Who likes Peanut Butter?

Benefits of Eating Peanut Butter

Peanut butter, once a scourge among healthy eating advocates, is now a darling of the nutrition community. High in protein and "good" fats, this once-humble sandwich spread is now known to help prevent or reduce type 2 diabetes, gallstones, cancer and cholesterol. It can even help your sex life! Adding peanut butter to your diet is a smart, healthy choice.

Cholesterol

Most of the fats contained in peanut butter are monounsaturated fats (MUFA), which lower "bad" cholesterol (low-density lipids) and raise high-density lipids (HDL), the "good" cholesterol, according to the according to the Mayo Clinic. MUFAs found in peanut butter improve anti-inflammatory abilities in HDL.

Diabetes

According to research by the Harvard School of Public Health, published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association," peanut butter helps significantly reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Eating an ounce of peanut butter, five times per week, helps decrease the risk of developing this serious disease by as much as 27 percent.
Heart Disease

According to the Peanut Institute, studies like the Physicians Health Study, Iowa Women's Health Study and Adventists Health Study, found nut consumption, including peanuts, reduced the risk of heart disease by as much as 25 percent.
Fiber

Peanut butter is high in dietary fiber, which reduces instances of colorectal cancer and regulates blood sugar and cholesterol. Fiber also helps prevent atherosclerosis, which leads to hardening of the arteries.
Vitamins & Minerals

Peanut butter is about 24 percent protein by weight, and is a good source of Vitamins E and B6, iron, folate, niacin, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, manganese and calcium. Niacin plays an important function in the secretion of sexual hormones, and the "Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry" reported that niacin provides protection against Alzheimer's.
Resveratrol

Peanut butter contains resveratrol, an antimicrobial agent that helps fight bacteria, viruses and molds. According to the Peanut Institute, research on resveratrol and mice has found benefits including anti-aging, cancer prevention and anti-inflammation.
Gallstones

A Nurse's Health Study found that women who at ate least 1 oz. of nuts or peanut butter each week decreased gallstone development by 25 percent compared to those women who did not eat nuts.

The Anabolic Breakfast

Start your day with an Anabolic Breakfast!

While you’ve likely heard breakfast is the most important meal of the day, let’s be realistic for a second. No meal is more special than the next; what you do during the course of the day or week is what matters most. Now, for those who love their breakfast, some recent research suggests you may want to rethink the amount of carbohydrates you include in that first meal. Your breakfast should be based on your current performance or physique goals.

You should also try to find something that you enjoy and won’t have a problem being consistent with. I recommend a high-protein breakfast with a moderate amount of dietary fat from medium-chain triglycerides, or MCTs. Here’s why: A recent study compared the results from three different breakfasts to determine how “anabolic” they are. The participants of the study had either protein only or protein plus carbohydrates, or fasted during breakfast.

The protein-only and fasting groups displayed significant increases in growth hormone, whereas the protein-plus-carbohydrate individuals showed no changes. Growth hormone is an essential part of your muscle-building goals, as it helps to spare amino acids in the body. Also, cortisol— your stress hormone—was lowered the most in the protein-only breakfast. So why include the MCTs? Medium-chain triglycerides are easily absorbed fats that, unlike normal triglycerides, can be used immediately for energy. Studies on MCT usage have shown increases in growth hormone, more fat being used for energy, and an increase in metabolism. Having some fat at breakfast may also shift the body toward using more fat as fuel during the course of the day.

ANABOLIC BREAKFAST OPTIONS

Coconut Oil: High in MCTs (66%), specifically lauric acid, which helps with cholesterol.

Organic Eggs: High in protein (and its associated leucine) as well as healthy dietary fat, which is high in omega-3s.

MCT Oil: Made of 100% MCTs and very easy to throw into a protein shake if you’re in a hurry.

Grass-Fed Beef: When cooked in coconut oil, it tastes amazing and delivers the protein and nutrients you need to grow muscle.

Any High-Quality, Low-Carb Protein Powder: Mix with water and a serving of MCT oil if time is an issue.

Fact: The MCT s in coconut oil have been shown to increase HDL (good) cholesterol, which can improve your overall cholesterol ratio.

Understanding Your Calories

Fact: It not about counting Calories it's understanding what those calories really are and how your digestive system reacts to them!

To Optimize Your Health, Pay Attention to the SOURCE of Your Calories

In order to curb the current obesity epidemic, we do not need more accurate reporting of calories; we need to start focusing on eating the right kind of calories. I firmly believe that the primary keys for successful weight management and optimal health are:

1. Severely restricting carbohydrates (sugars, fructose, and grains) in your diet
2. Increasing healthy fat consumption
3. Unlimited consumption of non starchy vegetables. Because they are so low calorie, the majority of the food on your plate will be vegetables
4. Limit the use of protein to less than one gram per pound of lean body mass weight, not total body weight. In order to know this you must know your body fat percentage.

Healthful fat can be rich in calories, but these calories will not affect your body in the same way as calories from non-vegetable carbs. As explained by Dr. Robert Lustig, fructose in particular is "isocaloric but not isometabolic." This means you can have the same amount of calories from fructose or glucose, fructose and protein, or fructose and fat, but the metabolic effect will be entirely different despite the identical calorie count. Eating dietary fat isn’t what’s making you pack on the pounds. It’s the sugar/fructose and grains that are adding the padding.

So please, don’t fall for the low-fat myth, as this too is a factor in the rise in chronic health problems such as heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Your brain, heart and cardiovascular system need healthy fat for optimal functioning. In fact, emerging evidence suggests most people need at least half of their daily calories from healthy fat, and possibly as high as 70 percent. Add to that a small to medium amount of high-quality protein and plenty of vegetables. You actually need very few carbs besides vegetables; so you see, the federal guidelines are about as lopsided as they could be... pushing you toward obesity and poor health, if you follow them.

Hunger Can Be Used as a Guide to Determine How Much Fat You Need

Many do not realize this, but frequent hunger may be a major clue that you're not eating correctly and are using carbs as your primary fuel. Not only is it an indication that you're consuming the wrong types of food, but it's also a sign that you're likely consuming them in lopsided ratios for your individual biochemistry, and the timing of your eating may benefit from adjustment. Fat is far more satiating than carbs, so if you have cut down on carbs and feel ravenous, thinking you "can't do without the carbs," remember this is a sign that you haven't replaced them with sufficient amounts of fat. So go ahead and add a bit more. You do want to make sure you're adding the correct types of fat though. And vegetable oils like canola and corn oil, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends is NOT on the healthy list… Sources of healthy fats include:

1. Olives and olive oil
2. Coconuts and coconut oil
3. Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
4. Raw nuts, such as almonds or pecans
5. Organic pastured egg yolks
6. Avocados
7. Grass-fed meats
8. Palm oil
9. Unheated organic nut oils

Another healthful fat you want to be mindful of is animal-based omega-3. Deficiency in this essential fat can cause or contribute to very serious health problems, both mental and physical, and may be a significant underlying factor of up to 96,000 premature deaths each year.


Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics

How Government Dietary Guidelines Promote Obesity & Chronic Disease

It’s important to realize that the government’s nutritional guidelines are in large part mirrored by agricultural subsidies. They’re NOT built upon sound nutritional science. In short, the reason you’re told to make grains the cornerstone of your diet is because that’s what farmers are paid to grow in the US. There’s a lot of it, and it’s inexpensive compared to healthier foods like vegetables, for which few subsidies are offered.

The wacky and nutritionally inappropriate 1992 Food Pyramid had grains as the largest bottom block of the pyramid, encouraging you to eat 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta each day. This excess of carbohydrates, most of them refined, is precisely the kind of diet that promotes fat accumulation and drives insulin resistance and related diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. At the very top of the pyramid was fats and sugar, and while sugar clearly belongs there, fats do not.

As mentioned earlier, most people would benefit from getting anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of their total calories from healthy fats. Saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources provide a number of important health benefits, and your body requires them for the proper function of your:

1. Cell membranes
2. Heart
3. Bones (to assimilate calcium)
4. Liver
5. Lungs
6. Hormones
7. Immune system
8. Satiety (reducing hunger)
9. Genetic regulation

The food pyramid was replaced with “MyPlate” in 2011, which slightly downplayed grains as the most important dietary ingredient, making vegetables the largest “slice.” One of its most glaring problems with MyPlate is that it virtually removed all fats from the equation! In fact, except for a small portion of dairy, which is advised to be fat-free or low-fat, fats are missing entirely.

