New England Health Advisory

As the incidence of Type 2 diabetes increases, more people are interested in learning about controlling blood sugar levels by changing their eating habits. To share an in-depth look at how blood sugar is affected by food, I first want to provide some background science on diabetes and blood sugar.

Diabetes 101: The Basics

The normal range for blood sugar is between 90 and 110. A person with a blood sugar reading of over 126 is said to be diabetic.

The key hormone responsible for regulating blood sugar levels in the body is insulin. Insulin is secreted in response to an influx of glucose into the blood stream following a meal. Type 2 diabetes develops when too much insulin is secreted because the glucose metabolism is not functioning optimally.

Insulin resistance occurs when the pancreas is required to produce more insulin to metabolize the same amount of glucose and keep the blood sugar level constant. The body’s cells are no longer able to utilize the glucose present because they are full, leading to excessive insulin and glucose in the blood stream and raising the blood sugar level.

One of the reasons diabetes is such a serious disease is the lack of early detection of insulin resistance. By the time the body has become insulin resistant and the blood sugar levels are elevated, the disease has already progressed. The blood sugar level of 126 is an arbitrary number assigned by conventional medicine to diagnose diabetes. The reality is that while blood sugar is climbing to that level, there are other warning signs that the glucose metabolism is not functioning properly and a person is on the way to becoming insulin resistant and diabetic.

These factors include: increased belly fat, sugar cravings, high triglyceride levels, low LDL levels, high blood pressure and increased inflammation. Conventional medicine using newer medication to treat diabetes now favors making the cells more insulin sensitive instead of adding insulin. Increased insulin causes you to have a raging appetite and to crave sugar. More insulin is needed to metabolize the same amount of glucose because your body is becoming insulin resistant.

The good news is that you can take charge of your health and regulate your blood sugar levels through a healthy diet and lifestyle by following the simple guidelines below. Insulin resistance can be prevented, and in some cases completely reversed, by making changes in diet and lifestyle. This is by no means a license to stop taking any of your prescribed medications, but rather to enhance your diabetes treatment and share the results of your lifestyle changes with your health care provider to see if the changes are significant enough to warrant a change in medication.

Regulating Blood Sugar Levels

The question I want to answer today is, “How does what I eat affect my blood sugar level?” Keeping a constant blood sugar level is important for everyone—people with diabetes and for those without. The more your blood sugar rises and falls, the harder your body has to work to maintain a balance. The consensus prescription for maintaining a constant blood sugar level includes regular exercise, eating small amounts of saturated fats and trans fats, and eating a high fiber diet to reduce the glycemic load on the body. So what does your body need? The three macronutrient groups the body needs to function properly are protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Protein and high-fat foods do not cause a rise in blood sugar; whereas carbohydrates do.

In order to understand the differences between carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables versus those from processed foods, it is helpful to know a little background science on carbohydrates. When consumed, carbohydrates are ultimately broken down into glucose to be used as energy for your cells and for all of the biochemical processes in your body. As you’ve probably figured out by now, not all energy is created equally.

Carbohydrates are divided into monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides. Monosaccharides are the simplest sugars. They cannot be broken down further. They include glucose and fructose. The disaccharides are carbohydrates composed of two sugars that can be broken down into their individual components, including sucrose, lactose and maltose.

The polysaccharides are long chains of monosaccharides held together with glycosidic bonds. They include cellulose and starches found in potatoes, bread, legumes and whole grains. In order for your body to break a polysaccharide down into glucose, all of the glycosidic bonds need to be broken. The longer the chain, the more bonds need to be broken and the longer it takes for the glucose to enter into the blood stream and cause a rise in blood sugar levels. The body does not digest cellulose, the fiber in a food, and it simply passes through the digestive system.

The Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load

In order to identify how the body uses carbohydrates for energy, I want to introduce the concepts of the glycemic index and the glycemic load. The glycemic index was developed to show the effects of a particular food on blood sugar levels. Each food in the glycemic index (GI) is given a score from 1 to 100, with 100 being the value assigned to pure glucose. Foods are considered to be low GI if they are under 55, medium GI between 56 and 69, and high GI over 70. It’s important to keep in mind that the values assigned are laboratory-derived values and that each person’s unique genetic makeup will allow for variations in metabolism for the same foods.

The glycemic index also takes into account the amounts of fat, fiber, total carbohydrates in a food and method of food preparation. Raw carrots have a lower GI value than cooked carrots because the cooked version has less fiber. (Fiber is broken down by cooking.) Most fresh green vegetables have a very low GI value due to the high amount of fiber they contain. Fruits also fall under the low GI category even though they contain fructose mainly due to the amount of fiber contained in the specific fruits.

Whole-wheat foods and sweet potatoes fall under the medium GI group and sugary cereals, white bread and white potatoes fall under the high GI group. Just because a food has a higher GI value does not mean that it is off limits for diabetics or anyone looking to stabilize blood sugar levels. It does however mean that you will need to balance the food with lower GI choices and monitor portion sizes.

The foods with the highest GI values are the ones that will produce the greatest increase in blood sugar levels. The foods with lower GI values will have less of an effect on blood sugar levels because glucose enters the blood stream more gradually, thus allowing the body to secrete smaller amounts of insulin slowly over time and the cells to absorb what they need without becoming overloaded.

The other concept to become familiar with is the glycemic load (GL). The glycemic load takes into account not only the GI value of the food, but also the portion size of the food. As you increase the portion size the GI value of the food stays the same, however, the GL value increases. To calculate the GL value of a food you would multiple the GI value by the amount of carbohydrates in your serving and divide by 100.

You’re probably starting to think that you need to get out a calculator just to eat. I’m certainly not suggesting that, as it would surely take the pleasure out of eating. However, if you are diabetic and you have to be conscious of the total number of carbohydrates you consume, then you are probably already counting carbs in your meals. Using the GI and the GL values as a guide will allow you to estimate the fluctuations in blood sugar that a particular food will cause.

Many readers are likely looking for a definitive answer to the question of, “If I eat chocolate cake with frosting is my blood sugar going to go up to 400?” But the answer really depends on your unique reaction to each food and the combination of other foods eaten at the same time. The glycemic index and glycemic load can be useful tools to help with meal planning, but the actual change in blood sugar in response to a specific food is unique to the person. The more insulin resistant you are the more your blood sugar will fluctuate when you stray to sweets, sugary soft drinks or other refined carbohydrate foods.

The most important rule to remember when eating is to keep your blood sugar balanced. Studies have shown a greater incidence of heart attacks when blood sugar drops suddenly from high to low than when it was stabilized. Testing and trial and error will determine what works best for you because each person is unique in their ability to metabolize glucose and in their level of insulin resistance.

How to Stabilize Blood Sugar Levels

I know that this information may sound overwhelming, but it really is crucial to preventing a host of downstream problems that stem from insulin resistance and diabetes, including heart disease, chronic inflammation, kidney disease and even some cancers. You can allow your cells to recover from insulin resistance, and become more insulin sensitive, but it won’t happen overnight.

In order to keep your blood sugar at an optimal stable level:

• Eat lean protein at each meal to help control appetite and stabilize blood sugar.
• Eat a meal or snack every four hours so that your blood sugar levels don’t drop too much and cause your body to become ravenous.
• Finish eating two to three hours before bed to allow for complete digestion so that your body can dedicate sleep time to rejuvenation and repair instead of digestion.
• Don’t eat a high glycemic index food alone. Consume it with a balanced meal to balance out the overall glycemic load. You can have dessert, but do so only after eating a protein and vegetable meal.
• Control your overall glycemic load by choosing lower GI food and watching portion sizes and total carbohydrates per serving. This will allow your blood sugar to stay more stable.
• Eat a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables at every meal. They are low GI and full of fiber and antioxidants and vitamins to help you feel full and stay healthy.
• Aim to increase your fiber intake especially in the form of soluble fiber from beans, whole grains, legumes, fruits and veggies, and nuts and seeds.
• The fiber will slow the absorption of sugar into the blood stream

Whether or not you are diabetic, keeping your blood sugar level in the healthy range is important for optimal health. By incorporating these simple suggestions for low GI value foods into your diet, you can be on your way to taking control of your blood sugar levels. Think about enjoying the high GI value foods as an addition to your meal, not as the main course and you will always be able to incorporate your favorite foods into each meal.

Yours in health,

Juliette Shimkets
Contributing Editor
New England Health Advisory

Here’s a question I want you to answer. And be honest.  How often do you exercise? I don’t mean regularly getting off the couch to manually change the channel on the TV or hoisting a quarter pounder to your mouth. I mean, physical activity that makes you huff and puff and break out in a sweat.

Like most people, you probably don’t get enough exercise. And you—like everyone else—are paying for it big time. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 68% of American adults—or 72% of men and 64% of women—are overweight or obese and 26 million have heart disease. The American Heart Association estimates that 74.5 million of Americans—or one in three—have high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease. And the National Institute of Health reports that 23.6 million of us have Type 2 diabetes.

What’s wrong with this picture? Many of these problems could be prevented—or our risk for them reduced—if we exercised regularly.

Exercise lowers blood pressure and our risk for heart disease and diabetes as well as colon, breast and other cancers. It helps us lose, and maintain, weight. It keeps our minds sharp and improves mood. It keeps joints and muscles flexible and strong. It may even add years to our lives.  And I mean quality years.

Skeptical?  Stanford University researchers started following runners and non-runners when they were in their 50s and older.  About two decades later, runners were less likely than non-runners to have problems doing everyday tasks like walking, dressing, getting out of a chair and grasping objects. Runners who did have difficulty developed problems about 16 years later than non-runners. Runners were also less likely to die. At the 19-year mark only 15% of runners had died compared to 34% of non-runners. The runners averaged about four hours of running each week at the start of the study; two decades later they were logging about 76 minutes per week, but they were still reaping benefits. That sounds pretty good to me.

Exercise has so much going for it that the government’s new Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend being physically active most days of the week.  The guidelines recommend two-and-one-half hours of moderately intense exercise or one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous activity per week. To get major health benefits from exercise, we should do five hours of moderate activity or two-and-one-half hours of vigorous activity weekly.

Moderate activity includes brisk walking, gardening or water aerobics. Vigorous activity includes jogging, swimming laps, jumping rope or hiking up a hill while wearing a heavy backpack.  You can spread physical activity over the course of the day, but for best results, you should exercise at least 10 minutes at a time.

Everyone should also do strengthening exercises, such as strength training, toting heavy loads, push-ups and sit-ups, at least twice per week. Weight-bearing exercise keeps bones and muscles strong. Strong bones lower our risk for osteoporosis, the brittle bone disease. And strong muscles mean we are less likely to fall or become frail.

All of this exercise may seem like a big time commitment, but think of it this way: Heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, cancer and other health problems take time, too. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather work out than while away the hours visiting doctors; having diagnostic tests; monitoring my blood sugar; or recovering from a heart attack.  I would rather run or walk a few hours a week now than not be able to walk at all when I’m 80.

That’s why I make physical activity a priority. I have run three New York City Marathons. I have taken classes in step aerobics and spinning. I have worked with a personal trainer. These days I walk briskly for two or three miles nearly every weekday and cycle on weekends. (If it’s rainy or frigid, I walk instead.)  If we have a blizzard, I cross-country ski in the neighborhood. And because I live in New York City, I do lots of incidental walking every day—to the grocery store, the dry cleaner, the subway station (where I also climb stairs) or the post office.

Sure, there are times when I’ve skipped my workout. And I have been sidelined by a broken ankle, a torn meniscus, a herniated disc and lousy weather. But as soon as my injuries mended and the weather cleared, I got back on track. And I am better off for it.

Now it’s your turn.  It takes three to six months for something to become a habit. I promise you once exercise becomes just that, you’ll wonder how you managed without it. Ready to begin? These tips will get you started. The rest is up to you.

Get your doctor’s OK. If you are out of shape, are overweight or obese or have health issues, have your doctor sign off on your regimen and tell you what you can or can’t do.

Choose an activity you’ll enjoy. If you like it, you’re more likely to continue it.

Get the right gear. I’m not saying you should spend a fortune. But having the right shoes matters. If you don’t, your feet will hurt and you’re more likely to call it quits. Clothing that breathes and doesn’t irritate your skin will make your workout more enjoyable. If you cycle, buy bicycle shorts with cushioning. If Lycra isn’t your thing, get a cushioned liner to wear under shorts or sweats.

Go slowly. Getting out of shape takes time; so does shaping up. Each day, go a little further; each week, push a little harder. The government recommends that once you can comfortably walk 30 minutes three times a week, bump up the time you spend walking to 50 minutes. If you cycle three days a week for 25 minutes, gradually work up to six days. And stick to a schedule. Write the day and time of your workout in a calendar. If something comes up, reschedule.

Hire a personal trainer for a while. He or she can devise a training schedule for you; show you proper form—say, for strength training; and keep you on track as you build fitness.

Set goals. They’ll keep you motivated and challenged.  If you walk or jog, sign up for a race. If you bicycle, take a weekend jaunt with a local cycling group. When I was a runner, I used to run in weekend races. As a cyclist, I have taken eight bicycle trips through the French countryside.

Rethink your views about exercise. I have always thought of my walk, jog, exercise class or bicycle ride as recess for grown-ups. It’s fun and the one time I can get away from work and family pressures. It clears my mind and helps me unwind. And knowing that it may lower my risk for lots of diseases and add years to my life are big pluses.

Yours in health,

Catherine Winters
Contributing Editor
New England Health Advisory

This is the last of four issues in the fruits and vegetables series. Previously, I looked at picking the right fruits and vegetables, examined how pesticides affect produce and why frozen fruits and vegetables are better than canned.

One reason why frozen comes out the winner is that canned food contains Bisphenol A or BPA, which is a major concern when eating canned fruits and vegetables.

BPA is an industrial compound that has been shown to be toxic even at low doses. It is an endocrine disruptor, which means that it acts as a hormone in the body, taking up space in receptor sites and leaving excess hormones to flow through the body and cause damage. BPA has been tied to numerous health concerns including breast and prostate cancer, infertility, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities.

BPA is ubiquitous as it is found in so many places including water bottles, cans, air, dust, office water coolers, printer inks and toners and thermal receipt paper used by grocery stores and gas stations (which can rub off onto the hands and then be absorbed by skin or ingested after contact with the mouth). The CDC found BPA present in the urine in 93% of the U.S. population and the Environmental Working Group found BPA present in the cord blood of newborns.

Avoiding BPA is a positive step toward improving wellness, and while some exposure may be hard to avoid, avoiding canned products can prevent one big source of exposure. Virtually all cans, including those containing fruits and vegetables, soda, soup, baked beans, spaghetti and ravioli and even infant formula, are lined with BPAs. Most tin cans have an epoxy liner made from BPAs (ironically to prevent the interaction of the food with the metal in the can). It’s estimated by the FDA that 17 % of the American diet comes from canned foods (and that doesn’t account for all the canned foods served at restaurants), so this is a big area where we reduce can our exposure to BPAs.

The Environmental Working Group tested canned food across the U.S. and found that in more than half of the products tested, there were levels of BPAs 200 times the government’s traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals. (There is no safe standard specifically for BPAs. The FDA acknowledges it’s a concern and examined BPA levels but failed to set a safe standard level against which to test.)

The National Workgroup for Safe Markets recently released a report titled No Silver Lining that tested a random sampling of 50 cans from across the U.S. and Canada, looking at typical products many Americans might eat on a daily basis. BPA was found in 46 of the 50 products. The highest level ever found in the U.S. was found in a can of DelMonte French Style Green Beans, with a level of 1,140 parts per billion or ppb.

Walmart’s store brand (Great Value) of Sweet Peas came in at 329.3 ppb. Healthy Choice Old Fashioned Chicken Soup had 323.6 ppb. Healthy Choice Chicken with Rice Soup had 172.4 ppb.  Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup had 130.4 ppb and Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup had 127.5 ppb. The amounts varied by can even among the same product offering, perhaps reflecting the time the product remained in the can.

While again there are no specific acceptable levels of BPAs, the study found that consumption of even one can of food might yield more BPA levels than were shown to cause health effects on developing fetuses in laboratory animals.

Unfortunately, there are no viable alternatives that work across all food products, which poses a manufacturing challenge that has made the industry reluctant to change. Eden Organic is the only company using a BPA-free lining for canned foods that I know of; they bake an oil and plant-based resin onto the cans instead. Muir Glen, another organic company, hopes to be BPA-free within the next year or so. There is one premier fish product, Henry and Lisa’s Natural Seafood (Sashimi-Grade Canned Albacore Tuna) that is also BPA free.

But no company has been able to offer BPA-free canned tomatoes due to the acidity of the tomatoes and their tendency to leach more from the metal of the can. Glass may be an option for pre-made sauces, but keep in mind that manufacturers may purchase canned tomatoes as a base ingredient for the sauce, so they may still contain BPAs from their original content sources.

For those of you who use canned tomatoes, there are options other than using fresh tomatoes. Pomi tomatoes, distributed by Boschi Food and Beverage of Italy, offers tomatoes in BPA-free containers. Their chopped and strained tomatoes are available on Amazon. And Trader Joe’s offers tomatoes in cartons that are also BPA-free. Short of preserving them yourself, those are the best options.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is sponsoring a bill banning BPA from food packaging, allowing for a one-year delay in the ban to enable manufacturers to make the shift. Senator Feinstein stated, “I no longer eat food out of cans. I no longer buy cans. I look for jars.” (I am thrilled that she is working to eliminate BPA in cans, though she might suggest eating more fresh local fruits and vegetables instead of opting for those in jars!)

Sadly, in all but five states (Maryland, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Washington) baby and infant products are still sold in BPA-laden cans. Given babies’ size and developing systems, that seems criminal to me.

We should all try to avoid BPAs and proactively work to minimize our exposure: Avoiding food in non-BPA-free cans is a great first step. But it’s an effort that is even more important for pregnant women and young children.

According to obstetrician Hugh Taylor of Yale University School of Medicine, who studies the effects of BPA on pre-natal development, “Fresh fruits and vegetables may be more expensive, but I believe that the risk is too high not to spend the extra. The entire life of that individual may be altered by a few months of BPA exposure in pregnancy. This is where the greatest risk lies. We are programming the hormonal response of the next generation. The worst effects may not become apparent for years.”

One final word before we end this series on fruits and vegetables: Don’t let the cautions we’ve discussed prevent you from eating more fruits and vegetables. Try to get up to 13 servings a day. Fresh, local and organic is always best, but do the best you can. Definitely choose organic for the “dirty dozen,” even if it means opting for frozen. Buy local mixed with frozen for the rest, with as much organic as your wallet and lifestyle will allow.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

P.S. This was the last issue in the four-part fruits and vegetables series. If you missed any of them past issues, you can read them on our website.

By Inger Pols

Research increasingly shows that energy and electricity can interfere with our body’s normal functioning. Cell phones, cordless phones, cell phone towers and WiFi can affect us all at a cellular level and those who are more sensitive may experience a significant disruption in cellular function and communication. I’m going to write more about electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and their effect on our bodies in coming weeks, including why microwaves are not allowed in Russia. But today I want to share some new information about how EMFs may affect blood sugar levels and lead to—or exacerbate—diabetes.

One leading researcher argues that there are three forms of diabetes, not two. Type 1, which is genetic, is generally diagnosed at a young age and requires insulin injections for effective management. Type 2, which used to be called adult onset, is brought on by diet and lifestyle choices and can be prevented or managed through diet changes and exercise. (It no longer takes an adult lifetime to damage cell signaling, as you learned in the sugar report. Today, more and more children are being diagnosed with this preventable form of diabetes.)

Now Dr. Magda Havas of the University of Trent in Canada has shown that there is a third condition that is caused by the environment, not genes or diet. She calls it Type 3 diabetes and her research shows that “dirty” electricity and electromagnetic fields can alter blood sugar levels both in previously diagnosed Type 1 and 2 diabetics, as well as in people who have not been diagnosed with diabetes.

Her research, published in Electromagnetic Medicine and Biology, presents four case studies of patients affected by “dirty” energy. This is emerging research, so the numbers haven’t been quantified yet, but Dr. Havas estimates between five and 60 million diabetics are affected by this energy.

So what exactly is “dirty” energy?

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Dirty Electricity and Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs)

According to Dr. Havas, “dirty electricity” describes “electric power that has become corrupted by our use of modern appliances. Items such as CFL bulbs, cell phone transmission antennas, power supplies for portable computers, cell phone chargers, dimmer switches, variable speed fans and many other electronic devises that require a transformer to convert the voltage will “dirty” the electricity that enters your home. This form of dirty electro-magnetic fields (EMF) is invisible to the eye, but has a biological effect on the human body and has been associated with a wide variety of illnesses.”

While Dr. Havas’ research is new, she is not the only one to write about EMFs. Many physicians and scientists, including Dr. Thomas Rau of the world-renowned Paracelsus Clinic in Switzerland, and others such as Dr. Weill, Dr. Mercola, Dr. David Carpenter and even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been warning about these concerns since the 1980s.

Dr. Rau is convinced that “electromagnetic loads” can lead to cancer, ADD, migraines, insomnia, arrhythmia, Parkinson’s disease, back pain and difficulty concentrating. People who are super-sensitive to EMFs can get headaches, nausea, muscle aches, fatigue or skin irritations just from being around WiFi or cell phone towers.

Dr. David Carpenter, Dean of the School of Public Health at State University of New York at Albany has attributed up to 30% of childhood cancers to EMFs. Martin Halper, the Director of Analysis and Support for the EPA says, “I have never seen a set of epidemiological studies that remotely approached the weight of evidence we are seeing with EMFs. Clearly there is something here.”

In 1989, the Department of Energy reported that, “It has now become generally accepted that there are, indeed, biological effects due to field exposure.” And Dr. Andrew Weill, natural health expert, has said, “Electromagnetic (EMF) pollution may be the most significant form of pollution human activity has produced in this century, all the more dangerous because it is an invisible, insensible ‘toxin.’ ”

Scientists and the government have known about these dangers for decades now, but the proliferation of wireless technology since then makes the risks greater than ever before, especially those who are more sensitive.

So what exactly does “dirty” electricity do?

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The Effect of “Dirty” Electricity

Dr. Havas looked at the effect of dirty electricity on blood sugar levels in four different scenarios. In the first, the patient was a 54-year-old man who had not yet been diagnosed with diabetes, but was considered to be “pre-diabetic.” In this case, the man’s blood sugar levels were found to be normal when he was outside fishing and camping and he had no blood sugar concerns. But when he measured his blood sugar inside his house, especially after working on a computer, he experienced blood sugar spikes.

The man’s blood sugar and the level of “dirty” electricity in his home were measured in the morning for nine days. The higher the level of dirty electricity, the higher his recorded blood sugar levels. On one day, he forgot to measure his blood sugar first thing and instead measured it later while working at his computer. It was shown to be higher than normal. He stepped away from his computer and measured it again 10 minutes later, and it had dropped 20 mg/dL or milligrams per deciliter.

The second case was a 57-year-old woman with Type 2 diabetes who uses exercise to control her blood sugar levels. In the study, she walked inside a mall (after hours when everything was shut down) for 20 minutes and her plasma glucose was shown to drop significantly after her exercise from above acceptable levels down to acceptable levels. When she used a treadmill inside her home for 20 minutes instead and conducted the same blood sugar measurements, her blood sugar was shown to increase after exercise!

In the third case, an 80-year-old woman with Type 1 diabetes who was taking insulin measured her blood sugar every morning for a week. Then she had energy filters installed in her house to remove the “dirty” electricity and she measured her blood sugar every morning for the subsequent week. The filters removed 98% of the “dirty” electricity in her home and her blood sugar dropped 33%; the amount of insulin she required to manage her condition was reduced by 75% as a result.

The final case study involved a 12-year-old boy with Type 1 diabetes who was sent to the hospital with very high blood sugar levels.  He was given increased insulin until his blood sugar began to decrease and he was allowed to go home. Then, filters were installed in his home and his blood sugar dropped significantly as did the amount of insulin he required (to about half his former level). His younger sister, who had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of three months, also saw her insulin levels significantly reduced after the filters were installed.

In another part of the study, Dr. Havas put patients on beds with cordless phones two feet away from their heads. The phone was plugged into the wall, and either turned on or off for each session, though neither the patient nor the doctor administering the test knew whether the phone was on or off.

Patients who were sensitive to EMFs experienced significant increases in their heart rates when the phone was powered on, and their normal heart rates returned almost instantly once the phone was turned off again.

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How do You Know if You Have Type 3 Diabetes?

If you experience unexplained blood sugar spikes, you may want to look into whether you are sensitive to “dirty” energy. If your blood sugar levels change based on your environment (test levels when you are outside in nature and at the same time when you are inside your home) or you have difficulty regulating your blood sugar levels for reasons you cannot identify, it’s worth exploring this further. One simple and easy way to test is to measure your blood sugar before and after exercising on electronic exercise equipment. After exercise, your blood sugar levels should be reduced; if they increase, you are energy sensitive.

While we are all vulnerable to “dirty” energy exposure, it is unknown how many of us are sensitive enough to experience such measurable disruptions. The case studies Dr. Havas presents are just a small sample, but knowing you are sensitive to “dirty” electricity may be critical for improving your health and wellness. Because many doctors remain unaware, you may need to be proactive in exploring the reasons behind your blood sugar variations and the appropriate actions you can take to help restore balance.

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How to Reduce Exposure to Electropollution

Even if you are not sensitive enough to “dirty” electricity to see a physiological manifestation like heart rate increases or blood sugar level spikes, we are all bombarded with electropollution on a daily basis and many experts agree that minimizing our exposure makes good health sense for us all.

The first step you can take is to test your home. The website EMF Safety Store identifies and summarizes various meters you can use to measure EMFs and offers filters to mitigate “dirty” electricity. Filters will capture the electrical noise from things like televisions, computers and phones and filter it out of your house and back into the line or the ground.

Whether you test or not, try to reduce exposure to cell phones, cordless phones, WiFi, microwaves, electric blankets and heating pads. Keep wireless routers and cell phones away from your body and be sure your router is removed from any area where people sleep or spend a lot of time. (Sometimes even a few feet can make a difference, but the further away, the better. I keep mine in my office at the opposite end of the house from the bedrooms and family living area.)

At night, turn off phones, your router or any other electricity emitting devices. And never walk around with a headset on your head. Headsets deliver a steady stream of radiation, even when you are not speaking: They serve as a tractor beam of sorts for EMFs. If you must use a headset, take it off when you are not speaking.

Spending more time outside and away from all our gadgets, appliances and technology is a great way to recharge, reconnect and to reduce our exposure to “dirty” energy. And while you are outside, you can get some vitamin D and increase your health benefits at the same time!

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

P.S. If you want to learn more about EMFs, you can explore the website Electromagnetic Health. If you want to learn more about Dr. Havas’ research, you can visit her site here.

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By Inger Pols

Today, we are going to begin another five-part series, looking at five food swaps you can make to take an unhealthy food choice and improve it, perhaps even turning it into a healthy choice. We’re going to start by looking at bread and learn why enriched flours are nutrient poor and how we can make better bread choices. To understand why most bread today wreaks havoc in our systems, we need to learn more about how wheat is turned into the flour that becomes our bread.

We know that consuming too much white sugar can be hazardous to our health, but many people are unaware that white flour reacts the same way in the body. It doesn’t taste sweet, but it does break down into glucose and create the same problems with blood sugar spikes that can lead to metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes. In addition, white flour is devoid of any real nutritional value, so the calories we consume are empty and stored as fat.

A White Bread World

Whole wheat contains many nutrients including vitamins (vitamin E, vitamin B6 and niacin) and minerals (selenium, magnesium and phosphorus), as well as fiber, protein and antioxidants. It’s made up of the outside layer called the bran, a middle starch layer and the inside layer called the germ. Most of the nutrients are contained in the bran and the germ. Traditional flour making, however, strips away those two layers leaving just the middle or starch layer. This layer doesn’t have any fiber or nutrients to slow its absorption, so it is broken down and absorbed rapidly. (When you eat the whole grain, it is broken down and absorbed slowly and steadily without blood sugar spikes.) The processed version floods the body with too much sugar at once, spiking your blood sugar level and causing the excess sugar to be stored as fat.

Once stripped, the wheat is then often bleached and a few synthetic lab-created vitamins are added to replace what was lost. This process is what enables it to be called “enriched.” But there is nothing rich about this process of taking away a wealth of nutrients and leaving a poor imitation; there are dozens of vitamins and minerals in the original grain and only a few are replaced. Those that are replaced are usually lab-created versions that our bodies cannot absorb as well and they do not have the co-factors found in the original form that would afford full nutritional benefit. In fact, they can even cause some harm to people with sensitivities.

Flour is rich in B vitamins that work together in harmony and balance. The “enrichment” process adds back some synthetic B vitamins that then require the body to rebalance what is already present with what has just been added. The result can be a B-vitamin deficiency. If severe enough, it can manifest as insomnia, heart palpitations, muscle tenderness, fatigue, anxiety, depression or poor memory.

Manufacturers do this because the stripping process leaves flour with a finer texture, increases its shelf life and decreases its attractiveness to bugs. But if a bug won’t eat the flour because there is nothing to sustain its life, why should we consume it?

The original whole grain is also rich in fiber, which helps sweep waste out through the colon; the refined version has no fiber. If you want to try a science experiment, mix about a quarter cup of flour with four tablespoons of water and see what you get: The perfect white glue paste. Now consider what happens as that travels through your colon.
That waste is hard to remove, especially if, like the typical fiber deficient American, you do not have a bowel movement after every meal. Much of that waste will remain in the body creating the perfect environment for parasites to thrive on as well as adding some extra pounds.

But many people love bread, so how can we still enjoy it while minimizing the damage to our health?

Finding a Less-Harmful Bread

The first step is to get rid of the dangerous additives like partially hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup.  If you can only do one thing, read the labels and find a bread without those additives. In a typical grocery store, that may not be an easy task! You may need to ask your market to carry breads without these additives.

The second step is to reduce or eliminate white flour breads. (Ideally this can be done in conjunction with step one, but I separated it for those who may feel overwhelmed and want to move slowly toward these changes over time.) If you can’t eliminate it completely, try to cut down to two to three white bread portions a week. When you do eat it, always eat it as part of a balanced meal with proteins and healthy fats.

Read the labels of the products you buy and put back anything that says enriched flour on it. Look for a true whole grain product. Be aware that most whole wheat breads are nothing more than enriched white flour with caramel added and are often no better for you than white bread. You want whole grain, (100% whole wheat is fine), but read the ingredient label not the marketing slogans and look for 100% whole grains. Multi-grain combination breads are also good. Keep in mind that true whole grains will lose their nutritional value within days of grinding, so they need to be consumed quickly or frozen.

Making those changes will take your bread from being an unhealthy addition to your diet to one that can be a neutral element when consumed in balance. But if you want to take it to the next level, and make your bread something that can actually be a part of a good healthy diet, consider moving toward sprouted grain products.

A Healthy Approach to Bread

All grains, nuts and seeds contain something called phytic acid, which blocks the absorption of minerals. In addition, grains have enzyme inhibitors and compounds that can irritate and inhibit digestion. When grains have been used traditionally, native peoples knew that to avoid these problems, grains needed to be soaked and sprouted. This process not only eliminates the phytic acid concerns, it increases the nutritional value.

The only bread in my house is Ezekiel bread, a dense sprouted grain bread. I keep it in the freezer and use it for the kids’ sandwiches for school. By the time the kids open their lunch bags, it’s thawed and ready to eat. If they want it now, we toast it. It has a chewier texture and richer flavor that can take some getting used to if you have lived on white bread, but once you get used to it, you’ll find white bread uninteresting and bland. You can get Ezekiel bread (and English muffins) in the freezer section of the organic aisle at most grocery stores; I get mine at Hannaford. It’s also available at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.

Some other healthy options include Alvarado Street Bakery and Shiloh Farms Bakery, which you can find online. And if you need to be gluten free or want to reduce gluten, Cybro’s makes gluten-free sprouted-grain breads and you can find them online, too. If you look around, you’ll find many options in your local organic markets and you’ll likely find local organic bread makers nearby as well.

If you are a baker, you can look for whole grain and sprouted grain flours or try brown rice flour. I do not have any white flour in my house: If I bake, I typically use brown rice flour, which doesn’t spike blood sugar levels like white flour. I find it easily in the organic section of any large supermarket.

You may be ready to make a big change and jump to sprouted grain products immediately and if so, that’s great. But if traditional bread is a passion, you don’t need to give it up completely. Keep your favorite staple, try to cut back on the frequency, eat it in balance with fiber, protein and healthy fats, but add some healthier options in as well. Experiment with different types of breads, and slowly try to move toward healthier choices. You may just find that as you experience the richer flavors of whole and sprouted grains, your taste for the white flour products will dissipate over time.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

P.S. Connect with me on Twitter and Facebook!

By Inger Pols

This is part four of a five-part series on the five supplements I think every adult should take. Last week’s issues focused on whole-food based multivitamins, ubiquinol and fiber. You can read them by clicking here.

The fourth supplement every adult should be taking is one you’ve likely heard a lot about: omega 3. Research shows that 99% of us are omega 3 deficient, and a recent study at Harvard directly linked omega 3 deficiency to death in an estimated 72,000-96,000 people a year. To put that in context, there are approximately 40,000 deaths a year from breast cancer. Clearly, we need to start paying more attention to omega 3.

Omega 3s help reduce internal inflammation, which is linked to almost every chronic condition that plagues us. They play a very important role in heart health: Inhibiting thickening of the arteries, lowering the amount of lipids that circulate in our bloodstream, and helping arteries to relax.

Omega 3s can reduce obesity by stimulating the hormone leptin, which regulates food intake, body weight and metabolism, and they help prevent cancer cell growth. Omega 3s can also reduce depression, improve mental clarity and focus, reduce dry or itchy skin, improve hair and nails, and help prevent autoimmune disorders and Type 2 diabetes.

Three Types of Fatty Acids

Omega 3 is an essential fatty acid. Fatty acids fall into three groupings: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Each type is made up of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms that fill in the spaces around them.

In saturated fatty acids, all of the spaces around the carbon atoms are completely filled in, i.e., saturated. As a result, they are very stable regardless of temperature. Saturated fatty acids are found mainly in dairy, red meat and chicken, but they can also be found in tropical oils like red palm oil and coconut oil. Our bodies can also make some saturated fat from eating carbohydrates.

Monounsaturated fats have a double bond between two carbon atoms and are missing two hydrogen atoms. They are called mono because of their single carbon double bond and unsaturated because not all of the spaces are filled—two hydrogen atoms are missing. Because the chain can bend at the double bond point, when you mix a large number of these chains together, it won’t be dense or compact; there will be room in between. As a result, these acids are usually liquid at room temperature and are relatively stable, though not as stable as saturated fats because they are not packed as tightly. The most common monounsaturated fat is oleic acid and examples are olive oil, avocados, peanuts, cashews, pecans and almonds. Your body can also make monounsaturated fat from saturated fat.

Polyunsaturated fats are missing several hydrogen atoms and they have two—or more—double bonds. As a result, since there is more than one double bond, they are called poly, meaning many. At each double bond, there is a kink in the chain, so they tend to be very loosely packed and remain liquid, even in colder temperatures. They are highly unstable fats and they can go bad (turn rancid) easily when exposed to heat and light.

When polyunsaturated fats turn rancid, free radicals are created and travel around in your blood causing damage to just about everything they interact with. Free radical damage has been tied to cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons’s, cataracts, tumors and aging. The most common polyunsaturated fatty acids are omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. They are called essential fatty acids because our bodies cannot make them; we must get them from the food we eat.

Omega 3s can do a lot of good. But rancid omega 3s can do a world of damage. We need omega 3s, but we need to ensure that they do not turn rancid in our bodies. Antioxidants will mitigate this, so it’s important to take antioxidants regularly along with omega 3s.

Fish oil is low in antioxidants, so some people like to take krill oil as an omega 3 supplement instead. Krill oil is a very pure omega 3 source and also contains antioxidants to help mitigate any free radical damage that may occur if oils turn rancid in your body.

Balancing Act: Omega 6 Versus Omega 3

Let’s go back to omegas 3 and 6. We need both of these essential fatty acids, but in today’s food supply, omega 6 acids are used heavily in processed foods. Vegetable oils such as corn oil, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed and safflower oil contain at least 50% omega 6 and very little omega 3. In addition, factory farming reduces the amount of omega 3s in meat, fish, eggs and vegetables.

I’ve read that a chicken that is free to eat its normal diet of grass and bugs will lay an egg that is a perfect balance of omega 6 to omega 3. However, the traditional vegetarian grain-fed chicken will yield an egg that is more like 20:1 omega 6 to omega 3. Nature undisturbed knows to work in perfect balance, but our changes in farming have disrupted that balance and left us with an overabundance of omega 6.

Ideally, we need a 1:1 ratio of omega 6 to 3, but our bodies can still cope fairly well with up to a 4:1 ratio. Unfortunately, the typical American diet is more like a 20:1 and can be up to a 50:1 ratio of omega 6 to omega 3. This is one reason it’s so important to supplement omega 3s. Not only do we need them in isolation, but we need them to balance our omega 6 intake.

An imbalance of omega 6 and omega 3 will prevent all of the wonderful health benefits I mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter. In addition, an unbalanced ratio that favors omega 6 over omega 3 can lead to weight gain, sterility, high blood pressure, digestive concerns, blood clots, inhibited immune function, inflammation and even cancer.

Three Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids

How do we get omega 3s back in balance? I recommend you eat a varied whole food diet to get the three types of omega 3 essential fatty acids: ALA, EPA and DHA.

ALA or Alpha-Linoleic Acid is found in dark green leafy vegetables, flax and hemp seeds, walnuts and vegetable oils. EPA or EicosoPentaenoic Acid is found in cold-water fish like salmon, tuna, cod and mackerel and in seaweed. It can also be found in grass-fed beef and free-range (non-vegetarian fed) eggs in smaller amounts. DHA or DocosaHexaenoic Acid is found in the same foods as EPA.

Eating abundantly from these food groups will ensure that you have ample healthy fatty acids and a good balance of them in your body. If needed, the body can convert ALA to EPA or DHA, though the conversion process is slow. While we probably cannot overdo our dark leafy green vegetable consumption, supplementating ALA at high levels has been shown to have some adverse effects on the body. So when taking omega 3 supplements, EPA and DHA ae generally recommended.

Increasing omega 3 consumption overall is important, but so is ensuring that we have a healthy balance of omega 6 to omega 3 at every meal. I try to pay attention to my omega 3 food sources, as well as restrict my consumption of omega 6 heavy foods, but given modern farming practices and the overabundance of vegetable oils in foods, I still feel the need to take an omega 3 supplement with every meal to ensure I stay in balance.

I prefer fish oil pills because they tend to be more stable and they are more portable, but my daughter hates pills and takes the oil. Today, fish oil often has a citrus flavor and is no longer a challenge to swallow, especially when mixed into a drink. Choose a brand that screens for impurities like PCBs and mercury and keep it in the refrigerator or away from heat and light. If it smells funny or changes color, throw it out. Making sure your diet is rich in antioxidants is also a good way to prevent potential damage from oil that’s gone bad.

One caveat: Omega 3s can exaggerate the effect of prescription medications that are trying to do the same thing. For example, if you are on blood thinning medications like Coumadin, Plavix or even aspirin, you should discuss omega 3 consumption with your physician because it can be a blood-thinning agent. While omega 3 can be a helpful part of insulin and diabetes management, it can raise fasting blood sugar levels, so if you are on blood sugar medications such as Glucotrol and Glucotrol XL, Micronase or Diabeta, Glucophage or insulin, talk to your doctor as your dosage may need to be adjusted.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

By Inger Pols

This is part three of a five-part series on the five supplements I think every adult should take. Earlier this week, I sent you parts one and two, which focused on whole-food based multivitamins and ubiquinol. You can read them by clicking here.

