No Insulin Secretion Means No Stored Calories

What Foods Do Not Cause Insulin Secretion?

Much to the surprise of what many people believe, protein stimulates insulin's release from the pancreas just as sugar and starch do.

Insulin, if you remember, is the hormone whose main job is clearing excessive glucose from the bloodstream and packaging it in the form of fatty acids called triglycerides into your fat cells for later use. Insulin begins to be secreted by the body BEFORE we take our first bite of food. When we start daydreaming about, looking at, or smelling food, our brains release insulin during a process called Cephalic Phase Insulin Release. The body prepares itself to be fed and gets an early jump of what it thinks will be a sudden flood of glucose by releasing the stored insulin tucked away in your cell's vacuoles. The amount of insulin your body keeps stored in these storage organelles called vacuoles is determined by your previous meals' average macronutrient content. If you've made it a habit of eating sugar or complex carbs at mealtime, your body's got your number and it has stored an appropriate amount of insulin in anticipation. Once we start to eat, our bodies kick up its insulin secretion and produce even more of this hormone. 

Insulin does more than control blood glucose levels. It also stimulates the body to absorb most amino acids. Amino acids, as you know, make up protein. Too much protein, just as too many carbs, will have your pancreas pumping out insulin like a gas station attendant on a rainy day. Therefore, if you consume more protein than your body needs, your pancreas is going to produce insulin, causing your body to store those protein calories as glycogen, a/k/a stored carbs, IF you have room in your liver and muscles for the stuff. If there's no room for anymore glycogen in your liver and muscles, then those protein calories ARE going into your fat cells and can increase your body's percentage of total body fat if you've made it a habit of consuming more protein than your body requires from you on a daily basis.

Dietary fat is the only macronutrient that doesn't cause insulin to be secreted. This means that when you eat foods that are entirely composed of fat, or predominantly made of the stuff, your pancreas is able to relax and kick up its proverbial feet and take a break so to speak.

The foods we eat are divided into three categories or macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. The predominant or majority macronutrient contained in a food determines its food-category status. For example, beans contain protein, fiber, fat, and carbohydrates. If you turn over a can of kidney, black, chick peas, or white beans you will find out that beans are a carbohydrate and NOT a protein based upon the beans' predominant macronutrient content which is carbohydrates.  

Steak, chicken breast, salmon, veal, bison, and ostrich are all examples of meat. Meat or animal flesh does NOT contain any carbs, only protein and fat. (Please notice that I did not include dairy. Dairy contains milk sugar which is a carbohydrate.) Avocados, butter, and plant oils (oil is another name for fat) like peanut, olive, coconut, sunflower, and sesame for example, do not cause insulin's release. 

If you trying to keep your insulin release to a minimum, perhaps trying to stick to a ketogenic diet and are striving to get under 50 carbohydrates a day, this means you can put butter in your coffee or on top of your bison and still stay in ketogenesis. 

In addition to avocados, butter, the appropriate amount of animal muscle (flesh), and the plant oils mentioned above, pre-diabetics, those striving to minimize insulin secretion, and ketogenic dieters can enjoy an ounce of macadamia nuts and still be okay when finger-stick time comes around because these Hawaiian nuts contain 21 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and only 4 grams of carbohydrates. These same folks can also have an ounce of full-fat cream cheese melting on top of their broccoli or perfectly cooked ribeye steak with its 9 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and measly 1 gram of carbs and still have high levels of BHB or beta-hydroxybutrate, the key parameter to determine if ketones are being produced by the body in response to fasting or extremely low-carbohydrate consumption.

Controlling ones insulin secretion is starting to catch on. Large universities and private research companies are beginning to invest millions of dollars into the subject. Cancer research studies are going on presently with human-test subjects in hopes of fighting the dreaded disease. There has been some terrific research done on longevity and low insulin secretion. 

I think it might be a great idea to keep ones mind open when it comes to low-carbohydrate diets. Sometimes what was once considered common knowledge has been proven wrong. Remember, people used to believe the world was flat and that the devil caused seizures. 

Thank you for your continued support. I live to write.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

DO NUTRIENTS DIE WHEN YOU MAKE JUICE AHEAD OF TIME?

VITAMIN LOSS ASSOCIATED WITH PRE-MADE VEGETABLE JUICE

Can you and I agree before you read my blogpost that we're probably going to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and perhaps one or two snacks on most days? This is not a fast day. We're going to consume calories for energy and normal cellular replacement, repair, and growth from some kind of food source, be that solid or liquid.

Now that we've agreed to this, let me ask you, "In what nutritional state is the food that you're planning on consuming in?" Specifically, are you having grilled chicken that was killed several days ago or killed a couple of weeks ago and was frozen until it was purchased by your local grocer served on top of a head of lettuce that was picked over a week ago and then transported over several days via truck or barge 1,200 - 3,600 miles along with a few slices of cucumber and tomato that were taken from their vines two weeks ago?

I'm asking these tough questions in order to get you to think and understand that the food that you are going to eat really is NOT fresh at all, therefore, why are you overly concerning yourself with the nutrient integrity of your pre-made, stored vegetable juice to the point where you are thinking that it just isn't worth juicing vegetables and fruit you bought from your local fresh market or green grocer if you're not going to juice it and drink it immediately when the alternative meal that you would eat in place of the juice is FAR FROM fresh or nutrient packed?

Life is sometimes a long way off from perfect. Sometimes we have to hope for the best and accept  the best-case scenario alternative. Many times, however, we're not going to get anything close to the ultimate result we were looking for so you and I are going to have to accept the best of whatever we can get at a particular moment. 

Juicing can be just like life. Real-time juicing followed by immediate consumption is of course the ultimate way to get the most nutrition out of your at-home juicing or made-to-order guzzled-down-on the-spot juice from your local juice bar. Many times, however, we just don't get that option so we have to SETTLE for the best we can get which isn't the best case scenario but it is far better than nothing.

Making a large amount of juice ahead of time and storing it in the refrigerator in order get your daily allowance of vitamin-packed vegetables and fruits if you work an 8-12 hour-a-day job, are a full-time mother of 1-4 little kids, are taking 12-15 credits at school, are a busy social butterfly with lots of stuff to do throughout the day, or maybe just lazy person who doesn't want to make juice and then clean up a juicer 3-4 times a day is a great idea. Some nutrients, however, naturally breakdown or decay over time due to lipid oxidation, lipid rancidity, light, heat, and from a variety of complex reactions that involve degradation, volatilization, and recombination of sugars, amino acids, aldehydes, ketones, hydroperoxides, organic acids, and then there's phytochemical breakdown of flavonols, flavonoids, and color pigment that occur in vegetable, herb, and fruit juice. 

Some of the huge words I just used above may have scared you into thinking pre-made juice is worthless but it isn't. The lifespan of most of the vitamins you are hoping to get from juicing are several days or longer so you're not going to lose much nutritional value in making and storing your vegetable juice ~12, 18, or 24 hours ahead of time. Drinking pre-made, stored vegetable juice is better than not drinking vegetable juice at all. 

Vitamins A, K, C, and E last a long time before decaying. Most of your B vitamins, like B6 for example, stay in the juice for the most part during 24-hour cold refrigeration. B3, however, is one of the shorter-lived B vitamins which has a short half-life of ~20-45 minutes but your body makes B3 so you really shouldn't worry about your juice's B3 degradation. 

In conclusion, the freshest juice is best BUT we don't live in a perfect world. We live in a 20-minute behind schedule, oh my gosh I lost my keys, I'm never going to make it on time, "Did I remember to brush my teeth" kind of a world so stop sweating the small stuff. 

Drink the freshest juice you can. Remember that some juice is BETTER THAN no juice at all. A good rule of thumb if you have to pre-make your vegetable juice and store it in the refrigerator for later consumption is to minimize the juice's exposure to light and heat while slowing down cellular oxidation by using a resealable glass jar or jug that is filled as high to the top of the lid as possible to reduce the amount of oxygen in the container that can cause oxidation and refrigerate the vegetable/fruit juice in a really cold fridge but don't freeze it (no ice particles). 

Here's to your health,

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

Should I Drink a Cup of Coffee Before I Exercise?

Will A Cup of Regular Coffee Help My Sluggish Metabolism?

If you are an avid gym goer you have no doubt seen somebody drinking a Starbucks' coffee before stepping onto the treadmill for a run. You're probably like many people who thought, "What's up with that?" 

No, this person isn't so addicted to caffeine that she or he cannot give up their vice before exercising. Caffeine, once thought to be a denigrator of human health has been shown in recent clinical research to reduce the possible risk of Parkinson's disease, protect against type 2 diabetes, promote a healthy heart, and lessen the chances of contracting liver disease or liver cancer. 

Consuming caffeinated coffee before physical activity is not the same as smoking a cigarette or slamming a shot of tequila even though many people think these three well-known recreational drugs, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, are similar.  

Research sited in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that caffeine has a thermogenic effect upon the human body. The term thermogenic refers to the physical heat that results from increasing the body's metabolism. The caffeine in coffee, chocolate, tea, soda, over-the-counter medicines, and diet pills can cause thermogenesis as well as reduce appetite, and increase the excretion of urine from the body. So not only does caffeine consumption give your brain a buzz and open wide your tired eyes, but it can also kill your hunger and cause you to urinate maybe a pound or two of water weight from off the scale at the same time. 

If one cup of Joe is good, is two cups even better? It appears that caffeine does indeed have a dose-response effect. The outcome of a study also published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that gave healthy adults caffeine in 100, 200, and 400 mg amounts concluded that the more caffeine consumed, the higher the thermogenic effect upon the coffee consumer at the 200 and 400mg amounts. 

The positive clinical results gained by this AJCN study, spawned other research involving the effects of caffeine and metabolism. The American Journal of Physiology printed a study comparing the thermogenic effects on lean and obese caffeine consumers.  

If you thought that life was undeservedly kind to the thin, fit, and muscular before, you will be sure of it now after reading the result of this AJP review. 

Clinicians gave ten obese women and ten lean women caffeine in sufficient amounts to induce caffeine-stimulated thermogenesis. The ten lean women experienced a greater thermogenic effect which raised their metabolic rate higher than the more portly females and the calorie-incinerating effect lasted longer in the leaner test subjects than it did in the obese women who consumed the exact same amount of caffeine. The American Journal of Physiology study showed, in their small sample size, that women with a lower body mass index and a higher percentage of lean-muscle mass received a greater stimuli when consuming caffeine than the women who had a BMI in the obese range and possessed a larger percentage of body fat. The conclusion, the leaner the individual, the better and lengthier the thermogenic effect.

Like the results in these two studies and maybe thinking about stopping at your local coffee house on the way to the gym? If you are, you can be pretty sure that you'll be okay doing so. Caffeine is considered safe for most people when consumed in moderation, which Mayoclinic.org has defined as less than four cups per day. Consuming in excess of four cups of coffee on a given day can result in restless night's sleep, may bring on a mind-splitting headache, or possibly cause a heart to beat irregularly. Caffeine can also interfere with some medications and antibiotics.  

Hope to see you on the treadmill next to me downing your cup of Joe. And, yes, if you are running next to me WE ARE RACING!

Thank you for inspiring me to write about what I love.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

References: 

Am J Clin Nutr. May 1990 vol. 51 no 5 759-767

Am J Physiology Oct 1995 269(4 Pt 1):#671-8

Mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition June 2016 

Displacing Good Calories with Convenience-Food Alternatives

I Can't Drink All that Green Juice

GRAB & GO
MAKE & TAKE

I hear it all the time from my clients,"I can't get down all that vegetable juice. I can't finish it all. "We can chug down a 20-ounce big gulp and slam a pilsner of beer but we can't drink a serving-sized plastic cup of veggie juice...So why do you think that is?" I ask.

We spend much of our days rushing from here to there in the hopes of getting everything done and still workout in order to stay healthy, trim, and fit. 

Does this sound like you: Got to get to the gym early in the morning so I'm going to stop at Starbucks after my exercise class and grab a quick coffee and breakfast sandwich because I can't be late to work. Or is this you -- Taking a couple courses at school to further my education or get ahead in my career so I'm going to jump out and grab Chipotle so I can squeeze in a couple sets at the gym or catch that 5:45pm spin class. No, then perhaps this is you: The kids need to get picked up from daycare or aftercare, therefore, I'll just drive through the golden arches and grab a chicken wrap and then high-tail it over to karate. 

Rush, rush, rush. Many of us are in such a hurry that we think we only have time to grab something QUICK to eat and drink in order to stay on time for everything else we have to accomplish on any one given day and still get our exercise in somewhere. We've talked ourselves into believing that this is what we must do to get everything done and still have time to stay fit and healthy but what we are really doing is counterproductive to your goals and many of us are clueless. 

You are trying to get thin or stay weight stable but what you're actually doing is sabotaging your gains and weight-loss success by displacing the good calories you could be eating that are better for your body with other less-valuable food calories in the hopes of saving yourself some time and money. 

That stop at the Buck in the morning is costing you $8 and 20 minutes of your time. It is also simultaneously filling up your stomach with a quick source of energy (caffeine) along with a bunch of fat you don't need, some not-too-great overly-processed protein, and more carbs than your body needs to get four hours of work done before the lunchtime meal arrives. With that same eight bucks and fourth of an hour, you could juice five pounds of carrot and an entire package of celery. Yes, you really could. 

I have timed this same scenario out hundreds of times in front of the women and men I've worked with in order to show her or him that in the 20 minutes it takes for them to drive to their local coffee shop and throw down some cash, they could have juiced all that produce I just mentioned and wash their juicers, providing themselves with vitamins, minerals, anti-aging antioxidants, power-packed protein, easily burnt-off carbs, and the healthiest forms of essential fats in the same amount of time. 

The human adult stomach is only about the size of a medium-sized fist. Generally on average, the stomach has a volume of approximately one liter which is about a quart. However, the stomach does possess the capacity to STRETCH and hold more food -- up to about four liters or an entire gallon.

Whether your stomach can hold one liter or a gallon, SPACE is LIMITED. If you drink a large coffee with cream and sugar and chow down on a breakfast sandwich, there goes room for a 16-ounce green juice at your local juice bar. 

It doesn't take a nutritionist, dietitian, or a weight-loss specialist to tell you what you already know which is that a giant glass of fresh-pressed vegetable juice is healthier for you than a gigantic cup of Joe and 3-minute microwave egg and cheese biscuit. You will undoubtedly feel better, think more clearly, and have more energy to leap over tall buildings in a single bound if your FUEL of CHOICE is lean and green than black and comes in a sack.

In conclusion, do the mathematically computations and stopwatch your "supposedly-necessary" time saver you call breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. When you take the few minutes to reflect on your behavior and decision making process, you may find out that what you thought was cheap and easy is actually expensive in respect to your healthy lifestyle and training program.

Thank you for your time and valuable support. You help me feel necessary in the overall scheme of things.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

YOUR DIET IS AFFECTING YOUR DAUGHTER AND YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER WHETHER YOU REALIZE IT OR NOT

Your Dietary Habits are Shaping the Next Two Generations

Think, "Big Picture" for a moment...The food you eat is fuel or energy your body needs to do physical stuff like blink, snap a selfie, do a couple dozen squats, or carry in the groceries from the car. Your Greek yogurt, can of tuna fish, handful of nuts, ice-cold apple, and bowl of piping-hot broccoli all contain amino acids, carbohydrates, and healthy fats that your body requires to create all the cells, tissues, organs, muscle, hair, and blood in your body. 

The amino acids you get from your meals and snacks build proteins and those proteins help make and mark your DNA. What? You don't think of your breakfast burrito, your lettuce wrap, or your Frappucino like that? Maybe you should start.

Your eating habits aren't just about feeding your cravings, trying to stay at your ideal weight, or about looking great for summer. What you deem sustenance isn't a matter of following a particular diet like Paleo, being a lacto- or ovo-vegetarian, or trying to save innocent animals from suffering by going all-out vegan which is highly commendable. The majority of what you eat is used by your body to create new parts when the old ones wear out and to fix whatever inside or outside of you gets damaged or broken. 

Your body's processes of renewal and repair can be best summed up like this: "You are what you eat." You've heard that before, right? But have you read about the latest research that's suggesting that if you're a woman of childbearing age that well-know expression becomes: "Your granddaughter of the future is what YOU eat"? 

It turns out that if you are of the female persuasion, (Fellas, I will get to you and your epigenome in another post) what you nosh on or choke down can have even farther reaching affects than your current level of health and well being. As a woman, what you eat today can affect who your daughter of tomorrow may be and your diet also has the power to dictate in large part who your future GRANDDAUGHTER may become.  

There's two ways that this is possible. 

As a female, anywhere from the age of first menses to menopause, you and the foods that you eat create the baby that will by-planning or by-surprise begin to grow in your uterus when you get pregnant. What you have eaten and continue to eat -- good, bad, or even worse -- will, if your child-to-be is a girl, create her lifetime-supply of eggs or approximately 6 to 7 million oocytes that will be created and afterwards stored in her ovaries at around week 20 of gestation. 

The chemical substances that you are ingesting, processing, absorbing, and utilizing on a fairly regular basis are placing biochemical markers on top of your DNA called epigenetic marks that can and in many cases will be passed on to your progeny or offspring and their offspring. Scientists are currently discovering that more than just eye color, height, ear attachment, and some diseases are passed along in our sex cells or germ line to the children we create. Your body's sensitivity and ability to process sugar, how much fat your body stores, and your metabolic rate may all be handed down to your daughter and granddaughter.  

In practical terms, what does this mean ultimately? 

If you are throw back shots of tequila on the weekends with your spouse or make a habit of sharing romantic bottles of wine on the beach with your dates and you get pregnant as a result of your friskiness, those ounces of alcohol you slam and the four-cheese stuffed calzones you chow-down on at midnight along with all the other not-so-great food-like substances you digest frequently are the building materials your body is going to use to form the baby-making eggs that will one day become your grandchild just as your oocyte that was just fertilized by your lover's sperm was formed inside of your mother when she was a growing fetus inside of your grandmother's womb. Your regular consumption of sugar and fat, alcohol, and drugs are affecting your DNA and therefore possibly impacting your offspring's future by marking their genetic information with many of your biochemical predispositions.

You not only have the power to create a newer and better you by what you choose to put into your mouth and bodily system each day, you also have a huge opportunity to radically change the future of our planet by populating Earth with a human being who can think outside the box, run like the wind, feel empathy for others, and live to be over 100 by your eating lean, clean, and green. 

Thank you for reading what my super-charged neurons were currently meditating upon today and thanks giving me a reason to wake up in the morning.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

WHAT IS THE COST OF GOOD HEALTH

Good Health Comes at a Cost 

"You don't get something for NOTHING!" We've all heard that saying and if you're over 12 years old, you KNOW that it's true. Everything comes at a COST and that includes GOOD HEALTH.

"What is the price of good health?" you ask. Good health will cost you 3 things -- TIME, ENERGY, and MONEY. 

Possessing good health doesn't just happen. Come on, you know that's the gospel truth. If good health and a great body didn't cost you some of your very limited time, we would all wake up gorgeous and ready to run a marathon every single morning. But that doesn't happen, does it? No, it doesn't and that's why coffee machines and cars were created.

Feeling good inside your body is going to take an investment of several hours each and every week of your time. Time you're going to have to CUT out of your television watching, game playing, social chatting, and just sitting around doing nothing. 

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans released by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends that Americans need AT LEAST 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity in addition to performing muscle-strengthening exercises 2 or more days per week. Notice that the HHS said, "at least 150 minutes" of moderate-intensity exercise per week. They suggest, however, that Americans who want additional and more extensive health benefits should increase their aerobic physical activity to 300 minutes a week PLUS 2 or more days of muscle-strengthening activities that involve all major muscle groups. 

It appears, according to the HHS, that GOOD physical health comes at a cost of 5 HOURS per week plus a couple days of lifting weights. 

If the first cost of good health is time spent in the gym then you know that Cost Number 2 has to be ENERGY because working out 5 plus hours per week (the plus is for the 2 or more days per week of strength training) you are going to need a whole lot of energy to accomplish that task. Where are you and I going to get all this energy from pray tell? We are going to get it from getting a good night's sleep so we are fully rested when we get up each and every morning and from following the 2015 United States Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) that tells us to drink WATER, which has absolutely zero calories, instead of sugary drinks. The DGA says water should be one of the primary beverages consumed. Sleep, water, and nutrient-dense foods are going to give us the energy we need to possess good health. Just like we put gas in our cars and trucks to make them go, the human body needs fuel also to carry out the activities of daily living. 

The food-for-fuel we consume brings us to Cost Number 3: MONEY.

There is a financial cost to owning good health. Good health does kind of grow on trees but those trees are owned by Big Agriculture and they want their money for growing the food that gives you and I good health. I'm not going to tell you that you must buy all organics because, frankly, the scientific research doesn't say that. It is suggested by the Environmental Working Group that you should try to purchase when possible the following organic produce due to the heavy use of pesticides by growers: apples, celery, cherry tomatoes, collard greens, cucumbers, grapes, hot peppers, kale, nectarines, peaches, potatoes, nectarines, snap peas, spinach, and sweet bell peppers. 

Besides purchasing the above-referenced 15 fruits and vegetables organically, good health is going to cost you when you eat out as well. If you want good health then you aren't going to be able to eat out at the fast-food restaurants that offer that lunchtime hamburger for $.99 or that burrito/taco for under $1 buck. There has been enough published research on the negative health effects associated with fast food consumption that you know that running to the border or driving under the golden arches is not going to bring about good health. You are going to have to spend some extra hard-earned money on a variety of colorful vegetables, fresh in-season fruit, lean sources of protein, low-sodium legumes, and healthy-heart fats like Omega 3 from fish, flaxseed, or algae sources. 

The cost of good health is time, energy, and money. Three resources we are all fortunate enough to possess to some varying degree. It is up to you and I to decide for ourselves whether or not good health is worth the personal sacrifice of our minutes and hours, dollars and cents, and precious calories. This is America. We are each free to choose. Cast your vote for good health. 

Thank you for reading. 

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert