Cacao Powder Health Benefits – Truth and Deception…

By Dr Joe

Is cacao good for you? On this page you’re going to learn about the benefits of cacao powder or cacao nibs as part of your overall healthy eating plan. And how you may be very easily misled too.

You can use the links below to jump straight to a sub-section of your choice, if you like. Otherwise enjoy this thrilling cacao ride in full.

Here’s what you are going to get on this page: the difference between cacao powder and cocoa powder|| cacao powder health benefits|| is cacao powder good for you|| cacao benefits for your heart|| cacao benefits for your blood pressure.

There’s more…cacao benefits for cholesterol|| cacao good for blood sugar and insulin sensitivity|| cacao powder good for mood and memory|| cacao powder for anxiety|| cacao powder protects skin|| cacao powder for sleep and energy and the hidden lies of cocoa products.

A healthy eating plan can involve cacao, believe it or not. But not all cacao products are created equal.

Cacao is one of the most under-rated plant-based food you’ll ever come across.

Having a sound knowledge of cacao benefits is a good starting point. It explains why you want to have cacao powder in your dietary portfolio in the first place.

I acknowledge that there are several people who are into particular foods by virtue of introduction by their parents. That is fine.

But modern day nutrition demands mindfulness in whatever you are doing or should I say, eating. That is why it is crucial that you understand the benefits of cacao.

Before we talk about why cacao powder is good for you, we need to establish what the difference is between cacao powder and cocoa powder.

So, what is the difference between cacao powder and cocoa powder?

Another way of asking the question is: Is cacao powder the same as cocoa powder?
To the uninitiated, it is very easy to fall into the mindset that cacao powder and cocoa powder are one and the same.

Well, I can confirm that cocoa powder and cacao powder are not the same. Don’t be fooled.
Yes, there is a difference between them.

And the difference between cacao powder and cocoa powder lies in the making of both powders. Cacao powder is natural and non-alkalized whilst Cocoa powder is processed and that process includes alkalinisation.

The similarities of cacao powder and cocoa powder is that both products come from the same seed in the fruit of the plant called Theobroma cacao. And that is where the similarities end literally.

Cacao powder is the initial product that is made from the cacao seeds when the cacao seeds are cold-pressed, preferably in the raw state.

However, when the seeds are processed by fermenting, roasting or heating followed by alkalinisation, then cocoa powder is the end result.

As you would imagine cold pressing of the cocoa seeds preserves the nutritional constitution of the cacao seeds. Therefore, cacao powder has all the nutritional elements of the cacao seeds intact. The nutritional profile of cacao powder is and should be intact.

By the same token, processing of the cacao seeds through roasting process and high heat diminishes the nutritional value of the cacao seeds. Therein lies the major difference between cacao powder and cocoa powder.

Whilst 70% or higher, dark chocolate may provide some of the benefits I will be talking about here, your preference should be raw, original, organic, sugar-free, dairy-free cacao powder or cacao nibs.

Advertisers may want to hoodwink you into buying milk chocolate and white chocolate; insinuating the same benefits. Don’t fall for it.

White chocolate for instance provides you with no nutritional value. Why…because white chocolate has no bio-active cacao anti-oxidants in it. None!

Truth be told: unsweetened, organic, bitter, raw, dairy-free cacao has way more health benefits than any sweetened variety of cacao-related products. Don’t be deceived by false, misleading advertising!

Cacao unarguably is the best plant source of flavonols and polyphenols on the planet. It will take some beating to match it.

We love this brand of original Organic Cacao powder below. Get it here from Amazon

So, what are the cacao powder health benefits?

With the knowledge of the similarities and differences between cacao powder and cocoa powder to hand, we can now turn our attention to what cacao powder is good for.

Why is cacao powder good for you?

Cacao powder benefits lay in the fact that cacao is one of nature’s foods that you would classify as a superfood. Cacao is a superfood. A powerful superfood. Period.

Superfoods are foods considered to be high in two groups of natural substances called antioxidants. The two groups of antioxidants are flavonols and polyphenols. Cacao powder is rich in these two groups of antioxidants. This is why cacao powder is good for you.

Cacao powder is bursting with an abundant supply of antioxidants. Cacao powder represents one of nature’s highest sources anti-oxidants.

1. Cacao benefits your heart and blood vessels – heart disease and stroke prevention

There has long been an outstanding observation that populations that consume a lot of plant-based nutrition and beverages have a lower incidence on cardiovascular diseases. This means plant-based nutrition is good for your heart and your blood vessels.

Cacao represents one of these plant-based foods that perform these same functions. Cacao does this through the pathway of activating the nitric oxide synthase enzyme activity, thereby boosting the production of nitric oxide in the body.

The fact that a cacao drink has nitric oxide enhancement ability lies with this study that experimented cacao drink on 11 smokers.

Smokers inherently have impaired Nitric Oxide production because the smoking habit appears to inhibit the activity of the enzyme that facilitates the production of Nitric Oxide.

The net effect is that the Nitric Oxide pool in smokers is significantly smaller compared to non-smokers. This ultimately leads to hardening of the arteries in smokers in the medium to long term.

So, can you reverse this impairment of Nitric Oxide production in smokers, by drinking cacao concentrated drink? Turns out, you can.

The smokers in that study were given 100 ml of concentrated cacao drink and were noted to have a rise in nitric oxide levels in their blood.

When you have a rise in nitric oxide, blood vessels open up as the vessel walls become more relaxed and pliable. Relaxed blood vessels from consuming cacao creates an environment for a healthy heart, because the heart has less work to do pumping blood from inside it.

You will remember that the discovery of the physiology of Nitric Oxide is the reason Furchgott, Ignarro and Murad got the 1998 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.

Relaxed blood vessels means the vessels are pliable making blood supply to cells and tissues totally unhindered. Unimpaired blood flow means oxygen and nutrients are transported to body cells and tissues, where they are desperately needed, with ease.

This unimpaired blood flow to tissues includes the heart muscle. An efficient rich blood supply enables the heart to perform it’s pumping function effectively. Cacao enabling this rich blood supply to heart muscle prevents heart disease.

I will encourage you to exploit this health benefit of cacao in particular, coronary heart disease prevention.

With cacao preventing hardening of blood vessels (atherosclerosis), there is an additional net cacao health benefit of prevention of strokes. This is because blood vessels in the brain are protected and supported by a larger pool of nitric oxide.

2. Cacao is good for your blood pressure – heart attack prevention

This health benefit of cacao springs from the one above.
We have just established that enhanced nitric oxide production makes blood vessels more relaxed. What does this mean? It means the flow diameter of each blood vessel is wider.

Ultimately a wider flow diameter allows blood to flow through much more easily. This means the pressure within the blood vessels downstream in the smaller blood vessels is lower…much lower.

The pressure within the blood vessels downstream is representative of your blood pressure measurement. This is the reading your doctor gets when he/she measures your blood pressure.

Consuming cacao facilitates lower blood pressure from the increased nitric oxide production. So, you can consume cacao for blood pressure support.

What’s the substance in cacao that amplifies nitric oxide production in the body – flavonols. Yes, the flavonols are the real deal here.

Relaxed blood vessels lower the global blood pressure in your body. A relatively lower blood pressure makes the blood supply to your heart muscle quite abundant preventing heart attacks.

Other body organs benefit from this lower blood pressure too. All organs are well perfused facilitating adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients unhindered. Waste products are also cleared from tissues without fuss too.

One proof being an observational study of the Kuna Indians of Panama. The indigenous Kuna Indians living in the remote Ailigandi islands of Panama seem to be free of high blood pressure, heart disease and peripheral blood vessel disease despite indulging in a diet that is high in salt intake.

These health parameters of the indigenous Kuna Indians still living in these remote Panamanian islands have been compared in that observational study to similar Kuna Indians who have migrated to the cities.

Researchers found the indigenous Kuna Indians to have consistently lower blood pressures compared to the city-dwelling Kuna Indians. The only difference was the diet.

The indigenous island Indians ate more fruit and drank 10 times more cacao drink even though salt consumption in the islanders was much higher.

The conclusion from that research being; the blood pressure escalating effects of high salt intake can be overridden by a high intake of flavonol-rich cacao consumption. That’s how powerful the blood vessel relaxing effect of cacao is.

Another mode of action by cacao preventing heart disease is via its actions concerning platelets.

Blood cells in the body called platelets do have a role to play in the origin of heart attacks. You will be glad to find out that the flavonols in cacao prevents unnecessary clumping of these platelet cells.

If you prevent unnecessary platelet clumping inside the blood vessel that supplies the heart muscle, you prevent angina and full-blown heart attack. This is something that cacao can do for you. Cacao prevents heart disease in more ways than one.

Essentially what you get with cacao is a double whammy health promotion effect of blood vessel relaxation and platelet aggregation prevention inside the blood vessel.

We can go to bed safe in the knowledge that cacao actually does prevent heart attacks. Awesome!

3. Cacao is good for your cholesterol

One thing we know about cacao is that it has polyphenols as part of the antioxidant package in it. The polyphenols in cacao are called catechins and procyanidins.

The question is whether the polyphenols in cacao have any effect on cholesterol levels in the blood. What better way to prove it than to try cacao on individuals with normal cholesterol levels and those with high cholesterols level.

160 individuals were given low strength, medium strength, high strength cacao drink or a dummy drink with no actual cacao in it. Both groups consumed the assigned beverage twice a day for 4 weeks.

The participants had blood test both at the beginning of the research and at the end of the 4 weeks.

What the study showed.

The study demonstrated that those who consumed the cacao-infused beverage had lower LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) at the 4-week mark compared to what the level was at the beginning of the study.

Not only that there was a rise in the HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) at the end of the study too in those who consumed the cacao drinks.

It is heart-warming (no pun intended) when a food substance boosts the production of good cholesterol whilst reducing bad cholesterol at the same time. All thanks to the polyphenols in cacao.

4. Cacao promotes insulin sensitivity – cacao good for blood glucose control

Let me say this upfront and indeed this is confirmed by this piece of research.

White chocolate is nutritionally useless.

I have mentioned this earlier on, but I am repeating this for emphasis sake. If you are consuming white chocolate in the hope that you are doing your body any favours, forget it.

That study does prove the fact that; white chocolate is just a pretty face. Okay, let’s hear it…

In that study, 15 healthy individuals were randomised to consume 100 g of dark chocolate bar and 90 g of white chocolate. The two groups were assigned to do this over a 15-day period.

Before the study commenced, they needed to be free of chocolate for a period of 7 days so as not to confound the results of the study.

After the first 15 days, they were swapped over to do the opposite. So, those who had white chocolate swapped to the dark chocolate for the 2nd phase of the study. This is called a cross-over study. At the end of each study phase, a glucose tolerance test was done.

The oral glucose tolerance test was done with insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance as outcome measures.

The study showed insulin sensitivity was increased and insulin resistance lower during the dark chocolate phase whilst no such effect was seen in the white chocolate phase.

As a bonus, blood pressure was also lower in the dark chocolate phases of the study.

This next study sought to test the effect of flavanol-rich dark chocolate on blood vessel wall function, insulin sensitivity, pancreatic beta-cell function, and blood pressure in hypertensive patients with impairment in glucose metabolism.

Similar study design. 19 individuals known to have high blood pressure and glucose intolerance were randomised to receive 100 g of dark chocolate that was flavonol-rich versus white chocolate that was flavonol-free following a chocolate-free wash-out period.

Swapped over after 15 days.

The dark chocolate flavonol-rich phase of the study produced an increase in insulin sensitivity whilst reducing insulin resistance. Blood pressure reduction was also noted in dark chocolate phase.

Blood flow was increased in the dark chocolate phase. An improvement in pancreatic beta cell function was another bonus observed.

The conclusion from that study seems to be that dark chocolate flavonols have a positive impact in cardiovascular risk factors inclusive of total cholesterol and bad cholesterol.

What’s happening here is this:

Cacao promoting insulin sensitivity, means it reduces insulin requirements per unit food consumed.

There are other studies that support the notion cacao reduces insulin resistance whilst upregulating glucose uptake by cells from the circulation.

All of these health benefits of cacao are thought to be mediated by nitric oxide boosted by the bio-availablity of flavonols that cacao contains. This represents one of many anti-oxidant effects of cacao powder and cacao nibs.

5. Cacao powder health benefit – Does cacao improve mood and memory function?

A lot of remarks have been bandied around suggesting cacao is good for memory improvement and mood elevation but is it true or is it just conjecture?

One study seems to have had a look at this suggestion.

The study recruited 72 individuals from both sexes aged between 45 and 64. There were 3 parallel groups on this study. One group consumed a chocolate drink laced with 500 mg of polyphenols with a second group consuming 250 mg and the third consuming 0 mg.

Each group drank the assigned drink daily for 30 days.

They were to self-assess mood after each drink at 1 hour, 2.5 hours and 4 hours after each drink using a standardised visual analogue scoring system.

Cognitive function was tested by the researchers rigorously.

The participants reported a good measure of calmness and a feeling of being content, when they consumed the 500 mg polyphenol chocolate drink.

However, the effect of the 500 mg chocolate drink on mood and cognitive function was deemed negligible in that study.

6. Cacao good for anxiety

One health benefit of cacao from that study, may therefore be that cacao may help with anxiety. If you have anxiety issues, have a trial of original raw cacao drink for a fortnight and judge for yourself if it works for you or not.

Something to remember is this:

When it comes to matters of the mind, response can vary from one person to another. Give cacao a try and see if it helps your anxiety and even panic attacks.

I have a friend who had severe anxiety issues. It was actually affecting his work. I suggested he tried organic raw dairy-free, unsweetened cacao powder. He could not believe his luck.

His problem with anxiety are now well and truly over. His concentration is much better and all of his psycho-somatic symptoms of anxiety are gone.

He is a happier soul and he got his life back from anxiety. You may say, this is anec dotal evidence, but what stops you from giving cacao powder a try, if you have anxiety issues. You may just surprise yourself.

As for overall effect of cacao on mood issues like depression, we see anecdotal evidence every now and again. It may not be scientifically proven as shown in the study above and this one.

But what does it matter what science says, if your personal experience says something different.

I know people who swear that using unsweetened raw cacao powder or cacao nibs has had huge benefits on their depression. I also know people who attest to the fact that cacao powder actually improves their cognitive performance or cognitive function.

In issues related to cacao and cognitive performance; cacao and depression; cacao and anxiety; my view is this: it doesn’t hurt to consume cacao and see how you respond to it.

Your personal experience may represent proof of concept, regardless of what science may be saying.

After all, cacao powder is food. It is non-pharmaceutical. There’s hardly any harm you will be doing yourself by having it for a good number of weeks and judge for yourself.

7. Cacao protects skin

We have established that cacao does promote blood flow by relaxing blood vessels through its nitric oxide functionality. Of course, that increase in blood flow does include blood flow to the skin too.

Can this increase in blood flow to the skin and the powerful antioxidant effect of cacao translate to protection of skin damage from the sun? Turns out cacao can be useful for maintenance of skin health.

This study gave a high dose cocoa flavonol drink (326 mg/dl) and low dose flavonol drink (27 mg/dl) to 2 groups of women over a 12-week period. Skin health parameters were measured before and during the study.

Blood flow to the skin was measured along with skin hydration and skin density. The researchers found better outcomes in the high dose flavonol group. Decrease in skin roughness and reduced scaling were also noticed in the high flavonol group.

In terms of what you could see with your naked eyes, the group who consumed the high flavonol cacao drink actually had a 25% reduction in skin UV damage from experimental forced UV exposure, by the end of the study.

Does this study prove that drinking raw unprocessed cacao drink will improve your skin texture and give you glowing skin? Well, not conclusively.

But it wouldn’t hurt your chances if you include a natural drink like cacao to fight premature skin ageing. At least in the short to medium term, cacao could help with a healthier skin texture and photoprotection from the sun.

8. Cacao powder health benefit – Cacao improves Sleep and Energy

Okay, I will be upfront here. What I am going to say here is my personal experience.

As a doctor, I work odd hours of the day. This means my sleep is disrupted over and over again. The net result is over the years my body clock has completely gone out of whack. Ruined!

I had subsequently developed sleep problems that never seemed to go away. Enter unprocessed cacao. Cacao has become a major life saver for me. Cacao has corrected my sleep issues quite quickly. I now sleep like a baby.

And you know what’s even better?

I wake up alert. I don’t wake up feeling groggy like those prescription meds will do to you when you take them. Alarm goes off in the morning and off you go. Wake up fully alert in seconds if you had unprocessed natural cacao drink the night before.

There’s something else. You will be bouncing throughout the day with lots of energy to spare. Some studies like this one and this one do not seem to show that exercise performance does improve with cacao objectively.

However, they did show that cacao does reduce oxidative stress and you might burn more free fatty acids when you workout.

The fact that cacao gives you an energy boost is not surprising because cacao contains phenylethylamine, anandamide and tryptophan. These are substances that speed up communication between the nerve cells in the brain making you alert.

Tryptophan for instance boosts serotonin synthesis in the brain. If you get tryptophan like you do from cacao, you know that good sleep is guaranteed.

Those are some of the benefits of consuming cocoa products made from cacao. Cocoa products do have benefits but these are not exclusive to it, I have to say.

There are other plant sources of antioxidants but it will be difficult to beat cacao as a natural source of polyphenols and flavanols.

Why the health benefits of Cacao powder can be a misunderstood weapon:

As I said above, there are other foods around that have the polyphenols just like cacao. The polyphenols in these other foods are just as effective. The essential point is that cacao just seems to have a higher concentration of these antioxidants. That’s one big bonus.

The problem though is that the cacao products you see in your department stores have been processed to the point of being useless. Most of the products you see on your supermarket shelves have been severely adulterated by adding sweeteners, table sugar, dairy and preservatives.

The sweeteners or sugar are what makes them appeal to you and your taste buds but that’s all you are getting. You won’t be getting the benefits mentioned above.

What does this mean? It means you are being short-changed. You may be having that chocolate product in the vain hope that you are feeding your body with antioxidants.

Sadly, you are not…unless you have access to cacao powder that is unprocessed and cold-pressed or at worst, minimally processed.

Also, don’t forget that cacao (when you get the real thing) has calories in it. Pure cacao powder has less calories though compared to say dark chocolate.

This means you don’t need to consume a lot of it to get the benefits. 2 spoonfuls a day is probably all you need. That’s all I use personally. You might use a little more than I do but you don’t need shed loads of it.

That’s the crowning beauty of original raw cacao powder or cacao nibs.

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Can You Rearrange Your Eating Plan?

Metabolism

By Dr Joe

It’s a nice sunny day and I was off duty. One of the things on my to-do list for that day was vital, very vital.

I needed to pick up my repeat prescription for one consequences of insulin resistance that I suffer from.

My meds had run out and for medications that has to be taken every day, this was an “emergency” of sorts. Hopefully not for much longer though. I am working on coming off these meds.

Got to my family doctor’s office where the prescription was waiting, picked it up. I looked across the road at the pharmacy shop and I could see that the place was practically empty.

There were staff milling around but no one waiting to fulfil their prescription.

Seeing as I had lots to do. I thought to myself. Perfect, I could just go in there, get this prescription fulfilled without any time wasting. That matched my current objective of running around to achieve a lot today, I mumbled to myself.

Got inside the pharmacy shop and was about to hand in my prescription to the lady on the counter when she uttered “Sorry, we are not accepting any prescriptions at the moment”. I wondered why that was and as any reasonable person would do, I asked why.

She replied “It’s too close to our break time”. I checked my wrist watch and the time was exactly 12.30pm. Really? I thought to myself.

So naturally I turned to leave. She then said: “You can leave the prescription with us and come back later to pick it up…”

No, thanks, was my reply.

Why would I make 2 trips for this little prescription that could be fulfilled in 5 minutes or so. Nope, I won’t be making a second trip down here later in the day. Not when you have 2 competitors a couple of blocks down the road. Nope!

Went down to the next pharmacy shop and got the prescription done in no time and I’m sure the staff at the shop that fulfilled my prescription didn’t miss their lunch. Not at all.

It’s not so much the fact they are prepared to turn down business a great 30 minutes ahead of official lunch break (which says a lot about their administrative set up, by the way), but the fact that they are so strict about lunch break and its prioritisation in the grand scheme of things.

Maybe I was jealous about such strict priority. I don’t have that privilege where I work and also given my type of work. If I had a penny every time I missed lunch on account of my work, I would be sipping pino grigio on a beach somewhere in the pacific watching the waves lapping on to the shore. Perfect!

Okay, let’s be clear. I am not in any way suggesting the staff miss their lunch altogether but the set up could be structured differently such that prescriptions would be accepted up until 1pm at least.

I don’t think it’s that hard to figure out.

Now that got me thinking though. Strict about lunch…Hmm, we as human beings allow our meals to work around us rather than us working around our meals. We have become transfixed to meal times and heaven help anyone who dares to interfere with that arrangement.

So, what do you have in mind, Joe?
I tell you what I have in mind. It’s the new concept of eating that’s been making the rounds in the last couple of years called Intermittent Fasting.

It was sniffed at initially but guess what, intermittent fasting is quite rapidly gaining grounds in the nutritional world.

Intermittent fasting is not a diet plan. It’s just an eating style that you can incorporate into your life. Word on the street is that intermittent fasting is one very effective way to burn fat.

Why is this fat burning possible with intermittent fasting?

Here is the deal with intermittent fasting. Periods of relative starvation draw on your fat stores for energy needs.

> Glycogen stores tend to be depleted within a period of 8 – 10 hours. 12 hours at most. Glycogen is your carb storage form but you are capable of burning that glycogen within that time frame of 8 -10 hours.

When you have used up those carb stores, your body will have no choice other than to turn to next energy resource – fat stores. So, if for instance you are committed to the popular 16-hour period of fasting, it is expected that you will turn to your fat stores after the first 8 hours of your fasting 16-hour window.

Imagine burning your stored fat for the next 8 hours of the fasting window, especially if you are active during those hours. Wouldn’t that be great?

This is the reason why individuals on the 16-hour fasting regime tend to get better weight loss results. You can even take this further by prolonging the period if you can.

Obviously the longer the fasting period, the more you will dig into your fat reserves which translates to even better fat loss results.

>> Intermittent fasting will help you optimize your health as you will have less difficulty with your weight management, both in terms of weight loss and actually maintaining your body weight when you have reached your target weight.

After the fasting period you next task is to restrict your meals to an 8-hour window. You can even restrict your intake to 4 – 6 hours if you can handle it. Shorter eating window plans are harder to do. The 8-hour eating window is a lot easier to accomplish but you don’t have to jump into it straightaway if you have been used to eating 3 – 4 times a day.

via GIPHY

How do you introduce this new eating plan into your life?

If you have always subscribed to the view that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, then this will be a huge paradigm shift for you, which will not come easy having had breakfast everyday of your life.

To get into the 16:8 intermittent fasting protocol (there are others by the way which I will talk about some other time), you will have to ease yourself into this rather strange routine.

> How about having an early dinner at least 3 hours before going to bed. No cheating please i.e no snacking before going to bed. Then every morning ease off on the time you have your first meal of the day by gradually delaying it probably by an hour each week until you achieve the 16-hour meal-free interval.

So, if you normally have your breakfast by 7am for instance, delay it for an hour to 8am for the next week or two and once your body has become used to that. Delay it further by another hour till 9am for another week, then 10am the week after, so on and so forth until you hit the 16-hour fasting window. Not only that by so doing you get rid of breakfast altogether.

During this period of transition, your body will be re-setting its enzymatic engine processes. Most people consume more carbohydrate than other macronutrients and your body has adapted to processing carbohydrates predominantly. To switch to fat burning there has to be some new adaptation.

Does intermittent fasting have any health benefits?

I should reiterate the point that intermittent fasting is not a diet, it is a lifestyle should you choose to adopt it. You are rearranging your eating plan by imposing some restrictions to when you eat.

And doing that will enable carbohydrate metabolism to take a back seat whilst ramping up fat metabolism, so long as there’s some consistency in what you do. Giving your body that period of keto adaptation will make it easier for you to adjust physically and emotionally too.

> Another thing that happens when you fast for long periods too is that you tackle hyperinsulinism (high insulin levels). Lowering blood insulin levels is one way of optimizing your health and will help you deal with fat stores a lot better. Catabolism is facilitated when insulin levels are low because insulin is an anabolic hormone.

Besides eating often especially with a diet that is loaded with carbs is associated with high insulin levels. High insulin levels make you hungry all the time making you snack even more and compounding your weight issues.

> Down-regulating your insulin activity level will go a long way in controlling your hunger pangs. Not only has intermittent fasting been shown to reduce insulin levels but also reduces the real hunger hormone called ghrelin. Less hunger, less urge to snack in between meals all of which restricts your calorie load for the day.

One advantage of this is that you don’t have to be thinking about food all the time. When you eat often, food is always on the agenda for you throughout the day. Restricting your eating window to 8 hours or so allows you to concentrate on other tasks rather than thinking about when you are going to have your next meal.

You only think about food during your eating window and in actual fact, you will be looking forward to your meals a lot more following long hours of deliberate food deprivation.

I will admit it won’t be easy in the beginning when you start but as I said before easing yourself into it will allow your body to fine tune the new “engine” that has just been installed.

via GIPHY

A natural phenomenon that occurs to all of us inevitably is that we lose muscle as we get older. This process kicks off once we cross 40-year mark especially if you don’t exercise as many of us do. One of the things that promotes this sad occurrence is a gradual reduction in human growth hormone (HGH).

The downside to all of these is that the muscle loss is replaced by fat, hence the familiar sights you see everywhere around you of middle age individuals looking less than athletic, shall we say.

> Intermittent fasting has now been shown to improve the level of human growth hormone (HGH) especially when combined with exercise. Growth hormone reverses that muscular loss whilst promoting fat loss. Cool, huh?

You may wonder; do I really need to build muscle? Not really, you don’t. Not everyone wants to look beefy like the bodybuilders do. Most ladies certainly don’t want to look beefy. Heck, even I don’t want to look beefy.

Your objective may simply be to get your muscular frame back. There is a difference between muscle building and muscle rejuvenation. Rejuvenation should be your target at the very least. Rejuvenation will restore the original structure of the muscle fibre by repairing it.

The process of rejuvenation will restore the strength of muscle fibre allowing it to perform its functions much more efficiently. If speed is a muscle functionality that is important to you, you won’t be disappointed when you combine Intermittent Fasting with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) Exercises.

…because both intermittent fasting and high intensity interval training are known to boost human growth hormone naturally!

> Animal studies have also demonstrated intermittent fasting to be neuro-protective and therefore preserving of cognitive function as a result, compared to uncontrolled calorie intake.

Research has shown that alternate day fasting consisting of calorie reduction to 600 calories on the day you fast (this is another type of intermittent fasting protocol by the way) promotes levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Protein exponentially.

The halt in de-myelination of neurons is thought to provide that protective effect that could lead to prevention of Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease. So as far as this research is suggesting, intermittent fasting may be good for your brain too. Nice!

Suggested further reading:
What are the Pros and Cons of Eating Carbs… >>

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Will a High Protein Diet Reduce Body Fat – What’s The Science?

Metabolism

By Dr Joe

Will a high protein diet reduce body fat? That was the question a colleague of mine pondered. Obviously, he was considering using a high protein diet to burn his belly fat but he was unsure as to whether it was a good idea.

When he asked me the question, I answered in the affirmative. Yes, it will. You can use a high protein diet to reduce body fat but you also have to be aware of the caveats, the possible dangers of high protein diets.

If you are not considering using a high protein diet for the longer-term, then you should be fine. If you are, then you should seriously consider the risks I have talked about on that page.

The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for protein is 46 gm for females and 56 gm for males. Failing that you are also allowed up to 0.8 g/kg of lean body mass.

This amount of protein usually constitutes about 20-35% of your daily energy needs.

> A diet is thought to be high protein when these aforementioned recommended daily limits are exceeded.

If you want to exceed these recommended daily protein allowance for the purpose of fat loss, then a follow up question will be; why bother at all? After all, there are other alternatives out there for fat loss.

See Michael Eades’ MD book on how to use High Protein diets to optimize your heaalth here on Amazon.com and if in Europe on Amazon.co.uk

Will a high protein diet reduce body fat for me?

The reason to bother at all is because a high protein diet does work to reduce body fat. How does a high protein diet reduce body fat anyway?

There are several mechanisms at play on how high protein diets contribute to weight loss and fat loss but we will talk about two here.

> One proven way a high protein diet works to reduce body fat is through the mechanism of satiety. High protein diets have been shown to consistently increase our feeling of satiety in several studies.

Compared to carbohydrates and fats, protein is the macronutrient that stimulates the feeling of being satisfied for longer. Hence you eat less often because you don’t feel hungry.

This study compared all 3 macronutrients on their effectiveness to induce satiety on 12 lean women substituting one macronutrient for the other in these women. The high protein meal in these women had the most profound effect on short-term hunger compared to carbs and fat.

Another study compared high proteinmeal with a high fat meal evaluating the effect of both meals on food intake. In that study a feeling of fullness was achieved more with the high protein meal than with the high fat meal.

You were more likely to feel satisfied earlier during the meal and after the meal when you ate a high protein meal compared to a high fat.

What these studies are demonstrating is that a high protein meal is more likely to make you eat less quantity, eat less frequently too. All of which contribute to overall less calorie consumption throughout the day.

Another mechanism high protein diets make you burn or reduce body fat is by what we call the thermic effect of food.

Essentially the process of digesting the food, absorbing the nutrients from the food in your gut and subsequent metabolism of the nutrients to enable you access the energy that the food actually provides, also uses up energy.

Yes, what I am saying is; it takes energy to make energy.

The energy that is used up to make energy from the food you eat is called thermic effect of food. This thermic effect provides you with an energy deficit which is a good thing.

In the case of protein, the thermic effect is 25%. It is the highest amongst all the macronutrients.

Why is this thermic effect of protein relevant to your fat loss?

Well, we are talking 25%, aren’t we?

So, if for instance, in the extreme circumstance you consume a high protein diet worth 2000 calories in a day, you end up using up 500 calories as thermic effect. That leaves you with 1500 calories.

That 500-calorie deficit is potential fat you have dispensed with without any effort from you. 500 calories less for your body to worry about. Even though you consumed 2000 calories. That’s an indirect fat burning effect by the high protein meal plan.

Next time you settle down to a high protein meal, you can be rest assured that a quarter of the calories in that meal are going to be burnt up by your body just processing the meal.

What about the direct effect of high protein diet on fat loss?

Scientists recruited 65 overweight and obese subjects aged between 18 and 55 years of age and randomized them into high carb diet and high protein diet along with another control group.

Both high protein and high carb diets were low fat.

The subjects were followed up for 6 months.

What did the scientists find?

The high carb group lost 5.1 kg (11 lbs) average in 6 months and the high protein group lost 8.9 kg (20 lbs) average in overall weight loss. What about actual fat loss? Well, the high carb group lost 4.3 kg (9 lbs) of fat and the high protein group lost 7.6 kg (17 lbs) of fat. No weight loss was achieved in the control group.

The figures above are the average losses in both weight and fat. Individually there were more losses exceeding more than 10 kg in the high protein group than in the high carb group. 35% of individuals in the high protein group lost more than 10 kg compared to only 9% in the high carb group.

Something noteworthy here is that the high protein diet was only made up of 25% of total daily calorie needs which would be hovering around about 104 gm of protein daily. Now imagine what would happen if the subjects consumed a higher protein diet.

The scientists carried on with the study on the same subjects to see how much of them will sustain their weight loss. The high protein group had the highest weight loss sustainability.

In the longer follow up study (24 months), measurements for internal fat showed the high protein group had a sustained reduction in intra-abdominal fat. This reduction of internal fat was still higher in the high protein group even after adjusting for weight loss.

Intra-abdominal fat (internal fat) is the fat that does your body a lot of damage via what we now refer to as metabolic syndrome.

The 24-month study seems to suggest that high protein diet can reduce body fat not only in the short term but also have the potential for weight maintenance with a positive impact on intra-abdominal fat.

The fact that free fatty acids levels were also found to be significantly decreased after 6 months suggests an increase in fat burning by high protein diet.

> So, yes, it is true that science supports the view that a high protein diet can reduce body fat, but whether this type of dieting is advisable in the longer term is debatable. This is because of the inherent risks associated with its long-term use.

Some foods that reduce body fat may come to you as a surprise. My friend, Mike, talks about such foods and also talks about how some common foods encouraged by “experts” are making your body fat situation worse than it ought to be. It’s just a fascinating read. See Full Story Here.

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How To Reverse Insulin Resistance and Metabolic Syndrome In 4 Easy Steps

Metabolism

By Dr Joe

If you want to do yourself any favour, you may well start off by engaging with the process to learn about how to reverse insulin resistance and of course reverse metabolic syndrome too whilst you are it.

It is not enough to learn about how to reverse insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome though. I want you to start indulging in the practical steps on offer here today.

Insulin resistance is one of the deadliest ailments around. Insulin resistance is a soft, creepy disease that does your body organs silent damage.

You remember in 2010 when the movie, Inception was released. It was a fascinating movie. Inception was a science fiction movie where Leonardo Dicaprio was the star man. Leonardo was enshrined with powers of invading people’s dreams and in turn invade their minds with a view to planting ideas.

Leo and his team were also expected to extract information from their victims’ minds and pass on the information to their paymasters.

Purists will call the movie unethical as there would be an element of mind control. But let’s get real and put things in perspective. It is a movie. It’s not real, folks.

For Leo and his team to succeed in this venture, they will have to be given time to allow this “mind seed” to sprout.

This is what happens with insulin resistance and its sister ailment metabolic syndrome. They need time to “grow”.

The problem is these two conditions do have plenty of time to develop because for the most part, they invade your body and quietly establish themselves over years without you knowing it. There are at least 300 million people worldwide who at the moment are currently unaware their bodies have been “invaded” by insulin resistance.

For me I believe every adult over 45 should adopt measures to reverse insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome regardless.

For a more in-depth information regarding insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, go to this page. Over there, I have gone into great details about the relationship between blood glucose, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

The crux of the matter regarding insulin resistance is high levels of insulin in circulation. Insulin resistance leads to high insulin levels (hyperinsulinaemia). That’s the starting point.

> If you have difficulty losing weight despite your best efforts, there’s a strong likelihood you have insulin resistance.

If we know what the starting point is – high insulin levels that is, then reversing insulin resistance means we take steps to lower the level of insulin in our blood. Simple, right?

Well, sort of.

How to reverse insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome?

I keep lumping both conditions together because, when you fix insulin resistance, you actually fix metabolic syndrome as well.

Strategies to reverse insulin resistance would involve:

Anything we do to reduce body fat
Anything we do to encourage our body cells to take up glucose from the circulation

Why should we use these strategies to reverse insulin resistance? Because, excess body fat leads to insulin resistance and insulin resistance leads to high blood glucose levels. More importantly, high insulin level encourages fat preservation which worsens insulin resistance even more. It is a vicious circle.

Here are 4 practical ways to reverse insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

Eat more vegetables

A lot of nutritional guidelines have advised us to eat more vegetables but we tend to overlook this advice. This is probably because it does sound simplistic. What we tend to forget is that vegetables constitute the haven of foods.

> Vegetables are nutritionally dense but calorie light at the same time. You can eat bucket loads of vegetables and you will feel full without allowing your calorie intake to spiral out of control.

A meta-analysis review showed that if you ate at least one serving of leafy green vegetables a day, you could cut your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 14%. In case you are not aware, type 2 diabetes is the end point for insulin resistance.

What that means is if you do not reverse insulin resistance, you will ultimately end up with type 2 diabetes. So a 14% reduction in type 2 diabetes could be extrapolated to an even higher reduction in insulin resistance and in that study we are talking about just 1 serving of vegetables.

Another study from Down Under (Australia) looked at 120 overweight adults with an average BMI of 29.98 randomised them to different servings of vegetables over a 12-month period. In that study there was a strong correlation between fat loss and vegetable intake.

