What I'm Up To...

I absolutely treasure my relationship with my mailing list. As some of you know, I answer my emails, and try to stay in touch with as many of you as possible. I'll only send you "email blasts" about products I use, believe in, or support wholeheartedly. And because I do feel "close" to those who trust me enough to read my newsletters, blogs (here and on the Huffington Post), watch my videos (here and on www.eatdrinkordie.com) and come to my workshops and talks, I hope you won't feel it's presumptuous of me to keep you up to date about what I'm doing personally and professionally.

So here goes.

My new book, "The Healthiest Meals on Earth" comes out in July, and is based on the concept of the Polymeal. (I'll be featuring some recipes in future newsletters.) And I'm putting the finishing touches on my book, "The Most Effective Natural Ways to Boost Energy" which will be out in January 2009.

I'm delighted (and honored) to say that I was invited to be on the Editorial Advisory Board of Men's Health, one of the best magazines in the country when it comes to reporting on health for the general public. And we're in the final stages of putting together the contract for me to be an official America Online Coach. I'll let you know when that happens, hopefully very soon.

I'm also about to begin work on a certification program for Weight Loss Coaches that will be offered through Coach Training Alliance. We'll be using the current "Art and Science of Weight Loss Coaching" as a text. If you're a health professional, or interested in doing some work in your community in the field of weight loss coaching, I'd love you to check it out. And I continue to work with my partners at The Handel Group to develop awesome coaching programs not only for weight loss alone, but for personal development and growth.

Meanwhile, I'd love to hear from you!

You know, people like me spend a lot of time trying to give our audience what they need and want, but we're often guessing what that is. I figure the best way to find out is to ask! So I'm asking: What would you most like to hear from me? What information do you find most helpful? What would you like to see in future newsletters?

I want to know, and I'd love to hear from you!

As always, let me know what you think.

Warmly
Jb

Natural Supplements Suffer Another Biased Media Report

My friend, Tara Parker Pope, one of the best science reporters in America, recently wrote a column in the New York Times on non-drug options for ADHD. About 2 and 1/2 million (!!) kids in the US alone take stimulant drugs for this condition. But nearly one-third experience really problematic side effects. As Ms. Pope points out, a 2001 report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that for more than 10 percent, the effects could be severe. (How severe? In 2006 the FDA ordered that Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta and other stimulants carry warnings of risk for sudden death, heart attacks and hallucinations in some patients.)

No wonder parents are looking for natural alternatives.

Many try dietary changes- giving up sugar, processed foods and food additives. Fish oil is one of the most promising. Andrew Stoll, MD at Harvard has found that nearly all these kids (as well as people with behavior and attention problems in general) are nearly all extremely low in omega-3's. (It's amazing the things that can improve when you take a gram or two of fish oil every day.) My friend Daniel Amen, MD, designed a supplement called Neuro-Link which can be very effective. It's designed to support neurological and cognitive function and optimize neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and GABA, and it's not just for kids.

But don't expect natural treatments to get a fair hearing in the press anytime soon. Recently, the conservative Journal of the American Medical Association- a major source for most of your doctor's information- published a study of St. John's Wort and concluded that it worked no better than a placebo to counter ADD. But, as Ms. Pope points out, the trial lasted only 8 weeks. Even prescription drugs can take up to three months to show a measurable effect.
Talk about stacking the deck.

But don't get me started.

I don't doubt that pharmaceuticals are life saving for some- emphasis on some- of these kids. But why not try a less problematic intervention first? I'd certainly try a whole foods diet, plenty of protein, no sugar or processed foods, fish oil and Neuro-Link before I went to a pharmaceutical that comes with a warning on the possibility of heart attacks and hallucinations.

Fruits and Vegetables for Muscle Mass?

It's no news to anyone reading this newsletter that fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and fiber that are key to good health. Now, a newly released study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-funded scientists suggests plant foods also may help preserve muscle mass in older men and women.

The typical American diet is rich in foods that generate tiny amounts of acid each day. With aging, a mild but slowly increasing metabolic "acidosis" develops, according to the researchers.

Foods can be considered alkaline or acidic not just based on whether they are alkaline or acidic themselves, but by the residues they produce in the body. It's counter-intuitive, but that's how it works. For example, grapefruits are acidic, but they're metabolized to alkaline residues. Same with lemons.

Acidosis appears to trigger a muscle-wasting response. In the new study, the researchers looked at links between measures of lean body mass and diets relatively high in potassium-rich, alkaline-residue producing fruits and vegetables. Such diets could help neutralize acidosis.

Volunteers whose diets were rich in potassium could expect to have 3.6 more pounds of lean tissue mass than volunteers with half the higher potassium intake. That's unbelievably impressive, and virtually offsets the 4.4 pounds of lean tissue that is typically lost in a decade in healthy men and women aged 65 and above. (And remember, losing muscle mass also slows your metabolism and calorie-burning ability leading to weight gain.)

Take it from someone who turns 62 this year- preserving your muscle is one of the best strategies for staying young and healthy. So besides doing all the standard things- like weight training- eat your vegetables and fruits on a regular basis. No matter what dietary strategy you follow- from raw foods to high protein- vegetables (and some fruits) belong on your daily menu.

Protect Your Heart and Your Brain: Two for the Price of One!

If you're like most baby boomers, one of the things you worry about the most is losing your mind.

I'm not exactly kidding. Memory loss- and all that implies- is a deep concern for many of us, particularly those of us who have cared for aging parents with dementia or Alzheimer's, two of the most soul-robbing illnesses on the planet. It's horrible, and it's a fate we certainly want to avoid.

So keeping our brain healthy is a high priority.

One of the nasty little secrets about heart disease bypass operations is that they tend to have a significant effect on your brain. There's even a name for the condition- "pump head". Symptoms include short-term memory loss, slowed responses, trouble concentrating and emotional instability. In a landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2001, researchers at Duke University tested 261 patients before and after bypass surgery and found that 53% of them had significant cognitive decline when they were discharged. Even more scary, it persisted in 42% of patients even five years after the surgery.

The reasons for this are technical, and are actually besides the point I want to make here, which is this: When you protect your heart, you also protect your brain. The same diet and exercise program that will keep you from becoming a bypass statistic will also protect your neurons, and even perhaps help to grow new ones (according to research by Arthur Kramer, PhD at the University of Illinois).

Makes total sense, since both the circulatory system (heart) and the brain rely on oxygen to deliver nutrients and keep "communication" lines open. Starve your brain (or your heart) of either nutrients or oxygen, and you're headed for trouble, whether it starts in the heart and ends in the brain or vice versa.

Supplements like CoQ10 (essential if you're on a statin drug, very important even if you're not), carnitine, gingko and alpha lipoic acid are all helpful, but even more so when combined with some kind of exercise program, and with a diet high in plant foods like vegetables and fruits. (And that goes for you folks who are low-carbers as well- it's a big misconception that you can't eat vegetables on the Atkins diet- you can and you should! Plenty of them!)

Exercising every day and eating a ton of plants sounds like a pretty cheap way of increasing the odds that you won't wind up either on the bypass surgery list or sitting in the living room staring into space and unable to remember family member's names. I don't want that fate for you, and I know you don't want it for yourself!

Frequency of Vacations is Also Related to the Risk of Depression

This might seem like a strange time to bring up the subject of vacations. We're all feeling the pinch of ridiculously high gas prices which make taking a trip - whether by car or by plane- increasingly expensive. So a vacation may seem like an almost frivolous expense to contemplate right now.

But it's anything but frivolous. In fact, vacations have a profound effect on your health.

"We feel vacation time or the lack of it affects many Americans, and in many ways has a negative impact on our health", says John de Graaf, executive director of Take Back Your Times, a Seattle-based nonprofit that addresses overwork issues. And considering the role of stress in our health, he's probably right. The US spends 16% of our gross domestic product on health care, but fares dismally compared to other nations in terms of life expectancy, chronic illness and obesity, all of which are profoundly influenced by stress.

In one study, in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, the frequency of annual vacations was associated with a reduced risk of death in middle-aged men at high risk of heart disease. And a study of 1500 women published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal suggests that failing to take a break at least once a year brings major psychological health risks.


If you can't quite manage the two to four weeks a year that most of our European friends routinely take as vacation time, consider a few small weekend trips. But the point is not to approach these trips as if you're moving your office to another location. The point of down time is, well, down time. You won't die if you leave the Blackberry home, trust me.

One time, my girlfriend Anja and I took an "in-home" vacation. We told everyone we were going away for a few days, then turned off the computer, the telephone and put our iPhones and Blackberries away. We lived in our lovely home in the hills of Topanga completely isolated and secluded, doing not a stitch of work, and just relaxing, reading and being together. Cost: Nothing. Value: Priceless.

If you take even a few days off with your partner, the rewards to your health (and your relationship) are incalculable. Reconnect. Play. Bond. Try new things. Do nothing (what a concept!). Unwind.

Trust me. You need it. Everyone does.

Calcium Alone Won't do a Thing for Reducing Hip Fractures

I have to say that it came as absolutely no surprise to me when the USDA's Agricultural News Service released a new study showing that calcium alone doesn't do a thing to protect against bone fractures. I've been saying for years that the calcium recommendations for Americans completely miss the point, which is that it's calcium balance- how much goes in vs. how much goes out- that's important, not the absolute amount of calcium you ingest.

The findings of the ANS also don't surprise me for a second reason: Calcium alone is pretty ineffective as a supplement. Calcium only works its magic when it's combined with synergistic minerals and vitamins that help it get into the bone where you want it to be.

Bess Dawson-Hughes, director of the Bone Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, Mass and her research team looked at calcium intake studies that had been published between January 1960 and December 2006. The studies overall included over 177,000 women and over 68,000 men.

The results? Calcium intake by itself "is not appreciably associated with hip fracture risk in men or women".

Does that mean you shouldn't take calcium? Not at all. But make sure you're taking a well-designed bone support formula (like Osteo Sheath, OsteoPrime Forte, or Cal-6-Mag all of which contain synergistic nutrients needed to produce a result- nutrients like magnesium, manganese, boron, silica, and especially vitamin D. Without at the very least magnesium and vitamin D, you’re not going to get the potential benefit of calcium.

Weight bearing exercise is one of the best bone strengtheners on the planet, and will do way more for you than taking 1500 mg of calcium or drinking three glasses a day of milk. And remember, it's about calcium balance- you need to pay attention to the "deficit" side of the equation, meaning the items in your diet that rob your body of calcium- like sugar, for example, or the phosphoric acid in sodas.

It's also worth pointing out that dairy isn't necessary for preventing osteoporosis. The countries with the highest dairy consumption also have the highest rates of osteoporosis.

Strength Training: How to Get Great Results in Less Time

If you've been reading this newsletter for a while, chances are you already know about the benefits of strength training. Strength training can help you lose body fat while adding calorie-burning muscle. But the benefits of strength training actually go way beyond that.

Strength exercise can increase bone density, improve glucose metabolism, decrease resting blood pressure, reduce low back pain, decrease arthritic discomfort, and improve your blood lipid profile. And the good news, according to fitness expert Wayne Wescott, PhD, is that it only takes two or three 1/2 hour workouts a week to notice a difference.

That's not much. Even coupled with three of four sessions of short burst interval training like the kind I described above, you can still get in pretty good shape in only a couple hours a week.

According to Wescott, one set of 8-12 repetitions is pretty much as productive as three sets in terms of overall effectiveness. They key to the effectiveness is to use 75% of your maximum weight. So if you could do a bench press for one rep with 60 pounds, do 8-12 reps at 45 pounds. If you're able to easily do more than 12 reps, it's time to raise the weight. If, on the other hand, you can't quite manage 8 reps, lower the weight a bit till you can.

The goal is to stress the muscles just enough to create new muscle without any injury.

Best of all, you don't have to buy any expensive equipment, or even go to a gym to do it. (And doing this at home is starting to look even more attractive as gas inches up to 5 bucks a gallon!) Just buy yourself a couple of plastic water containers, or use some empty gallon jars of Clorox. Then fill them up with just enough water or sand to create a weight that challenges your muscles for the required 8-12 reps.

Since different weights will be required for different exercises (you'll be able to do leg exercises with way more weight than you'll be able to do bicep curls), get a few sets of those empty jugs so you don't have to keep pouring and emptying for each exercise.

If you need another reason to exercise (besides weight loss and heart health), don't forget to listen to my interview with Dan Buettner about the healthiest longest lived people in the world. Exercising on a regular (almost daily) basis is one of the habits that the healthiest, longest lived people in the world all have in common.

I want you to live a long, healthy, happy and productive life.

So if you're not already exercising, start today!

As always, let me know what you think,

Warmly
jb

More Evidence that Artificial Sweeteners Cause Weight Gain

I recently told you about some research showing a nasty little correlation between the use of artificial sweeteners and compromised health, specifically where diet soda consumption was found to be associated with increased risk for both cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome, not to mention obesity.
(Two years ago, a study at the University of Texas found there was a 41% increase in the risk of being overweight for every single can of diet soda a person consumed, as I reported in Diet Soda No Bargain on September 26 2007.)

Now, in a new study from published in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, rats that were fed artificially sweetened yogurt in addition to their regular rat chow wound up eating more and gaining more weight than rats that ate yogurt with real sugar. Psychiatrist Guido Frank at the University of Colorado in Denver says about this, "There is good evidence that the brain responds differently to artificial sweeteners and you should take this into account when designing weight-loss programs".

So why would you eat more calories when you're consuming artificial sweeteners?

We don't know for sure but three possible reasons have been suggested.

I've speculated before that artificial sweeteners might cause a blood sugar or insulin response simply via the mechanism of classical conditioning- much like Pavlov's dogs salivating at the sound of a bell simply because the bell had been associated with a steak. A second reason might be that exposure to artificial sweeteners in some way undermines the brain's ability to track calories and to determine when to stop eating.

Finally there's the possibility that diet soda drinkers do an eating version of what economists call "risk compensation"- they think they're significantly cutting back on calories so they subconsciously "allow" themselves to eat more, usually way more than the number of calories they've "saved" by drinking diet soda!

Anyway you look at it, and whatever the reason turns out to be, most chemical artificial sweeteners aren't doing you any good.

And if you want further reason not to believe everything you read about nutrition in the popular press, a recent publication which shall remain nameless, "reported" on the recent artificial sweetener study, concluding that since artificial sweeteners were clearly bad, "you're better off eating real sugar".

Excuse me, how about a reality check young yeoman journalist: You're better off eating neither! Just because Marlboro lights have less nicotine than Marlboro's doesn't mean Marlboro's are a good thing!

Short Burst "Interval" Training As Effective As Long Slow Aerobics

I've been talking about the benefits of short, intense burst training (interval training) for a long time, and the research has been backing me up.

Now, a new study published in the American Journal of Physiology has demonstrated the benefits of this kind of training not just for weight loss, but for heart health as well.

In this study, 20 young healthy men and women were divided into two groups. Both groups rode the stationary bicycle, but one group did the traditional, moderate intensity 40-60 minutes five times a week while the other group did the equivalent of sprints- 4-6 sets of just 30 seconds of all out effort, with 4 1/2 minutes "recovery" time in between sets. Total exercise time 45-75 minutes per week, with a lot of that spent resting between sets.

At the end of the study, the researchers found that the intense, interval training (also known as "burst training") improved both the structure and the function of the exercisers arteries just as much as the traditional, long slow endurance exercise.

Now don't get me wrong. If you like going for a long slow run or bike ride and you do it consistently, I think it's great, and studies show that will accomplish a lot for your overall health. But when I tell people you can get just as much benefit from the kind of burst training I've been talking about for years, I'm often met with blank stares.

I've been using- and recommending the X-iser for a couple of years, and even agreed to be in their infomercial (for no pay, by the way) because I really think it's great. Four minutes a day on that will knock your socks off! The X-iser is a really convenient way to do the kind of "burst" training we're talking about here. But you can also do it with no equipment at all- just go do an all-out sprint for 30 seconds to 60 seconds, rest for a minute or two and repeat up to 7 or 8 times. You'll see what I mean immediately!

"Our research certainly provides evidence that this type of exercise training is as effective as traditional moderate-intensity training" said lead researcher Maureen MacDonald, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology.