Jonny Bowden's Blog, page 12

The Sugar Deception: How Long Has This Been Going On?

The saddest thing about this week’s “shocking” revelations regarding the sugar industry is not what the sugar industry actually did but; what’s really sad is that this is the first time most people are learning about it.

If you happened to miss the headlines of the past week, here’s what happened.

Recently discovered documents show that the sugar industry, in a campaign that started almost a half century ago, paid a lot of money to make sure that the blame for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity was placed squarely at the feet of saturated fat.

That campaign is still going on today. (Read on.)

Go back in time with me for a moment. It was the mid-1960’s and an increasing amount of research was pointing in the direction of sugar as the real culprit in heart disease. The sugar industry was not happy. It fought back by funding research of its own, the sole purpose of which was to cast scientific doubt on what the anti-sugar research was saying. In one case, the National Confectioners Association even managed to rope a nutrition professor at Louisiana State University into doing a study purporting to show that sugar was actually good for weight loss, leading to the CBS news headline, “Does candy keep kids from getting fat?”.

Specifically, according to a paper published this week in JAMA International Medicine the last forty years of horrible dietary advice condemning fat was basically a dog and pony show funded by the sugar industry. It was not, and never was– as my colleagues and I have been saying for decades— based on science.

The JAMA paper shows that in 1965, John Hickson—an executive in the sugar industry—hired two Harvard researchers to write a research review, the purpose of which was to debunk all the anti-sugar research that was coming out at an alarming rate.

Oh, and the research they wanted the Harvard dudes to review was thoughtfully provided by the sugar industry.

Obviously I wasn’t there, but I can tell you exactly how that conversation went.

Sugar executives:

“Listen boys, we’re feeling like perhaps sugar isn’t getting a totally fair hearing here. We think there are some mighty good things about sugar, I mean; pleasure is an important part of life, right? And it’s so easy to just exercise off those extra calories.

Now we don’t want to influence you fellas in any way—after all, your scientific integrity is of top concern to us—but we’d like you boys to do an objective review of the studies and just give us your honest opinion. Of course we won’t interfere with what you write, we would never do that, we have far too much respect for you boys as scientists!

And if you don’t mind, we’d love to see it as you’re working on it. We might have some valuable info we can contribute. Of course, we won’t change anything—we might make a suggestion or two, but other than that, we’re completely hands off!

You boys understand what I’m saying here, don’t you?”

The researchers understood perfectly. They always do.

The sugar industry paid them about 50K in today’s dollars.

And…ladies and gentlemen… this goes on, let’s see now…. ALL THE TIME!

It’s worth mentioning that numerous studies show that industry funded studies are four to five times more likely to get the desired “positive” results than studies not sponsored by industry. And that’s true whether the industry is Big Pharma, Big Food, or Big Sugar. Or even, it pains me to admit, the natural products industry. The only difference is that we’re selling products that will almost never harm you. They’re selling products that will almost always kill you.

Some of you may be familiar with my book, The Great Cholesterol Myth in which Dr. Stephen Sinatra and I detail exactly how the dietary guidelines came to be written and how they came to demonize fat. Here’s the summary: In 1977, the US Senate Select Committee on Human Nutrition—also known as the McGovern Committee—had come to the end of its tenure, and was about to disband. But they wanted to go out with a legacy document– some guidelines for the country on how to eat healthy.

The cockamamie theories of Ansel Keyes (the genius who came up with the idea that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease) were being pushed on the committee by Keyes and his minions, but there was far from universal acceptance that fat was in fact the bad guy.

John Yudkin—the Dr. Oz of England, and a distinguished professor of nutrition on the other side of the pond—was adamant that sugar was the main cause of heart disease. Other reputable scientists thought the “fat causes heart disease” to be completely batty. (Framingham researcher and biochemist George Mann of Vanderbilt University famously said that the notion that cholesterol and fat caused heart disease was “the biggest scam ever perpetrated on the American public”. Since the McGovern Committee was made up of mostly young Washington lawyers with zero nutrition background, they needed some scientific cover before endorsing any dietary recommendations.

So they turned to Harvard professor Mark Hegsted.

Who, as it turns out, was one of several Harvard professors who were very much in the pay of the sugar industry.

“Oh that Keys fellow is completely right”, said Hegsted, essentially. “It’s fat that causes all the problems”. (You can almost hear Jon Lovitz as Pathological Liar on SNL going, “Yeah! That’s the ticket!. It’s fat! Yeah! That’s the ticket!)

So under the guidance of Hegsted, we get the dietary guidelines, the low-fat diet, the food pyramid, and an epidemic of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

And now, shocker of all shockers, we find out that the sugar industry manipulated public opinion, funded friendly research, attacked opposing views, and used their massive lobbying budget to influence the dietary recommendations that have been making us sick, fat, tired and depressed for about forty years now.

Stanton Glatz, professor of medicine at UCSF, and an author on the JAMA paper, talked to the New York Times about the actions of the sugar industry. “By today’s standards”, he said, “They behaved very badly”.

Oh really? By today’s standards? No, my dear Dr. Glatz, by today’s standards they were positively tame. Industry influence on what we think is pure “science” is not a relic of times gone by, it’s here with us every single day, and it’s getting worse, not better, Have we forgotten already that as recently as 2015—last year, for goodness sake—Coca Cola was funding the seemingly “objective” research organization called The Global Energy Balance Network, the sole purpose of which was to fund research to show two things: people are fat because they don’t exercise, and a calorie is a calorie.

Which, of course, would mean that calories from sugar aren’t any worse than calories from any other source, and as long as you exercise you’ll be just fine.

Which, of course, is utter bullshit.

Does this mean we should never trust “science”? No. But it does mean that we should all be painfully and acutely aware of the fact that almost all science these days is funded by those who have something to gain from the results.

It’s not objective, pure, knowledge-for-the-sake-of-knowledge research that has no other purpose than to discover “the truth”.

Instead, science is all-too-frequently nothing more than cover-your-ass justification for the selling of a product.

I don’t know where I first heard this saying but it’s one of the truest things I’ve ever heard:

When science meets marketing, the first casualty is truth.

These days, science doesn’t just “meet” marketing.

It’s married to it.

Watermelon: Truth and Mythconception

Watermelon owes its claim to fame as one of the world’s healthiest foods to three facts: One, its high water content (about which, more in a moment); two, its high content of lycopene; and three, its high levels of vitamin A and carotenoids, including the important but relatively unknown carotenoid beta-cryptoxanthin.

Watermelon Is Extra Filling, Helps with Weight Loss

The fact that watermelon is mostly water falls squarely under the heading of “duh” for most people, but that’s a pretty important fact. For years, Dr. Barbara Rolls has been doing research at Pennsylvania State University on appetite, satiety, and weight loss. Her findings have been unequivocal: High-volume foods (defined as those that take up a lot of space for very few calories) are one of your best allies in the quest to lose weight. Watermelon is 92 percent water. It’s the very definition of a “high volume” food.

Rolls has found that water as part of food has a very satisfying—and filling—effect. For example, soup made of vegetables and water will fill people up and cause them to eat fewer calories than the same amount of vegetables eaten along with a glass of water. “When you add water to a bowl of vegetables as in soup, the soup has greater satiety than when the vegetables are eaten alone with a glass of water,” Rolls says. “When water is incorporated into food or shakes, satiety is increased and (people) ultimately eat less food.”

The Big Myth About Watermelon

In the low-carb world, watermelon is considered “fruit non grata”. It’s not that it’s not nutritious—you’ll read about that in a moment—but rather, it’s believed to be a very high sugar fruit that you should stay away from if you’re trying to control blood sugar. Anti-watermelon folks point to the high glycemic index of the fruit (around 76), meaning that it raises blood sugar a lot and does it quickly. When you’re trying to control blood sugar and insulin– say you’re trying to lose weight or you’re just trying to get healthier—high blood sugar and high insulin are not something you want.

The truth is a little more complicated. The glycemic index is based on a “serving” of 50 grams of carbohydrate, not 50 grams of total weight. A 10-ball serving of watermelon is about 120 grams by weight, but it’s mostly water. There’s actually only 6-9 grams of carbohydrate in that serving. That’s why the glycemic load of watermelon—a far more meaningful and relevant measure of a food’s impact on blood sugar than glycemic index– is only about 4 (very low). The glycemic load takes into account portion size. So sure, if you ate 50 or 60 melon balls, you’d be closer to the amount of actual carbohydrate that was used in the study to determine glycemic index. But if you ate a normal, smallish portion of watermelon (i.e. the 10 balls), it would have minimal impact on your blood sugar.

The problem, of course, is, that it’s very easy to eat that “50 ball portion”. I’ve known people who could knock off half a melon at one sitting (including myself!). But if you can keep the portion small, then the glycemic impact of this fruit is nowhere near what people think it is.

That said, for people who are extremely sugar sensitive, have metabolic challenges (i.e. metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetes, obesity or diabetes) and need to watch their sugar very carefully, this is probably not as good a choice as berries.

Lycopene in Watermelon May Reduce Risk of Prostate Cancer

But water, low calories and a low glycemic load (for a reasonable portion!) aren’t the only good things about watermelon. Watermelon is a great source of a carotenoid called lycopene, which in several studies has been shown to be associated with lower rates of prostate cancer. In one study, at the Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State University, men facing surgery for prostate cancer were given 30 mg of lycopene for three weeks before undergoing surgery. The men who received the lycopene supplement had lower prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and less aggressive tumors than the non-supplemented control group. Plus, their tumors were smaller.

Other studies have shown that people who eat lots of tomatoes and tomato products have less prostate cancer, a fact that has largely been attributed to the high lycopene content of tomatoes. And in a review of seventy-two studies, one researcher reported fifty-seven associations between blood lycopene levels and reduced rates of cancer, thirty-five of which were statistically significant. The benefit was strongest for prostate, lung, and stomach cancers, although protective associations were also found for cancers of the pancreas, colon, rectum, esophagus, oral cavity, breast, and cervix.

