Criterion Living

The Inuit demonstrate that humans can survive in good health, without diabetes, heart disease, tooth decay or constipation, on a 70% (saturated) fat carnivorous diet.  Without oranges, where do they get vitamin C? Without grains, where do they get vitamin E? Without fiber how can they stay “regular”?  How do they maintain their probiotics? Eating so much saturated fat, why didn’t traditional Inuit endure chronic illnesses Americans believe come from consuming saturated fats?

While Atkins was mostly correct in his assertion that the human body can maintain normal weight and reasonable health on a very low carbohydrate, carnivorous diet, the Inuit show that he left out a few details.  He relied on muscle meat rather than organ meats, overlooked probiotics, did not include bone broth or bone-based foods for minerals and other invaluable elements, and more.  This could explain why dietary supplements are required for an Atkins diet, and may also explain why some people do not do well on this diet.  In his defense, however, for cultural reasons Americans are unlikely to embrace an Inuit-style diet.

To Read the whole article…

Science Daily posted this article today-

Nutrient Found in Dark Meat of Poultry, Some Seafood, May Have Cardiovascular Benefits

ScienceDaily (Mar. 1, 2012) — A nutrient found in the dark meat of poultry may provide protection against coronary heart disease (CHD) in women with high cholesterol, according to a study by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.

The study, published online in the European Journal of Nutrition, evaluated the effects of taurine, a naturally-occurring nutrient found in the dark meat of turkey and chicken, as well as in some fish and shellfish, on CHD. It revealed that higher taurine intake was associated with significantly lower CHD risk among women with high total cholesterol levels. The same association was not seen in women with low cholesterol levels, however.

There is very little information available about taurine, said principal investigator Yu Chen, PhD, MPH, associate professor of epidemiology at NYU School of Medicine, part of NYU Langone Medical Center. While there have been some animal studies that indicate taurine may be beneficial to cardiovascular disease, this is the first published prospective study to look at serum taurine and CHD in humans, she explained. “Our findings were very interesting. Taurine, at least in its natural form, does seem to have a significant protective effect in women with high cholesterol.”

Coronary heart disease is the leading killer of American men and women, causing one in five deaths. Also known as coronary artery disease, it is caused by the buildup of plaque in the arteries to the heart. Large prospective epidemiologic studies have provided evidence that nutritional factors are important modifiable risk factors for CHD. MORE….

Millie; Feed lot meat is deficient in the nutrients we need and is highly toxic. It is detrimental to our health.  But grass fed meat has what we need to protect us from heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.  The following articles are must reads for more on this subject;

THE IMPORTANCE OF SATURATED FATS FOR BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/

The Benefits of Grass Fed Products

Some nutrients we can only get through animal products, there is no way to get them on a vegetarian diet. 

Vegetable oils are unsafe to eat on a regular basis and do not give us the depth of nutrients we get from healthy, organic saturated fats.   Our daily calcium needs can be met with TWELVE cups of broccoli daily but it is not absorbed well without saturated fats present at the same time. Vitamin D from supplements is not the same as getting this crucial nutrient from the sun and from grass fed meat.

Supplements do not work, they are not absorbed correctly and do not have the live enzymes present crucial for absorption. 

From Bellatrix Nutrition

• Do you never feel like you have enough energy?
• Are you more tired when you wake up than when you went to bed? Feel like a truck hit you when it’s time time to get up?
• Are you over weight, tried diet after diet?
• Do you or a member of your family have IBS, or Spastic Colitis?
• Do you have an autistic child?
• Are you a cancer patient, are you going through chemo or have serious health problems?

Through Nutrition Coaching you can learn the basics of nutrition that will allow you to heal, meet your nutrient needs and feel substantially better within a few weeks.

· All Consultations Include;

· Three Day Diet Analysis- a look at your caloric and nutrient intake and percentages from fat, carbohydrates and proteins.

· Two Hour Consultation - A comprehensive look at all of the lifestyle choices you are making that effect your health, energy, weight and appearance.

•  My book; Optimum Nutrition, a guide to making the changes, what will occur during that time and the latest nutrition information on what constitutes perfect nutrition…and why! It has a grocery store and health food store list, it walks you through grocery shopping, meal planning, how to eat out and/or travel, and eat healthy, how to get your kids to do this and love it! It guides you through restocking your kitchen, detoxing and losing weight while completely meeting your nutrient needs.

Nutrition Coaching Packages;

· Optimum Nutrition Consultation with Month long Coaching- $495. – You will begin by emailing me a food diary each day for 3 days. . The Initial Coaching Session is approximately two hours long. This will include a diet review and a look at overall health issues. You will receive my how to book on nutrition and a 800 recipe cookbook in software form.

o Optimum Nutrition Consultation – A Two Hour Consultation-$295. – You will begin by emailing me a food diary each day for 3 days. The Coaching Session is approximately two hours long. This will include a diet review and a look at overall health issues and my recommendations for the changes that need to occur to bring you to optimum health.

o Coaching by the Week- $175.- You submit your daily food intake by email and I will email you back an analysis showing percentages of caloric intake by fat, protein and carbs as well as showing all nutrient levels are meeting or missing. I will tell you how you can adjust to better meet your needs. This allows you to tweak each day and get on the right track.

o Coaching by the Month- $295. This is for people who have more than 10 to 15 pounds to lose, or who want a longer hands on experience.

o Student Package- High School or College Student (Under 24) $225- If cost is a factor, and you are under 24 years old, then my two week coaching Program is available to you at a reduced fee. (current student ID required).

· Buy My Book and/or Cookbook-My book, Optimum Nutrition, is a complete guide to following my dietary recommendations. Combined with the Cookbook, you have all the tools you need to get up and running and feeling better and lose weight quickly, but safely!

Health Food or Grocery Store Tour $150.- Overwhelmed by all the choices, don’t know where to start? I will take you to the health food store, guide you through the choices and help you create a personal shopping list to restock your kitchen with lactose and gluten free products, high quality meats, fats and oils.

Please email for appointment- millie@criterionliving.com

* Payment is required at the time the appointment is made, and before I begin analyzing your food diaries.

* Please allow 24 notice if you need to cancel an appointment or payment in full is required.

·

iStockphoto.com

Overweight or obese is a big risk factor for hypertension.

Federal health officials say the expanding waistlines and higher body mass index of young adults are causing unexpected problems, including an increase in diabetes, kidney disease and even arthritis.

Now, researchers from the University of North Carolina report that blood pressure, too, among 24- to 32-year-olds may be much higher than previously thought. In 2008, a whopping 19 percent, or one out of every five, of participants in their study had high blood pressure. The condition, also known as hypertension, was defined as a reading of more than 140/90 millimeters of mercury (mmHg).

The findings are published in the online journal, Epidemiology. Researchers analyzed data from federal surveys of teenage health started in the mid 1990s, called the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. That study, known as Add Health, is funded by the National Institutes of Health and involves more than 14,000 participants.

Other federal surveys have found much lower rates of hypertension among this age group. But the high numbers in this most recent survey may not be so surprising. That’s because being overweight or obese is a well known risk factor for hypertension. And the majority of these young adults grew overweight or obese as they got older.

When the survey started in 1995, the participants were between 12 and 19. At the time, 11 percent were obese. On follow up five years later, that number had doubled to 22 percent. By 2008, more than one third (37 percent) were obese.

Another 30 percent were overweight, but not obese. This means 67 percent of all the young adults were above a normal weight. And researchers say the pace of weight gain was both dramatic and disturbing.

Males were more likely than females to have hypertension and less educated young adults were more likely than their college-educated peers to have the condition.

Perhaps most troubling, the majority of the youthful study participants had no idea they had high blood pressure. That’s likely because 20-somethings don’t routinely visit the doctor or even have their blood pressure checked on a regular basis.

Researchers and health officials say more targeted research and analysis of the health of this age group is needed. What’s one thing teens can do? Cut their salt intake to head off hypertension early on.

Millie - CUT THEIR SALT INTAKE???  That’s ALL the advise they give??  How about cut the junk food, a;ll the carbs, the vegetable oils..all the REAL causes of hyertension???

The New York Times Magazine cover article has the provocative title Is Sugar Toxic?   Author Gary Taubes has become convinced it isn’t the dietary fat that is causing the explosion of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension, but the sugar. It is a thesis put forward by Robert Lustig of University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, who says "sugar should be thought of, like cigarettes and alcohol, as something that’s killing us."

The points this author makes is valid, yet this is not the whole picture.

Sugar IS bad for us in any form; sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc.  However too many carbs in ANY FORM is what is primarily the problem with Americans health.  Yes, that includes FRUITS and veggies if they are too high a percentage of your food intake!

CARBS are killing us!   The average food diary I see from nutrition clients shows 50 to 70% calories from carbs. 

There are two side to his; the sugar and carbs themselves are a problem AND the lack of depth of nutrients in those foods are the other serious problem.

CARBS KILL, plain and simple. Sugar satisfies us, gives our brains quick energy…but leaves us badly malnourished.  If you are even 10 pounds overweight you are malnourished.

Depth of nutrients come from fat and HIGH quality protein (NOT nuts, tofu, protein powders, power bars…). 

You need 200 calories a day to be healthy, to meet your energy and nutrient needs.  It cannot be done on a vegetarian or vegan diet as the saturated fats that the human body needs comes from animals!  The earth cannot support us eating a grain based diet, we need animal husbandry for fertilizer otherwise we are stuck with chemical fertilizers.

We also need high quality fat; 50% of our calories each day should come from fat (75% of those from healthy, organic saturated fats) 30% from high quality protein (grass fed beef or bison, game, free range organic chickens and turkey, organ meats, eggs).  The remaining 20% should be from vegetables in addition to some fruit.

Eating this way will normalize your weight, get rid of allergies, restore/repair an immune system and detoxify the body…and lead to abundant health. 

Look at a perfect day from this way of eating;

Ideal Day

Breakfast:

2 eggs, (, poached, fried) with 1 teaspoon organic butter 

3 to 4 slices organic bacon

1/2 fruit (I eat blueberries or raspberries)

4 ounces coconut yogurt (I make it myself or you can buy it at the Health Food Store)

4 ounces green drink (I juice every 3 or 4 days)

Lunch

8 ounces beef or chicken (or what’s leftover from dinner)

1 ½ cup stock (I like taking my protein in a thermos with the broth and caramelized onions)

Greens or fruit and yogurt

Mid-afternoon

½ cup blueberries with 1 tablespoons macadamias or cashews

Dinner

1/2 medium sweet potato or winter squashes with butter

Sliced tomatoes or sliced avocado

8 ounces grass fed beef, bison or free range chicken, lamb

3 cups kale or broccoli or other green LEAFY vegetable

other veggies such as mushrooms, peppers

THIS is 2000 calories that meets all of your caloric and nutrient needs.

THIS is 2000 calories that meets all of your caloric and nutrient needs.

Another reason to eat grass fed meat, butter, bone broths…for all that great immune system building Vitamins A,D and E!

ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2011) — A lack of vitamin D, even in generally healthy people, is linked with stiffer arteries and an inability of blood vessels to relax, research from the Emory/Georgia Tech Predictive Health Institute has found.

The results add to evidence that lack of vitamin D can lead to impaired vascular health, contributing to high blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease. Study participants who increased their vitamin D levels were able to improve vascular health and lower their blood pressure.

The data was presented by Bihar Al Mead, MD, a cardiovascular researcher at Emory University School of Medicine, at the annual American College of Cardiology meeting in New Orleans. Al Mead is one of five finalists for the ACC’s Young Investigators Award competition in physiology, pharmacology and pathology. He is working with Arched Quyyumi, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Emory Cardiovascular Research Institute.

The 554 participants in the study were Emory or Georgia Tech employees -average age 47 and generally healthy — who are taking part in the Center for Health Discovery and Well Being, part of the Emory/Georgia Tech Predictive Health Institute.

The average level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (a stable form of the vitamin reflecting diet as well as production in the skin) in participants’ blood was 31.8 nanograms per milliliter. In this group, 14 percent had 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels considered deficient, or less than 20 nanograms per milliliter, and 33 percent had levels considered insufficient, less than 30 nanograms per milliliter.

The researchers monitored the ability of participants’ blood vessels to relax by inflating and then removing a blood pressure cuff on their arms. To allow blood to flow back into the arm, blood vessels must relax and enlarge — a change that can be measured by ultrasound. The researchers also made other measurements of smaller blood vessels and examined the resistance to blood flow imposed by the arteries.

Even after controlling for factors such as age, weight and cholesterol, people with lower vitamin D levels still had stiffer arteries and impaired vascular function, Al Mheid says.

"We found that people with vitamin D deficiency had vascular dysfunction comparable to those with diabetes or hypertension," he says.

Throughout the body, a layer of endothelial cells lines the blood vessels, controlling whether the blood vessels constrict or relax and helping to prevent clots that lead to strokes and heart attacks.

"There is already a lot known about how vitamin D could be acting here," Al Mheid says. "It could be strengthening endothelial cells and the muscles surrounding the blood vessels. It could also be reducing the level of angiotensin, a hormone that drives increased blood pressure, or regulating inflammation."

Most Americans generally get the majority of their vitamin D from exposure to sunlight or from dietary supplements; fortified foods such as milk or cereals are a minor source. A few foods, such as oily fish, naturally contain substantial amounts of vitamin D.

Participants whose vitamin D levels increased over the next six months, either from dietary supplements or ample sun exposure, tended to improve their measures of vascular health and had lower blood pressure. Forty-two study participants with vitamin D insufficiency whose levels later went back to normal had an average drop in blood pressure of 4.6 millimeters mercury.

"This was an observational study, rather than an interventional one, and it was difficult to tease out how the people who restored their vitamin D levels got there," Al Mheid says. "We are hoping to conduct a study where we have participants take a defined regimen of vitamin D."

"With his findings showing the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and vascular dysfunction, Dr. Mheid has helped advance our understanding of the importance of Vitamin D in preventing a common health problem in aging adults," says Kenneth Brigham, MD, medical director of the Emory/Georgia Tech Center for Health Discovery and Well Being. "Additionally, ongoing health studies based on the Center’s collection of health information from participants will yield more discovery as the Center continues to develop."

The Emory-Georgia Tech Predictive Health Institute is a national leader in moving the practice of medicine from a reactive, disease-focused system to a proactive health-focused system. The initiative integrates research, scholarship and education in an innovative effort aimed at revolutionizing care of people to define, preserve and prolong the health of individuals and of society.

Key areas of the Initiative include defining and measuring health using optimal biomarkers of health and understand their interrelationships, determining the best interventions to optimize health throughout an individual’s or a population’s lifetime.