The Real Deal with Metabolism

This is a 3-minute excerpt from my DVD The Truth About Weight Loss which was filmed live at T. Harv Eker's Extreme Health event in Southern California. Normally $39.95, you can get it for just $24.95 in August when you use coupon code TRUTH25 during checkout. Watch more video clips »

Cinnamon Can Lower Blood Sugar

Cinnamon contains phytochemicals which can mimic insulin's ability to increase uptake of sugar by the cells. You can start seeing results by taking just 1g of cinnamon.

Senior Moment? Maybe it's Your Blood Sugar!

Is the phrase "I'm having one of those senior moments" becoming an increasingly common utterance?

New research suggests it might be related to your sugar levels.

The new research, published in the December 2008 Annals of Neurology focused on a particular section of the hippocampus- an area of the brain associated with memory and learning. This section- the dentate gyrus- is typically affected by changes seen with aging.

"In this study, we were able to show the specific area of the brain that is impacted by rising blood sugar", said Scott Small, MD, the lead researcher on the study which was partly funded by the National Institute on Aging. Using special high-resolution brain imaging, Small and his team found that rising blood sugar was directly associated with decreased activity in the dentate gyrus.

The result: you forget where you put your keys!

The important point here is that the research strongly suggests that keeping blood sugar under control could be the key to preventing "senior moments" and lapses in memory, even in healthy individuals with no hint of diabetes!

"Our findings suggest that maintaining blood sugar levels, even in the absence of diabetes, could help maintain aspects of cognitive health", said Small.

Two of the most effective measures to manage blood sugar are and a controlled-carb diet!

Yet another reason to not eat high-carb, high-sugar foods.

Atkins Induction Diet improves Glycemic Control in Diabetics

Diabetes is a disease of uncontrolled sugar. In a nutshell, uncontrolled sugar is also a huge contributing factor to obesity and heart disease. When your blood sugar goes too high, insulin comes in to escort that extra blood sugar into the cells where it can be burned for energy. But if insulin doesn't work effectively, you wind up with too much blood sugar and high levels of insulin, and you're on your way to big health problems down the road.

The technical name for this ability of the body to regulate sugar effectively and efficiently is glycemic control.

So what's the number one thing that raises blood sugar anyway? Clearly it's carbohydrates. And study after study has shown that low-carb diets improve the ability of the body to effectively deal with sugar.

Previous research has shown that a low-glycemic diet (i.e. one high in beans, lentils and breads made with flaxseeds) does much better at managing glycemic control for Type ll diabetes than the "traditional" high fiber diet based on whole grain breads and breakfast cereals (which are often loaded with extra sugar).

Now a new study shows that when it comes to controlling blood sugar, the Atkins Induction phase program does even better.

Eric Westman, MD and his research team put 84 community volunteers with with obesity and type 2 diabetes on one of two diets- the very-low carb Atkins Induction Phase Diet or a low-glycemic, reduced calorie diet. After 6 months, there was improvement in both groups in glycemic control. But the Atkins Induction group improved more.

The main measure of improvement was a blood test called hemoglobin A1c, which is a kind of "Rolls Royce" of blood sugar measurement. While blood sugar levels at any given time fluctuate, Hemoglobin A1c gives us a much more realistic reading of the overall effectiveness of blood sugar control over an extended period of time. Since red blood cells basically live for about 3 months before dying, when sugar sticks to these cells it's possible to tell just how much sugar has been around for the past three months.

Both diets- Atkins Induction and low-glycemic- improved Hemoglobin A1c as well as fasting glucose, fasting insulin and even weight loss. But the Atkins Induction diet did slightly better on all four counts.

Both groups were also able to reduce their diabetic medication. But in patients taking insulin, the effects of the Atkins Induction diet were really quite powerful. Participants taking from 40-90 units of insulin before the study were able to eliminate their insulin use after starting the Atkins Induction Diet, sometimes so quickly that the study researchers had to issue the warning that subjects with type 2 diabetes who are unable to adjust their own medication shouldn't make these dietary changes without close medical supervision!

Does this study mean that an Induction diet is preferable to a low-glycemic diet, which in other studies has been shown to be very useful for glycemic control. No. "A low-carbohydrate, (Atkins Induction) diet combines two approaches that, on their own, improve blood glucose control: weight loss and a reduced glycemic index diet", wrote the researchers. Because low-glycemic diets typically contain from 40-60% of calories from carbohydrate, it's possible that the beneficial effect of low-glycemic diets could be augmented even further by the reduction of the absolute amount of carbs- or by a reduction in calories", said Dr. Westman.

Attack of the Killer Carbs!

Ever wonder why you're so often hungry for more not long after you eat a high-carb snack or meal?

New research may help explain it.

Scientists at Monash University identified key appetite control cells in the human brain. These cells are attacked after eating, but the attack is bigger and stronger following a meal rich in sugar and carbohydrates.

"The more carbs and sugars you eat, the more your appetite-control cells are damaged", said Zane Andrews, MD, the lead researcher on the study. The result? You eat more.

The forces that compel you to eat and the forces that tell the brain "hey, this dude is full!" are constantly at war. When your stomach is empty, it triggers the release of a hunger hormone called ghrelin. When you're full, a set of neurons known as POMC's kick in.

Free radicals normally created in the body attack both the "hunger" neurons and the "anti-hunger" neurons, but the "hunger" neurons are naturally protected. This tips the scale in the direction of hunger and cravings.

And carbs create the most damage of all.

According to Andrews, people in the age group of 25 to 50 are most at risk. "The neurons that tell people in that crucial age range not to overeat are being killed off".

Yet another reason to limit your sugar and processed carbs if you don't want to be the victim of constant cravings.

Low-Glycemic Diet and Diabetes

Low-glycemic foods - beans, peas, lentils, pasta, rice boiled briefly and breads like pumpernickel and flaxseed - do a better job of managing glycemic control for Type-2 diabetes and risk factors for coronary heart disease than diets based around the "traditional" high-fiber foods such as whole grain breads, crackers and breakfast cereals.

That's the finding of a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And it doesn't surprise me one bit.

Although the god-awful American Dietetic Association continues to mindlessly parrot the "conventional" wisdom about whole grain breads and cereals, truth is that most of these whole grain products are fiber lightweights. (Read the label- typically 1-2 grams of fiber at best compared to say, 11-17 in a cup of beans.) And if you check the glycemic index/ glycemic load tables, you find that the difference between a processed grain like white rice and its whole grain counterpart (brown rice) is- from a blood sugar point of view- almost negligible.

Obviously whole grains are better than white junk, but only because they contain slightly more vitamins and other nutrients. From a blood sugar point of view- and from a food sensitivity or allergy point of view- they're not that much of an improvement. If you've got gluten sensitivity- which is way more common than you might think- whole grains are just as much a problem for you as the processed kind.

In the JAMA study, researchers found that hemoglobin A1C- a very important marker for diabetes- decreased significantly more in subjects on the low-glycemic diet than it did for people eating the "traditional high-fiber" choices with cereal fiber. The low-glycemic group also saw a significant increase in HDL (the so-called "good" cholesterol) as well as a significant reduction in LDL (the so-called "bad" cholesterol).

The low-glycemic diet group did eat some breads- like pumpernickel, rye pita and quinoa bread with flaxseed- and some cereals- like real oatmeal- but they were all low-glycemic.

Bottom line: just because a cereal or bread product says "made with whole grains" doesn't mean it's the best food for you. Many of these products raise your blood sugar way too high, and manufacturers are notorious at trading on the "whole grain" buzz to create ridiculous products like "whole grain Cocoa Captain Sugar Krispies" (I made that one up, but you know what I'm talking about).

Glycemic impact is very important and should be paid attention to by anyone interested in his or her health. And you don't have to walk around with a bunch of scientific formulas to figure out whether a food has high or low glycemic impact. Just look for foods that have minimum processing, maximum color (exception is oatmeal and cauliflower) and as much fiber as possible.