Other researchers have pointed out that lycopene supplements may or may not give the desired effect—there’s good reason to think these incredible plant compounds work best when found in their natural surroundings along with other food ingredients (like other carotenoids). That’s another reason I like watermelon—it contains a nice supporting cast of other carotenoids and sources of vitamin A like beta-carotene and the less well-known beta-cryptoxanthin. In one study, beta-cryptoxanthin reduced the risk of lung cancer by 30 percent; in another study, it provided a 41 percent reduction in the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. And in rats, beta-cryptoxanthin has been found to have a bone-building effect.

High on Watermelon?

Interesting story: Medical doctor and yogi Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., sings the praises of watermelon as a detoxifier. Khalsa recounts a visit to Brazil in which he went on a watermelon fast: “After just three days I was very tuned in and meditating very deeply. This was one of the greatest highs I have ever experienced. When I boarded the plane for home, I was definitely in an altered state.”

Watermelon: low calorie, high volume, filling, satisfying, thirst quenching, and with a nice dose of vitamin A and carotenoids, including cancer-fighting lycopene. Plus it’s absolutely delicious. What’s not to like?

Grass-fed meat: Hype or Hope?

This is a fact: Cows weren’t meant to eat grain. Seriously.

It’s just not their natural diet. You can make them eat it, just like you can make lions in the zoo eat Cherrios, but it’s not what they normally eat, and they won’t do well on it.

And you won’t do well if you eat the meat of grain-fed cows. Here’s why.

Cattle in the U.S. begin life on a pasture, and usually stay there for 12-18 months. But then about 97% of them get shipped off to feedlots—also known as CAFOs, or confined animal feedlot operations— and that’s where the problems really begin.

From the point of view of Big Food, feedlot operations are awesome. Grains are superb at fattening cattle. (You might have noticed that they do the same thing for most humans.) So are antibiotics—which feedlot farmed animals are given a ton of; antibiotics fatten the cows right up. And even if they didn’t, those antibiotics are still needed because the cattle get sick from the double whammy of being confined in such close quarters and being forced to eat an unnatural diet of grains. They’re also given hormones (like bovine growth hormone). All this stuff winds up in their meat, and—especially— in their fat.

So the meat (and milk) that comes from cows that primarily spend their life being fattened up on grain at CAFOs is simply not the same meat or milk that comes from their pasture-fed, grass-grazing brethren. The fat content is different, the nutrients are different, and except for the fact that they both contain the same amount of protein, grain-fed meat is just not the same food as grass-fed meat.

Organic meat and grass-fed are not the same thing, though a lot of grass-fed meat is also organically raised. Organic meat that’s not grass-fed may indeed be free of some unwanted chemicals, but it is still nutritionally inferior to grass-fed meat, because when a ruminant is taken off pasture and fattened on grain, it loses a number of valuable nutrients.

Compared with grass-fed meat, grain-fed meat has only one-quarter as much vitamin E, one-eighth as much beta-carotene, and one-third as many omega-3 fatty acids, if indeed it has any omega-3 at all. Feeding large amounts of any type of grain to a grazing animal will have this effect simply because grain itself has fewer of these nutrients than fresh pasture does. And since most of these animals are corn-fed, and since over 90% of corn in the US is genetically modified to contain the Bt toxin, one can only speculate what effect this has on the quality of the meat that comes from these animals, and on the health of the people who consume them. (Monsanto—that wonderful, public-minded company that gave us Agent Orange– assures us that GMO food like their Bt-toxin containing corn is completely harmless to humans. I don’t know about you, but that sure makes me feel a lot better.)

Grain-fed animals also produce far more of the proinflammatory omega-6s and far less of the anti-inflammatory omega-3s. The balance between these two fats is essential to human health. We get far too many omega-6s and far too few omega-3s. The fat in grass-fed animals is much closer to a healthy balance between these two essential fats. The fat in grain-fed animals is heavily weighted in favor of the pro-inflammatory omega-6 and only contributes to the imbalance in our diet.

Compared with grass-fed products, organic grain-fed products are also relatively deficient in a cancer-fighting fat called CLA—conjugated linolenic acid. CLA has been widely studied for its anti-cancer and tumor-fighting ability, as well as for its ability to reduce the accumulation of abdominal fat. CLA may be one of the most potent cancer-fighting substances in our diet. Feeding animals a diet with as little as 1% CLA significantly inhibited tumor growth and prevented the spread of breast cancer cells to lungs, peripheral blood, and bone marrow. When you feed a ruminant grain—even as little as two pounds a day—its production of CLA plummets..

So as far as I’m concerned, grass-fed meat is the only way to go.

While you can get grass-fed meat at farmers markets and through collectives, it’s not always easy to find. Fortunately, there’s a great online source that I’ve been enjoying for years and that I totally vouch for. It’s called US Wellness Meats. I know the owner, John, and I feel you can totally trust their products.

US Wellness is the only place I know where you can get grass-fed pemmican, a natural kind of beef jerky-type snack that is kind of the original, ultimate “Power” bar. Based on a tried and true historic Native American recipe, it contains beef jerky, beef tallow, water, cherries, a drop of honey and sea salt. It’s amazing.

You can try any of the terrific US Wellness Meats products by clicking here.

I promise, if you try it, you’ll never go back to conventionally raised, toxic meat.

The Bulletproof Coffee Phenomena

This last weekend I attended a seminar in San Diego, and one of the sponsors was Bulletproof Coffee.

What is bulletproof coffee, you ask? The short answer is that it’s coffee with butter in it (more on that in a moment). The long answer is that it’s the brainchild of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dave Aspery, who used to weigh 300 pounds, became a well-known bio-hacker, lost all the weight, transformed his life and his health, and started Bulletproof Executive, a company devoted to high performance living.

Bulletproof coffee—which is basically high fat coffee— is their signature beverage and has been gabbed about on Jimmy Fallon and a dozen other nationally known talk shows. It’s become the trendy beverage-d’jour among the health minded set and the darling of Paleo devotees.

Now this is not an advertisement for Bulletproof, although I’m a big fan of the brand. Even if you don’t buy the (excellent) “Bulletproof” branded coffee and high-fat add-ons, you can still make generic bulletproof coffee at home using regular coffee and any kind of fat like butter. Coconut oil is a popular add-on, as is MCT oil. (I’ll give you the generic recipe, which is what I use every day, at the end of this column.)

Now if you’re new to the notion that higher-fat diets can actually be good for you, you might be confused by my recommendation that you add butter or oil to your coffee. After all, what about the dangers of saturated fat?

 

Well, pull up a chair.

Saturated fat—from butter, from coconut oil, from grass-fed meat, from red Malaysian palm oil—is absolutely blameless when it comes to heart disease. At least three major meta-analyses—one published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2010, one published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2014, and one published just this year in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) were unable to find any direct causal connection between saturated fat and heart disease. (The most recent study, in the BMJ, concluded that “Saturated fats are not associated with all cause mortality, CVD, CHD, ischemic stroke, or type 2 diabetes..”)

What’s also important to remember is that fats—from good healthy sources like grass-fed beef, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, Malaysian palm oil, avocados, wild salmon, flaxseed, olive and avocado oil and the like— are the best source of energy in the human diet.

Our cells manufacture a molecule known as ATP which is basically the currency from which energy is produced in the body. We need ATP to power every single activity from growing eyebrows to dancing the tango. Our cells produce about 36 molecules of ATP from each molecule of glucose (sugar) but they produce well over 100 molecules of ATP from every molecule of fat.

Our bodies store about 2000 calories of carbohydrate in the body but they store about ten gazillion calories of fat. Fat is the natural fuel of the body—it’s like high octane gas for the cells. No wonder the bulletproof coffee formula gives you a nice little jolt of energy in the morning!

A further benefit of fat is its effect on your hormones. Remember, insulin is the fat-storage hormone, responsible for (among other things) driving sugar into the cells. The food group that has the most profound effect on insulin—raising it the highest—is carbohydrate. Protein has an effect, but not nearly as strong as that of carbohydrates.

 

Know what food group has zero effect on this fat-storing hormone?

You guessed it. Fat.

That’s why I called my new book Smart Fat: Eat More Fat, Lose More Weight, Get Healthy Now!. And that’s why the high-fat bulletproof coffee is a great way to start the day!

The generic recipe for “bulletproof coffee”:

Start with 8 oz of filtered water.
Add 2 ½ tablespoons of freshly ground coffee and brew in your preferred way.
Add 1 teaspoon of MCT oil (you can easily up this to 1-2 tablespoons).
Add 1-2 tablespoons of grass-fed unsalted butter
Mix it all up in a blender for 20-30 seconds.
Enjoy!

Dave recently introduced a brand new product that I can’t live without: A travel envelope that contains a special preparation of grass-fed butter and his high-quality MCT oil, “Brain Octane”. Now I can have Bulletproof Coffee every time I travel by just dissolving one packet in my Starbucks. I’m taking a box of these bad boys on our upcoming trip to my niece’s wedding.

And best of all, Dave’s given me  a special Dr. Jonny 10% off coupon for any Bulletproof products (including the new travel packs).  He’s got a great product line—you should check it out.. The 10% coupon won’t last forever so if you want to try (or stock up on) this stuff, this is a great time to do it! Use code – JONNY to save. And check out all the awesome products here. (Coupon code- one use per user, expires 2/26/16)

 

The Bulletproof Coffee Phenomena

This last weekend I attended a seminar in San Diego, and one of the sponsors was Bulletproof Coffee.

What is bulletproof coffee, you ask? The short answer is that it’s coffee with butter in it (more on that in a moment). The long answer is that it’s the brainchild of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dave Aspery, who used to weigh 300 pounds, became a well-known bio-hacker, lost all the weight, transformed his life and his health, and started Bulletproof Executive, a company devoted to high performance living.

Bulletproof coffee—which is basically high fat coffee— is their signature beverage and has been gabbed about on Jimmy Fallon and a dozen other nationally known talk shows. It’s become the trendy beverage-d’jour among the health minded set and the darling of Paleo devotees.

Now this is not an advertisement for Bulletproof, although I’m a big fan of the brand. Even if you don’t buy the (excellent) “Bulletproof” branded coffee and high-fat add-ons, you can still make generic bulletproof coffee at home using regular coffee and any kind of fat like butter. Coconut oil is a popular add-on, as is MCT oil. (I’ll give you the generic recipe, which is what I use every day, at the end of this column.)

Now if you’re new to the notion that higher-fat diets can actually be good for you, you might be confused by my recommendation that you add butter or oil to your coffee. After all, what about the dangers of saturated fat?

 

Well, pull up a chair.

Saturated fat—from butter, from coconut oil, from grass-fed meat, from red Malaysian palm oil—is absolutely blameless when it comes to heart disease. At least three major meta-analyses—one published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2010, one published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2014, and one published just this year in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) were unable to find any direct causal connection between saturated fat and heart disease. (The most recent study, in the BMJ, concluded that “Saturated fats are not associated with all cause mortality, CVD, CHD, ischemic stroke, or type 2 diabetes..”)

What’s also important to remember is that fats—from good healthy sources like grass-fed beef, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, Malaysian palm oil, avocados, wild salmon, flaxseed, olive and avocado oil and the like— are the best source of energy in the human diet.

Our cells manufacture a molecule known as ATP which is basically the currency from which energy is produced in the body. We need ATP to power every single activity from growing eyebrows to dancing the tango. Our cells produce about 36 molecules of ATP from each molecule of glucose (sugar) but they produce well over 100 molecules of ATP from every molecule of fat.

Our bodies store about 2000 calories of carbohydrate in the body but they store about ten gazillion calories of fat. Fat is the natural fuel of the body—it’s like high octane gas for the cells. No wonder the bulletproof coffee formula gives you a nice little jolt of energy in the morning!

A further benefit of fat is its effect on your hormones. Remember, insulin is the fat-storage hormone, responsible for (among other things) driving sugar into the cells. The food group that has the most profound effect on insulin—raising it the highest—is carbohydrate. Protein has an effect, but not nearly as strong as that of carbohydrates.

 

Know what food group has zero effect on this fat-storing hormone?

You guessed it. Fat.

That’s why I called my new book Smart Fat: Eat More Fat, Lose More Weight, Get Healthy Now!. And that’s why the high-fat bulletproof coffee is a great way to start the day!

The generic recipe for “bulletproof coffee”:

Start with 8 oz of filtered water.
Add 2 ½ tablespoons of freshly ground coffee and brew in your preferred way.
Add 1 teaspoon of MCT oil (you can easily up this to 1-2 tablespoons).
Add 1-2 tablespoons of grass-fed unsalted butter
Mix it all up in a blender for 20-30 seconds.
Enjoy!

Dave recently introduced a brand new product that I can’t live without: A travel envelope that contains a special preparation of grass-fed butter and his high-quality MCT oil, “Brain Octane”. Now I can have Bulletproof Coffee every time I travel by just dissolving one packet in my Starbucks. I’m taking a box of these bad boys on our upcoming trip to my niece’s wedding.

And best of all, Dave’s given me  a special Dr. Jonny 10% off coupon for any Bulletproof products (including the new travel packs).  He’s got a great product line—you should check it out.. The 10% coupon won’t last forever so if you want to try (or stock up on) this stuff, this is a great time to do it! Use code – JONNY to save. And check out all the awesome products here. (Coupon code- one use per user, expires 2/26/16)

Sweeteners: The good, the bad, the ugly

When it comes to natural sweeteners—at least the ones that have calories— there’s really only two choices: Raw, unfiltered honey, and blackstrap molasses. Both are real foods with actual nutritious compounds in them, like enzymes and minerals. Yet they’re still sugars, and will raise blood sugar just as much as Domino’s sugar cubes. So, if you’re very sugar-sensitive, they may not be the best choices.

In addition to honey and molasses, there are multiple choices for non-caloric sweeteners—artificial and not-artificial. These are what I call the ‘packet sweeteners’, many of which are routinely offered at coffee shops and restaurants across the country. Splenda, Equal, Stevia, Sunett™, Sweet One™ and Xylitol all fit the bill, as do a couple of others listed below.

 

Here’s what I think of each of them, and whether I approve.

SUCRALOSE (SPLENDA) (NO)

The little yellow package is very far from innocuous. Research in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B: Critical Reviews found that Splenda causes a variety of harmful biological effects in the body. Splenda also alters the amount and the quality of beneficial microbes in your gut, essentially screwing up your micro biome.

I would never use this sweetener.

 

Stevia (YES)

Stevia is a plant native to South America, and has been used for thousands of years as a natural sweetener. It’s about 200-300 times sweeter than sugar. It won’t raise blood sugar, and it appears to be perfectly safe for most people. The only downside is a licorice-y aftertaste which many like and many hate. (I’m in the latter group.)

Perfectly fine to use!

 

MONK FRUIT (YES)

Monk fruit has been used for centuries in China as a remedy for sore throats, colds and congestion. In southern China, it’s considered a longevity aid. It’s a low-calorie, low-glycemic food used as a sweetener in beverages and foods. It’s also known as Lo Han (see below).

 It appears to be perfectly safe.

 

LO HAN (YES)

Lo Han is another name for Monkfruit. See above

 

ERYTHRITOL (YES)

Erythritol, like Xylitol, is a sugar alcohol. Sugar alcohols are naturally found in different fruits and vegetables’ fibrous parts. Erythritol itself can be found in pears and melons. Our body can’t break it down so it basically provides zero calories and zero glycemic response. I’ve been using erythritol for years and I’ve never heard even a word of buzz about any negatives.

Definitely OK to use!

 

XYLITOL (YES)

Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that has a specific benefit—it helps to prevent bacteria from taking a hold on your teeth. That’s one reason it’s used in “tooth friendly” products and recommended by dentists. It also has an ability to strengthen and re-mineralize gums and teeth.

I’ve always liked Xylitol and have used it for over a decade. The only thing to be aware of is that, like many other sugar alcohols, it can have a tendency to cause diarrhea and bloating in some people. It’s definitely safe for people with diabetes.

OK to use!

 

ASPARTAME (EQUAL) (NO)

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener, and the debate on whether or not it’s safe has been going on for decades. In 1980, an FDA Board of Inquiry confirmed that it “might induce brain tumors”. It had actually been banned, but due to some very shady behind-the-scenes political maneuvering, it was able to get approval, albeit under a cloud of suspicion. Neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock considers it a neurotoxin. And some people are “aspartame responders”, meaning they get really intense headaches from using this stuff (Lipton, 1989).

I would never use aspartame (Equal) and recommend that you don’t either.

 

AGAVE NECTAR SYRUP (NO)

Agave nectar syrup has up to 92% fructose, making it dwarf high-fructose corn syrup in terms of its negative impact on your body. (HFCS is about 55% fructose). The fact that this has somehow been branded as a “healthy” sweetener is a testament to the craft of marketing. In very tiny amounts it’s probably innocuous, but it’s been sold to us as the healthy alternative to sugar. It’s not.

Stay away.

 

SACCHARIN (MAYBE)

I grew up thinking that saccharin caused bladder cancer, because that’s exactly what we believed throughout the 1970’s based on some pretty compelling rat studies. But recent research has found no such link between cancer and saccharin, and the National Cancer Institute points out that the mechanism that caused bladder cancer in rats doesn’t exist in humans. That led to a 2000 repeal of the warning label previously required for saccaharin. Though it’s not been proven to cause cancer, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (a consumer advocacy group) still believes that saccharin may pose a risk.

 I’d probably avoid it.

 

ACESULFLAME POTASSIUM  (Sunett™, Sweet One™) (NO)

One of the chemicals found in Acesulflame Potassium (ACE-K) is methylene chloride, a known carcinogen linked to visual disturbances, headache, depression, liver problems, mental confusion and cancer in humans. The FDA concluded that the methylene chloride in Ace-K is sufficiently low as to be a non-issue. I’m not so sure.

I wouldn’t use this artificial sweetener.

Here’s Why I Start Every Day with Mighty Maca

The first thing you need to know about maca is its nickname: Peruvian Viagra.

OK, let that one sink in for a minute.

The reason they call it Peruvian Viagra is that it’s best known for its use in treating fatigue and sexual dysfunction. Research has shown that maca can be effective in improving both sexual desire and sexual function. That alone makes it worth the price of admission.

 

But there’s a lot more.

Maca is one of those herbs that have been used in indigenous cultures (such as the ancient Incas) for thousands of years, mostly for its legendary ability to stimulate mental clarity and energy while enhancing sex drive. And though there’s a ton of anecdotal evidence of its benefits, there’s not a lot of hard cold Western science to prove it’s effective.

Nonetheless, there’s great wisdom in the ancient cultures and, let’s face it, an herb doesn’t hang around for a couple thousand years and gain a solid reputation for being effective if it doesn’t work.

My friend, the integrative and functional medicine psychiatrist, Hyla Cass, MD, says “In my practice I have seen maca restore hormonal imbalance and related sexual desire and fertility in both men and women.”

My pal Chris Killiam, the Medicine Hunter, says, “The question is not whether it works—because we know it works with certainty—but how it works.”

Maca is considered an adaptogen, which is a class of compounds that act kind of like the thermostat in your house. When you set your thermostat at the ideal temperature, it will cool off the air if the air’s too hot, and it will turn up the heat if it’s too cold.

That’s exactly how adaptagens work. They help you adapt to fluctuating levels, of, say stress hormones.

“Consuming maca often makes people feel more “alive”, energetic, and leaves them with a sense of well-being, all of which are thought to be due to its ability to restore proper hormone balance and elevate “feel good” endorphins”, says noted health expert Dr. Josh Axe. Axe—a big fan of maca. He points out that it provides over 20 amino acids, including 8 essential ones, 20 free-form fatty acids (such as the anti-microbal lauric acid), vitamins B-1, B-2, C and E, calcium, magnesium and about nine other minerals. Maca is also a rich source of phytonutrients.

What’s more, maca stimulates the immune system. It’s anti-viral, and may help to protect against the influenza virus. It’s believed to help women with PCOS by helping to control and balance estrogen levels. And a 2008 study  showed that maca had positive effects on boosting mood and decreasing anxiety and depression in menopausal women. Maca root is a natural antioxidant, boosting your body’s levels of two of the most important antioxidants in the human body, glutathione and SOD (superoxide dismutase). It even lowers blood sugar.

 

And then, of course, there’s energy.

Energy is one of the big “selling points” of maca. Maca helps to regulate the hypothalamus, which in turn helps balance focus and energy. And many people just feel better and brighter on a daily dose of maca—me included!

Personally, I start every single day with a maca drink. This is completely separate from my protein drink, which I’ll often have after two hours on the tennis court. But maca is what I start my day with. I personally use Mighty Maca, by Vida Pura, which was formulated by my good friend and colleague, Dr. Anna Cabeca after years of research. I like it, number one, because it tastes really good, and number two, because I really trust Dr. Cabeca who is scrupulously conscientious in creating her products. She put her name on this one, and that’s good enough for me.

Mighty Maca Greens is a lot more than just maca, though. It’s also got spirulina, chlorella, mangosteen, a bunch of enzymes (like bromelain and papain), oat bran, milk thistle, resveratrol, quercetin, flaxseed, turmeric, grape seed extract and green tea extract, making it one of the most complete green drinks I’ve ever come across.

I do one or two heaping scoops a day, and I mix it in the NutriBullet with pomegranate juice, some powdered brain formula, five or six drops of liquid vitamin D, my Oligo30 pre-biotics, a packet of ResVitale Collagen Renew and a squirt of Omega-3 Swirls by Barleans, in either key lime or mango peach.

It’s a really great way to start the day; you should try it, too. You don’t need to go searching through stores, you can order the Mighty Maca right here.

 

I’m pretty sure you’re going to love it as much as I do.

Can Whey Protein Help You Lose Weight?

Whey protein may be a great weapon in the fight against type 2 diabetes. And it may also help you lose weight.

We’ve actually known this for a while– just last year, in the world Journal of Diabetes, researchers published a paper entitled Whey Protein: The “whey” forward for treatment of type 2 diabetes?. But a new study from Tel Aviv University presented at the Endocrine Society meeting on April 1, 2016, confirms it.

Researchers have long known that high protein breakfasts have metabolic advantages over the typical high carb American breakfast.  A number of studies have tested breakfasts of eggs against breakfasts of bagels and found eggs the clear winner in the weight loss sweepstakes. One study  found that, when combined with a lower-calorie diet,  the “egg breakfast enhances weight loss”; a second study also compared eggs to bagels and found that eggs induced “greater satiety and significantly reduced short-term food intake”.

In the new study, researchers started with the assumption that high protein breakfasts do indeed have a metabolic advantage, but they wanted to know if the type of protein mattered. So they took 48 overweight or obese diabetics, and divided them into three groups. In the first group, subjects ate a high protein breakfast with whey protein; in the second group, they also ate a high protein breakfast, but this time the protein was eggs or fish; and in the third group, subjects ate a high carb breakfast. Calories were the same across all three conditions.

Even meal size was kept constant across all conditions. “A high-calorie protein breakfast, medium-sized lunch, and small dinner is a proven successful strategy for weight loss, improved satiety and reduced glucose spikes throughout the day in people with obesity and Type 2 diabetes”, lead study author Daniela Jakubowicz, MD, told Science Daily.

 

So what happened with the three breakfast conditions?

Well, after 12 weeks, the whey protein group lost the most weight (about 16 ½ pounds). Second place was the group that ate the high protein breakfast using non-whey protein sources—they lost an average of 13 ½ pounds. Bringing up the rear was the high carb group, with 6.8 pounds of average weight loss.

The measurement researchers were most interested in was what’s known as glycolated hemoglobin, or hemoglobin A1C. The A1C test is a kind of long-term measurement of blood sugar, and is usually used to diagnose diabetes. (An A1C level of 5.7 or lower is considered normal; 6.5 or higher gets you a diagnosis of diabetes, while 5.7-6.4 is generally considered “pre-diabetes”.)

In this study, the whey protein group saw the most significant reduction in their A1C levels over the course of almost two years of follow-up. The whey protein group also had the greatest reduction in blood sugar spikes.

“The whey protein diet significantly suppresses the hunger hormone ‘ghrelin””, Jakubowicz said. “A whey protein drink is easily prepared and provides the advantages of a high-protein breakfast on weight loss, reduction of hunger, glucose spikes and A1C.”

I’ve written glowingly about whey protein many times, and even gave it a star in my book, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. Not only does it fill you up and give you all the metabolic advantages shown in the studies, but it is also a great immune system booster. It also stimulates the body to produce more glutathione, arguably the most important antioxidant that the body makes.

All whey protein is not the same, however. Much like meat and milk and eggs, you want your whey protein to come from grass-fed cows only. The whey protein we selected for our Smart Fat Whey Protein Powder  is 100% grass-fed and manufactured for us by Thorne Research, one of the most respected nutraceutical companies in the world. And it tastes delicious! And…  it’s 30% off right now in our store.

Here’s one of my most favorite basic whey protein shakes. I love having this after tennis. I usually play from about 7:30-9 every morning (fueled by a cup or two of high-fat coffee), and grab one of these before heading upstairs to work. Try it, it’s amazing.

 

Dr. Jonny’s Special Five-Ingredient Whey Protein Shake

1 scoop Smart Fat whey protein powder (vanilla)

1 glass of liquid (I use raw, unpasteurized, full-fat milk which is still, thankfully, legal in the state I live in; you can use any “milk” of your choice—almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk, or even plain water)

¼- 1/3 cup frozen cherries

¼-1/3 cup frozen spinach (frozen blends better and keeps the spinach from turning stringy and getting into your teeth!)

½ an avocado (peeled, of course!)

(handful of ice cubes for frothiness—optional)

Blend in a VitaMix (or powerful blender) and enjoy! It’ll definitely keep you at the top of your game till lunch!

My Homeopathy Dilemma

I’ve always been skeptical about homeopathy.

Sorry. I know it’s not politically correct to say that, but it’s the truth. I can kind of see it on some energetic or metaphorical level—especially when I get all What The Bleep Do We Know about it, thinking about water that takes on the energy of words and all that, but then I inevitably think…”naaah.”

Homeopathy—if you’re not familiar with it—is a very old and traditional method of medicine that’s based upon the idea that you treat a disease with a tiny dilution of the same disease—kind of like a vaccination—except that the dilutions are so small that no method of scientific analysis ever invented can detect them. So the rap against homeopathy has always been that the treatments don’t contain any active ingredient that anyone can detect which is one reason that homeopathic remedies never fall on the wrong side of the FDA. The FDA essentially sees homeopathic medicine as water and doesn’t bother with it.

 

Now back to our story.

So I’m reading the other day about a new method of cancer detection that is about 98% accurate, beating any machine, any technology, any lab test currently in existence.

It’s called dogs.

I’m not talking about a code name for a new detection algorithm; I’m talking about animals.  Actual dogs. (Like the kind I live with, only better trained. Hopefully.)

There’s a canine medical training facility in California called In Situ where they’ve already trained over 50 dogs to detect more than six different cancers with eye-popping accuracy. Apparently, an MRI can tell you if you have a lump. But a dog can tell you if it’s cancer.

 

Pretty amazing, right?

You know how people who live with animals say things like, “He always knows when I’m sad!”?

They’re right—but how do you think dogs know that stuff? They’re smelling your hormones! Dogs can sense slight changes in the hormones we secrete when we’re stressed, sad, glad, mad and who knows what else. They have 300 million olfactory in their wet, kissable little noses.  We have 5 million.

 

All of which brings me back to homeopathy.

While I’m still skeptical, I’m also curious. If dogs can detect compounds at parts per trillion… which neither human nor measuring technology can do…Is it not possible that there are molecules in homeopathic remedies that we just can’t detect?

After all, the fact that dogs can sniff out stuff that humans can’t measure or see– and are verified as being 98 percent correct– means, by definition, that there’s something there.

Maybe there’s something there in homeopathic remedies too. Who knows?

New Website Giveaway!

Join us in celebrating the exciting relaunch of the all new

JonnyBowden.com.

We are so excited about the new look of my website that we have put together this SUPER GRAND PRIZE package of some of my favorite products– valued at OVER $500. I hope you  enjoy the new look as much as I do. Be sure to leave us a comment or send us a note and let us know what you think.

What’s included:

Dr. Jonny Bowden’s Healthiest Foods Starter Pack from Vital Choice

The Great Cholesterol Myth Book

Living Low Carb Book

Smart Fat Book

Smart Fat Shake Whey Powder (Chocolate or Vanilla)

Smart Fat Fiber

Smart Fat Vitality Vitamin Pack

Barlean’s Key Lime Fish Oil Swirl 

Barlean’s MCT Swirl Coconut Flavor

Barlean’s Coconut Oil

Terry Naturally CuraMed

Oligo30 Prebiotic Dietary Fiber

Resveratrol  from ResVitále

 

How to enter:

Enter your name and email address in the collection box at the top of the homepage (see image below). Then you’ll be added to the running for the SUPER prize pack.

 

Want extra entries? Of course you do!

Like my page on Facebook, follow me on Instagram and Twitter, and leave a comment to let us know you’re loving the new site and want the extra contest entry– and we’ll add an extra chance for you.

There will be more giveaways on social media coming up — so you’ll want to be in on the exclusive chance to win even more!

SUPER PRIZE PACK giveaway contest ends August 16, 2016 at 5pm EDT. Winner will be chosen at random and notified via form of entry. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery of prizes. No cash value.