The whole gender fluid movement in America has millions of people addicted to pornography, as they watch to decide which gender they will “be” today, which gender they will have sex with next, and how many different genders there are to try out. Any kid subjected to a Disney movie or the Drag Queen Story Hour isn’t far from being a porn addict.Did you know artificial sweeteners make you HUNGRIER and make you crave sweets even more? Most people have no clue about this. Which is worse, being addicted to sugar (cancer’s favorite food) or artificial sweeteners (cancer’s other favorite food)? If you’re obese, you’re probably already battling cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and dementia. That’s a tough road to go down.
Immediate gratification, over-indulgence, and just plain lack of consumer knowledge have the majority of Americans addicted to and enslaved by health-damaging, mind-numbing compulsions. Are all of these folks brainwashed by Big Food, Big Pharma, Big Tech and Hollywood? One infamous example is how the medical industrial complex conned millions of Americans into believing that cigarettes and vaccines are good for health. The cigarette con started in the 1930s, and the vaccine con began in the 1950s. You could say these addictions are even ‘inherited’ and passed on from generation to generation. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though.
Now, with the Demon Dems (Extreme liberal Democrats) running the country from their porn hub in Washington DC (pun on Hunter Biden laptop), ethics and morals have all been flushed down the toilet, with madness ensuing. Opiate drugs, including fentanyl, are being imported across the US Southern border as if they were legal. The Biden administration funded homeless drug addicts with monthly subsidy checks, free crack pipes (to “fund racial equity”), and free food money in all the metropolitan hell-holes, like Portland, San Francisco, and Chicago, to name a few.
mRNA vaccines weaken the immune system, forcing it to rely on more spike proteins for artificial, short-lived immunity to all things Covid
Over 270 million Americans rushed to be injected with the “emergency only” experimental Fauci Flu jabs in order to save their own lives from the deadliest, most contagious virus to ever travel around the planet. Well, so they thought. The media frenzy and fear-based propaganda machine totally worked and conned these sick, naïve, brainwashed sheeple to do the unthinkable – rely on Big Pharma to save them from something Big Pharma created in a lab on purpose to infect them. Oops.
Now, each clot shot booster weakens each human even more, setting them up like bowling pins to be knocked down and out by the next variant of a variant. The new sub-human spike androids are even lining up for their seasonal mercury injections (flu shots) to make matters even worse. It’s a physical and psychological addiction, and there’s only one sure way for them to break free from the vaccine holocaust – and that’s SADS.
Illness goes hand in hand with depravity and addiction
The whole gender fluid movement in America has millions of people addicted to pornography, as they watch to decide which gender they will “be” today, which gender they will have sex with next, and how many different genders there are to try out. Any kid subjected to a Disney movie or the Drag Queen Story Hour isn’t far from being a porn addict.
Did you know artificial sweeteners make you HUNGRIER and make you crave sweets even more? Most people have no clue about this. Which is worse, being addicted to sugar (cancer’s favorite food) or artificial sweeteners (cancer’s other favorite food)? If you’re obese, you’re probably already battling cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and dementia. That’s a tough road to go down.
Top 10 addictions and the scary US statistics
Opiates – Over 3 million Americans are currently addicted.
Cocaine (including crack-cocaine) -More than 2 million Americans addicted.
Crystal Meth (methamphetamine psycho-stimulants) – Up to 3 million Americans addicted.
Sugar – Around 250 million Americans overeat sugar daily, many are addicted (especially the obese).
Covid “Vaccines” – Approximately 227 million Americans are “fully vaccinated” for Covid and may be addicted forever as their immune systems become reliant on more boosters (ADE and vaccine-induced-immune-deficiency syndrome).
Artificial Sweeteners – Consumers who drink more than 3 diet drinks a day (or snacks) containing aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, neotame, acesulfame potassium.
Pornography – More than 10% of all American adults meet the classification of porn addiction (by admission).
Alcohol – Close to 14 million Americans, or about 1 in every 13, abuse alcohol or are considered “alcoholics.”
Tune your internet eyes to NaturalMedicine.news and read about the best way to rid yourself of any of these addictions with clean eating, clean thinking, natural remedies, and exercise.
Fast food and takeout are anathema to the ‘clean eating’ lifestyle trend that has swept the US – and much of the developed world – over the past 10 years. But while spending on gym memberships and boutique fitness classes has risen significantly over the past ten years, recent studies show that over-spending on takeout was the biggest financial mistake made by younger Americans in 2018, according to a MarketWatch report that cited data from a recent study published by Principal.
According to the data, nearly one in three Americans – 29%, up from 26% in 2018 – said dining out was this year’s top budget buster for them, followed closely by spending on groceries (which is ironic given the proliferation of low-cost grocers like Aldi that have sprouted up in recent years).
But that’s not all: In a separate study, Fidelity found that the No. 1 small financial mistake that most Americans admit to is dining out too much, something that 36% of respondents said they’d done in the past year.
Americans spent roughly $3,500 a year on dining out in 2018, according to government data. That’s a new record high, and a 2.8% improvement from the prior year. Sales are projected to hit a record high of $863 billion this year, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Since February 2010, there have been just 5 months out of 117 where the number of waiters and bartenders in the US has posted a monthly decline. November was no different.
What’s worse: The cost of getting takeout or going out to eat is rising much more quickly than the price of buying groceries, but that hasn’t had much of an impact on the spending habits of young people. And if the latest Gallup poll (a different poll than the ones cited above) shows, Americans eat out often: Six in 10 ate out at least once in the past week. And 16%
“Dining rooms and kitchens across the U.S. are getting a little less use than they used to,” said research firm Nielsen in a recent report. “That’s because Americans have embraced the experience of eating out.”
Eating out is hammering Americans’ savings, but that’s not the only impact it’s having on their general sense of well-being: It’s also probably the biggest contributor to the expanding waistlines of millions of Americans. When Americans eat out, they chow down on an extra 200 calories more than on a normal day.
Furthermore, government research has shown that “when eating out, people either eat more or eat higher calorie foods – or both – and that this tendency appears to be increasing.”
Meanwhile, a staggering 75% of Americans are either overweight or obese, according to the CBC. And over time, the costs in the form of deteriorating health associated with obesity will will continue to climb. According to the CDC, obese patients often shoulder costs that are $1,429 higher on average than patients of a normal weight.
It may not be a virus, but obesity can spread from person to person. A study published in JAMA Pediatrics suggested that obesity can spread through communities like a social contagion. The study found that moving to an area with a high rate of obesity can increase your risk of becoming obese yourself, because you may adopt the unhealthy habits and behaviors of the people around you subconsciously.
In this study, researchers at the University of Southern Californialooked at whether exposure to communities with high rates of obesity increases the risk of obesity in individual residents. They recruited families of U.S. Army personnel at 38 military bases across America. A total of 1,314 parents and 1,111 children participated, whose rates of obesity reflected the national rates. One in three adults in a typical U.S. county is obese, and some of the bases were in counties with high rates of obesity, ranging from 21 to 38 percent.
The researchers found that residents assigned to bases in counties with high rates of obesity were more likely to become overweight or obese. For every single percentage-point increase in the obesity rate of locals, the odds that a teenager would be overweight or obese increased by four to six percent. The chances that a parent would become obese increased by five percent.
Furthermore, the longer the families lived there, the more likely they were to see their weight increase. Even after considering environmental factors that could influence obesity rate, the link was still apparent. It is possible that living in an area where there was a lack of gyms and an easier access to fast food restaurants both play a key role. (Related: Be careful or you might catch obesity, suggests new study.)
“Social contagion in obesity means that if more people around you are obese, then that may increase your own chances of becoming obese,” explained Dr. Ashlesha Datar, one of the authors of the study.
Community efforts to prevent obesity
To fight the obesity epidemic, community efforts must focus on encouraging healthy eating and active lifestyle in various settings. Community leaders can create programs and policies that contribute to the creation of healthy community food environments. For example, they can provide incentives for supermarkets or farmers markets to establish their business in underserved areas; or restaurants to put nutrition and calorie labels on their menu. They may also encourage residents to be physically active by providing places where they can be active, such as creating walking trails.
Schools and workplaces can also take part in promoting healthy eating and active living. School authorities can encourage children to drink water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages by providing them access to free drinking water. Schools should also ensure that the available food and drink options are healthy. School authorities should help children meet their dietary recommendations for fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and non-fat or low-fat dairy products. Additionally, they can increase the amount of time spent in physical education classes to make sure students are physically active.
In the workplace community, authorities can create a healthy work environment by offering a worksite wellness program to their employees. They can encourage physical activity by offering management support, as well as giving access to opportunities, policies, and social supports. Moreover, workplace cafeterias should also make healthier food choices more accessible to their employees.
Obesity is the root of a lot of health problems, so preventing and even reversing it can reduce many cases of fatal medical conditions.
The classic picture of obesity is typically a balding, middle-aged man with a huge beer belly protruding from an ill-fitting shirt hanging unattractively across his waist. However, a different vision of obesity is becoming all too common as the beaches fill up this summer with overweight children whose swimsuits can barely contain them. While their parents certainly shoulder some of the blame, there are a lot of factors that contribute to this problem – and predatory junk food ads are one part of it that can and should be controlled.
In fact, the Obesity Health Alliance is calling for all ads for foods high in sugar, fat and salt to be banned before 9:00 pm. This U.K. coalition is made up of more than 40 organizations that are trying to tackle weight problems. They’d like to see the ads restricted not only on live TV but also TV on demand, online, in social media, apps and games, at the movies, on billboards and on the radio.
Current restrictions in Britain only apply to programs or sites that are geared toward children, and this means that kids watching shows like game shows and talent competitions with their family are still being exposed to such ads.
Most people are opposed to junk food ads targeting children
A survey carried out by YouGov found that people widely agree with such sentiments. Sixty-nine percent of people believe that junk food marketing plays a role in childhood obesity. When it comes to junk food ad bans until 9p.m., 72 percent of people support one during popular family shows on TV, 70 percent support one online, and 68 percent would like to see one on digital advertising outside of homes, such as digital posters at bus stops or cinemas.
The University of Liverpool’s Dr. Emma Boyland said that research has shown that exposure to junk food advertising has a negative effect on kids’ diets. Making matters worse, overweight kids are more vulnerable to the suggestions of ads, which results in them consuming more calories than kids of a healthy weight when they see these ads for junk food.
A survey of nearly 2,500 children carried out by Cancer Research U.K. found that those who watch TV or use the internet for more than 30 minutes a day have a greater likelihood of asking for, buying, or consuming junk food.
It also revealed that each additional hour a child spends watching commercial TV is linked to a 22 percent greater chance of asking for foods they saw advertised, a 21 percent greater chance of buying food they saw advertised, a 23 percent greater chance of drinking sugary beverages, an 18 percent greater chance of eating pastries, and a 16 percent greater chance of eating chips and sweets. Similar trends were associated with additional time spent online.
Kids might not have the power to buy food themselves, but they do have what ad execs term “pester power” – every parent knows just how relentless kids can be when they want something. The food companies tap into this, and it’s part of the reason childhood obesity is getting out of control.
As long as food companies are allowed to target kids with brightly-colored ads that make eating food that will slowly but surely kill them somehow seem fun and exciting, the childhood obesity epidemic is unlikely to let up any time soon. One in five school-aged kids in the U.S. are already obese, and while many factors can contribute to the problem, we shouldn’t let the pursuit of the almighty dollar be one of them.
“A government study has found that 1 in 3 U.S. adults eat fast food on any given day. That’s about 85 million people.
After reading the information contained in this article, you will probably find yourself questioning if America is going to be able to survive for much longer, because our young people are a complete and total mess. Yes, all generations of Americans have had their problems, but this generation appears to be particularly screwed up. Obesity rates are at all-time highs, a third of all American teens have not read a single book within the past year, and the average high school senior spends six hours a day on the Internet. On top of all that, we are seeing unprecedented levels of suicide, drug overdoses and liver disease (due to heavy drinking) among our young people.
Like other empires throughout world history, will we be undone by our own excesses?
Let’s start by talking about obesity. At this point, so many of our young people are overweight that military recruiters are having a very difficult time finding enough “suitable candidates for military service”…
The study, featuring roughly 18,000 randomly selected participants across each of the service branches, showed that almost 66 percent of service members are considered to be either overweight or obese, based on the military’s use of body mass index as a measuring standard.
While the number of overweight service members is a cause for concern, it correlates with the obesity epidemic plaguing the United States, where, as of 2015, one in three young adults are considered too fat to enlist, creating a difficult environment for recruiters to find suitable candidates for military service.
Right now, obesity among U.S. adults is at an all-time high, and one of the big reasons for this is because about a third of us are stuffing our faces with fast food on a daily basis.
A government study has found that 1 in 3 U.S. adults eat fast food on any given day. That’s about 85 million people.
It’s the first federal study to look at how often adults eat fast food. An earlier study found a similar proportion of children and adolescents ate it on any given day.
A new study of American teenagers and their reading habits finds that a third haven’t read a book — in hardcopy or on a device like a Kindle — in the past year.
Researchers from San Diego State University took a look at data from four decades of a “nationally-based lifestyle survey studying teens,” StudyFinds.com reports. In total, more than a million teens provided information.
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To me, this is a tremendous indictment of our system of education.
Even if these kids are not reading on their own, our schools should be forcing them to read books.
This really hits home for me, because I love to read. In fact, I don’t know where I would be today if I had not spent enormous amounts of time reading books on my own while I was growing up.
“The meteoric rise of internet-based activities cannot be understated: between social media, texting, gaming, and surfing the web, the average high school senior spent six hours a day online in 2016 — double the time from a decade earlier. Eighth graders (4 hours a day) and tenth graders (5 hours a day) didn’t lag far behind,” the report finds.
Six hours a day?
That is almost a full-time job.
This is one of the reasons why the Internet is the focus of my work. Yes, I have written a few books, but if we are going to reach the next generation with the truth we have got to reach them where they are.
And where they are is on the Internet.
In addition to everything that you have read so far, let me also share with you some numbers from a recent CDC study.
Among men ages 24 to 35, overdose rates rose by more than 25% each year between 2014 and 2016; nearly 50 out of every 100,000 people in this population died of overdose-related causes by 2016. Women ages 45 to 54 had the most overdoses overall, but those ages 15 to 24 saw the highest rate of increase: about a 19% jump per year between 2014 and 2016.
And the CDC also found that liver disease (due to heavy drinking) is rapidly rising among young adults…
Liver disease replaced HIV as the sixth-leading killer of adults ages 25 to 44 in 2016. Among men and women ages 25 to 34, deaths from liver disease and cirrhosis increased by about 11% and 8% per year, respectively, between 2006 and 2016. Older adults, however, still die of liver disease at much higher rates than young adults.
Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24, increasing by 7% in this group each year between 2014 and 2016. It’s also the third-leading cause of death among people ages 25 to 44, killing almost 17 of every 100,000 people in this population in 2016.
Whether you like it or not, young people are the future of our country.
Yes, our country is a huge mess today, but what is it going to look like when they become the “leaders of tomorrow”?
In order for a nation to be great, it needs to be made up of great people, and at this moment it is very difficult to be optimistic about the future of our nation…
Summary: Researchers say dietary fats, not sugars or proteins, are the only cause of weight gain.
Source: University of Aberdeen.
Scientists from the University of Aberdeen and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have undertaken the largest study of its kind looking at what components of diet – fat, carbohydrates or protein – caused mice to gain weight.
Since food consists of fat, protein and carbs, it has proven difficult to pinpoint exactly what aspect of the typical diet leads to weight gain.
Part of the problem is that it is very difficult to do studies on humans where what they eat is controlled for long enough periods to work out what are the most important factors, however studies on animals that are similar to us can help point in the right direction.
The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism and includes 30 different diets that vary in their fat, carbohydrate (sugar) and protein contents.
The mice were fed these diets for three months, which is equivalent to nine years in humans. In total over 100,000 measurements were made of body weight changes and their body fat was measured using a micro MRI machine.
Professor John Speakman, who led the study, said: “The result of this enormous study was unequivocal – the only thing that made the mice get fat was eating more fat in their diets.
The mice were fed these diets for three months, which is equivalent to nine years in humans. In total over 100,000 measurements were made of body weight changes and their body fat was measured using a micro MRI machine. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
“Carbohydrates including up to 30% of calories coming from sugar had no effect. Combining sugar with fat had no more impact than fat alone. There was no evidence that low protein (down to 5%) stimulated greater intake, suggesting there is no protein target. These effects of dietary fat seemed to be because uniquely fat in the diet stimulated the reward centres in the brain, stimulating greater intake.
“A clear limitation of this study is that it is based on mice rather than humans. However, mice have lots of similarities to humans in their physiology and metabolism, and we are never going to do studies where the diets of humans are controlled in the same way for such long periods. So the evidence it provides is a good clue to what the effects of different diets are likely to be in humans.”
A restaurant in China is offering patrons free food, but there’s a catch. They have to be able to fit through the smallest opening of the gate.
This will probably upset and offend those who meltdown over the most inane issues, so if you’re easily offended, perhaps stop reading now. But the owner of an eatery in East China obviously doesn’t care who is offended. Zhao Long is asking patrons to try to squeeze through different sizes of gaps between bars and offering discounts for those who get through the narrowest spaces.
His restaurant in Jinan City offers customers free food and free beer, as long as they can fit through a 15cm (almost 6 inches) gap. Now, 15cm wide isn’t all that wide, and some say it’s too “skinny.” However, most people would have a go at it if they thought it meant free food and beer for everyone, and it does.
Zhao means well, reported the LAD Bible. He wants to present a new way of making people mindful of the amount they eat and drink. He said: “So many people have told me that they’ve failed losing weight – just because they can’t quit drinking beer. Maybe this could serve as a reminder to them to keep an eye on their diet.”
Here’s the nitty-gritty of how his system works. If you get through the smallest gap, you get free food and your entire table gets free beer. The next step up is an 18 cm (just over 7 inches) gap. If you get through that you win 5 beers – which is nothing to thumb one’s nose at, unless you dislike beer. The third increment is 25 cm (9.84 inches) and you get a free beer, which is still a good deal if you get through there. After that, it goes up to 30 cm. At 30cm (11.8 inches, almost a foot) you get no discount but are told: “your figure is just average – you shouldn’t ask for more.”
Zhao also says that at least one person gets through the smallest gap each day earning them the largest reward. He was also rather quick to add that all of them are female. He also said many still get through the second smallest gap, which still gets them 5 free beers.
Worldwide, depression is the leading cause of ill health and disability, and anxiety is the most common mental illness in the U.S.
In the U.S., more than 16 million people struggle with depression, and 1 in 4 women in their 40s and 50s are on antidepressant drugs. Up to 14 percent of pregnant women are also on antidepressants, despite the risk of birth defects
There are compelling links between a high-sugar, processed food diet and poor mental health outcomes, and studies investigating the connection between obesity and mental health add further support to the diet-depression link
Studies have shown women with abdominal obesity are at increased risk of anxiety and depression
On the whole, a diet that nourishes your gut microbiome, reduces insulin resistance and optimizes mitochondrial function — such as a cyclical ketogenic diet — is going to have a beneficial impact on both your physical and mental health
By Dr. Mercola
Depression and anxiety are two leading mental health problems that have seen a dramatic rise in incidence in recent years. Worldwide, depression is now the leading cause of ill health and disability,1,2 with rates rising 18 percent in the decade between 2005 and 2015.3
In the U.S., more than 16 million people struggle with the condition, and 1 in 4 women in their 40s and 50s are on antidepressant drugs.4 This, despite the fact that antidepressants have been proven to work no better than placebo.5,6,7,8 Eight9 to 14 percent10 of pregnant women are also on antidepressants, even though studies have linked their use during pregnancy to birth defects.11
Meanwhile, data from the National Institute of Mental Health suggests the prevalence of anxiety disorders — which include generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety and panic disorder — may be as high as 40 million in the U.S. — about 18 percent of the population over the age of 18 — making it the most common mental illness in the nation,12,13 and 800 percent more prevalent than all forms of cancer.14
As described by Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love, panic attacks — which are on the more severe end of the anxiety spectrum — can occur “out of nowhere” without warning.15 Love had his first panic attack during a game against the Atlanta Hawks, and has since spoken out about this particular mental health challenge to break the stigma and encourage others to seek treatment.
Abdominal Obesity Linked to Depression
Just what might account for this remarkable rise in anxiety and depression? I’ve previously written about the compelling links between a high-sugar, processed food diet and poor mental health outcomes, and studies investigating the connection between obesity and mental health add further support to the diet-depression link. As noted in Prevent Disease:16
“Abdominal fat distribution (as measured by waist-hip ratio) appears to be a key mediator in the relationship between obesity and depression … Several studies have found that a disproportionate number of patients with mental illness are obese compared to the general population. A study17 comprising randomly selected outpatients receiving psychiatric care in Maryland found that their body mass index was almost twice that of the comparison group.”
Another more recent study18 looking at body fat distribution and depression found very similar results. Postmenopausal women who had abdominal obesity were significantly more likely to struggle with depression than not (37.6 percent versus 27.5 percent respectively), leading the researchers to conclude that “visceral fat accumulation was an independent and positive factor significantly associated with the presence of depressive symptoms.”
How Your Waist Size Influences Your Anxiety Risk
A third paper,19,20 published earlier this month, found a woman’s waist-to-height ratio was associated with anxiety. This was the first time this body measurement has been linked to anxiety specifically. As a general rule, a woman is considered obese if her waist measurement is more than half of her height measurement.
Data from 5,580 Latin American women between the ages of 40 and 59 were evaluated. Overall, those with waist-to-height ratios in the middle and upper thirds were at significantly higher risk for anxiety than those with less abdominal obesity. Those with the greatest abdominal obesity were also the most likely to actually exhibit outward signs of anxiety. As reported in the featured article:21
“Anxiety is a concern because it is linked to heart disease, diabetes, thyroid problems, respiratory disorders and drug abuse, among other documented medical problems. Research has shown an increase in the frequency of anxiety in women during midlife, likely as a result of decreased levels of estrogen, which has a neuroprotective role.
‘Hormone changes may be involved in the development of both anxiety and abdominal obesity because of their roles in the brain as well as in fat distribution. This study provides valuable insights for health care providers treating middle-aged women, because it implies that waist-to-height ratio could be a good marker for evaluating patients for anxiety,’ says Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, [North American Menopause Society] executive director.”
Insulin Resistance Is a Major Factor in Mental Health
Insulin resistance is a driving factor not only in obesity but also in most chronic diseases, and based on the evidence, it’s clear it plays a significant role in your mental health as well. After all, your physical and psychological health are closely linked. For example, your vagus nerve connects your gut to your brain, which is why gut dysfunction can wreak such havoc on your psychological states.
On the whole, any diet that nourishes your gut microbiome, reduces insulin resistance and optimizes mitochondrial function — such as a cyclical ketogenic diet — is going to have a beneficial impact on both your physical and mental health. A key dietary culprit that does none of those beneficial things is sugar, and research has repeatedly found that high-sugar diets encourage depression and anxiety. Among them:
Research22 published in 2002, which correlated per capita consumption of sugar with prevalence of major depression in six countries, found “a highly significant correlation between sugar consumption and the annual rate of depression.”
In 2011, Spanish researchers 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.23
A 2016 study24 found a strong link between diets high in processed foods, sweetened beverages and refined grains and depression in post-menopausal women. The higher a woman’s dietary glycemic index, the higher her risk of depression. Meanwhile, diets high in whole fruit, fiber, vegetables and lactose were associated with lowered odds of depression.
A 2017 study found that men who consumed 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 who ate less than 40 grams of sugar per day.25
The Importance of Healthy Dietary Fats for Brain Health
Most notably, high-sugar, processed food diets promote insulin resistance, which in turn encourages fat accumulation and Type 2 diabetes. According to work by the late Dr. Joseph Kraft, author of “Diabetes Epidemic and You: Should Everyone Be Tested?” 80 percent — 8 out of 10 — Americans are in fact insulin resistant.26,27 It’s no wonder then that conditions rooted in insulin resistance — including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression and anxiety — are all skyrocketing.
Sugar is also incredibly inflammatory, and chronic inflammation has also been identified as a major factor in depression. Some believe it’s causative.28,29,30 The inflammatory cascade triggered by excessive amounts of sugar also damage your mitochondria. Your mitochondria generate the vast majority of the energy (adenosine triphosphate or ATP) in your body.
When your body uses sugar as its primary fuel, excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) and secondary free radicals are created, which damage cellular mitochondrial membranes and DNA. Needless to say, as your mitochondria become dysfunctional, the cellular energy your body can produce goes down, which means your entire body will struggle to work properly, including your brain. Since your brain is a heavy energy feeder, even a small dip will result in impaired function that can translate into depressed mood.
Healthy dietary fats, on the other hand, create far fewer ROS and free radicals when burned for fuel. Fats are also critical for the health of cellular membranes and many other biological functions, especially the functioning of your brain. This is one of several reasons why a cyclical ketogenic diet is so beneficial for your mental health. In fact, mental clarity is often one of the first “side effects” people notice when going ketogenic.
Nutrition to the Rescue
While anxiety and depression can be triggered by any number of factors, there’s ample evidence to support the idea that your diet can have a tremendous impact, as it lays the groundwork for your physical and mental functioning. For this reason, it would be foolish to ignore it.
Again, one of the root contributors to depression is insulin resistance, which brings inflammation in its wake. The good news is that insulin resistance is an easily corrected health problem, and I detail the dietary protocol for this in my book “Fat for Fuel.” Here are a few key points to remember:
• Dramatically reduce your sugar intake by replacing processed foods with real whole foods. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is associated with lower odds of depression and anxiety,31 an effect ascribed to antioxidants that help combat inflammation.
Certain nutrients are also known to cause symptoms of depression when lacking, so it’s important to eat a varied whole food diet. As a general rule, if you’re insulin resistant, limit your added sugar intake to 15 grams per day until your insulin resistance has resolved. At that point, you can go up to 25 grams.
• Replace sugar and grain carbs with healthy fats. Examples include avocados, grass fed meats, pastured butter, organic pastured eggs, coconut oil, MCT oil, raw cacao butter and raw nuts. To learn more, see the beginner’s section of my nutritional plan.
Most people need anywhere from 60 to 80 percent of their daily calories in the form of healthy fats. Just be sure to avoid vegetable oils, such as soy, canola and corn oil, which are toxic to the human body. Dr. Cate Shanahan’s book “Deep Nutrition” provides an in-depth review of dietary fats and how processed vegetable oils harm your health.
• Limit protein to 0.5 grams per pound of lean body mass (or for the Europeans: 1 gram per kilo of lean body mass). In addition to stimulating mTOR, protein also affects your insulin and leptin. Dietary fats do not affect either. As a result, a low-carb, high-protein diet may still be troublesome if you’re struggling with obesity, insulin resistance or diabetes. To learn more about the importance of protein restriction, see “Precision Matters When It Comes to Protein.”
• Consider intermittent fasting and/or multiday water-only fasts, which will jump-start your body’s ability to burn fat for fuel and dramatically improve your insulin sensitivity. Water fasting can be particularly powerful if you’re obese. However, it’s significantly easier to transition into water fasting if you start with intermittent fasting.
Once you’ve worked your way up to the point where you’ve been intermittently fasting for 20 hours a day for a month, then doing a four or five-day water fast will not be particularly difficult.
Nondrug Solutions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders
Remember, to suggest that depression is rooted in poor diet and other lifestyle factors does not detract from the fact that it’s a serious problem that needs to be addressed with compassion and nonjudgment. It simply shifts the conversation about what the most appropriate answers and remedies are. Considering the many hazards associated with antidepressants, it would be wise to address the known root causes of depression, which are primarily lifestyle-based.
Drugs, even when they do work, do not actually fix the problem. They only mask it. Antidepressants may also worsen the situation, as many are associated with an increased risk of suicide, violence and worsened mental health in the long term. So, before you resort to medication, please consider addressing your diet (above) and try out several of the lifestyle strategies listed below until you find a combination that works for you.
Limit microwave exposure from wireless technologies
Studies have linked excessive exposure to electromagnetic fields to an increased risk of both depression and suicide.32 Addiction to or “high engagement” with mobile devices can also trigger depression and anxiety.33 Research34 by Martin Pall, Ph.D., 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 that happens, about 1 million calcium ions per second are released, which triggers a biochemical cascade that results in mitochondrial dysfunction.
Your brain, along with the pacemaker in your heart, has the highest density of VGCCs of the organs in your body, which is why Alzheimer’s, autism, anxiety, depression appears to be strongly linked to excessive microwave exposure.
So, if you struggle with anxiety or depression, be sure to limit your exposure to wireless technology. Simple measures include turning your Wi-Fi off at night and, carrying your cellphone on your body, and not keeping portable phones, cellphones and other electric devices in your bedroom.
Get regular exercise
Studies have shown there is a strong correlation between improved mood and aerobic capacity. Exercising creates new GABA-producing neurons that help induce a natural state of calm. It also boosts your levels of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, which help buffer the effects of stress.
