Insulin Resistance and Accelerated Aging

Hello Everyone,

Tomorrow is 3 weeks on the Women To Women Program to rebalancemy hormone system.
In the last blog I discussed accelerated aging, today I will delve a little deeper into this modern dis-ese so we can fully understand how this happens and how to reverse it.

Insulin resistance is a cellular condition where the cells are so filled with sugar that they cannot admit any more sugar molecules. To protect against any further sugar overload, the cells reduce the number of insulin receptors (think of them as doors), so that insulin will not be able to unload as much sugar (think of this as no more room here for any more sugar molecules). This is insulin resistance. What happens next is the pancreas produces even MORE insulin in order to over come this resistance, which results in too much insulin in the bloodstream. Your body's cells then react to too much insulin by locking even more insulin receptor doors. Any extra sugar introduced into the body at this point, is stored directly into fat cells (basically around the midsection). If this continues - the high level of sugar in the bloodstream with no place to go, type II Diabetes results.

Insulin is a hormone, just like estrogen, testosterone, adrenalin, thyroid etc. Hormones are the communicators of the body. When one goes out of balance, the others do as well, like a house of cards.

If we go back to the hormone insulin which is there for regulating sugar levels in the body, if we back up just one more step, to diet, we now have the potential and great possibility of control.

The American Diet is and has been schizophrenic, at best. Michael Pollen writes in his book, In Defense of Food, about how he grew up on a largely immigrant diet from Europe: but real food, of course. He wonders in his book if his grandmother would even recognize the items in a grocery store, as food.

Same with my grandmother, as well. Gram lived with us from 1945 when my grandfather passed away until she passed in 1991 at the age of nearly 91. On her death certificate was "natural causes". Gram was not sick, she left. Her diet was good healthy food. It was her familial job to cook the meals, the kitchen was her domain. Being Serbian, she cooked the traditional fair: piggies in a blanket (sarma); roasted chickens and rice; homemade pastries and all with whole fat butter, milk, etc.

Since Gram's parents were farmers, Gram learned how to grow food and preserve it, which was passed on to me if I was paying attention. Summers in Ohio were marked by "seasons", peaches came in, corn came in, apples, etc. And each crop in its turn was purchased from a local farmer or harvest from Dad's garden, and "put up" for the winter. In short, we ate whole foods and for the most part, organically grown.

Gram's physician was a wizened guy who would lecture her on her weight. "Mrs. Zegarac, "he would intone, "you must lose 30 pounds. This is done by eating a diet restricted to 1800 calories a day for your height." "Doctor," Gram would answer, "I sample 1800 calories a day when I cook." Gram not only cooked well, but she worked hard physically. She cleaned house every Friday like the President was coming to visit. I mean, furniture was pulled away from the walls, windows and woodwork washed. We're talking physical, aerobic work. And the other days were vigorous trips into the garden, hoeing, raking, weeding, bending stretching, sweating. Gram's doctor passed away at the age of 61.

If we are looking with the eyes to see, we have a road map for a healthy life style. While Gram's doctor tried to put her onto a low fat diet, she intuitively refused, but more importantly she did what felt best to her. Her heart and love went into not only the food she made and served to us each evening at dinner, but her heart and love went into all the efforts of her days. In other words, she felt purposeful, happy, and loved and needed.

We started this blog on insulin, as a hormone and talking about the modern day phenomenon of insulin resistance. When we follow a diet of low fat/no fat we have just cut off the building blocks to hormones. Hormones are manufactured in the body from proteins and fats. And the body needs to consume cholesterol (butter, cheese, eggs, animal protein), because if it doesn't, it will take all those carbs and begin manufacturing cholesterol which blocks your arteries.

Insulin resistance is the result of too many carbs in too many places for too long a period of time.
i.e. low fat/high carb diets. This path leads directly to hormone imbalances, heart disease and diabetes.

So, you must consume fat in your diet; good fats. The fats that nature places in the pork, in the steak, in the chicken, in the egg, in the cheese. Wholesome fats that are grass fed and organic, of course. You cannot become fat from eating fat. Fat does not trigger insulin production in the body. Good fats for cooking (saturated): Butter (Yeah!), cheese, chicken fat, coconut oil, dairy only cream, duck fat, eggs, goose fat, nutmeg oil, sheanut oil, sour cream, turkey fat.
Good fats for cooking (monounsaturated): almond oil, apricot kernel oil, avocado oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, hazelnut oil, mustard oil, oat oil, olive oil, peanut oil, rice oil.
The following fats are polyunsaturated and should NEVER be used for cooking, as heat damages these: corn oil, essential fatty acids like primrose, flaxseed and borage, herring oil, fish oil, salmon oil, sardine oil, sesame seed oil and wheat germ oil. The very best oils to use are cold or pure-processed oils, essential fatty acids, extra virgin olive oil, fish oil, and mayonnaise made from pre-pressed canola oil and containing no hydrogenated oils.

So you can begin eating meat again, but now cook it slowly, no charbroiling it to damage the fats, and never eat hydrogenated fats (man-made) like shortening and margarine.

It's about common sense, folks. My sort of "default" question is "what would they have done 100 years ago? This seems to put me back into common sense territory and prior to the chemical alteration of our foods.

By all means, of course, if you are experiencing any kind of symptoms, you should consult a health care practitioner. But now you are armed with some common sense information: diet is everything. Return yourself to the four basics: protein, fat, non-starchy vegetables and carbohydrates (those that can be harvested, grown, etc.) and eliminate completely man-manufactured foods, processed foods.

Feed yourselves good whole food, America. And while you're at it, dance!
All this food discussion is taken from The Schwartzbein Principle:The Truth About Losing Weight, Being Healthy and Feeling Younger, by Diana Schwarzbeing, MD and Nancy Deville.

It's all pretty much common sense.

Thanks for reading!

Kath

The Schwarzbeing Principle: Balanced Diet Key to Physical and Emotional Health

Good Day Everyone!

Ask and it is answered.

In the last blog I described to you how I've been suffering from severe fatigue and exhausted adrenals for years. It came to a head about 10 days ago when I went searching online for help.

I ended up at the womentowomen.com site where I took their "hormonal imbalance" quiz and was pronounced with severe symptoms. I ordered their 90 day program. It arrived yesterday - took 10 days to get here! Of course I started right away with the nutritional support and the herbal hormone support.

The surprise in the box was a book called the Schwartzbein Principle: The Truth About Losing Weight, Being Healthy and Feeling Younger by Diana Schwartzbeing, MD. Dr. Schwartzbein is an endocrinologist in Santa Barbara, California. (see link: www.schwartzbeinprinciple.com). I have spent about 2 hours this morning reading her book. I am learning so much, but more importantly, it is supporting some of my suspicions that I've garnered over the years.

For example, I have often wondered why we crave carbohydrates: the bagel, the donut, the cookies; or gotta get that afternoon cup of java; a cigarette; and other stimulants.

I have often wondered about these cravings, weight gain, insulin and immune diseases.

Dr. Schwarzbein addresses all of these, so far, in her book.

What I have learned so far in the program obtained from Women To Women is that the nutrition is the who key to our optimum health. If you'll read past blogs of mine, you'll see that I've been hot on this trail for awhile now, promoting whole foods, organic foods, real foods. But now I can add to this the balanced diet.

The elements to a balanced diet are not to be found in the US Government's Food Pyramid, but rather in a square comprised of 1. Proteins; 2. Fats; 3. Non-starchy vegetables (not corn) and 3. carbohydrates - Real Carbohydrates such as wheat, not pasta or bread, rice, not rice cakes; potatoes, not potato chips. i.e. NOT MAN MADE or MANUFACTURED.

So, so far, we're on the right path here with Real Whole Foods - that is to say - not processed and that which you could grow, gather or harvest, theoretically, yourself.

The surprise is in the importance of fats (once again, Real Whole Food Fats) that are gained in eating red meat, chicken, fish, butter, nuts, seeds and how critical they are to the manufacture of hormones in the body.

Eating a low fat diet can make you fat and lead to high cholesterol, because your body requires these to be obtained in nutrition, when it doesn't get them, it thinks it's gone into a famine and starts using all those carbs and turn those into cholesterol - so important is cholesterol to the functioning of a healthy body.

One last basic I will pass on for today. Dr. Schwartzbein recommends that you eat something from each of these 4 basic food groups at each meal. For example this morning I sauteed some home grown swiss chard with garlic in olive oil, scrambled in an egg; had half a glass of organic orange juice (with my probiotic superfood). The vegetables: swiss chard and garlic; the protein. the eggs; the carbs; the orange juice; and the fats, the olive oil.

Dr. Schwartzbein's program calls for 3 balanced meals a day plus two snacks between meals.

A sample day's menu mike look like this:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with nitrate-free sausages, 2/3 cup oatmeal with butter and cream; and sliced tomatoes.
Snack: 1/4 cup sunflower seeds or a handful of almonds
Lunch: Cobb salad (made with chopped chicken, nitrate free bacon, hard-boiled egg; bleu cheese, salad greens and tomatoes). Olive oil and vinegar dressing. 1 small apple
Snack: 1/4 cup almonds and string cheese
Dinner: Roast pork loin. 1/3 cup brown rice with butter. Asparagus with butter. Mixed greens salad with tomatoes and cucumbers, tossed with olive oil and vinegar dressing.

There are vegetarian versions of this balanced protein-fat-veggie-carb diet as well.

What is absent absolutely is sugar, refined flour, alcohol and caffeine.

Don't be overwhelmed. Just begin anywhere, right where you are. Just begin! You'll refine it over time. It took me a year to get all the inorganic stuff out of my pantry and I'm still refining it.
But you can start with your next trip to the grocery and your next meal. Definitely throw out all your phony sweeteners, get raw sugar, raw honey for now until you've weened yourself from the cravings.

Remember, it's the poor diet that keeps you locked in the vicious cycle of sweet, caffeine, or other stimulant in order to feel better; but they are short lived and you're reaching once again for that "fix".

One more thing. The importance of a good probiotic supplement is essential. I personally recommend One Group's MiVitality InLiven Probiotic Powder. For an intensive start use it with InLiven Fast Tract Liquid. To order these go to www.honestskincare.mionegroup.com. And if you need help or want to ask questions, just contact me a www.honestskincare@gmail.com.

You can't change the world of you don't feel good. Let's get well and healthy!

Stay tuned. I'm right in there with you making my way slowly back to complete and perfect health, which is exactly what I asked for. Come do this with me!

Thanks for reading!

Kath