There is no mention of the importance of dietary fats, even the "politically correct" ones like the monounsaturated fats in olive oil and nuts, such as pecans (canola oil is also in this category, but I advise avoiding it and using coconut oil instead). Even one of the most critical of all fats is absent from the plate, namely animal-based omega-3 fats. Deficiency in this essential fat can cause or contribute to very serious health problems, both mental and physical, and may be a significant underlying factor of up to 96,000 premature deaths each year.

Studies Showing Saturated Fat is Not Associated with Increased Heart Disease Risk

As mentioned earlier, mounting scientific evidence supports saturated fat as a necessary part of a heart healthy diet, and firmly debunks the myth that saturated fat promotes heart disease. For example:

In a 1992 editorial published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr. William Castelli, a former director of the Framingham Heart study, stated:

"In Framingham, Mass., the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol. The opposite of what… Keys et al would predict…We found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active."

A 2010 meta-analysis, which pooled data from 21 studies and included nearly 348,000 adults, found no difference in the risks of heart disease and stroke between people with the lowest and highest intakes of saturated fat.
Another 2010 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a reduction in saturated fat intake must be evaluated in the context of replacement by other macronutrients, such as carbohydrates.

When you replace saturated fat with a higher carbohydrate intake, particularly refined carbohydrate, you exacerbate insulin resistance and obesity, increase triglycerides and small LDL particles, and reduce beneficial HDL cholesterol. The authors state that dietary efforts to improve your cardiovascular disease risk should primarily emphasize the limitation of refined carbohydrate intake, and weight reduction.

Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics

Why You Should Never Eat Processed Foods Again

Resisting the urge to drink that soda pop or eat those chips can be tough, especially if you have grown accustomed to eating these highly addictive foods as part of your normal diet. But once you understand a little bit more about how these and other processed foods affect your mind, body, and even your soul, it becomes easier to make healthier food choices that enrich your being rather than sap it. Here are nine motivating reasons why you should cut processed foods from your diet for good:

1. Processed foods are highly addictive. Your body processes whole foods much differently than it does refined, processed, and heavily-modified "junk" foods. Processed foods tend to overstimulate the production of dopamine, also known as the "pleasure" neurotransmitter, which makes you crave them constantly. Your body ends up not being able to resist the temptation to continue eating junk foods in excess, which can lead to obesity and other health problems.
2. Processed foods often contain phosphates that destroy your organs, bones. Many processed foods contain phosphate additives that augment taste, texture, and shelf-life. But these additives are known to cause health problems like rapid aging, kidney deterioration and weak bones, according to the Rodale Institute, which makes foods that contain them far less attractive to those in the know.
3. Fresh foods are actually cheaper than processed foods. People with junk food addictions often claim that fresh, healthy foods are too expensive. But according to numerous studies and assessments, whole foods made from scratch end up costing less per serving than their unhealthy, processed equivalents. According to Rodale, a single serving of 100 percent organic chili made with fresh ingredients and grass-fed beef, for instance, is about 50 cents cheaper to make than buying a can of chemical-laden, microwaveable chili from the grocery store.
4. Processed foods cause chronic inflammation. One of the leading causes of chronic illness today is inflammation. And studies continue to show that refined sugars, processed flours, vegetable oils, and many other nasty ingredients commonly found in processed foods are largely responsible for this inflammation epidemic. So the next time your body craves a candy bar or a box of cheese crackers, consider the fact that heart disease, dementia, neurological problems, respiratory failure, and cancer have all been linked to the chronic inflammation caused by processed food consumption.
5. Processed foods ruin digestion. Because they have been stripped of their natural fibers, enzymes, vitamins, and other nutrients, processed foods tend to wreak havoc on the digestive tract. Chronic consumption of such foods can throw your internal ecosystem off balance, harming beneficial bacteria and exposing your system to infection. So you can basically think of those gummy bears and that piece of cake as literal poison for your system, which may help deter you from eating them.
6. Processed foods destroy your mind. If you suffer from chronic bouts of brain "fog," or have difficulty concentrating and thinking normally, chances are your diet has something to do with it. And a recent study out of Oxford University lends credence to this possibility, having found that junk food consumption can cause people to become angry and irritable. Nutrient-dense whole foods, on the other hand, can help level out your mood, sustain your energy levels, and leave you feeling calmer and more collected.
7. Processed foods are loaded with GMOs. The basic buildings blocks of most processed foods on the market today are derived from laboratories, not nature. Genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), which have been linked to infertility, organ damage, gastrointestinal disorders, and cancer, are prolific in processed foods. Excess consumption of these poisons promotes weight gain, acidifies your blood, and can even permanently alter the composition and function of your intestinal flora.
8. Processed foods are loaded with pesticides. In order to effectively grow the GMOs used in processed foods, conventional farmers have to apply Roundup (glyphosate) and other pesticides and herbicides, many of which end up in the final product. According to data compiled by Rodale, breakfast cereals alone have been found to contain up to 70 different types of pesticides, including warehouse fumigation chemicals and other residues.
9. Processed foods are not actually food. One of the ways you can assess the nutritional value of food is to see how animals, insects, bacteria, and fungi respond to it. Real foods will actually rot or grow mold, for instance, while fake, processed foods remain largely the same in appearance and shape no matter what their age. As we reported recently, processed food is essentially synthetic, and the industry that produces it admits that heavy tampering and crafty modifications are necessary to make it taste real, even though it is not.

