Metabolism: You Are What You Eat

Food is Fuel!

The old saying “You are what you eat” is not just a cliché. It is absolutely true! The best way to look at this metaphor is to view your calories as fuel and your body as the vehicle that needs something to run on.  Just like a car, if you fuel your body with premium fuel, you will get a body that lasts longer, runs more efficiently and gets more mileage out of smaller amounts of eaten calories. However, if you fuel your body with less than nourishing foods, you are in essence wearing it out, depriving it of it’s power and degrading your fuel lines (that in this case would be your circulatory system, digestive system and nervous system.)

Metabolism is the word that describes the process of our bodies breaking down food to obtain energy, which is necessary so that our bodies can create the essential chemicals it needs to function properly. It slows and you gain weight when it is not nourished properly.

Your metabolism basically performs two functions:

1.     Anabolism in which smaller molecules from food are transformed into larger molecules of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

2.     Catabolism in which large molecules are broken down to release energy for muscle function, body temperature regulation and more. Through the process of catabolism, our bodies create waste.

It is your pancreas that decides whether or not a process should be anabolic or catabolic depending on what you have eaten.

Your metabolism also enables thyroxin to be released by the thyroid, which in turns determines how speedy these processes will occur.

This is why good nutrition is so important. You need to consume foods that are rich in the nutrients that your body needs to function optimally such as nitrogen, sulphur, oxygen and hydrogen.

You also need to eat a diet that is balanced with the big four components that make up that quality fuel that your body needs to run on including:

1.     carbohydrates (starch sugar and fibre) that the body converts into glucose for energy

2.     proteins for supplying the amino acids that build the proteins that make up all of our tissues

3.     fats to help form cells, absorb nutrients and reduce inflammation

4.     vitamins and minerals to help body regulate the metabolism so that nutrients are produced so the body runs smoothly

When you revise your lifestyle, by taking part in a Healthy and Active Metabolism Program, you learn what fuels a.k.a. foods are best to fuel your body so that it just doesn’t run, it practically purrs with good health. To learn more about Healthy and Active visit the website.. www. healthy-active.com

M.R.

Winter Comfort Foods And Inflammation

As the weather gets colder, many of us find ourselves succumbing to a craving for food that are heavier in carbs and fats. However, as most of us already know, doing so not only add extra pounds but also causes other symptoms such as joint and muscle pain, fatigue or bowel disturbances. This is because many of foods that we crave in the winter are also those can cause inflammation just about anywhere in the body.

Avoid High Glycemic Starches

The main culprits in the Winter are the processed sugars and other high-glycemic starches that we love to eat in the winter.  This would include things like savoury pastries, mashed potatoes, gravy pudding, cakes and other comfort foods. 

Processed sugars, flours and even unprocessed ones like yams, beets and potatoes, can destabilize your insulin and raise your blood sugar.  The high level of insulin racing through your bloodstream as the result of eating these comfort foods can also raise levels of cortisol (the stress hormone), which puts your body in a state of physical alarm.  When cortisol is released, your body holds onto  deposits fat rather than uses it for resistance. Your body, overall reads the release of cortisol as an emergency situation and your metabolism automatically slows down.

Foods That Slow Down Metabolism

The main culprits that slow down metabolism are

• Alcohol and caffeine, which can irritate stomach walls and cause the body to produce stress hormones
• Refined sugars such as candies, sodas, cookies and white bread
• Allergenic foods such as wheat or soy that cause you personally to experience inflammation in the gut

Be aware that inflammation of any kind can slow down your metabolism but the worst cases of chronic inflammation are usually caused by the foods we eat. Therefore, if you think that it is the cold weather giving you that case of sore joints you might be wrong. It could simply be that you are creating more comfort foods that are naturally glycemic.

Foods That Comfort and Speed Up Metabolism

Foods that are ideal to eat in winter because they comfort but also speed up the metabolism include:

Asparagus: These tasty spears are a rich source of glutathione that helps ward off inflammation and invading pathogens as well as boosts your thyroid (because it is contains so much selenium.

Blueberries and Blackberries: These fruits can satisfy a craving for sweets and are high in superoxide dismutase which can help reduce oxidative stress in the body and reduce inflammation.

Flax seeds: Flax is high in alpha linoleic acid that is a type of helpful Omega 3 fat. They also contain immune modulators that are potent immune modulators.

Fish: Fish is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids that help increase metabolism and reduce inflammation in the body. Shellfish however can cause inflammation in the body for some people.

Ginger Root:  Ginger is a warming food that is high in arachadonic acid, which reduces pain and inflammation and helps boost your metabolic rate.

Turmeric: Turmeric is found in most curries and also contains archadonic acid that can help reduce inflammation and kick your metabolism into high gear.

For more information or to book a consultation about anti-aging, diet and weight loss programs or any health issue you may be experiencing, visit the Pinewood Natural Health Clinic website that has a list of full services and products at www.pinewood.ca or call our Toronto Office at  (416)-656- 8100.  We also have an office in Pickering, Ontario at (905)-427-0057. You can also email us at info@pinewoodhealth.ca and we would be happy to answer any question that you have about our holistic health services.

You Body Is Naturally Meant to Be Alkaline!

A huge component of the Healthy & Active Program is all about keeping your body’s pH in balance.  The term pH stands for the word “potent” and the H is the chemical symbol for hydrogen and how hydrogen behaves in your body is absolutely essential to hyour health.

Your Body is More Alkaline Than Acid

In order for the body to remain healthy and alive, your body keeps a delicate and precise balance of blood pH at 7.365, which is slightly alkaline. The body does whatever it has to in order to maintain this balance, including making us seriously ill in order to help us dispel the acid.

The problem is that most people have what can only be described as incredibly acid lifestyles. Acid is produced in your body whenever you have stress, upset emotions and when the food you eat is acid forming. The acid is only neutralized by alkaline substances.  The exces acid is stored in your fat cells and in order to try and control this your body will leach calcium, an alkaline substance,  from your bones in an attempt to stabilize your overall pH level..

The typical North American lifestyle diet is very acidic which puts a strain on all of your systems and organs and causes a lot of disease.

The Goldfish In Dirty Water Analogy

The author, Dr. Robert O. Young who wrote The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet. Reclaim Your Health and who is at the forefront of research on the effects of the acid/alkaline balance in the human body, uses a “goldfish in the aquarium” anaology to describe how Imbalanced blood pH ruins our health. 

“Pretend you had a goldfish in a bowl, and one day you saw the goldfish was beginning to look very unhealthy. You also notice that the water is a little dirty.

Chances are it's the water that's making the fish unhealthy, not the fish itself. When you change the water, the fish will get healthier. The fact that the goldfish is unhealthy is actually a symptom of the unhealthy environment. Not the problem. “[1]

Our bodies are more than seventy percent Water! And most of the time because of our diets, emotions and lifestyles, the "water" in our body is over-acidic, and to put it simply: toxic. Yet, even knowing this, modern day establishment medicine puts much more attention on fighting the symptoms, and not recognizing the root of the problem.

Acidity Is An Epidemic

It is a real challenge in these hectic times to keep our bodies in the proper pH balance and the result is that we often blow our metabolisms out so they do not function properly any more. This does not happen over night but rather, over a period of years.

Our bodies produce acid all of the time. During the digestion process (though to a lesser degree on an alkaline diet), respiration, normal metabolism, and cellular break-down.

Before you even account for what happens while you breathe, digestion and metabolism add enough acid to your body to significantly affect its pH, potentially decreasing it by as much as 2 points. That means that unless we help our bodies cope productively with these acid by-products, and/or if we overwhelm the body's ability to do so by piling on acidic food, drink, and behaviour, we are fated to be fat, sick and tired.

This is where a change in diet and lifestyle can be enormously helpful. It is possible to reverse your pH from acidic to alkaline. For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website atwww.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

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[1]  Sourced fom Robert O. Young, Shelly Redford Young. The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health. Grand Central Life and Style. 2010