Ephedrine and Weight Loss

Yohimbine and Weight Loss

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part IX

Conclusion

The wonderful foods that we have got so accustomed towards, are a staple in majority of our diets, have become domesticated by many, and are actually bringing us more problems, than solving our health problems.  This is a rise for concern here I, yet many are unaware of this, so people who are dealing with symptoms are looking for other reasons why they have disease. It can be a simple answer of eliminating many of these foods. Pre disposed individuals towards gut issues, need to pay very close attention to what they eat, since food sensitivities are a major concern. Even individuals who are healthy, who can tolerate these foods, still have to be concerned by the potential of long term consequences. Meaning, we know they have bad actions, and we know these actions affect healthy people, what we do not know whether these bad actions will make a significant digestive difference in healthy people over a long period of time. Anecdotes say yes; Science hasn’t formulated a conclusion yet.  What potentially can decide whether healthy individuals start developing disease, in the gut, can come down to the rate of damage by the rate of healing, also known as homeostasis. What can cause a shift in maintaining harmony can be triggered by other factors like nutritional deficiencies, anti-inflammatories, excessive inflammation, etc. Nobody is safe to guarantee, that you will maintain excellent health forever. What you can guarantee yourself, is learning about our bodies, and making the best educated decisions. We just need to put in the effort, the rest we leave to faith, hopefully it’s on our side. 

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part VIII

Raffinose and Stachyose Oligosaccharides (Legumes, Vegetables, and Grains):  

·         Are units of simple forms of carbohydrates linked together, which are resistant, due to our enzymes being unable to break the carbohydrates into a form that can be absorbed. Let me get a little scientific here, for the learners who might be interested in terms of why are own enzymes are not able to break these oligosaccharides down. Well, the complex bonding of these carbohydrates contain beta glycosidic linkages which are resistant to human enzyme activity. Furthermore, our own enzymes are not able to breakdown carbohydrates that contain more than three monomers of monosaccharides units linked together. Instead these carbohydrates enter the colon, our bacteria can ferment the carbohydrates and produce gases. This tends to cause abdominal discomfort to some individuals and others not so much. Potentially, this has to do with your varying type of gut flora. If you experience any abdominal discomfort, and or dealing with malabsorption syndromes, your best bet is to stay away from foods that contain forms of these carbohydrates. Another option is to supplement with digestive enzymes. 

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part VII

Gluten Cross-Reactivity:  

What this means is that people who are either predisposed to coeliac disease or have gluten sensitivities will also develop auto-immune triggering towards non gluten containing foods.  Give you some background on how this happens, the proteins have chains of amino acid sequences, some very long and some shorter depending on the protein. When antibodies are formed against gluten for instance, certain short pattern sequences of antibodies were formed for gluten tend to repeat on the proteins listed below. This will depend on the location of the sequence, certain sequences are also more antigenic. The key here to understand is that antibodies recognize short amino acid sequences not the whole protein, this is how cross-reactivity occurs.

• Rye
• Barley
• Spelt
• Polish Wheat
• Oats
• Buckwheat
• Sorghum
• Millet
• Amaranth
• Quinoa
• Corn
• Rice
• Potato
• Hemp
• Teff
• Soy

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part VI

Eggs, another food that many people tend to be allergic towards, but is considered a quality cheap source of protein. Many recipes tend to include eggs as one of the main ingredients, which has become a staple in every household. If you are dealing with an autoimmune disease, eggs might have to go.

Here is why eggs might be a problem who have autoimmune diseases:

·         The egg white protects the yolk from microbial attack, as the embryo grows. The egg white protects the yolk by containing proteolytic enzymes which render the microbes ineffective by breaking them down. The main protein enzyme we have to worry about, who has a leaky gut or autoimmune problems is Lysozyme.  This protease enzyme is naturally occurring in our bodies, and it is not the main cause for concern, the issue is its high binding complexity towards other egg proteins like ovomucin and ovastatin. These proteins now attached to lysozyme, are not going to be broken down, and eventually end up in our bloodstream. Once in the blood stream, they are recognized as foreign substances triggering an immune response.

·         Another potential concern is cross reactivity; when antibodies formed towards the egg proteins ovomucin and ovastatin, form antibodies towards normal proteins present in organism, by a process of molecular mimicry. Unfortunate cause of mistaken identity.

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part V

Grains, Night Shades, and Legumes also contain anti-nutrients, for protection against predation and prevention against destruction of reproductive material (seeds).

• Protease Inhibitors: are the seeds way to escape digestion completely from all predators. When these inhibitors are present in our gut, they inhibit most of our protease enzymes, not all though. Essentially, these enzymes help to break down the proteins we ingest, along with the proteins present in the seeds. Making the pancreas release more of proteolytic enzymes to provide aid. This leads to an imbalance, causing excess, between the protease digestive enzymes. Since it is the protein that is not being broken down effectively, majority of enzymes released from pancreas will be protein-type enzymes, in particular trypsin. Elevated trypsin content in the intestines weakens the connections between enterocytes, allowing substances in the gut to leak into the blood stream. 

• Phytate Acid: prevents absorption of minerals like iron, zinc, calcium, copper. This particular acid has a high binding affinity towards minerals because of the ionic electrostatic attraction of charges. Simply meaning, absorption becomes hindered. 

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part IV

Polyphenols and Tannins:

Considered part of the flavonoid group of phytochemicals that are biologically active in our organisms. Phytochemicals have antioxidant characteristics which prevent our bodies from aging and developing diseases. Not all phytochemicals are helpful in fact, these two have negative actions towards absorption, and hormonal activity.

·         Tannins: Have similar methods of action as phytate acid by preventing digestibility of proteins, and binding minerals preventing normal absorption.

·         Polyphenols: particularly in soybean and soy products contain a polyphenol termed phytoestrogen, which mimics estrogenic activity, and can act as goitrogen substances in the body. Without going into too much detail on the mechanisms behind how these phytoestrogens cause hormonal disruption, will keep it simple by stating that it can potentially impact hormones by impairing normal thyroid dynamics, disrupt menstrual cycles in females, and development of a goiter.

Examples of Foods

·         Legumes

·         Nuts

·         Fruits (berries)

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part III

Glycosides: These are sugar molecules that are bonded with a particular functional group. Essentially, they have toxic properties, and protect the plants from becoming ingested by any predators.

Several ways these compounds cause problems:

·         Saponins have a fat soluble core and chains of water-soluble carbohydrates. This compound acts like a detergent, since it mixes with fat and water forming a soluble complex that can bind with cholesterol. Once it interacts with the cholesterol molecules dietary saponins create holes in the surface membrane of the cells which line the gut (enterocytes), allowing a variety of substances found in the gut to enter the cell. Meaning any potentially undigested proteins, toxins, bacteria, carcinogens can enter into the blood and cause an immune response. Other concerns like increased permeability by destroying the lining of the gut can create nutritional deficiencies.

·         Cyanogenetic Glycosides are found in lima beans, these compounds are extremely poisonous if eaten raw by turning into hydrogen cyanide in our intestines. Fortunately, cooking can destroy this poison. However, your problems are not over, since cooking converts the hydrogen cyanide into thiocyanate, which has been shown to have goitrogen activity in our organisms.

·         Favism Glycosides are also lethally toxic substances found in fava beans that can trigger hemolytic anemia in genetically predisposed individuals shown to have the genetic defect.

Examples of Foods:

·         Amaranth

·         Quinoa

·         Lima Beans

·         Fava Beans

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part II

Lectins: These are proteins which have a high affinity to bind towards sugars. They have a protective role against predators, by essentially being a toxin once ingested. These proteins trigger problems in our gut which can eventually lead to a leaky gut and other potential conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, and coeliac disease.

Several ways in which these proteins cause problems:

• ·         Resist being broken down by our intestinal digestive enzymes, as a defensive mechanism for preventing the predator to absorb any of the nutrients, hence making predators avoid eating these foods. The main concern here is the initial gut inflammation that occurs by having undigested proteins in the gut.

• ·         Our mucosal lining in the intestines is composed of connective tissue in which have a protective role to constantly repair damage of our lining. Lectins have a high moieties towards specific sugar marker found in our gut like N-Acetylglucosamine. By binding onto this molecule, causes cellular ‘clumping’, which mechanically damages the structural integrity that protects our mucosal lining.

• ·         In genetically predisposed individuals towards coeliac disease, our lining contains a protein called Zonulin, which regulates permeability of tight junctions in our digestive tract. Predisposed individuals have higher levels of this protein, and lectins have the coding to open these junctions and cause paracellular absorption of lectin fragments, causing further inflammatory responses.

  

• ·         We have another enzyme called tissue transglutaminase that contains sugar markers on the surface of the enzyme. This particular enzymes role is healing the mucosal lining by attaching amino acids for repair and reconstruction. When lectins ‘clump’ onto the enzyme, it deactivates the normal functioning of the enzyme, which triggers an autoimmune reaction by a way of molecular mimicry. The large foreign substance is causing too much havoc, our immune system wants to destroy it, while at the same time damaging our normal enzyme transglutaminase, since it now recognizes it as a foreign substance, or in other terms, autoantigen.  

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part I

Introduction

Many of us have gotten used to enjoying vegetables, grains, legumes, and even eggs in the belief that they contain all the essential vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. This is very true in fact, however what we are not shown is how many of these foods often do more harm to our bodies than good.

Let’s begin with the night shade vegetables, these vegetables have common characteristics of how the seeds are arranged and the shape of the plant. The issue with night shades is that they are poisonous.  Over consumption of these vegetables can potentially lead to complications in your health in both short-term and long term. The extent will depend on just how sensitive you are to these foods, and if you genetically have the predisposition to develop problems once you consume them.

Glycoalkaloid: These compounds are essentially toxic, and protect the plants from becoming ingested by microbes and insects.

·         Solanine: is a glycoalkaloid poison that inhibits enzyme acetylcholinesterase. This enzyme is necessary to breakdown acetylcholine, which is an important neurotransmitter essential for interpreting messages signaled from the central nervous system.  However too much activation of this neurotransmitter can cause excess salivation, muscle spasms, and watering of eyes.

·         Solanine: can also signal apoptosis in cells, triggering cell death, by activating inflammatory agents.

·         a-Tomatine: is used in vaccines to make sure that the immune system develops immunity towards the virus trying to treat. In the case for us, who are sensitive to this particular compound, can cause an excess of inflammatory signalling by revving up the immune system.

·         a-Chaconine: Contains fungicidal and insecticidal properties. For those reasons, can be used as a commercial pesticide product. 

Picking Apart Glycemic Index: High Vs Low -PART VII-

References:


1. Diaz EO et. al. Glycaemic index effects on fuel partitioning in humans. Obes Rev. (2006) 7:219-26.

2. Mettler S et. al. The influence of the subjects’ training state on the glycemic index.  Eur J. Clin Nutr (2007 ) Jan;61(1):19-24.

3. Schenk S et. al. Different glycemic indexes of breakfast cereals are not due to glucose entry into blood but to glucose removal by tissue.  Am J Clin Nutr. (2003) 78(4):742-8.

Picking Apart Glycemic Index: High Vs Low -PART VI-

Conclusion

The constant misconceptions on how weight loss occurs actually works has been going on forever. Based on the evidence provided, with my logical reasoning on the whole issue, rather than just picking a side I want to argue for, it becomes clearer to notice that in the grand scheme of things, glycemic index is meaningless for body composition purposes solely. Rather, pay more attention on eating less food, adequate protein intake, satiation duration, training, this is what will contribute towards your weight loss. Be aware that, by no means am I advocating eating fruit loops, and you will look unbelievable. If having a lean body is the ONLY importance in your mind than eat whatever carbohydrates you like, also this will only work SHORT-TERM. Please do not think I value eating crappy carbohydrates, I value the studies, make educated decisions based on the overall picture, that’s all! Another area I want to chime into, not too much, but it is someway related towards the glycemic index, carbohydrate choices, and overall food intake, which rather needs some clarity.  Many people believe in this phenomenon on magical macronutrient strategies making you lose weight. The answer is by lowering a macro that is contributing to your overall calorie intake and you lessen the amount of that given food, weight loss occurs, simple as that. Looking back at all that has been brought towards your attention, next time you tell others these common pseudo-scientific sayings: lower your carbs, eat veggies, organic, low glycemic, whatever else floats your boat. Avoid all this flawed information and focus on the truth. The truth is calories are a predictor whether a person gains or loses weight, not the glycemic index, or macronutrient strategies, and whatever else you think can help.  They all do matter, however they contribute to main focus.

Picking Apart Glycemic Index: High Vs Low -PART V-

What Carbohydrates and Diet to Choose Than… Pay Attention to all points, and Choose Wisely!

1.                   Regardless of diet, Law of Thermodynamics holds always as the premise. Majority, seem to not understand the factors involved in the energy out equation, but that’s another topic. Simply put, calories do matter!

2.                   Factor in: Magnitude and Duration of insulin response. Remember just because you released a huge amount of insulin does not automatically mean that you will gain weight, duration matters also. Remember, you are looking at the overall picture of how much and how long is lipolysis inhibited throughout the day.

3.                   Both substrates are utilized for catabolic processes even in the presence of insulin, even fats. What you have to realize is that, the extent of which nutrients get oxidized majority of the time will be determined by your overall current settings (protein intake, training, stress, inflammation, carbohydrate intake etc.)

4.                   High or low glycemic carbohydrates on fuel partitioning. Studies show no difference on fatty acid storage or oxidation, by eating either. Do not worry so much, about what carbohydrates you eat. It is not the carb source directly that is making your weight go down, it’s that certain choices of carbs will make you eat less, hence weight loss.

5.                   Eat foods that contribute towards increasing your satiation rate, simple!

6.                   Training is an important contributing factor for weight loss, it can make the carbohydrates you eat practically meaningless for body composition purposes solely. Remember, training can enhance insulin sensitivity, resulting in an overall lower glycemic response.

7.                   If you are thinking solely on body composition purposes, than short-term, eating fruit-loops will be just as effective as eating brown rice.  Please re-read the statement… If your primary focus is on solely body composition, and you are looking for short-term fixes, you can achieve a nice body too.

8.                   Long term, however… health, performance, appetite, energy, stress, inflammation are very important reasons to pay attention too, besides just looking good on the exterior surface. So carbohydrates sources do matter after all, it is all about context.

9.                   Try out variety of diets, pay attention to efficiency of weight loss, energy, appetite, and mood. These simple factors, can allow you to make an overall long-term change for the better, in your eating habits as well lifestyle.

10.               Have not mentioned much about fat intake, this series is rather focusing on carbohydrates mainly, as the title supports that. I will however mention, when choosing a particular diet, adequate protein always a must, everything in literature supports that. When that is settled, macro nutrients (calorie intake controlled), interchanging between carbohydrates or fats have minor effects on which diet is better for weight lose. 

Picking Apart Glycemic Index: High Vs Low -PART IV-

 Are Genes Involved Too?

Genes are uncontrollable factors, that can contribute, but you are not particularly focusing on them necessarily, unless you see yourself in a laboratory. Genetics are also difficult to figure out, if you have no idea what a gene is to begin with.  My advice is, experiment and see which diet makes you lose weight the quickest. Don’t forget protein must be sufficient, or muscle wasting will occur, regardless of diet. Pay attention to weight loss efficiency, hunger, energy, and mood patterns, these signs can allow you to realize what diet is not only helping you lose weight, but at the same time makes you enjoy the process long-term.

Studies do indicate quicker results by eating a diet that activates genes involved in upregulating energy expenditure and fat oxidation.

Picking Apart Glycemic Index: High Vs Low -PART III-

Back Peddling… Potential Mechanisms of Action   

NOTE: **Any question marks that are shown, does not mean I have no answer for them. It is more of a tool for me to continue expanding on what I currently know. By improving I give you a better answer to that same question in the future. Pretty much, it keeps me focused on always improving my knowledge, hence better explanations.  Also, it allows my viewers to ask away, and I can reply in the feedback box. **

Even though, physiologically the potential mechanisms provide an actual reasoning of how something could potentially work.  We should be aware that everything does not work in absolutes, you have to look at the overall scenario, not just an action of one specific thing, towards influencing the results. Remember, that potential actions are not solely dependent on one particular proposition, but rather the whole scenario, which will predominantly dictate. Also, understanding the simple fact that responses are greatly influenced by an individual genetics, and it can vary. This is why you need to understand all plausible explanations of the differences in results.

Potential Mechanisms of Action #1 –“Blood-Sugar Control: Regulating Appetite/Hunger Better”

There is indication showing that differences in glycemic index have similar glucose entry in blood. How would that help controlling blood sugar than? The whole cholecystokinin hormone action, why did it not support my potential mechanisms of action theory?

Potential Mechanisms of Action #2- “Suppressed Appetite”

Some studies show a supressed appetite by individuals, while others shown to have no real effect.  What else than can be causing prolonged satiation?

Potential Mechanisms of Action #3- “Lowered Initial Insulin Response, due to Improved Insulin Sensitivity”

While fiber can improve insulin sensitivity, to what extent? Will it have a dramatic impact on actual weight loss? Other factors must contribute towards staying leaner, than simply increasing your fiber intake.

In fact, the predicting factors of weight gain shown to support being more insulin sensitive.

Insulin actually has an anorexigenic effect , promoting satiation, by improving insulin sensitivity will result a quicker taper off period of insulin, which can create rebound hunger effect, resulting in eating more food within the 24 hours that your awake, making you eat more food than  you would normally eat, equals a potential weight gain.

I can also see it be difficult to control blood sugar, the constant swings of energy levels, one minute your full of incredible feat of energy, the next minute your sluggish.

Back Peddling… Glycemic Index Effect on Glucose and Insulin Response

The whole long held belief that by eating low glycemic index foods, will stabilize blood sugar better, yield a lower insulin response, due to a slower rate of entry of glucose into blood, does not always apply to all cases, as studies indicate.

Rather, low glycemic index shows a higher initial insulin response, results in a lower glycemic index response in blood, due to quicker clearance of glucose into cells.

Rather, similar entry of glucose into blood, both low and high glycemic index carbohydrates. 

Nor, was the absolute insulin response different between the glycemic index choices of carbohydrates.

Training, can improve the rate of glucose clearance in blood, which will lower the glycemic response, due to the improved insulin sensitivity actions towards cells, resulting in a greater uptake.

Picking Apart Glycemic Index: High Vs Low -PART II-

Potential Mechanisms Why Low glycemic index? My rant first…   

Before I continue on educating you on the mechanisms of potential actions of why I believe doctors, nutritionist, and dietitians maybe recommend low glycemic sources, I have another little rant to express, just bear with me here my fellow readers. Here is the scoop I want to discuss, regarding patients only following because they are told, yet they have no idea though why this or anything else for that matter works for weight loss and overall health. I feel the problem starts with all professionals who simply only give recommendations, which is fine, because you need to recommend, my issue though is that they don’t even understand the reasons themselves of the given advice, yet feel they are credible to give advice. This missing link of not educating our patients is a huge concern for me, hopefully changes in the health industry will make it a necessity to interact with patients, by providing education with recommendations, so patients leave with a feeling of something learned.  This can potentially empower our patients to make a change, because they can feel a sense of urgency of actually using your brain, now that they were somewhat educated on the topic. Can this be a step in the right direction of patients starting to control their own lives, rather than the doctors? This constant faulty loop creates slaves to the health system. Constantly going to pharmacies and refilling the prescriptions that the doctors gave them, is not helping the cause at all! I believe our educators need to make it a priority on the continuation of education, and provide updated information. This is going to take some time, but everything always does.

Potential Mechanisms of Action #1 – “Blood-Sugar Control: Regulating Appetite/Hunger Better”= Less Total Calories

Low glycemic index carbohydrates tend to have higher protein and fiber content. Straight up, without getting all nerdy, sufficient protein always beats insufficient protein when advising a dieting strategy for optimum body composition purposes.  We all know that protein is key for packing and maintaining lean mass, it’s a no brainer. Protein also has many other valuable purposes, which I will not be going into all the detail, simply because all the other details are not in response towards “appetite control” purposes. Even if I did discuss everything in detail, this would turn into a book, rather than many parts. Who knows, maybe a book will be required to publish in the future, will see. Anyway, protein interacts with a gut hormone called cholecystokinin, and one of many of its actions is delaying gastric emptying. Potentially slowing down motility of food movements, can slow down the rate in which glucose enters into the blood, resulting in prolonged sustainment of energy throughout the day. By feeling fuller, having prolonged energy, could be the contributing to eating less food than our maintenance calories requirements, which can result in weight loss. This certainly can be a reason why we eat low glycemic carbs, and studies do dictate this. Realize this though, the weight loss happens because less overall calorie intake, not do to the difference in carbohydrates themselves. Certainly how they interact within our organisms can be contributing to eating less. Be aware, calories is eventually what matters.

Potential Mechanisms of Action #2- “Suppressed Appetite”=Less Total Calories

Both protein and fiber interact with two hormones in the gut called cholecystokinin and peptide yy. These hormones have endocrine activity by acting upon receptors in the brain that trigger activation of polypeptide neurons Pro-opiomelanocortin which have been shown to have an anorexigenic effect. Once again, prolonging the Satiation Loss Rate (SLR) can contribute to eating less within the time that your awake, can result in a negative energy balance.

Potential Mechanisms of Action #3- “Lowered Initial Insulin Response, due to Improved Insulin Sensitivity”= Less Total Calories

Fiber is resistant towards digestion, because of the Beta-Linkages of many sugar glyosidic bonds, that our own digestive enzymes are unable to break apart into a simple digestible form for absorption. Our friendly bacteria will ferment the sugar to produces various acids, and gases. Butyric acid has been show to improve insulin sensitivity. Improved sensitivity can indicate in general a lowered initial insulin response. This is very important for metabolic flexibility purposes of improved transitioning from carbohydrates to fat oxidation.  Once again, more calories being effectively used for burning, can likely contribute towards weight loss. 

Picking Apart Glycemic Index: High Vs Low - PART I-

                Glycemic index has been of controversy, in terms of being a useful guide towards helping people lose weight. I won’t get into the whole origination of the glycemic index, or what was the reasoning for its purpose, simple because I feel everybody has heard something about it, and likely already factor it someway in the choices of carbohydrates they choose. My objective here is to provide you with the important points of my research, by giving you what is relevant, so you are left pondering. Giving you something to think about on the changes you need to consider to make, and how you can get your life back, (hint, hint, this is what my blog is all about) by getting the actual facts based on credible scientific research.

Insight on Glycemic Index and My Rant

                Before I begin, I feel though, I should give you atleast something regarding the glycemic index, and even if you never heard about it, than I encourage you to please listen up. This would be a brief explanation just to stimulate our brains to start thinking about the subject at hand more clearly. The glycemic index is used to see how significantly and fast a given food causes levels of glucose in the blood to rise. The belief was ALWAYS that low glycemic index keeps us fuller, improves our blood sugar, and stimulates a low initial insulin response due to improved insulin sensitivity. Sounds pretty much like an ideal scenario for fat loss, which it is mind you. All of this is in fact true, that the glycemic index do differ in glucose responses, and do indicate a difference in insulin responses, meaning low glycemic having a lower glucose and insulin responses, while high glycemic index have the opposite effect.  The problem here is the ALWAYS word I mentioned above. In fact studies actually show variances of both glucose and insulin responses. Meaning by eating either low or high glycemic index carbohydrates, will not support what you think should happen, and what I actually mentioned above is not always the case. Also consider that some studies show low glycemic index do keep us fuller, while other studies show no effect.

Ranting in General... Glycemic Index

Here is my issue with the whole problem, but also in this case the glycemic index, is giving your advice or answers in absolutes. That everything happens only this particular way, and the complete undermining of potential variances of responses is overlooked. We have to understand all potential variables, and if you are not able to understand that, than keep your advice general, but actually specify that, so people don’t feel they now know what happens, yet really have no idea. Sorry for the rant, getting off topic here, this is just something important for me to share, so we all realize on how important is to educate people with the correct information.