Me & Latia

Me & Latia
Partners @ Attitude = Performance

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Control Blood Sugar to Slow Aging

Eating a more Paleolithic type diet that is mostly grain-free (or fairly low in grains) is a very good way to control blood sugar and the resulting AGE’s as well. This type of diet emphasizes eating real foods, such as naturally raised (grass fed) meat and wild fish, along with ample amounts of healthy fats, while avoiding or minimizing grains, processed foods and sugars.

Foods higher in fiber are generally low glycemic, as well as foods that are primarily fat or protein. When eating a food that has a high sugar or starch content, such as fruit, pair it with a protein and/or a healthy fat to slow down the absorption in the digestive system. This helps to keep blood sugar lower and controlled as well. For example, if you have an apple as a snack, pairing that apple with nuts such as almonds (or almond butter), walnuts, or pecans helps to balance and slow the blood sugar response due to the healthy fats, protein, and fiber in the nuts.


Meats and other proteins such as cheese, eggs, fish and chicken are all low glycemic. Avoid processed meats, though, including lunchmeat and sausages, as these often have surprisingly high amounts of sugar in them.


Healthy fats also have very little, if any, effect on blood sugar, and help you to keep low and stable levels, which is ideal for keeping your rate of aging slower. Extra virgin olive oil, butter, avocados, cheeses, nuts, coconuts and coconut oil are all foods that help keep low and stable blood sugar levels.


Focusing on low glycemic foods and protein and healthy fat based foods instead of processed, packaged foods with added refined starches and sugar goes a long way towards avoiding blood sugar ups and downs.


Low Glycemic Foods to Keep Blood Sugar Stable:


Walnuts
Peanuts
Cashews
Brazil Nuts
Macadamia Nuts
Pecans
Almonds
Pistachios
Peanut and Nut Butters
Avocados
Hummus
Chick Peas
Lentils
Yellow Split Peas

Green Peas
Carrots (raw)
Eggplant
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Mushrooms
Lettuce
Green Beans
Red Peppers
Onions
Cheeses, esp. Raw Cheese
Plain Yogurt
Sweet Potatoes
Buckwheat (in low amounts)
Brown Rice (in low amounts)
Quinoa (in low amounts)
Cherries
Plums
Grapefruit
Peaches
Apples
Pears
Dried Apricots
Coconut
Coconut Milk
Kiwi
Strawberries
Blackberries
Raspberries


Herbs, Spices and Miscellaneous Foods that Lower Blood Sugar Response
Many herbs and spices have been found to be as powerful as some medications in lowering and stabilizing blood sugar. But if you are on medication, always check with your physician to be sure adding spices will not interfere with your current prescription.


Cinnamon – Studies have shown that cinnamon improves insulin sensitivity and blood sugar stability with as little as a ½ teaspoon per day. When cinnamon was taken for 40 days, moderate doses of it (1 to 6 grams per day) actually reduced blood sugar levels by 18-29%, according to a study published in 2003 in the medical journal Diabetes Care. Best type of cinnamon to use—Saigon cinnamon.
Add a half teaspoon or so of cinnamon to your daily cup of coffee as a tasty way to enjoy the blood sugar controlling benefits!


Cloves – This spice contains powerful antioxidants, including anthocyanins and phenolic compounds. Cloves have antiseptic and germicidal properties, and they offer anti-inflammatory, analgesic and digestive health benefits. Clove oil can even be used to for pain relief from toothaches, headaches, and as a remedy for cough and even indigestion.


Cilantro and Coriander – The leaves of the cilantro plant are used in many foods, as well as its seeds (coriander). In Europe, coriander is often referred to as an "anti-diabetic" plant. Coriander is known to stimulate the secretion of insulin and lower blood sugar. It also has very beneficial effects on the cholesterol, lowering the LDL and raising the good cholesterol, HDL.


Cumin – Like cinnamon, cumin keeps blood sugar levels stable. Cumin has been proven to work as well as some commonly used diabetic drugs at regulating insulin and glycogen. Cumin is also effective at stimulating pancreatic enzymes, which help in digestion of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.


