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.

Why A Tailored Diet and Lifestyle Plan is Best

Often we are asked what makes the Healthy and Active program different from other fitness plan or lifestyle overhaul strategies. The answer is very simple.  The results of your blood chemistry profile and your in person evaluation create a profile of what exactly it is that you need to optimize your health.

The Latest Fad Diet Is Not For Everyone

For years nutritional experts have been prescribing “one size fits all “ type diets, whether they be high protein, low fat or low carbohydrate.  Advocates of these diets promised that everybody would lose weight if they would just stick to these regimens, however the truth is that these diets appeared to only work sporadically for some people. Also it is hard not to note the failure of many of these diets, which left some people with rebound weight gain and victims of the ever-growing epidemic in diabetes. 

Of course all of these fad diet failures have left many people wondering, “What’s the right diet for me?”

One important aspect of the Happy and Active program that it is tailored to suit the needs of each individual as it is partly based on identifying your metabolic type (in reality a combination of sub-types) and then prescribing dietary changes and lifestyle choices according to that.

The Right Diet For You Is In Your Genetics

HUMAN DNA

Part of your Healthy and Active evaluation is having your blood is analyzed for 42 different components by your Healthy and Active Practitioner, who will be able to tell, from looking at this profile, what types of genetic predisposition you have towards certain problems and what sorts of foods you should eat to practice preventative medicine and maintain weight loss.  The diet that is then prescribed for you is based on your personal biochemistry and not on second-guessing whether or not you should go gluten-free, dairy-free, low-carb or otherwise. 

In other words the vegetarian diet that is high in fruits and vegetables but low in protein might be right for your neighbour but completely wrong for you.  You might do better with a high protein, low carb diet that includes a bit of dairy.  That is because the same nutrients can have different biochemical effects in different people.

In this program there are no generally right foods or wrong foods. The only diet that is right for you is the one that meets your inherited dietary requirements.

How Eating The Wrong Foods Leads to Starvation

It may not the fat, carbs or protein that is making you fat. It is the fact that your body is unable to metabolize or convert certain foods into energy that is the real problem.  If you have a metabolism that works well, then you can eat quite a bit of fat or carbs because your body will utilize it efficiently.  If your metabolism is slow, then those foods will be converted to fat.  Eating right for your metabolic type prompts your body to metabolize foods properly.

Also, if you are consuming the wrong types of foods for your metabolic type, then you may not be absorbing the nutrients that you need to feel whole and healthy.  You may suffer from constant cravings as your body produces hormones that counteract the effects of the foods that you just consumed.

The point of a HAP assessment is to guide you to fuel your body with the right kind of energy so you do not have to worry about feeling fatigued, hungry or packing on the pounds.  Eating right for you type will also reduce food cravings, binge eating, ups and downs in energies, sleeplessness and mood swings.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Raman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

How Junk Food Rewires The Brain

If you feel that you are addicted to food, it may not be your fault as it becomes more and more apparent that the food industry has figured out ways to train your brain to want the same foods again and again. This may seem like an outrageous accusation but the bottom line is that those in the food industry only have one priority and that is to keep you coming back to buy the same foods again and again.  Junk food does weaken your resolve, change your behavior and have you eating the fat, salt and sugar that makes you obese.

The Addictive Salt, Sugar and Fat Combo

The three magic ingredients that are basic to addictive food science are sugar, fat and salt. The food industry has become very crafty when it comes creating foods that train your brain to want those foods that are engineered to contain exactly the perfect amounts of these ingredients.  Many junk foods are created by teams of chemists, physicists who develop them to have a certain type of effect on the brain. You feel high after you eat them and then you want more. The food industry knows this and creates foods that meet a certain nutritional profile so that you will become mentally and physically dependent on eating them to feel well and like you are in a good mood.

Furthermore, foods are being developed that appeal to our very human need to have food with a crunchy or crispy texture or a texture with “mouth feel”, meaning that it melts in the mouth like chocolate or fat.  The problem with this is that many of the foods engineered to taste like this, that don’t actually contain fat or chocolate, contain harmful additives and ingredients.

The Australian Junk Food Study

This supposition is not radical conjecture. There was a very important study done by the School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Australia that proved how junk food changes behavior and leads to obesity and overeating.  The study was published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology.[1]

Basically this study concluded that feeding rats junk food made them obese and made them want the same foods over and over again. The researchers, led by Professor Margaret Morris taught young rats to associate two different flavours of sugar water, cherry and grape, with two different sound cues.  The male rats were part of two groups. One group was fed a healthy diet and the other was fed a junk food diet for two weeks.  The rats were then left to enjoy their sugary treat and studied by the researchers.

The rats that were fed junk food always ate again when they heard their sound cue. The rats on a healthy diet ignored the cues to eat more if they were full. This indicated to the scientists that animals are naturally hardwired to eat a balanced diet.

The rats that ate a diet of junk food that included cookies, cakes pies and dumplings increased their weight by ten percent in just two weeks.  They also preferred to eat the foods that were bad for them and lost all interest in eating novel foods.

Even more revealing was the revelation that when the rats that were fed junk food and put on a normal diet for two more weeks that the rats still continued to indulge their old behaviors leading the researchers to conclude that the junk food actually had the ability to alter the orbitofrontal cortex area of the brain. This part of the brain is the one that rules gratification.

When you embark on a Healthy & Active Program you effectively changes your metabolism so that your brain and body can dump its addiction and be trained to eat in a healthy manner again.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.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] To read more about this fascinating study see the article Junk food makes rats lose appetite for balance diet at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-08/f-jfm082514.php.

Alkaline Diet Theory – A Brief History

Before it was called the alkaline diet, the alkaline-based diet that is now current part of the Happy & Active lifestyle program was known as the Ash Diet or the alkaline/acid diet. The reason it was called the Ash Diet is because alkaline foods contain minerals: mainly calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and copper. In biochemistry these elements are incombustible, which means they catabolize differently when they processed by the body.  When digested, they create ash in water, which in turn creates an alkaline state in the body.

Robert 0. Young’s Theory About Alkaline Foods

One of the most well-known contemporary proponents of the Alkaline was Dr. O. Robert Young, who created many of the Western alkaline/acid food charts still in use today. Since the early seventies, Dr. Young written a series of groundbreaking books on the subject with the most famous being The pH Miracle (2002).

Robert O. Young

His claim was that health depends primarily on proper balance between an alkaline and acid environment in the human body. According to this theory, when the blood becomes too acidic, the body does whatever it has to do to regulate the acid-alkaline balance. This can result in all kinds of symptoms including food cravings, digestive symptoms, weight gain, yeast overgrowth, fatigue, raised cholesterol, raised insulin resistance and more.

Young claims that this one sickness and one disease is acidosis, the over-acidification of the blood and then tissues due to an inverted way of living, eating, and thinking. The "one treatment" is to maintain the healthy design of the body through an alkaline lifestyle and diet.

The Alkaline Diet

The original Robert Young diet recommends eating fish, vegetable and some grains. This groundbreaking theorist also recommended abstaining from "acidic" foods — such as red meat, shellfish, eggs, dairy sugar, refined foods, artificial sweeteners, coffee, alcohol, chocolate, and sodas, However, long before Young and his series of miracle pH books came into the picture there was a wide spread recognition that alkaline foods and liquids restored health to the body in the spa communities throughout the world.

For example, many of the mineral springs and mineral waters in Europe were recognized to be alkaline in character and therefore healthy for the body.

Of course, Robert O. Young originally got his information from a much earlier work.  Young’s work was based on one of the first books on the subject. It was penned by an alternative health advocate named George S. Weger who wrote a book called The Genesis and Control of Disease which identified acidosis as the cause of a many conditions including fatigue, infections and “mental disharmony and sleeplessness.”  It was penned in 1840 and talked about acidic states in the blood. Revised editions of this book also were printed in the 1930s.

Alkalinizing Using Fasting

One of the most famous books about achieving body alkalinity through fasting was written a century later. The Master Cleanse included instructions for Three Day Cleanses, 21 Day Detoxification Cleanses and ones that last as long as three months. This book was written in 1940, by Stanley Burroughs and is considered to be a foundation text about how to use fasting to detoxify and alkalinize the body. The book made a comeback and was massively reprinted in the seventies.

Burroughs purported that consuming no food at all and drinking a concoction made from lemons, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and purified water for a period of days (as long as you can stand) is the key to getting rid of acid wastes in the body and restoring them to a healthier alkaline state that does not support disease.  

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Micheal Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

Take Control of Your Life By Eating Alkaline Food

You have probably heard the saying that if you don’t have your health, then you don’t have anything in life.  Embarking on a Health & Active program is all about regaining your health in total so that you are back in the “driver seat” when it comes to how well you feel on a daily basis.   

How well we feel on a daily basis depends on what kind of fuel we put in our body.  In many ways, we become what we eat.

Another metaphor that applies here is exercise.  Running your body without exercise is like running a car without a tune-up. Sooner or later your health just breaks down.

Feeling Unwell is a Call to “Go Alkaline”

Whenever your body sends you a symptom, such as weight gain, fatigue and high blood pressure, it is a sign that all is not well and that is time to make some lifestyle changes. It is a biochemical “flag” that is waving wildly to warn you that it is time to change your diet and eat alkaline to prevent your body’s pH from becoming so acidic that your cells begin to suffer from free radical damage. 

An acidic blood pH level causes most disease. This is corrected by eating foods that are considered to be alkaline.  Do not take this idea literally. Just because something is sour, does not mean it is acidic.  This way of looking at food is about biochemistry.  Some foods are simply more alkaline than others and when you embark on a Healthy & Active Program you will begin to learn which foods are acidic and which are alkaline.

For instance, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and colas, and eating refined sugars and starches and lots of fatty red meat creates an acidic amino acid profile in your blood. Eating raw, vegan and fresh as much as is possible for you helps to create an alkaline condition in your body that is repellent to free radical damage to your cells. Disease cannot find a foothold in a body that is mostly alkaline.

Healthy & Active Living Prevents Acidosis

Healthy and active living means getting enough exercise and eating alkaline foods so that you can prevent your body from going into a state of acidosis.  Once the body enters acidosis, you begin to experience issues such as phlegm, inflammation, lowered immunity and joint pain. If a state of acidosis is left to fester than you are at risk of cellular degeneration, premature aging and disease.

Acidosis is a problem that is easily solved because preventing it is all about diligence and making the right choices when it comes to your diet. Many people experience relief from symptoms almost immediately when they switch their diet to alkaline foods. Some people go through what is called a “healing crisis” caused by the body throwing off the poisons and toxins it was storing in the liver, blood and the fat as the result of being in a state of acidosis.

For many individuals all that this entails is cutting sugar, junk food and refined foods and trading them in for fresh raw foods, juices, smoothies, salads and homemade meals.

The good news is that you do not have to embark on this type of program without guidance.  For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.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.

Understanding The Role of Basal Metabolism in a Healthy and Active Lifestyle

In general, the metabolism can be understood as being the rate at which your body burns calories just to keep itself alive.  You need calories to keep your heart beating and the blood pumping through your arteries. It is a fallacy to think you are not burning calories when you are at rest.

Your body is burning calories all of the time, even when you sitting as still as possible or asleep. In fact, you body burns a certain amount of calories per pound just to maintain body weight every day. The average woman burns about 10 calories per pound every day and the average man, about 11 calories per pound.

You Burn Calories When You Eat

Not many people realize this but you actually burn calories when you eat. About 30% of the calories that you burn each day are actually burned by the act of digestion. However, your body uses far more calories to digest a protein then it does a carbohydrate. You burn about 25 calories for every 100 calories of protein consumed and only about ten for every fat and carbohydrate you burn. This is why it is recommended that you eat lean healthy proteins to lose weight.

You Burn Calories Through Exercise

Every day you burn ten to fifteen percent of your calories as the result of moving your muscles. It does not matter what activity you do, you are burning carbohydrates every time you run, walk, lean over, flip a page in a book or press a key on the remote.  It is not really possible to burn more calories than fifteen percent a day, which is why it is important to lead a happy and healthy lifestyle and exercise as much as possible on a regular basis.

The Importance of Basal Metabolism

When fitness experts talk about the basal metabolism, they are referring to the calories that you burn per day when you are doing nothing at all.  Sleeping, watching television and sitting at you desk burn up between sixty and eighty percent of your available calories. That is because your body is at work all of the time, dividing cells, engaging in cell respiration and disposing of toxins.

The basal metabolism rate refers to the calorie burn that comes from the physiological functions that we don’t even think about or are not aware of it. That is why it is so important to eat foods and adopt a lifestyle that raises the basal rate of your metabolism so that all of your downtime is actually fat-burning time.  This is also why restricting calories works better than trying work off calories through constant exercise. Constant exercise works in shedding off the pounds to some extent but if you really want to lose weight it comes down to consuming less calories.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41)440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Micheal Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.