I am talking about a silent killer in this country.  This killer stalks you in the morning.  His accomplices Mr. Bread and Mr. Pasta will stalk you in the evening.  Most people I talk to can NOT imagine a life without bread.  When I say bread, that refers to cereal, pasta, chips, pretzels, muffins, donuts, and all the other grain products.

“But, I eat whole grains!”

This is a mistaken notion.  People that are eating whole grains often feel as if they are doing the best they can for their body.  Grains in general are the problem; whole grains, 7-grain, stone-ground or whatever you think is healthy. There is no chemical difference in your body.

 

The most critical problems with these grains are:

•  Gluten
• Mostly omega 6 fatty acids
• The pH of grains is acidic
• High phytic acid content
• Traditional methods have been lost

 

Gluten—Many people are very sensitive to gluten.  Many health problems can be related to gluten. The most common would be arthritic symptoms and gut problems.  It is also difficult to digest.

Gluten Grains:

• Oats, Rye, Barley, Spelt, Especially wheat

Non-Gluten Grains:

• Buckwheat, Rice, Millet

 

Omega-6 fatty acids—These are fatty acids that promote inflammation.  These are balanced by omega-3 fatty acids, which are often very deficient in the average American diet.  Omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory.  An acceptable ratio would be 4 omega-6 fatty acids to 1 omega-3 fatty acid (4:1).  Since there is such an abundance of omega-6 fatty acids in grain, many Americans are between ranges of 10:1 and even 40:1.  This is a huge imbalance.

 

How does this apply to REAL life?

 

Omega-6 fatty acids Compared To Omega-3

Oatmeal = 21:1                        Broccoli = 1:3

White Bread = 21:1                  Most Lettuces = 1:2

Whole Wheat = 27:1                Fish = 1:1 to 1:7

Potato chips = 60:1                  Fruits = 1:1 to 2:1

 

To clearly decrease inflammation the majority of our diets should be vegetables, fruits, and fish.  Grass fed beef can also be rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

 

 To give you more incentive to decrease your grain consumption, we now know that hardening of the arteries and heart disease are considered chronic, smoldering inflammation that develops slowly until—Wham —A Heart Attack!

If 50% of all heart attack victims have NORMAL cholesterol, then why do the others have heart attacks?  Chronic inflammation also promotes PAIN, cancer, inflammatory gut disease, and just about any chronic disease.

 

#1 Killer = Heart Disease

#2 Killer = Cancer

 

 

If you follow the ever so clever FOOD PYRAMID that asks you to eat 6-11 grains a day, you can expect to be like every other American; overweight and a shorter life expectancy than 23 other nations.

 

You can shift this balance back by avoiding the bread family.  Taking Fish oil supplements and Flax oil supplements~ 1000mg a day.

 

One of our patients had an elevated cholesterol level for years and the Lipitor he was taking never lowered it to an acceptable level.  After taking the Linum B6 (flax oil) from our office his numbers dropped about 90 points.  That was all he did differently!

 

Acidic pH—creates a pain and inflammation just like the above omega-6 fatty acids.

 

Phytic Acid—is abundant in grains.  Some have more than others but it is in all grains.  Phytic acid blocks minerals from being absorbed in the guts, like calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and especially ZINC.  Please consider this if you did not do well on the zinc test.  Whole rice and whole millet contain less phytic acid.  What major health problem do many people get without enough calcium?

 

If I could recommend one thing to patients to both improve their lives and make their adjustments hold and work better, it would be to stop eating bread.  To top it off, many breads and cereals have partially hydrogenated oil in them.   If you do want to eat grains, care must be taken in preparation.  They must be soaked and sprouted, and the vast majority of commercial preparations do not do this.  By soaking them for as little as 7 hours you can neutralize most of the phytic acid and break down gluten into a more simpler, and absorbable component.

 

 

Breakfast cereal has no place in your house.  Cereal is made at high temperatures and pressures called extrusion.  Extrusion destroys many nutrients, causes oils to go rancid, and makes some proteins toxic.  If you are going to eat bread or grains, please, have one serving a day and soak the grains

 

 

 

 

 

“When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot become manifest, strength cannot be exerted, wealth is useless, and reason is powerless.”

 

Herophiles, 300 B.C.

The latest news in the world of nutrition is that not all fat is evil.  But that doesn’t mean it’s time to go rip open the bags of potato chips.  There are some guidelines to this whole FAT issue. Authorities on dietary guidelines agree that fat is needed for HEALTH That’s right, some fat is good for you. 

 

For many years, the American Heart Association and other health organizations have encouraged the American people to keep their total fat intake to less than 30% and reduce cholesterol in their diet.  Eggs, with their high cholesterol content, almost became taboo.  Diet-conscious people turned to eating vegetables and drinking skim milk.

 

But there are some who questioned the wisdom of these dietary guidelines.  University of Illinois Emeritus professor Fred Kummerow was one who disagreed with the low-fat guidelines.

 

“There is a mindset today that fat and cholesterol are bad, which is false,” he declared.  He pointed to populations that had low dietary cholesterol intake, such as the people of India, and noted that these people also develop heart disease.  He feels that the low-fat restrictions, “drive consumers to avoid nutrient-dense foods such as meat, milk, and eggs.”

 

But when people reduce the amount of meat, dairy products and eggs in their diets, Kummerow said that they also reduce the intake of protein, vitamins, magnesium and several important trace minerals.

• Fat actually has several important functions, according to Kummerow.  Fat contains linoleic acid, which helps the body produce a substance that keeps blood flowing through arteries.

Kummerow is not alone in his questioning of low- fat diets. Dr. Udo Erasmus, a nutritionist who has spent more than a decade investigating his theories, has written a book titled “Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill.”  

 

His research revealed that fats can increase metabolic rate, help people lose weight, improve digestion, promote heart healing and increase energy.

 

 

Erasmus noted that Americans lowered their fat intake from 42% to 35% in their diets, the number of obese people rose from 20% to 33%.  “Fats doesn’t make people FAT,”  Erasmus firmly claimed.  “What makes people fat are sugar, sweeteners, and carbohydrates…  When you don’t get the fats you need, you develop cravings and end up eating carbohydrates.  When you eat more carbohydrates than are needed, they are stored and you end up wearing around that fuel.  When you get the fats you need, you are less hungry.”

 

Erasmus distinguishes between good and bad fats and oils.  An example of a harmful fat is the hydrogenated fat found in breads, cakes, cookies and margarine.  These fats have been changed chemically interfere with functions of the body:  such as liver function and hormone conversions.

 

 

• Good fats; such as omega 3 fatty acids are essential fats.  The body can’t make them.  They must come from food.  Erasmus said “They are required for brain functions, help with autoimmune conditions, increase energy levels, lift depression, and protect DNA from damage.  If you don’t get them, everything falls apart,” he warned.

 

 

Erasmus gives specific recommendations about how to add essential fats and oils to a diet in his book.  He wants his work to shed light on the issue of low-fat diets.  “We have mostly been told, ‘don’t do this,’ and ‘don’t do that’.  It’s time to hear ‘Do this’.  I’m saying bring in the good fats and lower the bad fats,” he said.

 

Mary Enig PhD, who is a biochemist and an international authority on partial hydrogenation, has reiterated these same sentiments.  You can read more on her web site knowyourfats.com .  

 

The American Heart Association is mainly responsible for the information promoting low-fat diets. 

 

Kummerow feels that common sense mixed with knowledge should be the key to diets.  “People are bombarded with information and are spending thousands on diet foods and diets.  Don’t burden the energy system with low-nutrient foods such as soft drinks, potato chips, french fries and candy bars.  Eat fish or meat every day.  Try to have six servings of fruits and vegetables.  And sit down and have a meal with the family,” he said.

 

Dr. Altman here- This morning I told my daughter that the two most important things I can do to make you a better student are:

 

1. Give you a good breakfast, to fuel your mind all day.
2. Make sure you eat supper at home with the family.

 

With No Drugs

Now I realize for many of you that cholesterol is no big deal.  But sometimes a medical doctor needs to be appeased.  I thought you’d like this story because it is a great example of how to do it right.  This is NOT something you will ever hear from a hospital or clinic.  I have permission from this patient to tell her story because she is really proud of her results.

This is the story of Eleanor Miller.  It started about 6 months ago.  She has been a long time patient for chiropractic care, but one day she stopped me after a regular adjustment and asked about how to improve her cholesterol.  I thought for a moment about all the factors that can come into play with someone with an advancing age.  I gave her a little quiz on her dietary habits.

1. What did you have for breakfast?  Some of you may have had this quiz

It was a quick confirmation of what I suspected.

1. Toast
2. Cereal

The usual suspects.  I really didn’t want to make this hard, so the only advice I gave her was to start eating something else for breakfast.  Maybe some eggs, fruit, yogurt, or any other veggie or meat.  It took about 3 months for the bread to almost disappear.

As of yesterday, here are her results.

• Cholesterol dropped from 209 to 179
• Triglycerides dropped from 244 to 152

The cholesterol doesn’t concern me at all, but the triglycerides are a much better predictor of heart attacks.   It was really nice to see those drop.  After doing significantly more research into heart attacks, my suggestion to you, is really watch the triglycerides.  This was the first time ever that her cholesterol was below 200.  She was pretty impressed.  Unfortunately, her M.D. was not.

So what did she actually change?

1. She cut out all bread except 1 slice per week.  (fair enough)
2. NO sugar
3. Increased her fruit intake.  At every meal she asked to have the bread option switched out for a piece of fruit.
4. NO pop.  She used to drink some everyday.
5. Exercise every week

Let’s break it down piece by piece.

Bread:

I would say bread is the hardest thing for people to give up.  I think the crust is laced with cocaine sometimes.  I’ll have a patient with diabetes come in and I tell them they need to give up bread to get better.  You’d think I stuck a wooden stake through their heart.  I also think the air itself is made of bread sometimes, it is part of every meal of most every person.

Sugar:

Next to bread this is the next most sacred cow, like fried foods at the State Fair or Lambeau field.   Lets say I have a warehouse that stores sugar.  Let’s call it Dr. Altman’s Sugar Shack (cue the Beach Boys music).   The Sugar Shack is your muscles and liver, they are the store houses.  When the Sugar Shack is full and there is more sugar on its way down your throat, where is it going to go?  This is where triglycerides come in.  They are the excess storage for sugar NOT fat.  When you eat too much sugar they are stored as triglycerides.  Not once in 11 years has a patient ever come in with lab results and ever been told how to lower triglycerides without medications.   This paragraph should be cut and pasted on the bottom of every cholesterol test.

More Fruit:

No arguement there.  Pretty universal.  Eat more natural fruit, not processed fruit juice, “fruit” roll-ups, or canned fruit.  Get it fresh, eat it raw.

Soda:

This is some addicting stuff.  The ONLY way I’ve seen to break this habit, is to not have any in the house.  I used to be a popaholic.  Even after years of not drinking any, if I see one in my house that someone brings over I start feeling the cravings for one.  I find it quite fascinating how that happens.  This is just another sugar source.  If you are drinking diet soda and are concerned about weight you may want to hear what Purdue University has to say about artificial sweenters.  Researchers concluded that artificial sweenters accelerate obesity by making people hungier.  They disrupt fullness signals so people consume more calories.  -Behavioral Neuroscience, 122, 2008

Exercise:

I know, shocker.  Exercise is good for you.  If you have your exercise routine you like, super.  If you are inconsistant, can’t remember, or really don’t know alot, afraid of gyms, or the people there, then I would encourage you to visit our exercise site www.area365.com.  I have put close to 1000 hours of work into it.  I prefer to be a naturally healthy guy and exercising on a machine won’t do that.  I exercise at home with one weight and my body, and a few other miscellaneous pieces that make exercise a little more interesting.  I have exercised for the last year and a half and NEVER done the same exercise routine twice.  Eleanor is not in our program, it is a bit much for her.  She does a more senior appropriate program.

I’m proud enough of her to share this with you and I hope you can learn something from her success.  Start by doing one thing above.

I started this article about fixing cholesterol the easy way.  In theory, it is easy.  Changing some habits, can be very difficult, though.  Do your best.

P.S. I made a killer potato / dill soup last night.  If you are interested in me posting the recipe just post a comment below.

From the desk of Dr. Altman:

I’m looking at an hourglass right now.  No, I’m sorry that’s a glass of wine.  For those of you wine connoisseurs that are hungry, what goes with red wine?

Standard jeopardy answer:  Red Meat

Not red turnips, nor red tomatoes, nor red grapes.   But, the sound of mooing is in the air…

I know this is dangerous territory for some but it is late and the wine made me do it.  Modern man suffers from two great sins, gluttony and sloth.  In many of the last articles we have discussed sloth.  As it is most obvious, when you look around town and around the country that we eat a lot.   If you haven’t watched “Super Size Me” on hulu.com yet, do that tonight.

Chronic diseases and obesity are everywhere.

These two plagues are a new phenomenon.   Our primitive ancestors didn’t have the abundance we do today.  They also had to hunt and gather their food.  Which for most of us would be impossible unless the animals had GPS tracking collars on.  So here we have a dilemma.  Our bodies developed to eat meat, veggies, and fruit yet we live in a world of fast pace and convenience that makes it easy to drift away from that.

Plus, sugar tastes so good. 

The average American has cereal, milk, and maybe a slice or two of toast.  Right!   Now, 2/3 of us are also too heavy and too sick.  Sick meaning, they take medications.  No other country takes as many meds as the USA.

The Blue Zones Book talks primarily about the diets of long lived societies.

It has a lot to offer and the most noted diet is the Mediterranean Diet.
In a nutshell it consists of:

• Whole grain cereals
• Low-fat dairy
• Legumes
• Veggies
• Fruit
• Fatty fish
• Modest alcohol
• Olive oil

Compared to the Western diet of processed food this is a big step up.  Plus, it lowers heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.  So I thought it was interesting when a group of Swedish researchers examined the Mediterranean diet compared to the diet of primitive man.

Primitive Diet:

• Lean meat
• Fish
• Fruit
• Veggies
• They also advised these following food restrictions (only one or less egg per day, nuts.go for walnuts, two or less potatoes per day, one tablespoon or less of olive oil)
• Notice the absence of breads, cakes, milk, cereal, soda…

These two groups were not told to count calories or were they given any restrictions the amount of food they could consume.  At 12 weeks the Mediterranean group lost 8.5 lbs and 1inch of the waist and the primitive group lost 11 lbs. and 2 inches of the waist.  The researchers noticed a much larger drop in fasting blood glucose, better sugar handling, and possibly better insulin sensitivity in the primitive group.  They also noted that the primitive group ate about 400 calories less daily.

Why?

The big differences came from the significant lower amount of carbohydrates consumed by the primitive group.  The glycemic load was almost twice as high in the Mediterranean diet.  Now, there are benefits from both.

So here is a quick list of things to do.

1. Eat more REAL food and less processed food.  Ie…meat, fish, veggies, fruit
2. O.k. -end of list.

To have that hourglass shape the waist needs to get smaller.  The primitive diet will accelerate that goal.  Men: I know you don’t want an hourglass shape, it will help you build and maintain muscle.  One little caveat to note:  The subjects in the study had blood sugar problems, abdominal obesity, and had survived heart attacks.   This is a clue for those concerned about your heart.  You can get on the fast track and start eating this way because we are going to talk more about this coming up soon.

I cheated and had the Primitive Mediterranean Diet tonight and combined my wine and meat.
Enjoy a long life and enjoy some REAL food along the way.

How would you like to improve your odds with cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes all at the same time and save money?

Sounds pretty great right.  Almost unbelievable!  Thankfully it is true and as you will see very possible and somewhat free.  I’d like to say that you’ll even live longer but I can’t predict the future.   This simple solution could save over a million lives a year so please pass this along.  The #1 thing you can do is not eat sugar.  I know that sounds impossible, but even if you scale back, you’ll make a major difference.  Let me show you a few eye opening things about sugar and disease.

From the CDC:

Number of deaths for leading causes of death

• Heart disease: 631,636
• Cancer: 559,888
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 137,119
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,583
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 121,599
• Diabetes: 72,449
• Alzheimer’s disease: 72,432

Not all of these are related to sugar, but I put them up there for a comparison.  Clearly heart disease and cancer are the biggest whales.

“A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.”
~Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Now don’t call PETA because we are going to slay some whales.   Let’s start with the smallest problem.

#1 Diabetes: How is diabetes caused?

This really is about Type II only.  The driving force behind diabetes is the over consumption of sugar and simple carbohydrates.   It is really that simple.  The ridiculous recommendations for people to eat 6-11 servings of carbohydrates such as bread and cereal have given this country an epidemic of diabetics.   Don’t believe me, I can guarantee you that if you have a testing kit and are diabetic you’ll be amazed, test it yourself.
Give up the idea that cereal is good for you and open your mind to the world of real food and try this.

Actual patient example for breakfast:
Day 1: Cereal, toast, orange juice
Her blood sugar was 200 two hours later.

Day 2: After one of my lectures
Chicken, celery, cottage cheese.
Her blood sugar was 110 two hours later.

A simple diet change freed her from diabetes.  I wish the medical community would have the courage to tell people the truth.

#2 Cancer:  How does cancer start?

Good question and we have many answers for that.  It is often said that we get cancer everyday but our immune systems wipe out the problems before they really get rolling.  But if cancer does start, sugar   is probably the number one thing that will keep it going.

Johns Hopkins Press Release February 16, 1998

Johns Hopkins researchers have found evidence that some cancer cells are
such incredible sugar junkies that they’ll self­-destruct when deprived of
glucose, their biological sweet of choice.

“The change when we took away glucose was dramatic,” says Chi Van Dang, M.D.,
Ph.D., director of hematology. “By the next day, we knew very quickly that the cells we
had altered to resemble cancers were dying off in large numbers.”
Scientists have long suspected that the cancer cell’s heavy reliance on glucose, its main
source of strength and vitality, also could be one of its great weaknesses, and Dang’s new
results are among the most direct proofs yet of the idea.

One of our patient’s was going through a course of chemo and during one of the tests the “snack” that was given was a processed package of cookies.  When it comes to cancer and nutrition you have to fend for yourself.

Your brain still needs sugar to run well so a good plan if you don’t have cancer is to start decreasing what you eat.

• Have a much smaller piece of dessert

• Stop adding sugar to your coffee
• Stop eating toast or cereal for breakfast
• Choose water instead of soda
• Make fruit your sweetener
• Etc.

The one thing I have really noticed over the years is that the more I try and avoid sugar the more I dislike it.  I can’t eat very sweet things anymore.

#3 Heart Disease: How to prevent heart disease

It may not be what you think.

This is a very broad and mysterious problem.  There are many causes and contributing factors and cholesterol is the least of your concerns.  You can’t take a statin drug and sleep well at night thinking you are protected from a heart attack.  If that were true, the incidence of heart attacks would be going down year after year because more and more people are taking these drugs.  Drugs aren’t the answer.  Since many things contribute to heart disease, ponder how sugar may make it worse.

• Sugar increases insulin production in the body.  Insulin tells the body to store the sugar/carbs as fat AND hang on to it and not let it go.  This is one of the primary reasons 2/3 of America is obese.   Also, exercising to burn fat becomes pointless when the insulin won’t the body burn it as fuel.  This sobering fact alone contributes to heart disease through shear volume.   It takes at least 100 miles of blood vessels to support a pound of fat.  I’ve seen estimates up to 200 miles.  So for example, if you are 20 lbs. overweight you heart has to pump more blood volume through an extra 2000 miles of blood vessels.   That’s just more stress on it.

• Brace yourself.  This will probably be a new concept for you.  Don’t let that fool you.  Going back to the very beginning of the Cholesterol Theory there have been so many holes in the theory doctors have doubted it for over 50 years.  The only reason anyone believed it was because of advertising.   I’ll cover more of that later in another longer and larger article.  Those of you who read my book will realize that heart attacks occur from a lack of oxygen to the heart muscle, NOT from a blockage.  Just go with me here.  As we talked about in the book, a blockage is an after effect from a heart attack not the cause, so the BIG question is how does the heart suffer from lack of oxygen?

Since we are talking about sugar here I’ll give you sugar scenario.  Basically, sugar and oxygen combine to give you energy.  Your heart is an energy hog because it never rests.  If you consume enough sugar you will actually drop the overall blood sugar due to the action of insulin.  If you drop the blood sugar too fast often by combining a high sugar meal and exercise indirectly you can starve the heart of oxygen.  Without the blood sugar the oxygen can’t be used by the heart.  I am greatly simplifying it here, but just let that roll around awhile and it’ll make sense.

If everyone took this simple advice in this email, we could probably save over a million lives a year by decreasing heart attacks, improving cancer survivability, and eliminating type II diabetes and obesity.  Who knew national health care reform could be so simple.  Eat protein at every meal, take some good fats, eat your veggies and skip the packaged foods and viola` we have a new nation again.  It has to start with you.  At the bottom of the article you can make a large impact in the world by emailing it, Digging it, and using StumbleUpon.

Now if you cut back on your sugar and package food consumption, just think of all the money you’ll save on not buying bad food and getting better / cheaper health insurance.  Heck, if you lose weight you can shop in the clearance section for all the skinny clothes no one buys anymore.  Being healthy is a necessity and the ways you can save money are many.  Plus, you have more energy and look better.  Just even try and imagine how much money the government could save if we eliminated heart disease, cancer and diabetes.  The government won’t mandate that you eat less sugar, that is something you must do personally.