But I have friends who’ve complained to me that they’ve really cut back and still have problems keeping their blood pressure closer to where their doctors want to see it.

The truth is, there’s something else that looks remarkably similar to salt, which can secretly sabotage your blood pressure readings in surprising ways.

I’m talking about sugar.

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Added sugar adds up to high blood pressure

Scientific studies are now linking the consumption of added sugar in the diet to an increased risk of high blood pressure.

They say that not only can sugar affect your blood vessels, but it can also exacerbate health conditions that drive blood pressure problems.

Three blood pressure issues caused by sugar include:

#1 – Narrow blood vessels

One way sugar leads to high blood pressure is by increasing levels of a waste product, called uric acid, in the body. When the level of uric acid goes up, the production of nitric oxide (NO) in your blood vessels goes down. That’s a problem in several ways…

For starters, NO is a compound the body produces that signals blood vessels to relax and allow normal blood flow. Without that signal, blood vessels constrict and blood pressure rises.

It also causes blood vessels in the kidneys to constrict. This sets off a cascade of actions, including the activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), which regulates blood volume and electrolyte balance. This leads to the retention of sodium and water, which increases blood pressure.

You may be aware that uric acid is associated with the painful condition known as gout. But you may not know that people with gout have an increased risk of stroke.

#2 – Reduced insulin sensitivity

Additionally, a diet high in sugar can lead to insulin resistance. In turn, as cells become less sensitive to insulin, the body makes even more of the hormone to keep your blood sugar balanced. This increased insulin accelerates sodium and water retention, in turn raising blood volume and blood pressure.

If that weren’t enough, reduced insulin sensitivity is linked to inflammation, which can lead to high blood pressure by damaging blood vessel linings and causing arterial stiffness.

#3 – Weight gain and metabolic problems

Finally, as we’re all too well aware, eating too much sugar can cause weight gain, especially around the midsection. Sadly, belly fat is a key indicator of metabolic syndrome, increasing the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.

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Avoiding sugar isn’t so easy

While sugars that occur naturally in whole foods, like fruit, are far less likely to skyrocket your blood pressure, it’s the hidden added sugars that can get you.

The American Heart Association lists these foods as the most common sources of added sugar, so start by avoiding these:

• Regular soft drinks
• Sweetened tea and coffee
• Energy drinks 
• Fruit drinks
• Candy
• Ice cream
• Sweetened yogurts 
• Flavored and/or sweetened milk
• Breakfast cereals and bars

And remember, added sugars hide under many names, including the “ose” ones like high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose, as well as molasses, cane sugar, corn sweetener, raw sugar, syrup, honey or fruit juice concentrates.

Steady support for blood pressure

Who doesn’t have a sweet tooth? I’m a health researcher, but I’ll be the first to raise my hand.

I don’t indulge often, but there are times when it’s just not easy to turn down dessert or pass up the cream and sugar in my coffee. That’s why I have a secret antidote…

Beets.

I realize eating beets regularly is an acquired taste. But beetroot juice is pretty tasty. Drinking it regularly helps my body produce a steady stream of NO, even when I splurge on dessert.

In a 2008 study, drinking 8 ounces of beet juice lowered subjects’ blood pressure by 10mm Hg (a ten-point drop in blood pressure).

This is not surprising, since the dietary nitrate in beets breaks down into NO to signal my blood vessels to do the job they’re meant to do: support oxygenated, nutrient-rich vascular flow to every organ in my body.

Now, yes, beets contain sugar. However, it’s natural sugars, not added sugars. The antioxidants, fiber and nitrates content still make beets a healthy option for sustaining NO production. And concentrated beet powder generally has less sugar per serving than whole beets or beet juice.

Sources:

This Everyday Ingredient Could Be Raising Your Blood Pressure—and It’s Not Salt – Health

The post 3 ways this ingredient raises blood pressure—and it’s not salt appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Aspartame was touted as both sweeter and safer than saccharine, which was a possible carcinogen. But it didn’t take long for scientists to link aspartame to cancer as well as to anxiety.

And unbelievably, aspartame actually makes your body store more belly fat.

Every time a new sweetener comes on the market, it’s hundreds of times sweeter than the previous one. That’s to convince you to try it and get hooked on it.

But any artificial sweetener you can name turns healthy gut bacteria rogue, making you a sitting duck for disease and deadly infections.

Now the next generation of sweeteners is here. But proceed with caution. This one is not only toxic, you may never even know it’s there…

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Neotame: a clear and present danger to your gut

A study at Anglia Ruskin University in England found that neotame attacks the human gut in a one-two punch.

“Our studies indicate that neotame causes an increase in stress signaling in our human cells which reduces the amount of junctions that hold our cells together in a tight barrier,” Havovi Chichger, PhD, BSC, associate professor in biomedical science at Anglia Ruskin University, said in an interview with Medical News Today. 

Weakening the gut barrier causes the leaking of materials from the gut into the blood. This describes a condition known as leaky gut.

The damage to the gut can lead to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and because the gut lining becomes permeable, bad bacteria can move into the bloodstream and lead to sepsis.

Not only that, but the disruption it causes in the microbiome could lead to metabolic disease including insulin resistance.

Shockingly, Dr. Chichger stressed that even in concentrations 10 times lower than the acceptable daily intake her team saw the breakdown of the gut barrier and bacteria shift to damaging behavior.

This new research into neotame builds on previous work by Dr. Chichger which discovered that saccharin, sucralose, and aspartame could cause similar damage in the gut.

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Quick and disturbing facts and safer alternatives

You’re probably pretty convinced this sweetener is something you should avoid. But it may not be so easy.

It is sold under the brand name Newtame®. But since it is about 8,000 times sweeter than sugar, such a small amount is used in products that it may not be required to be listed on ingredient labels.

Here are more quick facts about Neotame that may help you…

• It’s found in sugar-free drinks and chewing gum as well as some foods, including yogurts and especially baked goods. It’s also used as a table-top sweetener for hot drinks, like coffee and tea.
• Neotame enhances or extends the sweetening and flavoring properties of some flavors, especially mint — so steer clear of mint-flavored gums, lozenges or candies.
• It often has a mild aftertaste similar to licorice.
• To avoid it, you need to avoid anything advertised as sugar-free.
• Monsanto (yes, that Monsanto!) was behind the discovery and development of neotame.

Instead of reaching for artificial sweeteners that are devoid of nutrition and directly cause damage to your body, lean towards naturally healthier choices…

Stevia. Not only is this plant-derived sweetener 200 times sweeter than sugar (so you don’t need much), it also has been shown to benefit obesity, diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol — all conditions associated with metabolic syndrome. It’s considered safe for diabetics. Just read your label to be sure the brand you buy contains no added erythritol.

Raw honey is honey that’s been taken from the hive, strained to remove beeswax, then bottled and sold. It hasn’t been pasteurized or processed, so it still has all its natural vitamins, enzymes and phytonutrients.

Yacon syrup is derived from a root vegetable similar to a sweet potato. It’s considered good for people with diabetes because is contains fructooligosaccharides (FOS) — a type of starch (inulin) that isn’t digested, so it shouldn’t raise blood sugar. However, people who are on a FODMAP diet should avoid it. It may also cause upset stomach, gas and nausea in some.

Coconut palm sugar has a low glycemic index but should be treated like sugar because it contains the same amount of calories and carbs.

Blackstrap molasses. Perhaps the most nutritious sugar substitute of all, organic blackstrap molasses is rich in copper, calcium, iron, potassium, manganese, selenium, and vitamin B6. It is low glycemic but people with diabetes should only use in moderation. Make your own brown sugar substitute for baking by using 2 tablespoons for each ½ cup of coconut sugar in a food processor.

Bananas, figs, dates, raisins and no-sugar added apple sauce are also great ways to naturally sweeten a recipe, get a little extra fiber and plant nutrition.

Sources:

Artificial sweetener has potential to damage gut — Eureka Alert

The artificial sweetener neotame negatively regulates the intestinal epithelium directly through T1R3-signaling and indirectly through pathogenic changes to model gut bacteria — Frontiers in Nutrition

Artificial sweetener neotame may have potential to damage gut, lead to IBS — Medical News Today

The post The hidden sweetener tied to IBS, sepsis and insulin resistance appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Sounds perfect, right?

Not exactly.

What good is losing weight and looking trim if your memories are slowly being erased?

Take a look at the newest research on artificial sweeteners and what they do to your cognitive abilities…

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Artificial sweeteners steal your brain power

A large Brazilian study has found that the most common artificial sweeteners — those found in diet sodas, flavored waters, and processed snacks — are strongly associated with a decline in memory and loss of cognitive skills.

The study looked at seven low- and no-calorie sweeteners. You’ve probably seen some of these on your soda, chewing gum, or snack labels:

• aspartame
• saccharine
• acesulfame-K
• erythritol
• xylitol
• sorbitol
• tagatose

The study followed 12,772 adults for an average of eight years. At the start, participants completed questionnaires about what they ate and drank during the past year. They were then broken up into three groups based on the total amount of artificial sweeteners they’d consumed.

All participants were given cognitive tests at the start, middle, and end of the study to track memory, language, and thinking skills over time. These tests looked at things like verbal fluency, working memory, word recall, and processing speed.

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People who consumed the highest amount of these sweeteners showed a 62 percent faster decline in overall thinking and memory skills than those who consumed the lowest amount — the equivalent of 1.6 years of extra brain aging.

Just to give you some perspective, for aspartame, a common sweetener, the highest amount was equal to drinking just one can of soda per day!

Other findings:

• People under the age of 60 who consumed the highest amounts of sweeteners showed faster declines in verbal fluency and overall cognition.
• The link to faster cognitive decline was stronger in participants with diabetes than in those without diabetes.

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Alternatives to artificial sweeteners

This isn’t the first time the alarm has sounded about the impact of artificial sweeteners on cognition.

In 2017, a study at Boston University found that people who drank diet soda daily were almost three times as likely to develop stroke and dementia when compared to those who did not.

In case you’re not already convinced to give up those diet sodas, here are some other scary things that artificial sweeteners can do to you:

• Xylitol (used in sugar-free chewing gum) and erythritol (found in sweeteners like Splenda) have been strongly associated with “sticky” blood that leads to stroke.
• The World Health Organization lists aspartame (found in everything from bread to hot cocoa to jam to vitamins) as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

Fortunately, there are healthier alternatives to sweetening your food and drink. And if you don’t overdo it, there’s no need to worry about the calories.

• Honey – known for its antioxidant and antibacterial properties
• Maple syrup – contains manganese and potassium, and has a lower glycemic index
• Coconut sugar – made from the sap of the coconut palm
• Stevia – a plant-based sweetener with no calories and no effect on blood sugar
• Monk fruit – a natural sweetener with a sweetness level 300 times higher than sugar, and no calories or carbohydrates

So if you’re looking to stay healthy by losing those extra pounds, make sure you don’t lose your mind power, too.

Sources:

Sweeteners in diet drinks may steal years from the brain — Science Daily

Association Between Consumption of Low- and No-Calorie Artificial Sweeteners and Cognitive Decline — Neurology

The post Why diet drinks can prematurely age your brain appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Artificial sweeteners provided the sweetness of sugar without the calorie burden. Plus, people with diabetes were able to safely consume these sweeteners without spiking their blood sugar.

But in recent years, the dark side of artificial sweeteners has emerged. Research has shown these sweeteners can actually make changes to the gut microbiome that lead to weight gain. These changes can also increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

That’s not all. Beverages containing artificial sweeteners have also been linked with an increased risk of death and dementia. And one study found artificial sweeteners were linked to increased risks for cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease risk, which equates to higher stroke risk.

Then there are sugar alcohols like xylitol and erythritol, which are often touted as safer alternative sweeteners and are used extensively in low-sugar, sugar-free and keto reduced-sugar foods. Since they’re already derived from sugar, they should be fine, right?

Wrong….

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How erythritol affects brain cells

Erythritol, a sugar alcohol first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2001, is typically made by fermenting corn. But research has begun to shed light on its risks.

Recently, research by the Cleveland Clinic linked erythritol to a higher risk of dangerous blood clot formation, which could lead to stroke.

Scientists led by the University of Colorado Boulder decided to dig into the mechanisms behind the Cleveland Clinic study results. What they discovered was alarming…

In the lab, the researchers treated endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels in the brain, for three hours with roughly the same amount of erythritol contained in a typical sugar-free beverage. The cells were found to be altered in numerous ways…

• The cells expressed significantly less nitric oxide, a molecule that relaxes and widens blood vessels for blood flow.
• At the same time, they expressed more endothelin-1, a protein that constricts blood vessels.
• And when the cells were challenged with a clot-forming compound called thrombin, cellular production of the natural clot-busting compound t-PA (the go-to treatment used during stroke emergencies) was “markedly blunted.”

To put it simply, the treated brain cells were affected in ways that could increase the likelihood of stroke.

As if that weren’t enough, the erythritol-treated cells also produced more reactive oxygen species, or free radicals. These metabolic byproducts can age and damage cells and inflame tissue.

“Our study adds to the evidence suggesting that non-nutritive sweeteners that have generally been purported to be safe may not come without negative health consequences,” says senior author Christopher DeSouza, a professor at CU Boulder.

“Big picture, if your vessels are more constricted and your ability to break down blood clots is lowered, your risk of stroke goes up,” says first author Auburn Berry, a graduate student in DeSouza’s lab. “Our research demonstrates not only that, but how erythritol has the potential to increase stroke risk.”

Another disconcerting aspect of the study is that the researchers only used one serving size of erythritol. If you consume more than a serving a day, as many people do, the impact could be even worse.

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Which sweeteners to use instead

One caveat: the authors caution that their study was a laboratory study conducted on cells, so larger studies in people are needed to confirm these results.

Still, De Souza encourages consumers to read food labels, looking for erythritol or “sugar alcohol” in the list of ingredients.

“Given the epidemiological study that inspired our work, and now our cellular findings, we believe it would be prudent for people to monitor their consumption of non-nutrient-sweeteners such as this one,” he says.

So, what should you use instead? Look for natural non-sugar sweeteners like monkfruit and stevia, both of which are derived from plants and come in many delicious flavors. However, you need to read those labels as well — sometimes erythritol is used as filler in monkfruit and/or stevia sweeteners. Be sure you’re only using 100 percent pure stevia or monkfruit with no fillers.

Sources:

Scientists Warn: Popular Sugar Substitute Linked to Brain Cell Damage — SciTechDaily

The non-nutritive sweetener erythritol adversely affects brain microvascular endothelial cell function — Journal of Applied Physiology

Artificial sweeteners: Any effect on blood sugar? — Mayo Clinic

The post Low-cal sweetener linked to brain cell damage and blood clots appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Not so fast.

You’ll want to think twice before putting artificial anything into your body. Those fake sweetener packets you see on restaurant tables have been linked to poor gut health that contributes to heart disease, autoimmune disorders and colon cancer — among other things.

Now, believe it or not, research is finding that a popular artificial sweetener actually increases your craving for sweets!

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Low-calorie sweeteners disrupt brain signals linked to hunger

According to a study from the University of California, controlling your weight isn’t as simple as reducing calories by substituting artificial sweeteners for sugar.

They’ve found that sucralose (known commercially as Splenda®) increases activity in the hypothalamus, the brain region that regulates appetite and body weight.

The study builds on existing research that linked calorie-free sweeteners and obesity, but didn’t tease out how these substances affected hunger.

The UC study provides that missing link…

Dr. Kathleen Page is the study’s corresponding author and the director of USC’s Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute.

“If your body is expecting a calorie because of the sweetness, but doesn’t get the calorie it’s expecting, that could change the way the brain is primed to crave those substances over time,” she says.    

Compared to drinking sugar, drinking sucralose increased brain activity in the hypothalamus of study participants and increased feelings of hunger.

These effects were strongest in people with obesity.

This means that when obese people use this sweetener in lieu of sugar in an effort to cut calories and lose weight, they are actually stimulating their brains to make them hungrier.

In addition, MRI scans showed that consuming sucralose increased connectivity between the hypothalamus and the anterior cingulate cortex, which plays a role in decision-making.

That means sucralose could have a negative impact on cravings and eating behavior.

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Losing weight without artificial sweeteners

It’s clear that artificial sweeteners are not your friend if you’re trying to lose weight.

So, how can you start cutting sucralose out of your life? Start by ditching diet sodas.

About 40% of Americans regularly consume sugar substitutes, mostly in diet sodas, followed by other low-calorie drinks, including flavored water and teas.

Of course, you’ll find it in low-calorie foods made to appeal to dieters, such as foods and snacks labeled “sugar-free,” including breads, cereals, grain products, bars, condiments, yogurt and other dairy products.

It’s hard to kick the diet soda habit, but knowing they are working against you may make it easier. But don’t swap them for regular sodas that typically contain at least 10 teaspoons of sugar. Instead, try filtered water with fruit added, especially citrus, to give it a naturally tasty but mild flavor.

Next, stop reaching for diet foods made with artificial sweeteners and switch to a whole-food diet. Once you’ve made that change, you should consider leaning towards a diet that primarily includes plants to experience real and lasting weight loss.