Fenugreek – Fenugreek seeds help with lowering blood sugar levels, particularly after meals. The active components of fenugreek are trigonelline, and 4-hydroxyisoleucine. These ingredients seem to stimulate insulin directly. This reaction is dependent upon high glucose levels, so it may not act in the same manner in lower blood sugar levels. The active components of fenugreek that help to control your blood sugar are contained in the IC-5 blood sugar control supplement we mentioned earlier, along with 4 other powerful blood sugar controlling herbal ingredients.


Ginseng – American ginseng contains a substance called, ginsengosides. Researchers have found that ginseng slows carbohydrate absorption, increases cells’ ability to use glucose, and stimulates insulin secretion in the pancreas. Studies done at the University of Toronto showed that ginseng capsules can lower blood glucose 15-20%.


Sage - This herb contains phytosterols that, according to German study on this herb reduced blood sugar levels in diabetics who drank infusions of this herb. It is often used to flavor meat and soup dishes, but can also be drunk as tea.

Turmeric - Turmeric has properties of being able to block enzymes that change carbohydrates into glucose, thereby lowering blood sugar. One of the active ingredients in turmeric is curcumin, which induces the flow of bile, and in turn breaks down fats. I like to add turmeric to my eggs a couple times a week whenever I make scrambled eggs. And eating a curry dish a few times a month is not only tasty, but very healthy! I also take a couple capsules a day of pure turmeric to get a little extra since it’s not a spice that we cook with daily.


Lemon Juice - Studies show that as little as 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice in a glass of water lowered blood sugar levels by as much as 20%. The effects appear to be related to the acids, as it is know that other acids can also have a blood sugar lowering effect. Acidity in food slows the natural rate of stomach emptying, resulting in a longer time for carbohydrates to be absorbed. I like to squeeze a couple lemon slices in my unsweetened iced tea throughout the day or in water with a meal.
Supplements to Lower Blood Sugar Response from meals


Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) – This super powerful antioxidant helps to control blood sugar levels and increase insulin sensitivity. Studies showed alpha lipoic acid rejuvenates and replaces damaged and aging, which are the powerhouses and generators of energy within our cells. ALA is especially known to raise glutathione levels, (one of the body’s most protective antioxidant and detoxification compounds) to those of a younger person. It also acts as a strong anti-inflammatory agent, which helps prevent many degenerative diseases. ALA also improves body composition and lean muscle mass, glucose tolerance, and energy. ALA is thought to be a very promising treatment for obesity and diabetes type 2.


Note: You can reap the blood sugar and antioxidant anti-aging benefits of ALA along with 4 other powerful blood sugar controlling herbal ingredients in this herbal formula called IC5 that I’ve been using recently and mentioned earlier.


Magnesium – It is thought that 80% or more of the populations of civilized countries have a magnesium deficiency, and this can worsen the effects of high blood sugar and insulin resistance. Some studies show supplementing with magnesium helps with carbohydrate metabolism, improves insulin sensitivity, and lowers blood sugar levels, while it helps the body perform at least 300 different necessary enzymatic functions in the body. Magnesium also reduces the fasting blood sugar number in diabetics.


Chromium - This trace mineral is thought to enhance the action of insulin as well as being involved in carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism. Some research shows that it helps normalize blood sugar if there is a chromium deficiency.


Vanadium - This mineral is found in low concentrations in foods like mushrooms, shellfish and some spices like black pepper, parsley, and dill weed. As reported by the University of Maryland Medical Center, studies suggest that vanadium may reduce blood-sugar levels and improve sensitivity to insulin in people with type 2 diabetes.


Zinc - The mineral zinc helps the production and storage of insulin. People who eat a vegan or vegetarian diet (especially those who eat a lot of soy) tend to have zinc deficiencies. Foods that have zinc include fresh oysters, ginger root, lamb, pecans, split peas, egg yolk, beef liver, lima beans, almonds, walnuts, sardines, chicken and buckwheat.


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Blood Sugar, Insulin and Aging...The Damaging Effects of Sugar!

Besides the formation of the highly destructive AGE’s, sugar, in all forms (fructose, sucrose, glucose, galactose, lactose and others) has other ways of inflicting serious damage to your body and speeding up the aging process.
Fructose is the worst of all sugars, but all forms of sugar that affect your body’s blood sugar levels, as well as the resulting insulin can be harmful. According to Dr. Joseph Mercola:
“Fructose in particular is extremely pro-inflammatory, promoting AGE’s and speeding up the aging process. It also promotes the kind of dangerous growth of fat cells around your vital organs that are the hallmark of diabetes and heart disease. In one study, 16 volunteers on a high-fructose diet produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs in just 10 weeks.”
So the internally and externally, limiting sugar in all forms, will go a long way towards slowing down the aging process.
Sugar, especially fructose and sucrose, increase insulin levels, while decreasing your body’s ability to effectively counteract that rise in blood sugar. This is a major cause of degenerative diseases.
Sugar in excess also weakens or paralyzes the immune system, making you more susceptible to infectious disease, or complications of minor diseases. For example, that minor cold can become the flu, pneumonia or bronchitis—and in some cases deadly if you are elderly and in frail health.
The average American eating a stereotypical Standard American Diet consumes 2.5 pounds of sugar a WEEK. And when you think about adding in the other processed foods such as white or wheat bread, pasta, pastries, and all the refined carbohydrates, which turn into sugar in the body, it’s no wonder there is such a huge increase in diabetes.


Could it be that sugar is THAT bad? In a word…YES!


Let’s define what we are talking about when we say ‘sugar’. We usually think of sugar as the white stuff that sits in cute little bowls on our tables, or in those little packets at restaurants. The truth is there are many different types of sugars and our bodies do not react to all of them in the same way.
“High fructose corn syrup” is the form of sugar that you see on virtually every label of processed or packaged foods, or in most soft drinks. There are many other forms of sugar but for now, let’s concentrate on the two most often consumed sugars, sucrose and fructose.
Regular white table sugar (and brown sugar) is called 'sucrose'. Sucrose is composed of one molecule of glucose bonded to a molecule of fructose. So, that makes sucrose about 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Fructose is 2x sweeter than glucose. Since table sugar is half fructose, it is lots sweeter than starches in potatoes, bread or other carbs that also turn into glucose in the body.
The more fructose in any type of sugar, the sweeter it is.
High fructose corn syrup is approximately 55% fructose and 45% glucose (but can vary higher in fructose content based on type). So that makes it sweeter than regular table sugar.
The harmful effects of sugar have to do with the way your body metabolizes the fructose portion of the sugar. For instance, if we eat 100 calories of starchy foods like pasta or potatoes (which is converted to glucose in the body) or 100 calories of sugar (remember basically 50/50% of glucose and fructose), they are metabolized differently and have a different effect in your body.


This is key: Fructose is metabolized by our livers.


• Glucose from sugar and starches is metabolized in our cells.
Why does this matter?
Consuming cane sugar or HFCS causes your liver to work very hard to process the fructose. If that sugar comes in a liquid form like soda or fruit juice, the fructose hits your system instantly and causes your liver to go into overdrive in an attempt to process it. And the fructose in High Fructose Corn Syrup hits your liver even faster than regular cane sugar because the fructose is not bound to the glucose in it. So your liver gets a massive shot of fructose faster!
When fructose is ingested quickly in larger quantities, the liver converts it to fat. The fat becomes a substance called triglycerides, a key contributor to heart disease. Some of these triglycerides float around in your bloodstream and get stored as fat on your body.
However, excess fat is also stored in the liver. Ever hear of ‘fatty liver disease’? When the liver starts storing excess amounts of fat, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome follow, and not far behind then, is type 2 diabetes.
The result—accelerated aging, chronic disease and sometimes, eventually death—all from excess sugar.


Some other ways fructose accelerates aging and disease:


• Fructose elevates uric acid, which not only leads to high blood pressure, but also chronic, low-level inflammation which can affect virtually every system in your body to speed up aging and multiple chronic diseases. Ever heard of gout? This is a painful form of arthritis in which the uric acid forms crystals on joints, mainly in the feet and hands.
• Fructose tricks your body into gaining weight by turning off your body's appetite-control system. Consuming foods containing fructose actually makes you hungrier, by confusing your hormones. You don’t feel full when you should, so you keep eating.
• Fructose quickly and easily leads to weight gain and abdominal obesity (yes, this is where the dreaded "belly fat" comes from), decreased HDL (good cholesterol), increased LDL (bad cholesterol), elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure, which leads to metabolic syndrome. And of course, it can continue straight to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
In 1980, only about 1 in 7 Americans were obese, and about 6 million people had diabetes—it was not nearly as much of a common disease as today. Today, 1 in 3 Americans are obese, and 19 million Americans have diabetes, according to the National Diabetes Fact Sheet (2011).


Another seven million people are estimated to have undiagnosed diabetes. That’s 26 million people! Add to that another 79 million people with ‘pre-diabetes’.
That’s staggering!! That combined number is approximately 100 million people with diabetes or pre-diabetes in the United States. That’s one third of the population!


Diabetes leads directly to premature aging (including wrinkly, saggy skin) and more serious complications including:
• Heart disease and strokes
• High blood pressure
• Blindness
• Kidney disease
• Nervous system disease (neuropathy)
• Amputations of extremities


We know that one of the most accurate predictors of heart disease and diabetes is a condition called ‘metabolic syndrome’. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) at least 75 million Americans have metabolic syndrome, and probably many more have it but have not yet been diagnosed.
What is metabolic syndrome? It means your body has become resistant to insulin, among other issues. Normally when you eat carbs or sugar, blood sugar goes up, insulin is then released to counter the rise in blood sugar, and blood sugar goes back to a normal level.
If your diet is high in sugars and starchy foods, your body is continually pumping out insulin to lower your blood sugar. Eventually your cells stop responding to insulin, and your pancreas cannot create enough insulin in response to the demand, and it becomes exhausted. Blood sugar levels begin rise out of control, and stay constantly high, until you end up with type 2 diabetes.
Add one more deadly disease that is tied directly to sugar and insulin—Cancer.
According to World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer: Your chances of getting cancer are much higher if you are obese, diabetic or insulin resistant.


What’s the connection? Sugar.


And, your chances of dying from a form of malignant cancer are way higher if your diet is high in sugar. Cancer researchers now know that the problem with insulin resistance and cancer is that as we secrete more insulin, we also secrete a related hormone known as ‘insulin-like growth factor’, and the insulin encourages bigger tumor growth.
Craig Thompson, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, says many human cancers depend on insulin for fuel to grow and multiply. Some cancers develop mutations that actually feed off the insulin, and other cancers just take advantage of the elevated blood sugar and insulin levels from those with metabolic syndrome, obesity or type 2 diabetes.
Many of the pre-cancerous cells would never acquire the mutations that transform them into malignant tumors if they weren’t being driven by insulin to take up more and more blood sugar and metabolize it.


The Trouble with Grains...


When you take a look at the food supply of most modern societies, the common denominator is an overload of carbohydrates and processed grains—often combined with sugar or fructose (in the form of high fructose corn syrup).
Wheat and corn are two of the worst carbohydrates for blood sugar and aging.
Our Paleolithic ancestors didn't eat grains--at least nowhere close to the form we eat today. Nutritional archaeologists believe that the ancestral human diet before the agricultural revolution may have contained very small quantities of grains that could be gathered and added to soups or stews most likely. However, our Paleolithic ancestors had no way of consuming the massive quantities of grains that modern humans eat in everything from cereal, breads, muffins, pasta, and more foods that are considered “staples” of the modern diet.
And the consumption of grain in most countries has been steadily increasing for the last 30-50 years, to the point where grain is the primary food in many people’s diets. As grain consumption has gone up, so have the numbers of obese and overweight people.


Of course, there are confounding factors involved in this increase as well, including a more sedentary lifestyle, and increases in sugar and HFCS consumption as well.
Today, flours are more refined than ever, missing fiber and essential nutrients. The modernized version of wheat, triticum aestivum, is very different from the wheat used by our ancestors. Modern wheat has been genetically altered through hundreds of hybridizations and manipulated to become a far different plant than it previously was.
The gluten proteins in modern wheat are much different than the gluten in the wheat of the past. This is possibly one of the reasons for the sudden increase in the incidence of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.
Today's wheat is quite different than even just 50 years ago, as today's wheat has different levels of anti-nutrients and gluten with overall biochemical differences.
Essentially, big agra has hybridized wheat heavily over the last 5 decades to improve things such as crop yield and baking characteristics, but never once thought about the impacts on human health of changing the biochemical structure of wheat. Although the biochemical differences may seem small, it can have a major impact on how the human digestive system processes the food.
Dr. William Davis in his book, Wheat Belly, points this out with this passage... "Wheat gluten proteins, in particular, undergo considerable structural change with hybridization. In one hybridization experiment, 14 new gluten proteins were identified in the offspring that were not present in either parent wheat plant." This means that modern wheat contains new "foreign" gluten proteins that the human digestive system has not adapted to properly digesting.


Scientists have begun in recent years to discover links between wheat and a whole range of inflammatory diseases, from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, gastro-esophageal reflux disease--to migraines and arthritis and more. Wheat can also cause low level, long-term inflammation possibly due to the gluten content, other anti-nutrients, or possibly even the extreme blood sugar response common from wheat foods.
Many people would never connect these symptoms with eating grains; but weight gain, emotional, physical, and mental symptoms are fairly frequent with gluten sensitivity.
Gluten sensitivity dramatically increases inflammation not only in the digestive system, but in the whole body system as well. Gluten sensitivity and celiac disease also block the absorption of important nutrients, creating deficiencies that lead to frequent illnesses, chronic disease, a weakened immune system, mental problems, and dementia.
Wheat also contains a type of carbohydrate called Amylopectin A that raises blood sugar shockingly high. Eating just two slices of whole wheat bread (the kind we’re told by the media is “healthy”) raises blood sugar higher than eating two Tablespoons of pure sugar.
High blood sugar leads to insulin release, fat storage, weight gain, production of AGE’s, and inflammation. It’s a vicious cycle.
All of this can lead to accelerated aging and chronic disease.


Corn may be just as big of a problem as wheat. Bumper crops of corn and government subsidies keep corn prices low, which in turn keeps many of the unhealthy items we buy at the store low-priced. Corn, in some form, is in an overwhelming majority of packaged foods that we buy from conventional grocery stores.
Contrary to popular belief, corn is a grain, not a vegetable, and is not appropriate as a dietary staple for several reasons. It has a very high sugar content and it blocks nutrients from being utilized in the body (from anti-nutrient content).
This evidence shows up in the archeological records of our ancestors and other ancient civilizations. When the Mayans and Native Americans changed their diets to a corn-based one, rates of anemia, arthritis, rickets, infectious disease, and osteoporosis skyrocketed, and the average lifespan of these natives shortened drastically.
Our bodies were not made to exist on grain-based foods as the bulk of our caloric intake.
Corn breaks down into sugar very rapidly in the body, which raises insulin levels, causes you to be hungrier and causes your body to store calories as fat. Don’t be mistaken--just because corn does not taste obviously sweet, doesn’t mean it isn’t full of carbs that break down very fast into sugars. Once eaten, your body quickly turns corn and corn products into sugar. Even the starches in corn products are broken down very quickly in the body, spiking blood sugar levels, and causing cravings for more carbohydrate-based foods.
Corn contains high levels of phytate, a chemical that binds to iron and inhibits its absorption by the body. So, consequently, a diet high in phytate can make people more likely to have iron-deficiency anemia and fatigue. Phytate also inhibits other vitamins and minerals from being utilized, creating nutrient deficiencies that lead to illness, physical degeneration and aging.
Corn is also a poor source of important minerals such as calcium, magnesium and zinc, and vitamins such as niacin (B3). Deficiencies of niacin results in a condition known as Pellagra, which is very common in civilizations that eat a corn-based diet. It can cause a variety of health issues, such as dermatitis, diarrhea, and depression.
So, a diet high in processed grains—especially corn and wheat—actually hastens the aging process and causes increased inflammation and susceptibility to disease.


Keep in mind that even grains such as brown rice and oatmeal can have significant blood sugar impacts in your body, particularly if you’re not an extremely active athlete.
Although rice and oatmeal have fewer issues with digestive system inflammation and anti-nutrients than wheat and corn do, it does not mean these are ideal foods to base your daily meal plans around. Once or twice a week is probably fine, but I personally would not consume these daily.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

AGE's That Age Us

What are AGE’s?
AGE’s are Advanced Glycation End products. AGE’s can be either in the food you eat or formed within your body. AGE’s occur when sugar molecules attach to protein or fat molecules without an enzyme.

So what’s the big deal about this, you ask?

Well, AGE’s are a serious promoter of aging in the body, as well as the beginnings of many chronic diseases. In fact AGE’s are one of the biggest factors in diabetes, heart disease and others as well.
These AGE’s form a sticky plaque-like substance in the brain, nerve tissue, and the rest of the body. It is reported that when AGE’s are consumed, about 10-30% are absorbed into the body. The body’s ability to eliminate these once they are absorbed is very limited, meaning that once these gunky, gooey, nasty things get in human cells, it’s damage that cannot be fully undone.
While all human tissue is subject to damage by AGE’s, the lining of blood vessels is especially sensitive, as well as certain nerve cells that can quickly accumulate damage—
especially in blood capillaries of the kidneys and eyes, brain and nerve cells, collagen, and your DNA. This is pretty serious and destructive stuff.
AGE’s are responsible for wrinkly, sagging skin, damage to the pancreas that causes diabetes, and damage to blood vessels, which leads to the plaque buildup that causes heart disease.
Besides the irritation and inflammation they create in blood vessels, they damage collagen in blood vessel walls, which leads to high blood pressure. Glycation also weakens the blood vessel walls, can cause aneurisms and deadly hemorrhagic strokes.
AGE’s also help form the sticky amyloid proteins and neurofibril tangles that take over the brains of those with Alzheimer’s disease, causing severe memory loss and dementia.
They can easily damage the nerves, causing peripheral neuropathy and deafness, as well as attacking the tiny blood vessels in the eyes, which in turn can lead to blindness, as well as creating dangerous by-products that can become cancer.
The wide variety of diseases is the result of glycation interfering with the cellular function of the body and highly oxidizing byproducts.

As you can see, AGE’s are highly destructive. Where do they come from?

Advanced Glycation End products are from two primary sources:

• From our diet (Exogenous AGE’s)
• Internally produced in the body (Endogenous AGE’s)

Any food that is browned or roasted such as brown bread, browned or grilled meat, bacon, crispy brown cookies, chips, crackers, etc. contains AGE’s. They form whenever food browns with heat as in roasting, frying or grilling. Cooking food at high temperatures without water or liquids (as in frying) causes the sugars in the food to bind with the proteins or fats to form AGE’s.
Any food that is high in fat, protein or sugar is likely to cause AGE’s when cooked without water. Using water when cooking as in steaming, poaching or boiling helps to prevent the sugars from attaching to the proteins and fats and helps to prevent AGE’s.
Cooking at a lower temperature also helps to minimize AGE’s. And of course, eating a portion of your foods raw also minimizes AGE’s that you consume.
You know that crispy skin on the roasted Thanksgiving turkey? That’s full of AGE’s. So are French fries, bacon, chips, and just about anything that is baked or fried to a golden brown. Even that juicy steak (the outer browned layer, not the interior), the brown outsides of that muffin or bagel, and that delicious caramel on your dessert are full of AGE’s.
Processed, packaged foods often have added AGE’s to enhance their flavor and make the food look more appealing. Caramel coloring is a good example of this. The list of foods with added AGE’s also includes donuts, cakes, crackers, chips, dark colored soda, and even dark beer.
While it’s important to try to reduce your intake of exogenous AGEs from browned foods as much as you can, keep in mind that you can also help counteract their effects in your body by eating a high-antioxidant diet.
Endogenous (or internally formed) AGE’s occur in the body from the sugar and carbohydrates in the food you eat. Excessive sugar in the body (in the form of blood glucose) binds to proteins and causes glycation. People with chronically elevated blood sugar have the most damage from AGE’s, such as those with type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome.
As nutrition expert Johnny Bowden says, “It’s like putting sugar in your gas tank, it totally gums up the works.”
Certain types of sugars such as fructose are much more likely (as much as 10x more likely) to glycate in your body. If you look at the huge amount of foods that contain high fructose corn syrup, or the large numbers of people eating sugary, processed foods and drinks, is it any wonder why there are such high rates of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other inflammatory diseases?
So if you want to age slower, a big priority should be minimizing or eliminating high fructose corn syrup in your diet. That means it’s very important to eliminate soda and other sweetened drinks. Note that the small amount of fructose found in natural whole fruits is generally healthy and well tolerated by your body. However, fruit juices should still be avoided as it concentrates the sugar in a higher amount than you’d get with whole fruit.
AGE’s can be measured by the same test given to diabetics to monitor long-term blood sugar control. This relatively new blood test is known as the Hemoglobin A1c test.
For optimal aging, your A1C levels (whether diabetic or not) should be less than 5%, which would mean keeping your blood sugar level at about 90 mg/dl on average. While that seems fairly low by some conventional medical standards, this percentage is easily attainable if you eat the right foods to keep blood sugar stable.

Minimize the effects of AGE’s

• Keep blood sugar low with a low carb/low sugar diet. Especially avoid the sugar that comes from fructose, as in high fructose corn syrup and fruit juices.
• Avoid or minimize grains —especially wheat and corn, as they tend to significantly raise blood sugar. And grains are often baked or fried to become crispy and brown, which makes them even higher in AGE’s. Sorry, that includes that wood fire roasted pizza too, as well as donuts, muffins, pastries, and bagels.
• Cook meats at lower temperatures more often – Higher temperatures produce far more AGE’s than slower cooking over low heat. Cook meat in broth if possible such as crock pot cooking as this dramatically minimizes AGE formation. Also rare and medium-rare meats have fewer AGE’s than well done meats. Fried meats like bacon would have the highest concentrations of AGE’s of any meats and should be limited to an occasional treat as opposed to a daily habit. Another example -- When cooking sausage, you can cook slowly over low heat and a tiny bit of water and covered with a lid to minimize AGE formation compared to pan frying over high heat.
• Eat vegetables and fruits raw, boiled, stewed, slow-cooked, or steamed – boiling and steaming introduce water to the cooking process, which stops glycation.
• Avoid all processed foods. Not only are they higher in sugar content, they often have caramel coloring and other additives high in AGE’s to improve color and appearance.
• Avoid browned, roasted, grilled, carmelized, or fried foods. If it’s golden brown or brown, it most likely contains AGE’s.
• Avoid dark colored sodas, dark beer, and anything with caramel coloring in it.

Combat AGE’s With These Foods:

All low-glycemic foods that don’t raise blood sugar much...

Kale, collard greens, or spinach
Tomatoes
Carrots
Sweet potatoes
Red, yellow or green peppers
Broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts
Artichokes
Berries
Cherries
Kiwi
Plums
Red or black grapes
Beans
Green tea, black tea, white tea, and rooibos tea
Cinnamon, Cloves and Turmeric

