Tag: Nutrition

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Are You a Pre-Diabetic?

Microphone and computer; exercising consistent health habits.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:19 — 29.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

The Standard American Diet (SAD) typically consists of foods high in sugar, calories, carbohydrates, and bad fats, and low in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein. This diet has been linked to the development of many different health issues like diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and certain cancers. A diet high in sugar is especially harmful to someone with a family history of diabetes as they are usually at a higher risk of developing diabetes. With how common blood sugar issues are, you may be wondering if you are a pre-diabetic. In this episode we’ll discuss some common symptoms of blood sugar issues, and what you may be able to do help balance them.

Symptoms of Hypoglycemia:

  • Intense Hunger
  • Anxiety
  • Sweating, Including Night Sweats
  • Feeling Dizzy or Lightheaded
  • Becoming Fatigued
  • Trouble Sleeping
  • Feeling Irritable
  • Paleness in the Face
  • Headaches
  • Muscle Weakness
  • Brain Fog

One of the best things you can do to decrease your risk of developing diabetes (and for increased health overall) is to cut out processed and sugary foods, and replace them with whole foods like nuts and seeds, grass-fed meats, fruits and vegetables, and good fats like coconut and olive oil. You should also be as active as you can which can mean going to the gym, doing a workout or yoga routine at home, or going for a walk a few times a week. Eating a healthy, balanced diet and exercising regularly may also help you maintain a healthy weight which may further decrease your risk of developing diabetes and other health conditions.

Product Mentioned on Today’s Show:

Gluco Support – Supplies a powerful mix of nutrients and botanicals that efficiently help support normal glucose metabolism, structure and function of basement membranes such as nerve tissue, and insulin sensitivity.†

Lab Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Comprehensive Panel – Comprehensive Panel w Consult panel contains 13 tests with 102 biomarkers.

You can also listen to our Are You A Pre-Diabetic? episode on our YouTube channel here.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

The Aging Effects of Stress

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:21 — 28.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

Stress is affecting your quality of life by:

  • It is messing with your brain
  • Increases risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke
  • Stress dials down your immune system
  • Chronic stress contributes to aging
  • Contributing to weight gain and digestive disorders
  • Chronic stress affects your mood and relationships
  • Stress increases pain
  • Stress affects sexuality and reproductive functions
  • Chronic stress affects your skin, hair and teeth
  • Stress contributes to addiction

Product mentioned in today’s show:

Core Support – Core Support helps maintain Phase II detoxification by providing protein, fiber and nutrients to promote normal detoxification function.

Lab Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Comprehensive Panel – Comprehensive Panel w Consult panel contains 13 tests with 102 biomarkers.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Antinutrients and Nightshades

Antinutrients are compounds mostly found in foods and drinks that interfere with the body’s ability to absorb nutrients like certain vitamins and minerals. Legumes, grains, and nuts and seeds often have the highest concentration of antinutrients, but they can also be found in certain herbs, spices, and fruits and vegetables. There are many different types of antinutrients, but we are going to take a look at two of the most commonly discussed antinutrients: lectins and oxalates. Nightshades are a particularly common source of both lectins and oxalates, and many people eat at least one type of nightshade a day, but let’s take a look at the risks and benefits before you decide to cut them out of your diet.

Nightshades

Nightshades are a class of plants that includes many different types of flowers (including tobacco), trees, fruits, and vegetables. Foods like potatoes, tomatoes, chili powder, jalapenos and most other peppers (does not include black pepper), okra, some herbs like ashwagandha, and many other foods and spices are all part of the nightshade family. For many people, nightshades do not cause any issues, but for some they can act as an immune trigger. This is why most autoimmune protocols require you to eliminate all nightshades from your diet.

Symptoms of a sensitivity to nightshades can include gut issues like IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), muscle aches, joint pain, increased mucus production, and acid reflux/heartburn. Many food sensitivities exhibit these same symptoms, so it can be difficult to determine if nightshades are the culprit. However, if you have these symptoms and have tried eliminating other food groups and haven’t seen an improvement in your symptoms, then it may be worth a try. If you choose to eliminate these foods, you should find a complete list of nightshade foods and herbs and eliminate them completely for at least one month, including those found in medications and supplements. You should also substitute the foods you eliminate with equally nutritious foods like celery, sweet potatoes, oranges, cauliflower, melons, etc. After one month has passed, you can begin to add nightshades back in, one at a time, and see if you experience any reactions.

Lectins

Lectins are a type of antinutrient most commonly found in peanuts, beans, lentils, eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, and grains like wheat, corn, and quinoa, among others. Lectins can cause bloating, gas, and indigestion, and they can interfere with the body’s ability to absorb certain nutrients. They are also difficult to digest, and can “cling” to the intestinal wall. This is especially harmful if leaky gut is already present, which is the case for many people. The lectins are often able to pass through the damaged intestinal wall and get into the bloodstream. When this happens, the body recognizes the lectins as invaders, and mounts an immune response to fight them. The body may also begin producing antibodies made specifically for lectins. As we have discussed before, chronic immune responses and the subsequent inflammation is believed to be the main cause of many autoimmune diseases and certain types of cancer, so if you eat foods high in lectins daily like most people, you may have ongoing inflammation that could lead to more problems in the future.

Oxalates

Oxalates are another type of antinutrient that can be found in millet, spinach and other leafy green vegetables, chocolate, sweet potatoes, black tea, coffee, and many other foods and drinks. Oxalates tend to bind to calcium, preventing it from completely being absorbed, which can also lead to kidney stones. The most common type of kidney stones are calcium oxalate stones, which can occur when oxalates bind with calcium in the bloodstream and build up in the kidneys. A high-oxalate diet may also lead to increased inflammation, joint pain, and possibly decreased glutathione function. Glutathione is often called the “master antioxidant” due to its wide-range of detoxifying abilities, and is crucial to your health.

Our liver produces small amounts of oxalates, and there is some evidence that oxalates may have some benefits like helping to carry toxins out of the body, but this is not yet fully understood. Although it is impossible to completely eliminate oxalates from your diet because they are present in almost all plant-based foods, a low-oxalate diet may be especially beneficial for people who have had kidney stones.

It may feel like you can’t eat anything, but this isn’t true. The key is moderation, and you can enjoy foods that contain antinutrients (virtually all foods contain some), but they should be enjoyed in moderation and with plenty of variety. Taking digestive enzymes may also help your body break down and absorb nutrients more effectively, and GI Support may help decrease intestinal permeability which is a leading cause of allergies and other health issues. It is still important to eat plenty of organic fruits and vegetables, but try to limit the amount of raw vegetables you eat because they may be more difficult to digest and can contain more antinutrients than cooked versions. Also, remember to eat plenty of good fats, eliminate processed foods from your diet, and drink plenty of filtered water. Every little change helps!

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Oxalates, Lectins and Nightshades…Oh, My!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:42 — 29.0MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

An oxalate are chemical compounds found in many green vegetables and other “healthy” foods. Your body produces them as waste products as well.

Glutathione is your body’s master antioxidant and detoxifier. It is vital for metabolizing the toxins.

Some examples of the damage that can be done by glutathione deficiency include:

  • Inability to repair DNA
  • Toxin and heavy metal accumulation
  • Greatly reduced ability to detoxify
  • Reduced oxygen and nutrient supply to cells

Lack of glutathione and too many oxalates can create the following symptoms:

  • Kidney Stones
  • Burning Urination
  • Interstitial Cystitis
  • Chronic Candida
  • COPD/Asthma
  • Chronic Fatigue
  • Cystic Fibrosis
  • Hormonal Balance
  • Child Developmental Disorders, including Autism

Products mentioned in today’s show:

GlutaShield – The ingredients in GlutaShield help regenerate and maintain GI enterocytes while supporting the health of the intestinal mucosal barrier.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Probiotics – The Next Big Thing!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:15 — 29.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

5 Benefits of a Probiotic Supplement:

  • Improves Mental Health
  • Supports Digestion
  • Boosts Immune Function
  • Promote Weight Loss
  • Enhances Skin Health

How do you choose the right probiotic?

  • Brand Quality
  • High CFU count
  • Survivability and strain diversity
  • Prebiotics and supplementary ingredients
  • Stability and organism types
  • Sugar
  • Living vs. dead

Probiotics mentioned in todays show:

Probiotic 225 – is a maximum-strength probiotic for cases of acute gastrointestinal (GI) and immune challenges. Going beyond the threshold of traditional probiotic support, high dose probiotics influence gut health and immunity in ways lower-dose probiotics cannot. Shown to activate over 1,700 genes involved in immune and inflammatory signaling, high-dose probiotics support a healthy, balanced immune response. Delivering 225 billion active probiotic cultures per packet, Probiotic 225 creates a rapid response to reset the immune system and maintain normal inflammatory balance.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Common Nutritional Mistakes

Piles of vegetables as an example of good nutrition; common nutritional mistakes.

