Overweight women with insulin resistance lose more weight after three months on a lower-carbohydrate diet than on a traditional low-fat diet, according to a new study presented at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting on June 19.

“The typical diet that physicians recommend for weight loss is a low-fat diet,” said the study’s lead author, Raymond Plodkowski, MD, chief of endocrinology, nutrition and metabolism at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno. “However, as this study shows, not all people have the same response to diets.”

As reported by Nutrition Horizon, 45 obese women between the ages of 18 and 65 years—all insulin resistant—participated in the study. Researchers randomly assigned the women to a low-fat or lower-carb diet. The groups did not differ significantly in average body weight. On average, women in the low-fat diet group weighed 213 pounds, while women in the other group weighed 223 pounds.

The composition of the low-fat diet was 60 percent of calories from carbs, 20 percent from fat and 20 percent from protein. Although the lower-carb diet also had 20 percent of calories from protein, it had 45 percent from carbs and 35 percent from primarily unsaturated fats, such as nuts. Menus included a minimum of two fruits and three vegetable servings a day.

Use of prepared meals helped make the structured diets easier and more palatable for the dieters. “We wanted to make this study real-world—anyone could follow this plan by making moderate changes as part of a healthy menu,” Plodkowski said.

Both groups lost weight at each monthly weigh-in, but by 12 weeks, the insulin resistant group receiving the lower-carb diet lost significantly more weight, 19.6 pounds versus 16.2 pounds in the low-fat diet group—approximately 21 percent more on average.

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Most protein users are aware of the recent consumer reports article regarding heavy metals present in some protein powders.  The brands with the largest amounts of metals where EAS Myoplex and Cytosport Muscle Milk. 

On a positive note the brands we have chosen to support at Performance Nutrition are free of these toxic metals.  You can continue to use Optimum Health Pro Complete 40 and Intek Evolution with confidence.  

Consumer Reports purchased 15 protein powders and drinks and tested multiple samples of each for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Levels in several of the products could, with just three servings a day, result in daily exposure to arsenic, cadmium, or lead exceeding USP limits.

Of the 15 protein drinks tested, three of them contained very worrisome levels of arsenic, cadmium and lead.

Which Protein Drinks Fared the Worst?

Three daily servings of the ready-to-drink liquid EAS Myoplex Original Rich Dark Chocolate Shake contained an average of:

·              16.9 µg (micrograms) of arsenic

·              5.1 µg of cadmium

The proposed United States Pharmacopoeia’s (USP) limits for these two toxins are 15 and 5 µg respectively.

The worst of the products tested was Muscle Milk Chocolate powder, which contained all four toxic metals; three of them at the highest levels of all products tested.

Muscle Milk’s Vanilla Crème contained slightly less lead, but still exceeded the USP lead limit of 10 µg.

A fourth product, Muscle Milk’s liquid Nutritional Shake Chocolate, also tested high in arsenic, providing you with an average of 14.3 µg of arsenic per day, which is very close to the USP limit.

Arsenic and cadmium appear to be the most problematic here, as the levels of these two compounds in some cases exceeded maximum “safe” limits. However it’s worth noting that, ideally, you don’t want to ingest these toxins at ANY level, as even low-dose exposure can contribute to lingering health problems.

Prevention is clearly your best defense when it comes to protecting yourself against heavy metals and other toxins.

Fortunately, preventing exposure to toxins like arsenic, cadmium and lead is possible by making sure you’re eating as much organic foods as possible, and using protein drinks that are free of heavy metals.  We recommend Intek Protein Evolution and Optimum Health Pro Complete 40 as two of the safest, high quality, great tasting protein products available.

While we cannot recommend any of the low quality, commercial protein shakes on the market, we strongly believe that whey protein powder is a very healthful supplement to your diet and an excellent source of protein.

Whey protein has been linked to a variety of health benefits, including:

·              Helping your pancreas-produced insulin work more effectively, which supports balanced blood sugar levels

·              Promoting healthy insulin secretion

·              Helping to promote your optimal intake of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals needed for your overall wellness

·              Supporting your immune system, as it contains immunoglobulin

·              Helping you preserve lean body tissue (particularly during exercise) as it delivers bioavailable amino acids and cysteine

·              Maintaining blood pressure levels that are already within the normal range

So keep in mind, protein drinks can be quite beneficial, whether you’re working out and want to increase muscle or using them to supplement an otherwise healthy diet, but quality is everything, and drinking something that’s contaminated with heavy metals won’t do you any good.

Making sure that the product you buy fulfills the healthy criteria mentioned in this article (Such as Pro Complete 40, or Intek Evolution) will ensure that you’re getting the safest, healthiest protein supplement possible.

If you shop for your supplements at discount stores you may be seriously shortchanging yourself because those products typically use cheap synthetic isolates.

Millions gorge themselves on synthetic vitamins, only to acquire and die from degenerative diseases.

You see, isolated vitamins are partial vitamins, combined with other chemicals. They’re a low-end alternative to whole, real complete food.  When you remove a part from the whole, you get ‘Synthetic,’ ‘Isolated,’ or ‘Fractionated’ pieces of the whole, but it’s simply not the same. 

There are four problems with synthetic vitamins…

1. Nature intended for you to consume food in WHOLE form because all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes are together in one package. They work synergistically to give your body the nutrition it requires for optimal health. 
2. Your body only absorbs a small percentage of an isolate form of vitamins and minerals – and it utilizes even less. You get the best bioavailability in whole food form.
3. Synthetic vitamins often give you massive quantities of some nutrients (usually the most inexpensive ones) and insufficient quantities of others, not balance.
4. You can experience side effects of synthetic isolates from the additives and the unnatural state of the synthetic supplement.

You’ve heard it before… Fast food and a sedentary lifestyle can be a disaster for your health.

Don’t let your multivitamin add to the collateral damage.  In fact, you want to be sure it makes a real and significant contribution to your health, especially if you’ve already adopted healthy lifestyle practices.

Check out ANS Natural Vita Greens for a good whole food based multivitamin.

Inflammation promotes blood vessel disease, heart attack and stroke. Researches found that a low-carbohydrate diet reduced markers or inflammation and blood fats better than a low-fat diet in people with MS. MS is a group of symptoms linked to poor metabolic health that include insulin resistance, abdominal fat deposition, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, low HDL (the good cholesterol), inflammation, type 2 diabetes and blood-clotting abnormalities. Low-carb diets reduced inflammation and improved blood-clotting regulation better than low-fat diets in people with MS.

This is a sample of the type of foods that would constitute a healthy diet which would allow an individual to maintain muscle while losing body fat.  For best results the calories would need to be adjusted to meet the needs of each individual.

Sample Weightloss Diet For Women
Meal 1 (7 AM)
1/2 cup of dry oats mixed with water
1/2 cup of egg beaters

Meal 2 (9 AM)
Meal replacement like BioRhythm Whole Gains mixed with water

Meal 3 (12 Noon)
1/2 cup of brown rice, or medium sized baked potato, or 1 cup of oatmeal
2 cups of green beans, broccoli or any other desired vegetable
6 ounces of chicken, turkey, or lean fish

Meal 4 (3 PM)
Same as Meal 2

Meal 5 (6 PM) 1/2 cup of brown rice, or medium sized baked potato, or 1 cup of oatmeal
2 cups of green beans, broccoli or any other desired vegetable
6 ounces of chicken, turkey, or lean fish

Meal 6 (8 PM)
Same as Meal 2

The body’s aging process can be compared to rusting, which in this case happens from the inside out.  Rusting is a result of cumulative free radical damage.  Free radicals are compounds that are unstable and can damage the body’s cells if left unchecked.  Free radicals come from our normal metabolism and our environment – for example exposure to sun, x-rays, cigarette smoke, saturated fats, alcohol, ozone, automobile exhaust, heavy metals and many other sources.  If we don’t do something about neutralizing free radicals the aging process can be accelerated as these compounds do damage to the bodies cells.  Conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and many of the health issues of aging are all linked back to free radical damage.  In order to help neutralize the damaging effects of free radicals we need to take antioxidants.  Antioxidant combination formulas are a great source of antioxidants as well as greens foods and super fruits such as acai and pomegranate.  We recommend using a whole food based multi like ANS Vita Greens as well.

10 million Americans are estimated to have osteoporosis.  Women are four times more likely to develop this condition than men.  1 out of every 2 women and 1 in 8 men will suffer from an osteoporosis-related break in their lifetime.  It takes much more than calcium to have healthy bones.  Using just a calcium and vitamin D supplement won’t do the trick.  We now know that other nutrients such as magnesium, vitamin k2, silica, vanadium, strontium and trace minerals play a huge roll in bone health and strength.  Combine this with proper diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes and you should see improvements in your bone health.

Try and reduce the stress on your immune system such as exposure to foods that can trigger your allergy symptoms.  Get tested to find out what you might be highly sensitive to, and then remove it from your diet.  Top trigger foods are gluten, eggs, dairy and soy.  Dietary supplements like butterbur, nettle, horseradish, eyebright, and bromelain can all help reduce your stuffy and runny nose issues.

In a placebo-controlled, double-blind study, elderberry was shown to be effective for treating Influenza B. People using the elderberry extract recovered much faster than those only on a placebo. This is partially due to the fact that Elderberry inhibits neuraminidase, the enzyme used by the virus to spread infection to host cells. A small study published in 2004 showed that 93% of flu patients given the extract were completely symptom-free within two days; those taking a placebo recovered in about six days.

Acetyl-L-Carnitine supports mitochondrial energy production and enhances the production neurotransmitter acetylcholine.  Research shows Acetyl L-Carnitine has the ability to enhance brain function and exert an antidepressant effect.

Sam-e has been extensively studied for its antidepressant activity.  It works as a methyl donor involved in the synthesis of several neurotransmitters.  Its exact mechanism of action isn’t entirely clear, although it is suggested that Sam-e may normalize levels of specific neurons in the brain.

Another interesting compound is L-Theanine.  L-Theanine is a free form amino acid found almost exclusively in tea plants.  Studies suggest it can increase brain levels of serotonin, dopamine and GABA.  Clinical studies suggest L-Theanine may increase alpha wave activity, relaxing and focusing the brain without drowsiness.