has to be converted into the ionized form through digestion before it can be used. Ionized means they are single atoms and that they have an electrical charge because they have gained or lost electrons. Remember the Octet Rule? Most of the elements will either gain or lose electrons to make themselves stable or they will bind themselves to other atoms forming molecules or salts to relieve themselves of their instability. In general, atoms that have less than half their fill on the outer electron shell will lose their electrons to become stable, and thus become positively charged, while those with more than half will take on electrons to stabilize themselves and become negatively charged. The Structure of Calcium Calcium is a mineral that has some very unique characteristics that make it indispensable for life. First of all, calcium has twenty electrons. Two in the first shell, eight in the second, eight in the third, and two in the fourth, outermost, shell. This means that calcium is an electron donor. It will give up the two electrons in its outermost shell in order to stabilize itself. These electrons can be used to neutralize free radicals, a common factor in all degenerative disease. Because the calcium ion has a full outer shell (after it gives up its two electrons) it is stable and will not act as a free radical. In fact, ionic calcium is the only biologically active form of calcium in the human body! To put it simply, all forms of calcium, except the ionic form, are totally useless to the body. There are 147 known uses for calcium in the body and the lack of calcium is called hypocalcemia. It is truly the most important mineral for our existence. Scientists have given the name "ionic calcium deficiency disease" as the initiator for over 150 different degenerative diseases. The idea that the doubly positively charge calcium ion (Ca++) could neutralize acids gave me a headache for a long time. I knew that positively charged atoms were free radicals. I just couldn't figure it out. What I found out was that it is more important, not that the atom has an electrical charge, but whether it is stable or not. When an atom or molecule is unstable it is called a free radical regardless if there is an electrical charge or not. Hydrogen in its natural state (with no electrical charge) is a free radical because it has only one electron in its outer shell. It is unstable. Why ionic calcium is so important is because it has already given not one but two electrons that are used to stop unstable free radicals from continuing in their chain reaction of electron stealing. There is no other element that can take the place of calcium. Its size, the number of electrons, the way they are positioned in the shells, etc. all make calcium very unique. It is awesome to study because you are looking at the work of God who created all things. Some of the 147 roles that ionic calcium plays in the body are these: It is crucial for the formation and maintenance of bones and teeth Keeps the blood, lymph, and body alkaline It is the part of the substance that holds the cells together Crucial for muscle contractions and relaxations (including the heart) It is used for urine filtration Regulates the opening of cells for nutrient transport through the cell walls and allows the transport of most nutrients into the cells Allows brain an nerve cells to communicate with each other Produces voltage for all biochemical reactions with the body Responsible for DNA replication and triggers DNA synthesis in a fertilized egg Is an essential building block of enzymes and hormones Helps balance our blood components It is the lack of ionic calcium that leads to the development of over 150 different degenerative diseases. Notice that it is not simply a lack of calcium in the diet. Bone spurs, kidney stones, and gallstones are also caused by a lack of ionic calcium not by an excess of calcium as some older medical books propose. When our bodies become acidic because of lack of minerals in our diets, our bodies have no choice but to leech calcium out of our bones to neutralize the acid. Unfortunately, when our bodies do this the calcium is not efficiently used and begins to form these stones or spurs. The reason we know this is the case is scientists have given calcium with radioactive markers to subjects and none of the dietary calcium showed up in the stones or spurs. One hundred percent of the calcium came from the leeching process of the bones. Just be aware of this next time someone tells you that you have too much calcium in your blood. You probably have a raging calcium deficiency. Reducing your calcium intake will only make it worse causing more stones and osteoporosis until your only option is surgery. All of the new medical books are promoting this new theory but not all doctors are aware of it yet leading to disastrous problems for their patients. Coral Calcium, the King of Nutritional Supplements I have already spent much time talking about ionic coral calcium in the many other articles, but I will make the exceptional aspects of the coral clearer here. There are many coral products in the market today, but they are not all created equal. First of all, only Sango Coral from Okinawa has life-giving benefits. There are more than 2,500 different species of coral in the world, but only Sango Coral has an almost identical natural chemical composition to human bone. This means it is not just calcium but it is also magnesium, phosphorus, boron, zinc, gold, copper, and more than seventy other minerals. What really makes it so exceptional are the facts that all of these minerals are present and most importantly that they are all in the proper proportion to one another. There is no better mineral supplement in the world. The Coral in the sachet form is absolutely the best because it is absorbed into the body the most completely and in the shortest amount of time. Usually, Vitamin D is needed for the absorption of calcium when it is taken in the conventional form, but the coral in the sachet form does not need vitamin D to be absorbed because it is ionic and is absorbed completely into the system in ten to twenty minutes, not the ten to twenty hours that all other calcium supplements take for absorption, including coral calcium in the capsule form. The problem with all forms of calcium and other minerals, other than the ionic forms, is this: The body absolutely cannot use minerals unless they are in the ionic form. This means all mineral supplements, including Sango Coral Calcium in the capsule form, has to go through the digestive process and will neutralize the stomach acid you need for digestion. If you neutralize your stomach acid you will have trouble digesting your food. This is especially true if you are over forty years of age because your body only produces a fraction of the hydrochloric acid of the twenty year old.

Hemp Proteins, Building Blocks of Life

Hemp Seed: The Most Nutritionally Complete Food Source in the World
by Lynn Osburn

Seeds of the plant cannabis sativa, hemp seed, contain all the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids necessary to maintain healthy human life. No other single plant source has the essential amino acids in such an easily digestible form, nor has the essential fatty acids in as perfect a ratio to meet human nutritional needs.

The importance of hemp seed nutrients to human health cannot be fully appreciated without some understanding of bio-chemistry in life. Unfortunately, any attempt to understand the flow of life leads into the realm of the most troublesome of the three infinities -- the infinitely complex.

Some deep thinkers believe life is a paradox not to be understood but experienced to the fullest. However, the Sages have said, "Know thyself." At any rate it is paradoxic to attempt simplifying the infinite complexity of flowing life. Yet, it is far better for the health and development of any thinking and feeling, uniquely individual human being, to pursue knowledge than to lounge in ignorance.

One out of two Americans will die from the effects of cardiovascular disease (CVD). One out of four Americans will die from cancer. Researchers believe cancers erupt when immune system response is weakened. Pioneers in the fields of biochemistry and human nutrition now believe CVD and most cancers are really diseases of fatty degeneration caused by the continued over-consumption of saturated fats and refined vegetable oils that turn essential fatty acids into carcinogenic killers. And if this is not scary enough, more Americans are succumbing to immune deficiency diseases than ever before. Sadly it is ignorance of human nutritional needs that will cause this overwhelming majority of Americans to die slowly from these afflictions -- the greatest killers in affluent nations.

HEMP SEED PROTEINS AND THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE AND IMMUNITY
There are eight amino acids the human body cannot make and two more the body cannot make in sufficient quantity, so they are essential to life. A diet without any one of them will eventually cause disease and death. These essential amino acids, along with eleven others the body can make from them, are chained together in accordance to genetic guidelines, via RNA formats from DNA blueprints, into structural proteins that give body to life, and into enzymes (globular proteins) that carry out the mechanics of living.

Nearly three quarters of body solids are proteins. The body is literally constructed and maintained by an infinitely complex system that simply builds proteins from amino acid sub units. Every amino acid consists of an amine and a carboxyl bound to the same carbon atom. All but the smallest amino acid have one, more or less complex, carbon containing side chain connected to the carbon atom shared by the amine and carboxyl groups. The amine group, ND, is slightly basic; the carboxyl group, COOH, is a mild acid. The amine group of one amino acid unites with the carboxyl group of another forming a peptide link. Proteins are made of amino acid peptide chains in specific sequences. The number of possible amino acid peptide combinations is infinite.

Peptide chains can bend, twist and unite with other peptide chains by forming weak hydrogen bonds between nitrogen and oxygen atoms along the chain. Amino acids can also form bonds through side chain linkages. All three types of amino acid bonding methods contribute to the infinite possibility of protein shapes and reactivity potentials. Though each species builds proteins unique to itself, life can tailor new ones if challenged by the pressures of existence.

Hemp is not unique in having all the essential amino acids in its embryonic seed. Flax seeds also contain all the essential amino acids as do many other seeds in the plant kingdom. What is unique about hemp seed protein is that 65% of it is globulin edistin. That is the highest in the plant kingdom. Globulins are one of seven classes of simple proteins. Simple proteins are constructed from amino acids and contain no non-protein substances.

Globulins are in seeds and animal blood. Edistins are found in seeds; serum globulin is in blood. Edistins are plant globulins. And globulins along with albumins are classified as globular proteins. All enzymes, antibodies, many hormones, hemoglobin and fibrogin (the body converts fibrogin into non-soluble, fibrin, a blood clotting agent) are globular proteins. They carry out the main work of living.

Albumin, globulin and fibrogin are the three major types of plasma proteins. Plasma is the fluid portion of blood that supplies nutrients to tissues. And the three protein types: serum albumin, serum globulin and fibrogin, compose about 80% of plasma solids. These plasma proteins serve as a reservoir of rapidly available amino acids should any body tissues be in need.

