Drowning is the fifth leading cause of unintentional injury death in the US, where about 10 people die from drowning every day.

The risk is even greater among children aged 1-4, who have the highest drowning rates, and it remains the second-leading cause of accidental death (second only to motor vehicle accidents) for kids 1-14.¹

What’s shocking, however, is that many drowning deaths among children occur when the child is being supervised and may be only a short distance from an adult. Occurring quickly and quietly, a drowning can happen right before your eyes, before you even realize what happened…

A Drowning Person Cannot Call for Help

This is a Flash-based video and may not be viewable on mobile devices.

Many people believe a drowning person will flail about in the water, splash and make noise to call for help. But this image, widely used on TV shows to depict a drowning, is far from reality.

Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., a former lifeguard and educator, coined the term “instinctive drowning response” to describe what happens when a person is very close to drowning. In the video above, you can see an example, in this case a boy who is little more than an arm’s reach away from several other swimmers who are oblivious to his distress.

As Pia explains, when a person is drowning, nature takes over and the movements become a result of instinct. For starters, the person will not be able to call for help, as their body is working on struggling to breathe first and foremost.

They also will not be able to wave their arms to attract attention, as the instinctive response is for your arms to extend out laterally and press down against the water’s surface in an attempt to keep your head above water. Children may even appear to be dog-paddling when in fact they’re drowning.

The other telltale sign of a drowning person is no movement from their legs; a drowning person will not kick but will instead remain upright in the water, sometimes appearing to be climbing an invisible ladder with their feet.

5 Signs of Drowning to Memorize Before Your Next Trip to the Beach or Pool

According to Dr. Pia and Mario Vittone, a former US Cost Guard rescue swimmer:²

“The Instinctive Drowning Response represents a person's attempts to avoid the actual or perceived suffocation in the water. The suffocation in water triggers a constellation of autonomic nervous system responses that result in external, unlearned, instinctive drowning movements that are easily recognizable by trained rescue crews.”

You, too, can learn to recognize the signs that a person is in need of immediate assistance in the water. If a person is shouting and waving for help, they may still be in distress and need assistance. However, the five signs that follow, reported in On Scene, the journal of US Coast Guard Search and Rescue,³ may occur when a person is only 20-60 seconds from disappearing below the surface:

• Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary, or overlaid, function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
• Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
• Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
• Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
• From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response, people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.

Other “quiet” signs of drowning reported by Vittone include:⁴

Head low in the water, mouth at water level	Head tilted back with mouth open	Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
Eyes closed	Hair over forehead or eyes	Not using legs – Vertical
Hyperventilating or gasping	Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway	Trying to roll over on the back
Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder	Children who are suddenly quiet

‘Dry Drowning’ and ‘Delayed Drowning’ Are Also Risks

It’s possible to die from drowning even out of the water. In 2008, one widely reported case described a 10-year-old boy who inhaled some water while swimming but otherwise appeared normal. Later that night, after walking home and taking a bath, the boy died in his bed as a result of delayed drowning. This type of drowning, sometimes called secondary drowning, can occur up to 24 hours after exposure to water, and occurs when a small amount of water in the lungs prevents oxygen from being transported into the bloodstream properly. A person who has experienced a near-drowning is especially at risk, but anyone who has spent time in water can be at risk. Signs of delayed drowning to watch out for include:

• Vomiting or involuntary defecation immediately after swimming
• A sudden change in behavior, such as extreme fatigue, lethargy or agitation
• Trouble breathing

Dry drowning, on the other hand, occurs when no water enters the lungs, but rather a sudden rush of water into the throat (such as might occur from jumping into a pool with your mouth open) causes the airway to shut, causing suffocation. 

What Makes Spinal Cord Injuries More Likely at the Beach?

Playing in the surf is a favorite pastime for many, but aside from drowning, one of the greatest risks it poses is spinal cord injuries that can occur when a wave picks you up and throws you head-first into the sand.

The spinal-cord injuries that follow can lead to paralysis or even be fatal, and Paul Cowan, head of the emergency room at one Delaware hospital, noticed that they often come in waves. He and a team of researchers are now trying to track down whether certain environmental factors, such as wind speed, air or water temperature, or the angle and height of waves, make these traumatic injuries more common, but so far the research hasn’t revealed an obvious pattern.

Others, however, believe that beach replenishment, in which sand is pumped onto beaches to help stop the erosion process, may be creating steep slopes and waves that break close to shore, creating the perfect storm for spinal cord injuries.

While this issue has yet to be formally studied, data from the United States Lifesaving Association (USLA) shows that major medical injuries often rise on beaches following replenishment projects. For instance, in Ocean City, Maryland after a beach replenishment, major medical injuries rose from 87 in 2006 to 345 the following year.⁵ Veteran lifeguard Peter Hartsock said the dangers prompted him to quit bodysurfing altogether:⁶

“I’m not going to tell anybody else not to bodysurf, but as far as me, I stopped during my first year of lifeguarding. Sure it’s fun, but you have nothing between you and the bottom (of the ocean) … I saw so many people get hurt bodysurfing. You don’t know where you’re going to hit, and you’re going headfirst. It’s like diving off a pier when you can’t see the bottom.”

6 Top Water-Safety Tips

If you plan to spend any time in a pool or natural body of water this summer, keep the following tips in mind.⁷ They could save a life:

• Learn to swim; formal swimming lessons have been shown to cut the risk of drowning among small children by up to 88 percent⁸
• Wear a life jacket
• Supervise children when in the water (including in the bathtub); supervisors should be in arm’s reach of preschool children at all times, and should not be involved in other distracting activities, such as reading or talking on the phone, when watching children in the water
• Always swim with a buddy
• Avoid alcohol when swimming or supervising other swimmers
• If you have a swimming pool, install a fence completely around the pool and remove toys after use (they may encourage children to enter the pool area); also be aware that air-filled and foam toys are not designed to keep swimmers safe, nor are they an acceptable alternative to a life jacket

• Reader’s Digest

• Scientific American June 7, 2013

• The Stir June 5, 2013

• ABC News July 30, 2010

• Today June 5, 2008

  Chemicals in Indoor Swimming Pools Increase Cancer Risk

  Learn to Swim Effortlessly in 10 Days

  KEY Health Facts You Need to Know if You Have or Use a Pool

Make no mistake, there is a well orchestrated campaign underway to take away your rights and access to vitamins and supplements.

You have likely witnessed the recent flurry of articles from doctors with scary headlines like "Don't Take Your Vitamins" written by Paul Offit.  Senator Dick Durbin has taken a leading role as well.

Senator Durbin was also a sponsor for the SOPA / PIPA act, which would give the government even more power to censor and control the internet. You would think it would be impossible at this point to have MORE control, considering the recent leaks regarding the NSA.

There is no satiating the hunger for more power in our federal government. Politicians will scare you about sugary beverages loaded with caffeine as examples of the dangerous and 'unregulated' supplement industry.

Meanwhile, consumers load up at Starbucks and other coffee shops - where they can easily down cups and cups of this 'dangerous' substance. You don't see Durbin beating down the door of Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, even though coffee is the primary source where most people get their caffeine fix.

When you notice this type of hypocrisy, you can usually bet there is a serious industry influence behind the scenes. There is a campaign push assaulting the supplement industry by those hoping to gain control of it. Essentially, if supplements become regulated like drugs - only the drug companies will be manufacturing them.

By setting new regulations and gaining control of the industry, big pharma can charge higher prices and make higher profits.

Surprisingly, a newly released GAO Dietary Supplements report has recently shown just how safe dietary supplements really are. There are always bad products in every industry, but overall, supplements appear to be one of the safest of all consumable products.

Senator Durbin has been on a mission that appears, at least superficially, to stem from concern over “your health.” However, when scrutinized more closely, Durbin’s proposed legislation would have precisely the opposite effect.

If Senator Durbin is genuinely concerned about “your health,” then his focus should be on making drugs and vaccines safer, which are the real danger — not dietary supplements.

Why Should Supplement Regulation Be More Stringent Than That for Drugs?

Durbin first introduced the Dietary Supplement Labeling Act (S 1310) in 2011, a bill that threatens the supplement industry by granting FDA more power to regulate supplements as if they were drugs, potentially putting supplement companies out of business.

In fact, under this bill, supplement regulation would be even more stringent than for pharmaceutical drugs! The bill specifies the following:¹

• Requires regulators to compile a list of dietary supplement ingredients and proprietary blends of ingredients that are judged capable of causing serious adverse reactions
• Mandates manufacturers to submit a list of all the products they make at a given facility and their ingredients; new products or reformulations would require new registrations

Despite resorting to sneaky tactics and dispersing blatant misinformation to his legislative colleagues in attempts to garner support, Senator Durbin has had a difficult time obtaining any support for his bill.

Therefore, in May 2012, Durbin tried to slide his amendment (No. 2127) through by piggybacking it onto a senate bill that was slated for a vote the very next day (S 3187, the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act).

Because the natural health community so quickly and effectively sprung into action, Durbin's amendment failed. Although his efforts to pass this ridiculous legislation have been unsuccessful thus far, his determination has not waned, misguided though it is. We must continue our efforts to thwart this bill, which if passed into law, could spell disastrous consequences for your health.

The Danger of Food Supplements Is VASTLY Overstated

Durbin and others would have you believe supplements are dangerous and need further regulation. But the truth is that supplements are already FDA-regulated and produce far fewer adverse reactions than either drugs or vaccines. The March 2013 GAO Dietary Supplements report,² which Durbin hoped would paint supplements as dangerous, actually showed how incredibly safe they really are—particularly when compared to drugs and vaccines.

Since 2008, the supplement industry has been required to report adverse events to the FDA’s AER system, pursuant to the 2006 Act. Consider the following statistics comparing dietary supplement AERs with drug AERs (from the 2013 GAO report):

• From 2008 to 2011, FDA received 6,307 AERs for dietary supplements, not including 1,000 AERs that were submitted to poison control centers, rather than the FDA³
• In 2008, 1,080 dietary supplement AERs were reported to FDA
• In 2008, 526,527 prescription drug AERs were reported
• In 2008, 26,517 vaccine AERs were reported

When you do the math, there were 488 times as many adverse events reported from prescription drugs as from dietary supplements!

Supplement AERs increased from 400 in 2007 to 1,080 in 2008, but as the Alliance for Natural Health points out, that stems from an increase in the number of supplements on the market and more careful reporting of AERs to the FDA, especially since the implementation of required good manufacturing protocols. The number of AERs is miniscule compared to the hundreds of millions of supplement servings consumed.⁴ According to a 2007 National Health Interview Survey,⁵ more than half of Americans (157 million individuals) take nutritional supplements.

Senator Durbin and company are trying to claim AERs are underreported. However, according to the 2013 GAO report, there were only 20 AER compliance problems identified during supplement company inspections, suggesting most of these companies are compliant with mandatory AER guidelines. Adverse reactions aren’t being underreported—there just aren’t that many reactions to report. Even the GAO report itself states:

“The greatest challenge for identifying potential safety concerns from AERs is the small number of AERs that FDA receives related to dietary supplements.”

Poison Control Data Supports the Safety of Nutritional Supplements

Data from the U.S. National Poison Data System’s annual report, which tracked data from 57 U.S. poison centers, showed vitamin and mineral supplements caused zero deaths in 2010, whereas pharmaceuticals caused more than 1,100 of the total 1,366 reported fatalities. FDA-approved drugs cause 80 percent of poison control fatalities each year.⁶ Poison control centers report 100,000 calls, 56,000 emergency room visits, 2,600 hospitalizations and nearly 500 deaths each year from acetaminophen (Tylenol) alone.

Data from the European Union indicate that pharmaceutical drugs are 62,000 times as likely to kill you as dietary supplements. You’re actually more likely to be struck dead by lightning or drown in your bathtub than have a lethal reaction to a dietary supplement. These figures make it quite clear where the danger lies. If Senator Durbin really cared about your health, his efforts would be centered on doing something to make drugs safer, as they obviously pose a FAR greater risk to your health.

Laws Regulating Supplements Are Already in Place

According to the GAO report:

“FDA officials told us that the current regulatory framework is sufficient to identify and act on safety concerns regarding foods with added dietary ingredients.”

They are referring to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA).⁷ The only deficiency, to the extent it exists, lies in the enforcement of the current law, in terms of ensuring good manufacturing practices and mandatory reporting of adverse events by supplement companies. If the FDA is already well-equipped with legislative authority to do its job, then what is Senator Durbin really trying to accomplish?

The only answer that makes sense is that the ultimate goal of Durbin’s bill is to make sure every supplement is approved by the FDA before it is sold.

The hidden problem with this is that the FDA is heavily biased in favor of drugs, as the agency is primarily funded by the pharmaceutical industry. The FDA sees supplements as competition for drugs, so not many will be approved. Durbin’s bill attempts to get supplements into the clutches of our completely dysfunctional drug approval regime, where they can be subjected to every possible legal obstacle that will keep them off store shelves. Less competition from supplements would also soften the impact of decreased revenues from expiring drug patents.

Forcing Supplement Companies Out of Business Will Not Improve Your Health

If Durbin’s bill were to pass, the FDA would demand very expensive (on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars) supplement trials just like drug trials which would eliminate the vast majority of recent supplements as most manufacturers have revenues that are only a tiny fraction of drug companies and can’t afford these expenses. More importantly, they are simply unnecessary as they provide virtually no benefit to the consumer. The current reported adverse effects are simply too low to justify this unnecessary safety requirement from a nonexistent danger. Remember, supplements don’t kill tens to hundreds of thousands of people every year; drugs do. Supplements don’t kill anyone.

Unlike drugs, supplements generally cannot be patented, so manufacturers will never see the return on investment that pharmaceutical companies see. The cost of complying with the pre-approval process will likely put many supplement companies out of business, and those who survive may do so only by drastically increasing the price of their products, making them cost prohibitive for many... particularly low-income families who need them the most. Durbin’s bill would also impose a significant burden on federal regulators, diverting these resources away from where they should be focused—i.e., on the drug industry.⁸

Crafty Reclassification of Products Allows Manufacturers to Dodge Regulations

There is an additional problem that appears to be completely ignored by Senator Durbin. Dietary supplements are already more rigorously regulated than food products. Taking full advantage of this, some manufacturers are migrating products previously listed as “supplements” over to the “food products” category in order to sidestep regulation. Energy drinks are a prime example. Loren Israelson, executive director of the United Natural Products Alliance, is quoted as saying:

“I think he [Senator Durbin] misunderstands the dynamics of the energy drinks market. There has been a significant shift of brands going from dietary supplement labeling to food labeling. His bill would not capture some of the products he’s concerned about.”

Caffeine—A Ridiculous Case of Selective Regulation

In related news, the FDA is now going after caffeine to protect your and your children’s health, in response to Senator Durbin’s fervent outcries. Back in November 2012, Senators Durbin and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a series of letters to the FDA⁹ asking for energy drinks to be reviewed and potentially regulated.

While caffeine can indeed have detrimental health effects, the irony of the situation is that no attention is going toward actual coffee, which clearly would impact major multinational corporations like Starbucks. No, they’re only concerned with supplement, food and beverage makers using caffeine in their products, while the primary source of caffeine is not even part of the discussion. Supplements are just a tiny portion of caffeine consumption, so why not go after coffee?

As reported by Forbes:^{10, 11}

“FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods Michael Taylor spoke out against what he called the 'unfortunate' trend [of adding caffeine to processed foods]... Taylor specifically called out gum maker Wrigley on a new product, and stated that while formal regulation might be forthcoming, 'we hope this can be a turning point for all to prevent the irresponsible addition of caffeine to food and beverages. Together, we should be immediately looking at what voluntary restraint can be used by industry.'

..Mr. Taylor expressed concern over the 'cumulative amount' of caffeine available, particularly for children.

...[A]s long as FDA’s actions aren’t tethered to standards or science, they threaten to sweep in products that don’t merit any concern or scrutiny. During FDA’s successful effort to drive some caffeine-infused alcoholic beverages, like Four Loko, off the market, it also sent warning letters to brewers whose product line featured beers brewed with coffee. The amount of caffeine in and serving sizes of the beer paled in comparison to Four Loko, which led the head of a craft-brewing association to feel such letters were 'inadvertent.' He did add, however, 'brewers should be concerned. This could lead the FDA to question beverages that get their caffeine from natural products like coffee, chocolate or tea. Who’s to say where this will end?'”

Call to Action

Dick Durbin will be up for re-election in 2014. You can bet we will be focusing very specifically on this career politician. Durbin and others would have you believe supplements are dangerous and need further regulation. However, supplements have far fewer reported adverse reactions than either drugs or vaccines and are already FDA regulated.

Durbin is reintroducing his supplement bill in hopes of forcing dietary supplement manufacturers to pass regulations that are even stricter than those governing pharmaceutical drugs. Legislative tactics such as this represent part of a master plan by the drug industry, in partnership with its best friend FDA, to eliminate the competition by taking control of the supplement industry.

Durbin’s bill has failed miserably in the past due to lack of support and strong opposition by health-conscious consumers. We can do that again, but your help is needed. Please contact your representatives and urge them to vote NO on S 1310, Dietary Supplement Labeling Act. You can do this by signing the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) petition.

If you live in Illinois, as I do, I would encourage you to contact Senator Durbin directly. Tell him (or whomever your representative is) to stop this overreach of power, and that the proposed guidelines fly in the face of the congressional intent of DSHEA. Congress never intended for the FDA to control supplements, and giving them this control jeopardizes your access to the dietary supplements you rely on, as well as further damaging the US economy. Please be courteous and respectful, and thank them for their time.

 

  Massive Corruption Revealed to be at the Core of Many Drug Approvals

  Does Your Supplement Contain this Potentially Hazardous Ingredient?

  Action Alert -- New Senate Bill Threatens Small Farmers

As Americans increasingly seek access to healthful, fresh-from-the-farm foods like raw milk, private buying agreements like herdshares are becoming more popular. A herdshare is a private agreement between a farmer and an individual in which the farmer is paid to take care of an animal, a cow for example that belongs to one or more people.

You essentially pay a onetime purchase fee to “buy a share” of a farmer’s herd, which entitles you to the benefits of owning that cow, such as a certain amount of milk each week.

Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger provides food to members of such a private buying club, supplying them with fresh raw milk and produce.

If you believe that you have a right to eat what you want, without having to get the government’s permission first, it’s hard to imagine what could be wrong with such an agreement, but Wisconsin is one of a handful of states that is aggressively targeting raw-milk farmers, seeking to criminalize their peaceful practice of food production.

Vernon Hershberger’s case is particularly glaring, as even though a jury nullified the case, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) still tried to put him in jail.

Wisconsin Seeks to Jail Raw Milk Farmer After Jury Finds Him Innocent

On May 20, Hershberger’s trial began at the Sauk County Courthouse. He was charged with four criminal misdemeanors for supplying a private buying club with raw milk and other fresh produce.

1. Operating a retail food establishment without a license
2. Operating a dairy farm as a milk producer without a license
3. Operating a dairy plant without a license
4. Violating a holding order by removing the members’ food from the embargoed refrigerators

However, since Hershberger only supplies food to paid members in a private buying club, he has long maintained that he is not subject to state food regulations, and jurors must have agreed.

On May 25, he was acquitted of three charges of producing, processing and selling milk without state licenses. They did, however, find him guilty of violating a holding order, which required that he not sell any food or milk from his store as a condition of his bail.

Following a Capital Times online article in which it’s reported that Hershberger stated he had continued to supply his buying club members with fresh food all along, the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion to revoke Hershberger’s bail and instead send him to jail – after he’d already been acquitted!

Fortunately, Hershberger will not be going to jail for this “crime,” as on June 13 he was sentenced to pay a $1,000 fine plus $513 in court costs – avoiding jail time, probation and the maximum possible fine of $10,000.

Still, the fact that the motion was filed in the first place is deeply disturbing. The Cornucopia Institute reported:¹

“Hershberger’s attorney, Glenn Reynolds, called the motion very disappointing because the bail terms he’s accused of violating are the same activities that led to the charges of which he was acquitted. ‘It seems vindictive in my view,’ he said. ‘He goes to trial and wins and now they want to put him in jail? What is the point of this sort of motion?’”

What’s the point is a very good question, indeed, as it seems clear the state is trying to take a stand against Hershberger for example’s sake … but why?

How Can They Continue to Claim This Is About Safety?

One of the most common excuses given for why farmers are raided, prosecuted, and shut down is that raw foods may be potentially harmful to human health. But those buying these products are doing so willingly, in many cases travelling great distances to access these fresh-from-the-farm foods.

Wisconsin is not doing these food buyers any favors by taking away their right to fresh food. Instead, they are taking a stand against Hershberger because his acquittal could have a major impact on increasing raw milk sales in the state. As noted by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF):²

"'There is more at stake here than just a farmer and his few customers,' says Hershberger, 'this is about the fundamental right of farmers and consumers to engage in peaceful, private, mutually consenting agreements for food, without additional oversight.'"

Back in 2010, after weeks of lobbying by the Wisconsin dairy industry, former Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle vetoed a bill that would have made sale of on-the-farm raw milk legal, stating he "must side with public health and safety of the dairy industry."

But high-quality raw milk is no more a threat to public health than sunshine or natural supplements (against which similar “public-safety” wars have been aged). CDC data³ shows there are about 412 confirmed cases of people getting ill from pasteurized milk each year, while only about 116 illnesses a year are linked to raw milk. And research by Dr. Ted Beals, MD, featured in the summer 2011 issue of Wise Traditions,⁴ the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, shows that you are about 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk!

So when officials say they are siding with public health and the safety of the dairy industry, they are really only siding with the dairy industry, in an attempt to protect them from all competition. The reason why small-scale organic, raw dairy farms are so threatening to the dairy industry is because they simply cannot produce safe raw milk in a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO). Cows raised under such conditions produce milk that must be pasteurized in order to be safe to drink, as the unnatural diet and environment dramatically alters the nutritional and bacterial composition of the milk, making it otherwise unfit to drink.

The FDA Is Leading the War Against Raw Milk

State-level efforts against raw milk are only part of a larger problem, which is the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 25-year-old regulation banning raw milk for human consumption in interstate commerce. But even this is up for challenge. Pete Kennedy, president of FTCLDF wrote:

“At the federal level, a bill that would repeal the interstate ban has been introduced the last two sessions of Congress and will likely be reintroduced this session; the bill would allow raw milk to be taken across state lines either by consumers or their agents who obtain it in another state or by producers or their agents delivering it to consumers in another state. The bill would not affect the power of states to determine whether the sale of raw milk would be illegal within its borders.”

Currently, legislation that would either legalize or expand the sale of raw milk has been introduced in Arkansas, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Montana, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Wyoming. A bill is also expected to be filed shortly in Wisconsin, according to Kennedy. Many are simply getting fed up with the FDA and their state governments trying to dictate what its residents are allowed to eat. This is not an issue of a few “rogue” farmers trying to sell an illegal product; it’s an issue of food freedom. Kennedy continued:

“The fight over raw milk stands as a symbol of the much larger fight for food freedom. Who gets to decide what you eat? You? Or the FDA? If the FDA and state agencies are allowed to impose their view of ‘safe food’ on consumers, raw milk won’t be the only thing lost – all our food will be pasteurized, irradiated, and genetically engineered. The effort to reclaim our right to buy and consume raw milk is leading the way for everyone who wants to be able to obtain the food of their choice from the source of their choice.”

Right now, your food freedom is on the chopping block. In North Dakota, a new bill threatens to make herdshare illegal.⁵ In New Mexico, a bill has been introduced that would ban the sale of raw milk, while a proposed regulation in Illinois that is currently in the drafting stage would similarly restrict access to raw milk. So the time to take action is now…

Stand Up for Your Right to Food Freedom

The effort to reclaim your right to buy and consume raw milk is leading the way for everyone who wants to be able to obtain the food of their choice from the source of their choice. So please, get involved! I urge you to embrace the following action plan to protect your right to choose your own foods:

1. Get informed: Visit www.farmtoconsumer.org or click here to sign up for action alerts.
2. Join the fight for your rights: The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) is the only organization of its kind. This 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization provides a legal defense for farmers who are being pursued by the government for distributing foods directly to consumers. Your donations, although not tax deductible, will be used to support the litigation, legislative, and lobbying efforts of the FTCLDF. For a summary of FTCLDF’s activities in 2012, see this link.
3. Support your local farmers: Buy from local farmers, not the industry that is working with the government to take away your freedoms.

• Cornucopia Institute June 4, 2013

• Organic Consumers Association June 3, 2013

  Farmer Faces Jail Time Over Raw Dairy Sales

  Will You Continue Allowing the FDA to Dictate What Foods You’re Allowed to Eat?

  Raids are Increasing on Farms and Private Food-Supply Clubs

Research has shown that many pesticides are neurotoxic and can cause disruptions to your neurological system and your brain. The reason why neurotoxins still enjoy widespread use on our food supply is really more about the bottom line for farming operations than it is about the science of human health.

Research has clearly and consistently linked pesticide exposure to Parkinson’s disease. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also considers 30 percent of insecticides to be carcinogenic.

All of these toxic chemicals are permitted on farms growing conventional and genetically engineered crops, and a large number of them can end up on your plate when you purchase conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables and/or processed foods.

But pesticides also have a dramatic impact on the health of our ecosystem. Neonicotinoids, such as Imidacloprid and Clothianidin, kill insects by attacking their nervous systems. These are known to get into pollen and nectar, and can damage beneficial insects such as bees.

These toxic chemicals have been implicated as one of the primary culprits in the mass die-offs of bees, and have subsequently been banned in some countries. The United States, however, is not among these countries...

But the effects of neonicotinoids do not end there. According to recent research by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the use of neonicotinoids in seed treatments is also responsible for the death of birds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates and other wildlife.

Ecosystem Threatened by ‘Gross Underestimate’ of Toxicity of Neonicotinoids

Nicotine-related compounds called nicotinoids were initially introduced as a new form of pesticide in the 1990s, as widespread pest resistance rendered many older pesticides useless. Many seeds are now “pre-treated” with neonicotinoids, which are water-soluble and break down slowly in the environment.

Today, they are the most widely-used pesticides in the world. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a pesticide that does not contain at least one neonicotinoid insecticide. In California alone, there are nearly 300 registered neonicotinoid products available.

The American Bird Conservancy (ABC), one of the leading bird conservation organizations in the US, is now calling for a ban on the use of neonicotinoids as seed treatments, and wants all pending applications for neonicotinoid products to be suspended pending an independent review of the products’ effects on birds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.

As reported by the American Bird Conservancy¹:

“It is clear that these chemicals have the potential to affect entire food chains. The environmental persistence of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration, and their cumulative and largely irreversible mode of action in invertebrates raise significant environmental concerns...”

ABC commissioned the world renowned environmental toxicologist Dr. Pierre Mineau to conduct the research, which resulted in a 100-page report² titled The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds. Mineau’s report reviews 200 studies on neonicotinoids, including industry research obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act.

The report concludes that neonicotinoids “are lethal to birds and to the aquatic systems on which they depend.” Even more disturbing, contamination levels in both surface and ground water around the world are already beyond the threshold found to kill many aquatic invertebrates. According to this shocking toxicology assessment:

• A single kernel of corn treated with this type of pesticide can kill a songbird
• A single grain of wheat or canola treated with the neonicotinoids Imidacloprid can be fatal to a bird
• As little as 1/10th of a neonicotinoid-coated corn seed per day during egg-laying season can affect a bird’s reproductive capability

EPA Accused of Failing to Adequately Assess Environmental Risks

Disturbingly, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not adequately assessed the toxicity of neonicotinoids. Part of the problem, according to the featured report, is that the EPA is “using scientifically unsound, outdated methodology that has more to do with a game of chance than with a rigorous scientific process.” This has led the agency to grossly underestimate the toxicity of these chemicals. Furthermore³:

“The report also charges that there is no readily available biomarker for neonicotinoids as there is for cholinesterase inhibitors such as the organophosphorous pesticides. ‘It is astonishing that EPA would allow a pesticide to be used in hundreds of products without ever requiring the registrant to develop the tools needed to diagnose poisoned wildlife. It would be relatively simple to create a binding assay for the neural receptor which is affected by this class of insecticides,’ said Dr. Mineau.”

Dr. Mineau urges the EPA to require pesticide registrants to also provide the diagnostic tools necessary to diagnose cases of wildlife poisonings. So far, neonicotinoids have garnered the most attention and criticism for their role in bee die-offs—a worldwide phenomenon that took off once these newer pesticides became widely used. As stated by ABC⁴:

“The serious risk to bees should not be understated, as one-third of the US diet depends on these insect pollinators. The ABC assessment makes clear, however, that the potential environmental impacts of neonicotinoids go well beyond bees.”

Link Between Neonicotinoids and Bee Die-Off is ‘Crystal Clear,’ Lawsuit Maintains

A general consensus among beekeepers is that the bee die-offs are most definitely related to toxic chemicals, and neonicotinoids in particular. The disappearance of bee colonies began accelerating in the United States shortly after the EPA allowed these new insecticides on the market in the mid-2000s. In May, beekeepers and environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the agency over its failure to protect bees from these toxic pesticides.

Meanwhile, France has banned Imidacloprid for use on corn and sunflowers after reporting large losses of bees after exposure to it. They also rejected Bayer´s application for Clothianidin, and other countries, such as Italy, have banned certain neonicotinoids as well.

Neonicotinoids are used on most of American crops, especially corn. As mentioned earlier, these chemicals are typically applied to seeds before planting, allowing the pesticide to be taken up through the plant’s vascular system as it grows. As a result, the chemical is expressed in the pollen and nectar of the plant, and hence the danger to bees and other pollinating insects... Needless to say, since the chemical is taken up systemically through the plant, it could also pose potential health risks to anyone eating the plant since it cannot be rinsed off.

Neonicotinoids affect insects' central nervous systems in ways that are cumulative and irreversible. Even minute amounts can have profound effects over time. One of the observed effects of these insecticides is weakening of the bee's immune system. Forager bees bring pesticide-laden pollen back to the hive, where it's consumed by all of the bees. Six months later, their immune systems fail, and they fall prey to secondary, seemingly "natural" bee infections, such as parasites, mites, viruses, fungi and bacteria.

The EPA⁵ acknowledges that “pesticide poisoning” may be one factor leading to colony collapse disorder, yet they have been slow to act to protect bees from this threat. The current lawsuit may help spur them toward more urgent action, which is desperately needed as the food supply hangs in the balance.

In March, the EPA sent Jim Jones, overseer of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, to talk to California almond growers and beekeepers, as mass die-offs of bees were seriously threatening this year’s almond crop. But although beekeepers said Jones got the message that bees are in serious trouble, they were dismayed by the fact that he seemed more interested in finding new places for bees to forage rather than addressing the issue of toxic pesticides...

As usual, at the core of the problem is big industry, which is blinded by greed and enabled by a corrupt governmental system that permits the profit-driven sacrifice of our environment. Unfortunately, this motivation reflects an extreme shortsightedness about the long-term survival of the human race, as well as of our planet. Clearly, if the goal of pesticides is to increase food yield to more easily feed 7 billion human beings, this goal falls flat on its face if it leads to the collapse of our food chain.

Pesticides Again Tied to Parkinson's Disease

A recent meta-analysis published in the journal Neurology⁶, examined data from 104 studies published between 1975 and 2011, in search for a potential link between pesticides and Parkinson's disease. As many previous studies, it found one... Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder in which neurons in a region within your brain responsible for normal movement begin to die, causing the telltale shaking and rigidity associated with the disease. There’s currently no known cure, which makes preventing the disease all the more important. Mounting evidence suggests avoiding pesticides is an important part of prevention. As reported by Reuters⁷:

“In 2011, a study of US farm workers from National Institutes of Health found some pesticides that are known to interfere with cell function were linked to the development of Parkinson's disease. Another study that was published in 2012 also reported that people with Parkinson's disease were more likely to report exposure to pesticides, compared to people without the condition.”

In this latest analysis, exposure to pesticides was linked to a 58 percent increased risk of developing Parkinson’s. Some pesticides were clearly worse than others. Paraquat (a non-selective plant killer) and two fungicides, maneb and mancozeb, were found to double your risk. One of the study’s authors told Reuters that⁸:

“[T]he study's results suggest that people should avoid contact with pesticides or - at least - wear proper protection when handling the chemicals. The use of protective equipment and compliance with suggested, or even recommended, preventive practices should be emphasized in high-risk working categories (such as farming)."

How Modern Farming Methods Have Led to Toxic Food Supplies

Chlorinated hydrocarbons, or organochlorines like DDT were developed after World War II and remained widely used in agriculture for pest and weed control until Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring was published in 1962. That book is credited with beginning the modern environmental movement, and through the involvement of scientists and ordinary concerned citizens many of the organochlorines were later phased out of use, according to the conditions of the Stockholm Convention of 1981⁹. Since then, these chemicals have been replaced by a slew of new herbicides, pesticides and fungicides designed to kill the things that threaten a farmer's bottom line.

These include not just neonicotinoids, but also glyphosate—the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup.

Roundup was designed to be used in conjunction with Monsanto's genetically engineered “Roundup Ready” seeds, which in turn have been genetically altered to withstand otherwise lethal doses of the chemical. This way, only the non-modified weeds die while the crop survives the indiscriminate sprayings. In theory, genetically engineered seeds were supposed to reduce the use of agricultural chemicals. It didn’t work out that way. Today, resistant “superweeds” are taking over large swaths of farm land, and in an effort to stay on top of increasing weed resistance, farmers using Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) seeds have progressively started using more and more Roundup.

The increased pesticide residue remains in the foods that wind up on your dinner table, as glyphosate is taken up systemically throughout the plant and cannot be washed off.

About 90 percent of the corn produced in the US is genetically engineered, and GE soybeans account for almost 95 percent of US production. In other words, if you're eating non-organic corn or soybeans in the United States, you're eating a genetically engineered crop that's been repeatedly and thoroughly drenched in glyphosate. The same applies to eating meats from animals raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), as they’re typically fed GE grains.

The danger to you and your children is very real, according to the latest research. While Monsanto insists that Roundup is safe and “minimally toxic” to humans, a recent report published in the journal Entropy¹⁰ argues that glyphosate residues, found in most commonly consumed foods in the Western diet courtesy of GE sugar, corn, and soy, “enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease.” According to the authors:

"Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.”

The main finding of the report is that glyphosate inhibits cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, a large and diverse group of enzymes that catalyze the oxidation of organic substances. This, the authors state, is “an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals.” One of the functions of CYP enzymes is to detoxify xenobiotics—chemical compounds found in a living organism that are not normally produced or consumed by the organism in question. By limiting the ability of these enzymes to detoxify foreign chemical compounds, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of those chemicals and environmental toxins you may be exposed to—including other pesticides.

How You Can Avoid Toxic Pesticide Exposure

First and foremost, to limit your exposure to the most common agricultural chemicals, such as neonicotinoids and glyphosate, you want to buy as much fresh organic produce as possible, as synthetic chemicals are not allowed on organic crops. For a good guide to which conventionally grown produce carry the lowest pesticide residues, and which you’re best off buying organic due to their heavy pesticide load, see my recent article, How to Find the Healthiest Fare in Meat and Produce Aisles.

Since years' worth of these toxins now pollute our soils and waterways, including the sources of most if not all human drinking water, I also recommend investing in a good water filtration system for your home or apartment to ensure you are drinking the purest water possible. Also consider a shower filter, as they may actually cause more damage to your body through your skin than from drinking unfiltered water. Additional recommendations to limit your exposure to toxic pesticides and herbicides include:

1. Grow your own food. While this may be a challenge for many, nearly everyone, even those with a studio apartment or a dorm room can easily grow sprouts that can serve as a large percentage of the organic vegetables that you eat.
2. Detoxify your lawn. If you have a lawn care service, make sure they are not using the organophosphate pesticide trichlorfon. Also, avoid using Roundup to control weeds around your home.
3. Clean out your shed. The pesticide diazinon (sold under the brand names Diazinon or Spectracide) has been banned from residential, but there might be some left in your old garden shed.
4. Use natural cures for a lice infection. Malathion is used for treatment of head lice. Don’t put a neurotoxin on your child's head.
5. Check your school's pest control policy. If they have not already done so, encourage your school district to move to Integrated Pest Management, which uses less toxic alternatives.

  Research Reveals Previously Unknown Pathway by which Glyphosate Wrecks Health

  Glyphosate Destroys Your Gut Flora

  Organic Pesticides Not Always Best Choice

If you’re a cheese lover struggling to resist cheese because you’ve heard it’s not good for you, then brace yourself for some really good news. Cheese can be an excellent source of nutrition, a food you may want to include more of in your diet rather than less.

Cheese, especially that made from the milk of grass-pastured animals, is an excellent source of several important nutrients.

One of the most valuable nutrients in cheese is vitamin K2, which the latest scientific studies indicate is even more important to your heart, brain and bones than previously thought. Cheese also provides a cornucopia of vitamins, minerals (including calcium), protein, and fat.

Even if you’re lactose intolerant, there are many cheeses you will likely tolerate just fine. Most of the lactose is removed during the cheesemaking process. Pairing cheese with other foods enhances your absorption of important nutrients.

This article aims to separate fact from myth and will provide guidance on how you can incorporate your favorite cheeses into your daily diet, with joy and gratitude instead of guilt.

Cheese Will Clog Up Your Arteries... and Other Food Fairytales

Although nobody knows for certain when or where cheesemaking first began, cheese has been a staple for thousands of years. Cheese dates back to the domestication of milk-producing animals, between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago.¹ The history of cheese can be traced back to the Roman Empire, the Middle East, Tibet, Mongolia, the Ming Dynasty, and of course Europe.

In spite of its rich history and enthusiastic fan base, cheese is much maligned in America due to the saturated fat/cholesterol myth.

Does eating cheese lead to obesity and heart disease? Absolutely not! This unfortunate myth stems from an outdated and seriously flawed hypothesis, perpetuated by decades of wildly successful marketing.

Numerous recent studies have confirmed saturated fat is NOT associated with obesity or heart disease and is actually associated with improved heart health. Most Americans today are consuming inadequate saturated fat. In fact, the Greeks, French and Germans eat much more cheese than Americans but enjoy lower rates of hypertension and obesity.²

I believe one of the primary factors driving obesity is overconsumption of sugar, refined grain and processed food in the standard American diet, made worse by a sedentary lifestyle. Given these facts, many nutritional experts believe that most people need 50 to 70 percent healthful fats in their diet for optimal health, and I agree. Cheese is a delicious way to help you meet that requirement Cheese holds a wealth of good nutrition, including:

• High-quality protein and amino acids
• High-quality saturated fats and omega-3 fats
• Vitamins and minerals, including calcium, zinc, phosphorus, vitamins A, D, B2 (riboflavin) and B12
• Vitamin K2
• CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), a powerful cancer-fighter and metabolism booster

Natural Cheese Versus Fake Cheese

There is a difference between natural cheese and processed “cheese foods.” Natural cheese is a simple fermented dairy product, made with nothing more than a few basic ingredients — milk, starter culture, salt and an enzyme called rennet. Salt is a crucial ingredient for flavor, ripening and preservation. You can tell a natural cheese by its label, which will state the name of the cheese variety, such as “cheddar cheese,” “blue cheese,” or “brie.” Real cheese requires refrigeration.

The starter culture and cheesemaking methods are what give each variety of cheese its particular taste, texture, shape and nutritional profile. The following factors differentiate between one variety of cheese and another:

• Specific starter culture, which is the bacteria or mold strains that ripen the cheese
• Type of milk used (cow, sheep, goat, etc.), and the conditions under which those animals were raised
• Methods of curdling, cutting, cooking and forming the curd
• Ripening conditions such as temperature, humidity, and aging time (curing)

Processed cheese or “cheese food” is a different story. These products are typically pasteurized and otherwise adulterated with a variety of additives that detract from their nutritional value. The label will always include the words “pasteurized process,” which should be your clue to walk on by. Velveeta³ is one example, with additives like sodium phosphate, sodium citronate and various coloring agents. Another clue is that most don’t require refrigeration. So, be it Velveeta, Cheese Whiz, squeeze cheese, spray cheese, or some other imposter — these are NOT real cheeses and should be banished from your shopping cart.

Raw Cheese from Pasture-Raised Animals is the Ultimate

Ideally, the cheese you consume should be made from the milk of grass-fed animals raised on pasture, rather than grain-fed or soy-fed animals confined to feedlot stalls. The biologically appropriate diet for cows is grass, but 90 percent of standard grocery store cheeses are made from the milk of CAFO cows. These cheeses are nutritionally inferior to those from grass-pastured animals. The higher quality the milk, the higher the quality of the cheese... it’s just that simple.

Even cheesemakers will tell you that raw cheese has a richer and deeper flavor than cheese made from pasteurized milk because heat destroys the enzymes and good bacteria that add flavor to the cheese. They explain that raw cheese has flavors that derive from the pastureland that nourished the animals producing the milk, much like wine is said to draw its unique flavors from individual vineyards. Grass-fed dairy products not only taste better, they are also nutritionally superior:

• Cheese made from the milk of grass-fed cows has the ideal omega-6 to omega-3 fat ratio of 2:1. By contrast, the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of grain-fed milk is heavily weighted on the side of omega-6 fats (25:1), which are already excessive in the standard American diet. Grass-fed dairy combats inflammation in your body, whereas grain-fed dairy contributes to it.
• Grass-fed cheese contains about five times the CLA of grain-fed cheese.
• Because raw cheese is not pasteurized, natural enzymes in the milk are preserved, increasing its nutritional punch.
• Grass-fed cheese is considerably higher in calcium, magnesium, beta-carotene, and vitamins A, C, D and E.
• Organic grass-fed cheese is free of antibiotics and growth hormones.

The FDA Cracks Down on Raw Cheese

For years, federal regulators have been threatening to ban raw milk products, including raw cheese, due to what they claim are increased safety risks. Lately, they’ve begun targeting artisan cheesemakers, as this is a fast growing industry in America.⁴

However, the FDA’s crackdown on raw cheese is based on a flawed argument.⁵ According to Grist, between 1973 and 1999 there’s not a single report of illness from either raw or pasteurized cheeses. However, since the year 2000, illnesses have begun to appear from raw and pasteurized cheese alike. Most outbreaks have been found to result from post-production contamination and laxity in quality control, not lack of pasteurization.

The truth is that raw cheese is not inherently dangerous, provided high standards are followed in the cheesemaking process. Hard cheeses like cheddar dry out as they age, making them relatively inhospitable to invading bacteria. The FDA’s attack on raw cheese is not based on facts, but simply is an extension of their long-standing hostility toward raw milk in general.

Salt Content Prompts Cries of ‘Cheesageddon’

Another recent concern is that cheese contains excessively high levels of salt. The Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) is a group interested in reducing the salt in processed foods and is urging the cheese industry to reduce the amount of salt in cheese.⁶ It is true that American food is the saltiest food in the world. But how much is cheese responsible for the excess sodium in the American diet?

Cheese looks like a minor player when you consider the amount of salt in processed food and restaurant food, and how much more of those are consumed than cheese. Take a look at the table below, which compares salt levels in the saltiest cheeses and in the saltiest restaurant dishes, and you’ll see what I mean. Keep in mind that your sodium intake should be less than about 2,300 mg per day, which is approximately a teaspoon.

About 90 percent of the salt in the standard American diet comes from packaged foods and restaurant foods. Only about 11 percent is attributable to the salt you add during cooking and at the dinner table. Your sodium intake is even lower if you salt your food with natural sea salt instead of processed salt. It seems clear to me that, given all of the nutrition packed into a relatively small piece of cheese, the sodium is not much of an issue, particularly if you minimize processed or packaged foods and don’t eat out often.

Food (Cheeses Listed are the Saltiest Varieties)	Sodium (mg)
Roquefort cheese (100g)	1,300
Edam cheese (100g)	1,200
Feta cheese (100g)	1,200
Chicken McNuggets (100g)7	1,600
Dunkin Donuts Salt Bagel8	3,420
Ruby Tuesday Chicken Piccata	4,194
P.F. Chang’s Mu Shu Pork	5,820
Red Robin Buffalo Clucks and Fries	4,479
P.F. Chang’s Pork and Double Pan-Fried Noodles — awarded “Saltiest Food in America”	7,900

Vitamin K2, Vitamin D3, and Calcium — A Whole in One!

Download Interview Transcript

Cheese contains a synergistic blend of nutrients that make it a veritable nutritional powerhouse. When consumed together, vitamins K2 and D3 and calcium are especially powerful for protecting your bones, brain and heart. And cheese contains all three! I recently interviewed Dr. Kate Rheamue-Bleue, a Naturopathic Physician and author of one of the most comprehensive books on vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 plays critical roles in protecting your heart, brain, and bones, as well as giving you some protection from cancer.⁹ Not only does K2 help channel calcium into the proper areas of your body (bones and teeth), it also prevents it from being deposited in areas where it shouldn’t, such as your arteries and soft tissues.

So, taking calcium supplements when you don’t have adequate vitamin K2 is a setup for arterial calcification and cardiovascular problems.

Since cheeses are all produced by different strains of bacteria, they differ in their total vitamin K2 content, as well as their K2 subtypes. Cheeses contain primarily subtypes MK-4, MK-8 and MK-9, in varying proportions. MK-4 is the least biologically active form (but the most abundant form in cheese), so it takes more of it for your body to benefit. MK-7, MK-8 and MK-9 stay active in your body longer so your body can benefit from much lower levels.

According to a 2009 Dutch study,¹⁰ subtypes MK-7, MK-8 and MK-9 are associated with reduced vascular calcification even at small dietary intakes (as low as 1 to 2 mcg per day).

When It Comes to K2, How Do Your Favorite Cheeses Stack Up?

In my interview with Dr. Rheamue-Bleue, she identified the cheeses highest in K2 are Gouda and Brie, which contain about 75 mcg per ounce. Hard cheeses are about 30 percent higher in vitamin K2 than soft cheeses. In perusing the nutritional tables myself, I found it interesting that the cheeses highest in vitamin K2 also tend to be the highest in protein and calcium — so the most nutritious overall. Just realize that the values listed for “vitamin K” in common nutritional tables are of limited value because they don’t specify what TYPE of vitamin K they’re measuring.

As it turns out, scientists have found high levels of MK-7 in one type of cheese: Edam.¹¹ This is wonderful news for those of you who would much rather sit down to a slice of Edam than a bowl of natto! (Natto, a strongly fermented Japanese soybean product, has the highest MK-7 level of any food.)

Earlier, I made my case for selecting raw cheeses from grass-pastured, grass-fed animals. However, cheese contains a bacterially-derived form of K2, so it doesn’t matter if the cheese was made from grass-fed milk or not — the bacteria used to culture the cheese is the same. Grass-fed dairy is important for the other reasons I’ve already discussed — just not specifically for the K2.

To summarize then, if you’re going to select cheese with your primary goal being a good source of vitamin K2, the best ones are:

• Gouda
• Brie
• Edam
• Other cheeses with lesser, but significant, levels of K2: Cheddar, Colby, hard goat cheese, Swiss, and Gruyere.¹²

Smile and Say Cheese!

Cheese lovers rejoice! Don’t be afraid to add healthy high-quality cheese to your diet. Cheese offers a synergistic blend of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and omega-3 fatty acids, including the magic trio of vitamin D3, vitamin K2 and calcium. This nutrient triad is vitally important for reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. And don’t be afraid of raw cheese (as long as it comes from a reputable cheesemaker), which beats ordinary cheese in both taste and nutrition.

Your best option is cheese made from the milk of pasture-raised cows, sheep and goats, as opposed to feedlot livestock fed grain and soy.

Although some cheeses are fairly high in salt, their sodium levels pale in comparison to those in common fast foods, processed foods and popular restaurant entrees that make up a large part of the standard American diet. My top picks are Gouda, Brie, and Edam cheese, but you can’t go wrong with high-quality cheddar, Swiss, Colby, Gruyere, and goat cheese.  For an extensive website about cheeses, including a database that’s searchable by name, country of origin, type of milk, and even texture, you might enjoy Cheese.com.

  Why You Need to Avoid Low Fat Milk and Cheese

  The Unsavory Truth of the McRib and Other Fake Foods, and Why Russia Banned US-Raised Meat

  Who Knew this Cocktail of up to 20 Chemicals Was in Your Glass of Milk?

By Dr. Mercola

Could a ketogenic diet eventually be a “standard of care” drug-free treatment for cancer? Personally, I believe it’s absolutely crucial, for whatever type of cancer you’re trying to address, and hopefully some day it will be adopted as a first line of treatment.

A ketogenic diet calls for eliminating all but non-starchy vegetable carbohydrates, and replacing them with healthy fats and high-quality protein.

The premise is that since cancer cells need glucose to thrive, and carbohydrates turn into glucose in your body, then lowering the glucose level in your blood though carb and protein restriction literally starves the cancer cells into oblivion. Additionally, low protein intake tends to minimize the mTOR pathway that accelerates cell proliferation.

This type of diet, in which you restrict all but non-starchy vegetable carbs and replace them with low to moderate amounts of high-quality protein and high amounts of beneficial fat, is what I recommend for everyone, whether you have cancer or not. It’s a diet that will help optimize your weight and all chronic degenerative disease. Eating this way will help you convert from carb burning mode to fat burning.

Dr. Thomas Seyfried is one of the leading pioneer academic researchers in promoting how to treat cancer nutritionally. He’s been teaching neurogenetics and neurochemistry as it relates to cancer treatment at Yale University and Boston College for the past 25 years.

He’s written over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters, and has also published a book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer.

Ketogenic Diet Accepted as First Line Approach for Epilepsy; Is Cancer Next?

The ketogenic diet has actually been used for managing seizures in children for quite some time. While Dr. Seyfried and his team worked on brain cancer and epilepsy in mice, one of his students suggested investigating whether or not a ketogenic diet might also be effective against tumors.

So, in the late ‘90s, they began dovetailing their work on ketogenic diets and epilepsy and cancer together, eventually bringing them to a better understanding of how changing your whole-body metabolic state can be effective in targeting and eliminating tumor cells.

Interestingly, clinical medicine has recognized the ketogenic diet as a valuable option in the treatment of epilepsy since the late 90’s.

“I served as the organizer for the Ketogenic Diet Special Interest Group at the American Epilepsy Society,” Dr. Seyfried says.

“We initially started as a small focus group with the folks from Johns Hopkins Medical School, where the diet has had its greatest use and impact. And then we started to grow and substantially increase interest mainly through the efforts of Jim Abrahams.

Jim started the Charlie Foundation for his son Charlie, who went through a near-death experience from seizures and was rescued using ketogenic diets. His colleague, Meryl Streep, the famous movie actress, became very involved in this.

Now the ketogenic diet is receiving considerable attention in the epilepsy community as a first line of approach. Although this is still not widely accepted, I have to admit that the ketogenic diet is now recognized as an important component for the management of refractory seizures in children.”

According to Dr. Seyfried, the mechanism by which the ketogenic diet manages seizures is not nearly as clear as the way the ketogenic diet manages cancer. This is ironic considering that it’s barely known, let alone applied, within oncology circles, while it’s already a first line of treatment for epilepsy. In the case of cancer, it’s well-established that it’s the glucose reduction that kills the cancer cells.

Cancer Is a Mitochondrial Metabolic Disease

Dr. Seyfried has developed a process called metabolic control analysis, which essentially analyzes the metabolic flux through different pathways that occurs when you transition your body from one major fuel source to another major fuel source, to maintain energy homeostasis in your body. Many believe or are under the impression that cancer is primarily a genetic disease, but Dr. Seyfried dispels such notions.

“We’re not going to make major advances in the management of cancer until it becomes recognized as a metabolic disease. But in order to do that, you have to present a massive counterargument against the gene theory of cancer,” he says.

“One of the key issues here is that if you transplant the nucleus of a cancer cell into a normal cell, you don’t get cancer cells. You can actually get normal tissues and sometimes a whole normal organism from the nucleus of a cancer cell. Now, if the tumors are being driven by driver genes –  all these kinds of mutations and things that we hear about –  how is it possible that all of this is changed when you place this cancer nucleus into the cytoplasm of a cell with normal mitochondria?

The gene theory cannot address this. It clearly argues strongly against the concept that genes are driving this process.  Actually, a very few people inherit genes that predispose them to cancer. Most people inherit genes that prevent cancer. And those few genes that are inherited – the germ line like the BRCA1 mutations, B53, and a few other very rare cancers – these inherited mutations appear to disrupt the function of the mitochondria.”

According to Dr. Seyfried, the mitochondria—the main power generators in your cells—are the central point in the origin of most cancers. Your mitochondria can be damaged not only by inherited mutations, thereby increasing your risk for a particular type of cancer, such as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations that increase your risk of breast and ovarian cancer. They can also be damaged by environmental factors, such as toxins and radiation, both ionizing and non-ionizing. Over time, damage to your mitochondria can lead to dysfunction and tumor formation.

“It’s ultimately a disease of the mitochondrial energy metabolism, which is the origin of the disease,” Dr. Seyfried says. “[O]nce the mitochondria become dysfunctional or insufficient in ability, mutations will occur. The drugs that have been developed based on the genome projects have been largely ineffective in providing long-term care and are associated with toxic effects. As long as the field continues to focus on that part of the disease, which is a downstream epiphenomenon, there will be no major advances in the field simply because that’s not the relevant aspect of the disease.”

Sugar Is the Primary Fuel for Most Cancers

Controlling your blood-glucose leptin and insulin levels through diet, exercise and emotional stress relief can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer recovery program. These factors are also crucial in order to prevent cancer in the first place.In 1931, the Nobel Prize was awarded to German researcher Dr. Otto Warburg, who discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells, and that malignant tumors tend to feed on sugar. More recently, researchers discovered that while cancer cells feed on both glucose and fructose, pancreatic tumor cells use fructose specifically to divide and proliferate.

Dr. Seyfried’s work confirms that sugar is the primary fuel for cancer, and that by restricting sugar and providing an alternate fuel, namely fat, you can dramatically reduce the rate of growth of cancer. He explains:

“When we’re dealing with glucose and [cancer] management, we know from a large number of studies that if respiration of the tumor is ineffective, in order to survive, the cells must use an alternative source of energy, which is fermentation. We know that glucose is the primary fuel for fermentation. Fermentation becomes a primary energy-generating process in the tumor cell. By targeting the fuel for that process, we then have the capability of potentially managing the disease.”

The strategy Dr. Seyfried suggests is a low-carb, low to moderate protein, high-fat diet, which will effectively lower your blood sugar. This is an easily measurable parameter that you can check using a diabetic blood glucose meter. This type of diet, called a ketogenic diet, will also elevate ketone bodies, as fat is metabolized to ketones that your body can burn in the absence of food. When combined with calorie restriction, the end result will put your body in a metabolic state that is inhospitable to cancer cells.

“[Ketones] is a fat breakdown product that can replace glucose as a major fuel for many of the organs and especially our brain,” he says.

Tumor cells, however, cannot use ketone bodies because of their respiratory insufficiency. So the ketogenic diet represents an elegant, non-toxic way to target and marginalize tumor cells. It also allows you to dramatically lower your glucose levels, as the ketones will protect your body against any hypoglycemia that might otherwise be induced by carb restriction.

“All of the newer cells in your body will be transitioned to these effective ketones, thereby preventing them from damage from hypoglycemia. At the same time, the tumor cells are now marginalized and under tremendous metabolic stress. It’s a whole body therapy—you need to bring the whole body into this metabolic state,” he explains.

“We like to call it a new state of metabolic homeostasis: a state where ketones have reached the steady state level in your blood and glucose has reached a steady lower level in your blood... If it’s done right and implemented right, it has powerful therapeutic benefits on the majority of people who suffer from various kinds of cancers. Because all cancers have primarily the same metabolic defect.” 

For Cancer Protection, Reverse Your Glucose to Ketone Ratios

Dr. Seyfried uses ketones and glucose as the measures of this new metabolic state. The parameters associated with an ideal state are ketone levels equal to or higher than the glucose level in your blood.

“There’s a high ratio of glucose to ketones. But in a fasted or therapeutic state, this ratio is actually reversed. Ketones can actually become higher than glucose,” he says. “What they can do is they can get their blood sugars down to 2.5 to 3 millimolar [equivalent to about 55-65 mg/dl], and then their ketones to up to 3 or 4 millimolar, where the ratio is now reversed. It’s this state that now brings the body into this new physiology.”

You can easily check your glucose levels at home, you’d need to work with a doctor to measure ketone levels in your blood. Generally speaking, a fasting glucose under 100 mg/dl suggests that you're not insulin resistant, while a level between 100-125 suggests you're either mildly insulin resistant or pre-diabetic. Here, Dr. Seyfried recommends getting your glucose down to a steady level of about 55-65 mg/dl, which is about HALF of what’s conventionally considered “good” or “normal.”

Blood ketones can be easily measured using the Medisense Precision Xtra blood glucose and ketone monitor from Abbot Laboratory. As many pharmacies might not stock the meter (bar code #, 93815 80347), it might be necessary to call Abbott directly (1-800-527 3339) to obtain the meter. According to Dr. Seyfried, the Precision Xtra seems the most accurate of all the ones he’s used.

It is important to mention, however, that the blood ketone strips are more expensive than the blood glucose strips. Dr. Seyfried therefore recommends measuring your blood ketones every few days rather than 3x/day for blood glucose. Although urine ketone measurement is a cheap way to assess ketones, urine ketone levels are not always indicative of blood ketone levels. It is best if you can measure ketones from both blood and urine.

“I work with nutritionists and physicians,” Dr. Seyfried says. “The problem with cancer patients is that many of the practitioners are unfamiliar with this whole approach, so there’s this tremendous gap. We have knowledge of how to do this. We have patients willing to do it. But we lack professionals that are trained or even understand the concepts of how to implement these kinds of approaches.”

All of the guidelines are included in Dr. Seyfried’s book, Cancer as Metabolic Disease, which is available on Amazon. He’s also published a couple of papers ¹,² that outline the guidelines and treatment strategies for cancer patients. One caveat to consider is your use of medications, as you need to know what the adverse effects might be if you use a medication at a particular dosage along with this kind of metabolic therapy.

The Importance of Intermittent Fasting

In my experience, the vast majority of people are adapted to burning carbs as their primary fuel, as opposed to burning fat. One of the most effective strategies I know of to become a fat burner is to restrict your eating to within a six- to eight-hour window, which means you’re fasting for about 16-18 hours each day. This upregulates the enzymes that are designed to burn fat as a fuel, and downregulates the glucose enzymes. This kind of intermittent fasting plan can be a useful modality to help you make the transition to a ketogenic diet.

“That’s the way it started in the clinic for children with epilepsy. Basically, the child is given a 24-hour and sometimes 48-hour fast – water only. And then the ketogenic diet is introduced in relatively measured and small amounts,” Dr. Seyfried says.

“Your body transitions naturally that way. Intermittent fasting is actually a very strong component of the approach. A three-day fast is uncomfortable, but it’s certainly doable. It gets your body into a new metabolic state, and then you can apply these therapies. The hardest part, I think, of this fasting is the first three to four days, depending on the individual and how many times they’ve done this.

That’s basically trying to break your addiction to glucose. The removal of glucose from the brain elicits the same kind of problems or events as you would if you were addicted to drugs, alcohol, or something like this. You get malaise, headaches, nausea, lightheadedness. You get all the kinds of physiological effects that you would get from withdrawal of any addicting substance. I look at glucose as an addictive substance. It’s an addictive metabolite. Your brain is comforted by having glucose; your body is comforted. And when you break that glucose addiction, you have these particular feelings.

... Fasting certainly has remarkable health benefits to the body: strengthening the mitochondria network system within the cells of your body. As long as the mitochondria of your cells remain healthy and functional, it’s very unlikely that cancer can develop under these particular states.”

Unless you have a very serious disease, I believe it is best for most people to implement intermittent fasting slowly over six to eight weeks rather than a three-day complete fast. You begin by not eating for three hours before you go to bed, and then gradually extend the time you eat breakfast until you have skipped breakfast entirely and your first meal of the day is at lunch time. Of course, you are only consuming non-starchy vegetables for carbs, low to moderate protein and high-quality fats. One of the things I’ve noticed is that once you’ve made the transition from burning carbs to burning fat as your primary fuel, the desire for junk foods and sugar just disappears like magic.

The Potential Role of Protein in Cancer Formation

Glutamine--one of the most common amino acids found in proteins—is another interesting aspect of cancer that Dr. Seyfried is still investigating. In his opinion, most oncologists who do cancer metabolism recognize that sugar (both glucose and fructose) is the prime fuel for driving tumor growth. However, mounting research also indicates that glucose and glutamine together act powerfully and synergistically on the growth of tumor cells.

“These two fuels work together in concert to provide a continual growth,” he says.

One of my early mentors was Dr. Ron Rosedale. He taught me, about 20 years ago, about the importance of insulin control and then, more recently, about the importance of reducing protein intake, for this very reason. Most Americans likely eat far more protein than they really need, and this excess could be a factor in cancer. The Paleo approach makes sense on many levels, especially with regards to intermittent fasting and lowering your glucose levels. The Paleo approach is very clear about reducing grains and any food that raises your blood sugar. But there are, of course, two other macronutrients left: fat and protein.

Many Paleo followers are overly concerned about getting high amounts of protein, which could increase your glutamine and branched chained amino acid levels, which in turn tend to activate mTOR. In some, that could be problematic. According to Dr. Rosedale’s research, the pathway known as the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), is controlled by lowering your protein intake. This pathway may be another metabolic pathway that helps control and prevent cancer growth.

Calorie Restriction Is a Key Part of the Equation

Dr. Seyfried, however, is more cautious in his evaluation of mTOR and reducing protein for cancer prevention. In his view, the most important aspect of cancer prevention and treatment is the intermittent fasting, or overall calorie restriction, which includes eating less of everything, period. But while calories from carbohydrates should be virtually eliminated, calories from protein just need to be reduced, while most need to increase their intake of healthful fats to get a more ideal ratio of fat to protein. As far as the specific types of fats recommended, Dr. Seyfried uses medium-chain triglycerides, i.e. coconut oil, butter, macadamia nuts, and other types of saturated fats, which is what I’ve long recommended as well. “The saturated fats are converted to ketones much more readily than polyunsaturated fats,” he explains.

So, keep in mind that for cancer prevention and treatment, the actual calorie restriction is an important part of the equation:

“We did some studies on this with our model of glioma... The mTOR in our model was not dramatically changed by these metabolic therapies. But I know others have reported it, and this could be an important component for certain other kinds of cancers. But my limited work with this did not demonstrate this to be a major issue, at least in the glioma model that we looked at. We showed that you could give animals a high-fat, low-protein diet, as much as they want (zero carbs in this diet), and their blood glucose was just as high or higher than the mice that were eating the protein-carb diet.

It was more or less related to the total consumption of calories. Most calories boil down to glucose. Proteins will be metabolized to glucose. Carbs are metabolized to glucose; fats are not... We don’t get any therapeutic benefit either in epilepsy or cancer when we allow the animals or people to eat as much of these high-fat diets as they want. We get no therapeutic benefit.

Therapeutic benefit comes from the restriction of the calories in the diet. The ketogenic diet or a low-carb, low-protein diet is simply a way to take the sting out of a therapeutic fast. Because as long as the glucose and ketones can get into the metabolic range (and you can do it with eating small amounts of a high-fat diet rather than therapeutic fasting), then that just makes people feel a little better about how they’re doing this rather than feeling that I’m starving to death.”

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

I recently interviewed Dr. D’Agostino who is another cancer as a metabolic disease researcher. He published a recent paper³ that shows a phenomenal synergy with a ketogenic diet and the use of hyperbaric oxygen for cancers that have metastasized. These types of cancers are notoriously difficult to treat. I would strongly encourage anyone struggling with this challenge to consider this type of therapy.

More Information

From my perspective, it’s nothing short of medical malpractice and negligence to fail to integrate this type of dietary strategy into a patient’s cancer treatment plan (along with optimizing vitamin D). A ketogenic diet along with intermittent fasting can be easily integrated into whatever cancer treatment plan you decide to follow. Personally, I believe it’s absolutely crucial, no matter what type of cancer you’re trying to address.

That said, remember that a ketogenic diet, in which you replace carbs with low to moderate amounts of protein and high amounts of beneficial fat, like avocado, coconut oil, butter, olive oil and macadamia nuts is recommended for everyone, whether you have cancer or not. It’s a diet that will help optimize your weight and health overall, as eating this way will help you convert from carb burning mode, to fat burning.

To get more specifics about using a ketogenic diet and calorie restriction for the treatment of cancer, I highly recommend picking up Dr. Seyfried’s book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease. You can also review his papers,⁴,⁵ which outline the guidelines and treatment strategies for cancer patients. If you’re a cancer patient, I’d recommend printing them out for your oncologist.

He also has a Facebook page⁶ for his book, and a website connected to the Boston College Biology Department⁷ where you can get more information about his work.

  Ketogenic Diet May Be Key to Cancer Recovery

  How to Starve Cancer Out of Your Body - Avoid These Top 4 Cancer-Feeding Foods

  Dramatically Effective New Natural Way to Starve Cancer and Obesity

By Dr. Mercola

Could a ketogenic diet eventually be a “standard of care” drug-free treatment for cancer? Personally, I believe it’s absolutely crucial, for whatever type of cancer you’re trying to address, and hopefully some day it will be adopted as a first line of treatment.

A ketogenic diet calls for eliminating all but non-starchy vegetable carbohydrates, and replacing them with healthy fats and high quality protein.

The premise is that since cancer cells need glucose to thrive, and carbohydrates turn into glucose in your body, then lowering the glucose level in your blood though carb and protein restriction, literally starves the cancer cells into oblivion.  Additionally, low protein intake tends to minimize the mTOR pathway that accelerates cell proliferation.

This type of diet, in which you restrict all but non-starchy vegetable carbs and replace them with low to moderate amounts of high quality protein and high amounts of beneficial fat, is what I recommend for everyone, whether you have cancer or not. It’s a diet that will help optimize your weight and  all chronic degenerative disease. Eating this way will help you convert from carb burning mode to fat burning.

Dr. Thomas Seyfried is one of the leading pioneer academic researchers in promoting how to treat cancer nutritionally. He’s been teaching neurogenetics and neurochemistry as it relates to cancer treatment at Yale University and Boston College for the past 25 years.

He’s written over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters, and has also published a book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer.

Ketogenic Diet Accepted as First Line Approach for Epilepsy; is Cancer Next?

The ketogenic diet has actually been used for managing seizures in children for quite some time. While Dr. Seyfried and his team worked on brain cancer and epilepsy in mice, one of his students suggested investigating whether or not a ketogenic diet might also be effective against tumors.

So, in the late ‘90s, they began dovetailing their work on ketogenic diets and epilepsy and cancer together, eventually bringing them to a better understanding of how changing your whole-body metabolic state can be effective in targeting and eliminating tumor cells.

Interestingly, clinical medicine has recognized the ketogenic diet as a valuable option in the treatment of epilepsy since the late 90’s.

“I served as the organizer for the Ketogenic Diet Special Interest Group at the American Epilepsy Society,” Dr. Seyfried says.

“We initially started as a small focus group with the folks from Johns Hopkins Medical School, where the diet has had its greatest use and impact. And then we started to grow and substantially increase interest mainly through the efforts of Jim Abrahams.

Jim started the Charlie Foundation for his son Charlie, who went through a near-death experience from seizures and was rescued using ketogenic diets. His colleague, Meryl Streep, the famous movie actress, became very involved in this.

Now the ketogenic diet is receiving considerable attention in the epilepsy community as a first line of approach. Although this is still not widely accepted, I have to admit that the ketogenic diet is now recognized as an important component for the management of refractory seizures in children.”

According to Dr. Seyfried, the mechanism by which the ketogenic diet manages seizures is not nearly as clear as the way the ketogenic diet manages cancer. This is ironic considering that it’s barely known, let alone applied, within oncology circles, while it’s already a first line of treatment for epilepsy. In the case of cancer, it’s well-established that it’s the glucose reduction that kills the cancer cells.

Cancer is a Mitochondrial Metabolic Disease

Dr. Seyfried has developed a process called metabolic control analysis, which essentially analyzes the metabolic flux through different pathways that occurs when you transition your body from one major fuel source to another major fuel source, to maintain energy homeostasis in your body. Many believe or are under the impression that cancer is primarily a genetic disease, but Dr. Seyfried dispels such notions.

“We’re not going to make major advances in the management of cancer until it becomes recognized as a metabolic disease. But in order to do that, you have to present a massive counterargument against the gene theory of cancer,” he says.

“One of the key issues here is that if you transplant the nucleus of a cancer cell into a normal cell, you don’t get cancer cells. You can actually get normal tissues and sometimes a whole normal organism from the nucleus of a cancer cell. Now, if the tumors are being driven by driver genes –  all these kinds of mutations and things that we hear about –  how is it possible that all of this is changed when you place this cancer nucleus into the cytoplasm of a cell with normal mitochondria?

The gene theory cannot address this. It clearly argues strongly against the concept that genes are driving this process.  Actually, a very few people inherit genes that predispose them to cancer. Most people inherit genes that prevent cancer. And those few genes that are inherited – the germ line like the BRCA1 mutations, B53, and a few other very rare cancers – these inherited mutations appear to disrupt the function of the mitochondria.”

According to Dr. Seyfried, the mitochondria—the main power generators in your cells—are the central point in the origin of most cancers. Your mitochondria can be damaged not only by inherited mutations, thereby increasing your risk for a particular type of cancer, such as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations that increase your risk of breast- and ovarian cancer. They can also be damaged by environmental factors, such as toxins and radiation, both ionizing and non-ionizing. Over time, damage to your mitochondria can lead to dysfunction and tumor formation.

“It’s ultimately a disease of the mitochondrial energy metabolism, which is the origin of the disease,” Dr. Seyfried says. “[O]nce the mitochondria become dysfunctional or insufficient in ability, mutations will occur. The drugs that have been developed based on the genome projects have been largely ineffective in providing long-term care and are associated with toxic effects. As long as the field continues to focus on that part of the disease, which is a downstream epiphenomenon, there will be no major advances in the field simply because that’s not the relevant aspect of the disease.”

Sugar is the Primary Fuel for Most Cancers

Controlling your blood-glucose leptin and insulin levels through diet, exercise and emotional stress relief can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer recovery program. These factors are also crucial in order to prevent cancer in the first place.In 1931 the Nobel Prize was awarded to German researcher Dr. Otto Warburg, who discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells, and that malignant tumors tend to feed on sugar. More recently, researchers discovered that while cancer cells feed on both glucose and fructose, pancreatic tumor cells use fructose specifically to divide and proliferate.

Dr. Seyfried’s work confirms that sugar is the primary fuel for cancer, and that by restricting sugar and providing an alternate fuel, namely fat, you can dramatically reduce the rate of growth of cancer. He explains:

“When we’re dealing with glucose and [cancer] management, we know from a large number of studies that if respiration of the tumor is ineffective, in order to survive, the cells must use an alternative source of energy, which is fermentation. We know that glucose is the primary fuel for fermentation. Fermentation becomes a primary energy-generating process in the tumor cell. By targeting the fuel for that process, we then have the capability of potentially managing the disease.”

The strategy Dr. Seyfried suggests is a low-carb, low to moderate protein, high-fat diet, which will effectively lower your blood sugar. This is an easily measurable parameter that you can check using a diabetic blood glucose meter. This type of diet, called a ketogenic diet, will also elevate ketone bodies, as fat is metabolized to ketones that your body can burn in the absence of food. When combined with calorie restriction, the end result will put your body in a metabolic state that is inhospitable to cancer cells.

“[Ketones] is a fat breakdown product that can replace glucose as a major fuel for many of the organs and especially our brain,” he says.

Tumor cells, however, cannot use ketone bodies because of their respiratory insufficiency. So the ketogenic diet represents an elegant, non-toxic way to target and marginalize tumor cells. It also allows you to dramatically lower your glucose levels, as the ketones will protect your body against any hypoglycemia that might otherwise be induced by carb restriction.

“All of the newer cells in your body will be transitioned to these effective ketones, thereby preventing them from damage from hypoglycemia. At the same time, the tumor cells are now marginalized and under tremendous metabolic stress. It’s a whole body therapy—you need to bring the whole body into this metabolic state,” he explains.

“We like to call it a new state of metabolic homeostasis: a state where ketones have reached the steady state level in your blood and glucose has reached a steady lower level in your blood... “If it’s done right and implemented right, it has powerful therapeutic benefits on the majority of people who suffer from various kinds of cancers. Because all cancers have primarily the same metabolic defect.” 

For Cancer Protection, Reverse Your Glucose to Ketone Ratios

Dr. Seyfried uses ketones and glucose as the measures of this new metabolic state. The parameters associated with an ideal state are ketone levels equal to or higher than the glucose level in your blood.

“There’s a high ratio of glucose to ketones. But in a fasted or therapeutic state, this ratio is actually reversed. Ketones can actually become higher than glucose,” he says. “What they can do is they can get their blood sugars down to 2.5 to 3 millimolar [equivalent to about 55-65 mg/dl], and then their ketones to up to 3 or 4 millimolar, where the ratio is now reversed. It’s this state that now brings the body into this new physiology.”

You can easily check your glucose levels at home, you’d need to work with a doctor to measure ketone levels in your blood. Generally speaking, a fasting glucose under 100 mg/dl suggests that you're not insulin resistant, while a level between 100-125 suggests you're either mildly insulin resistant or pre-diabetic.  Here, Dr. Seyfried recommends getting your glucose down to a steady level of about 55-65 mg/dl, which is about HALF of what’s conventionally considered “good” or “normal.”

Blood ketones can be easily measured using the Medisense Precision Xtra blood glucose and ketone monitor from Abbot Laboratory.  As many pharmacies might not stock the meter (bar code #, 93815 80347), it might be necessary to call Abbott directly (1-800-527 3339) to obtain the meter.  According to Dr. Seyfried, the Precision Xtra seems the most accurate of all the ones he’s used.

It is important to mention, however, that the blood ketone strips are more expensive than the blood glucose strips.  Dr. Seyfried therefore recommends measuring your blood ketones every few days rather than 3x/day for blood glucose.  Although urine ketone measurement is a cheap way to assess ketones, urine ketone levels are not always indicative of blood ketone levels.  It is best if you can measure ketones from both blood and urine.

“I work with nutritionists and physicians,” Dr. Seyfried says. “The problem with cancer patients is that many of the practitioners are unfamiliar with this whole approach, so there’s this tremendous gap. We have knowledge of how to do this. We have patients willing to do it. But we lack professionals that are trained or even understand the concepts of how to implement these kinds of approaches.”

All of the guidelines are included in Dr. Seyfried’s book, Cancer as Metabolic Disease, which is available on Amazon. He’s also published a couple of papers ¹,² that outline the guidelines and treatment strategies for cancer patients.  One caveat to consider is your use of medications, as you need to know what the adverse effects might be if you use a medication at a particular dosage along with this kind of metabolic therapy.

The Importance of Intermittent Fasting

In my experience, the vast majority of people are adapted to burning carbs as their primary fuel, as opposed to burning fat. One of the most effective strategies I know of to become a fat burner is to restrict your eating to within a six- to eight- hour window, which means you’re fasting for about 16-18 hours each day. This upregulates the enzymes that are designed to burn fat as a fuel, and downregulates the glucose enzymes.  This kind of intermittent fasting plan can be a useful modality to help you make the transition to a ketogenic diet.

“That’s the way it started in the clinic for children with epilepsy. Basically, the child is given a 24-hour and sometimes 48-hour fast – water only. And then the ketogenic diet is introduced in relatively measured and small amounts,” Dr. Seyfried says.

“Your body transitions naturally that way. Intermittent fasting is actually a very strong component of the approach. A three-day fast is uncomfortable, but it’s certainly doable. It gets your body into a new metabolic state, and then you can apply these therapies.  The hardest part, I think, of this fasting is the first three to four days, depending on the individual and how many times they’ve done this.

That’s basically trying to break your addiction to glucose. The removal of glucose from the brain elicits the same kind of problems or events as you would if you were addicted to drugs, alcohol, or something like this. You get malaise, headaches, nausea, lightheadedness. You get all the kinds of physiological effects that you would get from withdrawal of any addicting substance. I look at glucose as an addictive substance. It’s an addictive metabolite. Your brain is comforted by having glucose; your body is comforted. And when you break that glucose addiction, you have these particular feelings.

... Fasting certainly has remarkable health benefits to the body: strengthening the mitochondria network system within the cells of your body. As long as the mitochondria of your cells remain healthy and functional, it’s very unlikely that cancer can develop under these particular states.”

Unless you have a very serious disease, I believe it is best for most people to implement intermittent fasting slowly over six to eight weeks rather than a three day complete fast. You begin by not eating for three hours before you go to bed, and then gradually extend the time  you eat breakfast until you have skipped breakfast entirely and your first meal of the day is at lunch time.  Of course you are only consuming non-starchy vegetables for carbs, low to moderate protein and high quality fats. One of the things I’ve noticed is that once you’ve made the transition from burning carbs to burning fat as your primary fuel, the desire for junk foods and sugar just disappears like magic.

The Potential Role of Protein in Cancer Formation

Glutamine-- one of the most common amino acids  found in proteins—is another interesting aspect of cancer that Dr. Seyfried is still investigating. In his opinion, most oncologists who do cancer metabolism recognize that sugar (both glucose and fructose) is the prime fuel for driving tumor growth. However, mounting research also indicates that glucose and glutamine together act powerfully and synergistically on the growth of tumor cells.

“These two fuels work together in concert to provide a continual growth,” he says.

One of my early mentors was Dr. Ron Rosedale. He taught me, about 20 years ago, about the importance of insulin control and then, more recently, about the importance of reducing protein intake, for this very reason. Most Americans likely eat far more protein than they really need, and this excess could be a factor in cancer. The Paleo approach makes sense on many levels, especially with regards to intermittent fasting and lowering your glucose levels. The Paleo approach is very clear about reducing grains and any food that raises your blood sugar. But there are, of course, two other macronutrients left: fat and protein.

Many Paleo followers are overly concerned about getting high amounts of protein, which could increase your glutamine and branched chained amino acid levels, which in turn tend to activate mTOR. In some, that could be problematic. According to Dr. Rosedale’s research, the pathway known as the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), is controlled by lowering your protein intake. This pathway may be another metabolic pathway that helps control and prevent cancer growth.

Calorie Restriction is a Key Part of the Equation

Dr. Seyfried, however, is more cautious in his evaluation of mTOR and reducing protein for cancer prevention. In his view, the most important aspect of cancer prevention and treatment is the intermittent fasting, or overall calorie restriction, which includes eating less of everything, period.  But while calories from carbohydrates should be virtually eliminated, calories from protein just need to be reduced, while most need to increase their intake of healthful fats to get a more ideal ratio of fat to protein. As far as the specific types of fats recommended, Dr. Seyfried uses medium-chain triglycerides, i.e. coconut oil, butter, macadamia nuts, and other types of saturated fats, which is what I’ve long recommended as well. “The saturated fats are converted to ketones much more readily than polyunsaturated fats,” he explains.

So, keep in mind that for cancer prevention and treatment, the actual calorie restriction is an important part of the equation:

“We did some studies on this with our model of glioma... The mTOR in our model was not dramatically changed by these metabolic therapies. But I know others have reported it, and this could be an important component for certain other kinds of cancers. But my limited work with this did not demonstrate this to be a major issue, at least in the glioma model that we looked at. We showed that you could give animals a high-fat, low-protein diet, as much as they want (zero carbs in this diet), and their blood glucose was just as high or higher than the mice that were eating the protein-carb diet.

It was more or less related to the total consumption of calories. Most calories boil down to glucose. Proteins will be metabolized to glucose. Carbs are metabolized to glucose; fats are not... We don’t get any therapeutic benefit either in epilepsy or cancer when we allow the animals or people to eat as much of these high-fat diets as they want. We get no therapeutic benefit.

Therapeutic benefit comes from the restriction of the calories in the diet.  The ketogenic diet or a low-carb, low-protein diet is simply a way to take the sting out of a therapeutic fast. Because as long as the glucose and ketones can get into the metabolic range (and you can do it with eating small amounts of a high-fat diet rather than therapeutic fasting), then that just makes people feel a little better about how they’re doing this rather than feeling that I’m starving to death.”

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

I recently interviewed Dr. D’Agostino who is another cancer as a metabolic disease researcher. He published a recent paper³ that shows a phenomenal synergy with a ketogenic diet and the use of hyperbaric oxygen for cancers that have metastasized.  These types of cancers are notoriously difficult to treat. I would strongly encourage anyone struggling with this challenge to consider this type of therapy.

More Information

From my perspective, it’s nothing short of medical malpractice and negligence to fail to integrate this type of dietary strategy into a patient’s cancer treatment plan (along with optimizing vitamin D). A ketogenic diet along with intermittent fasting can be easily integrated into whatever cancer treatment plan you decide to follow. Personally, I believe it’s absolutely crucial, no matter what type of cancer you’re trying to address.

That said, remember that a ketogenic diet, in which you replace carbs with low to moderate amounts of protein and high amounts of beneficial fat, like avocado, coconut oil, butter, olive oil and macadamia nuts is recommended for everyone, whether you have cancer or not. It’s a diet that will help optimize your weight and health overall, as eating this way will help you convert from carb burning mode, to fat burning.

To get more specifics about using a ketogenic diet and calorie restriction for the treatment of cancer, I highly recommend picking up Dr. Seyfried’s book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease. You can also review his papers,⁴,⁵ which outline the guidelines and treatment strategies for cancer patients. If you’re a cancer patient, I’d recommend printing them out for your oncologist.

He also has a Facebook page⁶ for his book, and a website connected to the Boston College Biology Department⁷ where you can get more information about his work.

  Ketogenic Diet May Be Key to Cancer Recovery

  How to Starve Cancer Out of Your Body - Avoid These Top 4 Cancer-Feeding Foods

  Dramatically Effective New Natural Way to Starve Cancer and Obesity

By Dr. Mercola

Killer at Large¹, a documentary film by Steven Greenstreet, tackles the topic of obesity, a problem of truly epic proportions where misinformation is a major driver. According to former Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, quoted in the film:

“Obesity is a terror [threat] within; it's destroying our society from within and unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9/11 or any other terrorist event that you can point out."

Presently, a full two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Childhood obesity has also skyrocketed, tripling over the past 30 years. One in three children between the ages of 10 and 17 is now overweight or obese, and 27 percent of young adults, 17 to 24, are too heavy to join the military.

As a result, today’s children may be the first generation whose life expectancy is shorter than that of their parents...

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 110,000 Americans die as a result of obesity each year, and about one-third of all cancers are directly related to it.

Data collected from over 60,000 Canadians also shows that obesity now leads to more doctor visits than smoking. One in four Americans is also pre-diabetic or diabetic, and heart disease and cancer, both of which are associated with obesity, top the mortality charts.

Clearly, the issue of how to achieve good health has never been more pertinent to more people. Yet despite the enormity of this problem, very little is being done to effectively combat obesity.

The film examines the causes of obesity and suggests ways to reverse this deadly trend. Below, I sum up my own recommendations as well.

It’s quite clear that conventional diet and health recommendations are off the mark... Obesity and related health problems are directly attributable to flawed diet—a diet too high in carbs and poor-quality proteins, and too low in healthy fats.

Yet multinational food corporations and biotech companies have successfully manipulated the system to encourage an increase in the use of cheap foods that contribute to the obesity epidemic.

A recent report exposing the deep conflicts of interest between the processed food industry and the trade organization for food and nutrition professionals in the US also shatters any illusion you may have had that registered dieticians will provide you with well-researched, science-based nutrition advice that will improve your health...

Skyrocketing Obesity Is Related to Misleading You on Health Issues

Obesity is the result of inappropriate lifestyle choices, and unfortunately, our government has done an abysmal job at disseminating accurate information about diet and health. It’s one thing for corporations to put out misleading ads – honesty is not in the self-interest of the processed food and beverage industry. It’s another when the government falls in line with for-profit deception and becomes a propagator of corporate propaganda. And this is exactly what has happened... For example, conventional advice that is driving public health in the wrong direction includes:

• Cutting calories: Not all calories are created equal, and counting calories will not help you lose weight if you're consuming the wrong kind of calories
• Choosing diet foods will help you lose weight: Substances like Splenda (sucralose) and Equal or Nutrasweet (aspartame) may have zero calories, but your body isn't fooled. When it gets a "sweet" taste, it expects calories to follow, and when this doesn't occur it leads to distortions in your biochemistry that may actually lead to weight gain
• Avoiding saturated fat: The myth that saturated fat causes heart disease has undoubtedly harmed an incalculable number of lives over the past several decades, even though it all began as little more than a scientifically unsupported marketing strategy for Crisco cooking oil. Most people (myself included) actually need at least 50 to 70 percent of their diet as healthful fats such as organic, pastured eggs, avocados, coconut oil, real butter and grass-fed beef in order to optimize their health
• Reducing your cholesterol to extremely low levels: Cholesterol is actually NOT the major culprit in heart disease or any disease, and the guidelines that dictate what number your cholesterol levels should be to keep you "healthy" are fraught with conflict of interest -- and have never been proven to be good for your health

This is just a tiny sampling of the pervasive misleading information on weight and obesity disseminated by our government agencies. A more complete list of conventional health myths could easily fill several books. The reason behind this sad state of affairs is the fact that the very industries that profit from these lies are the ones funding most of the research; infiltrating our regulatory agencies; and bribing our political officials to support their financially-driven agenda through any number of legal, and at times not so legal, means.

Why Eating Fructose Is More Dangerous than Other Sugars

Part of what makesfructose so unhealthy is that it is metabolized by your liver to fat far more rapidly than any other sugar. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver, and it promotes visceral fat². This is the type of fat that collects around your organs and in your abdominal region and is associated with a greater risk of heart disease.

Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism, and his work reveals there are major differences in how different sugars are broken down and used. For example:

• After eating fructose, virtually all of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. With glucose or most other sugars, your liver has to break down only 20 percent. The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.
• Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is "burned up" immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.
• The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)³. Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.
• Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to glycerol-3-phosphate (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.
• When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat.
• Glucose suppresses your hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain's communication with leptin, resulting in overeating. That fructose triggers changes in your brain that may lead to overeating and weight gain has also been confirmed through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tests.

The Evolutionary Link Between Fructose Consumption and Fat Accumulation

No doubt you’ve heard that consuming more calories than you burn off is the root of your weight problem. Alas, this “conventional wisdom” has been firmly debunked by modern science. The fact is this: Not all calories count equally. It is in fact FAR more important to look at the source of the calories than counting them.

In short, you do not get fat because you eat too many calories and don't exercise enough. You get fat because you eat the wrong kind of calories.

As explained by Dr. Robert Lustig, fructose is "isocaloric but not isometabolic." This means you can have the same amount of calories from fructose or glucose, fructose and protein, or fructose and fat, but the metabolic effect will be entirely different despite the identical calorie count. This is a crucial point that must be understood.

The bottom line is that your consumption of carbohydrates, whether in the form of grains and sugars (especially fructose), will determine whether or not you're able to manage your weight and maintain optimal health. This is because these types of carbs (fructose and grains) affect the hormone insulin, which is a very potent fat regulator. Fats and proteins affect insulin to a far lesser degree.

As long as you keep eating fructose and grains, you're programming your body to create and store fat...

Research by another expert in this field, Dr. Richard Johnson, chief of the Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension at the University of Colorado and author of The Sugar Fix and The Fat Switch, further confirms this. His work demonstrates that fructose-containing sugars cause obesity, again not by calories, but by turning on your “fat switch”—a powerful biological adaptation that causes cells to accumulate fat in anticipation of scarcity (or hibernation). His most recent book, The Fat Switch, is of major importance to anyone who has ever struggled with their weight and/or persistent health issues. Five basic truths detailed in his book include:

• Large portions of food and too little exercise are NOT solely responsible for why you are gaining weight
• Metabolic Syndrome is actually a healthy adaptive condition that animals undergo to store fat to help them survive periods of famine. The problem is that most of us are always “feasting” and rarely undergo fasting. As a result, this beneficial switch actually causes damage to contemporary man
• Uric acid is increased by specific foods and causally contributes to obesity and insulin resistance
• Fructose-containing sugars cause obesity not by calories but by turning on the fat switch
• Effective treatment of obesity requires turning off your fat switch and improving the function of your cells’ mitochondria

I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book, which is a useful tool for those struggling with their weight. Dietary sugar, and fructose in particular, is a significant “tripper of your fat switch,” so understanding how sugars of all kinds affect your weight and health is imperative.

What Are the Sources of Your Daily Calories?

According to the 2010 Report by the Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans⁴, the top 10 sources of calories in the American diet are:

1. Grain-based desserts (cakes, cookies, donuts, pies, crisps, cobblers, and granola bars) 139 calories a day	6. Alcoholic beverages
2. Yeast breads, 129 calories a day	7. Pasta and pasta dishes
3. Chicken and chicken-mixed dishes, 121 calories a day	8. Mexican mixed dishes
4. Soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks, 114 calories a day	9. Beef and beef-mixed dishes
5. Pizza, 98 calories a day	10. Dairy desserts

 

As you can see, on the whole it’s easy to see that the dietary roots of the American weight problem is linked to carbs—sugars (primarily fructose) and grains—in the form of processed foods and sweet drinks. You’ve often heard me state that soda is the number one source of calories in the US diet, which it was, based on the 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The updated NHANES survey above covers nutritional data from 2005-2006, placing grain-based foods in the top two slots.

Still, soda comes in at number four, and I still believe many people, particularly teenagers, probably still get a majority of their calories from fructose-rich drinks like soda.

I strongly recommend ditching all sodas as a first step to clean up your diet and help normalize your insulin levels. I believe it’s one of the most powerful actions you can take to improve your health and lower your risk of disease and long-term chronic health conditions. Especially when you consider that just one can of soda per day can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight over the course of a single year, and increases your risk of diabetes by 85 percent! If you struggle with an addiction to soda and other sweets, I strongly recommend you consider Turbo Tapping. It's a simple and clever use of the Emotional Freedom Technique, designed to resolve many aspects of an issue in a concentrated period of time.

My Recommended Fructose Allowance

As a standard recommendation, I advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. For most people it would also be wise to limit your fructose from fruit to 15 grams or less, as you're virtually guaranteed to consume "hidden" sources of fructose through processed food and condiments.

There certainly are exceptions to this rule. People who are aggressively exercising can consume far more, especially if consuming the calories around the time of exercise, but generally, to optimize health, most will benefit from restricting their fructose input.

Fifteen grams of fructose is not much -- it represents two bananas, one-third cup of raisins, or two Medjool dates. Remember, the average 12-ounce can of soda contains 40 grams of sugar, at least half of which is fructose, so one can of soda alone would exceed your daily allotment. If your insulin and leptin signaling is fine and you have normal body weight and don’t suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, then consuming more fruit is reasonable.

In his book, The Sugar Fix, Dr. Richard Johnson includes detailed tables showing the content of fructose in different foods -- an information base that isn't readily available when you're trying to find out exactly how much fructose is in various foods. You can also find an abbreviated listing of the fructose content of common fruits in this previous article.

Key Point: Replace Carbs with Healthful Fats!

Keep in mind that when we're talking about harmful carbs, we're only referring to grains and sugars, NOT vegetable carbs. When you cut grain/sugar carbs, you then need to radically increase:

• The amount of vegetables you eat since, by volume, the grains you need to trade out are denser than vegetables, and
• Healthful fats such as avocados, coconut oil, organic pastured egg yolks, raw grass fed organic butter, olives, and nuts such as almonds and pecans.

Avoid highly processed and genetically engineered omega-6 oils like corn, canola and soy as they will upset your omega-6/3 ratio. Of course you want to avoid all trans fats, but contrary to popular advice, saturated fats are a key component of a healthy diet that will promote weight loss.

A reasonable goal will be to have as much as 50-70 percent of your diet as healthy fat, which will radically reduce your carbohydrate intake. It can be helpful to remember that fat is far more satiating than carbs, so if you have cut down on carbs and feel ravenous, this is a sign that you have not replaced them with sufficient amounts of healthy fat.

Most people will likely notice massive improvement in their health by following this approach as they are presently consuming FAR more grain and bean carbohydrates in their diet, and any reduction will be a step in the right direction. To help you get started on the right track, review my Nutritional Plan, which guides you through these dietary changes one step at a time.

You Can Avoid Becoming a Statistic

Perhaps one of the most powerful scientific discoveries to emerge in the past several years is that the old adage “a calorie is a calorie” is patently false. Furthermore, the idea that in order to lose weight all you have to do is expend more calories than you consume is equally false. The research clearly demonstrates that even if you control the number of calories you eat, if those calories come from fructose, you are at increased risk of obesity and pre-diabetes, which includes insulin and leptin resistance, fatty liver, high blood pressure and high triglycerides.

Conventional advice tells us that obesity is simply the result of eating too many calories and not exercising enough. However, Dr. Johnson’s research, discussed above, shows that a high fructose diet is one of the keys to trapping excess fat and developing metabolic disorders, and that as soon as you throw fructose into the mix, “calories in versus calories out” is no longer a functional equation.

In short, limiting fructose in all its forms, along with other sugars, is imperative in order to avoid “flipping the fat switch” that can trigger your body to accumulate excess fat. And replacing sugar and grain carbs with vegetables and healthful fats is the key to normalizing your weight, metabolic function, and overall health.

Intermittent fasting is another powerful tool that will help you transition your body from obtaining the majority of its fuel from glucose stored as glycogen in your muscles and liver, to the fat stored in your tissues. This is one of the most effective ways to burn your excess body fat, become lean, and eliminate sugar cravings.

  Latest News on Fructose/Sugar

  How the Sugar Industry Hoodwinked You about the Dangers of Sugar, Using Big Tobacco Tactics

  Obesity Epidemic Not Due to High Fructose Corn Syrup?

If your physician is overweight or obese, does it make him or her less able to give you sound medical advice?

Logically, you would say no, yet a new study published in the International Journal of Obesity¹ found that excess body weight impacts patients’ views of their physician.

When a physician was perceived to be overweight or obese, patients viewed him or her as less credible and trustworthy, and they were less inclined to follow the given medical advice.

This bias may not be fair; as mentioned, body weight obviously has little bearing on a physician’s ability to practice medicine. However, are such reservations justifiable?

It is most unfortunate that the vast majority of physicians who finish medical school are not highly motivated to follow truly healthy lifestyles, but more or less succumb to the powerful brainwashing influence of Big Pharma in their curriculum.

Research Shows Healthier Doctors Have Healthier Patients

You probably wouldn’t knowingly take driving lessons from an instructor who had carelessly totaled his car. Likewise, you may be less inclined to accept health advice from someone you perceive to be unhealthy.

An overweight physician may still be healthy but is likely to be perceived as less so than a physician who is fit. According to the recent study, overweight physicians were less trusted by both normal weight and overweight patients alike. The study’s lead author told the New York Times:²

“The bias against overweight people is so socially accepted that despite all the doctor’s training and expertise, it can jeopardize the doctor’s ability to have a conversation about health care with the patient.”

It’s a harsh finding, but there may be some reason to seek out the healthiest physicians. Separate research has shown, in fact, that healthier physicians tend to have healthier patients.³

Unfortunately, that particular study used practices like mammography and annual vaccinations, which are poor measures of true health as the markers, finding that patients whose physicians were compliant with these practices were more likely to have undergone these procedures themselves.

This suggests that other preventive measures practiced by physicians, such as healthful eating and exercise, may also transfer over to patients as well.

So the secret to finding the best health care provider for you may lie in seeking someone who is like-minded, more inclined to use natural therapies and lifestyle strategies before medicine, if that is important to you, as well as someone who practices what they preach. The study’s author noted:⁴

“It’s human nature. People usually preach what they practice. Personal adoption of a practice suggests that the doctors are sufficiently convinced of the importance of the intervention that they are motivated enough to even do it themselves, and perhaps they’ve figured out how to overcome access barriers that can enable patients, as well.”

Healthy Personal Behaviors Improve Physicians’ Credibility

Research has shown not only that physicians with healthy lifestyles are more likely to discuss such practices with their patients, but also that talking about these healthful personal habits improves their credibility and ability to motivate their patients to do the same.⁵ The correlation was so strong that researchers concluded:

“Educational institutions should consider encouraging health professionals-in-training to practice and demonstrate healthy personal lifestyles.”

Another study similarly found that healthy physicians can help motivate positive change for entire communities, noting:⁶

“Physician-directed interventions that advance these [health] principles are most effective when directed by clinicians who regularly participate in such healthy behaviors themselves.”

What does this mean for you? Choosing a physician shouldn’t only be about credentials and educational background but also about their personal lifestyle choices. Does your physician exercise? Does he or she embrace healthy eating habits and stress-reduction techniques? If so there’s a good chance these positive habits will get passed on to you.

You Don’t Need a Doctor to Learn How to Take Control of Your Health

It may be especially motivating to have your physician tell you to eat more vegetables or get more exercise, but you don’t need a physician to learn some of the most important variables to reaching optimal health.

The vast majority of deaths in wealthier countries like our own are due to chronic, not acute, disease. And most chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, are largely preventable with simple lifestyle changes. Even infectious diseases like the flu can often be warded off by a healthy way of life.

The added bonus to this is that the healthier you are, the less you will need to rely on conventional medical care, which is a leading cause of death. So while it’s a good idea to choose a doctor who leads a healthy lifestyle, it’s even better to lead one yourself! So what does a "healthy lifestyle" entail?

• Proper Food Choices

For a comprehensive guide on which foods to eat and which to avoid, see my nutrition plan. It's available for free, and is perhaps one of the most comprehensive and all-inclusive guides on a healthy lifestyle out there. Generally speaking, you should be looking to focus your diet on whole, ideally organic, unprocessed foods that come from healthy, sustainable, ideally local sources.

For the best nutrition and health benefits, you will want to eat the majority of your food raw. Nearly as important as knowing which foods to eat more of is knowing which foods to avoid, and topping the list is fructose. Sugar, and fructose in particular, can have a multitude of toxic effects when consumed in excess, not the least of which is insulin resistance, a major cause of accelerated aging and a crucial factor in driving virtually all chronic disease.

For most people (although there are clearly individual differences), a diet high in healthful fats (as high as 50-70 percent of the calories you eat), moderate amounts of high-quality protein, which is far less than the average amount most people eat, with the bulk of carbohydrates coming from high-nutrient, low-carbohydrate vegetables and very little carbohydrates from grains and sugars, will set you on the right track toward health.

• Comprehensive Exercise Program, including High-Intensity Exercise

Even if you're eating the healthiest diet in the world, you still need to exercise to reach the highest levels of health, and you need to be exercising effectively, which means including not only core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and stretching but also high-intensity activities into your rotation. High-intensity interval-type training like Peak Fitness boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor.

• Stress Reduction and Positive Thinking

You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease -- from heart disease and depression to arthritis and cancer. Effective coping mechanisms are a major longevity-promoting factor in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, energy psychology tools such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), social support and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.

• Optimize Vitamin D with Proper Sun Exposure

We have long known that it is best to get your vitamin D from appropriate sun exposure during times when UVB rays are present. Vitamin D plays an important role in preventing numerous illnesses ranging from cancer to the flu.

The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml year-round.

Sun exposure, or failing that, a safe tanning bed is the preferred method for optimizing vitamin D levels, but a vitamin D3 supplement can be used when necessary. Most adults need about 8,000 IU's of vitamin D a day to achieve serum levels above 40 ng/ml, which is still just below the minimum recommended serum level of 50 ng/ml.

Be aware that if you take supplemental vitamin D, you also need to make sure you're getting enough vitamin K2, as these two nutrients work in tandem to ensure calcium is distributed into the proper areas in your body.

• High-Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats

Animal-based omega-3 fat like krill oil is a strong factor in helping people live longer, and some experts believe that it may be one reason why the Japanese are the longest lived race on the planet.

• Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible

This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.

• Canadian Medical Association Journal May 14, 2013; 185(8):649-53

• International Journal of Obesity March 19, 2013

• NYTimes.com May 1, 2013

• Time.com April 9, 2013

  It’s Time to Change American Disease-Management into a Health-Fostering System

  What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Healthcare

  Find a Compassionate Doctor to Help You Prevent Vaccine Injuries

In the United States, Alzheimer's disease is currently at epidemic proportions, with 5.4 million Americans—including one in eight people aged 65 and over—living with the disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association's 2011 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures¹.

By 2050, this is expected to jump to 16 million, and in the next 20 years, it is projected that Alzheimer's will affect one in four Americans, rivaling the current prevalence of obesity and diabetes.

There is still no known cure for this devastating disease, and very few treatments. Alzheimer's drugs are often of little to no benefit at all, which underscores the importance of prevention throughout your lifetime.

Research repeatedly suggests the best hope for patients lies in prevention through optimal diet, exercise and staying socially and mentally active. As recently reported by Forbes²:

“[A] new study in Science suggested that last year’s ‘breakthrough’ pharmaceutical, bexarotene (Targretin) – a cancer drug that had initially received wide publicity for helping break up the plaques in Alzheimer’s – doesn’t seem to do this very well at all, and can have significant adverse side effects for the patient.

‘Something happened in that initial report – either something technically or otherwise, which we can’t put our hands on at this point in time,” study author Sangram Sisodia told US News & World Report. ‘Something is seriously wrong.’

While memory loss is common among Westerners, it is NOT a "normal" part of aging. Research has shown that even mild "senior moments" are caused by the same brain lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. These cognitive changes are by no means inevitable!

People who experience very little decline in their cognitive function up until their deaths have been found (post-mortem) to be free of brain lesions, showing that it's entirely possible to prevent the damage from occurring in the first place. At the end of this article, I share my best tips for maintaining healthy brain function well into old age.

In recent years, researchers studying natural compounds have offered new hope. For example, two recent studies suggest that compounds in cinnamon, as well as vitamins B12, B6, and folate may delay the onset and/or slow progression of the disease.

The Promise of Cinnamon and Vitamins in the Fight Against Alzheimer’s Disease

The first study in question, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease³, found that cinnamaldehyde and epicatechin, two compounds found in cinnamon, have an inhibitory effect on the aggregation of a particular protein called tau. Tau plays a large role in the structure and function of neurons.

But while a normal part of cell structures, this protein can begin to accumulate, forming “neurofibrillary tangles” that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Both compounds were found to protect tau from oxidative damage that can lead to dysfunction.

Donald Graves, adjunct professor in UCSB's Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and co-author of the study explained the protective process to Medical News Today⁴:

"'Take, for example, sunburn, a form of oxidative damage. If you wore a hat, you could protect your face and head from the oxidation. In a sense this cinnamaldehyde is like a cap. While it can protect the tau protein by binding to its vulnerable cysteine residues, it can also come off,' Graves added, which can ensure the proper functioning of the protein.”

It’s interesting to note that there’s a high correlation between type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. Some even believe Alzheimer’s may be a form of brain diabetes. Insulin and insulin receptors in your brain are crucial for learning and memory, and it’s known that these components are lower in people with Alzheimer’s disease.

In addition to the above findings, cinnamon has also been found to have beneficial effects on blood glucose management in type 2 diabetics. This is one of the reasons I include cinnamon in my healthy coconut candy recipe.

B Vitamins Again Show Promise in Alzheimer’s Prevention

The other study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences⁵, found that vitamins B6, B12, and folic acid may help slow the progression of the disease, confirming and supporting previous studies. As reported in the featured article⁶:

“The fact that B-family vitamins may play a significant role in dementia, or more specifically in warding it off has been consistently illustrated. What is news from the current study, however, is that high-dose B-vitamin treatment in people at risk for the disease ‘slowed shrinkage of whole brain volume,’ and especially reduced shrinkage in areas known to be affected in Alzheimer’s disease.”

The 156 study participants, all of whom were over the age of 70, were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. This, along with midlife hypertension, midlife obesity and diabetes, is a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s. One group of participants received a placebo while the other received high-dose B-vitamin treatment consisting of:

• 0.8 mg folic acid
• 20 mg vitamin B6
• 0.5 mg vitamin B12

It is important to note that vitamin B12 comes in many forms and it is typically injected because it is not absorbed well by most people, especially in the elderly who need it most. This is due to it being one of the largest vitamins known. The most common form is cyanocobalamin but a better from would be methylcobalamin. A better alternative to B12 injections would also be sublingual sprays, which are absorbed very similarly to the injections.

The treatment effectively slowed shrinkage of the whole brain volume over the course of two years. It also reduced, by as much as seven-fold, the cerebral atrophy in certain brain regions that are particularly vulnerable to damage associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Another major boon: The supplements cost less than 50 cents a day and are readily available in pharmacies and health-food stores. In the placebo group, higher homocysteine levels at baseline were associated with faster atrophy in these same regions. According to the researchers⁷:

“We... show that the beneficial effect of B vitamins is confined to participants with high homocysteine... and that, in these participants, a causal Bayesian network analysis indicates the following chain of events: B vitamins lower homocysteine, which directly leads to a decrease in gray matter atrophy, thereby slowing cognitive decline.

Our results show that B-vitamin supplementation can slow the atrophy of specific brain regions that are a key component of the AD process and that are associated with cognitive decline.”

Dr. A. David Smith, professor emeritus of pharmacology at Oxford University, founding director of the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing, and senior author of the study told Bloomberg News⁸ that this B-vitamin treatment is “the first and only disease-modifying treatment that’s worked. We have proved the concept that you can modify the disease.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who understands that without proper nutrition and exercise, your brain will be increasingly vulnerable to damage with age...

Vitamin B Cocktail Already Used for Dementia Prevention in Sweden

Three years ago, the same group of researchers showed that the atrophy rate in patients’ whole brains was reduced by about 30 percent in those taking the vitamin cocktail⁹. The atrophy rate was even higher—53 percent—in those who had elevated homocysteine levels, a benefit that was reconfirmed in the featured study. According to Bloomberg¹⁰:

“The studies, known as Vitacog, were funded by seven charities and government agencies and vitamin maker Meda AB of Solna, Sweden. Smith is an inventor on three patents held by Oxford University for B vitamin formulations to treat Alzheimer’s disease... Vitamin B12 is found in liver, fish and milk and folic acid in fruit and vegetables. Deficiency of folate and B vitamins is already linked to dementia...

Doctors in Sweden began measuring homocysteine in people who report declining memory about two years ago, said [Johan] Lokk [professor and head physician in the geriatric department at Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden, who wasn’t involved in the study]...

Swedish patients with high homocysteine are given folic acid and B vitamins, even if they aren’t deficient. ‘We think the increased homocysteine level could be deleterious to the brain,’ Lokk said. ‘We wanted to be on the offensive in diagnosing and treating patients. In our opinion, it is harmless and cheap.'”

General Anesthesia Could Increase Risk of Dementia in Elderly by 35 Percent

Related research suggests that being exposed to general anesthesia can increase the risk of dementia in the elderly by as much as 35 percent. The research was presented at the annual congress of the European Society of Anesthesiology (ESA). As reported by Medical News Today¹¹:

“Postoperative cognitive dysfunction, or POCD, could be associated with dementia several years later. POCD is a common complication in elderly patients after major surgery. It has been proposed that there is an association between POCD and the development of dementia due to a common pathological mechanism through the amyloid β peptide. Several experimental studies suggest that some anesthetics could promote inflammation of neural tissues leading to POCD and/or Alzheimer's disease (AD) precursors including β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.”

Participants aged 65 and over were followed for a total of 10 years. Participants exposed to at least one general anesthetic over the follow-up had a 35 percent increased risk of developing a dementia compared to those who were not exposed to anesthesia. According to lead researcher Dr. Francois Sztark¹²:

"These results are in favor of an increased risk for dementia several years after general anesthesia. Recognition of POCD is essential in the perioperative management of elderly patients. A long-term follow-up of these patients should be planned."

Tips for Avoiding Alzheimer's Disease

The beauty of following my revised Nutrition Plan is that it helps treat and prevent all chronic degenerative diseases, from the common ones like heart disease, diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer's to the ones you have never heard of or can't even pronounce. So please read the Plan as soon as you can. It is divided into three helpful sections, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced to help you start at the right level.

The plan is the first step in addressing Alzheimer's disease, which is currently at epidemic proportions, with 5.4 million Americans – including one in eight people aged 65 and over – living with the disease.

Remember, while memory loss is indeed common among Westerners, it is NOT a "normal" part of aging, and cognitive changes are by no means inevitable. People who experience very little decline in their cognitive function up until their deaths have been found (post-mortem) to be free of brain lesions, showing that it's entirely possible to prevent the damage from occurring in the first place… and one of the best ways to do this is by leading a healthy lifestyle.

• Sugar and Fructose. Ideally, you’ll want to keep your sugar levels to a minimum and your total fructose below 25 grams per day, or as low as 15 grams per day if you have insulin resistance or any related disorders.
• Improve magnesium levels. There is some exciting preliminary research strongly suggesting a decrease in Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain. Unfortunately, most magnesium supplements do not pass the blood brain levels, but a new one, magnesium threonate, appears to and holds some promise for the future for treating this condition and may be superior to other forms.
• Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure. Strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer's patients and poor outcomes on cognitive tests have been revealed. Researchers believe that optimal vitamin D levels may enhance the amount of important chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of the glial cells in nursing damaged neurons back to health.
  
  

  Vitamin D may also exert some of its beneficial effects on Alzheimer's through its anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties. Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated with Alzheimer's.

• Keep your fasting insulin levels below 3. This is indirectly related to fructose, as it will clearly lead to insulin resistance. However other sugars (sucrose is 50 percent fructose by weight), grains and lack of exercise are also important factors. Lowering insulin will also help lower leptin levels which is another factor for Alzheimer’s.
• Vitamin B12: In addition to the research presented above, a small Finnish study published in the journal Neurology¹³ also found that people who consume foods rich in B12 may reduce their risk of Alzheimer's in their later years. For each unit increase in the marker of vitamin B12, the risk of developing Alzheimer's was reduced by two percent. Remember sublingual methylcobalamin may be your best bet here.
• Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate, such as the one described in my nutrition plan. Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day. Avoid supplements with folic acid, which is the inferior synthetic version of folate.
• High-quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. (I recommend avoiding most fish because, although fish is naturally high in omega-3, most fish are now severely contaminated with mercury.) High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer's disease, thereby slowing down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.
• Avoid and eliminate mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50 percent mercury by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity. However you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.
• Avoid aluminum, such as antiperspirants, non-stick cookware, vaccine adjuvants, etc.
• Exercise regularly. It's been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized¹⁴, thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. Research has also shown that people with Alzheimer's have less PGC-1alpha in their brains¹¹ and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's. I would strongly recommend reviewing the Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
• Avoid flu vaccinations as most contain both mercury and aluminum, well-known neurotoxic and immunotoxic agents.
• Eat blueberries. Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases. Like any fruit though, avoid excesses here.
• Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease.
• Avoid anticholinergic and statin drugs. Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers.

Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.

Other Natural Treatments for Your Anti-Alzheimer's Arsenal

Finally, there are a few other nutritional recommendations worth noting for their specific benefits in preventing and treating dementia. So, although your fundamental strategy for preventing dementia should involve a comprehensive lifestyle approach, you may want to consider adding a few of these natural dietary agents to your anti-Alzheimer's arsenal. These four natural foods/supplements have good science behind them, in terms of preventing age-related cognitive changes:

1. Coconut Oil: The primary fuel your brain needs for energy is glucose. However, your brain is able to run on more than a single type of fuel, one being ketones (ketone bodies), or ketoacids. Ketones are what your body produces when it converts fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy.
   
   

   The medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) found in coconut oil are GREAT source of ketone bodies, because coconut oil is about 66 percent MCTs. In fact, ketones appear to be the preferred source of brain food in patients affected by diabetes or Alzheimer's.

2. Astaxanthin is a natural pigment with unique properties and many clinical benefits, including some of the most potent antioxidant activity currently known. As a fat-soluble nutrient, astaxanthin readily crosses your blood-brain barrier. One study¹⁵ found it may help prevent neurodegeneration associated with oxidative stress, as well as make a potent natural "brain food."
   
   

   The molecules of astaxanthin neutralize free radicals and other oxidants without being destroyed or becoming pro-oxidants themselves in the process. It's is a unique molecule whose shape allows it to precisely fit into a cell membrane and span its entire width. In this position, astaxanthin can intercept potentially damaging molecules before they can damage your cells.

   You can get some astaxanthin by taking krill oil, which is a fantastic omega-3 fat supplement. But you can boost your astaxanthin even MORE by adding a pure astaxanthin supplement to your nutritional regimen. For optimal absorption, make sure to take krill oil and/or astaxanthin with a fat-containing meal, since both are fat-soluble.

3. Gingko biloba: Many scientific studies have found that Gingko biloba has positive effects for dementia. Gingko, which is derived from a tree native to Asia, has long been used medicinally in China and other countries. A 1997 study from JAMA showed clear evidence that Gingko improves cognitive performance and social functioning for those suffering from dementia.
   
   

   Research since then has been equally promising. One study in 2006 found Gingko as effective as the dementia drug Aricept (donepezil) for treating mild to moderate Alzheimer's type dementia. A 2010 meta-analysis found Gingko biloba to be effective for a variety of types of dementia.

4. Alpha lipoic acid (ALA): ALA can stabilize cognitive functions among Alzheimer's patients and may slow the progression of the disease.

  Latest News on Alzheimer’s Disease

  Diet May Slow Alzheimer’s Disease

  Astaxanthin: A Rising Star in Alzheimer's Prevention