Supplements that Battle AGE’s

• L-carnosine - An amino acid found in some proteins. L-carnosine helps prevent glycation by generating an enzyme that is able to counterattack AGE’s that have already been formed. This supplement is said to decrease the risk of attracting neurodegenerative disorder and inflammatory diseases by removing the unsaturated aldehydes (sugars). Since meat contains this amino acid, eating meat is less likely to produce as many dangerous AGE’s in the body as compared to eating breads and other browned carbohydrate sources.
• IC-5 blood sugar control – this is a very unique natural blend of herbal ingredients that have been proven to exhibit strong ability to control blood sugar from meals. And of course, lower average blood sugar means less formation of AGEs in the body. This unique blend is not available in stores and can only be found online at this page: http://tinyurl.com/ic5-blend
• Benfotiamine - A fat-soluble synthetic form of vitamin B-1. This substance has been studied to stop AGE’s from being formed. It blocks the biochemical processes that can cause vascular, nerve, kidney and retinal damage that are connected AGE’s and high blood sugar levels. Benfotiamine is a synthetic supplement and not naturally derived from foods or herbs. Since this is a synthetic compound and not natural, I’d personally steer clear of using this as the long term side effects would be unknown at this point in time.
• Pyridoxamine - Vitamin B6 is involved in hundreds of beneficial enzymatic reactions in the body. This unique form of vitamin B6, called Pyridoxamine, is thought to interfere specifically with toxic glycation reactions in the body.
• Antioxidants – Foods and supplements high in antioxidants will help to combat the damage that AGE’s do in the body. Antioxidants that I prefer to get from food as opposed to a supplement are vitamin C and vitamin E, beta-carotene, zinc, selenium, quercetin, and flavonoids. However, two supplements that are particularly powerful antioxidants among other benefits include alpha lipoic acid (which is contained in the IC-5 blood sugar control supplement we just mentioned a few paragraphs ago), as well as astaxanthin from Krill Oil … these 2 supplements can be a great addition to your anti-aging arsenal for reasons beyond just antioxidant power.
• Spices – spices such as cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, and cayenne all contain powerful antioxidants while also containing compounds that help control blood sugar response from meals. I choose to use all 4 of these spices (and many other spices too) liberally in any cooking and seasoning of foods. Since we may not always use these 4 spices in particular on a daily basis in foods, I also like to use capsules of these spices as a supplement on a daily basis as well.
• Seanol P™: This is a rare seaweed extract (from Ecklonia Cava) and one that is very intriguing. It has been found in ORAC testing to have 3.5x the antioxidant power of even blueberries!

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What Causes Aging?

Some of the known causes of aging are a complex interaction of environmental, dietary and internal changes.
Many people think the answer to fighting aging is to spend hundreds, or thousands of dollars on expensive anti-aging creams and potions, injections of toxic substances and fillers, or going under the surgeon’s knife. While this may seem to be the best ‘fix’ it actually is not.
You can actually stop and prevent much of your body’s aging by making changes in your diet. And, the best thing is, changing your diet not only changes the way the world sees you, but it makes a very definite change in how you FEEL inside!
Suddenly you have tons of energy again, you are leaner, stronger, faster, more alert, and your moods are better. Your sex drive returns. Your sleep is better. Your joints hurt less or not at all. You look great. Your skin is softer and smoother. Your outlook on life will totally change when you realize you do not have to give in to aging and the chronic disease that comes with it.
You really don’t need expensive, fancy skin creams or plastic surgery; you can start
making the changes today that will have a long term effect on how you look and feel tomorrow.
While you may not always have control over your environment, you do have a large amount of control over your diet, which in turn battles those things that accelerate and cause aging: Inflammation, Advanced Glycation End products (AGE’s) and oxidation that go hand in hand to accelerate aging and bring on chronic disease.
These things occur within your cells and organs, (including your brain) and lead to the outward signs of aging like wrinkles and excess body fat, but also the less obvious (but more destructive) damage internally--to your bones, muscles, organs, brain and nerves.
How much damage, or how little damage occurs, in a large sense, depends on your diet. What you eat on a day-to-day basis can either hasten or slow down aging, and in turn, the chronic diseases that often accompany aging as well.
Have you ever noticed how some people don’t look anywhere close to their actual age, while others look much older? Why is this? It’s not JUST genetics.
So much of aging is your DIET. The food you eat can be either destructive or constructive and make your body either older or younger.
The answer to aging gracefully and remaining healthy, lean, strong, and disease free is in eating the right foods. Eating a wide variety of REAL, natural foods rich in antioxidants, low in sugar and starches, and plenty of the right types of fats will make a HUGE difference in how you look and feel. It will make the difference between looking old before your time or looking way younger than your age.
Many of the signs of aging are actually the beginnings of chronic disease that we don’t have to accept as inevitable. The wrinkles, weight gain, memory loss, loss of physical strength, loss of sex drive, inability to sleep, fatigue and bone loss are not things we have to accept as part of the normal progression of aging. And diseases like heart disease, osteoporosis, cancer, arthritis, and diabetes don’t have to be part of aging either.
Many older adults are active, fit, strong, lean, athletic, productive people in great health. You can be this way too! The sooner you start with some positive dietary changes, the sooner and the better you can fight and reverse the signs of aging and disease.