Fiber is commonly known for keeping people regular, but did you know that it also helps prevent heart disease and Type 2 diabetes? Fiber is best delivered naturally by eating plant foods, grains and legumes, but most of us don’t eat enough fiber and are deficient in this vital nutrient. It’s not only important to eat enough fiber, but to eat it at the right time as well.

Fiber is a carbohydrate that our body does not digest or absorb. Fat, protein and other types of carbohydrates are broken down and then absorbed, fiber passes through your stomach, small intestine, colon and ultimately out of your body, intact. There are two kinds of fiber necessary for healthy digestion: Soluble, which means it dissolves at least partially in water, and insoluble, which does not dissolve in water.

Insoluble fiber helps with movement through the digestive system. It also increases stool bulk and can assist with regularity. Wheat bran, nuts, vegetables and whole-wheat flour are some sources of insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber dissolves into a gel-like material and helps to lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels. Carrots, peas, beans, apples, citrus fruits, oats, barley and psyllium are examples of soluble fiber sources.

Fiber helps with regular bowel movements and in maintaining bowel health. Some evidence suggests that a high fiber diet can lower the risk of developing hemorrhoids and diverticular disease (when small pouches develop in your colon).

But fiber does more than just keep us regular, it also helps with weight loss and weight maintenance. It slows the absorption of sugar, which helps control blood sugar levels for those with diabetes and has been shown to reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Fiber also helps with heart health by lowering cholesterol levels, reducing inflammation and lowering blood pressure.

With all these great benefits, fiber is definitely something we should get more of. But many experts say we are a fiber-deprived nation. According to the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine, men under age 50 need at least 38 grams of fiber a day and women of the same age need at least 25 grams. Men over age 50 need at least 30 grams a day, and women need 21. It’s important to note that recommendations are tied to overall caloric intake, so if your daily calorie intake is higher, you need more fiber. And overall, according to the Harvard School of Public Health, more fiber is better.

The typical American consumes 15 grams of fiber a day or less, so most of us have some catching up to do on our fiber consumption. Fiber levels vary significantly by food source, so it’s important to look at what you’re eating to assess how much more fiber you need to consume. Refined or processed foods have little fiber content because the process of grain refinement strips the outer coat or the bran from the grain. Taking the skin off fruits or vegetables will also yield less fiber.

Studies show that whole-grain cereal fibers such as wheat and oat bran have good amounts of fiber, but there’s less research seen on vegetables because it’s easier to brand an oatmeal product than a banana. We often think of bread or whole wheat as a good fiber source, but one slice of whole-wheat/whole-grain bread has only 1.9 grams of fiber, while whole-wheat spaghetti brings in 6.2 grams per cup.

A medium banana or orange yields about 3 grams of fiber, while a cup of raspberries contains 8 grams. A medium carrot contains 1.7 grams and an ounce of almonds (about 23 nuts) contains 3.5 grams. But the real bounty lies in vegetables and beans. A cup of peas comes in at 8.8 grams, a medium artichoke at 10.3 grams, a cup of black beans has 15 grams, lentils 15.6 grams and a cup of split peas packs 16.3 grams of fiber.

In addition to making sure you’re getting the correct overall level of fiber, it’s important to consume fiber with every meal to balance blood sugar levels and to inhibit weight gain. This occurs in several ways: Fibrous foods take more time to chew and so allow time for the signal to reach your brain indicating you are full and should stop eating. Fiber rich foods also tend to make you feel fuller longer, so you eat less.

Fibrous foods tend to have fewer calories by volume than non-fiber rich foods, so eating the same portion size of a food rich in fiber will likely mean you’re eating fewer calories than in a low fiber food. Any time you eat food with high sugar content in isolation, it’s more likely to be stored directly as fat than if it is eaten in the context of a balanced meal. If you eat on the run a lot and find it hard to eat fresh vegetables or beans with your meal, keep a fiber supplement handy and take it with your meal.

It’s important to keep in mind that some of the fiber sources listed above are also high in sugar content. Bread and pasta—even whole-wheat versions—are higher on the glycemic index, as are many fruits and even a few vegetables, meaning they will raise blood sugar level. While they are certainly better than empty calorie processed foods, it’s better to focus more on beans and vegetables, particularly green vegetables, as fiber sources. If you do eat a lot of bread or fruit, try consuming them in combination with vegetables, beans or a fiber supplement.

In America, we often drink our meals, whether it’s a smoothie, a rich coffee drink or alcohol, all of which are high in sugar content. If you’re having a liquid meal or drinking anything with high sugar content without an accompanying meal rich in fiber, you should take a fiber supplement along with your beverage to mitigate blood sugar spikes and to inhibit that sugar from being stored in your body as fat.

Every time I eat a meal or snack, or drink anything with sugar, I either eat or take in supplement form a small amount of protein, fiber and healthy fat, like omega-3s. I also keep extra fiber handy to supplement anytime I eat something not fiber rich. Ensuring that my body has that healthy combination of protein, fat and fiber helps manage blood sugar, keep hormones balanced, and maintain my weight, even if I indulge.

When possible, try to eat a diet rich in fiber from a variety of sources. We tend to eat the same foods over and over again—our go-to favorites—but variety in type and source of fiber, as with all nutrients, is important. So mix it up, but also supplement as needed with capsules or powder containing both soluble and insoluble fiber to ensure your meals and snacks are balanced.

Fiber pills are handy to take when away from home and easy to swallow along with whatever liquid you are consuming. I prefer fiber in pill form, as I can take my base dose in the morning with my other supplements and have additional pills on hand for any time my meal or snack is imbalanced.

Powder forms are another option, as they are readily available, inexpensive and they work fine when you mix them into a smoothie or a liquid you are already drinking.

One caveat: When increasing fiber consumption, do so gradually over the course of several weeks as overloading your body too rapidly can cause gastrointestinal distress. And to be most effective, fiber needs water, so be sure you adequately hydrate as you increase your fiber intake.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory