Category: Diet

Real Food Is a Potent Ally Against Depression

(Dr. Mercola) According to the World Health Organization, depression is now the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide,1,2 affecting an estimated 322 million people globally, including more than 16 million Americans, 6 million of which are seniors.3 Statistics also reveal we’re not being particularly effective when it comes to prevention and treatment. Worldwide, rates of depression increased by 18 percent between 2005 and 2015.4

If you or someone you love is struggling with depression or some other mental health problem, remember that your diet is a foundational aspect that must not be overlooked. As noted in a 2015 study5 published in the medical journal Lancet:

“Although the determinants of mental health are complex, the emerging and compelling evidence for nutrition as a crucial factor in the high prevalence and incidence of mental disorders, suggests that diet is as important to psychiatry as it is to cardiology, endocrinology and gastroenterology.”

Related: Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)

The Compelling Link Between Food and Mood

Recent research6,7,8 looking at the effects of the antihypertensive DASH diet on mental health concluded this kind of dietary pattern, which is low in sugar and high in fresh fruits and vegetables, can help reduce the risk of depression in seniors. Overall, people who followed the DASH diet were 11 percent less likely to develop depression over the following six years, whereas those following a standard Western diet, high in red meat and low in fruits and vegetables, had the highest rates of depression.

It’s worth noting that while many conventional experts recommend the DASH diet, it is not necessarily ideal for optimal health, as it also promotes whole grains and low-fat foods, including low-fat dairy. Healthy fats, including saturated animal and plant fats and animal-based omega-3, are quite crucial for optimal brain health. I believe the reason the DASH diet produces many beneficial results is because it is low in sugar and high in unprocessed foods — not because it’s low in fat.

Other studies have shown that unprocessed foods, especially fermented foods, help optimize your gut microbiome, thereby supporting optimal mental health,9,10 whereas sugar, wheat (gluten) and processed foods have been linked to a greater risk for depression, anxietyand even suicide. The primary information highway between your gut and your brain is your vagus nerve, which connects the two organs.11

Related: Natural Remedies for Depression

Your gut also communicates to your brain via the endocrine system in the stress pathway (the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal axis), and by producing mood-boosting neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA. These communication links help explain why your gut health has such a significant impact on your mental health.

The Strong Link Between Sugar and Depression

A number of food ingredients can cause or aggravate depression, but one of the most significant is sugar, particularly refined sugar and processed fructose.12 For example, in one study, men consuming more than 67 grams of sugar per day were 23 percent more likely to develop anxiety or depression over the course of five years compared to those whose sugar consumption was less than 40 grams per day (which is still far higher than the 25 grams per day recommended for optimal health).13

This held true even after accounting for other contributing factors, such as socioeconomic status, exercise, alcohol use, smoking, other eating habits, body weight and general physical health. Lead author Anika Knüppel,14 a research student in the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London, commented on the findings, saying:15

“Sweet food has been found to induce positive feelings in the short-term. People experiencing low mood may eat sugary foods in the hope of alleviating negative feelings. Our study suggests a high intake of sugary foods is more likely to have the opposite effect on mental health in the long-term.”

Research16 published in 2002, which correlated per capita consumption of sugar with prevalence of major depression in six countries, also found “a highly significant correlation between sugar consumption and the annual rate of depression.” A Spanish study17 published in 2011 linked depression specifically to consumption of baked goods.

Those who ate the most baked goods had a 38 percent higher risk of depression than those who ate the least. This makes sense when you consider baked goods contain both processed grains and added sugars.

Related: Healthy Alternative Sugars and More

How Sugar Wreaks Havoc on Your Mood and Mental Health

Sugar has been shown to trigger depression and other mental health problems through a number of different mechanisms, including the following:

Feeding pathogens in your gut, allowing them to overtake more beneficial bacteria.
Suppressing activity of a key growth hormone in your brain called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF levels are critically low in both depression and schizophrenia, and animal models suggest this may actually be a causative factor.
Triggering a cascade of chemical reactions in your body that promote chronic inflammation, which over the long term disrupts the normal functioning of your immune system and wreaks havoc on your brain.
Contributing to insulin and leptin resistance, which also plays a significant role in your mental health.
Affecting dopamine, a neurotransmitter that fuels your brain’s reward system18 (hence sugar’s addictive potential19,20,21) and is known to play a role in mood disorders.22
Damaging your mitochondria, which can have bodywide effects. Your mitochondria generate the vast majority of the energy (adenosine triphosphate or ATP) in your body.

When sugar is your primary fuel, excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) and secondary free radicals are created, which damage cellular mitochondrial membranes and DNA. As your mitochondria are damaged, the energy currency in your body declines and your brain will struggle to work properly.

Healthy dietary fats, on the other hand, create far fewer ROS and free radicals. Fats are also critical for the health of cellular membranes and many other biological functions, including and especially the functioning of your brain.

Among the most important fats for brain function and mental health are the long-chained animal-based omega-3 fatsDHA and EPA. Not only are they anti-inflammatory, but DHA is actually a component in every cell of your body, and 90 percent of the omega-3 fat found in brain tissue is DHA.

Eating Real Food Is Key

A paper23 published in Nutritional Neuroscience last year looked at evidence from laboratory, population research and clinical trials to create “a set of practical dietary recommendations for the prevention of depression, based on the best available current evidence.” According to this paper, the published evidence reveals five key dietary recommendations for the prevention of depression:

  • Following a “traditional” dietary pattern such as the Mediterranean, Norwegian or Japanese diet
  • Increasing consumption of antioxidant-rich fruits, vegetables, legumes, wholegrain cereals, nuts and seeds (note that autoimmune diseases are rampant and whole grains and legumes are loaded with lectins and best avoided. See my interview with Dr. Steven Gundry for more details)
  • Eating plenty of omega-3-rich foods
  • Replacing unhealthy processed foods with real, wholesome nutritious foods
  • Avoiding processed foods, fast food, commercial baked goods and sweets

Processed Foods Are Problematic in More Ways Than One

Three brain- and mood-wrecking culprits you’ll automatically avoid when avoiding processed foods are added sugars, artificial sweeteners24 and processed vegetable oils — harmful fats known to clog your arteries and cause mitochondrial dysfunction. Gluten also appears to be particularly problematic for many. If you’re struggling with depression or anxiety, you’d be well-advised to experiment with a gluten-free diet.

Certain types of lectins, especially wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), are also known for their psychiatric side effects. WGA can cross your blood brain barrier25 through a process called “adsorptive endocytosis,” pulling other substances with it. WGA may attach to your myelin sheath26 and is capable of inhibiting nerve growth factor,27 which is important for the growth, maintenance and survival of certain target neurons.

Processed foods are also a significant source of genetically engineered (GE) ingredients and toxic herbicides like Roundup. In addition to being toxic and potentially carcinogenic, glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, has been shown to preferentially decimate beneficial gut microbes. Many grains need to dry in the field before being harvested, and to speed that process, the fields are doused with glyphosate a couple of weeks before harvest.

As a result of this practice, called desiccation, grain-based products tend to contain rather substantial amounts of glyphosate. This reason alone is enough to warrant a grain-free diet, but if you do choose to eat whole grain products, make sure it’s organic to avoid glyphosate contamination.

Your beverage choices may also need an overhaul, as most people drink very little pure water, relying on sugary beverages like sodas, fruit juices, sports drinks, energy drinks and flavored water for their hydration needs. None of those alternatives will do your mental health any favors.

Anti-Inflammatory Diet Protects and Supports Good Mental Health

As mentioned above, one of the mechanisms by which good nutrition bolsters mental health is by cutting down inflammation in your body, and a high-sugar diet is exceptionally inflammatory. A number of studies have linked depression with chronic inflammation.28,29

For example, a study30 published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in 2016 concluded that depressed patients had 46 percent higher levels of the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein in their blood. Interestingly, they also had 16 percent lower levels of low fractional exhaled nitric oxide, which adds further support for doing exercises that boost nitric oxide cycling, such as the Nitric Oxide Dump exercise. As explained in the study:

“Nitric oxide (NO), in addition to being an inflammatory mediator, is also a neurotransmitter at the neuron synapses. It modulates norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine and glutamate and thus is speculated to play a role in the pathogenesis of depression. Nitric oxide is also currently seen as a marker of airway inflammation and can be measured during exhalation.

Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) may represent both constitutive and inducible NO. Small studies suggest that subjects with depressed mood have low levels of FeNO … Subjects with depression also have low levels of plasma and platelet NO. The low systemic levels of NO have been postulated to be responsible for the increased risk of cardiovascular events observed in subjects with depression, as NO produces vasodilatation …

In summary, this large population-based study found that depression is associated with high levels of CRP and low levels of FeNO. These findings corroborate the premise that inflammation could play a role in the pathophysiology of major depression and that major depression may be seen as a psychoneuroimmunological disorder.”

Related:

Four Powerful Dietary Interventions

In addition to transitioning from a diet of processed fare to real food, consider:

•Implementing a cyclical ketogenic diet, high in healthy fats, low in net carbs with moderate amounts of protein. This kind of diet will optimize your mitochondrial function, which has significant implications for mental health. In fact, one noticeable effect of nutritional ketosis is mental clarity and a sense of calm. The reason for this welcome side effect has to do with the fact that when your body is able to burn fat for fuel, ketones are created, which is the preferred fuel for your brain.

•Intermittent fasting will also help optimize your brain function and prevent neurological problems by activating your body’s fat-burning mode, preventing insulin resistance and reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, the latter of which has been identified as a causative factor in depression.31,32

While you may achieve some of the benefits from intermittent fasting simply by respecting the time boundaries, regardless of the foods you consume, it is far better if you consume high-quality unprocessed food.

Since you’ll be eating less, it’s vitally important that you get proper nutrition. Healthy fats are essential because intermittent fasting pushes your body to switch over to fat-burning mode. Particularly if you begin to feel tired and sluggish, it may be a sign that you need to increase the amount of healthy fat in your diet.

•Water fasting. Once you’re starting to burn fat for fuel, gradually increase the length of your daily intermittent fasting to 20 hours per day. After a month of 20-hour daily fasting, you’re likely in good metabolic shape and able to burn fat as fuel. At that point, you can try a four or five-day water-only fast.

I now do a quarterly five-day fast, as I believe this is one of the most powerful metabolic health interventions out there. A five-day fast will effectively clean out senescent cells that have stopped duplicating due to aging or oxidative damage, which would otherwise clog up your optimal biologic function by causing and increasing inflammation.

•Exercise and get regular movement throughout your day. Exercise is one of the most effective antidepressant strategies out there, beating most medical interventions for depression.

Electromagnetic Field Exposures Could Be Wreaking Havoc With Your Mental Health

Another foundational strategy to prevent or treat depression and anxiety is to limit exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Studies have linked excessive EMF exposure to an increased risk of both depression and suicide.33 Addiction to or “high engagement” with mobile devices can also trigger depression and anxiety, according to recent research from the University of Illinois.34

Research35 by Martin Pall, Ph.D., reveals a previously unknown mechanism of biological harm from microwaves emitted by cellphones and other wireless technologies, which helps explain why these technologies can have such a potent impact on your mental health. Embedded in your cell membranes are voltage gated calcium channels (VGCCs), which are activated by microwaves. When activated, a cascade of biochemical effects occurs that result in the creation of extremely destructive hydroxyl free radicals.

Hydroxyl free radicals decimate mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, their membranes and proteins. The end result is mitochondrial dysfunction, which we now know is at the heart of most chronic disease. The tissues with the highest density of VGCCs are your brain, the pacemaker in your heart and male testes. Hence, health problems such as Alzheimer’s, anxiety, depression, autism, cardiac arrhythmias and infertility can be directly linked to excessive microwave exposure.

So, if you struggle with anxiety or depression, be sure to limit your exposure to wireless technologies, in addition to addressing your diet and exercise. Simple measures include turning your Wi-Fi off at night, not carrying your cellphone on your body and not keeping portable phones, cellphones and other electric devices in your bedroom. The electric wiring inside your bedroom walls is probably the most important source to address.

Your best bet here is to turn off the power to your bedroom at night. This will work if there are no adjacent rooms. If there are, you may need to shut those rooms off also. The only way to know would be to measure the electric fields. For additional lifestyle guidelines that can help prevent and/or treat depression, see the nondrug solutions section at the end of this previous article on depression.

Are Air Fryers Healthy?

(By Dr. Mercola) As you may imagine, I am not a fan of fried food. For that reason, I admit I have not paid much attention to the air fryer craze. Although these gadgets have been around for years, they have skyrocketed in popularity in recent months. Given the traffic on Amazon, Google and Pinterest alone, it’s clear air fryers are capturing the interest of people who love the taste of fried food but not all the calories associated with traditional deep frying.

As part of their central marketing message, air fryers promise to provide you with a faster, healthier and less messy fried-food experience right in your kitchen. Before you rush out to buy one, let’s take a few minutes to consider an important question both critics and fans of this kitchen appliance should be asking: Are air fryers healthy?

Related: Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included

What Is an Air Fryer and How Does It Work?

Air fryers — a kitchen gadget that has been steadily capturing the imagination of fried-food lovers in recent years — promise great-tasting crispy food, fast, and with half the calories and fat of foods fried using traditional methods. The chief selling point is the use of hot air and a little oil instead of multiple cups of hot oil to cook food quickly and crisply.

Given their similar air circulation method, some compare air fryers to mini convection ovens. Check out the video above for more details on the innerworkings of air fryers. According to Women’s Health,1 hundreds of models of air fryers popped up on Amazon, Google and Pinterest in 2017, with peak consumer interest coinciding with the Christmas shopping season. The U.K.-based Alternative Daily offers the following details about air fryers:2

“An air fryer can ‘fry’ foods with just half a spoonful of oil. Instead of using fat and oil to fry foods, this appliance was designed to fry without needing to dunk food in oil. In fact, most foods [prepared] within this cooking device require no oil at all — just hot air. Based on Rapid Air Technology, air fryers blow superheated air to cook foods that are traditionally fried in oil.

Whether you want to make fish and chips, chicken or even donuts, air that’s up to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F) begins to circulate, creating a browned, crispy surface. In just 10 to 12 minutes, for instance, you can cook a batch of fries, using just half a spoonful of oil. And, that’s just the beginning. From cakes to nuggets [and] burgers to steaks, foods can be rapidly cooked to achieve the same results when frying, toasting, baking or roasting.”

Related: Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet

Is Air-Fried Food Good for You?

While most conventional health experts agree air frying is somewhat healthier than deep frying, the reality is fried food is still fried food and not something you should ever consider to be a healthy dietary choice. As featured in Women’s Health, Natalie Rizzo, a New York-based registered dietitian (RD), suggests air frying saves calories and fat, but in terms of your health what really matters isn’t cutting calories and fat but making sure the calories and fat you consume come from whole food (and not whole food that’s been heated to high temperatures in any sort of fryer).

“With an air fryer, Rizzo says, you can prepare a somewhat healthier version of nearly any traditionally fried food. You can use to it to create a crispy coating on anything you would normally fry, like french fries, chicken fingers or even veggies.”3 By Rizzo’s account, the cooking process using an air fryer is relatively simple: Brush oil on the foods you are about to fry and set the air fryer heat to the desired temperature.

While noting the temperature varies according to the type of food you are cooking, Rizzo says “usually the 300- to 400-degree F range (150 to 200 degrees C) is typical.” To me, that high temperature range is an immediate red flag and my first caution about air fryers. As explained later in this article, heating certain types of foods beyond 250 degrees F may produce a neurotoxic compound called acrylamide.

Naturally, as Rizzo explains, you would not expect fried food — regardless of whether it emerges from an air fryer or deep fat fryer — to be as healthy as raw food or food prepared using non-frying preparation methods. I believe eating most foods in their raw, natural, whole-food state (or as close to whole as possible) is almost always your healthiest option.

Related: How to Make the Healthiest Smoothies – 4 Recipes

With respect to cooked foods, blanching, sautéing and steaming are far superior to frying. In fact, lightly cooking some foods, such as asparagus, spinach and tomatoes, makes their nutrients more bioavailable. The antioxidant lycopene in tomatoes, for example, has enhanced bioavailability when heated.4 Because fried food falls short as a health food 100 percent of the time, it’s heartening Rizzo wisely cautions against adopting the air frying cooking method as a lifestyle choice.

I agree with her that using an air fryer on a regular basis would be unwise because it will likely give you a false sense of “healthy eating.” As such, there is no point in owning an air fryer; it will serve only to tempt you to overconsume certain unhealthy foods. Most of those unhealthy foods, by the way, are likely to be highly processed. That said, the belief air-fried foods will be healthier for you solely because the preparation method is perceived to be healthier is quite simply a myth.

Neurotoxic Chemical Acrylamide Lurks in Fried Foods

As mentioned, one of the biggest cautions about eating fried foods has to do with the way frying changes certain foods into probable carcinogens. If you regularly enjoy fried foods, particularly those heated in such a way as to create a browned or charred surface, you need to know about a toxic compound called acrylamide.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

In 2002, researchers discovered this cancer-causing and potentially neurotoxic chemical, which is created when carbohydrate-rich foods are cooked at high temperatures. This includes carbs that are baked, fried, grilled, roasted or toasted. Acrylamide is the byproduct of a chemical reaction that occurs at high temperatures between sugars and the amino acid asparagine.

While the toxic chemical can develop in a variety of foods cooked or processed at temperatures above 250 degrees F, carbohydrate-heavy foods are by far the most vulnerable. The presence of acrylamide is particularly noticeable when plant-based foods are heated to the point of a noticeable browning or charring. While not every single food within these categories is affected by acrylamide, the categories of food most likely to produce it include:5

  • Cocoa products: baking chocolate, cocoa mix, chocolate bars, chocolate milk mix and chocolate pudding and pie filling
  • Coffee: roasted coffee beans and ground coffee powder, as well as chicory-based coffee substitutes, which contain two to three times more acrylamide than real coffee
  • Grains: bread crust, breakfast cereal, cookies, crackers, crisp bread, toast and various processed snacks
  • Potatoes: chips and french fries, as well as other fried or roasted potato foods

How Much Acrylamide Is in Your Diet?

Since 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised consumers to reduce their intake of acrylamide-containing foods, noting about 40 percent of the calories consumed as part of the average American diet is laced with this toxic byproduct. To cut acrylamides from your diet, the agency recommends:6

  • Avoiding fried foods
  • Baking bread, muffins and other baked goods, as well as potatoes, to a light golden color rather than dark brown or blackened
  • Opting for untoasted or lightly toasted bread
  • Storing potatoes at room temperature, because storing potatoes in the refrigerator can increase acrylamide during cooking

Rather than the fridge, store potatoes in a dark, dry closet or pantry. You can further reduce acrylamide formation in potatoes by soaking them in water for 15 to 30 minutes prior to cooking. While the FDA makes no mention of avoiding processed foods that are “browned,” such as cookies, crackers, potato chips, roasted nuts (and nut butters) and snack mixes, you should know they may also contain acrylamide due to being processed at high temperatures.

Health Risks Associated With Acrylamide

The findings related to the potential health risks of a diet heavy in acrylamide are mixed. Animal-based research7 suggests acrylamide “is capable of inducing genotoxic, carcinogenic, developmental and reproductive effects in tested organisms.” About the potential harmful effects of acrylamide, the National Cancer Institute says:8

“Studies in rodent models have found that acrylamide exposure increases the risk for several types of cancer. In the body, acrylamide is converted to a compound called glycidamide, which causes mutations in and damage to DNA. However, a large number of epidemiologic studies (both case-control and cohort studies) in humans have found no consistent evidence that dietary acrylamide exposure is associated with the risk of any type of cancer.

One reason for the inconsistent findings from human studies may be the difficulty in determining a person’s acrylamide intake based on their reported diet. The National Toxicology Program’s report on carcinogens considers acrylamide to be reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen, based on studies in laboratory animals given acrylamide in drinking water.”

Based on the research completed to date involving lab animals, the American Cancer Society calls attention to the following agencies, each of which has weighed in with potential concerns about acrylamide for humans:9

  • International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC): As part of the World Health Organization, the IARC seeks to identify causes of cancer. It has classified acrylamide as a “probable human carcinogen.”
  • National Toxicology Program (NTP): Formed from parts of several different U.S. government agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, the NTP, in its 2014 report on carcinogens, classified acrylamide as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.”
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): As owner of the integrated risk information system, an electronic database containing information on human health effects from environmental exposures, the EPA classifies acrylamide as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”

The Best and Healthiest Oils to Use for Cooking

While some air fryers live up to their claims of using up to 75 percent less oil than traditional deep-frying methods,10 it’s important to remember that not all cooking oils are created equal, even if you are using less of them. Most oils used for cooking, in fact, are heavily processed and some may even be hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, which means they are full of trans fats. According to the American Heart Association, regular consumption of trans fats:11

  • Lowers your HDL (good) cholesterol level
  • Increases your risk of developing heart disease and stroke
  • Is associated with a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes

In addition, I always advise you to steer clear of canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil and soybean oil, as well as any foods containing them or cooked in them. As you may already know, these are the primary oils used to prepare most fried and processed foods, as well as nearly all fast food. While these oils do not have trans fats, when heated they may degrade to even more dangerous toxic oxidation products, including cyclic aldehydes.

Another reason to avoid these oils is the fact that many are genetically engineered (GE). GE foods can damage your health and are among the worst foods on the planet. Healthier oils include coconut oil, olive oil, organic grass fed raw butter, clarified butter called ghee and sesame oil. Take note that coconut oil is the only one useful for high-heat cooking, including frying, although ghee can also be used for cooking.

While you may be tempted to use olive oil for cooking or frying, its chemical structure and large amount of unsaturated fats make it very susceptible to oxidative damage. For that reason, only use olive oil (and sesame oil) cold, such as for drizzling over salads. (For some new salad ideas, check out my healthy salad recipes.)

If you choose to use an air fryer, be aware of the possibility of increased free radicals from even small amounts of oil. As noted by Alternative Daily, “Even if little oil is used, the type of oil, the temperature, the food that’s be[ing] cooked and aeration all influence the formation of free radicals. If you’re a fan of air frying, at least use oils that do not oxidize easily, such as coconut oil.” For more information about cooking oils, check out my Healthiest Cooking Oils infographic.

Final Thoughts About Air Fryers

Given the unhealthy nature of fried food, I would not consider an air fryer to be a must-have kitchen gadget, especially if one of your goals is to optimize your health. More often than not, you will likely be air frying processed foods using toxic oils, resulting in a manner of eating that simply cannot be considered part of a healthy lifestyle.

Furthermore, though I did not mention it previously, I also have concerns about the types of plastics and nonstick coatings used in some air fryers. Depending on the model you choose, you may also be risking toxic exposures to bisphenol-A (BPA) and nonstick coatings, which I strongly caution against.

To wrap up my thoughts on this subject, I will close with a comment I read in one of the air fryer online reviews. If you have any lingering doubts, it may be the final piece of advice you need to help you decide if you should purchase an air fryer. The reviewer said, “Air fryers have the added benefit of making fried food healthier, but if fried food is not a staple within your diet, you probably will not benefit from owning an air fryer.”12

‘The Big Fat Surprise’ — Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Are Important Parts of a Healthy Diet

Some food without sugar

(By Dr. Mercola) Saturated fat and cholesterol have been wrongfully vilified as the culprits of heart disease for more than six decades. Meanwhile, research has repeatedly identified refined carbs, sugar and trans fats found in processed foods as the real enemy. The first scientific evidence linking trans fats to heart disease while exonerating saturated fats was published in 1957 by the late Fred Kummerow,1 biochemist and author of “Cholesterol Is Not the Culprit: A Guide to Preventing Heart Disease.”

Related: Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease

Story at-a-glance

  • Refined carbs, sugar and trans fats found in processed foods are the primary dietary culprits causing heart disease, not saturated fat or cholesterol
  • While the dangers of trans fats are now becoming widely recognized, the recommended replacement — vegetable oils — may actually be even more harmful
  • When heated, vegetable oils degrade into extremely toxic oxidation products, including cyclic aldehydes, which cause severe inflammation and may damage your gastrointestinal tract
  • Concomitant with low-fat diets becoming the cultural norm, heart disease rates have soared, clearly demonstrating saturated fat is not a contributing factor
  • Studies have confirmed that higher cholesterol levels are associated with better health and longer life

Unfortunately, Kummerow’s science was overshadowed by Ancel Keys’ Seven Countries Study,2,3 which linked saturated fat intake with heart disease. The rest, as they say, is history. Later reanalysis revealed cherry-picked data was responsible for creating Keys’ link, but by then the saturated fat myth was already firmly entrenched.

Keys’ biased research launched the low-fat myth and reshaped the food industry for decades to come. As saturated fat and cholesterol were shunned, the food industry switched to using trans fats (found in margarine, vegetable shortening and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils) and sugar instead.

Related: Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases

The Big Fat Surprise

Investigative journalist Nina Teicholz was one of the first major investigative journalists to break the story on the dangers of trans fats in a 2004 Gourmet magazine article.4 In the video above, Joe Rogan interviews Teicholz on her 2014 book, “The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet,” which grew out of that initial exposé.

In it, not only does she dismantle the belief that saturated fat and cholesterol make you fat and cause disease, she also reveals that while the dangers of trans fats are now becoming widely recognized, the recommended replacement — vegetable oils — may actually be even more harmful. She also delves into the politics and shady underbelly of nutritional science, revealing how the food industry has manipulated the scientific discussion and built a largely false foundation for the nutritional recommendations we’re given.

Corruption is not the sole problem, though. Teicholz notes there is a very strong tendency to “fall in love” with your own ideas and beliefs, and this is as true for scientists as it is for regular people. And, when you strongly believe something to be true, you will tend to find the evidence you’re looking for and ignore anything that refutes it. So, it’s really a human psychology problem.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Scientists are not supposed to fall into this all-too-human trap. “They’re taught to distrust their beliefs [and] shoot down their own hypothesis,” Teicholz says, “but in the case of nutrition science, that didn’t happen … They cherry-picked the evidence and completely ignored and actively suppressed, even, anything that contradicted their ideas.” This certainly included Keys, who was passionately wed to his hypothesis that saturated fat caused heart disease.

Busting the Low-Fat Myth

Teicholz points out the fact that saturated fat has been a healthy human staple for thousands of years, and how the low-fat craze has resulted in massive sugar consumption that has increased inflammation and disease.5 The American Heart Association (AHA) started encouraging Americans to limit dietary fat, particularly animal fats, to reduce their risk of heart disease in 1961, and maintains this position to this day.

Just last summer, the AHA sent out a presidential advisory to cardiologists around the world, reiterating its 1960s advice to replace butter and coconut oil with margarine and vegetable oils to protect against heart disease. Yet historical data clearly shows this strategy is not working, because concomitant with low-fat diets becoming the cultural norm, heart disease rates have soared. The AHA also ignores research demonstrating the low-fat, low-cholesterol strategy does more harm than good. For example:

  1. In 2012, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology examined the health and lifestyle habits of more than 52,000 adults ages 20 to 74, concluding that lower cholesterol levels increase women’s risk for heart disease, cardiac arrest and stroke. Overall, women with “high cholesterol” (greater than 270 mg/dl) actually had a 28 percent lower mortality risk than women with “low cholesterol” (less than 183 mg/dl).6
  2. In 2013, prominent London cardiologist Aseem Malhotra argued in the British Medical Journal that you should ignore advice to reduce your saturated fat intake, because it’s actually increasing your risk for obesity and heart disease.7
  3. A 2014 meta-analysis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, using data from nearly 80 studies and more than a half-million people, found those who consume higher amounts of saturated fat have no more heart disease than those who consume less. They also did not find less heart disease among those eating higher amounts of unsaturated fat, including both olive oil and corn oil.8,9

The following graph, from a British Journal of Nutrition study published in 2012, also shows how Europeans who eat the least saturated fats have the highest risk of heart disease, whereas those who eat the most have the lowest rates of heart disease — the complete opposite of conventional thinking and AHA claims.

Related: How to Detoxify and Heal the Lymphatic System
British journal of nutrition
Source: British Journal of Nutrition, 2012 Sep;108(5):939-42

Your Body Needs Saturated Fat and Cholesterol

Cholesterol is not only beneficial for your body, it’s absolutely vital for optimal functioning. For example, cholesterol is needed for the construction of your cell membranes and helps regulate the protein pathways required for cell signaling. Having insufficient amounts of cholesterol may negatively impact your brain health, hormone levels, heart disease risk and more.

Related: Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet

Your body also needs saturated fats to function properly. One way to understand this need is to consider the foods ancient humans consumed. Many experts believe we evolved as hunter-gatherers and have eaten a variety of animal products for most of our existence on Earth. To suggest that saturated fats are suddenly harmful to us makes no sense, at least not from an evolutionary perspective.

Reducing saturated fat to extremely low levels, or shunning it altogether, also doesn’t make sense when you consider its health benefits and biological functions, which include but are not limited to:

Providing building blocks for cell membranes, hormones and hormone-like substances Facilitating mineral absorption, such as calcium Acting as carriers for fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K
Converting carotene into vitamin A Helping to lower cholesterol levels (palmitic and stearic acids) Antiviral activity (caprylic acid)
Optimal fuel for your brain Providing satiety Modulating genetic regulation and helping prevent cancer (butyric acid)

High-Carb Versus High-Fat Diets

As noted by Teicholz, by eliminating saturated fat and cholesterol-rich foods we’ve also eliminated many of the most nutrient-dense foods from our diet — eggs and liver being just two examples — and this also has its repercussions for human health and development. Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble, which means you need the fat that comes naturally in animal foods along with the vitamins in order to absorb those vitamins.

Additionally, fat is very satiating, so you’re far less likely to overeat on a high-fat diet than a high-carb diet. Most people who complain about “starving” all the time are likely just eating too many carbs (quick-burning fuel) and not enough fat (slow-burning fuel).

Then there’s carb-addiction, of course, which further fuels the cycle of hunger and overeating. What’s worse, when you eat a high-carb diet for a long time, it blocks or shuts down your body’s ability to burn fat, which means all of your body fat remains right where it is, as it cannot be accessed for fuel.

By shifting your diet from high-carb to high-fat, you eventually regain the metabolic flexibility to burn both types of fuel — fat and sugar — which solves most of these problems; the hunger and cycle of overeating, weight gain, inflammation and related disease processes. Cyclical ketogenic diets are very effective for this, as is intermittent fasting and longer water fasts for those who are overweight.

The Problem With Vegetable Oils

As mentioned earlier, Teicholz’s book also delves into a new nutritional twist that has developed as the dangers of trans fats have been exposed and accepted. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has removed partially hydrogenated oils — the primary source of trans fats — from the list of “generally recognized as safe” ingredients, the vegetable oils (such as peanut, corn and soy oil) that have replaced them may have even more harmful health ramifications.

When heated, vegetable oils degrade into extremely toxic oxidation products. According to Teicholz, more than 100 dangerous oxidation products have been found in a single piece of chicken fried in vegetable oils. As early as the 1940s, animal experiments showed animals would develop cirrhosis of the liver or enlarged liver when fed vegetable oils. When fed heated vegetable oils, they died prematurely.

Cyclic aldehydes are among the most toxic of these byproducts, and animal research has shown even low levels of exposure cause serious inflammation, which is associated with heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Findings like these make the AHA’s recommendation to use margarine and vegetable oils all the more troubling.

In her book, Teicholz also cites research in which aldehydes were found to cause toxic shock in animals by damaging the gastrointestinal tract. We now know a lot more about the role your gut plays in your health, and the idea that aldehydes from heated vegetable oils can damage your gastric system is frighteningly consistent with the rise we see in immune problems and gastrointestinal-related diseases.

How a Cyclical Ketogenic Diet Can Improve Your Health

Two-thirds of the American population is overweight or obese,10 more than half of all Americans struggle with chronic illness,11 1 in 5 deaths in the U.S. is obesity-related12 and 1 in 4 deaths is related to heart disease.13 Saturated dietary fats and cholesterol are not to blame for these statistics. The evidence is actually quite clear: Excessive net carbohydrate intake is the primary culprit behind these disease statistics, primarily by decimating your mitochondrial function.

To address this, you need to eat a diet that allows your body to burn fat as its primary fuel rather than sugars, and to become an efficient fat burner, you actually have to eat fat. In my latest book, “Fat for Fuel,” I detail a cyclical or targeted ketogenic diet, which has been scientifically shown to optimize metabolic and mitochondrial health. A primary difference between this program and other ketogenic diets is the cyclical component.

It’s important to realize that the “metabolic magic” in the mitochondria occurs during the refeeding phase, not during the starvation phase. If you’re constantly in ketosis, you’re missing out on one of the most valuable benefits of the ketogenic diet. Basically, once you have established ketosis, you then cycle healthy carbs back in. As a general rule, I recommend adding 100 to 150 grams of carbs on the day or days each week that you do strength training. Some of the most important benefits of this kind of eating program are:

Weight loss

By rebalancing your body’s chemistry, weight loss and/or improved weight management becomes nearly effortless. Studies have shown a ketogenic diet can double the weight lost compared to a low-fat diet.14

Reduced inflammation

When burned for fuel, dietary fat releases far fewer reactive oxygen species and secondary free radicals than sugar. Ketones are also very effective histone deacetylase inhibitors that effectively reduce inflammatory responses. In fact, many drugs are being developed to address immune related inflammatory diseases that are HDAC inhibitors.

A safer and more rational strategy is to use a ketogenic diet, as it is one of the most effective ways to drive down your inflammation level through HDAC inhibition.

Reduced cancer risk

While all cells (including cancer cells) can use glucose for fuel, cancer cells lack the metabolic flexibility to use ketones, while regular cells thrive on these fats. Once your body enters a state of nutritional ketosis, cancer cells are more susceptible to being removed by your body through a process called autophagy. A cyclical ketogenic diet is a fundamental, essential tool that needs to be integrated in the management of nearly every cancer.

Increased muscle mass

Ketones spare branched-chain amino acids, thereby promoting muscle mass.15 However, make sure to implement cyclic ketosis. Chronic ketosis may eventually result in muscle loss as your body is impairing the mTOR pathway, which is important for anabolic growth. mTOR needs to be stimulated, just not consistently, as many people do with high protein diets.

Lowered insulin levels

Keeping your insulin level low helps prevent insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes and related diseases. Research has demonstrated that diabetics who eat a low-carb ketogenic diet are able to significantly reduce their dependency on diabetes medication and may even reverse the condition.16

Lowering insulin resistance will also reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s. Recent research strengthens the link between insulin resistance and dementia even further, particularly among those with existing heart disease.17,18,19

Mental clarity

One of the first things people really notice once they start burning fat for fuel is that any former “brain fog” lifts, and they can suddenly think very clearly. As mentioned earlier, ketones are a preferred fuel for your brain; hence, the improved mental clarity.

Increased longevity

One of the reasons you can survive a long time without food is due to the process of ketosis, which spares protein breakdown.20 A fairly consistent effect seen in people on a ketogenic diet is that blood levels of leucine and other important structural proteins go up, allowing these proteins to perform a number of important signaling functions.

Ketones also mimic the life span extending properties of calorie restriction21 (fasting), which includes improved glucose metabolism; reduced inflammation; clearing out malfunctioning immune cells;22 reduced IGF-1, one of the factors that regulate growth pathways and growth genes and which is a major player in accelerated aging; cellular/intracellular regeneration and rejuvenation (autophagy and mitophagy).23

Interested In Muscle? Eat Whole Eggs Rather Than Egg Whites

(Natural Blaze by Natasha Longo) Egg yolks contain over 80 percent of the overall vitamins and minerals that can be found within the egg as a whole. The yolk also contains enzymes which help the body absorb the protein in the white. People who consume protein from whole eggs or from egg whites after engaging in exercise differ dramatically in how their muscles build protein, a process called protein synthesis, during the post-workout period, researchers report in a new study.

For years, this misunderstood food — low in calories, containing every single vitamin (A, B, D, E, K) except C, and nearly perfect in protein — was once shunned for threats to cholesterol intake.

Specifically, the post-workout muscle-building response in those eating whole eggs is 40 percent greater than in those consuming an equivalent amount of protein from egg whites, the team found.

The discovery, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests that the widespread practice of throwing away egg yolks to maximize one’s dietary protein intake from eggs is counterproductive, said Nicholas Burd, a University of Illinois professor of kinesiology and community health who led the research. The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch project supported this research.

The yolks also contain protein, along with key nutrients and other food components that are not present in egg whites, Burd said. And something in the yolks is boosting the body’s ability to utilize that protein in the muscles.

Egg yolks actually contain all the healthy, fatty acids that are contained within the egg. It is a nucleus of wholesome goodness that supplied our ancestors with their sustenance since before they were upright. When you strip away the egg yolk and eat only the white, you’re completely missing out on the benefits of those fatty acids like the Omega-3 fats.

Another reason to avoid separating the egg from the yolk relates to biotin. Avidin is a component in egg whites that bonds with biotin, preventing the nutrient’s absorption.

“This study suggests that eating protein within its most natural food matrix tends to be more beneficial to our muscles as opposed to getting one’s protein from isolated protein sources,” he said.

In the study, 10 young men engaged in a single bout of resistance exercise and then ate either whole eggs or egg whites containing 18 grams of protein. Researchers administered infusions of stable-isotope-labeled leucine and phenylalanine (two important amino acids) to participants. This allowed the scientists to maintain and precisely measure amino acid levels in participants’ blood and muscles.

The U. of I. Poultry Research Farm developed eggs for the study that also were isotopically labeled with leucine. This allowed for precise tracking of where the food-derived amino acids ended up after participants ingested them.

The team took repeated blood and muscle biopsy samples to assess how the egg-derived amino acids were appearing in the blood and in protein synthesis in muscles before and after the resistance exercise and eating.

“By using those labeled eggs, we saw that if you ate the whole egg or the egg whites, the same amount of dietary amino acids became available in your blood,” Burd said. “In each case, about 60 to 70 percent of the amino acids were available in the blood to build new muscle protein. That would suggest that getting one’s protein from whole eggs or just from the whites makes no difference, as the amount of dietary amino acids in the blood after eating generally gives us an indication of how potent a food source is for the muscle-building response.”

But when the researchers directly measured protein synthesis in the muscle, they found a very different response.

“We saw that the ingestion of whole eggs immediately after resistance exercise resulted in greater muscle-protein synthesis than the ingestion of egg whites,” Burd said.

Previous studies suggest this difference has nothing to do with the difference in energy content of whole eggs and egg whites — whole eggs containing 18 grams of protein also contain about 17 grams of fat, whereas egg whites have no fat. Studies from Burd’s lab and others show that simply adding fat to an isolated protein source in the diet after exercise does not boost protein synthesis.

“There’s a lot of stress on protein nutrition in modern society, and research is showing that we need more protein in the diet than we once thought to maintain health,” Burd said. “As world population grows, we need cost-effective and sustainable strategies for improving the use of protein in the diet. This work is showing that consuming egg protein in its natural matrix has a much greater benefit than getting isolated protein from the same source.”

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Health Risks of Drinking Soda

(Dr. Mercola) One of the most straightforward steps you can take to improve your health in the New Year is to give up soda, and with that I’m talking about both regular and diet varieties. The problem with soda stems from its high sugar content — particularly the liquid high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) variety — and, in the case of diet, its artificial sweetener content, among other issues.

Research suggests sugary beverages are to blame for about 183,000 deaths worldwide each year, including 133,000 diabetes deaths, 44,000 heart disease deaths and 6,000 cancer deaths.1 Even drinking one or more 250 ml (about 8 ounce) servings of soda per day raises your risk of Type 2 diabetes by 18 percent.2 Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are a leading source of added sugar in the U.S. diet, with 6 in 10 youth and 5 in 10 adults drinking at least one such beverage on any given day.3

Related: Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)

Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states, “Frequently drinking sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with weight gain/obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney diseases, nonalcoholic liver disease, tooth decay and cavities, and gout, a type of arthritis.”4

However, the CDC only suggests that “limiting the amount of SSB intake can help individuals maintain a healthy weight and have a healthy diet,” stopping far short of advising Americans to ditch these unhealthy drinks to avoid chronic disease.

This isn’t entirely surprising, considering CDC director Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald received $1 million in funding from Coca-Cola5 to combat childhood obesity during her six-year stint as commissioner of Georgia’s public health department and has a history of promoting the soda industry’s “alternative facts.” Her Coke-funded anti-obesity campaign focused on exercise. None of the recommendations involved cutting down on soda and junk food, yet research shows exercise cannot counteract the ill effects of a high-sugar (i.e., high soda) diet.

Health Risks of Drinking Soda

Download Interview Transcript

Downing cans of sugary soda isn’t only a matter of consuming “empty” calories that may lead to weight gain, as some public health organizations would have you believe. You can’t simply undo the effects of soda consumption by cutting back on calories elsewhere in your diet, as the sugar itself wreaks havoc on your body and your gut flora.

Related: Fungal Infections – How to Eliminate Yeast, Candida, and Mold Infections For Good

Researchers have known since the 1960s that your body metabolizes different types of carbohydrates, like glucose and fructose, in different ways, causing very different hormonal and physiological responses that absolutely may influence fat accumulation and metabolism.6

One 12-ounce can of regular soda has about 33 grams of sugar (8 1/4 teaspoons) and 36 grams of net carbohydrates, which is more than your body can safely handle, especially at one sitting.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that sugar should make up less than 10 percent of your total daily energy intake, with additional benefits to be had if you reduce it to below 5 percent (which amounts to about 25 grams, or 6 teaspoons of sugar a day).7 For optimal health, I recommend limiting your intake of net carbs to under 40 to 50 grams per day, which is virtually impossible to do if you drink soda.

Gary Taubes, co-founder of the Nutrition Science Initiative and the author of “The Case Against Sugar,” expertly documents sugar’s link to chronic disease and much more, including whether sugar should more aptly be described as a drug instead of a food. It doesn’t cause the immediate symptoms of intoxication, like dizziness, staggering, slurring of speech or euphoria, associated with other “drugs,” yet perhaps this only allowed its long-term medical consequences to go “unasked and unanswered.”

Most of us today will never know if we suffer even subtle withdrawal symptoms from sugar, because we’ll never go long enough without it to find out,” Taubes wrote, adding that sugar has likely killed more people than tobacco and that tobacco wouldn’t have killed as many people as it did without sugar.8 Harvard School of Public Health further compiled a list of additional studies demonstrating the link between soda and chronic disease:9

  • Men who drank an average of one can of soda per day had a 20 percent higher risk of having a heart attack or dying from a heart attack than men who rarely consumed soda10
  • Women who consumed a can of soda daily over a 22-year study had a 75 percent higher risk of gout than women who rarely consumed soda11
  • Reducing soda consumption can reduce the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related diseases like Type 2 diabetes12
Related: Sugar Industry Has Had Evidence Linking Sugar to Heart Disease for Nearly Half a Century

Why Diet Soda Is Not a ‘Healthier’ Alternative

The idea that diet soda is a healthier option than regular soda is one of the biggest prevailing myths in the nutrition realm today. If you’re one of the nearly half of U.S. adults who consume artificial sweeteners, mostly in the form of diet soda, daily (even one-quarter of kids do so as well),13 it’s important you’re let in on the truth: Drinking diet soda puts your health at risk of the following conditions:

Stroke and Dementia

Drinking one artificially sweetened beverage a day may increase your risk of stroke and dementia by threefold compared to drinking less than one a week.14 Even drinking one to six artificially sweetened beverages a week was linked to 2.6 greater risk of stroke compared to not drinking any. A 2012 study similarly found that people who drank diet soft drinks daily were 43 percent more likely to have suffered a vascular event, including a stroke.15

This significant association persisted even after controlling for other factors that could increase the risk, such as smoking, physical activity levels, alcohol consumption, diabetes, heart disease, dietary factors and more. As for the dementia link, this one is new and no one knows for sure how diet drinks may affect your brain.

Forbes compiled some plausible theories, however, including perhaps via the disruption artificial sweeteners pose to your gut health, via the corresponding gut-brain axis. Alternatively:16

Related: Healthy Sugar Alternatives & More

“Diet sodas are designed to trick the brain into thinking it’s getting an extra dose of glucose (the brain’s fuel), but eventually the trick is on us because the brain adapts to not receiving the added glucose by overcompensating in other ways (leading to a variety of effects still under investigation).”

Heart Attack

Research that included nearly 60,000 postmenopausal women who were followed for about 10 years found that drinking just two diet drinks a day can dramatically increase your risk of an early death from heart disease.17

Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes

People with Type 2 diabetes are often advised to consume artificial sweeteners in lieu of sugar, but research shows consumption of diet soda at least daily is associated with a 36 percent greater relative risk of metabolic syndrome and a 67 percent greater relative risk of Type 2 diabetes compared with not consuming any.18

Depression

According to a study that included nearly 264,000 U.S. adults over the age of 50, those who drank more than four cans or glasses of diet soda or other artificially sweetened beverages daily had a nearly 30 percent higher risk of depression compared to those who did not consume diet drinks.19

Weight Gain

In April 2017, research presented at ENDO 2017, the Endocrine Society’s 99th annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, once again found that artificial sweeteners promote metabolic dysfunction that may promote the accumulation of fat.20 A study on mice also revealed that animals fed aspartame-laced drinking water gained weight and developed symptoms of metabolic syndrome while mice not fed the artificial sweetener did not.

Further, the researchers revealed that phenylalanine, an aspartame breakdown product, blocks the activity of a gut enzyme called alkaline phosphatase (IAP). In a previous study, IAP was found to prevent the development of metabolic syndrome (and reduce symptoms in those with the condition) when fed to mice.21 Aspartame likely promotes obesity by interfering with IAP activity.

Industry Ties Perpetuate the Flawed ‘Energy Balance’ Theory

Despite soda’s strong links to disease, public health officials have been slow to place blame on the industry and instead continue to perpetuate the “energy balance theory,” which suggests weight gain is simply a matter of consuming more calories than you burn off, and increasing exercise is therefore the solution to lowering rates of obesity (in lieu of eliminating soda).

Realted: Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet

The soda industry has been instrumental in shifting the blame away from soda and toward virtually any other scapegoat. In 2015, for instance, Coca-Cola Co. was outed for secretly funding and supporting the now defunct Global Energy Balance Network, a nonprofit front group that promoted exercise as the solution to obesity while significantly downplaying the role of diet and sugary beverages in the weight loss equation.22

Public health authorities accused the group of using tobacco-industry tactics to raise doubts about the health hazards of soda, and a letter signed by more than three dozen scientists said the group was spreading “scientific nonsense.”23 Yet, the soda industry maintains many close ties with organizations that continue to promote the energy balance myth (and directly funds such organizations).24 Among them:

  • The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), which was funded by Coca-Cola until 2015. They also founded a program called “Energy Balance 4 Kids With Play” in partnership with the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF), “an industry organization representing Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, General Mills and other distributers of sugar-sweetened products.”25
  • The International Food Information Council Foundation, which is funded by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, promotes the idea that “when it comes to weight management or weight loss, it’s the total calories that matters most.”
  • The National Institutes of Health “We Can!” Campaign. Coca-Cola has donated millions to the NIH Foundation, and the campaign advises drinking soda only “once in a while” and suggests balancing out days when kids eat lots of high-sugar foods/drinks with more physical activity.
  • The American College of Sports Medicine, which is also funded by Coca-Cola, suggests that while water should be your first choice of beverage, “there is no harm in drinking juice or even soda in moderation.”
  • The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also receives funding from Coca-Cola via the CDC Foundation, also promotes “energy balance” and the idea that “Healthy eating is all about balance. You can enjoy your favorite foods even if they are high in calories, fat or added sugars. The key is eating them only once in a while … ”26

Try Hibiscus Tea Instead

If the idea of swapping your daily soda with water sounds less than enticing, consider swapping it with tea instead. This gives you the best of both worlds: flavor and a healthy boost to your diet, as high-quality tea can have quite a few health benefits. Hibiscus tea is one such option. It has a pleasingly sharp flavor, similar to the tartness of cranberry, and you can find it in liquid extract form that allows you to add a few pumps to your glass of water.

Unlike soda that will overload you with sugar and/or artificial sweeteners, hibiscus tea is high in vitamin C, minerals and antioxidants, and studies suggest it may improve blood pressure, help prevent metabolic syndrome, protect your liver and even provide anticancer effects.27 It’s the opposite of drinking soda in terms of what it does to your health! It’s not only hibiscus tea that offers benefits, of course. If you prefer green or white tea, these are healthy choices as well.

Studies show green tea consumption improves brain function, as well as staves off cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s, helps prevent dental cavities, fights inflammatory disease such as arthritis and even combats several cancers, much like hibiscus tea. The idea is that by making this one healthy switch — swapping your daily soda for a daily cup of tea instead — you can significantly lower your risk of chronic disease and obesity.

In addition, if a soda craving strikes, fit in a quick workout, drink a cup of organic black coffee or consume something sour (like fermented vegetables or lemon water). All can help you to kick your sugar cravings to the curb. The Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is another great option, which has been shown to significantly reduce cravings while increasing peoples’ ability to show restraint — even after six months.28 A video demonstration is below, but here is the basic approach, which you can start using right now:

  • Identify a food or beverage you crave by visualizing it or imagining you’re eating/drinking it
  • Tap on your activated thoughts (for example, “I want this,” “I have to have it”)
  • Tap on each of the specific sensations or thoughts you have about the food (sweetness, saltiness, creaminess, crunchiness, how it feels in your mouth, how it smells)
  • Scan your body for any tension, and tap on that too