Health and nutrition recommendations are always changing, with new fads and ideas emerging every week, before research can be done to determine whether they are true or not. Some advice that has been around for years has been proven wrong, but many people continue to follow the advice and pass it on to others. With heart disease, cancer, and other health conditions on the rise, we should consider the idea that some of the recommendations that have been in place for years might not be the healthiest. Let’s look at some common nutritional mistakes, and what you can do instead.

Diet and Supplements

Let’s start by addressing the idea that taking enough supplements can offset the effects of a bad diet. Many people believe that they can eat what they want, and take enough supplements to fill in gaps in nutrition and prevent damage from processed foods, but this is not true. Supplements are a great way to get in nutrients that are difficult to get enough of through diet, and they are a great way to take in things you wouldn’t normally eat. For example, milk thistle is great for the liver, but it’s not something you typically see people add to their salad, so taking milk thistle as a supplement is a great way to get it into your body, but supplements should not be your main source of nutrients. You should get the majority of necessary vitamins, minerals, protein, and good fats from organic, whole foods, and you could supplement this diet with a good multivitamin, fish oil, and a probiotic. There is nothing that can completely offset the effects of a poor diet. A healthy, well-rounded diet is crucial to good health.

Saturated Fat

Many people have heard that saturated fat is bad for you, with some saying it’s the worst kind of fat, but this is not true. There have been many studies conducted on the connection between heart disease and saturated fat intake, and they have actually found good saturated fat – like the kind that comes from coconut oil and olive oil – may even protect the heart in some ways. Good fats also benefit hormone levels because fat is needed to synthezise hormones. However, there are still bad fats, things like trans fat and vegetable oils should not be consumed. Dietary fat should come from wild-caught fish, avocadoes, olive oil, coconut oil, and nuts and seeds. Red meat should be grass-fed and consumed in moderation, and farmed and imported seafood should be avoided.

Organic Foods

Some people believe that it is not worth the extra money to buy organic produce instead of conventional produce, but the dangers of pesticides are underestimated. Some experts believe that pesticides may be the most dangerous toxin we encounter due to how common they are. Pesticide exposure has been linked to many different health conditions including certain autoimmune conditions and cancers. Children may be especially sensitive to pesticides and other toxins because they do not have fully developed detoxification pathways. Organic produce is usually more expensive than conventional produce, but it is worth the money. You may be able to save money on organic produce and foods by shopping at your local farmer’s market, and taking advantage of sales and coupons when they’re available.

The importance of an organic, whole foods diet cannot be overstated, and supplements cannot offset a poor diet. You should focus on eating organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed and pasture-raised meats, healthy fats like those found in coconut oil and olive oil, and doing light to moderate exercise at least three times a week. You can also add supplements like fish oil, a multivitamin, a probiotic, and others depending on your personal health goals. A good way to sift through the health trends and misinformation, and avoid common nutritional mistakes, is to think about what people ate before refined sugar was widely available: lots of fruits, vegetables, fats, and meats.

You can listen to our podcasts here. You can also listen on our YouTube channel here.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Gut Health and Osteoporosis

Around 54 million Americans have osteoporosis or are at risk of developing it, and many other people are dealing with bone and teeth loss due to age, poor nutrition, and even gut health. Most people don’t consider gut health when they think of osteoporosis and other bone issues, but it can actually play a large role. More and more research is confirming that almost everything is connected to the gut, so let’s see how poor gut health can contribute to bone loss and osteoporosis.

Nutrition

Good nutrition is the key to good health, but very few people consistently get enough nutrients. The vitamin and mineral content of produce has been decreasing throughout the last few decades, and some studies have found you must eat six to eight times as much of the same fruit to get the nutrition you would have gotten from one serving just fifty years ago. With most people struggling to eat even one serving of fruits or vegetables a day, you can see how easy it is to get nutritional deficiencies. This is one of the reasons why we believe so strongly in supplements. You can still get some nutrients from fruits and vegetables, and it is still important to eat them, but it’s difficult to get enough vitamins and minerals from food grown today, this is why supplementing with certain vitamins and minerals is often necessary for optimal health.

