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Natural Choices Newsletter
Natural Choices Newsletters – April, May, June 2005
Brought to you by Jane Oelke, N.D., Ph.D.
DoctorOelke@aol.com
April 2005 - Serotonin and Blood Sugar
My new book "Natural Choices for Attention Deficit Disorder", is now available. In the book, I discuss the importance of blood sugar balance to avoid the 11 am or 3pm hypoglycemic slump when blood sugar frequently goes down causing brain fog, lightheadedness, and poor decision-making ability. I have a Glycemic Load Chart in the book taken from the “Yes, You Can Have Carbohydrates” booklet explaining how to avoid this blood sugar crash during the day.
I also discuss the role of neurotransmitters in maintaining blood sugar balance. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that is increased by eating carbohydrates. When there is hyperactivity or excess stress, carbohydrates help to get more insulin into the bloodstream. Insulin will clear out excess amino acids in the blood, except tryptophan.
This is one reason to avoid eating proteins and carbohydrates at the same meal. To maintain a more balanced neurotransmitter state, it is beneficial to eat proteins with low carbohydrate foods during the day when you want to be more alert, and carbohydrate snacks at other times of the day when you need to calm down.
The amino acid tryptophan is used to produce serotonin. Tryptophan is known as the calming amino acid, and it is found in turkey, chicken, nuts, beans and some dairy products. By getting more tryptophan in your diet, you will produce more serotonin and be able to sleep better. Tryptophan is also helpful for reducing migraine headaches.
Serotonin is the amino acid that is reduced during low carbohydrate diets, causing symptoms of depression. So be mindful to get enough carbohydrates to keep healthy serotonin levels. Nutritionally, serotonin levels are supported by sufficient amounts of vitamin B-6, folic acid, niacin, iron and vitamin C. Tryptophan is broken down into niacin, and so if you supplement with at least 50 mg of niacin per day you may be able to relax better and sleep more soundly. Of course, too much niacin can cause a warm flushing or tingling effect on your skin.
Ordering Products from Meta E-Health
For all of you who are now ordering from my Metagenics website at Meta E-Health. You are getting an automatic 10% discount (it does not list the retail price, just the discounted price). Also you are saving on shipping if you order more than one item, and many of you are ordering in bulk (over $100 worth) to get the free shipping. Smart shoppers!
Metagenics is a leading researcher of nutraceuticals, concentrated nutrition that works to improve health, and has research to prove it. Their prices are very competitive to other products, even though their quality is better. Their specialty products, like Glycogenics, a B-Complex vitamin supplement, and MetaGlycemix for insulin balance, adds ingredients so that you can absorb the components better. Also Glycogenics has ingredients that help to keep your homocysteine level down to prevent Alzheimer’s. Very few companies do this. Check out that website Dr. Jane Meta E-Health and sign up as “patient” so that your ordering information is remembered the next time you order.
May 2005 - Fast Food vs. Whole Food
Super Size Me Documentary Movie I Recommend
Have you seen “Super Size Me”? It is the documentary that shows the effects of eating only McDonald’s meals for 30 days. I highly recommend watching this video, with the additional scenes, and watching it with your children or grandchildren. It is available at video stores now. It also discusses the choices in school lunches and how the media plays a large role in our food choices daily.
Super Size Me shows the detrimental effects of ingesting daily helpings of fried foods on a healthy person. In less than 30 days, this once healthy man had the blood work correlating to liver disease. He eventually recovered but it took a lot longer to recover than it did to create the condition.
Fortunately, the people taking their daily dose of Juice Plus capsules have over a 60% reduction in the side effects of a fast food meal, and those also taking the Juice Plus Vineyard blend have more than a 90% reduction in the bad side effects of eating a fast food meal. Of course, we should strive to get healthy, high quality nutrition in each meal. But just knowing that once in a while we can safely indulge in a few extra fat grams and not cause liver disease, due to the benefits of Juice Plus+ Fruits and Vegetables, is satisfying to me.
What If You Crave Fatty Foods?
If you tend to crave the high fat foods, look at the type of fat you are getting in your diet. You may be missing out on the essential fatty acids. We need to get good fats, and yet the more bad fats – trans fats and partially hydrogenated oils – we eat, the more good fats we need to compensate for them. Most of us do not get enough essential fatty acids. I know I recommend them to just about every client in the form of flax seed oil or high quality fish oil for omega-3 oils, and evening primrose oil or borage oil for omega-6 oils. Sometimes a combination is needed with the ratio of 2 parts omega-3 to 1 part omega-6 fatty acids. I recommend that everyone take some form of essential fatty acids daily to prevent many of the chronic diseases today, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. You can learn more about the different types of essential fatty acids at my Meta E-Health website at Meta E-Health
More Proof of Benefits of Whole Food Nutrition
Lycopene, the antioxidant carotenoid that give the red color to tomatoes, watermelon, and pink grapefruit, is better absorbed from whole foods than supplements. We know that lycopene is necessary to prevent prostate cancer, and now has been also shown to help prevent breast and pancreatic cancer when consumed in the daily diet.
A study at Ohio State University showed that when whole tomatoes were given to rats they had better results against prostate cancer than when lycopene supplements were given. They determined that the other phytochemicals in the tomato help to utilize the lycopene better, and unless all of the hundreds of phytochemicals in a tomato were isolated and recombined into a supplement, the lycopene would not work well. It is much easier just to eat the tomato.
Also lycopene is better absorbed with essential fatty acids. I used to sell a product called Elu-Sun. It is a pill that is used to prevent sunburn, and to help people who want to get a tan, to get a deeper tan without the dangerous side effects. I do not sell this product right now, because the ingredients are a combination of carotenoids and essential fatty acids. So I now tell people they can save money and get the benefits of less sun damage when they eat their tomatoes mixed with a little flax seed oil or olive oil dressing.
Have you ever made a tomato salad with flax seed oil mixed with a little lemon juice for a salad dressing? Some people also add onions to the salad, and it is quite tasty and healthy, since the lycopene and all of the other phytochemicals in a salad are better absorbed into all of your cells with addition of essential fatty acids.
You can get the entire complex of over 12,000 phytochemicals in whole fruits and vegetables. If you are not getting your 8 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, look at adding the whole food nutrition found in Juice Plus Fruit, Vegetable and Vineyard capsules. You can learn more about Juice Plus at JuicePlus.com
June 2005 -A Case of “More is Better”
A recent study done at Stanford University* shows that the quality of foods you eat every day has a factor on your LDL cholesterol levels. The LDL cholesterol is the type of cholesterol that gets oxidized and causes the inflammation that leads to heart disease. People often ask me how to lower LDL cholesterol. Last month’s newsletter talked about cholesterol in general, but this newsletter will show you how the quality of foods makes a difference.
We have been told to avoid the bad fats by eating a low fat diet. But now this Stanford study shows that the types of foods we put into our system makes a difference. A processed low fat food diet was compared with a whole food, high nutrient, and low fat diet. The whole food diet contained mostly vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans.
A plant based food diet is what makes a difference in lowering LDL cholesterol. The more plants we eat -actual fruits and vegetables, true whole grains, and whole beans – the lower the LDL. The researchers found that eating a lot of plant-based foods doubles the diet's cholesterol-lowering power.
The plant based food diet isn't a vegetarian diet. It's basically contains foods known to lower cholesterol, including foods high in soluble fiber, garlic, soybeans and other nuts, and whole grains. So instead of frozen waffles and juice for breakfast, have whole grain oatmeal and an apple or grapes. For lunch, instead of a croissant sandwich with turkey lunchmeat and cheese, have a vegetable salad with chicken or tuna, and garbanzo or black beans.
“Gardner, C. Annals of Internal Medicine, May 3, 2005; vol 142: pp 725-733. News release, Stanford University.
Fruits and Vegetables – Summer Treats
Ideally, we are now told to get 8 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. But do we actually do it? At this time of the year with strawberries and asparagus in season it is a little easier to get high quality fruits and vegetables. So getting 4 servings of fruit and 4 to 8 servings of vegetables are easier. When was the last time you ate a whole tomato? As a child I remember my neighbor slicing up tomatoes as a summer treat. Now, I make fruit salads for snack by combining four to five different fruits. Or we have salad as the dinner meal, our favorite being taco salad, at my house during the summer.
Vegetables are especially nutritious. They have many antioxidants, phytochemicals, and more minerals than fruits do. This combination of nutrients is especially beneficial to prevent chronic diseases. In fact, Type II diabetes can be lowered by 58% when 8 servings of vegetables are eaten on a daily basis. So fill your plate with vegetables as often as possible.
Now A Few Cases of When “Less is Better” - - - When Preventing Diabetes
Smaller Food Portions - When choosing food portions, remember that eating small portions during the day, instead of large portions once or twice per day is a key to keep blood sugar and insulin in balance. Many of the weight loss programs today say we should have smaller portions more often. This helps you when trying to lose weight but also when trying to prevent diabetes. Keep calorie amounts to about 500 calories per meal and 300 per snack. This averages out to about 2000 calories per day. And by getting the high quality nutrition foods, from fruits and vegetables you will be able to eat a lot more quantity, than if your 2000 calories consists of processed foods.
Less Sugar - Really watch the beverages you are drinking. Anything with sugar, whether it is lemonade, soft drinks, “fitness waters”, etc. will have more sugar than your system needs, and should be watered down before drinking. Or try drinking herbal teas as a thirst quencher. Certain combinations are very tasty and do not have the empty calories found in other sweetened beverages.
Less Splenda and other artificial sweeteners - Recently, I was surprised to find that the new flavored waters use artificial sweeteners and food additives to preserve the water. Things like phosphoric acid and citric acid that are hard on your bones are found in these flavored waters, along with Splenda as a sweetener. If you question whether Splenda is safe as a sweetener, you can go to www.mercola.com and search for information on Splenda, and find some very useful information that can help you decide whether it is something you want to use or not. I recommend that you avoid Splenda, since it makes you crave more processed carbohydrates, and can cause insulin imbalances.
Jane Oelke, N.D., Ph.D.
Natural Choices, Inc.
"Building Your Health Naturally"
DoctorOelke@aol.com
www.NaturalChoicesForYou.com
www.NaturalChoicesForFibromyalgia.com
1-888-893-7225
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