Eat Satiating Foods

The food that promotes satiety most is protein. It yields satiety more effectively than carbohydrates or fat. Out of all proteins, the one with the fastest satiety impact is whey protein – that's if the whey is whole and non-denatured (not homogenized or pasteurized).

Studies reveal that consumption of whey protein before meals can swiftly boost the satiety peptides CCK and GLP-1, which have been shown to decrease food intake and increase weight loss. Whey protein is also beneficial when consumed before exercise. Having a small serving of whey protein (with no sugar added) about 30 minutes before exercise seems to help sustain intense muscle performance and increase the efficiency of muscle protein synthesis after exercise. A pre-exercise whey meal has also shown to boost the body's metabolic rate for 24 hours thereafter.

Other satiety-promoting foods are low glycemic plant foods including raw nuts, seeds, legumes, roots, cruciferous vegetables, tomatoes, eggplants, grasses and green leafy vegetables.

Being low glycemic and fibrous, these plant foods are a great fit for your insulin and leptin as well as your whole satiety system. Nuts and seeds trigger PPY – a satiety peptide which is highly sensitive to dietary fat. PPY shifts your cravings from carbohydrates to fats and increases your metabolic capacity to convert fat to energy.

That action counteracts your hunger hormones, which typically shift your cravings towards carbohydrates. Note that it's the shift towards refined carbohydrates that has been linked to chronic cravings and excessive food intake. This is the reason why once you open a bag of potato chips and start crunching, you may find it difficult to stop.

And note that your muscle isn't programmed to do well on hunger foods; it rejects fructose and has a limited capacity to utilize high glycemic foods. But your muscle literally thrives on satiety foods. Combinations of whey protein and berries, eggs and beans or meat and nuts have unmatched muscle nourishing properties. Furthermore, being satiety oriented, these food combinations promote the right hormonal environment for muscle rejuvenation and buildup.

All that said, you can't fully benefit from your satiety food if you don't know what food to avoid.

Avoid Hunger Foods

Stay away from high glycemic foods including all refined carbohydrates, sugars, fructose products, baked goods, candies and sugary beverages. Fructose in particular has shown to cause leptin resistance, lipid disorders, hypertension, obesity and diabetes. Studies reveal that the muscle rejects fructose as an energy substrate and the liver has a limited capacity to utilize it; excess fructose is converted into triglycerides and body fat.

But nothing is more damaging to your satiety than the combination of high sugar and high fat. This dietary combo packs on empty calories, causes insulin and leptin resistance and shatters your satiety along with your whole metabolic system. In fact, it has been found that the high sugar-high fat combo causes insulin and leptin resistance even prior to any change in body composition.

This means that all food products made with a high content of sugar and fat are poisonous to your satiety system. These include cookies, cakes, ice creams and chocolates, all of which set you up for serious metabolic setbacks associated with insulin and leptin resistance which may include excess estrogen, excess cortisol, low testosterone, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia and increased belly fat.

The good news is that both insulin and leptin resistance can be reversed by food restriction and weight loss. Hence, your insulin and leptin are restored by austerity and shattered by indulgence.

It has been suggested that insulin and leptin play important roles in times of scarcity but have a lesser role in times of plenty. To keep your insulin and leptin intact you must not indulge yourself with high glycemic treats, not even in moderation. Otherwise, your body will get the wrong signal and you'll pay the consequences with your weight, energy and state of health.

Now that you know how to choose your satiety foods, let's take a look at the other methods that boost your satiety hormones.

This Blood Test FAR More Important than Cholesterol in Determining How Old You Age

Story at-a-glance

• New research found that higher glucose levels are associated with a higher perceived age; in other words, the higher your glucose levels, the older you’ll tend to look
• The fasting insulin test can tell you whether high blood glucose levels have left your body insulin resistant and at risk of accelerated aging, as well as numerous other chronic diseases
• Your body uses glucose for energy, but foods that keep your blood sugar levels elevated beyond your body’s capacity to use it, and also lead to insulin resistance, are essentially "toxic” – especially when consumed in excess or over a long period of time
• Avoiding sugar/fructose and grains, while exercising regularly, will keep both your blood glucose and insulin levels low, which is the closest formula for a “fountain of youth” that’s currently known

By Dr. Mercola

Many people over the age of, say, 50 would like to turn back the hands of time and not only feel younger but look younger as well.

But very few people appreciate the fact that making dietary changes -- specifically in relation to sugar and grain consumption – is likely the closest formula for a "fountain of youth" that's currently known.

The journal Age recently featured an intriguing study on this very topic; it found that higher glucose levels are associated with a higher perceived age, which was assessed using facial photographs.

In other words, the higher your glucose levels, the older you'll tend to look, which makes perfect sense since the manner in which your body handles glucose is intimately connected to skin aging.

While many people are diligent (if not entirely neurotic) about having their cholesterol levels tested, many overlook the importance of fasting insulin levels.

This commonly overlooked and much more important measurement can clue you in to whether you're consuming a harmful amount of glucose, whether your body is capable of handling it, and by implication, the degree to which accelerating aging may be going on in your body.

Why it's Important to Know Your Insulin Level

Insulin is absolutely essential to staying alive, but the sad fact is that most of you reading this right now have unsafe levels of it accumulating in your bloodstream, and it is pushing you toward accelerated aging and the development of chronic degenerative illnesses, which sadly have become a right of passage in most Westernized societies. 

Most adults have about one gallon of blood in their bodies and are quite surprised to learn that in that gallon, there is only one teaspoon of sugar! In other words, your body is designed to have just one teaspoon of sugar in your blood at all times -- if that. If your blood sugar level were to rise to one tablespoon of sugar you would run the risk of going into a hyperglycemic coma and even dying.

Your body works very hard to prevent this from happening by producing insulin to keep your blood sugar at the appropriate level. Any meal or snack high in grain and sugar carbohydrates typically generates a rapid rise in blood glucose. To compensate for this your pancreas secretes insulin into your bloodstream, which lowers your blood sugar to keep you from dying. Insulin, however, is also very efficient at lowering blood sugar by turning it into fat – so the more you secrete, the fatter you become.

Unfortunately, If you consume a diet consistently high in sugar and grains, your blood glucose levels will be correspondingly high and over time your body becomes "desensitized" to insulin and requires more and more of it to get the job done. Eventually, you become insulin resistant, and then full-blown diabetic.

If you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or are overweight, it is quite likely that you are eating too many grains and sugars, as this is the most common cause of abnormal insulin levels. Fructose has been shown to be especially harmful, due to the way it disrupts the lock-and-key fit between insulin and its cellular receptor sites.Dozens of animal and human studies prove that fructose is a powerful endocrine disruptor, capable of rapidly inducing insulin resistance when consumed in, what by today's standards, is a relatively small amount (15 grams or more a day). 

To find out your insulin levels, ask your physician for a fasting blood insulin test. It's one of the least expensive tests, yet it is one of the most empowering ones available to help you take back control of your health. A normal fasting blood insulin level is below 5, but ideally you'll want to be below 3.

You can also use a simple glucose test to check your fasting glucose, however it's possible to have low fasting glucose yet have significantly elevated insulin levels.

If this is the case, you're essentially pre-diabetic and need to take steps to improve your insulin sensitivity, and the most potent way is to reduce or eliminate sugar, particularly fructose, from your diet. Generally speaking, however, a fasting glucose under 100 mg/dl suggests that you're not insulin resistant, while a level between 100-125 suggests you're either mildly insulin resistant or have impaired glucose tolerance (sometimes referred to as pre-diabetes).

Can Eliminating Sugar from Your Diet Lengthen Your Lifespan?

Most of you probably know that your body does need, and uses, glucose for energy. Without it you wouldn't survive. But while glucose is certainly not toxic in and of itself, foods that raise and keep raised your blood sugar levels essentially are "toxic" in that they set in motion a cascade of detrimental health effects, especially when consumed in excess or over a long period of time.

Soda, candy, pasta, bread, pastries and fruit juice are examples of foods that quickly break down into glucose once consumed, generating a spike in your blood glucose levels and a corresponding release of insulin. It is becoming very clear that your longevity is intimately tied to this cycle, and by modifying your diet to restrict sugars and grains, you can slow down the rate at which your biological clock is ticking – and perhaps even turn back the dials a bit.

For instance, a study, published last year examined the effects of food on typical biological signs of advancing age. Typical signs of aging include elevated levels of glucose, insulin and triglycerides.

In this study, the participants were given a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet with an adequate amount of protein. This diet improved allof the measured factors related to the aging process, decreasing:

• Insulin by 48 percent
• Fasting glucose by 40 percent
• Triglyceride by nearly 8 percent
• Serum leptin by 8 percent on average

It's highly unfortunate that so few physicians have embraced this knowledge, because a firm appreciation of insulin's role in human health and disease is one of THE most important factors that can make or break your health! And again, the test to determine your levels is relatively inexpensive and widely available, while the steps for optimizing them, which I'll detail below, are also very straightforward.

Eating Carbs Turns Off Longevity Genes

Research by Professor Cynthia Kenyon found that carbohydrates directly affect two key genes in your body that govern longevity and youthfulness. I've previously written about how your diet can over-ride genetic predispositions to disease, and this research further strengthens those claims, as the two key genes in question can be turned on or off as a consequence of eating carbohydrates.

Professor Kenyon worked with Caenorhabditis elegans roundworms, but her findings have been successfully repeated in other labs around the world using other animals, including rats, mice, and to some extent, monkeys. Humans also have these genes, indicating these results should apply to us as well.

One of the most interesting details of her findings is that not only did the roundworms live up to SIX TIMES longer than normal, but they kept their health and youthful vigor until the end. Previous research has shown that you can extend your lifespan by reducing your caloric intake, and I've written about this technique in the past. The problem is that most people do not understand how to properly cut calories, because in order to remain healthy, you have to cut out calories from a specific source -- namely, sugar and grain carbohydrates!

Most of us eat far too many potatoes, rice, bread, and pasta. Of course we want to avoid all sugar and processed foods, but there is emerging evidence that most grains and legumes can contribute to health problems because:

1. They will quickly be converted into glucose, which will raise your blood glucose
2. As your blood glucose rises, your insulin- and leptin levels rise in response. While this mechanism is designed to optimize short-term survival, it's not healthy for a long, post-reproductive lifespan. The immediate effects of spiking your insulin levels are now well known and include vasoconstriction, inhibited fat burning, and reduced production of glycerol substrates to make glucose, just to name a few
3. Repeated elevations of insulin and leptin eventually lead to insulin- and leptin resistance, which are hallmarks of poor health and accelerated aging

However, Dr. Paul Jaminet provides a powerful argument that many, if not most people may benefit from a certain threshold of glucose carbohydrates that are necessary for optimal health.

What's the Best Diet for Looking (and Feeling) Younger?

To put it simply, when you "starve" your body of sugars and starchy carbs, your body starts to acclimatize itself to burn fatty acids and ketone bodies. Ketones are what your body produces when it converts fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy—a beneficial process that appears to promote longevity.

On the other hand, consuming sugars and grains will raise your blood sugar, and the higher the blood sugar rise, the more damage is done. In this new study, researchers found that perceived age increased nearly half a year per 1 mmol/L increase in glucose level in non-diabetic people.

So, is there such a thing as a "fountain of youth"? I believe there is, in the symbolic sense, and its three cornerstones are:

1. Avoid sugar/fructose and replace them with healthy fats
2. Avoid grains
3. Exercise regularly and effectively

These three cornerstones have one important factor in common, and that is helping you improve your insulin sensitivity -- the key to longevity and a youthful appearance.

A NEW APPROACH TO METABOLIC SYNDROME
By: Michael P. Ciell, R.Ph.,

The Greatest Healthcare/Financial Crisis

Metabolic Syndrome (aka Syndrome X) with its four hallmark symptoms of obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia is devastating our country as well as the whole of North America. In March of 2005 the National Institutes of Health and the New England Journal of Medicine published a paper stating that because of this epidemic the current generation is projected to have a shorter life expectancy then the previous one…for the first time in recorded history! Since that paper things have become much worse. Worse, despite the fact we have changed the USDA “Food Pyramid”, developed many new classes of pharmaceutical agents (especially ones for pre-diabetes and diabetes Type II), have taken soda machines out of schools, and even the First Lady’s top priority is the obesity epidemic. This syndrome, with all of its comorbidities (cardiovascular disease, stroke, many cancers, kidney failure, blindness, amputations ,etc.), accounts for the majority of healthcare dollars spent. If the tide is not turned, Metabolic Syndrome will bankrupt our country. This is a fact.

The Pathophysiology of Metabolic Syndrome
In 1987 the late Gerald Reaven, MD, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University’s College of Medicine, first demonstrated that the four hallmark symptoms shared a commonality: hyper-insulinemia coupled with insulin resistance. He coined the term “Syndrome X” to illustrate the point: the four legs of the “X” represent the symptoms (hypertension, central obesity, hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia) and the nexus of the “X” being the causal agents of too much insulin along with insulin resistance (the cells’ do not respond to normal physiologic amounts of insulin). This is the standard, accepted medical model of this disease.

The Failure of Current Treatments
We are being ravaged by this syndrome due to the simple fact that we have ignored the model! Instead of focusing our attention on the root cause we have decided to treat each of the symptoms as separate, unrelated diseases. Thus we have new dietary recommendations and “diets d’Jour”, as well as a plethora of exercise regimens prescribed for obesity and of course, the “diet pills”. There too are the myriad of prescription drugs to ‘control’ the other three symptoms. If our attention is on ‘controlling symptoms’ we have admitted, by default, that there is NOTHING WE CAN DO FOR THE CAUSATIVE FACTORS and we will just have to LEARN TO LIVE WITH OUR DISEASE (i.e. ‘it will always be with us, we’ll just control it’). This attitude of acceptance is bad enough and unaffordable in the long run, but that’s the least of it. If we understand the pathophysiology of this syndrome we readily can see why many of these treatments actually make the other symptoms much worse! Hyper-insulinemia means the patient’s pancreas is secreting an exaggerated amount of insulin in response to rises in blood glucose. This can easily be confirmed by doing a fasting insulin level OR the standard glucose challenge test and ordering insulin levels along with glucose levels at time zero, one hour and two hour intervals post challenge glucose administration.

Sadly, the vast majority of practitioners do not even think about such an important marker. So we dwell on just the glucose level or Hemoglobin A1c (merely symptoms ) and prescribe drugs such as the sulfonylureas (i.e. glyburide, glipizide, glimperide) which cause the pancreas to secrete EVEN MORE INSULIN or we actually give them INSULIN ITSELF in an aggressive attempt to control a symptom. If the model is correct then this therapy should make the syndrome worse……and it does! This is the fundamental reason why we have failed to stem the tide (or actually reverse) this seemingly insidious malady.

The Concept of Homeostasis
If insulin just mediated glucose uptake by our cells and did nothing else, we probably would not have this problem. However this is not the case and when the amount of insulin remains consistently elevated it does other things…..and these things are NOT good. Before discussing the effects of hyper-insulinemia, a review of the fundamental concept of homeostasis should be addressed.

The body is an organism that strives to maintain a constant internal environment in the face of constantly changing, often hostile, external factors. Blood pressure, blood glucose, body temperature, acid / base balance, etc. must remain within a relatively narrow range in order to survive. It does so by means of the action/reaction principle, or mechanisms that exert opposite effects so that a balance may be
achieved. Examples are: vasodilation / vasoconstriction, oxidation / reduction, anabolism/catabolism, assimilation / elimination, etc. These systems are exquisitely regulated primarily by the nervous system and the endocrine (hormonal) system. So if the environmental temperature is 125 degrees, our internal temperature remains at 98.6 degrees. Likewise if the temperature drops to 20 degrees, certain mechanisms are in place to make certain our internal temperature remains a constant 98.6. Glucose homeostasis is essential for life as certain cells in the body can only use glucose as an energy source (certain brain cells, the adrenal medulla, red blood cells, etc.). Whether in times of feast or famine, blood glucose must remain in a certain range and insulin and glucagon are the master hormones that control this process (forget about ghrelin, leptin, incretins and all these ‘new mini-hormones’ that are in the literature today…these are subservient to the two masters). The body needs BOTH of these “master hormones” to maintain balance ( as they have exactly opposite physiological functions….if you know what insulin does, then you automatically know what glucagon does…the exact opposite!) and if an imbalance occurs, dysfunction or “disease” will arise.

The Physiological Effects of Insulin
Insulin’s primary function is mediating glucose uptake to muscle cells, and in this way, helps regulate blood glucose homeostasis. However insulin binds to many other receptors in the body and affects MANY other physiological parameters. And here’s the “rub”. If insulin receptors on the muscle cells become resistant to insulin’s effect (and do not uptake glucose in an effective manner) the pancreas will produce more to ensure glucose uptake will occur. But if we increase insulin levels, what happens to OTHER receptors that are not “resistant” yet and modulate other bodily functions? This scenario becomes way more complicated, in that, these receptors become ‘insulin resistant’ at different times. So a ‘typical Syndrome Xer’ presents to the physician with some central obesity, slightly elevated blood pressure, slightly elevated blood glucose and a less than stellar lipid panel. He is told to lose some weight by eating more fruits and vegetables, cut down on fats and cholesterol (have oatmeal instead of bacon and eggs) and do some light exercise. This is standard, first line therapy of lifestyle changes and sounds very reasonable. This compliant patient makes these changes and returns in two months, shocked and disappointed that his symptoms have become worse! Now he is given a low dose ACE inhibitor coupled with a diuretic for his hypertension and placed on metformin and glyburide to help control hyperglycemia. The glyburide tells the pancreas to secrete even more insulin and he gains more weight. Insulin also “ramps up” the enzyme HMG-Co A reductase which basically tells the body to produce even more cholesterol.

Excess insulin also drives the kidneys to retain sodium and waste magnesium,
which is an essential element for insulin receptor sensitivity. Hypertension and insulin resistance worsen. Usually at this point (if not done sooner) a statin is added along with niacin and another oral hypoglycemic and we ‘start the march’ to insulin therapy. This is why many of these patients will find themselves on six to nine prescription drugs and this is the current “Standard of Care” for this syndrome.

Let Your Food Be Your Medicine
Let us now suppose that the above patient visited a Chiropractic physician first. This particular physician is skilled in the use of a ‘muscle sparing’ protein diet, not a hyper protein diet ala Atkins. This diet is also low in fat, particularly saturated fat and is very carbohydrate restrictive (providing about 40 grams of carbohydrates daily mainly from fibrous vegetables). The physician explains the “medical model” of Syndrome X and relates how the overproduction of insulin can contribute to all his symptoms.

Correcting hyperinsulinemia is very straightforward: all carbohydrates (with the exception of fiber) will eventually be turned into glucose….sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. As the glucose is absorbed the pancreas begins to secrete insulin (in this case, too much insulin). By restricting the carbohydrates the production of insulin is immediately reduced. The patient is interested but confides that he can be hypoglycemic at times and is afraid of such a restrictive protocol. The physician relates that hypoglycemia is usually the consequence of an overproduction of insulin, not a lack of carbohydrates. He further explains the body has “three tanks of energy” from which to draw. Glycogen (or our stored glucose), muscle, which can be broken down via gluconeogenesis to supply glucose and fat (triglycerides) which can be turned into glucose (from the glycerol) and ketonic bodies which most of the cells In the body can use for fuel. But the body draws on these compartments in a very specific order. It will always use the glycogen first and only when ‘that tank’ is empty, will it then begin to simultaneously burn muscle and fat.

The physician tells the patient if he keeps “putting fuel in the glycogen tank”, he will never be able to access his fat reserves, thus the restriction of carbohydrates. He also says that we never want to lose muscle, thus the inclusion of the adequate amount of protein to replenish what is lost to gluconeogenesis. During the first three days of this protocol the patient may feel a little tired or weak (as the body depletes its glycogen) but once this is gone and the body ‘switches over to muscle and fat’, he will have plenty of energy and hypoglycemic episodes will be a thing of the past. His patient is interested but asks: “ketonic bodies”, does that mean ketosis…I thought that was bad?” Again the physician explains that ketoacidosis is bad and that is why a Type I diabetic would never be placed on this program. In this case ketosis just means ‘living off your reserves’ and is the reason human beings were able to survive times of famines. His concerns allayed, the patient begins the program.

Six weeks later the elated patient returns to his Chiropractor. He is thirty pounds lighter and says that his medical doctor told him his blood work was fantastic! In layman’s terms the physician tells him: “Well you have actually reset your pancreas, it no longer is pumping out too much insulin and now you can start to put fruits, grains and dairy back into your diet”. After this patient’s glycogen reserves were depleted and carbohydrates continued to be restricted, the body had to ensure proper blood glucose levels were maintained. Under these conditions the pancreas produces more glucagon (which raises blood sugar) and much less insulin (whose primary function is to lower blood sugar).

But there is more to glucagon than this primary function. Glucagon stimulates two adipocyte (fat cell) enzymes (HSL and ATGL) and inhibits a third (Lipoprotein lipase). The result is the release of trigylcerides from the fat cell (to be used a fuel) as opposed to insulin’s effect which is to store fat. Glucagon enhances the entry of free fatty acids across the mitochondrial membranes so they can be used as fuel (insulin inhibits this). Glucagon also greatly inhibits the action of HMG-CoA reductase (along with all the other enzymes necessary for cholesterol synthesis) and forces cells to pull cholesterol from the blood stream via ‘ramping-up’ LDL receptors (1983 Nobel Prize in Medicine). This is why this patient’s lipid panel came back stellar. Finally in the kidneys the retention of sodium (caused by excess insulin) has now been corrected and his hypertension has resolved. The pathophysiology of Syndrome X is predictable. The reversal of this syndrome is also predictable and repeatable! As a matter of fact this exact method is being employed by over 700 chiropractic practices in the United States and Canada as well as many medical practices. Tens of thousands of patients have experienced same benefits described here.

Chiropractic care improves type I diabetes (case study)

Environmental Risk Factors

Understanding the role of Neuroendoimmunology