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Source: When to eat should be in sync with our regular rhythms

Researchers from the Semel Institute in the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) became interested in the cognitive effects of eating at inappropriate hours because it is already known to have an impact on metabolic health, for example leading to a pre-diabetic state.

Regular meals at regular time

“We have provided the first evidence that taking regular meals at the wrong time of day has far-reaching effects for learning and memory,” says first author Dawn Loh from the UCLA Laboratory of Circadian and Sleep Medicine.

“Since many people find themselves working or playing during times when they’d normally be asleep, it is important to know that this could dull some of the functions of the brain.”

The researchers stress that their findings have not been confirmed in humans, but highlight the fact that shift workers have been shown to perform less well on cognitive tests.

Affecting learned behaviours

The current study shows that some learned behaviours are more affected than others. The team tested the ability of mice to recognise a novel object. Mice regularly fed during their sleep-time were significantly less able to recall the object. Long-term memory was also dramatically reduced, demonstrated during a fear conditioning experiment.

Both long-term memory and the ability to recognise a novel object are governed by the hippocampus. The hippocampus plays an important role in our ability to associate senses and emotional experiences with memory and our ability to organise and store new memories.

During an experience, nerve impulses are activated along specific pathways and, if we repeat the experience, the same pathways increase in strength. However, this effect was reduced when food was made available to mice during a six-hour window in the middle of their normal sleep time instead of a six-hour daytime window when the mice were active.

Genes involved in both the circadian clock

Some genes involved in both the circadian clock and in learning and memory are regulated by a protein called CREB (cAMP response element-binding protein). When CREB is less active, it decreases memory, and may play a role in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. In the mice fed at the wrong time, the total activity of CREB throughout the hippocampus was significantly reduced, with the strongest effects in the day.

However, the master pacemaker of the circadian system, the suprachiasmatic nucleus located in the hypothalamus, is unaffected. This leads to desynchrony between the clocks in the different brain regions (misalignment), which the authors suggest underlies the memory impairment.

“Modern schedules can lead us to eat around the clock so it is important to understand how the timing of food can impact cogitation” says Professor Christopher Colwell from the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA.

“For the first time, we have shown that simply adjusting the time when food is made available alters the molecular clock in the hippocampus and can alter the cognitive performance of mice.”

Disrupt sleep patterns

Eating at the wrong time also disrupted sleep patterns. The inappropriate feeding schedule resulted in the loss of the normal day/night difference in the amount of sleep although the total time spent asleep over 24 hours was not changed. Sleep became fragmented, with the mice catching up on sleep by grabbing more short naps throughout the day and night.

Source: Relaxed digestion, constipation and losing weight

You Control Your Metabolism

 How energetic you feel and what body weight or mass you maintain are determined by how you regulate your metabolism with the food and activity choices you make. Five factors affect this dramatically:

• Whole foods: Consumption of high-energy, healthy foods vs. low-energy, poor food choices
• Calories: Total food consumed in a meal vs. energy required over the next few hours
• Exercise: Average total physical activity expended during a day
• Sleep, toxins and whole foods: Proper hormone function
• Whole foods, clean water, clean air: The pH balance of your bodily fluids

Balance in minerals, fats, oils to control weight

When these factors are properly balanced you can control your weight as you wish. While the first three of the above are pretty obvious, many are not aware that the fourth factor, proper hormone function, is very important, and dramatically affected by the types of food you ingest, particularly by the ratio of various minerals, sugars, fats and oils in the diet.

The fifth factor, pH balance, is affected by the quality and ratio of various minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, oils and fats you eat. The charts provided below will make it easy for you to pick the foods best for you.

There are many different types of protein, sugar, carbohydrate, fat and oil discussed below. You may not recognize various terms at first, but each type is explained.  If you are just learning about foods, you should read these sections once to become familiar with the terms and general message, and then read it again for better comprehension and retention. The appendix also contains several books which discuss all of this in greater detail, and very concisely as compared to many texts.

If You Need to Lose or Gain Weight

 Proper dietary choices combined with moderate exercise are the answer to losing or gaining weight. The food choices you make (particularly as applies to carbohydrate and oil) determine whether the body ingests foods that speed up or slow down human metabolism. For example excess consumption of simple sugars makes you fat. Increased consumption of healthy oils, like flax oil, increases oxygen uptake & transport, raising metabolism and burning calories. Exercise levels and other daily activity also determine whether you will stimulate or depress your metabolism.  All of this is discussed in detail in the sections below.

