Research on mice links fast food to Alzheimer's

They test mice because their workings inside are so much like humans...

LONDON (Reuters) - Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing the abnormal brain tangles strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish researcher said on Friday.

The findings come from a series of published papers by a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet...

"On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain," Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, who led the study, said in a statement...

Alzheimer's disease is incurable and is the most common form of dementia among older people. It affects the regions of the brain involving thought, memory and language. More here.

Science journalist Gary Taubes hypothesizes that the excessive amounts of sugar and refined flour in American diets are contributing to Alzheimer's. He reports increases in the incidence of Alzheimer's in Japanese immigrants to the U.S. and in African Americans compared to rural Africans. Type 2 diabetics have about twice as much risk of contracting Alzheimer's disease as non-diabetics. And diabetics on insulin therapy have a fourfold increase in risk. (Taubes, 2007, Good Calories Bad Calories, pp 205-209)

CONTEST. What's an ER chicken versus a regular one?

And who cares, anyway?

Hint: You can use this little cartoon to find the answer.

Winner: Auditor spot in the next live ER Fat Burn Formula program.

(Jan 24 - Feb 28, 2009. Worth $145.)

Winner must do both parts of the question. What's the difference, and who cares, anyway?

You Need to Know This If You Eat Tyson Chicken

Yikes! Eat ER chicken, ok?

"Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat processor and the second largest chicken producer in the U.S., has admitted that it injects its chickens with antibiotics before they hatch and then labels them as raised without antibiotics. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has told Tyson to stop using the antibiotic-free label, but the company has sued for the right to keep using it.(!)" More here...

Some observations about deceptive practices by the industrial food establishement Dr. Mercola here...

"Tyson’s claim may be technically true -- which makes it just about the worst kind of deceptive advertising there is without outright lying. It’s this kind of semantics that can drive even the sanest person wild.

When they say that their chickens are “raised without antibiotics", they are clearly trying to give the impression that their chickens do not contain any kind of antibiotics.

However, the chicken on your plate is anything but antibiotic-free since they’ve injected the eggs with antibiotics, and raised the hatchlings on feed that contains antibiotics..." More here, bottom of page.

News Keeps Getting Worse for Vitamins

From the New York Times, a series of studies showing the worthlessness of vitamins (90% of them) and harmful effects of many...

"The best efforts of the scientific community to prove the health benefits of vitamins keep falling short.

"This week, researchers reported the disappointing results from a large clinical trial of almost 15,000 male doctors taking vitamins E and C for a decade. The study showed no meaningful effect on cancer rates.

"Another recent study found no benefit of vitamins E and C for heart disease..."

And that's just the beginning, reports the New York Times...More here. (PDF here in case.)

What's the problem?

We'd say it's because the run-of-the-mill vitamins people take are synthetic and filled with junk - like artificial colors.

Are Your Vitamins Safe? tells the sorry story and offers a new type of whole food multi alternative...

Don't trust food labels that say gluten-free at Whole Foods

Exclusive Chicago Tribune investigation finds the gourmet grocer's brand products with "good manufacturing" labels on them pose risk to people with allergies. Also, check out the Trib's searchable database of foods recalled for allergen misinformation. (Thanks, Digg.)

Is your doctor or favorite radio host getting payola to push drugs?

Every day we're discovering that's what's happening. Doctors, university department heads, and now a popular radio show host - all being paid millions - promoting the drugs of big pharma. Only no one knew it. Until now.

Time to ban fast food TV ads?

Just in from the Washington Post...

Study: Banning Fast-Food TV Ads Could Dent Obesity

ATLANTA -- A little less "I'm Lovin' It" could put a significant dent in the problem of childhood obesity, suggests a new study that attempts to measure the effect of TV fast-food ads.

A ban on such commercials would reduce the number of obese young children by 18 percent, and the number of obese older kids by 14 percent, researchers found.

They also suggested that ending an advertising expense tax deduction for fast-food restaurants could mean a slight reduction in childhood obesity.

Some experts say it's the first national study to show fast-food TV commercials have such a large effect on childhood obesity. A 2006 Institute of Medicine report suggested a link, but concluded proof was lacking.

"Our study provides evidence of that link," said study co-author Michael Grossman, an economics professor at City University of New York. - more here

"Atkins scares me a bit, Kim"

So wrote Lulu just now, an old acquaintance. She emailed about being a tester for the guided home-based ER Fat Burn experiment.

She continued:

"My brother did Atkins a while back, lost 30+ pounds eating pork rinds and pork chops and mayo and heavy cream and almost no veggies. His cholesterol shot up, and he looked a bit gray. Thin, but sorta the color of cardboard. Or pork rinds.

"Then, he gained it all back and quite a bit more, as I was afraid he might."

Then she added, hopefully,

"This will be different though, with Dr. Heidi at the helm, right?"

Yes, Lulu, day and night different - in a few critical places.

Anyone else afraid of Atkins? Let me respond to both the cholesterol and the gaining back.

Re the cholesterol
Atkins's own work (he was an MD - a cardiologist) showed that bad cholesterol went down with his diet. He encouraged folks to measure it before starting so they could see for themselves.

However, that was 30 years ago. The big difference today is in the quality of the meats and fats people are consuming with Atkins (and all everyday foods.)

Feedlot livestock is full of antibiotics and hormones, and they're often mistreated and sick. They're force-fed grain and soy. But their digestive systems are designed for grass. It may be that eating these industrial meats, eggs and fats exclusively, as most Americans do, can indeed contribute to high bad cholesterol. With or without Atkins. See Omnivore's Dilemma here.

Folks in ER Fat Burn have reported reducing their bad cholesterol. That's likely because in the ER Fat Burn, people eat only ER-quality meats, fats, eggs and oils. ER quality means:

1) only 100% grassfed beef
2) pastured chickens and eggs (see mini egg video here), and
3) only non-damaged fats and oils.

ER Fat Burn participant and psychologist Al Frech, a diabetic for 30 years, worried that "eggs and other saturated fats" would raise his bad cholesterol. He's on statins, he said.

But to his surprise, his bad cholesterol went down during and after ER FB. So did his blood sugar, which is now in the normal range (90-110) for the first time in 30 years, he said. Plus he lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks and has kept it off.

Dr. Frech had been on low carb for years and never lost weight before ER Fat Burn. Plus he was always hungry. Not anymore. We suspect his results are due in part to the ER quality of the protein, fats and oils he ate.

Re gaining weight back
If a person goes back to the eating habits that made them overweight in the first place, I don't know what else we should expect - except weight gain again.

What's been surprising to the ER FB participants is that the biggest weight losers have not gained anything back. One gal has now dropped 30 pounds and is losing a pound a week. One of our programmers lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks, and five more since. As a programmer, he sits all day. And a month later, he has kept it all off.

Here's what's most gratifying to me: ER Fat Burn participants say they'll never go back to their old ways of eating (industrial food) - they're ER food converts. That doesn't mean they will never have ice cream or pasta once in a while. They will. Because they'll be on their coasting cycle.

Hope that helps anyone who has the two questions Lulu did. Any others? Post them here at the bottom.

P.S. Soon we'll have an ER food guide you can use to buy and prepare everyday ER food for your family.

Testers wanted. ER Fat Burn experiment

You want to lose weight. What should you do: Low fat or low carb? Or something else?

No matter what you try, someone will tell you your liver will fall out, that it's bad for your heart or that it won't work. Weight loss is just one of those things where everyone's an expert.

So here's the story on the experiment.

Some of you know that the Extreme Regime (ER) Fat Burn program run by Dr. Heidi has been a startling success for people in it. Folks have not only lost weight but their little ailments are disappearing, from belching to hot flashes to the runs. Irritations that these folks have had for years. Some for 10-25 years. Significantly reduced or gone in five weeks on ER Fat Burn. Along with weight loss.

Three things you should know about ER Fat Burn

1. The ER Fat Burn program is consistent with the low carb principles, versus low fat.
So if you participate in the experiment (or the full on ER Fat Burn program some day) expect a friend or trainer at the gym to tell you that you might lose your liver. Atkins, low carb's most recognizable name, is portrayed as the devil himself by the competing low fat proponents. They've done a good job scaring people about low carb.

2. ER Fat Burn has two BIG twists to the traditional low carb:
*Twist one. All the foods - proteins, fats, oils and liquids are ER (Extreme Regime) quality. No industrial feedlot beef, only 100% grass-fed, for example. 3-minute animated cartoon tells the story here.) Meats especially must be ER quality. See here for the gory why of that.
* Twist two. ER Fat Burn is a cycle, one of four or five one does per year. It is not a permanent or long term (i.e. not more than 8 weeks at a time) way of eating.

3. ER Fat Burn is consistent with the massive findings and conclusions on calories and low carb in the new and controversial book by Gary Taubes, Good Calories Bad Calories. Here's a quickie from Wiki.

Anyway, I'm working up a little video to show you, and depending on your reaction, we'll take some of you into a test run for a self-directed ER Fat Burn program. You'd have to agree to do certain things, like with the Pops Testers program...and probably more. I'll let you know as we get closer to having this ready to test. If you're up for that, email me here and I'll set up a special priority notification list for the ER Fat Burn do-it-yourself home experiment.

Obese kids have arteries like 45-year-olds

"Many overweight children and teenagers could have severe cardiovascular disease in their 20s and 30s, causing a healthcare crisis."

What?!. The report continues...

"The arteries of many obese children and teenagers are as thick and stiff as those of 45-year-olds, a sign that such children could have severe cardiovascular disease at a much younger age than their parents unless their condition is reversed, researchers said Tuesday." More here.

How can we make prevention sexy?

"Prevention is not a popular subject, however much it should be. People will do much to cure a trouble, but people in general will do little to prevent it. This has been proved..." -Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising

Any suggestions on how to make prevention sexy? If you, for example, are taking the Pops and had no "wake-up call" that triggered taking them, what motivated you to add them to your regime?

Children who need eating therapy?

USA Today just reported that:

"Number of kids on medication jumps alarmingly"

Most of the illnesses related to obesity

They add:

"The number of children who take medication for chronic diseases has jumped dramatically, another troubling sign that many of the youngest Americans are struggling with obesity, doctors say.

The number of children who take pills for type 2 diabetes — the kind that's closely linked to obesity — more than doubled from 2002 to 2005, to a rate of six out of 10,000 children. That suggests that at least 23,000 privately insured children in the USA are now taking diabetes medications, according to authors of the new study in today's Pediatrics.

Doctors also saw big increases in prescriptions for high cholesterol, asthma and attention deficit and hyperactivity. There was smaller growth for drugs for depression and high blood pressure.

"We've got a lot of sick children," says author Emily Cox, senior director of research with Express Scripts, which administers drug benefit programs for private insurance plans. "What we've been seeing in adults, we're also now seeing in kids."

They conclude:

"Unless these children make major changes — such as eating healthier and exercising more — they could be facing a lifetime of illness, Cox says.

"These are not antibiotics that they take for seven to 10 days," Cox says. "These are drugs that many are taking for the rest of their lives." More.

Yikes! Time for eating therapy for the kids and their parents?

Winner of ER Detox...

Boy, we had some heartfelt responses to the ER Detox contest.

So we will have four winners. Three folks will get an ER Auditor spot ($95), and one person wins the Active spot including two Pops ($535).

Winners are conditional on three things:

1. You must acknowledge here or via email by 7PM CT 8PM ET today that you accept AND
2. State that you will do the program with everyone to the maximum of your ability.
3. Auditors - you will let us know the results of your ER Detox efforts, regardless of what they are.

The winners are...

Auditor spots ($95)go to...

1. Cindi N
2. Suzanne
3. Candice

Active ER Detox spot ($535) goes to...ta da...

1. Sarah

Thank you everyone for your good responses.

WARNING FOR WINNERS:

I must hear from you here or via email before 7PM CT (8PM ET TODAY, SAT, Nov 1)

Please email me here. In the email, accept your prize and agree to the three conditions listed above. After 7PM CT (8PM ET) today we will go to the next person.

We have backups for every winner, because there were many thoughtful responses.

If we don't hear from you, we will go to the next person. Remember the program starts tomorrow, Sunday!

Congratulations to the winners and thank you for responding. It was gratifying to read your secret desires.

P.S. Robin: honorable mention goes to you for coming out of the smoking closet. I wouldn't be surprised if Dr. Heidi has something up her sleeve for you.