Bacon or bagels? Higher fat at breakfast may be healthier than you think

Bacon or bagels? Higher fat at breakfast may be healthier than you think

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, OHIO
drdavidmarcon.com

Pregnancy Weight Gain May Increase a Woman's Risk of Gestational Diabetes

I have a patient coming in today to discuss her recent DX of Gestational Diabetes. Her diet contains very little animal protein or fat, no vegetables, little fruit and nuts and large quantities of refined carbohydrates. The sad part is she dearly would like to nurse her child, but what effect will this have on the child?

Women who gain excessive weight during pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, may increase their risk of developing diabetes later in their pregnancy, according to a study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research that appears online in the current issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Gestational diabetes can lead to early delivery, C-sections and type 2 diabetes, and can increase the child's risk of developing diabetes and obesity later in life.

How about talking to patients about eating less Carbohydrates?

Health care providers should talk to their patients early in their pregnancy about the appropriate gestational weight gain, especially during the first trimester, and help women monitor their weight gain

This is the part that floors me; what do you mean you don't understand the mechanism or causation? Is it any wonder that socio-economics and ethnicity have a direct correlation to rate of GD? It has more to do with the composition of the diet than just calories consumed. The patients who develop GD are not all overweight or obese prior to pregnancy.

Though the exact mechanism for how excessive weight gain may contribute to gestational diabetes is not known, researchers hypothesize that rapid weight gain early in pregnancy may result in an early increase in insulin resistance that leads to the "exhaustion" of the beta-cells in the pancreas that make and release insulin, which controls the level of glucose in the blood.

Is it any wonder the study is so lame; it was conducted with the support of the American Diabetic Association, the same people who recommend Diabetics continue to eat 6 servings of grains a day.

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Pinpointing Immune System Disturbances in Celiac Disease

Here is another example of "what came first chicken or the egg" Does gene alteration causing prevalence of celiac disease occur from eating too much wheat or is it hereditary? How about a little of both. I tend to believe it is more dietary consumption especially with the presumed genetic link with Type II Diabetes other immune system disorders.

The study also shows that there is substantial evidence to indicate a shared risk between the gene associated with celiac disease and many other common chronic immune mediated diseases. Previously Professor van Heel had identified an overlap between celiac disease and type 1 diabetes risk regions, as well as celiac disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Modern man eats grains, Paleolithic man did not. Western cultures have the lion share of celiac disease most likely because they eat excessive amounts of processed foods. Add in the "fat is bad" scenario and it's a wonder the whole Continent isn't Dis-eased!
Of the 3 MacroNutrients-Protein, Fat, and Carbs-the body can make Carbs from the other two macros. Carbohydrates have limited storage space, the other two obviously do not. Ergo, don't eat so many carbs and you will feel better.
No additional research necessary.

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

How Would You Like Your Eggs; Raw or Cooked?

Eggs are a staple of a Low Carbohydrate diet.

...in general are a nutritional (and wholly Primal!) powerhouse with impressive supplies of selenium, iodine, phosphorus, molybdenum, choline, lutein, vitamins A, B2, B5, B12, E, D and K. Add to this a healthy 5.5 grams of protein, 20% of your RDA for tryptophan and essential fatty acids.

The question in my mind about all sources of protein is Bioavailability-the amount of or rate at which a substance or drug is accessible to the body!Many advocate a raw diet(including my cousin Raw Chef,Angela Bosco)where the nutrients of the food are spared from the de-naturing effects of heat. I agree with this premise in most cases although I have not warmed up to eating raw.
Eggs may be one protein rich food that is more bioavaible when cooked.

Digestibility of Cooked and Raw Egg Protein in Humans as Assessed by Stable Isotope Techniques

Egg white protein is generally considered to be less digestible than heat-pretreated egg white protein. However, no data are available concerning the magnitude of this impairment in vivo. In this study, it was shown that after ingestion of 25 g of raw egg protein, almost 50% is malabsorbed over 24 h. The higher digestibility of cooked egg protein presumably results from structural changes in the protein molecule induced by heating, thereby enabling the digestive enzymes to gain broader access to the peptide bonds.

Some of the negatives associated with eating/drinking raw eggs are Salmonella and eventual risk of a biotin deficiency

Although egg yolk is actually a rich source of biotin, the white contains avidin, a glycoprotein that bonds with biotin, preventing the nutrient’s absorption. Avidin is generally inactivated when cooked, which makes the biotin in the yolk fully available for absorption by the body. You don’t have to rule out raw eggs by any means. I wouldn’t advise eating them daily for long stretches of time without a biotin supplement (supported within a B-complex intake, since these vitamins work synergistically). If you’re eating them just a few times a week, the risk for deficiency isn’t as great, but I would still do a supplement or at least make sure I was getting a hefty amount of biotin rich food (swiss chard, tomatoes, carrots, liver and others) the days I eat raw eggs. As a compromise, some folks will just eat the raw yolks alone and cook up the whites later

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
Cincinnati Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Ancient Dietary Wisdom for Tomorrow's Children

I first started my journey in Nutrition via a little book I purchased while at a Standard Process Seminar in Columbus Ohio. I think I read Pottenger's Cats A Study In Nutrition in a few hours but the ideas present there in lead me to further study and today's realization that the diet (or lack of a good diet) is the core of the morbidity status of our society. The omission of processed foods and lowering of carbohydrates in general has brought about many positive changes to my body and mood. The most recent revelation noted was the condition of my teeth. As a coffee lover and flossing hater, I have not always been my hygenist's favorite patient. I really make her earn her fee! This last visit saw a drastic change in my oral condition. I had little tartar and no stains. The only change has been in my diet. Weston Price, a Cleveland Dentist, chronicled his journey to remote areas of the world where modern diets were not rampant. He noted perfectly straight teeth and overall health in these populations despite living in less than perfect conditions. The astonishing part about Dr. Price's research is that "Nutrition And Physical Degeneration" was first published in 1939! One can only imagine what the last 70 years has done to further erode our health and alter our genetic makeup.

CONCLUSIONS OF THE PRICE RESEARCH

•Dental decay is caused primarily by nutritional deficiencies.

•Although radically different, 14 tribal diets provided almost complete immunity to tooth decay and resistance to disease.

•The diets contained no refined or devitalized foods.

•Laboratory analyses revealed that all of these diets were unusually high in protein, vitamins, minerals and especially in fat soluble factors found in animal fats.

•Contact with civilization, followed by adoption of the "displacing foods of modern commerce," was disastrous for all groups studied.

•Rampant dental caries were followed by progressive facial deformities in children born to parents consuming refined and devitalized foods.

•These changes consisted of narrowed facial structure and dental arches, along with crowded teeth, birth defects and increased susceptibility to infectious and chronic disease.

•Significantly, when some natives returned to their traditional diets, open cavities ceased progressing and children subsequently conceived and born, once again had perfect dental arches and no tooth decay.

•If civilized man is to survive, he must incorporate the fundamentals of primitive nutritional wisdom into his modern life-style.

•The application of Price's findings in clinical practice gives great satisfaction to both doctor and patient.



Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Biggest Loser Sets a Bad Example

I think I've said this at least a hundred times to patients; The Biggest Loser is a joke! There are a lot of ways to lose weight, but only one way to maintain a healthy body weight. You must slowly adopt sound nutritional practices (low carbohydrate, moderate fat and protein) brief,intense weight training coupled with adequate rest. I have seen enough of the aerobic queens with bad knees and runner with multiple lower extremity degeneration to form an opinion on the subject. Bodybuilding guy isn't much better with the separating of body parts. Like the body knows you trained legs yesterday and today is chest and triceps?

So why is Biggest Loser a joke? They absolutely torture those people. I am shocked no one has stroked out yet. Could anyone maintain that 24/7 assault? They over consume polysaccharides, under consume fats and over train like nobodies business. The stress of the training volume alone is enough to send the cortisol levels thru the roof.
On the Subject of Biggest Loser, Jillian Michaels is being sued by a woman who used a nutritional supplement (I am using the term very loosely) she endorsed and guess what; it didn't work!
Need another objective opine on the subject? Check out Dr.Doug McGuff's latest post on "Body By Science".

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Low Carbohydrate Diet for Type II Diabetics

Here is an article endorsing a Low Carb diet by Richard D. Feinman, PhD,Professor of Biochemistry at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, co-editor-in-chief of the journal Nutrition & Metabolism, and Director of the Nutrition and Metabolism Society which endorses Low Carbohydrate diets for Type II Diabetics

Low Carbohydrate Diets: Why You Don't Want the "Experts" to Tell You What to Eat

The loss of control of glucose metabolism is what makes a low carbohydrate diet a good therapeutic approach, and it's why I'm astonished that experts encourage people with diabetes to eat carbohydrates and then "cover" them with insulin [1].

It strikes me as odd that what most experts know about metabolism - diabetes is, after all, a metabolic disease - they learned in medical school from somebody like me [2]. The first thing we teach medical students at Downstate Medical Center is that there is no biological requirement for carbohydrate.

It is astonishing that we continue to be lead astray by the very people we entrust our health. Is Medicine so slow to change because of their fear of change or just the fear of being wrong for so long? As an aside, my most recent dental appointment revealed another postive for the low carbohydrate diet. My teeth were nearly free of tartar despite not brushing them constantly, not flossing, and drinking my 3-4 cups of coffee a day.

High Carb Foods Can Cause Heart Attacks

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

High Fructose Corn Syrup; The Evil Ingredient

It has been estimated that the average American consumes 138 lbs. of sugar a year! Making up at least 50% of that is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). It is nearly impossible to consume a sugary drink, or processed snack food that doesn’t contain HFCS. Sometimes you have to look close because manufactures like to hide it by using aliases' including Inulin, Agave syrup, Dahlia syrup, Tapioca syrup, Iso –glucose, crystalline fructose, fruit fructose to name a few.
Entering the American diet in the early 70’s as an inexpensive, sweeter alternative to table sugar (Sucrose), HFCS has a longer shelf life than sugar made from beets or cane. Because it is synthesized HFCS has a higher fraction of Fructose (55%-80%) than natural sugar (50%) thus its name and the health/ risk benefit it is associated with.
On the pro side there is little caloric difference between the table sugar and HFCS and as a plus (initially) to diabetics, HFCS hardly raises insulin levels.

The adverse effects take a little time to manifest;despite small insulin reaction upon ingestion, over time HFCS consumption leads to hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance (leading factor in type II Diabetes and Heart Disease),reduction in the hormone Leptin (the body’s natural appetite suppressant) , reduced metabolism of calcium (osteoporosis), copper(collagen/elastin), magnesium, and iron(Anemia)and increased levels of uric acid(gout). HFCS is metabolized in the liver and converted into fatty acids/triglycerides and stored within 20 minutes of digestion negatively effecting blood lipids (hyperlipidemia), body fat(obesity) and liver function(non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis).
Though the evidence of the dangers of HFCS is mounting, don’t be naive in believing that simply reverting back to table sugar is a healthy alternative. The healthy alternative lies in eating a diet where the foods don’t have content labels.

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Cholesterol Only One of the Risk Factors in Heart Disease

Of the all the headlines in the newspaper proporting the newest research findings as as "ground breaking" and "life saving" a new study by The University of Michigan Meical School and VA Ann Arbor Health System really is ground breaking because of its de-emphasis on LDL levels (bad cholesterol) and dogmatic administration of statin drugs for an approach which takes into consideration the persons overall risk for heart disease.

"We’ve been worrying too much about people’s cholesterol level and not enough about their overall risk of heart disease,"
Rodney A. Hayward, M.D., director of the Veterans Affairs Center for Health Services Research and Development and a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School

With the number of people taking a statin drug rising daily and the incidence of heart disease progressing at an even greater rate (notice I didn't say dying because we do have the most advanced life saving procedures in the world) you would have thought intellegent people would have caught this little snafu a long time ago.

"...if your LDL cholesterol is high, but your overall cardiac risk is low, taking a statin does not make sense for you,” Hayward says. “If your cholesterol is your only risk factor and you’re younger, you should work on diet and exercise.”

I believe if we ate less complex carbohydrates and indulged our bodies in a little bit of exercise,long advocated by men like Art De Vany ,there would be much less heart disease, obesity, diabetis,arthritis etc.
This particular study published in the February 2009 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine and critiqued with the skill of a surgeon by Dr Michael Eads, found that low carbohydrate diets increased the good cholesterol(HDL)more than the diets that had higher carbhohydrate levels.

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com