Posts Tagged casein protein

… pregnancy and injury/wounds. During menstruation, pregnancy, and injury, the body produces protein chemicals that act as fertilizer for blood vessels; this stimulates the growth of new …

Environmental Protection Agency released Excessive Heat Event Guidebook this month. Once our flooding rainy weather gives way to the summer humid heat again, here is the information you need to know!

People especially at risk are over 65, infants under 1year of age, the homeless, the poor, and socially isolated people, those with mobility restrictions, on certain medications like high blood pressure, depression, insomnia, those exercising vigorously or working outdoors, those consuming alcohol.

Here are symptoms to watch:

Heat stroke: altered mental state, possible throbbing headache, confusion, nausea, dizziness, 106 F or higher body temperature, rapid and strong pulse, possible unconsciousness, possible hot and dry skin, sweating. You must get to hospital immediately. A delay may be fatal.

Heat exhaustion: heavy sweating, weakness, cool skin, pale. Normal temperature possible. Other possible symptoms:: muscle cramps, fainting, vomiting, dizziness, nausea. Get out of sun,  apply cool wet cloths, sip water, if nausea starts, discontinue water intake, if vomiting continues, seek medical attention.

Heat cramps: painful muscle cramps and spasms (usually legs and abdomen), heavy sweating. Apply pressure/massage to relieve the cramps; give sips of water, if nausea starts, discontinue water intake.

On hot summer days, bear these in mind:

• Avoid dark color, heavy, tight clothes or clothes that expose a lot of skin
• Stay hydrated, especially when involved in outdoor activities
• When using alcohol, know that it limits the needed perspiration, and your awareness of need of hydration, so limit your exposure to sun and heat outdoors
• Avoid heavy meals, especially high protein, as this will increase metabolism and body heat that needs to be dissipated
• The more elevated the housing, the higher the heat, so use fans, air conditioning, and plenty of water to drink

(Summary by Kasia Kines, MS, CN, CNS, LDN. Kasia is a nutritionist at Your Prescription for Health 888-794-4325)

There are a few simple rules to follow when choosing the foods that are permitted to enter your mouth. Remember, every year all of the molecules in your body have been replaced with entirely new molecules. Those molecules will be comprised of the molecules that you put in your mouth through your food. So, it would make good sense to fill your body with healthy, living enzymes and nutrients.

This section will introduce you to natural eating, it is not a full course on healthy eating but it should give you plenty of information to get you started.

Rule number one, follow the golden rule: “Eat foods in the package that nature provides!” You don’t see orange juice growing on a tree, you see oranges growing on a tree. Follow this rule and you will be half way to a healthy diet. You see, when you drink a glass of orange juice you are getting the sugar equivalent of 4-6 oranges. This sugar has been liberated from the fiber of the pulp and is thus much more readily absorbed into the blood. Whenever sugar enters into the blood at such a fast rate it reeks havoc regardless of whether that product comes from fruit or not. It is much healthier to eat the whole orange. You will get the fiber and the extra bioflavonoids! This rule goes well beyond OJ, if you apply it to the majority of your diet, you will literally change your health in one swoop. It is THAT powerful. You don’t need to learn complex rules, count calories, or read packages, just eat REAL food from nature as often as possible.

Rule number two, nutrient density decides the quality of food. Nutrient density has to do with how much nutrition there is in a food in comparison to how many calories are present. High levels of nutrition and low calorie count make for an ideal food. Any food with low or average nutrient levels along with high calorie levels is considered unhealthy. If you eat lots of vegetables and fruits while following the Golden Rule, then you can almost never go wrong. Pick the fruits and vegetables that are the most colorful as these will have the most healthful qualities! Although you can not always guarantee the presence of vitamins and minerals, you can always guarantee the presence of healthy phytochemicals such as carotenoids by merely looking at the product. These phytochemicals are what give fruits and vegetables their vivid color.

What About Meat?

There is a lot of controversy regarding how meat impacts your health. On one side of the story you hear the high protein arguments and on the other the vegetarian arguments.
If we look at our Paleolithic ancestors, it is estimated that 45-85% of their calories came from animal sources such as fish, insects, birds, amphibians, mammals, etc. Scientists estimate the daily protein intake of Paleolithic man to be 300-400 grams of protein per day, along with 200 grams of fat.  (Sisson, Mark. Primal Blueprint)

The debate surrounding vegetarian versus omnivores living is ridiculous because it is possible to be very healthy or very unhealthy eating either way. Personally, I choose a omnivore lifestyle that includes large quantities of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. I choose lean meats and consume these lean sources of protein with most of my main meals. If you choose to be vegetarian, you must be sure to supplement with sublingual B12 and consume plenty of sources of vegetarian protein. Regardless of whether you choose a vegetarian or omnivore lifestyle, there is one rule that you must follow to enjoy optimal health…

Third, cut out refined carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, white rice, candy and sugar as much as possible. There is nothing good coming out of these foods but taste. We do not need to drop them out of our diet completely, however, we do need to significantly limit their intake. With a little self-discipline we can learn to love healthier foods like we love these nutrient poor, carbohydrate based products. If you can achieve these goals, you will be well on your way to optimal health!

If you would like a great book suggestion to get you started on the path of healthy eating I would highly suggest Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. This book really helps people understand a healthy diet and provides TONS of great health tips that you can put to use right away.

Finally, drink your water! Few people realize just how important water intake is to your body’s health. I have seen peoples energy skyrocket, blood pressures drop, allergies improve,  and memories return to youthful levels, simply by drinking more water! Here are some tips for working more water into your lifestyle:

1. Keep a 32 oz bottle of water on your desk, sip at it all day long. If you freeze it over night you can sip at it as it melts throughout the day. If you do freeze it please be sure to fill the bottle only two-thirds the way to allow the water to expand.
2. Get a NSF certified filter for home use and USE IT! A good filter is New Wave 10-Stage Filter .

What You Will Learn:

1. When Good Fruits Go Bad
2. When Refined Carbohydrates Are Ok to Eat
3. Where Dr. Atkins Went Wrong
4. How Many Meals to Eat per Day

Diet is perhaps one of the most confusing areas of health because there are so many people claiming so many different diets are the “best”. There are more different diets on the market today than ever before. Which has the best formula? Well, this question does not have a cut and dry answer because there is a lot of metabolic variance in our population. Let me give you an example. Fruit is considered very good for you as long as you eat it in the package that nature provides. Generally speaking people do not develop diabetes or get fat from eating fruits. However, if you are diabetic or heavily insulin resistant then it would be in your best interest to limit your fruit intake until your insulin resistance is improved. Not to confuse you further but many diabetics can eat fruit freely without any negative consequences to their blood sugar. The simple point is the diet that works best for you is the diet that works best for you! We can make general statements about what is most likely to be healthy but in the end you must put it to the test for yourself. So let’s start with a review of the tried-and-true principles that appear to apply to most people, we will then speak to the possible exceptions. Remember, as we move into intermediate and advanced principles, we are moving away from cookie cutter suggestions into more fluid and customizable principles:

1. Eat your food in the package nature provides. Simply put, oranges are good, orange juice is not so good. Eat fresh veggies over canned veggies. High fiber grain products generally are healthier than low fiber grain products. Simple enough…le’s move on.

2. Refined carbohydrates are generally bad…most of the time. For most people refined carbohydrates are not useful unless food is scarce. In a world of culinary abundance refined carbs are the most common cause of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. However, there is a place for refined carbohydrates amidst people who workout heavily or take part in competitive sports. When you workout heavily you can quickly deplete your carbohydrate stores in your muscles. During heavy activity, muscle is damaged and requires repair. This repair can not take place until the sugar stores have been replaced and can then fuel the repair process. By taking your refined carbohydrates directly after weight training, when your muscles are most sensitive to insulin, you can enhance recovery from activity, speed muscle repair and decrease soreness. Here is the golden nugget for people who are not competitive athletes, when you intend to have a pasta meal or some other high carb meal, try timing the meal soon after your workout. This will help with recovery and keep your blood sugar from spiking. This is especially helpful if you are lifting weights. So, this means that if you simply refuse to give up your pasta then the second best option is to make a pact with yourself that you will exercise vigorously before having your meal.

3. Eat lean protein. One area where me and the late Dr. Atkins part ways in our protein philosophies is in the quality of the protein in question and the quantity. I do not ascribe to the philosophy that you can eat bacon, butter, high fat beef, etc for every meal and still be healthy. Great sources of protein include lean beef, chicken, eggs and fish. I believe that people should lean towards a raw, vegetable and fruit rich diet. If you eat meat, you must make sure that you make an effort to enhance your intake of living plant foods to help balance your body. I also suggest eating free range meat and eggs whenever possible. So how much meat should you eat? The answer is…it depends. When you look at our closest mammal relatives you see that the apes are primarily vegetarian, although, if a lizard happens to scurry by they may pick it up and toss it in their mouth. They are what is called opportunistic carnivores. I declare myself the same. I try to eat most of my food as raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, however, if a filet mignon falls on my plate I will eat that too. I suggest limiting meat intake to one serving or less per day and making sure that we eat lots of fruits, vegetables and healthy nuts. If you are a bodybuilder or on a heavy weight lifting program then you may want to increase this intake. Athletes and fitness buffs should get extra protein from egg whites and whey protein shakes and smoothies to account for their extra needs.

4. Meal Frequency, how often should we eat? This is a common questions, so let’s answer it. From my research I have come to the following conclusion. Generally, most people will be healthiest with small, frequent meals. This is especially the case with people who are working out on a regular basis. If you eat meals with refined carbohydrates then make sure that you limit the portion size and only three of the five or six meals contain refined carbs. You should allow a 4-5 hour period between those refined carb containing meals. This will allow time for the body to process the carbohydrates, metabolize out the insulin and will allow the body time to burn some of those carbs away between main meals.

1. Blood Pressure spikes
2. Thyroid
   
3. Rash
   
4. Cold sores
   
5. C Reactive Protein
   
6. Restless Legs
   
7. PSA
8. Sleep assistance
   
9. Interstitial cystitis
   
10. Brain aneurism
    
11. Thyroid medications
    
12. Statin drugs
    
13. Circulation problems
14. Vitamin C
15. Hydrocephalus
16. Hip pain/arthritis

1. Guest: Donnie Yance, Master Herbalist, Natura Health Products
   
2. CRP: c-reactive protein
   
3. Sleeplessness and restless leg syndrome
   
4. Liver inflammation
   
5. Lowering cholesterol

1. Learn about osteoporosis and the use of Vitamin D
   
2. Milk and digestion – inability of humans to break down casein
   
3. Vitamin D deficiency
   
4. Stress and immune function
   
5. Smoking and the use of fish oil
   
6. Anti-inflammatory use for smokers
   
7. Options for renal artery blockage

by Vaughn Gray, MA, CHC

Everyone knows that good nutrition is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, but very few people realize how profoundly what we eat influences our daily experience of life. The food we put into our mouths begins changing our brain and body chemistry within minutes, with far reaching effects on our energy levels, mood, and ability to focus and think clearly. Brain chemicals that help us pay attention like dopamine and epinephrine are built from the foods we eat, and we cannot produce optimal levels of these chemicals without a healthy diet. The same holds true for chemicals like serotonin and endorphins, which affect our mood and sense of wellbeing. What we put into our mouths begins changing the levels of these brain chemicals within minutes, with profound changes occurring over a 1-3 hour window after a meal. This is why you can get a quick buzz from eating sugar – it rapidly elevates brain serotonin levels. However sugar causes a surge in energy levels and mood that is inevitably followed by a crash. Healthy whole foods, on the other hand, create more moderate sustainable improvements in brain chemistry. To build a stable supply of healthy brain chemicals, increase your intake of high quality protein foods like truly free range poultry, grass fed beef, wild caught salmon, and wild caught shrimp. Beans, raw nuts, and raw seeds provide decent vegetables sources of protein. The healthy brain chemicals that you build out of these foods also help your body perform better.

The immediate effects of what we eat on how we function and feel are substantial. The effects of food on our brains and bodies over the long term are even more profound. We all know that our heart health, GI health, and even our susceptibility to many cancers are powerfully dependent on diet. However, the knowledge that poor food choices may lead to disease down the road doesn’t motivate all of us to make changes in the way we eat now. Instead of focusing on eating healthfully to prevent disease, I encourage my clients to focus on eating in a way that helps them feel best, allowing them to live their lives with more energy, stamina, and joy. When we eat healthful foods that are right for our individual bodies every day it builds a robust biochemical foundation in our brains and bodies that allows us to live fuller, more enjoyable lives and better express our potential. This is also the only way to create sustainable, healthy weight loss.

Eating to live as well as possible means finding a nutrition strategy that both supports optimal mental and physical health, and fills your life with foods that you enjoy. To do this, you first have to understand what really constitutes health food. Eating healthy is not about eating a low calorie, low carb diet. It’s about eating foods that are in harmony with your basic biological design as a human being and which are also a match for your individual nutrition needs. All of us share a basic biological design, and as a general rule, all of our bodies function better when we eat the foods that our bodies are designed to eat. These are foods like vegetables, fruits, raw nuts and seeds, free range meats, wild caught fish, beans, and true whole grains – so called “whole foods” which have not been altered from the form that they occur in out in nature. At the same time, all of us have different metabolisms and unique nutrition needs that depend partly on our genetics and partly on our lifestyle. My goal as a counselor and teacher is to first educate people about the basic nutrition principles that apply to all of us, and, on this foundation, help people determine how to eat right for their unique bodies. To do this, we need to fund ways to make healthy food tasty without having to invest a lot of time in preparation. This is a major focus of my counseling work and my classes.
For more on my nutrition philosophy, visit my information website – www.reevolution.com. Or to read more about me, and the services and classes that I offer, visit www.vaughngray.com. I teach nutrition classes at Your Rx for Health. The next class “Total Nutrition: From Weight Loss to Wellness” begins Thursday Jan. 14th at 7pm. For more information or to register call Your Rx for Health or email me at info@vaughngray.com .

In this article, I hope to prove to you the importance of vitamin K in your diet and supplements.
First, it is important to note that vitamin K exists as two main forms; vitamin K1 and K2. Vitamin K1, called phylloquinone, comes from vegetables and is converted into vitamin K2 by intestinal bacteria. Vitamin K2 is the activated form of vitamin K and is found in organ meats, egg yolks and some fermented foods such as natto. We get much more vitamin K1 in the diet then we do vitamin K2.
In the body, vitamin K activates two enzymes: osteocalcin and matrix GLA-protein. I realize that those two words may be Greek to you but they are important to know because they have two different impacts on the body. When vitamin K activates osteocalcin, the result is more calcium and minerals get deposited into the bones resulting in stronger bones. When vitamin K activates matrix GLA-protein the result is less calcium is deposited into the arteries. Some research suggests that matrix GLA-protein may even decrease the calcifications of the arteries that are already present . Now that you know how important these two enzymes are to the body you can see how devastating a vitamin K deficiency can be. In addition, it should be noted that vitamin K2 is much more active in the body and is the only form that can activated these two critical enzymes.

Why are we deficient in vitamin K?

This deficiency likely occurs for three main reasons.

1. We don’t eat enough vegetables. Most vitamin K in the diet comes for plant sources in the form of vitamin K1. The vitamin K1 is then activated by intestinal flora and absorbed as K2.

2. Our intestinal bacteria are out of balance. Many of us are deficient in healthy bacteria that play important roles in the conversion of vitamin K1 into the active K2. Many things can decrease the number of healthy bacteria in the gut such as: antibiotics, chlorine, stress, etc.

3. We do not eat organ meats, fermented foods or egg yolks. These foods are the primary sources of vitamin K2.

Knowing that both factors are important in the maintaining healthy vitamin K levels, you can see that it is important to get more vitamin K in the diet and to make sure that your intestinal bacteria are in good balance.

How do we do this?

In our society, I believe that it is necessary to supplement with vitamin K in order to optimize the vitamin K levels in the body. You can find vitamin K supplements in both the K1 and K2 form. It is generally recommended that you opt for the vitamin K2 as the research confirms that it is far superior for the prevention of bone loss and the protection from artery calcification. If you are generally healthy, I recommend a low-dose vitamin K2 from Jarrow formulas called MK-7 which provides 90 mcg of vitamin K2 from natto. This is a small dose that meets your daily vitamin K needs which may suffice to maintain healthy bones and arteries. If you suffer with bone loss or calcification of the arteries I recommend a therapeutic dose of 15 mg (15,000 mcg) three times daily. This dose has been studied and proven to be safe and effective for improving bone loss while normalizing carboxylation to activate the osteocalcin and matrix GLA-protein. You do not need to worry that vitamin K will cause excessive clotting unless you are on a medication called Coumadin (warfarin) which works by blocking vitamin K in the body. If you are on Coumadin, research has shown that a small dose of vitamin K2 such as the dose found in the Jarrow MK-7 can actually help you to achieve more consistent INR levels while possibly preventing complication of long term Coumadin use which includes bone loss and artery calcification. Always discuss vitamin K supplementation with your health care practitioner prior to starting as you will likely need to increase the dose of the Coumadin to account for the effect of the K.

Argument: If I eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, then I don’t need to add vitamins and minerals.
Answer: The argument that the nutritional needs of the body can be thoroughly met through diet is probably a valid one, as long as certain assumptions hold true. The main assumption is that the diet is made up almost entirely of fresh fruit and vegetables from local and trusted growers who understand crop rotation and proper soil fertilization. A fruit’s nutrition is highest at the height of its ripeness when the fruit is just about to fall from the tree, bush or vine. This makes great evolutionary sense as the purpose of the fruit is to propagate the species of the plant. The survival of the seed is most probable when the fruit contains the nutrition necessary to allow the seedling to develop. In addition, the sweetness and nutrition content of the fruit increase the likelihood that the fruit will be eaten by animals that scour the grasses for food. This helps both the animal and the plant as the animal gets food and the plant’s seed gets spread to different areas as it passes through the stool of the animal onto fertile ground elsewhere. The problem is that most conventional fruit is picked unripe and then ripened on the way to the store through artificial processes using ethylene. This makes for a fruit or vegetable that contains suboptimal levels of nutrients. A study performed at Oregon State University found that green blackberries contain only 74 mg/100 grams of anthocyanins (a plant compound/antioxidant known to protect the body from heart disease and cancer) compared to 317 mg/100 grams for vine ripened blackberries. (J Agric Food Chem. 2004 Sep 22;52(19):5907-13.) Research in Spain demonstrated that cherries picked prematurely contained one-half the level of vitamin C as cherries picked ripe (J Agric Food Chem. 2005 Apr 6;53(7):2741-5.)

In addition, due to the over farming of lands there is not enough nutrition in the soil to make for highly nutritive foods. For example, each time a watermelon is picked from the land some of the nutrition goes with it, after all, a fundamental law of physics is you cannot make something from nothing. Over time the soil gets depleted and the nutrition in the fruits and vegetables suffer. To make matters worse, the growers use a process of selective breeding to increase pith and water (the pith is the fibrous material such as the netting around the pulp of the orange and the white fluff just under the skin). This makes for big, attractive and heavy fruit with less vitamin and mineral content. These plant breeders lovingly refer to this process as the “dilution effect”. An example of this effect is with a very popular breed of broccoli called “Marathon” which is big and green and according to the USDA contains half the calcium and magnesium of other more nutritious hybrids of broccoli. All of this results in more weight and less nutrition.

In a 2004 study, scientists discovered that the nutrition content for 6 nutrients have declined significantly in fruits and vegetables since 1950. These nutrients include calcium, riboflavin, vitamin C, iron, potassium and protein. (J Am Coll Nutr. 2004 Dec;23(6):669-82) This study from the University of Texas evaluated the nutrient content over time of 43 garden crops. This study takes into account the effect of many different factors including ethylene ripening, the dilution effect, the use of commercial fertilizer, over farming, etc.
So is it possible to find nutrient dense fruits and vegetables? I believe so. Studies have shown that organic fruits and vegetables have more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants when compared to conventional produce. (J Agric Food Chem. 2002 Sep 11;50(19):5458-62; J Agric Food Chem. 2003 Feb 26;51(5):1237-41) Even if you regularly use organic produce, you will need to eat larger quantities of these fruits and vegetables to meet the vitamin, mineral and antioxidant needs of the body. I believe that people who meet these produce requirements are the exception rather than the rule.

One final argument on this subject doesn’t have to do with the nutrient content of the food as much as it has to do with nutrient needs of the body. Today’s body has to deal with an onslaught of toxic attack that we did not evolve on. Cleaning product, pollutions, stress and out gassing of carpets and paint all cause a withdrawal from the antioxidant and nutrient reserves of the body. We cannot assume that the nutrient needs of yesteryear apply to today! In other words, you need more nutrition today just to meet the minimum needs! Research has found that the great majority of the population does not meet the pitiful RDA requirements for one or more nutrients.

Argument: Doesn’t supplementation just cause expensive urine?
Answer: Whenever I debate the need for supplementation it seems that the first argument is always the same, “All that you are doing with nutritional supplements is making expensive urine.” This argument comes from the point that any excess of water soluble nutrients that you take in will be excreted through the urine. So if you take 1,000 mg of vitamin C and your body only uses 500 mg then you will kick out 500 mg of the vitamin C as “waste”. My answer to this is, better a surplus than a deficiency! When you supplement, you do run the risk of losing some extra nutrients in the urine. This argument can be made for those who eat plenty of fruits and vegetables as you will likely see more vitamins and minerals in their urine as well. Does this mean that you should not eat fruits and vegetables? In addition, if you want to talk about expensive urine let’s talk about the urine of people who take medications. You will find a significant amount of these medications in the urine and stool of these patients. So you choose- expensive urine full of vitamins or expensive urine full of medications.

Argument: We eat more food than most other countries, aren’t my nutrition needs being met?
Answer: I agree with the first statement regarding the quantity of food that we eat, however, I disagree with the second part of the statement which refers to the quality of food. Our society has built a food culture that creates a population of overfed and undernourished people. This means that calories are plentiful but nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals are deficient. This is the main reason why supplementation is so important. Starvation as it pertains to energy is not a common problem here in the United States, however, cellular starvation is a major problem. This means that the cells have all of the fuel that they require to function; however, the cells may not have the micronutrients necessary to be able to convert the fuel to energy and appropriately distribute that energy to various functions such as the immune and repair systems. This is like a car with a full tank of gas and no spark plugs. Remember, practically every study that has evaluated various vitamin and mineral levels in the blood have correlated higher levels of food nutrients with significantly better health. This means getting nutrients from whole food sources when possible and supporting with supplementation as an insurance policy.

Argument: There are no studies to support the need for supplementation.
Answer: This statement is just plain ridiculous! There is a tremendous amount of research on nutrition and its benefit to health. I have never understood how people make this comment when I am drowning in studies published in peer reviewed journals demonstrating the benefit and safety of nutritional supplementation. Search PubMed or Medline (the same search engine used by your doctor) on omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, coenzyme Q 10, vitamin E, vitamin C, etc. You will be blown away by the results that you get. As far as safety goes, according to the 2005 annual report in the journal Clinical Toxicity, which evaluates the reports from 61 poison control centers in the U.S., out of 53 billion doses of supplemental vitamin supplements there was not even one death reported. Tragically, Tylenol was not so lucky being responsible for numerous adverse events and deaths.
I have dedicated my life to the study of longevity and, more importantly, to the study of vitality. My definite purpose is to design a system of living that allows people like you and me to live long, energetic lives full of LIFE ENERGY! To accomplish this goal, a system is needed that will prevent disease and promote energy production, circulation, repair and rejuvenation throughout our entire lives. It is my belief that this goal can be met with a healthy diet full of fresh, raw, organic, healthy foods. It is also my belief that with each day that science “revolutionizes” our lives and food industries this becomes harder and harder. Although it is possible to live long and healthy lives without supplementation, it is less likely today than ever before and the majority of us need supplements to meet our body’s needs.