News in Brief: Fructose may be key to weight gain

 Writen in ScienceNews :

Mice that could not make or metabolize the sugar gained less weight than normal mice

Mice lacking the ability to metabolize fructose don’t gain nearly as much weight as normal mice do, researchers report September 10 in Nature Communications.

Fructose, which some people blame for the obesity epidemic and its related health crises, shows up in high-fructose corn syrup and in table sugar, or sucrose. The body also makes home-grown fructose by modifying glucose in a process involving an enzyme called aldose reductase.
Richard Johnson of the University of Colorado Denver and his colleagues gave mice sugary drinking water that was 10 percent glucose for 14 weeks. Normal mice gained weight and developed fatty liver and insulin resistance, but mice lacking aldose reductase showed less weight gain and less severe related conditions.
The team got similar results when they gave the glucose water to mice engineered to lack fructokinase, an enzyme that trips the chain reaction by which fructose is metabolized. Mice lacking fructokinase had failed to develop these conditions when fed a diet high in fructose, their earlier work had shown.
The authors note that whether a high-glucose diet in people contributes to these medical problems via the same enzyme processes remains to be seen.

Why is cooking harmful?

In 1930, in the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Lausanne, Switzerland, Dr. Paul Kouchakoff was conducting research to determine the effect of food on the immune system. He noticed that immediately after eating cooked food greatly the white blood cell count increases in the blood of the individual who has consumed it. We know that this happens when the body is 'attacked' by microbes or chemical toxins, since white blood cells are the first weapon thrown into battle to tackle these intrusions. According to the results of Dr. Kouchakoff, the ingredients of cooked foods are treated as such attackers. This survey showed that no increase of leukocytes occurs when someone consumes raw food or cooked at a temperature below a certain "critical" value for each food.

Regardless of the practical application of Dr. Kouchakoff's results, what is to be taken from this research is its main conclusion: Cooked foods contain substances that the body does not immediately recognise as friendly or digestible. The protein denaturation, polymerisation and oxidation of fats, the intense mechanical and chemical pre-treatment and the use of non-natural additives and preservatives dramatically degrades the quality of food consumed by modern man. On top of the list of foods that create digestive leukocytosis are the usual suspects: Refined carbohydrates like sugar and white flour, pasteurised and homogenised dairy products, fried foods and hydrogenated fats. Unfortunately, our technological civilisation saved us from hunger to lead us to a generalised epidemic of diet-related diseases.

The important issues raised by the systematic cooking is toxins, i.e. harmful chemicals formed when food is exposed to high temperatures. These poisonous and carcinogenic compounds are grouped into five categories and should be avoided, if not completely removed from our diet. These groups are:

1.  Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) 
2. Acrylamide 
3. Heterocyclic amines 
4. Nitrosamines 
5. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)

Lets examine as a first example Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs): 

AGEs are formed when glucose molecules fuse to proteins or lipoproteins. This can occur either inside the body (endogenous formations) due to aging, or in foods due to exposure to high temperatures (exogenous formations). These aggregates are potent inflammatory factors that accelerate damage to the body such as atherosclerosis, asthma, arthritis, myocardial heart muscle, nephropathy, retinopathy and neuropathy. The formation of AGEs in food increases exponentially with temperature and the cooking time. The biggest culprits are animal fats cooked at high temperatures, although even vegetable food wastes can contain AGEs if cooked until golden brown orcrisp. To reduce your exposure to AGEs:

• Avoid foods cooked at high temperatures, such as fried or grilled food.
• Selected cooking methods such as steam, boiling or baking below 120 ° C.
• Avoid eating crisp foods, charred or tanned.
• Eat more vegetables, raw food (uncooked foods contain negligible amounts of AGEs).

Carob: the magnificent, misunderstood food

A lot people  know it, but only a few appreciate this amazing food. Carob (ceration for the  ancient Greeks) is the fruit of the carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua), which is an evergreen tree that grows wild in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean and across the Middle East. Carob is like the fruit of the bean. When mature it dries and becomes like chocolate. Although today the white sugar has dominated pastry, until a few centuries ago one of the major food sweeteners in the world was this healthy "chocolate" that grows on trees. This "chocolate" supposedly fed John the Baptist during his stay in the wilderness, the prodigal son of the Old Testament when they were hungry and without money, and the troops of Muhammad. This fruit saved children from malnutrition during the Spanish Civil War and of course many people in Greece, during the German occupation.

Carob is known for its medicinal properties. Reports in medical journals in the 1950s showed that carob powder mixed in milk could help infants to digest their meals, stopping diarrhea. According to a study reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, from 230 infants with diarrhea, only three were not cured by the addition of carob powder in their diet. Carob is also used for the treatment and prevention of diarrhea in animals, and for the prevention and treatment of dysentery in humans. Substances pectin and lignin contained in carobs not only regulate digestion, but also they have the ability to inactivate and safely carry out of the body harmful elements (even radioactive particles).

As far as I  know in Greece only a few exploit carob trees, although the European Union subsidizes their cultivation. In Italy there are very large areas of carob trees, but there carobs provide the raw material for the production of activated carbon used as a filter material for organic and other toxic substances. And something of historical interest: as carob seeds weight is remarkably stable, they were used since ancient times as a weight unit for gold and gemstones. Thus, out of the ancient name ceration, came out carat.

Carob is a delicious raw food, as it is sweet, fragrant and crispy. Carob powder is produced by drying, milling and slightly baking lobes after taking out the seeds. The resulting flour is ideal for a range of uses for those who have (re) discover the secrets of the bean. You can use it whenever a recipe calls for chocolate or cocoa. To replace cocoa, simply use the same amount of carob powder. The powder contains about 50% natural sugar so it can substitute sugar in almost all bread products and pastries. Of course, the use of carob powder will result in food color to get brown and chocolate-like taste. If you do not want the taste, you can try mixing different quantities of carob powder with honey to find the mix that suits you best. Carob is usually used as a substitute for chocolate, but it has its own unique taste and is very nice for drinks, bars with nuts, bread products, even mixed with baked beans and barbecue sauce. It contains so different nutrients and phytochemicals from chocolate that people with allergies can enjoy chocolate desserts with carob. It is also an incredibly rich food source, and is probably the ideal "survival food" because it lasts a long time, does not require special storage conditions and can be eaten without preparation. It is rich in calcium containing 350 mg per 100 gr. Comparatively, milk - often regarded as an excellent source of calcium - contains only 120 to 130 mg of calcium per 100 gr - poorly digestible in the case of pasteurized cow's milk. Moreover, it doesn’t contain oxalic acid, as chocolate Oxalic acid tends to reduce the body's ability to digest calcium. Carob beans contain about 4% protein and 76% carbohydrate. Although they are  sweet too, they contain 60% fewer calories than chocolate. Moreover, they contain significant amounts of phosphorus (81 mg per 100 gr), and plenty of potassium (800 mg per 100 gr). Also they contain small amounts of sodium and iron, and they are rich in vitamins A, B and many other metals.
Carob powder is available in some supermarkets and health food stores. But read the package because sometimes other ingredients such as chocolate, sugar and cocoa are added. Therefore, it is important for people with allergies to know that carob powder that they buy is pure. It contains only traces of theobromine, the active stimulatory substance found in chocolate and cocoa. At the same stores you can also find carob syrup. You can buy whole and raw carob in the market definitely or to collect it in summertime throughout southern Greece and Italy. I made my annual commissions in little village in Peloponnesus, and so I enjoy the whole year round a delicious, natural and sweet snack.

I don’t know if love passes through stomach, but for sure heart health passes through our gut

Antioxidant-producing microbes may keep atherosclerotic plaques in place

By Tina Hesman Saey

Web edition: December 4, 2012

Researchers reported in Nature Communications an interesting – but not surprising – connection between gut bacteria and heart disease. It seems that different mixes of intestinal microbes may determine whether people will have heart attacks or strokes brought on by break-away plaque from the arteries. Compared with healthy people, heart disease patients who have had strokes or other complications of atherosclerosis carry fewer microbes that make anti-inflammatory compounds. These patients also have more bacteria that produce inflammation-triggering molecules. Inflammation is thought to promote cardiovascular disease. Healthy people’s gut is inhabited with bigger populations of  Eubacterium, Roseburia and Bacteroides species as well as  Clostridium bacteria. Those bacteria often carry genes involved in making anti-inflammatory molecules as butyrate, lycopene and beta-carotene. People with higher levels in their body fat of antioxidant molecules like beta-carotene and lycopene have a lower risk of developing heart disease, although dietary supplements containing the compounds doesn’t help. In contrary, lifelong antioxidant-producing microbes seems to do a very good job protecting our heart and arteries.

As a conclusion: take care of our tiny friends living in our gut and they will take good care of us. We shouldn’t feed them with garbage like sugar, gluten, coffee or chemicals. Raw food will instead do an excellent job on keeping a healthy “good bacteria” population.

The Hippocratic Nutrition

"Food can be your medicine and your medicine your food": As much has been written and said about this keyword phrase of Hippocrates, the truth  remains poorly understood and very concentrated. The scientific rigor of this truth and practical application of principles of nutritional prevention and treatment fills the book “The Hippocratic Nutrition”. According to the author, health is in our  hands and the principles for its conservation is masterfully crafted in the dietary management of disease according to the Hippocratic understanding and neo-Hippocratic medicine. The way to apply these principles is the stakes of this book. The Hippocratic Nutrition is a comprehensive nutrition system based on the principles of the great Greek physician for the prevention and treatment through food, but also at the wisdom of Greek tradition. Thanks to its high efficiency, it is increasingly gaining international recognition in the area of ​​alternative, holistic healing. The nutrition system is based on the consumption of live, full, unprocessed food like fruits, vegetables, nuts and herbs and clearly defines what kind of food a person should avoid and what should eat. In the book, the writer analyzes how the intense intoxication from problematic food and contaminated environment leads our body to chronic inflammation. This is the basis for the development of almost every disease Diseases of ‘unknown’ cause, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases that tend to be epidemic in the modern world. So the mean for the prevention and treatment of these diseases should primarily be the elimination of conditions that cause inflammation. In contrary, the modern, mainstream health industry focus only to symptom relieves. Patients themselves, either because of human nature or because of lack of information, leave their lives in the hands of the pharmaceutical companies, refusing to take responsibility for their contribution to the preservation of health.