The Importance of Proper, Relaxed Digestion

 Digestion requires more energy than any other bodily function. Processing food is the single most important bodily function to an animal‘s survival, and as such, is a biological priority.

Thinking uses enormous amounts of energy as well. This is why you can fall asleep after a heavy meal—as all of your energy required to stay alert is temporarily diverted to digestion.

Good digestion requires healthy food, a relaxed atmosphere, and thorough chewing of food. Incomplete digestion can lead to serious health problems.

All digested food that we use passes from our digestive system into the bloodstream. In a utopian world our blood would only contain substances that are good for us, however there are many ways for pathogens to enter the bloodstream—through organisms and contaminants in the foods we eat and drink; contaminated air we breathe; insect bites, cuts and other perforations of the skin; etc.

The digestive system is the foundation of our immune system strength. Proper gastrointestinal function is critical to adequate nutrient delivery and can impact all aspects of body function and our health.

Any digestive disorder has the potential to cause nutritional deficiencies which can cause disease.  As well, the digestive system is designed to keep invading organisms out of our bodies.

A simple analogy is helpful in understanding the basic form of our digestive system as it relates to the rest of the body. Consider the geometry of a donut shaped object. The human body‘s fundamental form is similar to that of a donut.

The inside surfaces of our mouth, throat, stomach and intestines – everything that we call our digestive tract (i.e. the donut hole) – is continuously connected to the outside surfaces of our body, that we call skin (i.e. the outside of the donut). If we stretch our imaginary donut into a longer tube, the digestive tract is still on the inside, and our skin is on the outside. The inside and outside surfaces make up one continuous unbroken surface.

This simple geometric analogy teaches us that, anatomical differences aside, a common trait shared by our skin and our digestive tract is that they both face outward from the body. Nature designed us this way to provide a continuous protective barrier from the outside world.

The human body‘s immune system is designed to attack foreign complex molecules (combinations of simple molecules) not made by our own bodies. This is one of the reasons Nature evolved our bodies to require full digestion of our foods for proper health. To ensure our immune system to functions properly, we are designed to break down complex food groups into their smallest parts, and to later reassemble them into the more complex parts specific to our individual needs and familiar to the immune system. Therefore complete digestion is critical to proper function of the immune system.

If a person is not fully digesting his/her foods a number of problems arise.  For example:

• Partially digested food molecules are usually too large and in the wrong chemical form to pass into the
• Partially digested food is not available to many of the body‘s enzymes requiring foods in their simplest

• Undigested food can also feed other unfriendly organisms in your digestive track. This can lead to and overgrowth of yeast and bacteria leading to gas, bloating, and chronic infection.
• Should you develop ―leaky gut syndrome‖, where a weakened digestive system allows undigested food or waste to pass from the small or large intestine into the blood stream, this can cause food allergies and other adverse reactions as the immune system attacks the complex molecular structure of the ―unknown invader‖.

Many of us take digestion for granted. This is a big mistake, because most health problems ultimately result from a nutritional deficiency, or a digestive disorder that prevents us from absorbing various nutrients properly. The first line of defence for a healthy immune system is a healthy digestive system.  Improper digestion almost always leads to disease.

The Electrically Charged Building Blocks of Foods

 Food, like most other things on the planet are electrically balanced, or ―neutral‖ to touch. You will not get an electrical shock touching them. However this can be deceiving, as most compounds on the planet are made up of vast quantities of electrically unbalanced (or ―charged‖) acidic acids and alkaline bases.

As most people know, opposite electrical forces ―attract‖ and like forces ―repel‖. It‘s the electrically unbalanced, or polar, nature of the microscopic components of our food which make them healthy for us. Nature is able to move things around in our bodies primarily due to electrical attraction or repulsion.

Therefore one of the things your body must first do is to break down ―neutral‖ foods into their dynamic and reactive acidic and alkaline building blocks.

How Various Parts of Your Digestive System Work

 For a brief overview of the many parts of the Digestive system and their many functions, if you are on line, please refer to the Virtual Anatomy Textbook-Digestive System on the web.

There are four basic parts of the digestive system for breaking down your food (the mouth, stomach, pancreas, and small intestine) and two for the elimination of wastes (the colon and kidneys). The four digestive sections are responsible for the acidic and alkaline breakdown of your food.

The first alkaline digestion of carbohydrates starts in the mouth with enzymes found in your saliva. This is why thorough chewing of your food is so important, as without thorough chewing this initial alkaline breakdown is less complete.

This is also why rapidly digesting refined foods can accelerate rotting of teeth. If there were no enzymes in your saliva, this carbohydrate could harmlessly sit on your teeth doing nothing as it does on a cupboard shelf. However refined carbohydrates react with enzymes to produce simple sugars too rapidly, wreaking havoc on your teeth and mouth.

Next the chewed food is soaked in an acid bath contained in your stomach. (The very powerful acids in your stomach are contained within the alkaline lining of the stomach‘s walls. The stomach needs adequate bio-available sodium to maintain this protective alkaline lining.) Some simple foods and nutrients are passed through the stomach lining into the bloodstream, but most do not enter the blood until they pass through the small intestine.

Nature has evolved our bodies to makes sure everything is broken down into its simplest forms. Once the food has had its first alkaline and acidic digestion, our body‘s repeat this process a second time. Our partially digested food once again goes through an alkaline breakdown in the duodenum, the uppermost section of the small intestine, with secretions from the pancreas. If we are not chewing our food properly to achieve adequate alkaline digestion in the mouth, we can put unnecessary strain on the pancreas.

Next, this slurry of nutrients, or chyme, heads to the acidic middle section of the small intestine, for the final acidic breakdown of our foods. Bile, first manufactured in the gall bladder, and then stored and secreted from the liver, helps to digest fats and oils. With digestion and nutrient breakdown complete, the majority of dissolved nutrients pass through the small intestine‘s walls into the bloodstream, about 3-4 hours after we have eaten it.

The acidic liquids of the small intestine now need to be neutralized and dried out. This occurs in the large intestine or colon and take about 8 hours (if you are regular—with 2 or more normal bowel movements per day). The large intestine represents the terminal phase in digestion. Here, large amounts of water and salts are reabsorbed back into the blood and recycled, leaving only the familiar fecal matter. Unlike the fast-moving chyme in the small intestine, this fecal matter moves slowly and contains few nutrients and much less water. A properly functioning colon contains 3 meals most of the time.

However, if you are lacking regularity, one bowel movement or less, you probably have 6 meals in the colon at once. Chronically constipated people often have as many as 8-9 meals in the colon at once. As described below, this is not a healthy situation, but it usually can be improved quickly with a change of diet and/or exercise.

Constipation is a Slow Killer

 The colon is designed for continuous expelling of waste and toxic substance. If this process is slowed on a chronic basis, a person risks increased chance of reabsorbtion of waste and toxins into the body, causing auto-intoxication which can lead to any number of serious degenerative diseases.

Adequate exercise, water, essential fatty acids, and vegetables (for alkaline mineral, fiber and roughage) are important for maintaining regularity. Eat in a relaxed environment and at regular hours. Chew your foods well.

Exercise keeps the abdomen physically moving, thereby stimulating elimination. Too much exercise can disturb digestion as well, particularly if too soon after a meal.

Because digesting protein requires adequate water, high protein diets can cause dehydration which can lead to constipation. Athletes ingesting additional pure protein powders require a lot of extra water to prevent dehydration, constipation, and muscle cramping associated with dehydration.

Flax oil and the other essential fatty acids help keep the colon healthy, as well as improving flow of material.  Healthy stools should be firm, but slightly softer rather than hard.

Two to three regular bowels movements per day is optimum. Once a day, is not enough and indicates that one is slightly constipated. Anything less is usually a problem that will lead to health problems in the longer term.

Total Food Digested in One’s Life and Lifespan

 Studies on mice have led many researchers to predict the body can only digest a limited amount of food over a life time. While there are many factors associated with aging, even if these researchers are only partly right, it would make sense to eat the foods that are most easily digested while providing the richest source of nutrients. And even if they are wrong, this still makes sense, as your body functions best on nutrient rich food.

Using Food and Your Body Efficiently

 Building cells takes energy and uses up one‘s available lifespan. Once we have reached adult age, cellular replication slowly becomes less effective and efficient with each new copy.

Therefore once cells have been developed, you want to preserve their health as long as possible. When they age, or are damaged (degenerate), one wants to regenerate news ones as efficiently as possible. Such regeneration requires nutrients, energy, and chemical processing. The less regeneration we need to do, the better, as it‘s less work for our body.

Proper work and exercise choices are essential to maintaining healthy muscles and body parts with a minimum of regeneration and energy. For example, by eating the wrong foods, or by running out of the right fuel to provide fuel for a particular activity, you can unwittingly cause your body to cannibalize itself.

This is because the brain only runs on sugar available in the blood (blood sugar levels are the product of carbohydrate digestion, see below). If you run too low on blood sugar, the body must break down proteins (usually from muscle) into the sugars required for brain function. The body is unable to make sugars for the brain from fat. Fat can only be burned as a slower burning fuel for muscle.

Therefore intensive mental activity for long periods of time without adequate proper carbohydrate consumption will cause muscle wasting to occur. Eating protein to fuel the brain is very inefficient, as protein digestion is energy intensive and taxing on the kidneys, as excess nitrogen (in the form of toxic ammonia) produced by metabolizing protein must be removed as urine. To prevent muscle wasting, adequate long chain carbohydrates should be consumed to provide a slower burning, steady supply of sugar to the active brain, as described below.

Strenuous physical and mental activity also produce acid by-products in our body. Acids are produced when there is a lack of oxygen and other key nutrients to burn fuels properly in our body. As you will learn below, various foods and nutrients prevent our cells from overproducing acid and protect us from the destructive actions of acid build-up in our tissues.

However, those who work too hard without proper foods and rest can overwhelm their cells ability to eliminate acid.  They develop a silent and serious condition known as acidosis.

Assuming a sick person‘s problems are not the result of environmental contamination or other toxins, acidosis is now considered by many health practitioners to be at the root of much degenerative disease, including many cancers.

While many parts of a cell are designed to handle longer exposures to acidic conditions, other sensitive cell structures, such as our DNA are not.

As is discussed further below, three primary factors allow an excessive buildup of acid in the body:

• The consumption of the wrong balance of
• A lack of moderate exercise, which keeps our tissues saturated in oxygen and our lymph system
• Continuous excessive anaerobic exercise, which can generate too much acid for the body to
• Continuous high stress of any

Acidosis refers to a general build-up of acid in all of our body‘s cells. Do not confuse this acid build-up, with acid reflux that causes heartburn, although acidosis can certainly contribute to acid reflux.   Acidosis refers to the acid level in all of our cells, not just those in the digestive tract. And, while strong acids play an essential role in digestion and other processes, in a healthy body those powerful digestive acids are contained by special mucous linings in our digestive tract.

Sam Bock

Click to access genetics.pdf

Source: Nutrition affects our genes

Our genetic systems appear to be primarily controlled and/or altered by the foods and other chemicals we ingest.

Most people have been led to believe that one‘s genetic system is at the root of most serious health problems one may encounter. In most cases this simply is not true, as the latest research shows.  In the years ahead, how the West views medicine and illness will dramatically change.

In November 2005 conventional medical researchers finally confirmed what orthomolecular medical and environmental researchers have understood for years – that specific foods and chemicals turn genes on and off, and affect ongoing genetic expression.2 This understanding will eventually cause a revolution in the way future drugs are developed.  Many of our modern disease states are primarily a result of pollution, malnutrition, and/or improper exercise habits.

Call 408-854-1883 for senior care in the greater  bay area.

Such factors are dramatically affecting ongoing genetic development and health in people.

To some it may sound implausible – that simply eating a specific food or supplement, could permanently change your behaviour for the better, or reverse diseases such as schizophrenia,

Huntington’s or cancer.3 However, in the latest research, normal rats have been made to behave differently just by injecting them with a specific amino acid (a building block of protein). The change to their behaviour was permanent.4 The amino acid altered the way the rat’s genes were expressed.5

This is now raising the idea amongst conventional medical researchers that drugs, dietary supplements, and/or other nutrients might permanently halt the genetic effects that predispose people to mental or physical illness, just as orthomolecular medical researchers have shown for 25 – 30 years.

Dr. Linus Pauling first proposed the term Orthomolecular Medicine in 1968 in the journal Science. (One of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, Pauling was one of the fathers of modern chemistry, having won the Nobel prize for describing the nature of the electron. He also made many important medical research discoveries. In addition, along with Watson and Crick, his research was critical to the discovery of DNA, the backbone of all life on Earth.)

In practice, the orthomolecular doctor relies heavily on laboratory testing.  In addition to standard clinical chemistries, orthomolecular doctors now employ a wide range of sophisticated laboratory analysis, including those for testing levels of amino acids, organic acids, vitamins and minerals, functional vitamin status, hormones, immunology, microbiology, and gastrointestinal function. Many of the newer tests have yet to be adopted by most in conventional medicine.

Orthomolecular medicine prescribes the use of natural substances found in a healthy diet such as vitamins, dietary minerals, enzymes, antioxidants, amino acids, essential fatty acids, dietary fiber, phytonutrients, etc. in the prevention and treatment of diseases. It focuses on the role of proper nutrition & exercise in relation to health. Nutrition and/or nutritional intervention comes first in medical diagnoses and treatment – drug treatment is used only for specific indications.

Orthomolecular medicine is defined as the provision of the optimum molecular constitution, especially the optimum concentration, or balance, of substances that are normally present in the body, for the purposes of treating disease and preserving health. The field of orthomolecular psychiatry deals with the use of orthomolecular medicine to treat psychiatric problems.

This paper is designed to show you how to choose foods to enjoy a full and vibrant life.

Our genetic systems can not adapt to change quickly.

The very gradual evolution of our genetic systems was the product of millions of years of exposure and adaptation to natural chemicals and unpolluted foods.  However, in just 60-70 years the modern world and the physical environment in which we live have rapidly changed. As a result, a combination of factors are now dramatically affecting our health.  These are:

• Excess stress due to high paced lifestyles,
• Modern technologies yet to been proven as safe – including intensive agricultural farming methods, processed foods, many modern electrical devices, and certain medical practices,
• high levels of industrial and agricultural pollution,
• and a lack of proper exercise.

America spends more money per capita on health care than any other country. Yet it is one of the unhealthiest societies, leading the world in obesity and with 73.5% of deaths caused by degenerative disease in 2001.6   Canada is not far behind.

Junk foods, such as sugary sodas and chips make up nearly one-third of calories in the U.S. diet.7 Moreover, Americans consume approximately 50% of the world‘s pharmaceutical drugs.8 North American seniors are taking an average of eight to twelve prescription drugs daily for multiple health problems.9 Britons spend about ¼ as much and live just as long10, although they also are suffering serious health problems as a result of their ―modern‖ western living.

While Americans are ―living as long as most western counterparts, many spend their last years in hospitals and homes.

Canada has the highest cancer death rate in the G8, and the second highest rate in the world.11 Few Canadians realize Ontario is ―officially‖ one of the most polluted places in North America.12 Even fewer realize that ―unofficially‖ hundreds of thousands of pre-regulation oil well sites in Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan, and the northern territories contain shallowly buried toxic dumps of diesel fuel and radioactive materials which are seeping into the water table.

Many Canadian cities and towns are highly polluted due to previous and/or ongoing unregulated industrial, forestry, and/or agricultural activity.

An understanding of the connection between nutrition and cellular replication became possible ever since two critical discoveries:

1. a) DNA‘s role in cell division and replication, and
2. b) the precise nature of the enzyme action that make it possible.

Because of these, we now known that anything interfering with normal enzyme balance or activity will first cause a chain reaction of problems within the organism, and then again further up the food chain, when that organism is consumed by another.

This new understanding places primary responsibility for health on the individual (which can choose its nutrition), rather than on a genetic act of God (for which we are helpless).

These ever-growing realizations by the public at large are creating a revolution in consumer attitudes towards health care options before them.

Nutrition affects the actual replication of genes every time a cell divides.

The reasoning is simple: if any of the many levels of enzyme activity required for the copying of DNA is compromised by nutritional factors, how can the body make accurate copies of DNA and other derivative genetic structures in the body?

Most MDs only received about 6 hours of nutrition classes in 4400 hours of training.

As of 1989, of the approximately 130 medical colleges in North America, less than 25% had courses on nutrition. On the other hand, graduates of the 4 CNME certified naturopathic medical colleges in North America have 200 hours of academic classes, and 1000 hours of clinical nutrition.

But change is slowly coming. North American Medical schools are now rapidly adapting to expand training in Nutrition and alternatives practices as well. Many conventional medical practitioners are establishing integrated medical clinics, which offer a wide and comprehensive range of medical services. That said, it will be many years before the majority of doctors are up to speed on nutrition and its affects on genetics.

Sam Bock

Click to access genetics.pdf

Source: Thyroid Health by Dr Mercola

Source: Gout, Dementia, Chelation Therapy

Source: Protein and fat rich foods for Alzheimer’s disease prevention

Alzheimer’s disease

A recent study showed a single protein that can boost memory and prevent Alzheimers’ disease (yahoo health news Dec 22 2015).  In April 2015, Salk.edu also identified a single protein for muscles and brain.

Energy for muscles and brains, the scientists discovered, is controlled by a single protein called estrogen-related receptor gamma (ERRγ). Evans’ research group has previously studied the role of ERRγ in the heart and skeletal muscles. In 2011, they discovered that promoting ERRγ activity in the muscle of sedentary mice increased blood supply to their muscles and doubled their running capacity. ERRγ, they went on to show, turns on a whole host of muscle genes that convert fat to energy.

Source: http://www.salk.edu/news-release/food-for-thought-master-protein-enhances-learning-and-memory/

What can really help in preventing Alzheimer’s disease?

If we can reduce stress which leads to anxiety, lack of sleep and poor appetite, we can concentrate on nourishing our bodies with whole foods rich in good protein and healthy fats and less bad carbs (sugar).  We can also cut the consumption of top 10 meds for anxiety, depression, pain meds and neuro meds, including those meds for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson.

Our environment is rich in  toxic metals, drugs/pain meds//neuro meds, narcotics, alcohol, OTC (over the counter meds/pain pills)  and other toxins that can also contribute to the deterioration of our brain.

Here is a power breakfast ingredients from Dr Mercola:

A Power Breakfast for Your Mitochondria

About 95 percent of the energy your body uses is created by your mitochondria that metabolizes food through a complex series of electron transport chain that ultimately transfer the energy to ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

If you consume more calories than your body can immediately use, there will be an excess of free electrons, which back up inside your mitochondria. These electrons are highly reactive, and they start to leak out of the electron transport chain in the mitochondria. These excess electrons wind up prematurely killing the mitochondria, and then wreak further havoc by damaging your cell membranes and contributing to DNA mutations.

There are many knowledgeable experts who believe mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the keys to accelerated aging and the development of diseases like cancer.

Fasting is one method to strengthen the mitochondria network systems throughout your body, which is why I recommend stopping eating at least three hours (and ideally five or six hours) before you go to bed (which will then give you a sizeable fasting period while you sleep).

Another method to strengthen your mitochondria is to supply a regular flow of ketones, as they’re a magnificent fuel to up-regulate many mitochondrial processes. This is why the foundation of my breakfast is coconut oil, a food rich in fatty acids that are readily converted into ketones.

Coconut Oil: A Breakfast Superstar

Besides being an excellent fuel for your mitochondria, coconut oil is beneficial for your thyroid. It’s also rich in lauric acid, which converts in your body to monolaurin, a monoglyceride capable of destroying lipid-coated viruses such as HIV and herpes, influenza, measles, gram-negative bacteria, and protozoa such as Giardia lamblia.

Its medium-chain fatty acids (MCTs) also impart a number of health benefits, including raising your body’s metabolism and fighting off pathogens. Additionally, coconut oil is beneficial for brain health and may serve as a natural treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

MCTs, a primary source of ketone bodies, act as an alternate source of brain fuel that can help prevent the brain atrophy associated with dementia. Coconut oil is also easy on your digestive system and does not produce an insulin spike in your bloodstream. But it will give you a quick energy boost.

Make sure you choose an organic coconut oil that is unrefined, unbleached, made without heat processing or chemicals, and does not contain genetically engineered ingredients.

Avocado: One a Day to Keep the Doctor Away

Avocados, which are actually classified as a fruit, are low in fructose and rich in healthy monounsaturated fat (which is easily burned for energy), and research has confirmed the avocado’s ability to benefit vascular function and heart health.

Because they have a very high fat to protein and carb ratio and are loaded with healthy monounsaturated fats, I typically eat two to three of them every day. Avocados are also very high in potassium (more than twice the amount found in a banana), and will help balance your vitally important potassium-to-sodium ratio. They also have a great fat to protein ratio with 21 grams of mostly monounsaturated fat with only 2 grams of protein.

Avocados also provide close to 20 essential health-boosting nutrients, including fiber, vitamin E, B vitamins, and folic acid. Another boon of avocados — they’re one of the safest fruits you can buy conventionally grown, so you don’t need to spend more for organic ones. Their thick skin protects the inner fruit from pesticides.

What Else Makes My Breakfast Recipe so Good for You?

Whole Flaxseeds

Over half of the fat in flaxseeds comes from beneficial plant-based omega-3s (alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Flaxseeds are also the richest dietary source of lignan precursors). When you consume lignan precursors, bacteria in your gut convert the “plant” lignans into “human” lignans, including enterodiol and enterolactone, which have weak estrogenic activity.

This can be beneficial for women’s health, because if you have naturally high estrogen levels, the weak “estrogens” from lignans may bind to some of your estrogen receptor sites, thereby actually reducing total estrogen activity.

Lignans’ ability to block the effects of estrogen could potentially help reduce the risk of hormone-associated cancers (breast, uterine, ovarian, and prostate), and they may help lower your risk of heart disease as well. Flaxseeds are highly perishable, which is why it’s better to purchase them whole and grind them yourself.

Raw Cacao Nibs

Also known as cacao beans or cocoa beans, cacao is an authentic superfood. It has nearly 400 chemicals most of which are polyphenols. They are naturally high in antioxidants and other natural compounds that are beneficial for cardiovascular health and weight management. If the cacao beans are not roasted, then you have “raw” cacao, which is then crumbled into small bits or “nibs.”

Cacao is what makes chocolate healthy but is best consumed in its raw state freshly ground without any sugar. The problem is though that they are very bitter and need to be integrated with other foods.

I find the Mercola Vegan Chocolate Protein Powder as an excellent masking food that makes them delicious. I find one tablespoon (half a scoop) of our protein powder that only has 1 gram of non-fiber carbohydrate, is enough to make one ounce of freshly ground raw cacao nibs into a delicious drink.

Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are a quick and easy-to-use source of protein, healthy fats, dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins, andantioxidants, all rolled into one neat package. Although they have similar health benefits to flax seeds, chia seeds may soon edge these out because they don’t have to be ground prior to consumption, and they don’t go rancid as quickly either.

Psyllium

Psyllium contains primarily soluble fibers that serve as powerful prebiotics serving to optimize growth of your microbiome which then digest them to short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, propionate, and acetate that are then converted to healthy ketones to feed your tissues.

A report funded by the Council for Responsible Nutrition Foundation (CRNF) found that if U.S. adults over the age of 55 with heart disease took psyllium dietary fiber daily, it could save nearly $4.4 billion a year – and more than $35 billion in cumulative health care costs between 2013 and 2020. ¹

Black Sesame Seeds

Sesame seeds are another source of beneficial lignans, and they also contain a wealth of minerals including copper, manganese, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, molybdenum, and selenium.

Some regions, such as China, also value black sesame seeds for their purported anti-aging benefits, and they are rich in B vitamins and iron, deficiencies of which have been linked to memory problems, hearing trouble, and even gray hair.

Chocolate Vegan Protein Powder

This is a simple way to add more high-quality protein (and also fiber and plant-based omega-3s) to your diet, it’s suitable for those following vegan or vegetarian diets, and I really enjoy the chocolate flavor as do most of my friends. I use it primarily as a great flavoring agent that has only one gram of non-fiber carbohydrate for the one scoop used in this recipe.

Cinnamon

Rich in essential oil, cinnamon contains active components including cinnamaldehyde, cinnamyl acetate, and cinnamyl alcohol, which account for some of its many therapeutic benefits. I use the Korintje species in this recipe.

Cinnamon is also known to enhance your antioxidant defenses, and it’s been found to kill E. coli and many other bacteria. Its anti-inflammatory compounds help relieve pain and stiffness of muscles and joints due to arthritis. It also helps prevent urinary tract infections, tooth decay, and gum disease, and helps with blood sugar control. Plus, it has a wonderful, warming flavor.

D-Ribose and Acetyl L-Carnitine

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a coenzyme used as an energy carrier in every cell of your body. It’s composed of three major chemical groups, one of which is D-ribose, a five-carbon sugar. As a structural component or building block of ATP, D-ribose is involved in the energy synthesis in your cells.