Calcium and Vitamin K

When you think of bone health you probably think of calcium, but calcium is not as important to bone health as many people think. Calcium is only one of several things you need to build and maintain strong bones, and getting too much calcium without the other necessary vitamins and minerals can actually be harmful. Having too much calcium in your blood may contribute to the development of atherosclerosis by hardening areas of plaque in your arteries, which also leads to an increased risk of heart attacks. High calcium levels may also weaken your bones, and increase your risk of developing kidney stones. However, getting enough vitamin K in your diet through food and/or supplements may help prevent calcium from damaging your arteries by keeping calcium in your bones, and keeping it out of blood vessel, but it’s difficult to get enough vitamin K through diet alone, and elevated calcium levels are a fairly common issue. This is why it’s important to get blood work done every six months to a year to ensure your calcium levels are staying within a healthy range.

Calcium and Magnesium

Magnesium also plays an important role in bone health (osteoporosis is a listed side effect of magnesium deficiency) by helping calcium get absorbed, this is why calcium-magnesium supplements are recommended more often than supplements containing just calcium. Without enough magnesium, calcium can end up not getting absorbed into the bones properly, which can cause it to accumulate in joints and certain areas of soft tissue, potentially leading to a type of arthritis. Magnesium deficiency is fairly common (deficiencies in general quite common today), and may cause symptoms like irregular heartbeat, muscle cramps, fatigue, muscle twitches, weakness, high blood pressure, etc. Magnesium is also essential for heart health, and many people have reported better sleep, less heart palpitations, less anxiety and depression, and fewer muscle cramps after supplementing with magnesium.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is another vitamin that’s necessary for bone health, among many other things. Almost every patient we see has a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiencies can be caused by little time spent in the sun, poor diet, and poor nutrient absorption. Vitamin D is necessary for the proper absorption of calcium and for maintaining healthy levels of calcium and phosphate. Supplementing with Vitamin D may help improve bone and tooth health, immune system function, and thyroid function.

What About Gut Health?

After all this talk of the nutrients you need for bone health, you may be wondering what your gut has to do with it, but it’s also very important. Your stomach and intestines are responsible for digestion, nutrient absorption, and waste elimination, but if one or more of these processes are not optimal, you can end up suffering from bone loss and other issues. Here’s why: Your stomach must be able to break down foods into nutrients, but most people don’t have enough digestive enzymes, or enough stomach acid to properly break down their food. If food isn’t broken down correctly, your body cannot absorb all of the nutrients. So, you could be eating tons of organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed meat, and good fats, but still be suffering from deficiencies. This is why we stress the importance of taking digestive enzymes with each meal, so your body can break the food down and actually absorb what it needs to. You can increase stomach ac

Low stomach acid is another common cause of poor nutrient absorption. Without enough stomach acid, your body cannot properly break down food. Symptoms of low stomach acid can include heartburn, bloating, gas, diarrhea, dry skin, hair loss, skin rashes, leaky gut syndrome, and several others. Many people think that their heartburn/acid reflux is caused by too much stomach acid, but it is often found to be caused by too little stomach acid. Low stomach acid can be a complicated problem to explain and treat, but supplementing with betaine and pepsin is a great way to combat it.

Supplements

We have several supplements for bone health, osteoporosis, and digestion. These include:

  • K-Force – contains vitamin D and vitamin K that work together to ensure calcium is absorbed properly.
  • Calcium-Magnesium – Contains calcium and magnesium which work together to ensure the calcium is absorbed into the bones.
  • Strontium – Contains strontium which may work together with calcium to increase bone density, and may help slow bone loss.
  • OsteoBase – Essentially a multivitamin for your bones; contains vitamin D, vitamin K, calcium, phoshporus, and magnesium.https://www.greenwisdomhealth.com/product/strontium-60ct/
  • Ortho Digestzyme – Digestive enzymes containing betaine, pepsin, bromelain and several other things that may aid in the breakdown of foods, and may help increase stomach acid.
  • Innate 50-14 – Probiotic containing 14 different strains of bacteria, and 50 billion total bacteria in each capsule that may help improve overall gut health and immune system function.

Fortunately, many of the things that contribute to bone loss and osteoporosis can be lessened through diet and lifestyle changes, and supplementing with the correct nutrients. So, eat a well-rounded diet, exercise often, and take your supplements!

Statements about products and information on this website have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant or nursing consult a healthcare provider before use.