That Australian study concluded “Advice to consume a healthy low-energy diet including five servings of vegetables per day can lead to sustained weight loss, with associated reductions in cardiovascular disease risk factors. In the short term, consuming a higher proportion of the dietary energy as vegetables may support a greater weight loss and the dietary pattern appears sustainable”.

The cardiovascular risk factors looked at in the study were fasting glucose, insulin and triglycerides all of which were reduced along with a higher high density lipoprotein (the good cholesterol).

You get a lot more benefits beyond reversing your insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, the more vegetables you consume.

Get started by picking up tips from the book below. Get it from Amazon.com here or if you live in Europe, here on Amazon.co.uk.

Reduce Saturated Fats

This is not a campaign against fat. In essence fats are good and indeed our body needs fats to actually survive believe it or not. However, when you have insulin resistance, the last thing your body needs is to have it bombarded by yet more fat.

In particular, saturated fats.

Unsaturated fats are fine. But saturated fats will make your insulin resistance worse. Research has demonstrated that if you expose muscle cells to excess saturated fat, you can experimentally induce insulin resistance. Wierdly unsaturated fats seem to have an opposite effect.

> Saturated fats interfere with the usual insulin signalling pathway that triggers cells to respond to levels of blood sugar in the blood. There may be several mechanisms involved some of it being inflammatory response. You can check out that link if you want to get geeky about it.

Studies involving how muscle cells behave when exposed to free fatty acids, (the products of fat digestion) are important in our understanding of insulin resistance. The main reason being that skeletal muscle is a predominant target for getting rid of glucose from the blood stream.

When this mechanism of glucose disposal from the blood into skeletal muscle cells fails, given the widespread availability of skeletal muscle cells in our body, a direct risk for development of insulin resistance occurs as result.

Yep, the door to the biggest reservoir for glucose uptake is locked. That spells trouble!

Not all fats are created equal. Whilst fatty acids from saturated fats exhibit cell toxicity mainly via inflammatory pathways, monounsaturated fatty acids however are protective to cells.

This literature confirms the unhealthy role played by saturated fatty acids stating “High saturated fatty acid intake, the typical dietary pattern of western populations, favors a proinflammatory status that contributes to development of insulin resistance”

In essence, no one is saying, don’t eat fats at all, but that you may want to concentrate your eating efforts on monounsaturated fats and possibly reduce your consumption of saturated fat. Saturated fats by the way are mainly sourced from animals for example cheese, margarines, butter. You want to reduce how much of these fats you eat.

Monounsaturated fats on the other hand can be part of your diet. Monounsaturated fats are mainly plant-derived like olive oil.

Eat More Flaxseed

Flaxseed plant is a crop with many purposes. Indeed, every part of the plant has been used for one purpose or the other. Either for food or industrial use.

What we are interested in however is the seed. The seed has oil. The oil is very rich in Omega 3 fats which springs from my last tip on healthy fats. The fat you get from flaxseed are healthy alpha-linolenic acid. The seed also has lignans with potential for anti-carcinogenic activity.

This is along with having plenty of protein to boot and phenolic compounds. Let’s not forget the flaxseeds are fiber-rich too.

Now you are beginning to see the multi-purpose healthy nature of flaxseeds, but how can it be useful for insulin resistance?

Well, this research has actually gone a step further by testing the effectiveness of flaxseed on blood glucose control in people with full-blown type 2 diabetes.

The researchers placed an experimental group of diabetics on 10gm of flaxseed powder daily to supplement their food. 10 grams of flaxseed powder is about tablespoon full. The control had no flaxseed supplementation.

Over a 1-month period, the study participants had their blood glucose profile monitored. There was clear improvement in fasting blood glucose and HbA1C in the group that had the flaxseed daily supplementation. Not only that the flaxseed group had improvement in their blood lipid profile as well reducing risk factors for heart disease.

Another study looked at the same flaxseed effect on blood glucose in 120 diabetic patients over a 3-month period. The patients were divided into 2 groups of intervention group, fed wheat flour supplemented with flaxseed and a control group fed the same wheat flour daily without flaxseed supplementation.

Blood glucose and lipid profiles were monitored before the study commenced and at monthly intervals. The results were similar. Fasting blood glucose showed significant improvement along with the blood lipid profiles.

Now if you imagine that the study participants were actually type 2 diabetics and we are getting results like this, don’t you think we will get even better insulin resistance reversal results?

With this kind of result, you can’t do worse by introducing flaxseed to reverse your insulin resistance. Remember that introducing flaxseed to your diet has lots more benefits beyond reversing your insulin resistance – fiber, protein, omega 3 fatty acid, lignans, anti-oxidant phenolic compounds etc.

> Flaxseed is thought to exhibit its insulin resistance reversal via its anti-oxidant effect from the lignans and phenolic compounds.

By the way if you are worried about possible weight gain eating flaxseed, be reassured that research has disproved that. Participants in studies of flaxseed intervention that consumed even 50 gm of flaxseed daily did not experience any weight gain.

Include Turmeric in your diet

Turmeric is widely used in the Asian continent, more so in India. It’s one spice that Indians covet immensely. Did you know that the incidence of prostate cancer and some other cancers is very low India? This is thought to be due to widespread use of turmeric as a spice.

Turmeric has anti-cancer properties and also boosts the immune system immensely.

But this piece is not about the cancer fighting properties of turmeric. It is about the blood glucose lowering property and its ability to reverse insulin resistance whilst reversing metabolic syndrome at the same time.

The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin. So anywhere you read about the health benefits of curcumin, that literature is essentially talking about the health benefits of turmeric. They are one and the same.

Is there any evidence in the literature regarding the ability of turmeric to reverse insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome?

Of course, there’s plenty of evidence.

Here’s one.

240 people who were already prediabetic were enlisted into a 9-month follow up study to see who develops full-blown type 2 diabetes. The subjects were randomized into 2 groups. One group received turmeric powder supplementation and the other group received placebo.

Remember that prediabetes is the advanced stage of insulin resistance before ultimately advancing further to type 2 diabetes.

After 9 months of follow up of these 240 individuals, 16.4% of the group receiving the placebo went on to develop full-blown type 2 diabetes.

In the intervention group that received the turmeric supplementation, none of them progressed to type 2 diabetes. In fact, the curcumin (turmeric) group, they had lower fasting blood sugar, improved blood glucose tolerance, improved HbA1C, decreased insulin resistance and improved overall pancreatic beta cell functionality.

Another study looked at whether curcumin had any insulin resistance reversal effect on 100 people who were already type 2 diabetics. Not only that, these study participants were overweight and obese. Randomized into 2 groups as usual – 50 of them received curcumin supplementation and the other 50 received placebo.

Even in these overweight, obese type 2 diabetics, curcumin supplementation produced e reduction in fasting blood glucose, a reduction in insulin resistance, a reduction in blood free fatty acids and reduced triglycerides as well.

That research also proves that turmeric curcumin has the ability to reverse insulin resistance and the ability to reverse metabolic syndrome too.

That study was a follow up to an earlier one that had proven that curcumin in turmeric does reduce free fatty acids by increasing the burning of fats inside skeletal muscle cells.

> When you burn fat stored inside any body cell, you improve the insulin signalling pathway mechanism that promotes the transport of glucose into the cell where the glucose is ultimately needed for metabolism.

That’s how you reverse insulin resistance and reverse metabolic syndrome in the process.

What I have done in this article is provide you with 4 concrete practical steps that you can use today to start the process of reversing insulin resistance and of course reversing metabolic syndrome if you have that as well.

My friend, Mike has an article that talks about some other dietary sins that some health “experts” and even the government may be promoting. Without sounding alarming, these recommendations may be harming your health.

The article is well worth a look. Read Full Story Here.

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3 Simple Strategies To Prevent Type 2 Diabetes – Get One Up Over Hovering Diabetes Before It…

Metabolism

By Dr Joe

As a medical doctor, I like to test stuff. When it comes to alternative therapies I love to test them out myself to see if they live up to expectation. If a strategy works, I will incorporate it into my lifestyle.

Also I get asked often about strategies to prevent type 2 diabetes. Whilst there are quite a few interventions to prevent type 2 diabetes, I figured sharing ideas that are really practical and quickly adoptable will be a fantastic idea.

That’s why I decided to subject 3 interventions that the literature suggests can prevent type 2 diabetes to some testing to confirm or refute the claim.

The fundamental here is this. These 3 strategies prevent type 2 diabetes by blunting blood glucose spikes following a meal, in particular, carbohydrate meal. Blood glucose spikes cause organ damage including your pancreas where insulin is made.

These 3 strategies to prevent diabetes you will be glad to know are food ingredients surprisingly.

These three type 2 diabetes prevention interventions are home remedies that can be used to control blood glucose elevation. I’m all for non-Big Pharma approach, so why not put these food ingredients through their paces, I asked myself.

I hope by now you know that type 2 diabetes can be prevented and even reversed if you already have it by nutritional adjustments.

This is not news any longer.

What may be news is the fact there are 3 food ingredients that are fairly common that you can deploy in your kitchen to prevent type 2 diabetes. If you already have type 2 diabetes, you can use these same ingredients to help control your blood glucose along with whatever you are doing already.

If you are not diabetic, well you are in luck, because using these ingredients is one of several ways to keep type 2 diabetes at bay.

Like I said previously, the doctor in me likes to test claims to see if indeed they are correct and I did just that here.

The reason I have listed them here is because I have tested all 3 foods and they do work, at least in my own personal experience anyway.

How did I test these 3 ingredients to confirm them as Type 2 diabetes prevention strategies?

Simple really.

I ate the same food and measured my blood sugar with my glucometer 1 hour and 2 hours after eating without each ingredient on one day and with each ingredient on another day. The ingredients were tested separately, not together.

For validity, I ensured I did these experiments on 7 different occasions for each ingredient just to eliminate within reason any confounding factors.

I was also looking out for consistency of results. I wasn’t interested in jumping into conclusions from fluke results.

Yes, I will be the first to admit the tests were not randomized between groups of people, because I was the only subject of my “study”.

But in a way I was also the “control” in research terms which is nice, because that eliminates a variable like individual insulin sensitivity across different individuals.

For me, these 3 ingredients passed my tests. They produced lower blood glucose readings on my glucometer consistently when I took them (separately) with my meals compared to without. That’s a pass in my books.

Why is blood glucose control important even in non-diabetics?

If you want to prevent type 2 diabetes, then you need to keep a watchful eye on your blood sugars especially if you over 40 years of age.

Type 2 diabetes is rife in the age group over 40. Worse in the over 50s. This is particularly so if you live in developed countries like the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. The so-called western diet and sedentary lifestyle is responsible for unleashing type 2 diabetes in these countries.

If you do not put a lid on your blood glucose levels every time you eat, you subject your body cells to toxicity from excess glucose in your blood.

High blood glucose levels even if temporary induces inflammation in different organs of the body. That toxicity includes gradual damage to the beta cells of your pancreas making them less efficient at making and storing insulin.

The critical blood glucose level in scientific terms is 140mg/dl (7.8mmol/l). This is the blood glucose level at which cell toxicity occurs and we want to ensure our blood sugar level does not exceed this critical level every time we have a nice meal.

Besides, consistent blood glucose spikes amongst other contributory factors eventually lead to insulin resistance which in turn leads to type 2 diabetes in the medium to long term.

So, one of the first steps you can take to prevent type 2 diabetes is to make your body more insulin sensitive. Being more insulin sensitive ensures your blood glucose does not spike because the glucose in your blood is quickly mopped up from the blood straight into the cells during and soon after the meal is over.

Carbohydrate meals in particular are very notorious at causing blood glucose spikes. Some carbohydrate foods cause worse spikes than others.

For instance, white bread, potatoes, white rice, white pasta will cause a worse blood sugar spike following a meal than say, rye bread, brown rice, quinoa.

This is a phenomenon referred to as glycaemic index of foods. Different foods have different glycaemic index.

Strategies to prevent type 2 diabetes – What are we trying to achieve here?

With the knowledge that different foods have variable glycaemic index, we want to see how we can manipulate the situation to suit our body.

We want to prevent blood glucose spikes when we can and yes, we can, if we want to. This is particularly important with carbs that spike us. We want to prevent these blood glucose spikes, and as a result have a firm control of our blood glucose when we eat foods that potentially can spike us.

We want to cheat our way out of having blood sugar spikes even with foods that should spike us under normal circumstances.

We are giving our pancreas a helping hand to prevent high insulin demand from the pancreas when we eat these high glycaemic foods.

By incorporating this technique into our lifestyle, we are in effect using these ingredients to prevent type 2 diabetes in the medium to long term. Makes sense?

What’s even good about these is that these food ingredients that we are going to deploy as strategies to prevent type 2 diabetes are not some sort of exotic ingredients that you have source from some yonder place.

These ingredients are right there in your local supermarket and even in your kitchen cupboard right now. You just need to be using these ingredients a lot more often, quite often actually, once you know what they can do for your long term overall health. It’s that simple.

Oh and they are very very affordable too!

So what are these food ingredients that prevent Type 2 diabetes?

1. Apple Cider Vinegar
Who would have thought that your regular apple cider vinegar would have blood sugar lowering effect when you have it with a meal.

This is not conjecture. The fact that apple cider vinegar does lower blood glucose levels when you eat is supported by scientific research.

One such study comes from Arizona State University.

In the study they fed both non-diabetic and diabetic subjects with white bagel, butter and orange juice. Prior to being fed the meal, the subjects were made to consume the vinegar (20 g apple cider vinegar, 40 g water, and 1 tsp saccharine).

The control group were given placebo drink and had the same meal.

They found that compared to placebo, both diabetic and non-diabetic subjects who drank the apple cider vinegar prior to their meal had better blood glucose levels at 60 minutes post-meal. Not only that insulin levels were lower in the apple cider vinegar group.

So in that study apple cider vinegar controlled the subjects blood sugar which in turn led to a lower insulin demand on the pancreas.

Another study revealed that taking Apple Cider Vinegar before bedtime reduces fasting blood glucose in type 2 diabetics the morning after.

What does this mean?

It means apple cider vinegar makes you more insulin sensitive i.e more responsive to blood glucose levels.

Apple cider vinegar is thought to slow down the activity of disaccharidase activity. This the enzyme that helps break down starch to simple sugars before absorption. The slower this enzyme works, the slower the availability of simple sugars.

This means you don’t get a huge bump in blood glucose when you eat.

Apple cider vinegar also slows down the migration of food from the stomach to the small intestine. What we call gastric emptying. A slower gastric emptying means the digestion process is slowed down.

All of these prevent you from having blood glucose spikes when you eat.

Recommendation: Simply add 1 – 2 tablespoonful of apple cider vinegar to a glass of water and have it with your meal to get the blood sugar lowering effect of this ingredient. I do this quite regularly with my carb meals.

The taste is a little sour, more sour at first but as you begin to use it regularly, that sourness will no longer be an issue.

Side note: In this article I have specifically referred to apple cider vinegar and this is what you should stick to if you would like to get the blood sugar lowering effects of vinegar.

The reason I say this is some people will confuse apple cider vinegar with balsamic vinegar and white cider. In my experience balsamic vinegar and white vinegar do not provide the same results as apple cider vinegar.

I have no explanation as to why but when I tested balsamic vinegar and white vinegar, there was no consistency and I would therefore suggest you stick to the apple cider variety to get the blood sugar steadying result.

If you would like to access apple cider vinegar on Amazon.com, go here and here on UK Amazon.

2. Cinnamon
Yes, cinnamon is one ingredient that has been shown to favourably lower blood glucose following a meal and has been subjected to a lot of studies as well.

This study looked at the effect of cinnamon on diabetic patients taking diabetic medications. Split into 2 groups, one group took cinnamon and the other was given placebo. The study lasted 4 months.

The group who took cinnamon extract showed lower blood glucose levels compared to the placebo group.

A meta-analysis is a study that pools previous studies together to draw conclusions.

This meta-analysis of 10 randomized controlled studies reached a conclusion that cinnamon has statistically significant lowering effect on blood glucose levels.

That was not the only finding from the meta-analysis. It also showed that cinnamon has a positive effect on blood lipids.

Recommendation: Take 2gms (2000mg) of cinnamon capsules about 15 minutes before you have a carbohydrate meal to reap the benefits of cinnamon. That’s what I do and you should try it.

Also add cinnamon spice to most of your recipes. Your smoothies, stir fries, soups, stews, casserole, pies, baking recipes etc. Even something like oatmeal porridge, give it a good splash of cinnamon whilst making it.

Any meal where you are going to have more than 35gms of carbohydrate, I will suggest you add cinnamon to it. Your pancreas will thank you for it.

Side note: If you are using the Cassia Cinnamon supplement which is the one I take, you may want to ease off it after 6 weeks of continuous use for another 3 months or so before re-commencing it. The Cassia Cinnamon is thought to have side effects that affect the liver.

To what extent we do not know precisely, but US Department of Health does advise that daily doses of up to 6gm of the Cassia variety is considered safe for 6 weeks of continuous use.

There doesn’t seem to be any problems with the Ceylon Cinnamon variety at least so far at the time of writing. So if the liver side effects are of concern to you, you can switch to supplements made from Ceylon Cinnamon.

Cinnamon is available here on Amazon.com and also here on Amazon.co.uk

3. Lemon
Lemon juice is commonly used in recipes from which you get that sassy taste, bright and airy if you will. There is no doubt that lemon juice can pass the flavour test but does it pass the blood sugar lowering test?

Well, it did for me.

Lemons provide a good dose of vitamin C and fiber too when used judiciously in foods. The thinking is that because the juice in lemon is acidic in nature, it (just like apple cider vinegar) does slow the starch digestive process down.

That way simple sugars from carbohydrate digestion are released in a drip fashion. That in turn makes way for lower insulin levels and lower blood glucose levels.

…and no additional calorie baggage to boot.

Recommendation: I squeeze fresh lemon juice into my glass of water and have it with my meal. That’s what I do. I suggest you do the same and of course add lemon to your recipes where you can. It doesn’t hurt. If anything it enhances the taste of your lovely meal.

Side note: I use fresh lemon fruits I buy from the shops and squeeze out the juice myself. This is home-made lemon juice. I would recommend you do something similar.

I would discourage buying the commercially available lemon juice. Why is that? Well as with such products, they are processed by definition.

So you end up with a lemon juice that has additives and preservatives. Not the same and you probably won’t get the same result as you would with the fresh fruit variety.

So there you have it folks. Three simple ingredients around your neighbourhood and kitchen, that you can deploy today to keep a lid on blood sugar spikes. Little measures like that prevent organ damage and should keep type 2 diabetes well away from your doorstep.

One last thing. My friend, Mike, has an interesting article about ingredients and foods in your kitchen right now that could be hurting your insulin metabolism, hurting blood sugar levels and may as a result be hurting your weight and even your heart as well. The list of ingredients and what they do to your body might just surprise you. It’s well worth a read. Read The Full Story.

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Insulin Resistance: Discover The Facts About Insulin Resistance Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You

Metabolism

By Dr Joe

Here is a little secret. Insulin resistance is a silent killer. There’s a saying in life that goes: “ignorance is bliss”.

That may be true, but with insulin resistance, ignorance is at your metabolic expense.

On this page, I’m going to reveal the origin of insulin resistance, what insulin resistance means, the health implications, how you can tell if you’ve got insulin resistance, the link to metabolic syndrome, the test for insulin resistance. The whole shebang…

Oh, and what has insulin resistance got to do with the ‘Shouting Boss‘ in the office and even Nymphomania (don’t worry, I kept it clean, really clean)? Interesting, right?

Keep reading…

Why do we need to do know about this anyway?

Because insulin resistance has some serious health implications. Understanding the concept of insulin resistance is important to our metabolic health. But before then, how common is insulin resistance?

The prevalence of diabetes is about 285 million the world over at present, and figures expected to reach nearly 440 million in another 15 years.

Insulin resistance nearly always precedes type 2 diabetes. In fact, it is the first stage of the development of type 2 diabetes. It is estimated that 24% of adult population in the US over the age of 20 have insulin resistance.

Which means that 24% is a chunk of the population waiting for type 2 diabetes to strike.

What is insulin resistance?

Insulin resistance is basically a situation where the peripheral cells mainly the liver cells and muscle cells stop responding to simple commands by insulin to take up glucose from the blood circulation.

What this resistance to insulin also means is that; your body will need more and more and more (not a typo!) insulin to remove a unit gram of glucose from the blood circulation progressively with time because of the unresponsiveness of the cells.

The net effect is that blood sugars will remain high despite circulating high levels of insulin.

The Need for More…

Have you watched the movie, Nymphomaniac?

That movie, Nymphomaniac represents Film Director, Lars Von Trier’s final instalment of his Trilogy of Depression. The first 2 movies being Melancholia and Antichrist.

In the movie, Joe beautifully played by Charlotte Gainsbourg is in search of elusive happiness in her life. Joe decides to get loose and becomes a sucker for punishment as a result. Joe is depressed and hates herself. This makes her embark on a journey of pleasure seeking to escape her depression.

Joe wants more pleasure, more intensity to the pleasure and then some more. Sadly, all of these pleasure never gets her the happiness she seeks and deserves frankly. Instead her pleasure-seeking journey sinks her further into a spiral of more depression.

In explaining her journey, Joe utters the line:

“Perhaps the only difference between me and other people is that I’ve always demanded more from the sunset. More spectacular colors when the sun hit the horizon. That’s perhaps my only sin.”

Joe’s constant need for pleasure is what happens in insulin resistance. There’s a constant need for more insulin.

This is because the cell receptors that open the doors to allow glucose into the liver and muscle cells out of the circulation have become unresponsive i.e resistant.

Just like Joe kept seeking more pleasure or like our dear old Oliver Twist who kept asking for more…

But how does insulin resistance come about?

Yep, let’s talk about how insulin resistance develops next…

Another analogy is in order here – The Shouting Boss.

Imagine working in an office where your boss is the shouting type. Instead of giving gentle instructions, he shouts. Heaven help you if you are unable to complete a task on time. His red mist will descend on you.

In an attempt to make him change his ways, you spoke to the wife at the christmas party (families were invited to the party). You gently requested the wife to have a quiet word with him at home; that you were uncomfortable with his temperament and attitude in the office.

And you would appreciate it, as indeed everyone else in the office, if he could modify his behaviour.

His wife responds: “He’s like that at home. I’ve tried and failed, so we let him be. Ignore him. He barks, he doesn’t bite”

The salary is really good though, so the prospect of changing jobs is not that appealing.

What do you do?

You make a decision to ignore his shouting as his wife suggested. What have you done? You have chosen to become resistant to his noisy antics.

That’s exactly what happens in insulin resistance. You eat lots of refined carbs and sugary foods. These foods trigger a huge amount of insulin to lower blood sugar. Initially small amount of insulin was needed to lower blood glucose when you were insulin sensitive (the opposite of insulin resistance).

But as the years roll by and with constant demand for more insulin to deal with refined carbs and sugary foods, the liver and muscle cells became resistant to the insulin. Like the shouting boss, the cells stop listening to insulin commands because insulin keeps shouting at them.

In an attempt to stamp his authority, your boss shouts louder and louder in order to be heard. In the case of insulin, the beta cells that make, store and release insulin also “shout louder” by releasing more and more insulin, because the liver and muscle cells are unresponsive.

Hence, very high insulin levels in the blood circulation. This is called hyperinsulinemia. Hyperinsulinemia is a hallmark of insulin resistance.

So, you end up with high blood sugars despite high insulin levels.

How insulin works: Let’s get a tad geeky

Normally, when you eat let’s say a carbohydrate meal, the starch and sugars which constitute the carbs get broken down to glucose which is the form of carbohydrate absorbed into the blood stream.

Glucose absorption triggers the release of insulin into the blood stream from the organ called the pancreas.

The critical trigger point for the beta cells of the pancreas to release insulin is when blood sugar rises above 5.5mmol/l (100mg/dl). Insulin’s job is to facilitate the use of the glucose by the body cells in particular, the liver cells, the muscle cells and fat cells.

The main functions of Insulin include:

Uptake of glucose form the blood circulation by the muscle, liver and fat cells. This process helps to bring blood sugar levels down to normal.
The cessation of further glucose production in the liver.
Storage of glucose in the form of glycogen in the liver and muscle cells.

All 3 actions of insulin result in lowering blood glucose levels.

The release of insulin when we eat is in 2 phases. If the 1st phase insulin release does not sufficiently lower blood glucose, then it is expected that the 2nd wave insulin release should peg blood glucose back down to the pre-meal levels.

But in insulin resistance, even the 2nd wave struggles to reduce blood sugar levels. This prompts the release of more and more insulin. This is more or less a prolonged 2nd wave insulin response.

The liver and muscle cells usually mop up three-quarters of the glucose from the blood circulation. The trigger event that causes these cells to become unresponsive, thereby blocking glucose entry into the cell is hotly debated scientifically at the moment.

Why do these cells “lock their doors”?

Do these cells lock their doors to glucose because of inflammation, oxidative stress or free radicals?

The answer is not very clear. Treatments targetting these possible explanations have proved ineffective.

New Thinking

If inflammation, oxidative stress and oxygen free radicals aren’t the reason for the liver and muscle cells shutting their doors to glucose, then some other explanation has to be sought.

The “starved cell” theory where the liver and muscle cells appear to be starving in the midst of plenty seems to be going out the window.

The cell was thought to be glucose-empty even though there was high blood glucose in circulation and all around it. The cell can’t seem to access the glucose regardless.

If we can’t find any explanation as to why the “hungry cell” can’t soak up the sugar all around it, then maybe the cell is not actually empty or “hungry” after all in insulin resistance.

An alternative explanation is needed guided by what happens in real life in clinical practice.

The New Thinking seems to be that:

Insulin itself causes the insulin resistance – remember the shouting boss analogy?
The liver and muscle cells are actually full-up with sugar.

Yes, the liver cells and muscle cells are bursting at their seams with glucose, that there isn’t enough room to let more sugar in.

That is probably why treating patients with Type 2 diabetes with insulin (when insulin resistance progresses to type 2 diabetes) does not necessarily work in the long term.

These diabetic patients will be needing more and more insulin shots to force the sugar inside the cells.

Higher and higher insulin doses needed because the cells are resistant to the insulin shots.

The resistance persists because the root cause of the problem has not been taken care of.

You may succeed but only temporarily.

The solution is to empty the cells of the sugar load inside them.

That’s why exercise is a good remedy for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes – Exercise empties the cells and allows new sugar in.

Also why eliminating refined carbs and sugary products work for insulin resistance – Doing so reduces incoming load of new glucose.

That’s why intermittent fasting also works for insulin resistance – Intermittent fasting empties the cells creating room for new glucose to get inside.

Also why calorie-restriction diet like the type Roy Taylor professes work for insulin resistance – reduces incoming load of glucose and sweeps excess glucose out of the cells.

What is the consequence of insulin resistance?

The early stages of insulin resistance produces impairment of glucose tolerance. This is actually prediabetes.

This means your blood sugars are high after meals but below 200mg/dl (11mmol/l) despite your pancreas’ best efforts. Once your blood sugar rises above 200mg/dl (11mmol/l) 2 hours after meals, that’s type 2 diabetes.

Ultimately, pre-diabetes will progress to type 2 diabetes if undetected. It’s important to point out that insulin resistance precedes type 2 diabetes by over a decade. You could be living with insulin resistance for over 10 years before diabetes complicates it.

The problems of insulin resistance stem from 2 issues:

1. High blood sugar
2. High insulin

Here is how those 2 problems wrap around each other when you have insulin resistance.

They set up a vicious circle. What I call the Insulin resistance vicious circle.

What is this insulin resistance vicious circle?

The insulin resistance vicious circle is triggered by the high blood sugar from prolonged habits of eating sugary foods and refined heavily processed carbs. The high blood sugar provokes a high insulin response.

Over time this high insulin levels (remember the shouting boss?) cause insulin resistance, resulting in high blood sugar which further triggers higher insulin levels leading to yet more insulin resistance and higher blood sugar levels.

…and the circle continues on and on.

They say, a picture is worth a thousand words. So, see images below for clarity.

And how insulin resistance develops

High insulin level is a bad for your metabolic health. Why because insulin is a hormone that not only switches off fat burning but actually encourages fat preservation in the body.

High insulin level also affects your appetite regulation not positively but negatively. Insulin actually makes you feel hungry when the levels are high. So you eat more and pile on the pounds!

Just to make matters worse, high blood insulin levels make you feel tired and sleepy which means you are likely to exercise less. See how insulin resistance causes weight gain here.

That’s not all, high blood insulin level promotes formation of toxic free radicals and other inflammatory agents that lead to metabolic diseases which now fall into the realm of what is now called metabolic syndrome.

I am listing some of the symptoms of insulin resistance below. It is unlikely you will experience all of those symptoms. The problem is that a lot of the symptoms of insulin resistance overlap with “normal” occurrences of everyday life.

That means the symptoms are likely to be overlooked. For the most part, insulin resistance is seen as a symptomless condition but in truth, it has symptoms. It’s just that they are overlooked.

In summary the consequences or symptoms of insulin resistance include:

high blood glucose
high insulin levels
fat preservation and fat storage
Being overweight or frankly obese as in BMI over 30 especially excess fat in body trunk
tiredness
sleepiness
difficulty focusing on tasks
craving sweets
reluctance to exercise
difficulty losing weight
feeling hungry all the time
frequent low moods
high blood pressure
Acanthosis nigricans – this is a condition that causes dark discolouration of the skin at the back of the neck, the groins and the underarms
increase in inflammatory agents and toxic free radicals
ultimately type 2 diabetes and
metabolic syndrome

Is insulin resistance linked to metabolic syndrome?

Well, insulin resistance is inextricably tied to metabolic syndrome. In fact, metabolic syndrome is also sometimes referred to as insulin resistance syndrome.

The Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome Amongst US Adults Study revealed that as much as 24% of the adult population in the US have metabolic syndrome using ATP 111 definition. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome exponentially rises with increasing age.

This picture is similar in most western countries especially the ones with a high obesity problem.

Do I have metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance syndrome?

The new ATP 111 definition for metabolic syndrome is this.

You are eligible to be labelled as having metabolic syndrome if you have 3 or more of the following:

Waist circumference greater than 102 cm in men and 88 cm in women
Serum triglycerides level of 150 mg/dL (1.69 mmol/L) or higher
High-density lipoprotein cholesterol level of less than 40 mg/dL (1.04 mmol/L) in men and 50 mg/dL (1.29 mmol/L) in women
Blood pressure of at least 130/85 mm Hg
Fasting serum glucose level of at least 110 mg/dL (6.1 mmol/L)

Other conditions linked to metabolic syndrome include:

polycystic ovarian syndrome
non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
chronic kidney disease.

I should stress that it is not a given that everyone with these medical problems will have insulin resistance and likewise, some individuals with insulin resistance do not have these diseases.

But it is wise to know that people with metabolic syndrome have also been shown by population-based studies to have an increased likelihood to die from:

heart disease
strokes
cancer and
alzheimers.

How to test for insulin resistance?

How do I know I have insulin resistance is a question often asked by individuals worried about their health.

It is a valid question and the short answer is your blood is tested for:

Insulin levels
Or blood glucose parameters.

So, if you really want to test for insulin resistance, your health professional should be able to arrange blood insulin level or fasting blood glucose tests for you.

Whilst they are at it, they can also check your HbA1C as it gives a broader picture of what your blood glucose levels have been in the last 90 days or so.

Insulin level as a test for insulin resistance is not readily available to most individuals as many labs don’t do the quantitative test for blood insulin. The fasting blood glucose along with the HBA1C should suffice as insulin resistance tests, if your lab is unable to measure blood insulin levels.

If there is doubt with the results (because sometimes unexplainably the HbA1C is not that sensitive in individuals still in the pre-diabetes zone), then the standard Oral Glucose Tolerance Test should be performed. That should nail it!

Now, whilst the HbA1C, Fasting Blood Glucose and the Standard Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) give an indication as to whether you may be insulin resistant or not, the interpretation of the result is a little twisted if you like.

We simply assume that if you tested positive for pre-diabetes or frank type 2 diabetes you would have been insulin resistant previously.

It’s a retrospective diagnosis, if you get my drift.

Insulin resistance usually precedes pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. That is the sequence of events. You can’t be pre-diabetic or have type 2 diabetes, without developing insulin resistance first. Makes sense?

So how do you interpret HbA1C, fasting blood glucose and Oral Glucose Tolerance Test results?

It’s all well and good when you do the blood tests for fasting, HbA1C or OGTT, but what do they really mean?

Correct interpretation of the results is how you would know you have insulin resistance or gone beyond that to frank diabetes.

So, here we go. Different countries use different units and I have translated the commonly used units in there for you.

What do HbA1C results mean?
Diabetes – 6.5% and higher (47.5 mmol/mol)
Pre-diabetes – 5.7% – 6.4% (38.8 – 47.4 mmol/mol)
Normal – Less than 5.6% (Less than 38.7 mmol/mol)

What do Fasting blood glucose results mean?
Diabetes – 126 mg/dl or higher (7.0 mmol/l or higher)
Pre-diabetes – 100 -125 mg/dl (5.6 – 6.9 mmol/l)
Normal – Lower than 99 mg/dl (Lower than 5.5mmol/l)

What do Oral Glucose Tolerance result mean?
Diabetes – 200 mg/dl and above (11.0 mmol/l and above)
Pre-diabetes – 140 – 199 mg/dl (7.8 – 10.9 mmol/l)
Normal – Less than 139 mg/dl (Less than 7.7 mmol/l)

Adapted from this resource.

For a complete metabolic picture about finding out whether you have insulin resistance or not, you might as well exclude metabolic syndrome. How do you do that? Well you have seen the criteria that tells you about metabolic syndrome above, right?

Why not request a fasting lipid profile as well? That should reveal your blood triglycerides, High density lipoprotein levels (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL) levels all of which are important.

If you are lucky the symptoms of insulin resistance may point you in the direction of suspicion, which will lead to blood testing.

One last word about the blood lipid profile:

The best insulin resistance test as I said before is actually the fasting blood insulin levels.

By doing that, we are in fact testing for hyperinsulinaemia i.e elevated insulin levels, which is what characterizes insulin resistance.

We want to know how high the insulin level is without breakfast.

The problem though is, not very many labs can provide that service and those labs providing the service charge an arm and a leg for the test.

The compromise is testing for how well you are dealing with your glucose when you eat (replicated by the oral glucose tolerance test) or what your glucose levels are when you are still fasting or better still your blood HbA1C.

However, as I stated earlier too, when the glucose test and the HbA1C are positive, you are further along the insulin resistance pathway. You have moved on to pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes depending on what your results say.

So, how can you diagnose insulin resistance a little bit earlier?

Opinion has now shifted to using the lipid profile as a better index of insulin resistance. I am talking about the Triglyceride to High Density Lipoprotein Ratio (TG:HDL ratio). High triglycerides and low HDL are very common in metabolic syndrome.

Therefore, a Triglyceride to HDL Ratio of 3 or more especially if higher than 3.5 is highly suggestive of a long standing insulin resistance. In fact, an abnormal blood lipid test precedes abnormal fasting blood glucose test or abnormal oral glucose tolerance test by several years.

This because in insulin resistance, the fat cells readily accept the glucose, store the glucose as fat and there is a spill over effect. The spill-over effect is fatty infiltration of the liver, the muscle and other organs including the pancreas.

That’s not all. When the liver is making too much fat, some of it spills into the circulation in the form of triglycerides. Hence, high triglycerides in insulin resistance syndrome.

The other advantage is that this blood lipid test is cheaper and more readily available in most labs. If we adopt this cheaper but objective way of diagnosing insulin resistance, we will be catching cases of insulin resistance at a much earlier stage than is currently done…

…and our quality of life will be better for it, because insulin resistance is simply everywhere especially in the over 45s.

Dealing with insulin resistance is essential if you want to optimize your health.

Suggested further reading:
3 Unique Veggies That Fight Abdominal Fat?

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