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How to Survive Holiday Eating by Anne-Marie Blacker

Hi all, it’s that time of year again where the average North American person can gain an average of 5-10 lbs. over the holidays (eye roll!) I hope the following tips may be useful for the rest of December. The holidays are an exciting time for most people but the consequences of too much partying can take its toll, especially on the waist line. Some North Americans can gain anywhere from 5-10 lbs.; however, one can still enjoy the holidays and stay in the Zone with a little pre-planning.

Exercise is a great way to get through a holiday season and will help burn extra calories. I have even got up early Christmas morning to go for a power walk to give my metabolism a kick start.

Always eat a small Zone snack prior to going to a party!

At the party, try and stick with wine spritzers or vodka and soda and balance off each drink with protein. Usually there are lots of hors de oeuvres at a party (ie grilled shrimp, chicken fingers, cheese, etc.). When eating dinner at the party avoid the rolls, potatoes or any starchy food. I usually order Caesar salad, fish or chicken, double veggies (depending on the GI) and always finish off with dessert (my weakness). However I would rather have the dessert for my carbs while others may enjoy wine. It’s all a matter of trading off.

All the running around at holiday time can affect one’s STRESS levels which in turn can affect our immune systems.

Remember to take your pharmaceutical grade fish oil! Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner can be quite a challenge! Here are some tips to help on the actual day…

1. Start your day off with a Zone snack and some exercise.

2. After exercising eat a morning brunch that will give excellent hormonal for at least 5 hours. An example of a 3 block breakfast would be a 6-egg white omelette cooked in 2 tsp. olive oil followed with 1 cup slow cooking oatmeal.

3. If having an afternoon drink make sure it is balanced with protein.

4. When eating dinner use the eye ball method ie 1/3 plate white turkey breast (treat dark meat sparingly) and 2/3 plate carbohydrates.

Fill most of your plate with low glycemic carbs ie green beans. A little mashed potatoes with gravy and dressing can be added for the unfavourables (no more than 25-33%). Avoid the rolls.

Remember this is only your first round!

There are lots of good Zone recipes from Anne-Marie on our Wellness Forums. Visit us here.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 24, 2012) — Periodontitis, inflammation of the tissue surrounding the teeth, affects more than half of adults and is linked to an increased risk of stroke and other heart problems. To evaluate whether fish oil supplementation could be an adjunct therapy for periodontitis, Dr. Alison Coates from the University of South Australia and colleagues from the School of Dentistry at University of Adelaide in Australia reviewed evidence from eight unique studies that involved humans.

Their review of these studies showed that improvements in clinical measures were common in all studies, but were scientifically significant in two that used a combination of fish oil and aspirin. Although this is not conclusive evidence, intake of fish oil is recommended for health benefits beyond the teeth.

“I would recommend that people ensure they have a sufficient intake of long chain omega-3 fatty acids in their diet for general health,” said Coates. “In Australia, these types of fatty acids are considered to be essential with ~500 mg recommended as the suggested dietary target. This equates to approximately 2 fatty fish meals per week.”

There are no serious dangers to consuming fish oil. At high levels of fish oil above the GRAS limit, people may experience a delayed clotting time and at very high doses potential gastric upset. If people are taking blood thinning medication, then they should consult with a doctor.

The group reports that the evidence for fish oil being effective in reducing periodontal symptoms is building but there is a need for more well designed studies that evaluate the supplement both alone and in combination with aspirin to be able to tease out whether fish oil by itself is effective. It is important that compliance to treatment is considered and that the dose and length of supplementation is appropriate. A clinical trial is underway in Australia that is investigating the effects of fish oil as adjunct therapy for periodontitis.

Results from this study were presented April 24, 2012 at the Experimental Biology 2012 meeting in San Diego, CA.

source:

New study presented at the World Congress of Cardiology organized by the World Heart Federation.

Dubai (20 April 2012): Omega-3 fatty acids may help to reduce the physical harm caused by smoking, according to a new study presented today at the World Congress of Cardiology.

The study, carried out in Greece, assessed the effect of four-week oral treatment with 2 g/day of omega-3 fatty acids on the arterial wall properties of cigarette smokers. The results showed that short-term treatment with omega-3 fatty acids improves arterial stiffness and moderates the acute smoking-induced impairment of vascular elastic properties in smokers.

“These findings suggest that omega-3 fatty acids inhibit the detrimental effects of smoking on arterial function, which is an independent prognostic marker of cardiovascular risk,” said Dr. Gerasimos Siasos, University of Athens Medical School, 1st Department of Cardiology, “Hippokration” Hospital. “The cardioprotective effects of omega-3 fatty acids appear to be due to a synergism between multiple, intricate mechanisms involving anti-inflammatory and anti-atherosclerotic effects. Furthermore, AHA recommends that people without documented history of coronary heart disease should consume a variety of fish (preferably oily – rich in omega-3 fatty acids) at least twice per week.”

“The World Heart Federation strongly encourages all smokers to quit,” said Dr Kathryn Taubert, Chief Science Officer at the World Heart Federation. “The only way to protect your body from the harmful effects of tobacco is to stop smoking. We encourage all people, both smokers and non-smokers, to eat healthy diets, which includes foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids.”

SOURCE:

A study of 700 pregnant women found that those who took the supplements reduced by one-third the risk their infants would develop eczema, compared with women who took a placebo.

“This is potentially important because these children are the ones considered most likely to develop asthma and respiratory allergies at school age,” says Maria Makrides of the Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute in North Adelaide, South Australia, who led the team.

The results echo those from a previous trial in Sweden in 2009, which found that mothers given fish oil capsules were three times less likely than untreated to pass on eczema to their children.

Makrides says the fatty acids of the oil may get incorporated into cell membranes inside the fetus, where they dampen down the inflammation that leads to allergies and eczema. She says that to check the benefits are long lasting, all the children will be followed until they are 6 years old.

Catrin Furuhjelm of Linköping University in Sweden, who headed the 2009 study, is gratified to see her results confirmed. “In Sweden, the recommendation is for all mothers to eat fish three times a week during pregnancy, and future studies will tell us if there’s a reason to increase this dose.”

source

January 31, 2012

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A diet lacking in omega-3 fatty acids, nutrients commonly found in fish, may cause your brain to age faster and lose some of its memory and thinking abilities, according to a study published in the February 28, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Omega-3 fatty acids include the nutrients called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).

“People with lower blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids had lower brain volumes that were equivalent to about two years of structural brain aging,” said study author Zaldy S. Tan, MD, MPH, of the Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research and the Division of Geriatrics, University of California at Los Angeles.

For the study, 1,575 people with an average age of 67 and free of dementia underwent MRI brain scans. They were also given tests that measured mental function, body mass and the omega-3 fatty acid levels in their red blood cells.

The researchers found that people whose DHA levels were among the bottom 25 percent of the participants had lower brain volume compared to people who had higher DHA levels. Similarly, participants with levels of all omega-3 fatty acids in the bottom 25 percent also scored lower on tests of visual memory and executive function, such as problem solving and multi-tasking and abstract thinking.

The study was supported by the Framingham Heart Study’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute on Aging.

To learn more about memory problems please visit http://www.aan.com/patients.

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Essential Fatty Acids 101

A fatty acid is a chain of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen atoms with a carboxyl group on one end. Fatty acids are classified on the basis of how many carbon atoms are in the chain, as well as how many double bonds exist within the molecule.

Fish contain a variety of fatty acids, but the ones that are believed to confer the majority of the benefits are the long-chain omega-3 fats eicosapentanaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). These omega-3 fats are found exclusively in seafood and marine algae.

As you can see from this chart, it is also possible for the body to synthesize EPA and DHA from the short-chain omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). ALA is found in plant foods such as flax, hemp and pumpkin seeds and walnuts.

However, research clearly indicates that the conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA is extremely limited. Less than 5% of ALA gets converted to EPA, and less than 0.5% (one-half of one percent) of ALA is converted to DHA.

A common misconception, especially amongst vegetarians and vegans, is that our need for EPA and DHA can be met by consuming flax oil and other plant sources of ALA. But the conversion numbers above clearly indicate that this isn’t the case.

Studies have shown that ALA supplements (like flax oil) are unable to raise plasma DHA levels in vegans, despite low DHA levels at baseline. (ref) So unless they are supplementing with an algae-derived source of DHA, it is likely that most vegetarians and vegans are deficient.

This is significant because researchers now believe that the majority of the health benefits we get from dietary omega-3 fats come from the longer chain derivatives (especially DHA, as I will explain below).

Is DHA essential?

In fact, some researchers have proposed that DHA is essential. When scientists label a nutrient as “essential”, they they’re not just saying that it’s “very important”. In the context of nutrition essential means that the nutrient cannot be synthesized in the human body, and must be derived from dietary sources.

According to today’s nutrition textbooks, there are only two essential fatty acids, omega-6 linoleic acid (LA) and omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). It is believed that as long as these fats are present in the diet, all of the longer-chain omega-3 and omega-6 derivatives can be synthesized in the body.

As I pointed out above, while this is theoretically possible, in reality the conversion doesn’t work well. This is true even for healthy people, but it’s especially true for those with nutrient deficiencies, because the conversion of ALA to DHA depends on zinc, iron and pyridoxine.

The bioavailability of iron in plant sources is poor compared to animal sources, so iron deficiency is common in vegans and vegetarians. This is another reason why they tend to be poor converters of ALA to DHA.

Several other observations support the hypothesis that DHA is essential:

DHA content in the tissues of all mammals is very similar despite widely varying intakes of omega-3 fatty acids.
DHA and AA, but not other omega-3 or omega-6 fatty acids, are selectively transferred across the placenta.
60% of the dry matter of the brain is lipid, and DHA and AA are the most abundant fatty acids of brain phospholipids.
DHA status in newborns is much lower in those receiving formula with LA and ALA, than in those receiving milk or formula with pre-formed DHA.
It is possible that the primarily carnivorous diet of our ancestors, which ensured a consistently high dietary intake of DHA and AA, precluded the need to evolve efficient conversion mechanisms.

In other words, since we were eating a lot of meat and fish with pre-formed DHA and AA, our bodies didn’t need to be experts at converting ALA and LA in plants to DHA and AA. It is far easier for the body to assimilate pre-formed DHA and AA than it is to synthesize them from precursors.

What about EPA? Isn’t it essential too?

EPA is another long-chain omega-3 fatty acid that is conventionally believed to be responsible for the benefits of fish consumption.

EPA is often referred to as “anti-inflammatory”. However, according to this report on essential fatty acids by Masterjohn, EPA’s effect seems to be more of an interference with the metabolism of omega-6 arachidonic acid (AA) than the performance of any essential role itself.

Take a look at the chart again that I linked to in the beginning of the post. The fatty acids in blue boxes are less inflammatory, and those in pink boxes are more inflammatory. The chart shows that AA is used to synthesize prostaglandins that cause inflammation (indicated by the pink box on the chart). Because it has the same number of carbon atoms, EPA competes with AA for the enzymes that metabolize it. Since the prostaglandins made by EPA are less inflammatory than those made by AA (indicated by the blue box), EPA is often referred to as “anti-inflammatory”.

But while EPA is certainly less inflammatory than AA, it doesn’t make sense that the body would require an essential fatty acid just to block the inflammatory effects of of another fatty acid.

By contrast, DHA is used to synthesize compounds that play an active role in resolving inflammation. EPA only makes these compounds in the presence of aspirin (PDF). EPA is thus likely to simply be a byproduct of compromised DHA synthesis.

What does this mean to you?

Putting all of this information together yields the following conclusions:

DHA is the most important of the omega-3 fatty acids, and is primarily responsible for the benefits we get from consuming them.
DHA is likely to be essential, which means that you must consume it in the diet to prevent disease and ensure optimal function.
The conversion of plant sources of ALA, such as flax seed oil, to DHA is poor in healthy people and even worse in people deficient in certain nutrients. Vegans and vegetarians are especially prone to be poor converters of ALA to DHA.
If you’ve been buying flax oil in the hopes that it will help, you’d be far better off putting that money towards some fish or fish oil capsules.
Dietary changes over the past century have lowered the DHA status to a state of subclinical deficiency in many people. Countless studies show that this deficiency is at least in part to blame for the rising incidence of cardiovascular disease, inflammatory disease, mental and psychiatric disorders and suboptimal neurodevelopment.

DHA is not the only reason to eat fish, which is also rich in selenium and vitamin D. However, DHA is likely to be the primary reason why populations that eat fish on a regular basis have consistently been shown to healthier than those that don’t.

SOURCE

An estimated 50 million adults in the United States reported being told by a doctor that they have some form of arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, lupus, or fibromyalgia.

One in five (22%) adults in the United States report having doctor diagnosed arthritis.
In 2007–2009, 50% of adults 65 years or older reported an arthritis diagnosis.
By 2030, an estimated 67 million Americans ages 18 years or older are projected to have doctor-diagnosed arthritis.
An estimated 294,000 children under age 18 have some form of arthritis or rheumatic condition; this represents approximately 1 in every 250 children in the U.S.
Prevalence of Specific Types of Arthritis …

The most common form of arthritis is osteoarthritis. Other common rheumatic conditions include gout, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis.

• An estimated 27 million adults had osteoarthritis in 2005.
• An estimated 1.5 million adults had rheumatoid arthritis in 2007.
• An estimated 3.0 million adults had gout in 2005, and 6.1 million adults have ever had gout.
• An estimated 5.0 million adults had fibromyalgia in 2005.

For further statistics and the source of this information click here

When Randal McCloy was rushed to West Virginia University Ruby Memorial Hospital’s intensive-care unit, he was practically dead. The 27-year-old coal miner had spent 41 hours buried 21/2 miles underground after an explosion in the Sago, West Virginia, mine where he’d been working. His 12 oxygen-starved colleagues had all perished.

“As far as we know, he survived the longest exposure to carbon monoxide poisoning,” says Julian Bailes, M.D., the neurosurgeon assigned to the case. McCloy was in a coma and in deep shock, his heart barely beating, one of his lungs collapsed, his liver and both kidneys shut down. Even if he somehow managed to pull through, doctors predicted McCloy would be severely brain damaged, since the carbon monoxide had stripped the protective myelin sheath from most of his brain’s neurons. “It’s very difficult to come back from a brain injury,” says Dr. Bailes. “There’s no drug that can help that.”

While McCloy was being given oxygen infusions in a hyperbaric chamber, Dr. Bailes was struck by inspiration: He ordered a daily dose of 15,000 milligrams (mg) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) for the miner. In layman’s terms?

“Fish oil,” says Dr. Bailes.

Several weeks passed. Then, unexpectedly, McCloy emerged from his coma. This in itself was amazing, but he wasn’t done. In the weeks that followed, he stunned even the most optimistic experts by recovering his memory and gradually regaining his ability to walk, talk, and see, a turnaround that many in the medical field called miraculous.

Although Dr. Bailes believes the hyperbaric chamber may have worked some magic on the myelin, he thinks much of the credit belongs elsewhere. “The omega-3s helped rebuild the damaged gray and white matter of his brain,” says Dr. Bailes, who now takes his own medicine, swallowing a fish-oil supplement each morning. On his orders, McCloy, still recuperating at home, continues to take fish oil daily. “I would say he should be on it for a lifetime,” says Dr. Bailes. “But then, I think everybody should.”

Maybe what fish oil needed all along was a better publicist. After all, this isn’t the medical community’s first infatuation with omega-3s. Back in 1970, a pair of Danish researchers, Hans Olaf Bang and Jørn Dyerberg, traveled to Greenland to uncover why the Eskimo population there had a low incidence of heart disease despite subsisting on a high-fat diet. Their finding: The Eskimos’ blood contained high levels of omega-3s, establishing the first link to heart health. But even though this discovery spurred additional omega-3 research throughout the ’70s and ’80s, the public remained more interested in other nutrients–none of which had the unfortunate words “fish” or “fatty” in their names.

There are three types of omega-3s: DHA and EPA, found in fish and marine algae (which is where the fish get them), and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is found in plants, seeds, and nuts. All three have health benefits, but those attributed to DHA and EPA have sparked renewed interest in recent years. Studies show that this tag team may not only reduce a person’s risk of heart disease and stroke but also possibly help prevent ailments as diverse as arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, autoimmune disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder–and those are just the A’s. Researchers are now exploring if these multifunctional fats can, among other things, ward off cancer and even make prison inmates less violent. It’s enough to make omega-3 geeks downright giddy.

Men’s Health Magazine

http://www.menshealth.com/health/governments-big-fish-story