Alternative Medicine News – July 9, 2012

The average intake for it is 50 pounds a year. Even worse, it may very well be as addictive as alcohol.

The culprit? If you guessed fructose, go to the head of the class.

This excellent article by health researcher Sayer Ji goes into details about where all this fructose comes from. And why HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) is different from plain white sugar. (Hint: it’s worse.)

One of the less-known facts from the article is that HFCS is structurally similar to alcohol. And it can have the same consequences. Sugarholics Anonymous anyone?

The article lists 12 major ways HFCS can damage health. And it links to a total of 70 health-damaging effects.

Hmmm… Not so sweet.

GreenMedInfo.com has the story. You can read it here.

Bet you thought there were more than six. And of course you are right. But practically anything you can think of fits into one of these six categories.

This Health Freedom Alliance article goes into detail. The key idea is that we can have too much or too little of each factor. Here’s a short overview:

• Genetics – Genes to avoid illness can be low. Genes can also be faulty.
• Nutrients – Missing nutrients damage health. And you can also have too much of a good thing. This is especially true for fat-soluble vitamins.
• Parasites – They seem to include bacteria and viruses here. That makes it a bigger category. And you need friendly bacteria for optimal health as well.
• Toxins – This one is self-explanatory. Poison is not good for health. And some are slow acting with effects only showing over a long time.
• Stress – There are both good and bad forms of stress. Not enough good or too much bad will contribute to illness.
• Growth – Your body needs to grow new cells, etc. daily. So too little growth can be bad. At the same time, too much, too fast is the very definition of cancer.

There are several of these you can have some control over. These are food, stress and exposure to toxins (or detoxing from them).

The Health Freedom Alliance web site has the details of all six here.

Here’s an interesting study. Researchers in British Columbia ran test on mice to determine the effect of high carb versus low carb diets on cancer.

They found that the low carb approach reduced tumors. There were less tumors. And when tumors were there, they grew more slowly.

That’s enough to make you think. But they also found the following in the low carb group:

• Lower blood glucose.
• Lower insulin.
• Lower lactate levels.
• Longer life span.
• Less weight gain.

The study is published on the NCBI site and the link is here.

35 year ago coconut oil got a bad rap. If you are old enough you will remember that it was vilified because it had saturated fat.

Turns out, the critics were wrong.

The Live in the Now folks have a good list they call “7 Amazing Health Benefits of Coconut Oil”. What I like about this article is that they bust the myth of saturated fat. The distinction? Coconut oil has a different kind of fat. It’s a medium chain fatty acid called monolaurin. And it’s effect is very positive.

Here’s the raw list of benefits:

• Fights infection.
• Supports healthy skin and hair.
• Boosts metabolism to help weight loss.
• Slows the onset of diabetes.
• Stimulates the thyroid gland to increase energy.
• Helps support stronger bones.
• Fights Alzheimer’s Disease.

That’s a pretty good list. You can the full details by clicking here.

Many people look for the word “natural” on food labels. But there’s a problem with this word.

The problem is that it can mean just about anything.

Surprised?

The FDA doesn’t define it. And they don’t object if a food “has no added color, artificial flavors or synthetic substances.”

Unfortunately, that isn’t very clear. As the folks at Food Navigator say, “Natural means whatever food manufacturers say it means.” Comforting, no?

That means you are just as likely to find GMOs, HFCS and pesticides in these products. Does that sound natural to you?

My advice is to be very cautious when you see the word, especially on packaged food. That includes food in bottles, cans and boxes.

The article addresses the legal and industry battles over this word. It is well worth reading. You can see the details here.