Healthy Bytes

Most folks these days are mineral deficient. Minerals, as in: calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, iodine, sodium, zinc, selenium, etc….What’s the big deal you may ask? Minerals are needed not just for our bones but for our muscles to contract and relax, for all enzymes to function properly, nearly every physiological process involves a mineral.

One of the best ways to get minerals is to eat lots of vegetables and some fruits. If you want a mineral packed source – turn to the sea. Sea vegetables or seaweed are actually algae.

Sea Vegetables contain nearly all the minerals needed by humans. These mineral include: calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, iodine, iron, zinc and numerous trace minerals. Sea vegetables also contain important vitamins: beta carotene, B1, B2, B6, niacin, vitamin C, pantothenic acid and folic acid. It also, contains varying amounts of protein depending on type with the some red algae having amounts comparable to legumes.

Common sea vegetables are brown algae: arame, hijiki, kombu (aka kelp), wakame, agar-agar; red algae: dulse, irish moss (carrageen) nori (aka laver).

Of note hijiki contains high amounts of calcium; kelp or kombu contains high amounts of magnesium; dulse is high in B6, iron and potassium.

Health Benefits include aiding in detoxification of the body (binding to heavy metals), source of minerals, support digestion, support the immune system, beneficial for bone, anemia, aid with hormone balance, may aid with weight loss by induce fat burning, lowering cholesterol, stabilizing blood sugar, reducing blood pressure and reducing risk of metabolic syndrome.

One study showed the ability of iodine or iodine-rich seaweed to inhibit breast tumor development: Smyth PPA. The thyroid, iodine and breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res. 2003;5:235-238.

Sea vegetables are also a source of lignans (also found in flax seed) which are thought to play a role in preventing certain types of cancer, particularly breast cancer.

Here are some easy ways to incorporate sea vegetables into your diet

· Add a piece of kombu or kelp in a pot of beans, soups and stocks
· A pinch to a handful of most any sea vegetable to any long cooked dishes such as lentil & bean soups, stews, chilis, etc
· Sprinkle flaked or cut up pieces of sea vegetables on salads, over rice or other grains.
· Use flaked sea vegetable as a seasoning in place of salt
· Add a small amount into baked goods
· Add to a sandwich
· Dry into snack chips

This is a favorite soup recipe which features laver or nori:

Laver Egg Drop Soup
4 servings

3 eggs
4 cups chicken stock
4 sheets of nori, torn into small pieces
1 Tbs corn starch
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs shaoshing wine or sherry
3 scallions, sliced
¼ tsp ground white pepper
¼ tsp toasted sesame oil

Stir together 1/2 cup of chicken stock with the cornstarch, set aside.

Lighty beat eggs.

In a medium size pot, heat together remaining chicken stock with ginger,
soy sauce, pepper and wine with the nori pieces. Bring to a boil, stir in the
cornstarch slurry. Let simmer. Add the scallions.

Turn off heat. While stirring the soup in a clockwise direction, slowly
add the egg in a thin stream. Garnish with a few drops of sesame oil.
Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

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Most pets are like clockwork when it comes to meals… and mine are no different.

We got two kitties a couple months ago and they believed 4am was the best time for breakfast… with the human arousal process begining a half hour earlier.
Now I’m an early riser, but 3:30am is pushing it.
(Now that we’ve had that 1 hour daylight savings time adjustment, they don’t start jumping on my head until 4-4:30am).

Nevertheless, they instinctively understand a component of weight loss/weight control…
meal timing.

If you eat at approximately the same times daily, you’re telling your brain when more food is coming so turn up the metabolic rate.
When you eat haphazardly and skip meals, your brain isn’t sure when more food is coming so it instinctively conserves energy… i.e., doesn’t burn calories.

This is why it’s important to eat breakfast and try to eat your meals at approximately the same time everyday.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to adjust my sleep… so as not to gain weight – which we’ll talk about in the next post.

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Some of the worst ingredients we consume are sweeteners – the artificial ones, the processed ones and the chemically altered ones.

The similarities to heroin are frightening…
-> it’s addictive
-> we crave it
-> it pretty much has nothing but bad effects on our brain and our body
-> it crowds out good stuff

Corn is much in the news these days because of the whole ethanol thing.

I have no comment on that. What I do have comment on is HFCS – high fructose corn syrup.

2005 corn subsidies in the US were $9.4 BILLION.
There are 300 million people in the US (fewer in 2005)… so that pencils out to roughly $31.38/person.

Subsidies were changed in the 1970’s to heavily support corn and soybean agriculture.
Also in the early 1970’s HFCS was created… in a lab of course.
HFCS is a chemically altered sweetener way sweeter than regular ole sugar.

You say so what, you don’t have any in your cabinet.
Think again. HFCS is used in nearly every processed and prepackaged food product.
In the last 25 years consumption is up 1,000% and it currently is 40% of ALL sweeteners added to food products and beverages.

So what again. Ahh, here’s the big so what…
Regular sugar is 50% fructose, 50% glucose.
HFCS is 55% fructose, 45% glucose.

That seemingly small difference of 5% makes a huge difference when it passes your lips.
Fructose is a masterfully stealth robber. Unlike glucose, it DOES NOT trip the chemical reactions and hormones that get your brain to close your mouth and stop eating.

And fructose doesn’t reduce the stomach hormone ghrelin. Ghrelin in that “lion” in your stomach that roars to be fed.

And fructose doesn’t decrease the fat cell hormone adiponectin which makes you more insulin sensitive which in turn helps control appetite and weight.

But WAIT, there’s more…
Fructose is not digested and metabolized – it goes straight to fat production. (It’s used for cholesterol and triglyceride).

You know those “IV drips”… it’s a glucose solution. You can live on it.
If you replace it with a fructose solution – you’ll get fatty liver. That’s not something you will survive.

So all that HFCS you’re subsidizing with your tax dollars is contributing to increased caloric consumption (with less nutrition consumed), raised LDL, lowered HDL, increased triglycerides, decreased satiety sensitivity, increased insulin resistance and some other nasty odds and ends.

Read labels. You’ll be frightened how many products have HFCS.

Oh yea, that soybean subsidy. We get something for that as well… hydrogenated soybean oil, AKA trans-fat.

Makes ya want to buy an island and have your own country sometimes.

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Novartis drug Zelnorm has been withdrawn from the market per the request of the FDA.
Zelnorm is for relieving constipation. Apparently the FDA thinks the higher risk of chest pain, heart attack and stroke as a result of relieving constipation with Zelnorm is not a good trade off.

What do I think…
Fe-Fi-Fo-FIBER
Enough with the toilet paper conservation. Eat fiber, don’t get constipated.

Our fine ancestors ate about 100 grams of fiber a day.
Us?… 8 grams. Yup, that would be 92% LESS.

And where do you get fiber…
Veggies, fruit, veggies, legumes, veggies, flax seed, nuts, whole grains.

Not only will be spared constipation, but you’ll get some other massive benefits…

• Fiber slows the rate food and nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream – this keeps
  blood sugar and cholesterol in ideal balance and prevents blood sugar spikes. In fact fiber can lower blood sugar (which reduces insulin) as well as diabetes drugs.
• Fiber speeds the rate food passes through the digestive track – this quickly eliminates toxins.
• Fiber promotes weight loss by signaling the brain you’re full, stop eating.
• Fiber has bulk with far less calories than “empty calorie” foods.
• Fiber has been shown to reduce colon cancer by as much as a third and breast cancer by nearly 40%.

Soluble fiber is better than insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber gets digested; insoluble fiber does not.

Oh and if you really need extra help with constipation, there’s Glucomannan – a fiber product made from the root of elephant yams. It’s soluable and one of the most viscous fibers known (absorbs up to 50 times its weight in water). So it will bulk up food in your stomach… you feel full more quickly, you eat fewer calories.

Now go eat your veggies.

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Now that organic has transitioned from counter culture to nearly ordinary, we have a replacement counter culture gastro-movement stretching our food consciousness… “local”.

First, a disclaimer… I live in the San Francisco Bay Area which is (a) very food centric; (b) within 500 miles of a heck of a lot of agriculture, including quite a bit of organic.
To say I’m spoiled with choice is an understatement.

Back to local… the definition of local varies a bit depending on what food religion you follow. Some worship within 100 miles, some 200 miles, some 250 miles.
Let’s accept – less than a full passenger car gas tank.

What’s the big deal?
Here are the main issues:

1. environmental. No pesticides make organic produce less environmentally damaging. Put it on a plane and fly it half way round the globe and the environmental impact increases.
Local scores “carbon credits”

2. freshness. If your buying local produce it is likely to be fresher, perhaps more nutrient dense.

3. economy. Support your local economy.

There was a fun article recently in Time – Eating Better Than Organic. The author lives in New York State and wrote from that perspective. Fun – and interesting – read.

Another great book is What To Eat by Marion Nestle. She’s a Professor of Nutrition at New York University. Excellent book. She walks you through a grocery store explaining things in a balanced, realistic way.