In a study a colleague wrote about, one group of people eating a plant-based diet lost an average of 14 pounds in 16 weeks. They found that plant-based meals increased their metabolic rate, causing them to burn an extra 18.7% in calories after finishing. The group also experienced significant drops in overall fat and a substantial drop in visceral fat levels (the fat surrounding the organs).

Sources:

Calorie-free sweeteners can disrupt the brain’s appetite signals — Eureka Alert

Non-caloric sweetener effects on brain appetite regulation in individuals across varying body weights — Nature Metabolism

A Mediterranean Diet and Low-Fat Vegan Diet to Improve Body Weight and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Randomized, Cross-over Trial — Journal of the American Nutrition Association

The post When low-calorie sweeteners backfire: Increasing cravings & weight appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But we have a love-hate relationship with the sweet stuff that’s as hard to give up as any vice, even though the reasons to do so have been stacking up…

Just this year, an umbrella review — involving 73 meta-analyses and 8,500 research articles — linked excess sugar intake to no less than 45 serious health conditions, including stroke, heart disease and cancer.

The negative health impacts of sugar can also be quite surprising…

Take kidney stones — a painful problem that can plague one in ten of us at least once in our lifetime. And for a few very unlucky folks, they are recurrent.

But new insights into sugar’s role in the formation of kidney stones may provide some much-needed relief…

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Kidney stones 101

Kidney stones are hard pebble-like objects that can form inside your kidneys. They’re made of minerals and salts.

A stone can move around within your kidney. It can also move into the tube that connects your kidney to your bladder. Symptoms can be mild or strong and include:

• Intense pain in your side or back, below the ribs (your doctor might refer to it as renal colic)
• Pain in your groin and lower abdomen
• Pain when you pee
• Going to the bathroom more often than you usually do
• Pee that’s cloudy, pink, red, or brown, or smells bad
• Feeling like you need to pee all the time
• Fever and chills if you have an infection
• Nausea and vomiting
• Burning sensation when you pee
• Less urine when you do pee

The most common type of kidney stones is calcium stones. You could get this kind if you typically don’t drink enough water, if you sweat a lot and don’t replace the fluids you lose, eat a lot of oxalate-rich foods — or if you have a sweet tooth…

Sugar’s connection with kidney stones

Dr. David S. Goldfarb, co-director of the Kidney Stone Prevention Program at NYU Langone Health in New York City, notes that “there has long been evidence that sugar increases the amount of calcium in urine, and there have been multiple reasons why avoidance of sugar would be part of a diet encouraging kidney stone prevention.”

Yet kidney stones do not appear on that long list of adverse health consequences of eating sugar.

Dr. Shan Yin and colleagues had their suspicions and set out to determine whether added sugar is associated with kidney stones, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2007 to 2018.

In analyzing data from 28,303 adults (average age 48), they determined that those who consumed 25 percent or more of their daily calories from added sugar had an 88 percent higher chance of developing kidney stones, compared with those whose daily sugar calories are less than five percent.

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Eating to prevent kidney stones

Giving up sugar is not easy. But as you’ve just read, there are many good reasons to at least consider decreasing the amount in your diet — especially if it means forgoing the pain of kidney stones.

But there are a few other dietary tips that could help reduce your risk of kidney stones as well:

First, don’t avoid calcium, although it’s best to get your calcium from food, rather than from supplements.

According to kidney.org, calcium-rich foods, like yogurt and cheese, bind with oxalate (that natural compound in otherwise healthy plant-based foods) in the stomach and intestines before it moves to the kidneys. So, eating foods that contain calcium is a good way to help oxalates leave the body and not form stones.

Giving up oxalate-rich foods is not something you want to do either. These foods, including green leafy vegetables, beets, tea and cereal grains, are disease-fighting foods. Instead, eat a balanced diet so the calcium-rich foods and oxalate-rich foods can work together to promote health instead of hurt.

Lemonade is great drink for preventing kidney stones. It’s full of citrate, a natural inhibitor of kidney stone formation. If your urine doesn’t contain enough citrate, that could make you more prone to kidney stones. Just go extra-easy on the sugar content.

Carrying extra weight can also put a kidney stone target on your back. But be careful of extreme diets because they can worsen your risk for kidney stones. Often dairy is one of the first things dieters give up, but we’ve learned that’s not going to help you avoid kidney stones.

So there you have it a few good tips that add up to one major piece of advice: follow a well-rounded diet and eat less sugar.

Sources:

Sugar-Heavy Diet Linked to Development of Kidney Stones — MedPage Today

Association between added sugars and kidney stones in U.S. adults: data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007–2018 — Frontiers in Nutrition

The post Kidney stones: The sweet tooth connection appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

According to the American Heart Association, American adults consume an average of 77 grams of added sugar a day. That’s about 18 and a half teaspoons!

And all that sugar does our health no favors. One study found that sugar contributes to no less than 45 serious health conditions.

It’s no wonder many of us turn to sugar substitutes, like a very popular class of low-calorie sweeteners known as sugar alcohols.

Erythritol, xylitol, sorbitol and mannitol, are found naturally in small quantities in fruits and vegetables. Small amounts are even produced in the human body. So that would make them seem like a safe natural choice, right?

Unfortunately, they’re not without concern: You may remember reading here about erythritol’s link to sticky blood that clots more easily.

Now it turns out, erythritol isn’t the only sugar alcohol harboring that potential danger….

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Xylitol could encourage blood clots

The same research team that made the association between erythritol stroke risk has found a similar link with xylitol.

A lot of heart attacks and strokes happen that defy explanation in people without the typical known risk factors like diabetes — like high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol levels. And that’s what first prompted these researchers to look into sugar alcohols…

First, they decided to monitor the level of naturally occurring xylitol in the blood of more than 3,000 participants after overnight fasting.

Those whose xylitol levels put them in the top 25 percent of the study group had roughly double the risk for heart attack, stroke or death over the next three years compared with participants in the bottom 25 percent.

To understand the mechanism behind xylitol’s impact on cardiovascular risks, the researchers also:

• fed xylitol to mice;
• added it to blood and plasma samples in a lab;
• and gave a drink containing xylitol to 10 healthy volunteers.

In all three cases, xylitol appeared to activate platelets in the blood, which encourages blood clotting. Blood clots are the leading cause of heart attack and stroke.

Next, they intend to pursue research that will answer why naturally occurring xylitol is elevated in some people — and most importantly, how to lower it. In the meantime, they have a warning for us…

“We’re throwing this stuff into our food pyramid, and the very people who are most likely to be consuming it are the ones who are most likely to be at risk,” reported lead author Dr. Stanely Hazen, chair of cardiovascular and metabolic sciences at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, in an interview with NBC News.

The participants who had their xylitol levels measured were at high risk for or had documented heart disease, so if that sounds like you, by all means, you want to avoid sugar alcohol.

“All it takes is xylitol to interact with platelets alone for a very brief period of time, a matter of minutes, and the platelet becomes supercharged and much more prone to clot,” Hazen added.

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Use natural sweeteners instead

Because the study was observational, the researchers can’t state that xylitol was unequivocally the cause of heart attack or stroke. But there’s no denying there appears to be a link — so cutting down on sweeteners like xylitol and erythritol is the best thing to do.

When used as a sweetener, it’s in much higher concentrations than found in nature. For example, the amount of erythritol used in foods was 1,000-fold higher than what you’d find in nature.

Hazen is telling his patients to avoid consuming xylitol and other sugar alcohols. Instead, he recommends sweetening foods with small amounts of sugar, honey or fruit. Be very cautious of keto-friendly products that often use alcohol sweeteners.

He says it’s probably not dangerous to use toothpaste or gum, also commonly sweetened with sugar alcohols, since so little is ingested in these cases. Still, it’s probably better to be safe than sorry and avoid sugar alcohols — in any product — altogether.

You may wonder if using other artificial sweeteners instead of sugar alcohols is safe. Judging by the research, we would also recommend avoiding those. There are simply too many potential health issues involved to take the risk.

If you are a fan of stevia, a plant-based sweetener that is not a sugar alcohol, be sure to look at the ingredient list to be sure you are getting pure stevia. Some brands mix erythritol with it.

Sources:

Common sugar substitute linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke — NBC News

Xylitol is prothrombotic and associated with cardiovascular risk — European Heart Journal

The post The growing blood clot concern over low-calorie sweeteners appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

These days, I love having the occasional cookie with my afternoon tea, and I often reach for a square of chocolate after dinner.

I know sugar is not great for my health, but it doesn’t stop me from craving those sweet treats, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who gives in occasionally.

But the reasons for keeping that to a bare minimum are compelling, to say the least…

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Sweet tooth, sour health results

New research from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom took a look at food preferences of 180,000 volunteers within the UK Biobank and grouped them into three general profiles:

• Health-conscious: prefers fruits and vegetables over animal-based and sweet foods and has higher dietary fiber intake
• Omnivore: Likes most foods, including meats, fish and some vegetables, as well as sweets and desserts 
• Sweet tooth: Prefers sweet foods and sugary drinks; is less interested in healthier options like fruit and vegetables 

Then, researchers examined data on blood samples to measure 2,923 proteins — known for helping with functions including fighting infections to contracting muscles — and 168 metabolites — small molecules produced during digestion and other chemical processes in the body — that can indicate how well our body is functioning. 

By comparing these blood-based proteins and metabolites, the researchers were able to get a clearer picture of any biological differences between the three groups. And their findings were alarming…

The sweet tooth group was 31 percent more likely to have depression and had higher rates of diabetes and vascular heart conditions (or stroke) compared to the other two groups.

“The foods that you like or dislike seem to directly link to your health,” says Nophar Geifman, senior author of the study and a professor at the University of Surrey. “If your favorite foods are cakes, sweets and sugary drinks, then our study’s results suggest that this may have negative effects on your health.

“Processed sugar is a key factor in the diet of many, and these results are yet more evidence that, as a society, we should do all that we can to think before we eat, stressing that no one wants to tell people what to do, our job is just informing people,” Geifman adds.

The researchers also saw differences in standard blood biochemistry tests. The sweet tooth group had higher levels of:

• C reactive protein, a marker for inflammation.
• Glucose and poor lipid profiles, both strong warning signs for diabetes and heart disease.

By contrast, the health-conscious group had lower risks for heart failure, chronic kidney diseases and stroke. The omnivore group had moderate health risks.

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Tricking your sweet taste buds

On average in the UK, between 9 and 12.5 percent of an individual’s calories come from free sugar, or sugar that is added to food and drink. Cookies, buns, cakes, pastries and fruit pies are the biggest single contributors for adults; however, when taken together, sugary soft drinks and alcoholic drinks contribute the most to free sugar intake.

The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting calories from added sugars to 10 percent of daily intake, or about 12 teaspoons for a 2,000-calorie diet. Unfortunately, the average American gets about 18 and a half teaspoons of added sugars every day.

Cutting back on sugar can be tough for people with a sweet tooth, but there are ways to fool your taste buds into thinking they’re getting sugary satisfaction without actually consuming added sugars. The simplest way is to reach for fruit.

Berries are a great choice for a few reasons, but one that’s especially relevant to taming your sweet tooth…

A study from researchers at Loughborough University in England saw that munching on berries in the afternoon helped people consume significantly less food throughout the day. In their test, the researchers found that people who snacked on berries ate less at a later meal than folks who snacked on bars, cookies or other confectionery snacks.

Sources:

Having a sweet tooth is linked to higher risk of depression, diabetes, and stroke, study finds — EurekAlert!

Artificial intelligence driven definition of food preference endotypes in UK Biobank volunteers is associated with distinctive health outcomes and blood based metabolomic and proteomic profiles — Journal of Translational Medicine

Cut Down on Added Sugars — ODPHP

The post Stroke among sour health risks of a sweet tooth appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Of course, some things can take that risk even higher, like a diet high in saturated fats, not getting enough exercise, drinking alcohol and smoking. All of these could be lumped together as unhealthy lifestyle habits.

But all of us know someone seemingly hit by a stroke entirely out of left field. Or was it?

As time passes, science is revealing more about things we assume are inconsequential, but have a surprising impact on stroke risk.

This will have you watching what you put in your cup much more closely…

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Soda and fruit drinks strongly linked with increased stroke risk

An analysis of findings from the INTERSTROKE project shows that frequent consumption of fizzy drinks and fruit drinks and too much coffee are associated with an increased risk of stroke.

INTERSTROKE is one of the most significant international studies of risk factors for stroke, involving almost 27,000 people in 27 countries, including nearly 13,500 people who have already experienced their first stroke.

An international group of scientists looked at the consumption of these drinks as it relates to stroke risk. Here are their main findings:

• Fizzy drinks (think soda), including both sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened options, were linked with a 22 percent increased chance of stroke. After two or more of these drinks a day, that risk increases even more sharply.
• Fruit juice drinks were linked with a 37% increase in the chance of stroke due to brain bleeding (intracranial hemorrhage). With two of these drinks a day, the risk triples. This risk was greater for women than for men.

Too much coffee also increases risk

As far as coffee consumption, their findings showed that drinking more than four cups of coffee a day increased the chance of stroke by 37 percent, although there was no risk associated with lower intakes of coffee.

Drinking tea was found to have the opposite effect. It was associated with decreasing stroke risk by 18 to 20 percent.

And the results were even more specific in terms of which tea you drink and what you put in it:

• Drinking 3-4 cups of black tea daily (think Breakfast or Earl Grey teas) was linked to a 29 percent lower stroke risk.
• Green or herbal teas were found to be almost as effective, reducing stroke risk by 27 percent.
• Adding milk may reduce or block the beneficial effects of antioxidants found in tea. In fact, the reduced chance of stroke from drinking tea was lost for those who added milk.

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How to recognize a stroke

One of the risk factors for stroke is older age. But in recent years, strokes in people under 65 have increased by 15 percent. And I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the fastest growing group with type 2 diabetes are those aged 45 to 64.

The connection could be that when insulin doesn’t function properly, blood sugar levels rise, damaging blood vessels and making them stiff and ripe to form blood clots.

But turning to foods and especially drinks sweetened with sugar alternatives is not the answer. Those sweeteners, like xylitol and erythritol, promote blood clot formation.

It’s a safe bet to reach for water and safer options, such as modest amounts of coffee and tea, as pointed out in the INTERSTROKE study.

Remember, when a stroke strikes, minutes really do count. Every minute could spell the difference between recovery and permanent disablement, or death.

To remember the signs of a stroke with the acronym B.E.F.A.S.T.:

B – balance – trouble with balance or coordination

E – eyes – sudden blurred, double, or lost vision in one or both eyes

F – face – one side of the face is drooping

A – arms – weakness in one arm, which drifts down when both arms are raised

S – speech – slurred or hard-to-understand speech, or the inability to speak at all

T – time to get help – if you notice any of these symptoms, call 911 immediately

Sources:

Frequent fizzy or fruit drinks and high coffee consumption linked to higher stroke risk – Eureka Alert

Carbonated Beverage, Fruit Drink, and Water Consumption and Risk of Acute Stroke: the INTERSTROKE Case-Control Study – Journal of Stroke

B.E. F.A.S.T. to Spot a Stroke – universityhealth.com

The post The good and the bad: Drinks that impact stroke risk appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

These low-calorie or no-calorie substitutes are often recommended in dietary guidelines, especially for individuals with cardiometabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

However, the long-term effects of these sweeteners on heart health have not been thoroughly evaluated.  A recent study has shed light on the potential risks associated with one such sweetener: xylitol.

What is xylitol?

Xylitol is a type of sugar alcohol commonly used as a low-calorie sweetener and sugar substitute. It occurs naturally in very small amounts in various fruits and vegetables and is also produced in our bodies as part of normal metabolism.

For use in food production, xylitol can be made by exposing corn fiber to certain fungal strains or it can be chemically extracted from certain wood species and agricultural waste. 

Xylitol is widely used in sugar-free gum, mints, and other products due to its sweetness and ability to prevent tooth decay through the unique effects of xylitol on oral bacteria, saliva production, and acid levels in the mouth.

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Why is xylitol used?

Xylitol is popular among those looking to reduce calorie intake and manage blood sugar levels. It provides the sweetness of sugar without the associated calories or glycemic load, making it a suitable alternative for people with poor blood sugar control.

As another bonus, xylitol delivers some dental benefits, as outlined above.  What could possibly go wrong?

New safety concerns

A recent study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic has raised concerns about the potential cardiovascular risks associated with xylitol. This research follows an earlier study that linked another sugar alcohol, erythritol, to an increased risk of heart disease.

For xylitol, researchers examined data from over 2,000 individuals and found that those with the highest levels of this sugar alcohol in their blood were about 50% more likely to experience a cardiovascular event, such as heart attack or stroke, over the next three years as compared to those with the lowest levels.

The study also explored how xylitol affects blood components called platelets, which play a crucial role in blood clotting. When human platelets were exposed to xylitol, they became more sensitive to clotting signals, similar to the effects observed with erythritol. This increased sensitivity to clotting signals can lead to faster blood clot formation and artery blockage, as demonstrated in experiments with mice.

Further tests involving 10 healthy individuals drinking a xylitol-sweetened beverage, showed that blood xylitol levels spiked 1,000-fold within 30 minutes of consumption and returned to baseline after 4 to 6 hours.

During this period, platelets were more sensitive to blood clotting signals, suggesting that xylitol consumption could have immediate negative effects on cardiovascular health.

The findings from this study indicate that xylitol, like erythritol, may pose cardiovascular health risk by promoting blood clot formation.

This potential risk underscores the need for further safety studies on sugar alcohols used as artificial sweeteners. While xylitol is widely regarded as a healthier alternative to sugar, there’s no question that its potential impact on heart health warrants careful consideration and more comprehensive research.  

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As a general rule, I try to avoid consuming artificial sweeteners.  While I don’t think the occasional breath mint or piece of sugar-free gum is a problem, I always look for artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols in the ingredient list of every food and beverage product I’m considering at the grocery store – and put the item back on the shelf if I find any lurking in there. 

An important note – sugar alcohols like xylitol and erythritol do not need to be listed as sugars or added sugars on a nutrition facts panel.  That means:

1. The food label might be screaming “low sugar” or “no added sugar” but still be full of ingredients that are counterproductive to health, and…
2. The only way to know if there’s artificial sweeteners in the food is to painstakingly scour the ingredient list.

Natural ways to satisfy your sweet tooth

Craving something sweet without the sugar rush? Opt for naturally sweet foods that also pack a nutritional punch and plenty of fiber. Fresh fruits like grapes, pineapples, mangoes, bananas, melons, cherries, apples, pears, plums, peaches, figs, and even cherry tomatoes can be satisfyingly sweet.

Dried fruits such as raisins, dates, and apricots often taste even sweeter than candy.  

And here’s the best part – just because they are naturally sweet and naturally high in sugar does not mean fruits will spike your blood sugar levels!  Nature designed fruit to be sweet so we would want to eat it — and get the fiber, vitamins and phytonutrients we need to keep us healthy.  Nature did not design fruit to make us sick.

At Step One Foods, our products get their sweetness from whole ingredients like dates, raisins, bananas, and even carrots.  We never add fake sugars or sugar alcohols.  Because we believe you shouldn’t have to scour ingredient lists to protect your health.

The post The not-so-sweet stroke danger of two popular sweeteners appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Yet, it seems that almost every other week we’re hearing more about how bad these foods are for our health — and how they can shorten our lifespans.

I get it. I’m sure you get it, too. Ultraprocessed foods are, as they say, “of the devil.” Eating these foods has been associated with an early risk of death. Period.

But avoiding these foods is no easy task. They fill the grocery store shelves and, let’s face it, make life easier when putting food on the table.

Finally, some researchers have taken a different approach…

They’ve taken a 30-year look at ultra-processed foods and their health impacts — and have identified those that can do us the most harm.

At least this gives us a starting point to begin removing the most dangerous foods from our diets…

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The two worst offenders

An international team of researchers analyzed data from more than 100,000 health professionals in the United States with no history of cancer, cardiovascular disease or diabetes. The participants provided information on their health and lifestyle habits every two years for 32 years, and every four years they completed a detailed food questionnaire.

The group eating the least ultraprocessed food consumed an average of three servings a day, while the group eating the most averaged seven servings a day.

According to the results, those who ate the most ultraprocessed food had a 4 percent higher risk of death from any cause, including a 9 percent higher risk of neurodegenerative death.

But here’s where the really helpful information comes in…

Different ultraprocessed foods demonstrated different impacts. The researchers note that processed meat and sweetened beverages, whether sugar is used or artificial sweeteners, showed a higher correlation with these negative outcomes than other ultraprocessed food categories.

Lead study author Dr. Mingyang Song, associate professor of clinical epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says he wouldn’t necessarily advise a full-scale rejection of all ultraprocessed foods.

“Cereals, whole grain breads, for example, they are also considered ultraprocessed food, but they contain various beneficial nutrients like fiber, vitamins and minerals,” he said in an interview with CNN.

“On the other hand, I do think people should try to avoid or limit the consumption of certain ultraprocessed foods, such as processed meat, sugar-sweetened beverages and also potentially artificially sweetened beverages.”

He adds that researchers also found the most important factor to reducing risk of death is overall diet quality.

“If people maintain a generally healthy diet, I don’t think they need to be scared or freaked out. The overall dietary pattern is still the predominant factor determining the health outcomes.”

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Making smart food choices less challenging

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines ultraprocessed foods at those containing ingredients “never or rarely used in kitchens or classes of additives whose function is to make the final product palatable or more appealing.”

A big clue to identifying those ingredients is that most of them are almost unpronounceable. That makes them easy to find if you’re a food label reader.

But thanks to this recent research, getting started on the worst offenders — processed meat and sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened beverages — may be much less challenging…

Ultraprocessed meats are not typically found in the butcher section of the grocery store. They look very different from their original meat source and include lunch meat, hotdogs, bacon, sausage, jerky, canned meat and any other meat that has been processed to change its shape, flavor and freshness.

Cutting out sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened beverages may be hard on your habit if you are used to consuming them, but otherwise easy to avoid. Skipping soda, energy drinks, sweet tea and fruit juice is as simple as no longer buying them at a store.

If you make your own tea at home, for example, at least you can have much more control over the amount of real sugar you might add, versus the massive amount a store-bought brand will contain. Same for fruit juice that can be made at home with the help of a juicer or blender and is naturally sweet.

Be especially wary of artificial sweeteners which are coming under fire for links to cancer, and even low-calorie sweeteners made from naturally-occurring sugar alcohols have the potential to cause blood clots.

Be sure to take what Dr. Song says about a healthy diet to heart. By far one diet continually comes out on top for promoting health — and being easy to follow and stick to. That would be the Mediterranean diet.

Sources:

Here are the ultraprocessed foods you most need to avoid, according to a 30-year study — CNN

Association of ultra-processed food consumption with all cause and cause specific mortality: population based cohort study — The BMJ

Ultra-processed foods, diet quality, and health using the NOVA classification system — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

The post The 2 worst ultraprocessed foods you should ditch now appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Previous research has noted associations between the consumption of added sugars and 45 negative health outcomes — among them diabetes, obesity, gout, cancer, high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.

Some people substitute artificial sweeteners for sugar. But those sweeteners carry their own health risks, including type 2 diabetes, weight gain, dementia, heart disease, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease and even colon cancer.

Now, investigators may be adding another condition to those lists….

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Drinking sweetened beverages could cause AFib

Atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, increases the risk of stroke by five-fold. According to the American Heart Association, more than 12 million people are expected to have AFib by 2030.

A team of researchers in China reviewed genetic data and data from dietary questionnaires for more than 200,000 adults who were free of atrial fibrillation (AFib) at the time they enrolled in the UK Biobank. During the nearly 10-year follow-up period, 9,362 cases of AFib occurred among the study participants.

The researchers observed that people who drank two liters or more of sugar-sweetened beverages per week had a 10 percent higher risk of AFib. And those who drank a similar amount of artificially sweetened beverages saw their risk of AFib increase by 20 percent.

If you think two liters a week sounds like a lot, it’s the equivalent of drinking one 12-ounce can of regular or diet soda each day for 6 days a week.

And if you smoke, you can see the AFib risk go even higher…

Smokers who consumed more than two liters per week of sugar-sweetened drinks had a 31 percent increased risk of AFib. There was no significantly higher risk for former smokers or people who never smoked.

By contrast, people who reported drinking one liter or less of pure juice, such as 100 percent orange or vegetable juice, each week had an 8 percent lower risk of AFib.

Those who consumed more artificially sweetened drinks were more likely to be female, younger, have a higher body mass index (BMI) and a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Those who drank more sugar-sweetened beverages were more likely to be male, younger, have a higher BMI and prevalence of heart disease and lower socioeconomic status.

Also, those who consumed sugar-sweetened drinks and pure juice were more likely to have a higher intake of total sugar than those who drank artificially sweetened beverages.

Lead study author Dr. Ningjian Wang, a researcher at the Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in Shanghai, China, says the mechanisms linking sweetened beverages and AFib risk are still unclear. However, there are several possible explanations, including insulin resistance and the body’s response to different sweeteners.

Wang cautions the study’s findings can’t definitively conclude that these beverages pose more health risk than others because of the complexity of people’s diets, including the fact that some people may drink more than one type of beverage.

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Quench thirst, not your sweet tooth

This study adds to the body of evidence that both sugar and artificial sweeteners are risky for heart health.

“We still need more research on these beverages to confirm these findings and to fully understand all the health consequences on heart disease and other health conditions,” says Kris-Etherton, an emeritus professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State University who was a co-author of the AHA’s science advisory on artificial sweeteners. “In the meantime, water is the best choice, and, based on this study, no- and low-calorie sweetened beverages should be limited or avoided.”

If you have difficulty drinking plain water, try water infused with fruit and/or herbs.If you miss the carbonation from soda, you can drink plain sparkling water instead.

Remember that the body responds to most natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup and agave the way it responds to sugar, so switching to those likely won’t make a difference health-wise. And if you choose the natural sweetener stevia, make sure it’s 100% pure stevia extract. Otherwise it likely contains erythritol, which is linked to increased blood clotting.

Unsweetened tea is another option. If you prefer a little flavor, consider herbal teas like peppermint, ginger, hibiscus or rooibos tea. I enjoy them iced with a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime. No sweetener needed!

Sources:

Sweetened drinks linked to atrial fibrillation risk — EurekAlert!

Sweetened Beverages, Genetic Susceptibility, and Incident Atrial Fibrillation: A Prospective Cohort Study — Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology

The post Real or artificial: The sweet drinks linked to AFib appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I always feel a little guilty when I snack outside of mealtimes. But I’m far from alone. According to one survey, nearly 3 in 4 Americans report snacking at least once a day, most frequently in the afternoon.

Snacking in and of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, we don’t always choose the healthiest options as the day goes on. The same survey found people’s snacking choices tend to get less healthy later in the day, with 40 percent of people who snack in the evening picking savory or salty snacks and 38 percent opting for candy, chocolate or other sweet treats.

But if we eat healthy most of the time, having an occasional indulgent snack should be fine, right?

Not so fast…

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Unhealthy snacking can tank otherwise healthy eating habits

Researchers in the U.K. analyzed the snacking habits of 854 people from the ZOE PREDICT study.

Not surprisingly, results found that 95 percent of those in the study snacked. Their average daily intake was 2.28 snacks a day, and snacking contributed 24 percent of their daily energy intake.

But the quality of those snacks made a bigger difference than anyone probably expected to see…

People who frequently ate high-quality snacks like nuts and fresh fruit were more likely to have a healthy weight compared not only to those who snacked on unhealthy foods — but also to those who didn’t snack at all. Healthy snacks also resulted in better metabolic health and reduced hunger.

However, 26 percent of participants reported eating healthy main meals and poor-quality snacks like highly processed foods and sugary treats. These unhealthy snacks left people feeling hungry and were linked with…

• higher BMI;
• greater visceral fat mass;
• and higher post-meal triglycerides.

All these markers are associated with metabolic diseases such as stroke, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

The most popular snacks were cookies, fruit, nuts and seeds, cheese and butter, cakes and pies and granola or cereal bars. Cakes and pies contributed the most to calorie intake, followed by breakfast cereals, ice cream and frozen dairy desserts, donuts and pastries, candy, cookies and brownies and nuts and seeds.

Also, snacking after 9 p.m. was deemed to have the absolute worst effects. Cheating this late in the evening was connected with poorer blood markers compared with all other snacking times. Those who snacked at this time also tended to eat energy-dense foods high in fat and sugar.

“This study contributes to the existing literature that food quality is the driving factor in positive health outcomes from food,” says Dr. Kate Bermingham from King’s College London and senior scientist at ZOE. “Making sure we eat a balanced diet of fruit, vegetables, protein and legumes is the best way to improve your health.”

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What to snack on, and when

Bottom line: if you’re going to be a snacker, it’s best to reach for something healthy.

For instance, instead of a packet of potato chips, take a handful of crunchy almonds, which studies show can reduce weight, lower cholesterol and slash heart disease risk by 32 percent.

If you’re craving a late-night bowl of ice cream, swap it out for a small bowl of cottage cheese instead. I know it sounds weird, but cottage cheese before bedtime can increase your metabolic rate and improve muscle recovery.

A handful of berries can put you back in control of your cravings — and they are great atop cottage cheese.

Another good way to keep your snacking options healthy is to snack earlier in the day when you’re more likely to make good choices. According to the survey I mentioned earlier, 52 percent of respondents reported having at least one snack in the morning, with a majority (43 percent) of those morning snackers choosing to eat fruit instead of pastries or other less-healthy options.

Sources:

1. A quarter of people are undoing the benefits of healthy meals by unhealthy snacking — EurekAlert!

2. 2022 Food and Health Survey Spotlight: Snacking — Food Insight

The post Snacks that come with a license to cheat appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Holiday baking is going into full swing. That means lots of butter and sugar, right?

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know that it isn’t the butter that will kill you. It’s the sugar.

Despite the attempts of the sugar industry and the producers of sweet drinks and snacks, we know that too much sugar can double your chances of a fatal heart attack.

But what about all those traditional holiday treats? Do we just need to skip them and eat vegetables? Are we gifting our friends and family with a heart attack when we hand over that tin of Christmas or Chanukah cookies?

Luckily, there are healthy and natural substitutes for white sugar that will go down just as sweet, if not sweeter, and even add some health benefits to those treats! Her are six of them…

1. Raw honey

This one actually isn’t for baking or cooking. But it is a great sugar substitute, not only in tea, but in coffee, too! One tip: wait until your drink isn’t red-hot to add raw honey, so it retains some of its great nutritional value.

Raw honey is available from local farmers markets and local beekeepers, if you’re lucky enough to have one (health food stores, too). It’s rich in Vitamins B6, riboflavin and niacin, as well as iron, zinc, potassium, calcium and phosphorous.

Read: 5 Powerful benefits of Manuka honey (slideshow)

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2. Stevia

Used in its native South America to support healthy blood sugar levels, stevia is the ideal sugar substitute. The American Diabetes Association includes stevia on its list of recommended sugar substitutes.

Stevioside, the element in the stevia plant’s leaves that makes it sweet (200 times sweeter than sugar!) is available in drops as well as in a sugar-like form.

It’s less bulky than sugar, so if you use it for baking, just replace some of that bulk with 1/3 to ½ cup of fresh fruit puree or yogurt.

Only use 100 percent pure stevia with no fillers, being especially careful to avoid erythritol.

Read: 4 ways this sweetener beats back metabolic syndrome

3. Dates

Here’s one you’ve probably not thought of using instead of sugar in your baking. Mineral-rich dates are a great way to cut sugar out of those cookies! Dates are high in potassium, magnesium, copper and iron.

Make a date paste by soaking Medjool dates in hot water until they’re soft, and blend them with a spoonful of the liquid until you have something sweet that’s the consistency of peanut butter.

Read: 3 dried fruits that fight cancer, constipation and old age

4. Coconut sugar

The health benefits of coconut water are well known. Now, coconut sugar is just as readily available, and can be directly substituted for sugar in all your recipes. It’s just a little coarser than cane sugar.

Coconut sugar is extracted sap from the blooms of the coconut that’s been heated and evaporated, leaving coconut sugar.

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5. Blackstrap molasses

This is perhaps the most nutritious sugar substitute of all. Organic blackstrap molasses is rich in copper, calcium, iron, potassium, manganese, selenium and vitamin B6. It has a higher antioxidant content than either refined sugar or dates.

Molasses can be an acquired taste, and not everyone enjoys it straight-up on toast or in cereal. But you can make a brown sugar alternative for baking. Use two tablespoons of molasses for each ½ cup of sugar called for (use coconut sugar). Pulse the mixture in a food processor until it’s the consistency of brown sugar.

Read: The sweet multi-vitamin in a tablespoon

6. Monk fruit sweetener

Here’s one that’s only recently become more available.

Monk fruit has been used as a sweetener for centuries in Asia, and is becoming easier to find in grocery stores here in the United States. The fruit itself has been shown to fight inflammation and infection, and to work as a natural antihistamine.

Monk fruit sweetener is roughly 200 times sweeter than sugar, so a little goes a long way. Look for 100 percent monk fruit. Some brands use erythritol as a filler.

Sources:

1. Phenolic content, antioxidant and antibacterial activity of selected natural sweeteners available on the Polish market — Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part B
2. Anti-inflammatory activities of mogrosides from Momordica grosvenori in murine macrophages and a murine ear edema model — Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
3. Effect of Lo Han Kuo (Siraitia grosvenori Swingle) on nasal rubbing and scratching behavior in ICR mice — Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin

The post 6 ways to bake heart-healthy holiday sweets appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

By substituting artificial sweeteners for sugar in your diet, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Current research shows that one sweetener in particular actually increases body fat and may lead to other serious health concerns.

So why are major health organizations still recommending the use of this sweetener?

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Aspartame: Why it doesn’t work

University of Minnesota Medical School and School of Public Health researchers led a 2-year-long study on the relationship between dietary intake and cardiovascular disease risk factors.

In the process, they found that long-term consumption of aspartame was linked to increased fat stores in the abdomen and fat within muscle.

Aspartame is a non-nutritive sweetener (NNS) sold under the names Equal, Nutrasweet and Sugar Twin.

It is found in products including:

• Zero-sugar or diet sodas, including Diet Coke
• Sugar-free gums, such as Trident gum
• Diet drink mixes, including Crystal Light
• Reduced-sugar condiments, such as Log Cabin Sugar-Free Syrup
• Sugar-free gelatin like Sugar-free Jell-O

So why does aspartame actually make you gain fat?

The study authors pose the following explanation.

When aspartame metabolizes, it suppresses the action of intestinal alkaline phosphatase, an enzyme that, among other things, maintains gut homeostasis.

And poor gut health contributes to obesity (as well as upping your risk for diabetes, Parkinson’s, and other serious diseases).

Yet both the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association still recommend the use of artificial sweeteners like aspartame in place of sugar.

Ever heard the expression, “Out of the frying pan, into the fire”? It sure applies here.

Oh, and let’s not forget it’s “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

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Healthier ways to “get sweet”

This study also looked at the harm done by diet sodas.

Many of them are sweetened with aspartame, and actually increase your waist size.

They also contribute to metabolic syndrome.

But the plant-based sweetener stevia can fight metabolic syndrome!

According to research, the stevia rebaudiana plant is a natural for treating obesity, hypertension and elevated blood sugar and lipids.

Another one to try is monk fruit extract. Monk fruit is a type of fruit native to Southeast Asia. It’s often used to make a natural sweetener called monk fruit extract.

Monk fruit contains antioxidant compounds known as mogrosides, which studies have shown may reduce markers of inflammation.

If you switch to stevia or monk fruit, take care to be sure erythritol is not used as a filler. Erythritol is linked to sticky blood and stroke.

If you’re looking to sweeten plain yogurt or oatmeal, dried fruits are a good choice. Pitted dates, figs, raisins, and any other dried fruit can be blended in a food processor for a smooth sweetener to mix into your food.

Sources:

Study links long-term artificial sweetener intake to increased body fat adipose tissue volume — Science Daily

Long-term aspartame and saccharin intakes are related to greater volumes of visceral, intermuscular, and subcutaneous adipose tissue: the CARDIA study — International Journal of Obesity

WHO advises not to use non-sugar sweeteners for weight control in newly released guideline — World Health Organization

WHO questions safety of aspartame. Here’s a list of popular foods, beverages with the sweetener. — CBS News

The post Long-term use of popular fake sugar increases belly fat appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

For that reason, I can’t say I’ve ever been more excited for fall to come and cool things down. In fact, I’m even looking forward to the colder temperatures winter will bring.

But I’m not looking forward to the “comfort food” struggle — that desire to seek out high-energy foods to make the long winter ahead bearable. For our ancestors, it may have been a necessity to help keep warm, but for us, it’s an invitation to trouble…

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From sugar high to hibernation

Fructose is the natural substance that makes fruit sweet. But in today’s Western society, most fructose is consumed as table sugar and high fructose corn syrup. These two ingredients are very different from the nutrients ingested by our ancestors as they prepared for the lean winter months.

Researchers believe that fructose works differently than other nutrients by lowering the body’s active energy, damaging mitochondria. Studies show fructose stimulates food intake and lowers resting energy metabolism in much the same way it does in an animal preparing for hibernation.

That means it leads to weight gain and obesity. But that’s not all. Insulin resistance, high blood pressure, fatty liver and other metabolic-related issues are more likely when we consume too much fructose.

While fructose’s contribution to obesity is well-known, a team of researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus decided to use a large amount of research to explore in depth the exact role fructose plays in developing obesity by looking to nature. And what they discovered was fascinating…

The impact of fructose on our “survival switch”

The researchers found the effect of fructose mediates this “survival switch.” Unlike glucose, which primarily serves to provide immediate fuel to the body, fructose’s primary function is to aid in the storage of fuel.

“We determine a recently discovered function of fructose in survival that stores fuel in case resources become scarce,” says Dr. Richard Johnson, professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and study lead author. “This is known as the ‘survival switch.’”

The study also suggests that two events occur that convert fructose’s fuel-protective pathway into one that causes disease. The first is the inhibition of “thrifty genes” that may significantly amplify the ability of fructose to induce metabolic syndrome. And the second is the marked increase in foods that either contain or produce fructose.

The researchers propose that these two events have led the “survival switch” to become overactivated, which is driving both obesity and many of the metabolic diseases affecting people today.

“This work puts together in one place the full argument for how a particular carbohydrate, fructose, might have a central role in driving obesity and diabetes,” Johnson says.

“This is a very exciting, new hypothesis that unites other hypotheses to point to the specific role fructose plays in the onset of obesity,” he adds. “And we can trace it back to our ancestors, as well as learn from hibernating animals, exactly how fructose causes this ‘switch’ within us.”

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Fruit isn’t the problem

Often when we talk about fructose and avoiding sugars, we get questions about fruit.

So let me clarify here that fruit is not the problem. In addition to naturally occurring fructose, fruit comes with antioxidants and fiber that make them essential to a well-rounded diet.

Plus, the phytonutrients in fruit help inhibit the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream, so you don’t get the sugar spike you do from industrial forms of fructose like sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

But fructose in the absence of those special nutrients found in fruit, supersizes the way your gut absorbs fat and calories.

So, the change that needs to be made is in the number of sugar-sweetened beverages and processed foods and snacks we consume. These are sources of added sugars.

By cutting out all sodas and other beverages sweetened with added sugars or high-fructose corn syrup, you’ll go a long way toward bringing down your fructose consumption. Also, try to skip candy, ice cream, sweetened yogurt and processed baked goods — or else keep them only to very special occasions.

But it isn’t just the obvious sources we need to watch for. I’ve become an avid reader of labels so that I can avoid the hidden sources of sugar on grocery shelves.

For instance, did you know that ketchup can have as much as a teaspoon of sugar in a single serving? And even many supposedly healthy “organic” ketchup brands contain sugar.

Other unexpected sources of sugar include salad dressings, pasta sauce, premade soups, frozen meals and pizzas, bread, barbecue sauce and baked beans.

Next time you’re shopping, keep an eye out for the words “added sugar,” “high fructose corn syrup,” and “fructose” so you can dodge this health destroyer.

Sources:

Fructose Intake Can Lead to Obesity in Humans, Just Like in Hibernating Animals, CU Researchers Say — University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The fructose survival hypothesis for obesity — Philosophical Transactions

If Fructose Is Bad, What About Fruit? — NutritionFacts.org

The post The ‘survival switch’ fructose flips to make us fat appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Yet the FDA continues to insist these sweeteners are safe when consumed in moderation. In fact, they’ve set an acceptable daily intake for each of the seven artificial sweeteners approved for use in the United States. Most of these limits are far beyond the amount we would normally consume every day.

It’s no wonder people don’t know if they’re supposed to avoid these sweeteners. And a recent declaration by a leading global health body has only made things murkier…

WHO indicates aspartame may cause cancer

For the first time, the artificial sweetener aspartame has been listed as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The decision was based on what the WHO refers to as “limited evidence for cancer in humans (specifically for hepatocellular carcinoma, which is a type of liver cancer).” The agency also notes “limited evidence for cancer in experimental animals as well as limited evidence related to the possible mechanisms for causing cancer.”

Aspartame may be linked to cancer — seems pretty clear-cut, right?

But this is where it gets confusing…

Despite the IARC listing, another WHO arm, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), has reaffirmed its acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 40 mg per kg body weight for aspartame.

What that means is that if a can of diet soft drink contains 200 to 300 mg of aspartame, an adult weighing 70 kg would need to consume more than 9 to 14 cans per day to exceed the ADI.

And the FDA has gone its own way on the matter. The FDA says it disagrees with the IARC’s conclusion, noting it has reviewed the information included in the IARC review and identified “significant shortcomings” in the studies on which the decision relied. The FDA also referenced JECFA’s failure to raise safety concerns for aspartame under current levels of use and its choice not to change the ADI for the sweetener.

With that in mind, the FDA continues to recommend its own ADI for aspartame, which at 50 mg per kg of body weight is higher than JECFA’s.

Of course, the diet soda example above assumes people aren’t getting aspartame from other sources. And these days, we can’t assume that at all….

Aspartame is everywhere

According to the Calorie Control Council, aspartame is found in roughly 6,000 products worldwide ranging from carbonated and powdered soft drinks to condiments to candy, chewing gum and other prepackaged sweet treats. It can even be found in toothpaste and some pharmaceuticals such as vitamins and sugar-free cough drops.

Here are just some of the products aspartame may be hiding in:

• Diet soda
• Chewable vitamins and medicines
• Sports drinks
• Instant hot cocoa
• Flavored water
• Cereal
• Nutritional bars
• Jelly
• Ketchup
• Yogurt
• Pudding
• Microwavable popcorn
• Syrup
• Pedialyte
• Bread, English muffins and other baked goods

Basically, if the product is labeled “diet,” “reduced calorie” or “sugar-free,” it likely contains aspartame or some other artificial sweetener.

Given how surrounded we are by aspartame, even if you aren’t chugging 9 cans of diet soda every day, you may be closer to hitting the ADI than you think.

But what if you aren’t? Isn’t having an occasional diet soda or using aspartame-sweetened toothpaste okay?

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not be ingesting something that might possibly cause cancer down the road. Better to avoid aspartame completely than chance even a small amount.

Thankfully, as is the case with all food products, manufacturers are required to list aspartame on the label, making it easy to find — and avoid.

For those who are watching their weight and can’t imagine going without their favorite no-calorie sweetener, you may want to try natural sweeteners like stevia. Just make sure the stevia products you consume don’t also contain erythritol, which has been linked to higher risk of cardiovascular problems.

Sources:

Aspartame hazard and risk assessment results released — World Health Organization

Aspartame and Other Sweeteners in Food — U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Aspartame, cancer and other health risks: What you need to know — CNN

Aspartame — Calorie Control Council

The post It’s official: Aspartame could cause cancer appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Sold under the name Splenda, sucralose has been linked to an increase in malignant tumors in mice. Research also shows sucralose upsets the balance of the gut microbiome, disrupts blood sugar levels and promotes inflammation.

Other symptoms reported by people who consume sucralose include:

• Red, itchy skin
• Wheezing and breathing problems
• Swelling of face, lips and tongue
• Bloating and stomach pain
• Anxiety, dizziness and depression

As if that weren’t bad enough, sucralose also has been found to increase the risk of coronary heart disease, a condition that makes heart attack more likely.

So why is it that sucralose appears to be nothing but trouble health-wise? Investigators may have found an answer — and it’s pretty alarming….

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Sucralose could damage DNA

In a previous study, researchers discovered that after sucralose is ingested, several fat-soluble compounds are produced in the gut. One of these compounds is sucralose-6-acetate.

Now, a study by the same research team has determined that sucralose-6-acetate is what’s known as “genotoxic.”

In other words, the chemical breaks up DNA in the cells exposed to it.

What’s worse, the researchers found trace amounts of sucralose-6-acetate in the sucralose itself, not just as a byproduct of sucralose consumption.

“To put this in context, the European Food Safety Authority has a threshold of toxicological concern for all genotoxic substances of 0.15 micrograms per person per day. Our work suggests that the trace amounts of sucralose-6-acetate in a single, daily sucralose-sweetened drink exceed that threshold,” says Susan Schiffman, corresponding author of the study and an adjunct professor in the joint department of biomedical engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“And that’s not even accounting for the amount of sucralose-6-acetate produced as metabolites after people consume sucralose,” Schiffman adds.

Sucralose chemical could alter gut composition

For the study, the researchers exposed human blood cells and gut tissues to sucralose-6-acetate in lab tests.

“When we exposed sucralose and sucralose-6-acetate to gut epithelial tissues — the tissue that lines your gut wall — we found that both chemicals cause ‘leaky gut,’” Schiffman says. “Basically, they make the wall of the gut more permeable. The chemicals damage the ‘tight junctions,’ or interfaces, where cells in the gut wall connect to each other.”

What that means is with a leaky gut, things that would normally be flushed out of the body in its waste are instead leaking out of the gut into the bloodstream, Schiffman adds.

When looking at the genetic activity of the gut cells exposed to sucralose-6-acetate, the team found increased activity in genes related to oxidative stress, inflammation and cancer.

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What to eat instead of sucralose

Schiffman says their work raises a host of concerns about the potential health effects of sucralose and its metabolites.

“It’s time to revisit the safety and regulatory status of sucralose because the evidence is mounting that it carries significant risks,” she says. “If nothing else, I encourage people to avoid products containing sucralose. It’s something you should not be eating.”

Now, you may think that having an occasional diet soda is probably okay. However, bear in mind that sucralose-6-acetate is fat-soluble, meaning it could be stored in the body’s fat long after you consume it. Just imagine this chemical terrorist lurking in your cells and destroying your DNA — all after just one drink!

It’s best to replace your diet soda fix with a healthy unsweetened beverage like tea, coffee or plain water. They’ll all keep you hydrated, and with tea and coffee you’ll be getting additional health benefits as well.

If you absolutely must have soda and you want it to be calorie-free, then try soda naturally sweetened with stevia. Just make sure the soda in question uses 100% stevia that’s free of bulking agents like erythritol, which, like sucralose, should be avoided at all costs.

Sources:

1. Chemical Found in Common Sweetener Damages DNA — NC State University

2. Toxicological and pharmacokinetic properties of sucralose-6-acetate and its parent sucralose: in vitro screening assays — Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health

The post The ‘genotoxic’ sweetener that damages your DNA appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But even though we know they’re bad for our health, we still crave them.

So much so that you might even think that sugar hijacks your brain, causing you to eat more and more of it.

Well, according to the latest research, you’d be correct.

Eating fats and sugars just makes you eat more

“Our tendency to eat high-fat and high-sugar foods, the so-called Western diet, could be innate or develop as a result of being overweight. But we think that the brain learns this preference,” says Dr. Sharmili Edwin Thanarajah of the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research, Cologne, Germany.

Along with other scientists from the Institute, Dr. Thanarajah tested her hypothesis that eating high-sugar and high-fat foods changes our brain in ways that make us eat more of those foods instead of choosing healthier ones.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers gave one group of volunteers a small pudding containing a lot of fat and sugar once a day for eight weeks, in addition to their regular diet.

They measured volunteers’ brain activity before and during the eight-week period.

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Brain changes were observed in the group that ate the puddings. Specifically, it activated the dopaminergic system, the region in the brain responsible for motivation and reward.

Dr. Marc Tittgemeyer, the study’s lead author, explains:

“Our measurements of brain activity showed that the brain rewires itself through the consumption of [fat and sugars]. It subconsciously learns to prefer rewarding food. Through these changes in the brain, we will unconsciously always prefer the foods that contain a lot of fat and sugar.”

Even if you’re a healthy eater, it won’t take much to affect your brain

Even if you’re not a habitual candy and chip eater, these researchers warn that all it takes is one binge to create these changes in your brain.

And once your brain has been rewired, you’re way more likely to binge again. And again.

Your brain will reward you with a dopamine “hit” for eating that candy, while it won’t give you any such reward for a healthy meal.

It’s easy to see how this can lead you down a path of craving sweets, even if you’ve spent your life avoiding them.

How to control those cravings

Clearly, the best way to avoid eating too much sugar is not to start in the first place.

Or, if you do indulge from time to time, here’s some advice on how to keep your brain in balance and avoid sugar cravings.

Chromium supplements can help curb sugar cravings. So can cinnamon, ginger, and other herbs found right in your kitchen.

And if you do slip, here’s how you can quiet the resulting sugar cravings.

Sources:

Sweets change our brain — Science Daily

Habitual daily intake of a sweet and fatty snack modulates reward processing in humans — Cell Metabolism

The post The brain-changing effects of one more fatty, sugary treat appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Add it up, and we’re consuming a staggering 60 pounds of sugar a year. That’s the equivalent of lining 12 five-pound bags of sugar up on your counter and digging in.

Clearly, given the rising rates of diabetes and obesity, we’re eating way too much sugar. And unless you’re a stickler for avoiding processed foods, cutting down on added sugars can seem almost impossible.

But to help you understand just how imperative it is to try — and how much is too much — researchers reviewed existing data and came to a daunting conclusion…

Excess sugar intake has been linked to no less than 45 serious health conditions, including stroke, heart disease and cancer…

Six is the magic number

In what’s called an umbrella review — involving 73 meta-analyses and 8,500 articles — researchers found significant harmful associations between the consumption of added sugars and the following health outcomes:

• 18 endocrine or metabolic outcomes including diabetes, obesity and gout
• 10 cardiovascular outcomes including high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke
• 7 cancer outcomes including breast, prostate and pancreatic cancer
• 10 other outcomes including tooth decay, asthma, depression and death.

Though the strength of the evidence varied, with some of the analyses considered stronger than others, the review authors suggested that people try to limit the amount of added sugar they consume daily to six teaspoons —  and only consume one or fewer sugar-sweetened beverages a week.

To come to these conclusions, the researchers combined these findings with guidance from the World Health Organization, World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research.

Check those food labels

When it comes to avoiding added sugar, label reading is your friend. But first, it’s helpful to know how many grams of sugar are in the recommended six teaspoons. The answer: between 24 and 25 grams.

One thing I’ve noticed about labeling is they now break out the amount of added sugars in the products you buy. For instance, the frozen pad Thai dinner I have in my freezer right now has 18 grams of sugar total, with 13 grams of that being added sugar. But the frozen cheese enchilada dinner only has 6 grams of sugar, zero of which is added sugar.

That’s because some ingredients contain natural sugars. But the amount of sugar identified on the label as “added” is additional sugar added during food processing — and this is the number we need to cut down on.

As always, your diet should include as many whole, unprocessed foods as possible. But if you’re busy and need to fall back on some prepackaged meals, make sure to check that label and go for the meals that have little to no added sugars.

As far as “natural” sweeteners go, remember that the body responds to honey, coconut sugar, agave, maple syrup or turbinado sugar the same way it would regular sugar. And I’d stay away from stevia as well. Unless it is 100% pure stevia extract, it contains erythritol, which is tied to increased blood clotting. Erythritol is used in many low-fat or no-fat processed foods.

Sources:

Limit added sugar to six teaspoons a day to improve health, urge experts — EurekAlert!

Consuming over 6 teaspoons of added sugar a day linked to stroke, depression, asthma — Medical News Today

Dietary sugar consumption and health: umbrella review — The BMJ

How much sugar is too much? — American Heart Association

The post Stroke, cancer and 43 other conditions linked to sugar appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Its effects aren’t so sweet. It starts by turning the body against its master hormone, insulin. And while blood sugar problems are developing below the surface, above the surface extra weight and inches begin to appear.

That’s why so many of us shun sugar and turn to no-calorie or low-calorie sweeteners.

However, like the sugar cartel, the sweetener industry has a dirty little secret all of its own.

When it comes to your health, sweeteners aren’t all they’re cracked up to be…

In fact, fake sweeteners, like aspartame, sucralose and saccharine, have already been linked to everything from heart disease to asthma and autoimmune disorders.

Yet, there’s one you may think is a safe alternative – erythritol – a sugar alcohol that’s been making its way into more and more low-sugar, sugar-free and keto reduced-sugar products.

But don’t be fooled…

According to researchers at the Cleveland Clinic, erythritol could simply be one more bitter health danger disguised as a sweet treat.

Sugar substitute leads to sticky blood

It’s easy to see why erythritol may have been identified as a safer alternative to sugar in the beginning. It’s naturally present in fruits and vegetables — but in very small amounts. But processed low-sugar, sugar-free and no-carb foods can contain amounts of the sugar alcohol that are 1,000-fold higher!

So what dangerous secret is erythritol hiding?

Sticky blood and a dramatically increased risk for a cardiovascular event!

Yup, those Cleveland researchers studied over 4,000 people altogether in the U.S. and Europe, comparing blood levels of erythritol levels to heart dangers and the results were frightening.

Here’s a breakdown of the most important facts:

• In a group of 1,157 participants who agreed to undergo tests at a cardiovascular clinic, those with the highest erythritol levels had twice the risk of dying from or experiencing a major cardiovascular event, like a heart attack or stroke, in the next three years.
• After volunteers consumed an erythritol-sweetened drink, their blood levels of the compound peaked and remained high for two to three days before returning to normal. These levels were well above the value known to increase risk of blood clots.
• When erythritol was added to whole blood samples blood stickiness and other measures associated with blood clotting increased markedly, confirming that the sweetener heightens dangerous clot formation.

“Sweeteners like erythritol, have rapidly increased in popularity in recent years but there needs to be more in-depth research into their long-term effects,” said senior author Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D.

Erythritol is also the largest ingredient by weight in many stevia and monk fruit products where it is used as a filler, according to Dr. Hazen.

Support healthy blood flow

So what can you do if you’ve been regularly using a sweetener or eating a food that contains erythritol because you believed it was a healthier alternative?

For starters, I hope you’ll give it up — right away. And until we know more about any lingering effects, let me share some circulation 101 with you…

Clotting of the blood is a normal bodily function. When things go as planned, blood clots any time there is an injury to a blood vessel, such as when you cut yourself. Tiny bits in your blood called platelets get “turned on” when an artery or vein is damaged. They stick to the walls of the blood vessel, and to each other, forming a plug that stops blood from leaking out.

Special proteins keep the clot from spreading farther than it needs to. And as the damaged tissue heals and the clot isn’t needed anymore, it dissolves back into the blood.

But sometimes the clotting process doesn’t go like it’s supposed to… whether erythritol is to blame or not. So, instead of risking it, I promote healthy blood flow naturally with nattokinase.

Nattokinase is an all-natural enzyme discovered over 40 years ago by a Japanese medical researcher named Hiyosuki Sumi, M.D.  It was isolated from a traditional Japanese food made from fermented soybeans called “natto” and demonstrated the ability to support healthy blood flow.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: avoid the processed foods, the additives (as much as you can) and the artificial “this and that’s.” It’s a jungle out there.

Sources:

Popular Artificial Sweetener Appears to Make Blood ‘Stickier’, Linked to Stroke Risk – Microsoft Start

Cleveland Clinic study finds common artificial sweetener linked to higher rates of heart attack and stroke – EurekAlert!

The post Erythritol: The sugar substitute linked to sticky blood and stroke appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

If a food naturally contains carbohydrates, then it contains naturally occurring sugar. That includes pretty much all fruits, vegetables, grains and dairy products.

Consuming this type of sugar is not so bad. Your body digests these foods slowly, allowing your body to steadily convert the sugar into energy.

But when it comes to other sweet options, there are some you definitely need to avoid — and one that offers newly discovered benefits that should make your choice of sweetener a little easier…

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Beware of (most) added sugars

The problem starts with added sugars. Food manufacturers add many different forms of sugar to their products to increase their flavor and/or extend their shelf life.

Excess sugar consumption has been implicated in everything from obesity and diabetes to high blood pressure, inflammation, fatty liver and a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.

Some more obvious sources of added sugar include soft drinks, ice cream, fruit drinks, flavored yogurt, cereal, candy and baked sweets. But sugar is also added to many processed foods we don’t think of as sweet, including ketchup, soups, bread and cured meats.

Because of all this, the average American consumes roughly 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day. That’s equal to an extra 270 calories!

Some added sugars are chemically derived, like that infamous bad boy high fructose corn syrup. Others are considered more natural — like fruit juice concentrates, molasses and honey.

But there’s been debate about whether natural added sugars are any healthier.

The answer is complicated — but leans towards “yes” in the case of honey.

At 80 percent sugar, honey is definitely a source of added calories. However, it also has shown a number of health benefits beyond those of other natural sweeteners….

Honey lowers cardiometabolic risks

Your cardiometabolic health encompasses many of the factors you may be familiar with in regard to metabolic syndrome, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and larger waist circumference.

In a review of clinical trials, researchers at the University of Toronto found honey improves key measures of cardiometabolic health. This is especially true of raw honey from a single flower source.

When selecting the studies, the researchers were careful to include only those studies in which the participants followed a healthy diet, with added sugars accounting for 10 percent or less of daily caloric intake.

The studies reviewed by the researchers showed honey lowered fasting blood glucose levels, as well as total and LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol, triglycerides and a marker of fatty liver disease. Honey also increased HDL (the “good”) cholesterol and some markers of inflammation.

Tauseef Khan, a senior researcher on the study and a University of Toronto research associate, observes that honey is a complex composition of common and rare sugars along with proteins, organic acids and other bioactive compounds. These ingredients very likely have health benefits, he adds.

“The word among public health and nutrition experts has long been that ‘a sugar is a sugar,’” says John Sievenpiper, principal investigator and a University of Toronto professor. “These results show that’s not the case, and they should give pause to the designation of honey as a free or added sugar in dietary guidelines.”

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Honey: A healthy replacement

Khan cautions that the researchers aren’t saying to add honey if you’re currently avoiding sugar. “The takeaway is more about replacement — if you’re using table sugar, syrup or another sweetener, switching those sugars for honey might lower cardiometabolic risks,” he says.

The average daily dose of honey in the studies was 40 grams or about two tablespoons, and the average study length was eight weeks. Raw honey showed many beneficial effects, as did honey from single sources of flowers such as clover, a common North American honey, and Robinia, which is marketed as acacia honey.

Khan notes that, unlike raw honey, processed honey clearly loses many of its health benefits after pasteurization, typically at 65 degrees Celsius for at least 10 minutes. However, putting raw honey in a hot beverage likely doesn’t destroy all its benefits, he adds.

The researchers say future studies should focus on unprocessed honey from a single floral source, with the goal being higher quality evidence and a better understanding of the health benefits in honey’s many compounds.

Sources:

Sweet: Honey Reduces Cardiometabolic Risks, U of T Study Shows — University of Toronto

Effect of honey on cardiometabolic risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis — Nutrition Reviews

The sweet danger of sugar — Harvard Health Publishing

Added Sugar — Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

The post The sweet truth about honey and your heart appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Anyone who’s ever tried to lose weight is probably familiar with those pink, blue and yellow packets, and has probably had quite a few diet sodas in their lifetime. After all, that’s why zero-calorie artificial sweeteners like saccharin, sucralose and aspartame were created in the first place.

Unfortunately, it turns out they’re not really helping on that front. Studies show that artificial sweeteners can actually make changes to the gut microbiome that lead to weight gain. These changes can also increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

And that’s not all. Beverages containing artificial sweeteners have also been linked with an increased risk of death and dementia.

However, findings have been mixed about the role of artificial sweeteners in various diseases, including cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Many studies have used consumption of artificially sweetened beverages to explore CVD risk. But none have measured intake of artificial sweeteners from the overall diet — until now….

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Using artificial sweeteners could be risky for your heart

Researchers at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and the University of Paris examined data from more than 100,000 participants in the web-based NutriNet-Santé study. This online study is ongoing and investigates the relationship between nutrition and health.

The participants whose data was included had an average age of 42 and 80 percent were female. Daily records tracked their consumption of and artificial sweeteners by type and from all dietary sources.

A total of 37 percent of the participants consumed artificial sweeteners, with an average intake of 42.46 mg per day. This equates to about one individual packet of tabletop sweetener or 100 mL (3.4 ounces) of diet soda. At the low end of the scale, some of these individuals consumed 7.46 mg of artificial sweeteners a day, while others consumed as many as 77.62 mg a day.

Compared with those who did not consume artificial sweeteners, those who consumed higher levels of the sugar substitutes tended to be younger and less physically active, with a higher body mass index (BMI). They were also more likely to smoke and follow a weight loss diet. They didn’t consume as many calories or as much alcohol, carbohydrates, saturated and polyunsaturated fats, fiber, fruits and vegetables. And they took in more sodium, red and processed meats, dairy products and beverages with no added sugar. The researchers took these differences into account in their data analyses.

Just over 1,500 cardiovascular events occurred in the study participants over an average follow-up period of nine years. These events included heart attack, angina, transient ischemic attack and stroke, as well as angioplasty, a procedure to widen blocked or narrowed arteries to the heart.

Researchers found that total artificial sweetener intake was associated with a 9 percent increase in cardiovascular disease risk. Total consumption was linked in particular with higher cerebrovascular disease risk — which equates to higher stroke risk.

When looking at individual types of artificial sweeteners, aspartame was associated with increased risk of cerebrovascular events, while acesulfame potassium and sucralose showed an increased risk of coronary heart disease, which increases risk for heart attack.

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A natural alternative to fake sweeteners

The researchers caution that this is an observational study, so it can’t establish cause. And they can’t rule out the possibility that other unknown factors may have affected the results. Still, this large-scale study used precise, high-quality data, and its findings are in line with other studies linking artificial sweeteners with markers of poor health.

Thus, the researchers conclude, these food additives “should not be considered a healthy and safe alternative to sugar.”

That’s a pretty compelling reason to kick these artificial sweeteners out of your diet. Instead of loading up on low-calorie packaged foods and diet sodas, try a diet that’s rich in whole grains, dairy, seafood, legumes, fruits and vegetables and plain water.

If you really dislike the taste of plain water, try adding mint or slices of fruit or cucumber to sweeten it naturally. Or you can mix your water with a few drops of stevia or monk fruit, natural plant-derived sweeteners that are available plain or in a wide range of delicious flavors.

Only use 100 percent pure stevia with no fillers, being especially careful to avoid erythritol.

Sources:

Artificial sweeteners and risk of cardiovascular diseases: results from the prospective NutriNet-Santé cohort — The BMJ

Researchers Find Link Between Artificial Sweeteners and Heart Disease — SciTechDaily

Artificial Sweetener Consumption Linked to Increased Cardiovascular Disease Risk — Practical Cardiology

The post The real stroke and heart disease risks of fake sweeteners appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But it’s late. You’ve had a busy day, and you’re too tired to cook. And that burger, fries and soda combo is quick, easy and tasty. So you hit the drive-thru and promise yourself you’ll do better tomorrow.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

More than a third of Americans, or about 84.8 million, eat fast food on any given day. And while that percentage does decrease with age, nearly a quarter of adults age 60 and older are still consuming fast food on a given day.

And this addiction to convenience doesn’t stop at the drive-thru. Many Americans have pantries and refrigerators at home that are bursting with ultra-processed foods high in added sugar, fat and salt and low in protein and fiber.

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Some of these ultra-processed foods, like soft drinks, salty and sugary snacks, ice cream, sausage, ketchup, mayonnaise, deep-fried chicken and flavored cereals, are clearly bad for you. But even items like yogurt, canned baked beans and tomatoes, packaged guacamole, hummus and bread aren’t as benign as they appear because of the processing they’re subjected to.

For the past several years, scientists have been examining the health impact of these ultra-processed foods. So far, studies have linked a diet that’s heavy in ultra-processed foods with insulin resistance, obesity and cellular damage.

And consuming ultra-processed foods may not be good for your brain, either. A team of Chinese researchers recently examined data from the UK Biobank health information database to determine whether eating ultra-processed foods could lead to dementia. And what they found is alarming…

Ultra-processed foods on the brain

The researchers selected 72,083 people from the UK Biobank for their study. Participants were aged 55 and older and had no dementia at the beginning of the study, which followed them for an average of 10 years. By study’s end, 518 of the participants had been diagnosed with dementia.

During the study, participants filled out at least two questionnaires recording the food and drink they had consumed the previous day. The researchers identified how much of that food and drink was ultra-processed by calculating the grams per day. Then, they compared that measurement to the grams per day of other foods to determine what percentage of each participant’s diet was made up of ultra-processed items.

Once that percentage was calculated, participants were divided into four equal groups ranging from the lowest percentage of ultra-processed foods to the highest. Ultra-processed foods made up an average of 9 percent of the daily diet of people in the lowest group, or an average of 225 grams a day. In the highest group, the average daily percentage of ultra-processed foods was 28 percent, or an average of 814 grams per day.

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For comparison, one serving of items like pizza or fish sticks equaled 150 grams.

The main food group contributing to high ultra-processed food intake was beverages, followed by sugary products and ultra-processed dairy.

In the lowest-consumption group, 105 of the 18,021 people developed dementia, compared to 150 of the 18,021 people in the highest-consumption group.

The research team adjusted for age, gender, family history of dementia and heart disease and other factors that could affect risk of dementia. After taking all that into account, they found that for every 10 percent increase in daily consumption of ultra-processed foods, people had a 25 percent increase in dementia risk.

The researchers also used study data to project what would happen if a person swapped 10 percent of the ultra-processed foods they consumed with unprocessed or minimally processed foods like fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes, milk and meat. According to their findings, this substitution was associated with a 19 percent reduction in dementia risk.

Study author Dr. Huiping Li of Tianjin Medical University in China says results also indicate that substituting 50 grams of ultra-processed foods for 50 grams of unprocessed or minimally processed foods can lower dementia risk by 3 percent. For instance, an individual could swap out a chocolate bar for half an apple, or a couple of fish sticks for a bowl of bran cereal.

“It’s encouraging to know that small and manageable changes in diet may make a difference in a person’s risk of dementia,” Li says.

It’s important to note the study didn’t prove that ultra-processed foods cause dementia; it only shows an association. Further research is needed to confirm the findings.

Li also observes that in addition to added fat, salt and sugar, ultra-processed foods may contain food additives or molecules from packaging or that are produced during heating. These additives and molecules have been shown in other studies to have negative effects on thinking and memory skills, he says.

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What exactly qualifies as “ultra-processed”?

If you’re like me, you may be confused by the inclusion of seemingly healthy products like hummus, canned tomatoes, avocado-rich guacamole and yogurt in the “ultra-processed” category (except we know that the addition of lots of sugar or salt is problematic). That’s because nutrition science is still figuring all this out.

Dr. Maura Walker of Boston University notes that nutrition research now faces the challenge of categorizing foods as unprocessed, minimally processed, processed and ultra-processed. “For example, foods like soup would be classified differently if canned versus homemade,” she says.

“Plus, the level of processing is not always aligned with diet quality,” Walker adds. “Plant-based burgers that qualify as high quality may also be ultra-processed. As we aim to understand better the complexities of dietary intake, we must also consider that more high-quality dietary assessments may be required.”

Until then, the best rule of thumb is to include as many whole foods as possible. That means consuming foods that look like the real thing, versus a stick of fish — foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains, beans and legumes, fresh meat, poultry, fish and dairy. Following an eating plan like the Mediterranean diet is a great way to ensure your diet consists mostly of whole, unprocessed or minimally processed foods.

Sources:

Eating More Ultra-Processed Foods Associated With Increased Risk Of Dementia — American Academy of Neurology

Association of Ultraprocessed Food Consumption With Risk of Dementia — Neurology

Fast Food Statistics — The Barbecue Lab

The post Ultra-processed foods: The more you eat, the higher your dementia risk appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But a full forty percent of cases are not attributable to any of these factors.

Considering that by the end of 2022, about 30,000 people are estimated to die from liver cancer, two public health researchers raised the question of whether the dietary habits of that forty percent might play a role in the development of liver cancer.

Not surprisingly, the answer turned out to be “yes.”

But there was one surprise… the shockingly high risk of liver cancer that came in as little as one drink a day…

Sugary drinks skyrocket the odds of liver cancer

A study of more than 90,000 postmenopausal women found that drinking at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a day was associated with a marked increase in their chances of developing liver cancer, compared with women who drank fewer than three such drinks per month.

“Our findings suggest sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is a potential modifiable risk factor for liver cancer,” said Longgang Zhao, a doctoral candidate at the University of South Carolina, the study’s lead author.

Zhao co-authored the research with Dr. Xuehong Zhang, an associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

The two study authors evaluated data from 90,504 who took part in the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term study that was started in the early 1990s.

They used food-frequency questionnaires completed by subjects to measure sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, and medical records to confirm liver cancer diagnoses.

The numbers speak for themselves…

Compared with women who never drank sugar-sweetened drinks (or consumed less than three servings per month), women who drank one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day were 78 percent more likely to develop liver cancer.

Even consuming just one such drink per day increased the likelihood of liver cancer by 73 percent.

Swap for these liver-loving drinks

Even before the present research, we knew that sugary drinks like sodas and fruit drinks could raise cancer risk, particularly for breast cancer. And for years, experts have advised keeping clear of them.

The trend in the last few years shows some people are listening. Sales have started to fall for these cancer drinks. But Dr. Zhao’s research shows the damage that just a few of these drinks can do.

“If our findings are confirmed, reducing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption might serve as a public health strategy to reduce liver cancer burden. Replacing sugar-sweetened beverages with water, and non-sugar-sweetened coffee or tea could significantly lower liver cancer risk.”

So, what are the better choices? Water-based drinks like coffee and tea — which have been found in previous research to offer serious liver protection.

Rich in antioxidants and minerals, green tea is especially renowned for its benefits related to cancer prevention.

Not only that, green tea has been shown to dramatically reduce liver fat and help guard against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which can increase your risk for liver cancer.

Prefer coffee over tea? Great news there, too. We’ve heard that coffee is a liver-protecting beverage, but depending on how much you drink, it may lower hepatocellular cancer (which can occur in people with liver disease) by as much as 50 percent — not too shabby!

Now, Dr. Zhao suggests taking your coffee and tea without sugar, but even if you have to add just one teaspoon, that’s certainly much less than the 10-12 teaspoons you get in one can of soda.

But it’s worth trying to cut the amount of sugar down by half to gradually go sugar-free. A tiny pinch of salt can counter the bitterness of black coffee. Better, buy a high-quality coffee since you’ll save lots of money on sugar.

Lastly, drink more water. If you can, install a water filter or use a filtering pitcher, that’s even better. Bottled water, and even tap water, to a lesser degree, have become sources of microplastics that carry a host of health problems we’re just starting to learn more about.

Sources

Harvard Doctor Discovers That Drinking Sugary Drinks Increases Your Risk of Liver Cancer by 73% — Sci Tech Daily

Liver Health: 5 Healthy Drinks To Cleanse Your Liver Naturally — NDTV Food

The post The ‘one a day’ that skyrockets women’s liver cancer risk appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Yet, giving sugar up and making healthier choices is easier said than done.

But there’s good news for all of us who love our sweet and carb-laden treats but no we should probably tone them down a bit…

And it’s all wrapped up in the food that helps your gut bacteria thrive.

Probiotics underestimated cousin

Prebiotics are the little-known, and often underestimated, cousin of probiotics.

While probiotics are the good gut bacteria that do the heavy lifting like keeping your immune system running strong, keeping metabolism on track and maintaining the structural integrity of your mucosal barrier — prebiotics act as food for those probiotics, giving them the fuel they need to do their job.

But what does feeding your gut bacteria have to do with being able to cut back your sugar intake?

Researchers from the University of Surrey have found that simply taking a healthy dose of prebiotics each day can dramatically influence your food choices, helping you to kick unhealthy habits to the curb.

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Controlling comfort eating

The researchers set out to investigate the influence of a group of prebiotics called galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), found in legumes like lentils and chickpeas) which are known to increase the amount of those “friendly” probiotic gut bacteria. 

The team recruited 48 women, dividing them into two groups. One took GOS supplements and another group was given a placebo for 28 days. The women were then asked to keep a food diary, recording their eating and drinking habits. And their gut composition was closely monitored via stool samples.

So what did the scientists find?

Well, as expected, the prebiotics made a big difference in how healthy the women’s gut microbiomes were. The team found that taking prebiotics dramatically increased the amount of one type of bacteria that’s particularly good for your health, known as Bifidobacterium.

And when it came to their eating habits, the results there prove that taking prebiotics can give you a leg up on healthy eating.

They discovered that the women who took GOS supplements:

• Consumed 4.1 percent less sugar
• Took in 4.3 percent fewer calories from carbohydrates
• Achieved 4.2 percent more energy from fats

In other words, without even trying, they were able to shift their dietary intake away from belly fat-causing sugar and carbs to more slimming and body-fueling sources of food. 

According to the researchers, the power behind the prebiotics lies in their effect on your well-being.

Dr. Kathrin Cohen Kadosh, lead author of the study from the University of Surrey, said, “This study, in conjunction with our previous research, suggests that boosting the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut, such as Bifidobacterium with prebiotics, improves better wellbeing by reducing anxiety and may help to make healthier food choices.” 

In other words, while the prebiotics spur on the probiotics, it’s the effect of the probiotics that makes giving up sugar and carbs easier. But that may not be their only secret…

Previous research has found that when bacteria feed on prebiotics, they form compounds called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs have been found to increase the release of appetite-suppressing hormones, increase calorie burn and reduce calorie intake.

Sources:

Prebiotics supplements help women reduce sugar intake by four percent, finds study – EurekAlert!

The post The supplement that makes it easier to cut out sugar appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And according to a study from a team of scientists at Tokyo Metropolitan University, what you eat could be making the situation worse.

That’s because they’ve found that a common dietary staple can actually slow down muscle repair, leaving you in pain and your muscles weak and prone to further injury.

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The sugar connection

So what’s the diet staple that has the power to block the healing process in your muscles?

Sugar!

Yup, good old glucose.

And it came as a surprise to even the Japanese scientists.

You see, conventional wisdom says that the cells in our bodies fare better when there is more sugar to fuel their activities. In other words, we need glucose for our cells to grow and proliferate.

However, it turns out that when it comes to your muscles, things aren’t so cut and dry.

Satellite cells and their impact on muscle repair

That’s because of cells found in skeletal muscle known as satellite cells.

The researchers discovered that these satellite cells are responsible for healing that daily wear and tear you experience — a process that takes place continually to keep our muscles in tip-top shape.

The cells themselves actually sit smack in the middle of two layers of sheathing that wrap around what’s called “myofiber cells” of each of your individual muscle fibers. And when damage occurs to the myofiber cells, the satellite cells kick into gear, spinning off more cells and fusing onto the myofibers — much like a bandage.

This process not only repairs the damage that’s been done to your muscles, it also prevents a loss of muscle mass.

But that process can go wrong in the presence of too much sugar.

In fact, after examining the growth of satellite cells in petri dishes, the researchers found that higher glucose levels equal slower growth.

That’s right — sugar keeps your muscles from repairing themselves.

In fact, the researchers found that a low glucose environment was just what the “doctor ordered” to stimulate muscle repair. Those same petri dish experiments showed that lower levels of blood sugar leads to an increased number of satellite cells with a greater ability to multiply, fuse to myofibers and heal your muscles.

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Keeping your muscles strong for life

So if you want to have strong muscles that are capable of repairing both your daily wear and tear and any injuries that should occur, it looks like limiting sugar is a must.

Additionally, be sure to feed your muscles by increasing your per meal protein intake and take muscle-supporting supplements.

Some that have proven effective at encouraging muscle health include:

Resveratrol, which can help encourage muscle growth even under diabetic conditions;

Omega-3s, which have been shown to protect muscle mass even in the face of immobilization;

Vitamin D, which can help our muscles stay strong, healthy and functional with age.

Sources:

Less sugar, please! New studies show low glucose levels might assist muscle repair – EurekAlert!

The post Got a muscle injury that needs healing fast? Avoid this appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

From condiments, like ketchup, to luncheon meats, apple sauce, breakfast cereals, and many, many more, it’s a real and present danger to your health.

And now, a study has proven exactly why what we’ve known for a while is true — fructose makes you fat.

Conditioning your gut for obesity

The study, published in Nature, delved into the effects of fructose in your digestive tract. Specifically, the team of researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Presbyterian was interested in tiny, hair-like structures that line your intestinal walls — called villi.

The purpose of these structures is to expand the surface area of your gut so that your body is better able to absorb the nutrients from the food you eat.

A good thing right? But not in the presence of fructose…

You see, the study found that when mice were fed diets that included fructose, those villi grew and grew. In fact, they became 25 to 40 percent longer than the villi of mice who weren’t allowed to eat the fructose.

You can probably guess where this is going…

If regular size villi absorb nutrients, including dietary fats, then super-sized villi absorb a super-size amount of the nutrients and the calories that go with them!

That’s why the investigators discovered that along with the increase in villus length, and increased nutrient absorption seen in fructose-fed mice, they also experienced significant weight gain and fat accumulation.

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Beyond fat to fears of tumor growth

And if that weren’t enough to put you off fructose, it gets worse.

“Our research has found that fructose’s primary metabolite promotes the elongation of villi and supports intestinal tumor growth,” according to senior author Dr. Marcus DaSilva Goncalves, the Ralph L. Nachman Research Scholar, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and an endocrinologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

This means not only can consuming too much fructose cause weight gain, but it could also threaten your very life.

A question of choices

So do you have to give up all fructose to stay healthy?

Well, the scientists say no.

Not all fructose is bad. You might know that it’s the type of sugar found in fruits.

As Dr. Goncalves explains, “Fructose itself is not harmful. It’s a problem of overconsumption. Our bodies were not designed to eat as much of it as we do.”

And overconsuming fructose isn’t entirely your fault… it’s everywhere in our modern diets.

What can you do? Choose wisely — skipping any foods that contain high-fructose corn syrup we talked about earlier and watch for sneaky added sugars. When eating fresh fruit, wash it well and eat the skin or peeling. That fiber can help your body better digest the fructose in the fruit.

This is especially important to remember as the pandemic continues since high-fructose corn syrup is also linked to poor immune function.

To avoid the not-so-sweet sweetener, read labels on product packaging before you stick anything in your grocery cart. Try to eat whole, unprocessed foods instead of ready-made options. And remember, soda is a big fructose offender, so give it a hard miss.

Sources:

Research uncovers how fructose in the diet contributes to obesity — Medical Xpress

The post How fructose supersizes the way your gut absorbs fat and calories appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It can also improve blood sugar, reduce blood pressure and help maintain healthy cholesterol — if you can stick to it — because the body turns to burning fat for energy instead of carbohydrates.

Now a study published in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, may be onto an even more impressive benefit of following the Keto diet.

According to the researchers, going Keto might help starve cancerous brain tumors into submission.

In case you’re not sure how a diet could affect a brain tumor or cancer in general, it’s important to consider the Warburg effect…

Nobel Prize-winning physiologist and biochemist Otto Warburg hypothesized more than 90 years ago that cancer cells prefer to quickly break down sugars for energy — a process known as anaerobic metabolism usually reserved for rapid energy demand. Researchers believe that due to the Warburg effect, sugar stimulates the growth of tumors.

If you take a cancer cell’s preferred energy source, what happens then?

Changing the metabolism of your body and brain

Astrocytoma is a cancer that that typically occurs in the brain or spinal cord. Some astrocytomas can be very aggressive and grow quickly.

According to Roy E. Strowd, MD, MS, MEd, of Wake Forest School of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, “There are not a lot of effective treatments for these types of brain tumors, and survival rates are low, so any new advances are very welcome.”

He and a team of researchers recruited 25 participants who had completed radiation treatment and chemotherapy to follow a combination of Keto dieting plus fasting to determine its effects and whether it could be used in patients with astrocytomas.

The Keto diet was chosen based on what we know about the Warburg effect…

“These cancer cells rely on glucose, or sugar, to divide and grow. Since the ketogenic diet is low in sugar, the body changes what it uses for energy — instead of carbohydrates, it uses what are called ketones. Normal brain cells can survive on ketones, but the theory is that cancer cells cannot use ketones for energy,” said Strowd.

They followed the diet plan for eight weeks, eating Keto-friendly foods five days a week and fasting two days a week. On Keto days, they were able to consume foods like bacon, eggs, heavy cream, butter, leafy green vegetables and fish. On the two fasting days, they simply ate up to 20 percent of their recommended daily calorie amount.

And while the researchers say only 48 percent of the participants reported following their diet completely, urine tests showed that 80 percent reached the level where their body was primarily using fats and protein for fuel, rather than carbohydrates.

What effects did the scientists see?

Eating Keto led to changes in the metabolism in the body and the brain, including:

• Hemoglobin A1c levels and insulin levels decreased.
• Fat body mass went down while lean body mass increased.
• Specialized brain scans showed an increase in concentrations of ketones and metabolic changes in the brain tumor.

Though the study was not designed to determine whether the diet could slow down tumor growth or improve survival, it provides an indication for an avenue of treatment for further investigation.

“Of course more studies are needed to determine whether this diet can prevent the growth of brain tumors and help people live longer, but these results show that the diet can be safe for people with brain tumors and successfully produce changes in the metabolism of the body and the brain,” Strowd said.

Going keto

So how do you go Keto to grab any of its reported benefits?

Well, to start Keto the easy way, check out Craig Cooper’s “The Keto Diet in a Nutshell”.

It has everything from the foods that are allowed on the program to the ones you should plan to say goodbye to.  And it also has a handy look at how to judge the amount of carbs in the foods you eat, so that you can stay in ketosis.

Sources:

COULD KETOGENIC DIET BE HELPFUL WITH BRAIN CANCER? — American Academy of Neurology

Very-low-carbohydrate weight-loss diets revisited — NIH

Insulin’s impact on renal sodium transport and blood pressure in health, obesity, and diabetes — American Journal of Physiology

Comparison of energy-restricted very low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets on weight loss and body composition in overweight men and women — NIH

A randomized trial of a low-carbohydrate diet for obesity — NIH

Long-term effects of a very-low-carbohydrate weight loss diet compared with an isocaloric low-fat diet after 12 mo – NIH

Short-term effects of severe dietary carbohydrate-restriction advice in Type 2 diabetes–a randomized controlled trial – NIH

Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN diets for change in weight and related risk factors among overweight premenopausal women: the A TO Z Weight Loss Study: a randomized trial – NIH

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So how does insulin resistance develop?   

Through consuming excess calories and, especially, excess fat.

Our bodies are incredibly efficient energy storage machines. We are evolutionarily pre-designed to always be prepping for surviving lean times.

This may have been exceedingly useful when we lived on the savannah and faced periods of starvation. It’s far less helpful when we’re surrounded by food everywhere we go. In fact, it can be downright counterproductive.

Here’s what happens…

How it begins

When we consume fats, they get broken down into triglycerides in the digestive system and are then absorbed. Triglycerides are also formed inside our bodies when we consume excess calories. 

Triglycerides are sources of concentrated energy. And regardless of whether they’re absorbed or formed internally, they end up circulating through our bloodstreams and then get stored in three main places — in adipose tissue (fat cells), in muscles and in the liver. 

Fat cells are designed for fat storage and can accept as many triglycerides as we throw at them. Liver and muscle? They also accept triglycerides readily, but at some point, they start to rebel. After all, liver and muscle cells have much more to get done in a day than just store energy!

Turns out, it’s hard to stop triglycerides from getting into liver and muscle cells for excess energy storage. So the body pursues an alternative strategy and starts to blunt cellular entry of other forms of energy. What’s another form of energy? Glucose.   

Normal cells listen to insulin when it comes knocking to ask for a glucose molecule to enter. Triglyceride-laden cells become progressively hard of hearing and need insulin to knock louder and louder to respond. In other words, they become resistant to the requests that insulin makes. The body’s response? Make more insulin so it knocks harder! The cellular response? Become progressively even more hard of hearing. 