Plant seeds contain albumin and globulin but no fibrogin. Albumin is the nutritive material that fills the space in the seed between the embryo and the seed coat. The embryo needs albumin to fuel its initial growth until photosynthesis begins. Globulin edistins within the embryo guarantee this new life has the enzymes necessary for metabolic activity.

Globulin is the third most abundant protein in the human body. Globulins perform many enzymatic (causing reactions to take place) functions within the plasma itself. More importantly, they are responsible for both the natural and acquired immunity a person has against invading organisms. The body uses globulin proteins to make antibodies which attack infecting agents (antigens) that invade the body. Globulins like gamma globulin are absolutely essential to maintain a healthy immune system. They neutralize alien microorganisms and toxins.

Globulins are divided into three classes: alpha, beta and gamma globulins. Alpha and beta globulins operate as transport vehicles by combining with other substances and carry protein from one part of the body to another. They haul the materials needed to build new and replace worn or damaged bodily structures. Gamma globulins are divided into five classes of antibodies called immunoglobulins. All are formed to combat specific cell invading antigens. They comprise the body's first line of defense against disease and infection. Immunoglobulins are produced by B lymphocyte (white blood cells) plasma cell clones located in lymph system nodes. Infecting antigens normally must pass through the lymph system before entering the blood stream.

Regarding human protein requirement: "Qualitively, it is considered desirable to secure amino acids similar to those of human tissues, both as to kinds and relative quantities of the various kinds." [Textbook of Anatomy and Physiology, Kimber, Gray, Stackpole, 1943]

During digestion proteins in food are broken down into amino acids. The amino acids are then taken into the body and reassembled into human proteins according to need and the availability of the amino acids necessary to make specific proteins.

The body needs the necessary kinds of amino acids in sufficient quantity in order to make proteins such as the globulins. Proper quantities of the right kinds may not be available to the body much of the time. So even though the body has enough essential amino acids available to prevent deficiency diseases, it may not have enough to build quantities of immunoglobulins necessary for the immune system to repel infection.

The best way to insure the body has enough amino acid material to make the globulins is to eat foods high in globulin proteins. Since hemp seed protein is 65% globulin edistin, and also includes quantities of albumin, its protein is readily available in a form quite similar to that found in blood plasma. Eating hemp seeds gives the body all the essential amino acids required to maintain health, and provides the necessary kinds and amounts of amino acids the body needs to make human serum albumin and serum globulins like the immune enhancing gamma globulins. Eating hemp seeds could aid, if not heal, people suffering from immune deficiency diseases. This conclusion is supported by the fact that hemp seed was used to treat nutritional deficiencies brought on by tuberculosis, a severe nutrition blocking disease that causes the body to waste away. [Czechoslovakia Tubercular Nutritional Study, 1955]

ANTIBODIES
Antibodies are globulin proteins programmed to destroy antigens (any substance eliciting a response from lymphocytes: bacteria, viruses, toxins, living and dead tissue, internal debris, etc.). Circulating in blood plasma like mines floating in a harbor antibodies await contact with the enemy, then initiate a cascade of corrosive enzymes that bore holes in the antigen surface causing it to break apart.

Antibodies are custom designed to neutralize or disintegrate one specific type of antigen. White blood cells called B cell lymphocytes seek out and lock-on to antigenic proteins or sugars on the invader's surface. The B cell then uses that lock and key pattern to make antibodies tailored to that antigen only. It also will make clones of itself called plasma cells. Most of the clones begin producing antibodies for that antigen. Others become memory cells which may spend years wandering through the blood stream looking for that specific antigen. If the body is exposed to it again the memory cells lock-on to one and begin producing plasma cell clones and a flood of antibodies that wipe out the invader. One lymphocyte can divide into hundreds of plasma cells in a few days. A mature plasma cell can make about 2000 antibodies every second for the few days it lives. This is how a body acquires immunity.

The body's ability to resist and recover from illness depends upon how rapidly it can produce massive amounts of antibodies to fend off the initial attack. If the globulin protein starting material is in short supply the army of antibodies may be too small to prevent the symptoms of sickness from setting in.

Hemp seed is the premier plant-seed provider of globulin starting material -- the highest in the plant kingdom. Eating hemp seeds will insure the immune system has the reservoir of immunoglobulin resources needed to make disease destroying antibodies.

References:
Blood: The River of Life, Jake Page; Dr. Robert A. Good, Dr. Lawrence S. Lessin, Dr. Kenneth C. Robbins, consultants. U.S. News Books 1981.
Fats and Oils: The Complete Guide to Fats and Oils in Health and Nutrition, Udo Erasmus. Alive Books 1986.
Life and Energy: An Exploration of the Physical and Chemical Basis of Modern Biology, Isaac Asimov. Avon Books 1962. Organic Chemistry, R. T. Morrison. 1960 Textbook of Anatomy and Physiology, Kimber, Gray, Stackpole. 1943 Textbook of Medical Physiology, Arthur C. Guyton, MD. W. B. Sunders Company 1971. Textbook of Organic Chemistry, E. Wertheim. The Blakiston Company 1945.

FOOD as Medicine, How to use Diet,Vitamins, Juices & Herbs for a healthier life

Functional food

By Joyce Marcel

If you are what you eat, as the saying goes, then it stands to reason that you can become healthier by eating healthier foods. But can foods themselves -- tomatoes, say, or a bunch of carrots -- help prevent one disease -- or all of them? Science has been looking seriously into this topic and some of its results are startling. For example, lycopene, the stuff that makes tomatoes and chili peppers red and grapefruits pink, has been shown in several studies to be effective in fighting lung cancer. The much-maligned broccoli contains sulforaphane, proven to trigger natural cancer-blocking agents. We know that chocolate makes us happy; now we know it's because it releases endorphins -- a natural high -- into the blood stream. So the idea of food as medicine is not far-fetched. Remember, long ago the British Navy proved that citrus fruits prevent scurvy.

Americans have an abundance of food, and we use it for far more than nutrition. We eat for entertainment, to fill emotional voids, to comfort us, to reduce nervous tension. We tend to be obese, which burdens all the systems in our bodies.

But before we grab that apple a day to keep the doctor away, it's best to remember that there are no quick fixes. After all, most of us grew up with mothers who warned us to eat our vegetables, yet we still gobble up fast-food hamburgers and sugar-filled junk food as fast as we can get our greedy hands on them.

An unhealthy diet can hurt us, but a healthy diet full of soy products, fruits and vegetables alone is no guarantee of good health.

Smoking, alcohol, obesity, our genes, or exposure to dangers in the environment or to illnesses like Hepatitis B or C can also cause serious harm.

"With cardiovascular disease, if you eat a healthy diet and minimize certain kinds of fats in your diet, you can reduce the risk of getting heart disease," said Dr. Remeline Damasco, a doctor of internal medicine with Brattleboro Primary Care and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in Vermont. "But I don't believe you can totally minimize the risk. I have a lot of patients who do all the right things -- they use olive or canola oil, don’t eat red meat -- and they still have high cholesterol. How can I explain that? You get to a point, I think, where there is a disease process going on and it can’t be dealt with from a totally dietary perspective. You need exercise, diet and sometimes the full complexity of medical treatment."

That being said, there are many ways that food can positively affect your health. Most of it we've been hearing about for years.

Eliminating or cutting back on caffeine, white sugar, unsaturated fats and some -- but not all -- alcohol. Eating four to seven servings of fruit and vegetables daily. Putting lots of fiber into your diet.

Certain foods affect your energy level in certain ways. Most of us have experienced, for example, the sleepiness that follows a Thanksgiving dinner. Why does that happen? Because it's a meal rich in carbohydrates, which take energy to digest, and because of the amino acid tryptophan, a natural sedative in turkey.

"Some foods are cleansing to the body, some are more nourishing, and some, like pop tarts, are burdensome," said Bonnie Bloom, a herbalist and nutritional counselor at Sojourns Community Health Clinic in Westminster, Vt. "Eat a bowl of mashed potatoes compared to barbecued chicken. It feels different. If you have macaroni and cheese, it feels different than watermelon. In the summer we eat salad and lemonade and watermelon -- the energetic is cooling and moistening. They're easy to digest. In wintertime, we eat meat or root vegetable stews cooked over a fire with salt or a good bread. They’re heavier, denser food. If we ate that in the summer, we might feel very heavy. Whereas if we ate salad in the winter, we might feel cold." Our ancestors ate fresh foods in season; we should learn from them, Bloom said.

"Traditionally, people ate foods that were grown in their areas, and only in season or for the duration of how long they could preserve them," Bloom said. "That helped them match the environment they lived in. In a modern world, you see bananas all year round, and you can eat asparagus much of the year. We've also created the whole notion of preservatives and coloring agents to give food a long shelf life."

Food can strengthen or weaken our vital organs. "Too much sugary food weakens the organs that help manage that flavor or taste in the body, which is the pancreas," Bloom said. "If you tend to drink a little too much alcohol and never eat vegetables, you are going to stress your liver. Someone who is go-go-go-do-do-do may be running on caffeine and skipping meals. Very stimulating foods, like spices and salts, put stress on the kidneys and adrenals. Lack of rest and a lot of caffeine are very hard on the kidneys. If you don't handle dairy food very well -- and that may be based on your ancestry or blood type or lactose intolerance -- you might burden your respiratory system."

It's important to increase our intake of antioxidants, Bloom said. Basically, oxidation in the body creates "free radicals." Although they sound dangerous, like little bomb-throwing anarchists running around in your bloodstream, free radicals are a natural byproduct of the body’s processing of food, toxins, viruses, germs and funguses. These free radicals need to be cleansed from the body; the best way to do it is to eat lots of antioxidant foods.

"If you don't exercise, breathe deeply and eat vegetables, the body is stealing oxygen," Bloom said. "So you need foods that are antioxidants -- vitamins E, A, and C. The beta-carotene in A. Some B vitamins, minerals like selenium and zinc, bioflavinoids. In fruits, the amino acids. There are other antioxidant enzymes. We need all those things to help the body break down free radicals. Oxidative stress causes illness and aging."

Although there is no doubt that food can be used as medicine, there is no silver bullet. Eating a lot of carrots for their alpha-carotene, will not, in the long run, alone prevent lung cancer.

"People need to be conscious about what they're eating, but they shouldn’t think that food by itself will prevent them from forever having any disease process," Damasco said. "For example, if they have a concern about whether or not they have diabetes, they need to have a dialogue with their physician, rather than just assuming that eating certain types of food would cure them. That would be dangerous."
Food Rx
By Joyce Marcel

Whenever Popeye wanted to whup Blutto, he reached for a can of spinach. Now we know that the squinty-eyed sailor man knew what he was doing. The food we eat affects our bodies, our energy levels, our strength and our ability to fend off diseases. Here are some of the more interesting recent findings:

· Spinach is among the best sources of folic acid, critically important for cardiovascular and brain health. It also contains beta carotene, lutein, magnesium, manganese, the antioxidant quercetin and vitamin K, which is needed for blood clotting. In addition, a recent study showed that depressed patients have low folate levels in their brain.

Folate-rich leafy greens like spinach and kale might be able to reduce depression. In other words, spinach packs quite a punch.

· Tomatoes have lycopene, a member of the carotenoid family, a brightly colored group of fat-soluble plant pigments with antioxidant properties. The carotenoids protect against lung cancer, especially in current smokers. Besides ripe tomatoes, you can get lycopene in tomato-based foods like paste, soup, juice, ketchup and pasta sauce, plus in pink grapefruit, red chilies and watermelon.

Of course, the best preventative for lung cancer is to stop smoking. But lycopene may also play a special role.

· Carrots offer us alpha-carotene, which is also found in multi-component foods like V-8 vegetable juice. Studies show it significantly reduces the risk of lung cancer in non-smokers.

· Broccoli contains sulforaphane, which triggers natural cancer-blocking agents.

· Fish has omega-3 fatty acids, a so-called "good fat" also found in enriched eggs and flaxseed oil; it can help treat serious depression.

· Chocolate seems to release endorphins into the brain through a rush of anandamide, a chemical relaxant.

· Wine has resveratrol, which activates the same longevity-triggering reactions in yeast that calorie reduction does. It can thin the blood and boost the level of HDL cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol. Eating grapes can also add resveratrol to your diet, as well as the antioxidant quercetin.

· Grains are high in protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals and natural vitamin E. Studies reveal that vitamin E is important to prevent premature aging of the immune, cardiovascular and nervous systems.

· Soy -- think tofu for starters -- contains two isoflavones, genestein and daidzein. Both are known for their regenerative and disease-preventive qualities: the reduction in the risk of heart disease, protection against breast cancer, reduction in the risk of prostate cancer, a decrease in symptoms of menopause, and stronger bones which can prevent osteoporosis.

· Lemons are a good blood purifier and liver stimulant.

· Garlic contains phytonutrients of the sulfur family, including diallyl disulfide, an antibacterial agent. It also reduces cholesterol and triglycerides.

· Ginger is an anti-inflammatory which can help prevent motion sickness, soothe an upset stomach, relive migraines and ease arthritis pain.

· Onions contain quercetin, a powerful antioxidant, and sulfur compounds which can ease cholesterol levels.

Sources: "Food as Medicine" by Dharma Singh Khalsa. M.D. , 2003, Atria Books.

Various recent news and magazine stories, including Vogue, February 2004, pp. 146-7, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine, February 22, 2004, p. 58.