When you take supplemental D-ribose, the vast majority of it — about 97 percent — is absorbed into your blood and is quickly distributed into the various tissues in your body. Once inside your cells, your body uses the D-ribose to synthesize and restore your ATP to maintain cellular energy levels

Each of these ingredients is beneficial on its own, but when you combine them into one power breakfast, the end result is a phenomenal super-breakfast

The New Health Rules

Frank Lipman, MD, and Danielle Claro

Celeb doctor and New York City’s most well-known integrative physician, Frank Lipman, MD, is known for prescriptions that don’t necessarily come from a bottle (like what food goes on your plate or the numbers of hours you sleep). And his new book, The New Health Rules, is a handbag-sized manifesto for living a healthy, cool life. It’s filled with rules (and pretty photos) like why you should break up with bread and the most important yoga pose you should be doing. It’ll go perfectly with your green juice on the way to work.

Yoga For Life

Colleen Saidman Yee

You know her as the glowing, grounded yogi behind Yoga Shanti and your DVD collection, butSaidman Yee was once a wild child, traveling the globe as a fashion model and picking up a bad drug habit along the way. Her first tome tells the story about how she found herself through yoga, started a new chapter, and might be able to help you do the same.

Skin Cleanse

Adina Grigore

Adina Grigore, the founder of Brooklyn-based skin-care line S.W. Basics, made it big in 2014 when her all-natural skin-care line debuted at Target. Now, she’s coming out with a guide on how to switch over your beauty routine from not-so-clean to all-natural. If you’re still stuck on Cetaphil, you might want to pre-order your copy now.

The Healthy You Diet

Dawna Stone

When a career on Wall Street added an extra 40 pounds to her frame, Dawna Stone realized she needed to change something about the way she was eating—and living. After trying a bunch of diets, without any success, Stone created her own. In The Healthy You Diet, Stone, also the founder of Women’s Running magazine, shares her personal struggle with weight and how she got healthy. It’s also a plan to help you eat cleaner, too.

The 30-Second Body: Eat Clean. Train Dirty. Live Hard.

Adam Rosante

The founder of The People’s Bootcamp, Adam Rosante, is known for having a pay-what-you-can workout policy. And with his new book he’s taking that same health-should-be-universal mentality and dishing out simple clean eating tips and advice like why you should ditch your gym membership and work out at home instead. The fast, fun read makes changing your habits feel that way, too.

What the Fork Are You Eating?: An Action Plan for Your Pantry and Plate

Stefanie Sacks

Your favorite granola might be labeled “natural,” but is it really? Culinary nutritionist Stefanie Sacks, MS, CNS, CDN, wants to help you figure that out. So the master label-reader devoted an entire book to the topic. In What the Fork Are You Eating?: An Action Plan for Your Pantry and Plate (a title you’ve gotta love), the author explains what’s hiding in your food—cough, cough, hidden preservatives—and gives you a solid roadmap for navigating the grocery store, along with a bunch of healthy recipes.

Happy is the New Healthy

Dave Romanelli

The eternal optimist Dave Romanelli shares 31 ways to relax—like spending one minute on love every day and remembering to laugh—in his new book Happy is the New Healthy. We suggest keeping this sunshine-y tome at your desk, so you can pick it up at work in a stressful pinch.

Body of Truth: How Science, History, and Culture Drive Our Obsession with Weight—and What We Can Do about It

Harriet Brown

As a culture, we’re obsessed with weight, says Harriet Brown, a journalist and professor who’s looked deeply into our national body image problem with Body of Truth. She shares her findings on how science, psychology, and the media have had a huge affect on the way we perceive ourselves—and what we can do to change that negative thinking. It’s a must-read whether you’re the most confident woman in the room (or bikini) or can’t remember the last time you had a nice thought about your body.

The Adrenal Reset Diet

Your adrenal glands, which sit on top of your kidneys, regulate adrenaline and cortisol levels (AKA the stress hormones). When they’re taxed, due to stress, being a workaholic, or overachiever, you can experience depleted energy, dark under-eye circles, and it throws off other key things—like your diet, sleep, and menstrual cycle. The Adrenal Reset Diet is designed to help you reduce your stress and cortisol levels with whole foods (using carbs and proteins in a balancing cycle and reducing your sugar and insulin). Actually, a clean diet that helps reduce stress is probably something we all need.

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Email motherhealth@gmail.com your book suggestions for 2015 and 2016. Better yet, collaborate with Connie for a health ebook for 2016.

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