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The hidden dysfunction

And this manifests in a predictable blood sugar profile decline. Initially, the dysfunctional metabolism is hidden by more and more insulin being pumped out by the pancreas. Your blood sugar level might be normal, but you need way more insulin to get it into a normal range. At this point, you are insulin resistant.

Eventually, the pancreas can’t make enough insulin to knock as loud as it needs to, and blood sugar levels start to rise. At this point you are pre-diabetic. 

Finally, the pancreas gets tired, can’t keep up and gives up — eventually pumping out less and less insulin — and voila!  You’re a type 2 diabetic.

A few things that should become obvious to you:

1. Pre-diabetes is a giant misnomer because it’s not a pre-disease! It’s a sign that your metabolism is a LONG way from normal.
2. Waiting for diabetes to develop before you take your blood sugar levels seriously is a highly flawed strategy. The sooner you start an all-out effort to get your metabolism right, the better. Don’t wait until your pancreas is exhausted!
3. A high-fat diet, especially the ketogenic approaches that are in vogue for diabetic patients these days, might not be such a good idea. After all, a high-fat diet directly contributes to triglyceride stores. The reason ketogenic diets “work” is because they limit carbs, meaning it doesn’t matter if your cells remain deaf to insulin! There’s nothing to knock about: blood sugar levels may improve — but this belies the underlying dysfunctional metabolism which stays unchanged. 

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Drinking just one can of sugary soda per day can triple your risk of having a stroke.

For decades, the sugar industry has tried to get us to believe that fat is the killer behind heart disease when really, it’s sugar that puts a strain on the heart, even in otherwise healthy people.

And, of course, consuming too much is a direct cause of weight gain and obesity.

Now, there’s new evidence that even modest amounts of the sweet stuff in your diet will cause your body to produce more of its own fat, a development that could prove deadly.

Sugar makes your liver produce too much fat

Researchers at the University of Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland have shown that even a small amount of sugar if consumed daily, will lead to changes in metabolism that cause fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.

Ninety-four healthy young men took part in the study. Every day for a period of seven weeks, they consumed a drink sweetened with either fructose (the sweetest kind), glucose (found in all carbohydrates), or sucrose (table sugar — a combination of fructose and glucose).

In the fructose group, the body’s own fat production in the liver was twice as high as in the glucose group. Particularly surprising was that the sugar we most commonly consume, sucrose, boosted fat synthesis slightly more than the same amount of fructose. Until now, it was thought that fructose was most likely to cause such changes.

While this is alarming, there’s something even more disturbing.

“… the overactive fat production continues for a longer period of time, even if no more sugar is consumed,” says study leader Philipp Gerber of the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Clinical Nutrition.

In other words, fructose and sucrose double fat production beyond food intake. So, even after you’re done drinking the equivalent of just one can of soda, your body is still at work producing excess fat in your liver — for up to 12 hours, they found!

This excess fat production is a significant first step in the development of both fatty liver disease and type-2 diabetes.

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How to cut back on sneaky added sugars

The World Health Organization recommends limiting daily sugar consumption to around 50 grams or, even better, 25 grams. But the American Heart Association says the average American consumes about 77 grams per day. A lot of that is added sugar “hidden” in products we think may be good for us or would not contain sugar as an ingredient.

Consider this: there’s sugar hiding in your pasta sauce, granola bars, low-fat yogurt, pre-made soups and even in that serving of coleslaw that comes with your sandwich!

Here are some tips for eliminating these hidden added sugars from your diet.

Read food labels. Look for the many names it hides under, including:

• Evaporated cane juice
• Fruit juice concentrate
• Brown rice syrup
• Barley malt
• Galactose

Opt for fresh fruit. Not all fruit is created equal when it comes to sugar. With the water removed, dried fruit has more sugar by volume than fresh fruit. For example, a small box of raisins has 25g, while a half cup of grapes has only 12g. Whole, fresh fruit also contains fiber that helps your body process sugar from fruit.

Skip the soda. Sweetened soda has recently been linked to breast cancer deaths in women. For a refreshing drink, try fruit-infused water, or water with a splash of unsweetened fruit juice.

Cook that fruit! Think baked apples, poached pears, or grilled pineapple. If it’s a sweet taste you’re craving, then cooking your fruit will bring out more of its natural sweetness.

Bake with applesauce. Use unsweetened applesauce in place of sugar when you bake muffins, bread or cakes. Since applesauce is watery, you’ll want to reduce the other liquids in your recipe by about a quarter-cup.

Watch that takeout coffee! Check the nutrition information for your favorite coffee shop beverage. Flavored and specialty coffee drinks are often loaded with sneaky sugar.

Sources:

Consumption of added sugar doubles fat production — Scieince Daily

Evidence Shows Some Sugars Are Worse Than Others; Fructose Tops the List — Healthline

How much sugar is too much? — American Heart Association

Surprising Sources of Hidden Sugar — Web MD

The post Sneaky added sugars double your liver’s fat production appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

About four years ago, we reported on research showing that sugar may over-activate proteins found in cancer cells, causing rapid and excessive cell growth.

Sugar is like a gourmet meal for cancer cells. They prefer to live off of sugar, since it breaks down very quickly — a phenomenon known as the Warburg effect.

And, over five years ago, you may have read here about research that connected sugar intake with breast cancer.

Now, a new study points to a specific and, unfortunately, quite popular sugary drink that puts women with breast cancer at increased risk of dying from the disease.

Sweet soda linked to breast cancer deaths

A team of researchers from the University of Buffalo’s Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health conducted a study that examined the connection between drinking sugar-sweetened soda and rates of death from breast cancer.

The study subjects were 927 women ranging in age from 35 to 79, all of whom had been diagnosed with breast cancer. All were enrolled in the Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer (WEB) Study and were followed for a median of nearly 19 years. 

Compared to women who never or rarely drank sugary soda, those who reported drinking it five times or more per week had a 62 percent higher likelihood of dying from any cause and were 85 percent more likely to die from breast cancer, specifically.

But why focus just on soda, you may ask?

Despite increased awareness of the downsides of drinking soda, half of the population consumes sugary drinks on a given day. One in four people gets at least 200 calories from soda, while five percent get at least 567 calories — the equivalent of four cans of soda — every day.

The huge amounts of sucrose and fructose in soda give them a higher glycemic load than other beverages or foods and increase cancer risk.

Just one example: one study found that a 100 mL per day increase in the consumption of sugary drinks was associated with an 18 percent increased risk of overall cancer and a whopping 22 percent increased risk of breast cancer!

What should you drink instead?

It’s pretty clear that all of us should be reaching for something better than soda to quench our thirst, but if you’re a breast cancer survivor, it’s certainly a necessity.

Of course, drinking water is a great option. According to Dr. Isaac Eliaz, “attempting to function without enough water is like trying to run a car that doesn’t have enough oil to lubricate its system.”

But if you want to take water beyond thirst-quenching and actually use it as an effective tool in a cancer-prevention lifestyle — drop a tea bag in it!

Green tea is well known for its concentration of catechins, believed to be behind many of its reported health benefits, but it’s not the only option…

Green tea and rooibos tea contain compounds called epigallocatechin, which prevent binding to receptor cells, reduce tumor volume, prevent DNA damage, decrease inflammation, strengthen cells, directly stop cell growth and cause cancer cell death, along with reducing recurrence rates in those who have had cancer.

And oolong tea gives green tea a run for its money. A research team at Saint Louis University examined the effects of oolong extract versus extracts of green, black and dark teas on six different breast cancer cell lines, including triple-negative breast cancer cells (a type of cancer that’s immune to many of the common treatments).

They found that both green tea and oolong tea stopped the growth of all types of cancer cells.

In fact, the researchers said, “Oolong tea, same as green tea, can induce DNA damage, play an inhibitory role in breast cancer cell growth, proliferation and tumorigenesis and [it has] great potential as a chemopreventative agent against breast cancer.”

If you’re a breast cancer survivor, the last thing you want is to make your odds any harder. Ditch the sodas for a soothing cup of tea and feel better about healthier choices and a healthier future.

Try this recipe for a cherry-lime rooibos tea cooler. Rooibos tea has a natural sweetness and is much less bitter than green tea can be.

Sources:

Not so sweet: increased risk of death among breast cancer patients who drink sugar-sweetened soda — technology.org

Sugar-Sweetened Soda Consumption and Total and Breast Cancer Mortality: The Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer (WEB) Study — Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention

A Nine-Year Collaboration Has Just Shown How Sugar Influences Cancer Cell Growth — Science Alert

The post The one drink breast cancer survivors should avoid appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Fructose is a natural sugar found in honey, fruits and some vegetables. Naturally occurring fructose isn’t particularly harmful, given there’s only a modest amount in one serving of the foods containing it.

But the level of fructose contained in added sweeteners like HFCS can be dangerous to your health because the body absorbs it so quickly that its systems become overwhelmed. This can trigger health problems like nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and insulin resistance, which can lead to obesity and diabetes.

Now, researchers have identified another potential health complication of consuming too much fructose….

How fructose affects the immune system

A stong immune system is necessary not only to fight off viral or bacterial infections, but to battle diseases, like cancer.

A recent study in mice by scientists in the United Kingdom has shown that a diet high in fructose might prevent your immune system from functioning properly.

Up until now, there has been limited understanding of the impact of fructose on the immune systems of people who consume too much of it. The U.K. study indicates fructose causes inflammation of the immune system and production of more reactive molecules associated with inflammation. This type of inflammation can harm cells and tissues, contribute to dysfunction of organs and systems and lead to disease.

Researchers also gained a deeper understanding of how fructose is linked with diabetes and obesity, given that low-level inflammation is often associated with obesity.

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The study builds on a growing body of evidence about the damaging effects of consuming high levels of fructose. Dr. Emma Vincent of the Bristol Medical School notes the study takes another step toward understanding why some diets can lead to poor health.

“Research into different components of our diet can help us understand what might contribute to inflammation and disease and what could be best harnessed to improve health and well-being,” says Dr. Nick Jones of Swansea University’s Medical School.

The researchers say further investigation is needed to find out whether inflammation caused by fructose could contribute to other diseases such as advanced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease or liver cancer. Also, the study indicates high fructose levels leave cells vulnerable to further metabolic challenge, like the kind that occurs during bacterial infection or within the environment of a tumor. These findings could contribute to investigations for new therapies in areas such as cancer and infectious diseases.

Ways to cut fructose out of your diet

While experts are split on whether HFCS and other fructose sweeteners are less safe than other added sweeteners, they do agree that cutting back on added sugars in the diet is important for good health. One surefire way to reduce your fructose consumption is to eliminate as many packaged and processed foods from your diet as possible. Eating whole, unprocessed foods not only lowers the amount of fructose you consume, it provides you with more vitamins, minerals, fiber and other healthy nutrients.

If you’re a soda lover, try switching that sugary beverage for seltzer water flavored with a splash of lemon, lime or unsweetened fruit juice.

If baked goods like cakes and cookies are your addiction, try making them yourself and substituting the sugar in the recipe for a natural sweetener like stevia, raw honey or blackstrap molasses. Even with these substitutions, it’s best to make these kinds of foods to an occasional treat rather than a regular staple of your diet.

When using stevia, always use 100 percent pure stevia, being careful to avoid added fillers, especially erythritol.

Sources:

High Fructose Diets Could Cause Immune System Damage – New Research — Swansea University

Fructose reprogrammes glutamine-dependent oxidative metabolism to support LPS-induced inflammation — Nature Communications

High fructose diets may harm the immune system — Medical News Today

Is Fructose Bad for You? The Surprising Truth — Healthline

The post The not-so-sweet way fructose damages the immune system appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

These drinks are one of the biggest culprits when it comes to consuming too much sugar. After all, it’s easy to ignore the sugar you’re drinking when it’s a bottle of fruit juice (they’re just a bad as sodas!).

Like many, you may have switched to artificially sweetened drinks, but we’ve found they’re just as bad. In fact, a study of 5,158 adults over seven years found that people who consumed large quantities of artificial sweeteners gained more weight than non-users — the exact opposite of what you’re going for when you choose to use them.

If you’ve had a hard time cutting back, this recent study may give you some major motivation to ditch them for good…

That’s because sweet drinks aren’t just making us sick and fat — they’re making us old and frail — fast.

Sweetened drinks make women age too fast

An international team of medical and nutrition researchers is reporting that sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened drinks are especially harmful to older women because they accelerate the aging process by increasing frailty.

Frailty is not just a byproduct of aging. It’s a standalone medical condition that is associated with a lower quality of life and a higher risk of death, hospitalization and institutionalization.

The data that connected frailty with sweet drinks came from the Nurses’ Health Study, a long-term health study investigating the risk factors for major chronic diseases. It included food-frequency and health questionnaires filled out periodically by 71,935 women from 1992 to 2014.

During that 22-year period, 11,559 of the women, or 16 percent, met the criteria for frailty — meaning they reported at least three of the following:

• Fatigue
• Reduced strength
• Low aerobic activity
• Five or more chronic illnesses
• Loss of at least 5 percent of body weight over a two-year period

Now, if you think these women may have been guzzling these sweet drinks, you’ll be surprised at these findings…

Just drinking two or more servings of sugar-sweetened beverages a day made women 32 percent more likely to become frail than those who drank none. For artificially sweetened drinks, the results were similar — a 28 percent increased risk for women who had two or more servings a day. 

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Other reasons to give up sweet drinks

If you’ve read up on free radical damage, all of this may have come as no surprise to you. Free radical damage is tied to premature aging and disease — and sugar is tied to free radical damage because it accelerates oxidative stress.

The more sugar you eat, the more oxidation occurs, and free radicals are a natural byproduct of this process. Supplementing with antioxidants, like the well-researched resveratrol, can help guard against free radical damage. But if you don’t give up the sweetened drinks, or at least cut down, it’s a never-ending battle.

If that’s not enough incentive to ditch the sweeteners, I’m not sure what is — except maybe all of these other reasons:

• If you’re getting 25 percent or more of your daily calories from sugar, you’re a heart attack waiting to happen. It’s sugar, not fat, that is the main dietary cause of heart disease.

• Are you worried about developing Alzheimer’s disease? A study in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia found that people who drink more than two sugary drinks of any type per day have reduced brain volume, including a shrunken hippocampus, and are at risk of Alzheimer’s in the long term.

• There’s even evidence that the younger and more pliable brains of adolescents are being damaged by too many sweet drinks. Studies show that daily intake of sugar will cause brain inflammation during this critical period of brain development, setting young people up for Alzheimer’s later in life. If you have a teenager or young adult in your life, you might want to encourage them to try these brain-boosting drinks as an alternative to soda.

And by the way, there is such a thing as being addicted to sugar. Luckily, you can rewire your brain to eat and drink less of it, and save your memory and your health. Here’s how.

Sources:

Sugary Drinks May Be Bad for Aging — NY Times

Sweetened beverages and risk of frailty among older women in the Nurses’ Health Study: A cohort study — PLOS Medicine

Here Are All the Scary Things Sugar Does to You — Medium: In Fitness and in Health

Frailty Not a Normal Part of Aging — Web MD

Sugary beverage intake and preclinical Alzheimer’s disease in the community — Alzheimer’s & Dementia

The post Those sweet drinks you love? They’re aging you faster appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, the impact of diet, sugar-free or artificially sweetened beverages on cardiovascular health has been up in the air.

Yet, because past research has proven that diets packed with sugar negatively impact heart health — and cause diabetes, cancer, hypertension; the list goes on and on — many people, have turned to artificial sweeteners to “have their cake and eat it too,” without the worry of harming their hearts.

However, a team of researchers from the Sorbonne Paris Nord University decided to examine whether the health effects of drinking artificially sweetened drinks were truly any better than their sugar-laden counterparts.

Their research, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, took a deep dive into the relationship between the risk of cardiovascular disease and consuming both types of drinks — finally comparing the two, head-to-head.

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Sugar versus artificial sweeteners

The researchers were able to access records for 104,760 individuals from the French NutriNet-Santé cohort to participate in the study that began in 2009.

The participants were asked to fill out three validated web-based 24-hour dietary records every six months. There were two beverage categories…

• Sugary drinks, which consisted of all beverages (including sodas or juices) containing 5 percent or more sugar.
• Artificially sweetened beverages, which were basically anything that didn’t contain real sugar — and instead was sweetened with the likes of aspartame, sucralose (better known as Splenda) and even sweeteners like stevia.

For each beverage category, based on the levels they drank, participants were divided into groups of non-consumers, low-consumers and high-consumers. A sub-sample of 20,000 participants also provided blood and urine samples.

The researchers looked for signs and incidents related to heart disease, including:

• Stroke
• Transient ischemic attack or TIA
• Myocardial infarction
• Acute coronary syndrome
• Angioplasty

What did they find?

Compared to the non-consumers — those people who skipped both sugary and artificially sweetened beverages — the people that fell into the high consumer groups for both sugar and artificially sweetened drinks had a far higher risk of suffering an incident due to heart disease, even after taking into account all other confounding factors!

In other words, it didn’t matter whether there was sugar in their drinks, aspartame or even stevia (a staple for health-conscious consumers everywhere), any type of sweetened drink appeared to be equally as bad for their hearts.

“Our study suggests artificially sweetened beverages may not be a healthy substitute for sugar drinks, and these data provide additional arguments to fuel the current debate on taxes, labeling and regulation of sugary drinks and artificially sweetened beverages,” said lead author Eloi Chazelas, a member of the nutritional epidemiology research team at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University.

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What not to drink

There you have it: switching over to artificial sweeteners from sugar doesn’t look so appealing now, does it?

And even though the researchers said that to establish a causal link between sugary and artificially sweetened beverages and cardiovascular disease, replication in large-scale prospective cohorts and mechanistic investigations will be needed — it seems pretty clear choosing artificially sweetened beverages over sugar-sweetened ones hold no benefit.

If you’re not sure what drinks may be artificially sweetened, here are a few that fit the bill…

• Coke Zero
• Diet Coke
• Fanta Zero
• Fresca
• Mellow Yellow Zero
• PowerAde Zero
• Bai Super Teas
• Zevia
• Gold Peak Diet Tea
• And many more

Let’s face it, heart health means skipping sweeteners and going au natural. Try water or unsweetened green or black tea to keep that ticker ticking.

Sources:

Diet Drinks Associated With This Major Health Risk, Study Says — Eat This, Not That!

Artificially sweetened drinks may not be heart healthier than sugary drinks — ScienceDaily

The post Drinks that lead to heart disease: Sugary, artificially sweetened or both? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Am I at risk?

If so, when will I start to lose my memories? And what kicks it off in the first place?

Sadly, when it comes to answers from the medical community, pickings have been slim.

We’ve seen plenty of research on the brain plaques and tangles identified as telltale signs of the disease, but researchers may have now linked the beginnings of Alzheimer’s to a surprising cause…

One that helps bolster long-known associations with obesity and diabetes and an increased risk for this mind-robbing disease.

Fructose and the death of neurons in the brain

For a few years now, some scientists have begun referring to Alzheimer’s as type 3 diabetes. And they may have been onto something.

An interdisciplinary team of neurologists, neuroscientists and experts on sugar metabolism, recently presented evidence from extensive data and research that fructose may be at fault for the cell death and damage that initiates the Alzheimer’s cascade.

That means a simple sugar found in fruits, fruit juices, veggies, and even some honey could be the main instigator in the whole dementia issue.

In fact, the Anschutz team found that “Alzheimer’s disease may be driven by the over-activation of fructose made in the brain.”

OK, did you get that?

They didn’t say the fructose you eat, but instead the fructose that your brain makes.

And they believe that this fructose reduces the energy production of the mitochondria in your brain cells, resulting in a progressive loss of the cerebral energy levels required for your brain neurons to remain functional and even viable.

And as more and more mitochondria and the energy they generate are lost, the more neuronal dysfunction and death that occurs. In the scenario outlined by the research team, the amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that we once thought to be the cause of Alzheimer’s are part of the inflammatory response and participate in injury, but are not the central factors driving the disease.

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The sugar linked to diabetes and obesity

Prior research from scientists at Yale University looked at exactly what causes your brain to produce higher levels of that fructose.

You see, their theory was that it’s not actually eating fruits that cause the rise (through migration of the sugar across the blood-brain barrier).

Instead, they theorized that glucose consumption is the main issue.

The research team gave eight healthy, lean individuals infusions of glucose over a four-hour period. They measured sugar concentrations in the brains of the study participants using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Sugar concentrations in the blood were also assessed.

And here’s what they found…

They discovered that cerebral fructose levels rose significantly in response to a glucose infusion, with minimal changes in fructose levels in the blood. In other words, if you eat glucose, you raise your brain fructose levels.

Why?

Well, they say that a metabolic pathway known as the polyol pathway actually converts that glucose to the fructose that destroys the energy production of your mitochondria, killing off brain neurons, and kicking off the Alzheimer’s cascade.

This is super important since the scientists say, “Fructose in the brain is not simply due to dietary consumption of fructose, we’ve shown fructose can be generated from any sugar you eat.”

So, if you want to avoid Alzheimer’s and keep your brain cells healthy, in addition to the other known ways to cut down on your risk, limit your sugar consumption. This could help decrease the fructose production in your brain, protect its energy production and keep your neurons firing. In addition, sugar has been tied to many other diseases, including cancer. So, to keep your brain and your health, less sugar is a no-brainer.

Sources:

Fructose is generated in the human brain — ScienceDaily

Fructose made in the brain could be a mechanism driving Alzheimer’s disease, researchers propose — ScienceDaily

The post Sugar in the brain may initiate Alzheimer’s appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And while the symptoms of the disease, from pain and cramping to diarrhea and fatigue, are bad enough — every IBD sufferer also faces a dramatically increased risk of colon cancer.

This skyrocketing risk is due to the long-term, chronic inflammation of the gut.

Sadly, while the No. 1 question of most people with IBD is “What can I do about it?” — especially when it comes to diet — the medical community has really not had any hard and fast answers.

It’s really been up to the people living with the disease to determine what foods make them feel worse, upping their inflammation and their cancer risk.

Now, however, thanks to research, we know a little more about what not to eat if you have inflammatory bowel disease. Fair warning — your kitchen and your diet are probably packed with it!

Altering gut bacteria and inflaming the bowel

The study, performed by a team of researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, tested three mouse models of IBD.

The researchers fed the mice high amounts of fructose, a common sugar, and guess what…

Across the board, fructose made inflammation of the colon far worse.

In fact, according to the scientists, a high fructose diet resulted in “notable effects in their gut bacteria including changes in their type, metabolism and localization within the colon.”

But even more, fructose may very well be the cause of rapidly growing cases of IBD…

“The increasing incidence of IBD parallels higher levels of fructose consumption in the United States and other countries,” says David Montrose, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and faculty researcher in the Stony Brook University Cancer Center. “Our findings provide evidence of a direct link between dietary fructose and IBD and support the concept that high consumption of fructose could worsen disease in people with IBD. This is important because it has the potential to provide guidance on diet choices for IBD patients, something that is currently lacking.”

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Ditch IBD by going fructose-free

This means that for anyone living with IBD, a sure way to calm that inflammation and reduce the pain and suffering is to take fructose out of the equation.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done, but not impossible — and certainly worth the effort to improve the quality of life for anyone living with this condition.

Fructose is in a huge, ever-increasing number of the foods (and drinks) that most of us consume on a daily basis.

Dietary sources of fructose include:

• High fructose corn syrup — This common fructose source is lurking in candy, sodas, sweetened juices, packaged baked goods, condiments like ketchup and salad dressings, crackers, granola and nutrition bars, and nut butters. Bottom line: if it’s prepackaged, it’s highly likely it contains fructose.
• Fruits and vegetables — Fruits and even some veggies contain fructose. But the ones with the highest levels of fructose are apples, grapes, watermelon, pears, plums, asparagus, sugar snap peas, artichokes, cauliflower, mushrooms and zucchini.
• Sweeteners — Honey, maple and agave syrup are also hidden sources of fructose.
• Chewing gum — Most chewing gums contain fructose or sugar alcohols that can worsen symptoms of IBD.
• Jams and marmalades — Made with fructose-rich fruits, jams and marmalades are a no-go if you’re trying to avoid the sugar.
• Sweet wines — Dessert wines such as muscatel, port and sherry sport a high fructose content.
• Miscellaneous — Also check ingredient lists for crystalline fructose, sorbitol, fructooligosaccharides, corn syrup solids and sugar alcohols.

So, if you’re living with IBD, whether Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis, that is the list of foods you want to avoid.

One diet that follows along the lines of avoiding those foods is the FODMAP diet. FODMAP is an acronym that stands for Fermentable Oligo-Di-Monosaccharides and Polyols.

It’s a mouthful, but it’s basically the more scientific name for different carbohydrates (sugars) found in foods — specifically fructose, lactose, fructans, galactans and polyols.

IBS sufferers following the low FODMAP diet were also more likely to report a major improvement in their quality of life than those in the control group following a common sense “healthy” diet: 61 percent versus 27 percent.

For more details on following a FODMAP diet, visit this link at IBS Diets.

Sources:

Study reveals dietary fructose heightens inflammatory bowel disease — EurekAlert!

Fructose content of food — Food Intolerance Diagnostics

Fructose intolerance: Which foods to avoid? — Mayo Clinic

What foods contain high fructose corn syrup? — MedicalNewsToday

Fructose-Restricted Diet — UW Health

Diet and Inflammatory Bowel Disease — NCBI

Inflammatory Bowel Disease Prevalence (IBD) in the United States — CDC

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) — Mayo Clinic

Clinical trial demonstrates success of low FODMAP diet — Michigan Medicne

The post The one ingredient that could turn around inflammatory bowel disease appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Research shows that fructose triggers the accumulation of fat in the liver… and even the ancient Egyptians knew it. They used to feed ducks and geese dried fruit (which contains fructose) to make their version of foie gras (fattened duck or goose liver).

Of course, nowadays fructose from fruit is less of a problem than all the added fructose we get in our diets. Americans have been eating a ton of fructose since the 1970s when high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) started popping up in everything from cereals to soft drinks to ketchup to crackers.

And new research shows that this excessive dose of dietary fructose could be triggering a chain of events that leads to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which can then lead to liver damage, liver cancer or even liver failure.

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Fructose fuels leaky gut and liver fat

A recent study from researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine shows that fructose may cause leaky gut, which triggers non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

In the study, researchers fed mice an excessive amount of fructose to see what effect it had on their livers. The mice received an amount of fructose that was equivalent to the 95th percentile of relative fructose intake by American adolescents, who get up to 21.5 percent of their daily calories from fructose.

They found that this excessive fructose consumption caused the gut barrier — which prevents bacteria and other microbes from escaping into the blood — to deteriorate. When this barrier is compromised, those microbes escape and trigger a chronic inflammatory condition called endotoxemia. Endotoxemia has been found in animals and children with NAFLD in previous studies.

When the microbes from the gut (also known as endotoxins) reach the liver, they triggered the creation of more inflammatory cytokines in the liver. They also caused the liver to turn fructose and glucose into fatty acid deposits.

So, in other words, researchers believe fructose’s impact on the gut barrier is the main reason it fuels NAFLD. If it didn’t compromise the gut lining, it wouldn’t trigger those extra fat deposits that eventually turn in to fatty liver disease.

“It is very clear that fructose does its dirty work in the intestine,” said senior study author Michael Karin, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Pathology at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “and if intestinal barrier deterioration is prevented, the fructose does little harm to the liver.”

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Eliminate added fructose and get your gut barrier in shape

According to past research, fructose increases liver fat two to three times more than glucose does. So even though limiting all sweets is a good idea, if you want to prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, focusing on fructose is a great first step.

Like I said earlier, you probably don’t have to worry about the fructose found in fruit. As long as you’re not consuming a ton of fructose in processed foods, the fructose in fruit shouldn’t trigger any liver problems. Plus, fruit is filled with antioxidants, fiber and nutrients that support overall health.

So, start making a serious effort to avoid high fructose corn syrup and other forms of added fructose in the foods you buy. Based on this study, you’ll also want to take action to support a healthy intestinal barrier too.

One of the best ways to do that is to eat more fiber. One study found that eating more fiber strengthened the gut barrier by 50 percent. You may also want to try a spore-based probiotic. Research shows that it can reduce the number of toxins seeping into the blood from the gut by 42 percent.

Sources:

Excessive fructose consumption may cause a leaky gut, leading to fatty liver disease — EurekAlert!

Fructose and Sugar: A Major Mediator of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease — Journal of Hepatology.

The post How to keep fructose from setting off a chain reaction that leads to liver disease appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

If you don’t know me or haven’t read much from me, this might sound extreme. However, the truth is that heart disease runs so rampant in my family — leading to bypasses, heart attacks and death — that being vigilant has to come with the territory.

As you probably know, one of the biggest indicators that you’re at risk for heart disease is problems with your cholesterol (known by doctors as dyslipidemia). It’s a problem that affects roughly half of American adults!

You’re at high risk for joining those ranks if you:

• Smoke
• Have diabetes
• Are obese
• Don’t exercise
• Are older

A new study is showing that there’s one more factor that you need to be aware of that could be increasing your chances of ending up with dyslipidemia and the heart disease that comes with it. It’s something you could be drinking on a daily basis.

Low good cholesterol and high triglycerides

The study, led by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, analyzed data from more than 5,900 people and compared changes in blood cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations between exams.

This analysis was no flash in the pan. It was part of the Framingham Heart Study, which has monitored multiple generations to identify contributors to heart disease. In fact, each participant was followed for approximately 12 years, with cholesterol tests at four-year intervals.

What were the researchers looking for with this part of the study?

How different types of beverages affect your cholesterol levels and by how much.

And it’s a good thing that the Tufts team decided to follow this line of research because they discovered a big offender…

Sugary drinks.

Yes, the researchers found that people who drank at least one sugary beverage a day had a frightening 98 percent higher chance of developing low HDL (good) cholesterol — that’s the kind that actually protects your heart. They also had a full 53 percent higher chance of developing high triglycerides, the compounds that harden your arteries and lead to inflammation.

Basically, any drink with added sugar, such as soda, lemonade or fruit punch was a problem.

When asked about the results of the study, first author Danielle Haslam put it this way, “Our findings contribute to the mounting evidence that sugary drinks should be avoided to help maintain long-term health.”

What would they suggest? Water.

Drinking for a healthier heart

If you want to stay heart-healthy, clearly those sugar-laden beverages are your enemy and you should avoid them in favor of the researchers’ recommendations of water, water and more water.

But how about adding some cholesterol-lowering tea bags?

Numerous teas (minus the sugar) have been researched and found to help lower cholesterol levels, among many other health benefits.

Here are two of my favorites:

Ginger tea: A study conducted at Babol University of Medical Sciences in Iran found that ginger was able to significantly reduce LDL cholesterol and raise HDL levels, compared to a placebo. And an animal study showed that ginger was almost as effective as the cholesterol medication atorvastatin in improving cholesterol levels.

Green tea: A recent study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association points to green tea’s ability to keep cholesterol under control as well.

Chinese researchers followed 80,182 men and women for a period of six years to determine if drinking green tea benefited HDL cholesterol levels. After accounting for other lifestyle factors such as exercise, diet, drinking and smoking, researchers concluded that drinking green tea slowed down the natural decrease in HDL cholesterol levels, especially in people who drank tea more often.

Sources:

1. High Cholesterol-Symptoms — Mayo Clinic
2. Sugary drinks a sour choice for adults trying to maintain normal cholesterol levels — EurekaAlert
3. 4 teas that naturally balance cholesterol — Easy Health Options
4. Triglycerides: What do they matter? — Mayo Clinic

The post The cholesterol danger in every cup appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Snacking on donuts, cookies, cakes, sugary cereals and other sweets too often is bad for every organ and system in your body — especially your liver.

High sugar intake is directly linked to liver cancer, liver scarring and fatty liver disease — a condition that can lead to cirrhosis. But there is a zero-calorie savior that can satisfy your sweet tooth and save your liver — stevia.

In case you’re not familiar with stevia, it’s a natural sugar alternative that comes from a shrub called Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. Stevia is 200 to 300 times sweeter than regular sugar, which means you need far less of it to provide the same level of sweetness. It also contains no calories, and it doesn’t cause the same blood sugar spike conventional sugar does.

All this makes stevia a good sugar replacement for people looking to cut calories, lose weight and keep their blood sugar in check. But stevia’s benefits go beyond its ability to satisfy a sweet tooth without calories or a blood sugar spike. It’s also been linked to a reduced risk of pancreatic cancer, better blood pressure and even an ability to kill the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

Now, based on a brand-new study, researchers believe stevia might be able to prevent fatty liver disease and even reverse some of the damage that it causes too.

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How stevia slays fatty liver disease

A recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports found that stevia can reduce the signs of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a condition where the liver stores too much fat. Diet plays a big role in the development of this disease, particularly diets filled with processed and sugary foods. So, researchers wanted to see what effect (if any) the alternative sweeteners stevia and sucralose had on the liver.

They compared the effects of each of these sweeteners to the effects of sugar, and here’s what they found…

Stevia lowered glucose levels and reduced the markers of fatty liver disease. The markers it had the greatest impact on were fibrosis (the formation of scar tissue on the liver) and fat levels in the liver. That means stevia has the potential to reverse the negative effects of fatty liver disease. Pretty amazing, huh?

But how does stevia help heal a fatty liver, exactly?

Researchers don’t know for sure. But they noticed that stevia decreased the signs of cellular stress and triggered positive changes in the gut microbiome, so they suspect it has something to do with those changes. And just so you know, sucralose didn’t have the same benefits.

Sources:

1. Non-caloric sweetener reduces signs of fatty liver disease in preclinical research study — MedicalXpress.
2. Rebaudioside affords hepatoprotection ameliorating sugar sweetened beverage- induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis — Scientific Reports.
3. What is stevia? — Medical News Today.
4. 12 Foods to Help Fatty Liver Reversal — Healthline.
5. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease — Mayo Clinic.
6. Everything You Need to Know About Stevia — Healthline.

The post Stevia: The natural, zero-calorie sweetener that slays fatty liver appeared first on Easy Health Options®.