Animal research also suggests exercise can benefit your mental health by allowing your body to eliminate kynurenine, a harmful protein associated with depression.35
Spend more time outdoors
Spending time in nature has been shown to lower stress, improve mood and significantly reduce symptoms of depression.36 Outdoor activities could be just about anything, from walking a nature trail to gardening, or simply taking your exercise outdoors.
Listen to nature sounds
Nature sounds have a distinct and powerful effect on your brain, lowering fight-or-flight instincts, activating your rest-and-digest autonomic nervous system,37,38,39 and produce brain activity associated with outward-directed focus, a trait associated with a lower risk for depression and anxiety.
Previous research has also demonstrated that listening to nature sounds help you recover faster after a stressful event. So, seek out parks, or create a natural sanctuary on your balcony, or indoors using plants and an environmental sound machine. YouTube also has a number of very long videos of natural sounds. You could simply turn it on and leave it on while you’re indoors.
Practice proper breathing
The way you breathe is intricately connected to your mental state. I’ve previously published interviews with Patrick McKeown, a leading expert on the Buteyko Breathing Method, where he explains how breathing affects your mind, body and health.
According to Buteyko, the founder of the method, anxiety is triggered by an imbalance between gases in your body, specifically the ratio between carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen. Your breathing affects the ratio of these gases, and by learning proper breathing techniques, you can quite literally breathe your way into a calmer state of mind.
Here’s a Buteyko breathing exercise that can help quell anxiety. This sequence helps retain and gently accumulate CO2, leading to calmer breathing and reduced anxiety. In other words, the urge to breathe will decline as you go into a more relaxed state.
Take a small breath into your nose, a small breath out; hold your nose for five seconds in order to hold your breath, and then release to resume breathing.
Breathe normally for 10 seconds.
Repeat the sequence several more times: small breath in through your nose, small breath out; hold your breath for five seconds, then let go and breathe normally for 10 seconds.
Get plenty of restorative sleep
Sleep and depression are so intimately linked that a sleep disorder is actually part of the definition of the symptom complex that gives the label depression. Ideally, get eight hours of sleep each night, and address factors that impede good sleep.
Address negative emotions
I believe it’s helpful to view depression as a sign that your body and life are out of balance, rather than as a disease. It’s a message telling you you’ve veered too far off course, and you need to regain your balance. One of the ways to do this involves addressing negative emotions that may be trapped beneath your level of awareness. My favorite method of emotional cleansing is Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), a form of psychological acupressure.
Research shows EFT significantly increases positive emotions and decreases negative emotional states.40,41,42 It’s particularly powerful for treating anxiety because it specifically targets your amygdala and hippocampus, parts of your brain that help you decide whether or not something is a threat.43
For serious or complex issues, seek out a qualified health care professional that is trained in EFT44 to help guide you through the process. That said, for most of you with depression symptoms, this is a technique you can learn to do effectively on your own. In the video below, EFT practitioner Julie Schiffman shows how you can use EFT to relieve symptoms of depression.
Optimize your gut health
Your mental health is closely linked to your gut health. A number of studies have confirmed gastrointestinal inflammation can play a critical role in the development of depression.45 Optimizing your gut flora will also help regulate a number of neurotransmitters and mood-related hormones, including GABA and corticosterone, resulting in reduced anxiety and depression-related behavior.46
To nourish your gut microbiome, be sure to eat plenty of fresh vegetables and traditionally fermented foods. Healthy choices include fermented vegetables, lassi, kefir and natto. If you do not eat fermented foods on a regular basis, taking a high-quality probiotic supplement is recommended.
Optimize your vitamin D with sensible sun exposure
Studies have shown vitamin D deficiency can predispose you to depression, and that depression can respond favorably to optimizing your vitamin D stores, ideally by getting sensible sun exposure.47,48,49
In one such study, people with a vitamin D level below 20 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) had an 85 percent increased risk of depression compared to those with a level greater than 30 ng/mL.50 For optimal health, you’ll want to make sure your vitamin D level is between 60 and 80 ng/mL year-round, so be sure to get a vitamin D test at least twice a year.
Optimize your omega-3
The animal-based omega-3 fat DHA is perhaps the single most important nutrient for optimal brain function and prevention of depression. While you can obtain DHA from krill or fish oil, it is far better to obtain it from clean, low-mercury fish such as wild Alaskan salmon, sardines, herring, anchovies and fish roe.
In addition to getting your vitamin D checked, I recommend getting an omega-3 index test to make sure you’re getting enough. Ideally, you want your omega-3 index to be 8 percent or higher.
Make sure your cholesterol levels aren’t too low for optimal mental health
Low cholesterol is linked to dramatically increased rates of suicide, as well as aggression toward others.51 This increased expression of violence toward self and others may be due to the fact that low membrane cholesterol decreases the number of serotonin receptors in the brain, which are approximately 30 percent cholesterol by weight.
Lower serum cholesterol concentrations therefore may contribute to decreasing brain serotonin, which not only contributes to suicidal-associated depression, but prevents the suppression of aggressive behavior and violence toward self and others.
Increase your vitamin B intake
Low dietary folate is a risk factor for severe depression, raising your risk by as much as 300 percent.52,53 If using a supplement, I suggest methylfolate, as this form of folic acid is the most effective. Other B vitamin deficiencies, including B1, B2, B3, B6, B8 and B12 also have the ability to produce symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders. Vitamin B12 deficiency, in particular, can contribute to depression and affects 1 in 4 people.
Helpful supplements
A number of herbs and supplements can be used in lieu of drugs to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. These include:
St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum). This medicinal plant has a long historical use for depression, and is thought to work similarly to antidepressants, raising brain chemicals associated with mood such as serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline.54
S-Adenosyl methionine (SAMe). SAMe is an amino acid derivative that occurs naturally in all cells. It plays a role in many biological reactions by transferring its methyl group to DNA, proteins, phospholipids and biogenic amines. Several scientific studies indicate that SAMe may be useful in the treatment of depression.
5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). 5-HTP is another natural alternative to traditional antidepressants. When your body sets about manufacturing serotonin, it first makes 5-HTP. Taking 5-HTP as a supplement may raise serotonin levels. Evidence suggests 5-HTP outperforms a placebo when it comes to alleviating depression,55 which is more than can be said about antidepressants.
XingPiJieYu. This Chinese herb, available from doctors of traditional Chinese medicine, has been found to reduce the effects of “chronic and unpredictable stress,” thereby lowering your risk of depression.56
Obesity is now the biggest health threat facing Kuwait — and the country’s obsession with American fast food could be to blame.
The very first McDonald’s restaurant appeared in Kuwait on a U.S. military base set up to support the 1991 invasion of Iraq. Since then, the industry has rapidly expanded — there are now hundreds of U.S. fast food restaurants in Kuwait and as a result, the country has become one of the most obese nations on the planet.
“The begining of fast food, I would say it is part of the Americanization of the culture here.” Dr. Mohsen Bagnied, a professor at the American University of Kuwait told VICE News. Now, Kuwait has roughly double the percentage of diabetic adults than the U.S.
The fast food industry isn’t just operating in the Middle East. American Fast food brands populate more than 100 countries around the world, occupying six continents. And the global fast food industry is projected to be worth over $600 billion by 2019. VICE’s Gianna Toboni travels to Kuwait to witness the health effects on a country deep in the throes of an unlikely obsession with U.S. fast food.
“There are several contenders for best diet for your heart, but two of the leading options are the lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet (excludes meat and fish but includes eggs and dairy) and the Mediterranean diet (rich in vegetables, fruit, wholegrains, fish and poultry, and includes red wine and some red meat).”
There are many theories about how best to prevent coronary conditions, but it is generally understood that there is a clear link between obesity and heart disease, and the best way to prevent it is to maintain a healthy weight.
This naturally leads to the question of how best to accomplish this goal. There are several contenders for best diet for your heart, but two of the leading options are the lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet (excludes meat and fish but includes eggs and dairy) and the Mediterranean diet (rich in vegetables, fruit, wholegrains, fish and poultry, and includes red wine and some red meat).
As reported by Science Daily, a recent study by researchers from the University of Florence and Careggi University Hospital in Italy has made the surprising discovery that both these diets effectively reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The study was published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.
Irrespective of which diet they followed, the participants all lost around 3 pounds of body fat and 4 pounds of overall weight. Their body mass indexes (BMIs) also changed by about the same amount.
There were other fundamental differences between the volunteers’ results, however. Those who followed the vegetarian diet were more successful at lowering their LDL, or “bad” cholesterol levels, while those who had followed the Mediterranean diet experienced greater reductions in triglyceride levels. Triglycerides are a type of fat lipid in the blood, and elevated levels are an indicator of an increased risk of heart disease.
“The take-home message of our study is that a low-calorie lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet can help patients reduce cardiovascular risk about the same as a low-calorie Mediterranean diet,” said Francesco Sofi, the study’s lead author. “People have more than one choice for a heart-healthy diet.” (Related: Mediterranean diet, olive oil and nuts improve brain health, memory and thinking ability.)
Cheryl A. M. Anderson, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the study but who wrote an editorial accompanying it, noted that one possible reason for the similarity in results between the two eating plans is that both include a rich variety of fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, nuts and legumes. Both plans also limit saturated fats and are rich in an array of nutrients. (Related: Discover the myriad benefits of good food at Nutrients.news.)
The study results are limited, however, in that none of the participants was at high risk of heart disease at the time the study was conducted. Anderson noted that further studies would need to be undertaken to evaluate whether patients at higher risk of cardiovascular disease would also benefit in a similar way to following one of these eating plans. She also noted that further investigation should be undertaken to see whether other diets, including those that “emphasize fresh foods and limit sugars, saturated fats, and sodium can prevent and manage obesity and cardiovascular diseases” just as effectively.
Summary: Researchers identify a link between waist-to-height ratio and risk of developing anxiety in menopausal women.Source: NAMS.Anxiety is one of the most common mental health disorders, and it’s more likely to affect women, especially middle-aged women. Although anxiety can be caused by many factors, a new study suggests that the amount of abdominal fat a woman has could increase her chances of developing anxiety. Study results are published online today in Menopause.
Everyone is familiar with the term “stress eating” that, among other things, can lead to a thicker waistline. In this study that analyzed data from more than 5,580 middle-aged Latin American women (mean age, 49.7 years), the cause-and-effect relationship was flipped to determine whether greater abdominal fat (defined as waist-to-height ratio in this instance) could increase a woman’s chances of developing anxiety. Although this is not the first time this relationship has been examined, this study is the first of its kind known to use waist-to-height ratio as the specific link to anxiety. Waist-to-height ratio has been shown to be the indicator that best assesses cardiometabolic risk. A general guideline is that a woman is considered obese if her waist measures more than half of her height.
The article “Association between waist-to-height ratio and anxiety in middle-aged women: a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional multicenter Latin American study” reports that 58% of the study population were postmenopausal, and 61.3% reported experiencing anxiety. The study found that those women in the middle and upper thirds of waist-to-height ratios were significantly more likely to have anxiety, and those in the upper third were more likely to actually display signs of anxiety compared with women in the lower two-thirds.
The study found that those women in the middle and upper thirds of waist-to-height ratios were significantly more likely to have anxiety, and those in the upper third were more likely to actually display signs of anxiety compared with women in the lower two-thirds. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Anxiety is a concern because it is linked to heart disease, diabetes, thyroid problems, respiratory disorders, and drug abuse, among other documented medical problems. Research has shown an increase in the frequency of anxiety in women during midlife, likely as a result of decreased levels of estrogen, which has a neuroprotective role.
“Hormone changes may be involved in the development of both anxiety and abdominal obesity because of their roles in the brain as well as in fat distribution. This study provides valuable insights for healthcare providers treating middle-aged women, because it implies that waist-to-height ratio could be a good marker for evaluating patients for anxiety,” says Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, NAMS executive director.
About this neuroscience research article
Source: Eileen Petridis – NAMS Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com. Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain. Original Research: The study will appear in Menopause.
Researchers from the University of Alberta have announced that the according to the results of their study, the fat cells under our skin shrink once exposed to the “blue light” emitted by the sun.
Peter Light, the senior author of the study, said, “When the sun’s blue light wavelengths — the light we can see with our eye — penetrate our skin and reach the fat cells just beneath, lipid droplets reduce in size and are released out of the cell. In other words, our cells don’t store as much fat.”
Light, who is a professor of pharmacology and the director of UAlberta’s Alberta Diabetes Institute, explains that the fact that individuals who live in a northern climate are not exposed to enough sunlight eight months in a year could be the reason for winter weight gain.
The professor cautions that the results are an initial observation and that exposing one’s self to sunlight can have a negative effect on one’s health instead of being a guaranteed way to lose weight. Light comments that he and his team have yet to determine the “intensity and duration of light” required to activate this particular pathway.
Light believes that their discovery holds potential and that future studies could be built on the results of their study. It might even result in “pharmacological or light-based treatments” for health concerns such as obesity and diabetes. Light also posits that this mechanism could be one reason why the number of fat cells produced in childhood often “stay with us into adulthood.”
The researchers chanced upon the discovery while they were looking into how they can bioengineer fat cells that can produce insulin when exposed to light. The team is studying this procedure in the hopes of discovering a way to make life easier for type 1 diabetes patients.
The study results revealed that the fat cells stored near our skin could be “a peripheral biological clock.” While Light says that it’s too early to tell, it’s possible that the light we receive through our eyes which regulates our circadian rhythm (that directs sleep-wake patterns), could similarly impact “the fat cells that can be found near our skin.” The molecular pathway the researchers discovered was initially identified as “being activated by the eye” following exposure to the blue wavelengths in sunlight.
The pathway could act “in a sensory manner” and that it sets the amount of fat that we burn as the seasons change. People gain weight in winter and it is burned off during summer. This could be an “evolutionary process,” and there is data that supports this. Unlike other mammals, human fat can be found all over the body, just beneath the skin.
Foods that can help you lose weight
Losing weight requires regular exercise and following a healthy diet, but if you’re looking for food that can help you lose weight, check out the list below:
Eggs — Eggs are full of high-quality protein, fats, essential nutrients like vitamin D, and choline.
Beans — All kinds of beans are high in fiber, which can help you lose weight because it “helps you feel fuller longer.”
Yogurt — Yogurt is full of protein and probiotics, which can benefit your gut health.
Salmon — Salmon is a good source of high-quality protein and it contains a lot of “good” fats called omega-3 fatty acids. Eating a diet full of omega-3 fatty acids can help you feel more full.
You can read more articles about vitamin D-rich foods and healthier food options at Food.news.
There is plenty that the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t want you to know, and one of those inconvenient truths just got a huge credibility boost and renewed attention as a new study shows that it is possible to reverse type 2 diabetes through weight management alone.
A groundbreaking study that was published in The Lancet shows just how effective weight management can be when it comes to treating this disease. In the open-label and cluster-randomized study, nearly 300 patients who had received a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes within the past six years were studied. The participants were anywhere from age 20 to 65, and they had starting body mass index values in the range of 27 to 45 kg/m2. After being randomized into one of two groups, the participants either went through the Counterweight Plus program to lose weight or received best practice care as a part of a control group.
Those in the Counterweight Plus program were given a diet that was very low in calories – for anywhere from three to five months, they ate around 850 calories a day. This was followed by a food reintroduction program that ran from two to eight weeks. The people in this group stopped taking antidiabetic medications as well as those that lower blood pressure at the start of the trial.
Within a year, half of the participants could no longer be considered diabetic and no longer needed their medication. Roughly one fourth of the participants had lost 15 kilograms or more of weight, and around half maintained weight loss of more than 10 kilos. Eighty-six percent of those who lost 15 kilos achieved remission, while 73 percent of those who lost at least 10 kilos also managed to reverse their diabetes. Best of all, the effective weight management program did not require any type of specialist treatment; routine primary care staff were able to guide patients through it.
The University of Newcastle’s Professor Roy Taylor, the co-lead researcher of the study, called it a “watershed moment” for understanding and managing type 2 diabetes. It’s remarkable when you consider the fact that even those who had been living with the disease for as long as six years were able to reverse it simply by cutting their caloric intake.
Such an approach could also bring about tremendous health care savings, with the power to save an estimated £14 billion in the U.K. alone thanks to a reduced need for blood pressure medication, amputations, and treatments for diabetes-related blindness and kidney failure. Diabetes and prediabetes are estimated to cost $322 billion in the U.S., according to figures from the American Diabetes Association, and it affects one out of every 11 Americans.
The researchers decided to take the calorie-cutting approach to weight loss instead of increasing the participants’ exercise because they felt it would be more effective. Physical activity, while very important in the long run, can cause patients to eat more – both consciously and unconsciously – to compensate in the beginning, making it more difficult for them to achieve sustainable weight loss. However, the researchers say that exercise could be useful for avoiding regaining the weight.
Good news for diabetics, bad news for Big Pharma and the junk food industry
Of course, Big Pharma won’t be too thrilled that more people are learning that they might not need their dangerous diabetes drugs and insulin after all. It’s also bad news for the junk food industry, as the researchers were quick to point out.
According to the study’s conclusion, the true long-tern solution to the obesity and diabetes epidemics facing our world is eating less, not drugs. Taylor wrote: “The major barrier is political will in opposing the wishes of the food industry. To make an impact upon the enormous pressure on people to eat and to eat frequently will be difficult but must be tackled to deal with the underlying problem.”
A new tax on sugary drinks that went into effect in Seattle at the beginning of the month has caused the price of some products there to double, and residents are voicing their unhappiness with the new rule.
Seattle joined several other American cities in taxing sodas and other beverages sweetened with sugar. The city’s tax is 1.75 cents per ounce, and it’s aimed at discouraging people to buy these drinks because of their health repercussions.
While it doesn’t sound like a lot of money at first glance, it does add up quite a bit when you buy in bulk. For example, people have taken to Twitter to call attention to the fact that a 35-bottle package of Gatorade that once cost $15.99 is now $26.33 thanks to the $10.34 tax on it. The item is displayed at Costco alongside a reminder that the same drinks can be purchased at their locations outside of the city without the “sweetened beverage tax”.
Research shows that sugary drinks cause higher obesity rates as well as diabetes. It’s particularly problematic for children, with one study finding that each extra sugary drink a child drank over the course of 18 months raised their risk of becoming obese by a remarkable 60 percent.
Berkeley, California, already has a tax in place of one cent per ounce on soda and other sweet drinks, while Philadelphia charges 1.5 cents per ounce. Philadelphia’s tax covers artificially sweetened beverages as well, such as diet soda. The city believes it will bring in $91 million in tax revenue in its first year, which it plans to use to fund education programs in the city and carry out park improvements.
Other cities with this type of tax include Oakland, San Francisco and Albany, California. Boulder, meanwhile, boasts the highest such excise tax in the nation at two cents per ounce as of last July.
Do these taxes really help?
Some research has shown that taxes can help to curb the consumption of sugary beverages and keep obesity rates down to some extent. Studies found that taxes of anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of the drink’s price were the ideal amount.
Modeling data from Research Triangle Institute found that a tax of 6 cents on a 12-ounce can of soda would result in people drinking 5,800 fewer calories of sugary beverages each year.
Of course, taxes are very controversial, and they’re not the only way to deter people from drinking these health-destroying drinks. For example, a study that was published in the journal Pediatrics found that placing warning labels on sugary drinks could deter parents from buying them.
Some cite the example of Mexico, where a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks was put in place in 2014. Since then, such drinks have noted dropping sales, with low-income Mexicans in particular drinking far less of the sweet drinks. As this is the group of people with the most untreated diabetes, it has indeed helped people there.
In the U.K., meanwhile, beverage manufacturers recently decided to cut the sugar levels in their drinks to less than 5 grams per 100 milliliters to avoid a tax that will go into effect this year on beverages exceeding that limit of around 25 pence per can. It’s worth keeping in mind, however, that the sugar levy in the U.K. does not apply to fruit drinks, even though such beverages often contain high amounts of sugar and can contribute to weight problems.
This type of tax might help uneducated, low-income consumers avoid making mistakes that could have serious health consequences, but there are still so many other sugary foods on the market that have the same effect on the body, if not worse. Educating people is only half the battle; food companies need a bigger incentive to stop dosing people with ridiculous amounts of addictive sugar to boost their own profits.
We’ve known for a very long time that a diet high in processed, unnatural, non-nutritious foods like the kind you get from any fast-food restaurant is extremely unhealthy and can lead to a number of conditions, especially obesity.
But a new study has found that too much stress in your life can mimic a poor diet, producing nearly identical poor health outcomes.
Researchers at Brigham Young University (BYU), in a study published in Nature Scientific Reports, found that when female mice were exposed to high amounts of stress, their gut microbiota, which are microorganisms that are essential for good digestive and metabolic health, transformed to make it appear as though they had diets high in fat.
“Stress can be harmful in a lot of ways, but this research is novel in that it ties stress to female-specific changes in the gut microbiota,” said BYU professor of microbiology and molecular biology Laura Bridgewater. “We sometimes think of stress as a purely psychological phenomenon, but it causes distinct physical changes.”
Bridgewater, along with collaborating researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, exposed half of the males and females in a large group of mice to a high-fat diet. After sixteen weeks, the entire group of mice was then exposed to mild amounts of stress over 18 days.
Then, researchers extracted microbial DNA from mouse droppings before and after the stress exposure to measure how gut microbiota was affected, if at all. In addition, the scientists also measured mice anxiety levels based on where and how much the mice traveled in an arena depicting an open field.
What they discovered were eye-opening differences between male and female mice: Males on a high-fat diet were much more anxious than females on the same diet, while high-fat males also exhibited less activity as a response to their stressors. But only female mice were affected by the stress in that their gut microbiota composition shifted as though they, too, were on high-fat diets.
“In society, women tend to have higher rates of depression and anxiety, which are linked to stress,” said Bridgewater, who is also the Associate Dean of the BYU College of Life Sciences. “This study suggests that a possible source of the gender discrepancy may be the different ways gut microbiota responds to stress in males vs. females.”
The findings do, however, add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that stress is a major contributing factor to obesity. As far back as 2007, Natural News reported that workplace stress significantly increased the risk of obesity:
According to lead researcher Dr. Eric J. Brunner of the Royal Free and University College London Medical School, the study provides “firm evidence that high psychological workload, together with lack of social support at work, acts as a causal factor for obesity.”
In reaching that conclusion, researchers followed 3,413 women and 6,895 men for 19 years, questioning them often about their levels of stress on the job. All participants were between the ages of 35 and 55 when the study began.
Fast forward to 2015. We reported again that levels of stress were directly related to weight gain and obesity in particular.
“The biochemical relationship between high stress and obesity is not a myth. Stress makes it so much harder to lose weight due to the tidal wave of hormonal changes that comes with it,” we noted.
Researchers note that high stress makes it nearly impossible for your body to break down fat, causing you to store excess amounts. Also, it causes hormonal changes that make you perpetually hungry. Stress also leads to unhappiness, which itself can trigger ‘comfort’ eating. Also, higher levels of stress cause sleeplessness, which has been linked to weight gain.
(Truth Theory) From using Jesus in their marketing campaigns to heavily contributing to the obesity epidemic Coca Cola certainly have not been short of controversy.
These attempts to mask the truth about their products have not gone unnoticed and many have taken to the internet to expose the real effects of Coca Cola. This photo from journalist Jess Murray was quickly turned into a powerful anti Coca Cola message highlighting the environmental damage that Coca Cola has caused.
In October 2017 Greenpeace shared a report calling out Coca-Cola’s on its single-use plastic bottles.
From Greenpeace:
Plastic bottles are one of the most commonly found items on beach cleans and on the ocean’s surface. Once they are in the environment, they become a hazard for wildlife. Larger pieces of plastic can become an entanglement or choking hazard for animals. These larger plastics break down over time into microplastics which have been found in everything from seafood, sea salt and even our drinking water.
The report is especially critical of the companies failing to reach the goals it set to source 25% of its bottles from recycled or renewable sources, and the non-existence of targets to reduce its use of single-use bottles since then. Greenpeace also claims that Coca-Cola has actively lobbied against recycling and deposit return schemes in several European countries, while at the same time maintaining a green marketing facade with vague promises and false-solutions such as sizable donations to schemes that put the emphasis of anti-littering on the consumer, instead of the producer of the litter itself. Source Wikipedia
Coca Cola often uses slick marketing ploys in an attempt to mask the detriment their products have to our health and the planet. Another example of this is diet and low calorie alternatives which contain chemicals such as aspartame.
In 2013 Coca Cola released a video saying they are helping to fight against the obesity epidemic. The video below is a response to the original Coca Cola video with the words changed to give a more accurate and honest representation of the role Coke have played in the obesity crisis.
Coca Cola are the world’s leading manufacturer of soft drinks, and have an obligation to not destroy our health and planet just so they can heighten their profits. Please share if you agree.
Americans have never needed to lose weight more than they do right now. According to brand new numbers that were just released by the National Center For Health Statistics, nearly 40 percent of all U.S. adults are now officially obese. That is an all-time record. And as you will see below, more than 70 percent of us are officially overweight. Of course most of the population does not even understand what is being done to them. The elite that own our major food corporations know that eating heavily processed foods is a highway to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other deadly diseases, but they keep pushing those foods on us anyway. The average American diet is extremely self-destructive, and it is time for a change.
If we do not change, our “obesity epidemic” will continue to grow even worse. The following comes from CNN…
The United States will not be escaping the obesity epidemic crisis anytime soon: Nearly 40% of adults and 19% of youth are obese, the highest rate the country has ever seen in all adults, according to research released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Since 1999, there has been a staggering rise in the prevalence of obesity, particularly in adults, without any “signs of it slowing down,” according to the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Craig Hales, medical epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
1999 was not that long ago.
And of course people were definitely talking about an “obesity epidemic” back then, but now it has gotten much, much worse. In fact, researchers say that adult obesity and youth obesity have both risen by at least 30 percent since that time…
What is “very striking” about this information is that there has been a 30% increase in adult obesity and 33% increase in youth obesity from 1999-2000 data to 2015-16, despite government-focused efforts to address the issue, according to Michael W. Long, assistant professor at the Milken Institute of School Public Health at George Washington University.
So how do you know if you are obese?
It is not as simple as just looking in the mirror. According to health authorities, if you have a body mass index over 30 you are obese, and a recent WHO report discovered that childhood obesity has risen “more than tenfold over the past four decades”…
Obesity is medically defined as having a body-mass index of more than 30. The findings on obese kids in the U.S. comes on top of this week’s World Health Organization report that childhood obesity is soaring around the world, increasing more than tenfold over the past four decades.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why this is happening. As the world economy has become globalized, the major food manufacturers are getting their garbage into the hands of more and more people. Today, billions of people all over the planet are eating nutritionally-empty foods that are packed with all sorts of ingredients that humans simply should not be eating.
We are literally digging our own graves with our forks and our spoons. According to this brand new report from the National Center For Health Statistics, at this point more than 70 percent of us “are either overweight or obese”…
Overall, 70.7 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese, meaning that an unhealthy weight has become the norm, with normal weight Americans — a BMI of less than 25 — now in the minority.
That means that less than 30 percent of the population is at a healthy weight right now.
So what is the solution?
Going “on a diet” is not the answer. Any short-term changes that you make are ultimately going to be futile if you don’t make long-term changes to your eating patterns.
If you really would like to have a healthier future, some major changes will be necessary. Here are just a few tips to help get you started…
-Get as much sugar and high fructose corn syrup out of your diet as possible. A great place to start is by getting rid of sodas and other sugary drinks. My wife and I will have a soda when we go out to eat as a treat, but we don’t have any in our refrigerator at home.
-Try to start eliminating heavily processed foods from your diet. This can be very difficult to do, because most of us have become quite accustomed to eating what the large food manufacturers offer us.
-Start shopping in the organic section of your local supermarket if you can afford to do so. Organic food manufacturers often offer similar versions of what the large food manufacturers make, but the ingredients are far superior.
-Incorporate as much fresh produce into your diet as possible. As humans, we are supposed to be eating a plant-based diet, but most of us have gotten very far away from that ideal.
-Make exercise a regular part of your daily life. A sedentary lifestyle kills, and those that live active lifestyles often find that they can stay active well into their golden years.
If we don’t change our ways, the cost of treating obesity-related illnesses is going to threaten to overwhelm our healthcare system. It is being reported that our obesity epidemic is already costing us 190 billion dollars a year…
The consequences of the obesity epidemic are devastating: High blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and stroke are not only killing millions of Americans annually — the obesity epidemic is also a humongous burden on the American health care system, making up $190 billion a year in weight-related medical bills.
As long as we keep eating what they offer us, the major food manufacturers are going to keep doing what they have always done.
So it is up to us to make the changes that are necessary, and this is a battle that we simply cannot afford to lose.
“Our citizens should know the urgent facts…but they don’t because our media serves imperial, not popular interests. They lie, deceive, connive and suppress what everyone needs to know, substituting managed news misinformation and rubbish for hard truths…”—Oliver Stone
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