I know it's so easy just to pop food into a Microwave or drive though a fast food line at McDonald's many of us use the excuse that we don't have time to cook. Well let me ask you this,"Do you have time to deal with cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure or a host of other diseases caused by eating these toxic foods?"

In the long run these foods are VERY EXPENSIVE, they ruin your health, and you spend a fortune trying to fix the damage caused by eating the toxic foods.

Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com 
Texas Metabolics

4 Oils That Should Be In Your Diet

1. Coconut Oil: Organic virgin coconut oil is one of the best choices of good fat you can add to your diet. Coconut oil contains 90% saturated fat and is made up of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) which are easily digestible and can drastically improve your health. MCFA’s are not stored as fat because they are immediately converted to energy once in the body. This oil is also very good to cook with because it remains stable even under high temperatures. Coconut oil contains lauric acid (a known immune stimulant), is rich in fiber, and contains essential vitamins and minerals. Organic raw unrefined extra virgin coconut oil is the best to use and should be solid at room temperature.

Benefits of consuming coconut oil include: Weight loss, immune system support, cardiovascular health, increased energy, thyroid support, healthy skin, hair and nails, improved cell regeneration, disables fungus, bacteria and viruses, improves insulin secretions and protection against free radicals, reduces inflammation throughout the body.

2. Hemp-seed Oil: Hemp Seed oil is derived from the seeds of the plant cannabis sativa. It provides all the essential fatty acids (EFA’s) and essential amino acids, structured in an easily digestible form to maintain human life. The oil is composed of 80% essential fatty acids, the highest in the plant kingdom. It contains the Omega 3,6 and 9 fatty acids. No other plant oil has a perfect 3:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 EFA’s. Hemp seed oil is also great for vegetarians because it provides them with healthy fatty acids without having to consume fish oil. Hemp-seed oil is also rich in vitamin E and is the only plant which provides a source of Vitamin D.

Benefits of consuming Hemp Seed oil include: Cardiovascular support, natural sunblock agent, helps high blood pressure, reduces PMS, reduces inflammation, lowers high cholesterol, calms arthritis, soothes eczema, assists the brain and nervous system, produces healthy cell membranes, healthy skin, nails and hair, and can be used as skin moisturizer without clogging pores.

3. Flax-seed Oil: Flax-seed oil is extracted from the seeds of the flax plant. This oil contains 55% of Omega 3 fatty acid by weight. Omega-3 refers to three types of fatty acids, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Once consumed, the human body converts ALA to EPA and DHA. This oil is also high in fiber and potassium. Flax-seed oil requires special packaging because it is easily destroyed by oxygen, heat and light. It is best to purchase organic flax-seed oil and keep it refrigerated to preserve freshness.

Benefits of consuming Flax-seed oil include: Helps Crohns disease, colitis, soothes intestinal walls, natural laxative, reduces high cholesterol, promotes healthy hair, nails and skin, reduces symptoms of menopause and helps burn body fat.

4. Olive Oil: Olive oil has been used as a medicine and health aid since it was first cultivated around 5000BC. It is a monounsaturated fat and contains vital vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants. Olive oil has a large amount of vitamins A, D, and K, as well as vitamin E, which are key sources needed to prevent free radical damage. When purchasing make sure the olive oil is organic, cold pressed and extra virgin.

Benefits of consuming olive oil include: Promotes healthy digestion, protects against heart disease, eases symptoms of gastritis and ulcers, lowers gallstone formation and reduces high cholesterol.

Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics