High Fructose Corn Syrup and Leaky Gut...Fascinating.

A fellow E.H. and facebook friend posted an article about 5 reasons why high fructose corn syrup could kill you.  Since I am pretty well versed in why HFC is so horrible for us, I didn't pay much attention until today. I took a moment to read it and read something that I haven't read before. It shocked me that I hadn't actually heard of this before but then again, the corn growers like to keep this under wraps. It answered a few questions for me that have been going on in my head.


The question: "Why does it seem like everyone is developing a leaky gut giving way to gluten and casein intolerance's?" 


Leaky gut leads to all sorts of problems in the body. Most autistic children have leaky gut. Probably most kids on the ADD/ADHD spectrum as well. Look at many other autoimmune diseases and you will likely see the same pattern. Why has this skyrocketed in the last few decades? 


I want you to take the time to read the whole article here but take a quick read at the paragraphs below about HFC and a leaky gut, taking special notes at the section highlighted in red. This is an article by Dr. Mark Hyman. Read the whole article here.




HFCS and cane sugar are NOT biochemically identical or processed the same way by the body.

High fructose corn syrup is an industrial food product and far from “natural” or a naturally occurring substance. It is extracted from corn stalks through a process so secret that Archer Daniels Midland and Carghill would not allow the investigative journalist, Michael Pollan to observe it for his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The sugars are extracted through a chemical enzymatic process resulting in a chemically and biologically novel compound called HFCS.

Some basic biochemistry will help you understand this. Regular cane sugar (sucrose) is made of two-sugar molecules bound tightly together – glucose and fructose in equal amounts. The enzymes in your digestive tract must break down the sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are then absorbed into the body.

HFCS also consists of glucose and fructose, not in a 50-50 ratio, but a 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio in an unbound form. Fructose is sweeter than glucose. And HCFS is cheaper than sugar because of the government farm bill corn subsidies. Products with HFCS are sweeter and cheaper than products made with cane sugar. This allowed for the average soda size to balloon from 8 ounces to 20 ounces with little financial costs to manufacturers but great human costs of increased obesity, diabetes and chronic disease.

Now back to biochemistry. Since there is there is no chemical bond between them, no digestion is required so they are more rapidly absorbed into your blood stream. Fructose goes right to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol) this is why it is the major cause of liver damage in this country and causes a condition called “fatty liver” which affects 70 million people. The rapidly absorbed glucose triggers big spikes in insulin – our body’s major fat storage hormone. Both these features of HFCS lead to increased metabolic disturbances that drive increases in appetite, weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia and more.

But there was one more thing I learned during lunch with Dr. Bruce Ames. Research done by his group at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute found that free fructose from HFCS requires more energy to be absorbed by the gut and soaks up two phosphorous molecules from ATP (our body’s energy source). This depletes the energy fuel source or ATP in our gut required to maintain the integrity of our intestinal lining. Little “tight junctions” cement each intestinal cell together preventing food and bacteria from “leaking” across the intestinal membrane and triggering an immune reaction and body wide inflammation.

High doses of free fructose have been proven to literally punch holes in the intestinal lining allowing nasty byproducts of toxic gut bacteria and partially digested food proteins to enter your blood stream and trigger the inflammation that we know is at the root of obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia and accelerated aging. Naturally occurring fructose in fruit is part of a complex of nutrients and fiber that doesn’t exhibit the same biological effects as the free high fructose doses found in “corn sugar”.

The takeaway: Cane sugar and the industrially produced, euphemistically named “corn sugar” are not biochemically or physiologically the same.

3. HFCS contains contaminants including mercury that are not regulated or measured by the FDA

An FDA researcher asked corn producers to ship a barrel of high fructose corn syrup in order to test for contaminants. Her repeated requests were refused until she claimed she represented a newly created soft drink company. She was then promptly shipped a big vat of HFCS that was used as part of the study that showed that HFCS often contains toxic levels of mercury because of chlor-alkali products used in its manufacturing.(i) Poisoned sugar is certainly not “natural”.

When HFCS is run through a chemical analyzer or a chromatograph, strange chemical peaks show up that are not glucose or fructose. What are they? Who knows? This certainly calls into question the purity of this processed form of super sugar. The exact nature, effects and toxicity of these funny compounds have not been fully explained, but shouldn’t we be protected from the presence of untested chemical compounds in our food supply, especially when the contaminated food product comprises up to 15-20 percent of the average American’s daily calorie intake?


It is interesting to me that since children with Autism usually have leaky gut and mercury, why in the world aren't we talking about HFC


Get it out of your house! Stop drinking soda. Stop it! (Are you listening, Dan?) Look at labels and control your health. At least do it for your little ones. Please?


If you analyze health problems today and why they are out of control, it is my strong belief that a leaky gut is at the center of it all. Why? Well, the stomach was engineered amazingly to filter out the garbage that our world gives us. It has a protective lining that would protect us from heavy metals, toxins, etc. Now, take that away with the way we eat and add in the punched holes in the stomach and you have a gateway for disaster. Now, vaccines that contain harmful ingredients can be absorbed instead of filtered. Top that off with the overuse of antibiotics that further destroy the lining and we don't stand a chance. My emails are overloaded with women telling me about the health problems they and their children have mostly regarding the gut and the allergies related. It breaks my heart. Really. It is so out of control. Since so many other countries ban HFC in their country, or at least don't use it widely, the disease rate and Autism rate is minuscule compared to here. Our options?


Stop buying it so they will stop using it in our foods. Cook it yourself so you know what is in your food.  Educate yourself. 


My bandwagon for the day.

Forks Over Knives.

My friend April keeps me informed on lots of great things. She sent me this link for a new documentary called, "Forks Over Knives". I cannot even wait to see the whole thing. The trailer is wonderful. You can watch and see for yourselves. It is about food and disease and what the American diet does to us. We are so messed up here in this country. Seriously messed up. We are killing ourselves. 


I am going to rant just a little right now since I don't yell at people directly. I have to get it out. Eating crappy is selfish. It isn't just about you. What you are doing to yourself will impact your family. You may think that starting and ending your day with a soft drink is normal and fine. However, add that with whatever else you are feeding yourself and you are creating disease. Disease that your children will pay for one way or the other; taking care of you, burying you or picking up your bad habits. You cannot go on eating garbage and not reaping the results. It doesn't work that way. If you read my blog, you are probably one who already knows this. I sure wish everyone would get on the bandwagon. Our kids don't stand a chance. We start them off with formula containing 40% corn syrup. Really? How do they even survive. 


Watch the trailer here and then watch the whole movie when it is released. 

Meet the chicks.

I feel complete. It was the missing link in my family preparedness plan. It will save me from spending $4 per dozen on farm fresh eggs. The perfect addition to my backyard farm.....Meet the new ladies:

We have Jenny, Zoe, LaFonda and the triplet sisters. They are loved. Maybe a little too much. They have a house guest:

Unless she can start laying eggs, she needs to find a new house. She became very fond of this nesting box while we were making final preparations for the chickens. I woke the first morning to this scene. She had found a way in and didn't mind one bit that this wasn't her place in the world. She didn't get the memo that cats and chickens don't mix. She tried to give one a bath. Didn't go over so well. She'll soon figure it out.


I wasted lots of time the last few days just watching them. Silly little creatures. A couple more months and they will give me eggs. The least they could do for the amounts of chicken poop I have had to clean up. The boys will be taking that job over tomorrow. Another good reason to have pets....job creation. Kids need responsibilities and ownership. The youngest three are delighted. Hopefully it will last as they have to free range them a couple times a day and watch them so they don't devour my garden. It looks pretty funny to see a little boy out there with a stick shepherding them around. Cute as pie. 


A special thanks to my husband for making all my dreams come true. He did a fine job on the coup. I think he likes them a bit too. I saw him staring at them as well for a good period of time when he should have been getting to work. Mesmerizing. 


I have high hopes that the scorpions will find their fate. With 4 cats in the backyard and 6 chickens, you would think that the numbers will diminish. Here's hoping!

Feed.

     I am back....but regrettably so. We left our heart on the beach. It was beautiful and refreshing. The best Mother's Day week ever as I didn't cook, nor clean for 5 days straight. However, I realized that I am good for about 2 days of eating out only.Then, my body begs for my home cooked meals. My body knows the difference between white, processed flours and sprouted whole grains. It knows what real farm eggs are and what egg beaters are not. I loved the break but was so thankful to be able to cook the breakfast my body needed this morning. How can people live on fast food and eating out? Probably because they don't know the difference.


     Most people go on living in a sort of mediocre zone. They don't feel great but they don't know how good they can feel. They feed themselves sub par. They feed for convenience and for sustenance not for health and vitality. If you don't let your body know what real food is, you are missing out on how you can feel and perform. Many people spend more time picking out their pet's food than their own. 


     I ate at the hotel for breakfast every morning. I ate white flour pancakes and cinnamon rolls. Eggs that were from a container not a shell. I had some fresh fruit but mostly my breakfast ended up as paste in my belly. Try mixing white flour with water....paste. That is what is in your intestines. I couldn't do my normal morning "business" and thus, my gut wasn't too pleased with me. I needed whole grains. Today, I made some Tropical Peach Muffins with my sprouted wheat flour and fresh peaches from my tree. We threw it down with a great smoothie packed with spinach and cabbage and blackberries. My body rejoiced. I feel wonderful. Sure, it is a little work but so very worth it. 


    Take time to "feed" your body in every sense. Listen to what it is telling you. Is your stomach happy after you eat? Do you take care of business after you eat on a regular basis? Is your hair and nails healthy? Do you have a sugar drop in the afternoon? Evaluate your health and indulge yourself by feeding your system what it is screaming for you to give it. If it is screaming for donuts and chocolate, your body is telling you it is time for a cleansing. You crave sugar when yeast is overtaking your system. Clean the yeast and the cravings will go down. Do a sugar elimination diet for a little while also and you will be surprised what that does for your sweet tooth. Clean your liver. Drink smoothies. Do a little spring cleaning of sorts.


     I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. I wish I could have taken you all with me to the sunny beach. You all deserve it! Take a little time out for yourselves and treat your body right. 


***All coconut oil is in so email me for pick up. Supplement orders will also be put in later this week. 

Produce something.

Few things give me greater joy than seeing the fruit of my labors. I took a walk around my plantation, all 1/4 acre of it the other day and was elated with the beauty of my crops. Apples, peaches, oranges, strawberries, tomatoes, etc. They are a beautiful creation and I am so thankful to have them at my disposal.


If you have been paying attention lately at the grocery store, prices are out of control. Few things are left untouched by soaring prices. There is also talk of fungus and disease in many crops this year for produce as well. We need to produce something on our own. If you don't already have something going in your yard, no matter what the size, it is a great weekend to play farmer. Plant something, anything. It will give you great satisfaction. We need to work towards self-reliance. Just start somewhere. It is a great time of year to plant. I added three new trees this year and two more are coming next week along with my much anticipated chickens. My garden is full and my new boysenberry bush has beautiful berries popping up. I can hardly wait! I had my first peach of the year yesterday and my mouth jumped for joy! I am sort of sick of apples and oranges. I am very ready for the summer season....peach cobbler, fresh garden salsa and pasta sauce, omelets with fresh peppers and onions, zucchini frittatas and chocolate zucchini cake. Delightful. 


What's in your yard? 

Meat Glue

Meat glue? Yep, it's true. If you want to solidify the fact that you need to choose grass-fed , organic beef or go vegetarian completely, read this article today from Mercola. If you dare.


Click here.

Cheesy Sauce

I'll tell ya, ball season at our house means quick dinners. Usually that makes kids happy because it seems like the quick dinners are their favorites. I miss the good ole fashioned long prep dinners but with only minutes of cook time in the evening, we have to settle for quick nutrition. 

They love a simple stuffed potato...probably because it is covered with cheesy sauce. The recipe I use is from my friend Molly's cookbook. You could put cheesy sauce on anything and make it tasty. I like this sauce because it is subtle and not processed. No Velveeta in my house. We have our limits.

Cheesy Sauce

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk 

1 tsp. sea salt

1 1/2  cups grated cheddar (we use raw grass fed)

1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp. dry mustard

pepper to taste

Melt butter in pan. Mix in flour and cook for a minute, stirring constantly. Stir in milk and cook until thickened, stirring. Add rest of the ingredients and stir until cheese is melted. Serve warm.

Coconut oil order

The coconut oil is in. Please email me so I can get them to you. I have placed the second order and will have that in a week. I will keep doing orders as I get groups together so if you are interested, just email me. When I get six together, I will put in the order.


Thanks!

Rhetoric

Ladies, I am here to chew you out. You need to cool it. You need to change your daily rhetoric. You need to reinvent the way you see things. You are not being fair to yourselves. You are stopping yourself from thinking of more important things. You are making yourself believe things that aren't true. You need to start being happy with who you are now. Truly happy.


I had an email from a sweet friend this last week about a post I did a little while back. It was a post on how I found myself and was happy with who I am. She just had a baby and that of course is a time when body image isn't at its peak! She is feeling less than adequate about herself and has all the emotions that goes with it. She wanted to know how I got to the point where I was happy with me. That made me think about my journey to where I am now. In addition to that email, another thing that gave me thought this last week was the women at the gym. They are constantly talking about their bodies and how horrible they look. I gave a friend a sincere compliment at the gym about how super skinny she looked (the truth) and she could only point out her thighs. Seriously, there wasn't an ounce of jiggle on her. But, as women, we are really good about talking about our faults, even if they aren't there, and not taking a compliment. We worry so much about being perfect that we don't even appreciate what we have. Honestly, I am tired of hearing women put themselves down.


The truth is ladies, we will never be perfect. Super models even have imperfections. If you are looking for perfection, you will never get there. If you tell yourself every day that you aren't slim enough, pretty enough, talented enough, etc.... you will believe exactly that. By definition, rhetoric is the art of using language in a persuasive way. We use daily rhetoric to persuade ourselves that we need to be a certain way to be content with ourselves. Just 5 pounds more and we will be happy.


Last year, I decided that I was going to give myself a break. Not that I ever felt horrible about myself but I would always look in the mirror with a grimace. I would weigh myself and the scale would tell me how confident I would be that day. Silly, really. No one else would notice  a slight change in my weight. No one else cared if I had my cute jeans on or not. I don't think there is anyone out there who is my friend because I was thinner that week than the last week. I decided that my attitude toward myself was not only stupid but damaging as well. If I felt bad about myself, I was less apt to think about others. I was a little more self centered and introverted if I wasn't happy with me. I decided that this attitude was selfish and needed to change.


I decided that when I look in the mirror and those less than pleasant thoughts come into my head (and we all get them), I was going to change the rhetoric and say things to myself to change the way I feel. I began to be thankful for my healthy body. If I felt bad about my thighs, I would instead by thankful that I had them to run with. If my belly stuck out a little more than I wanted that day, I would be thankful that it made 5 beautiful babies. I began to appreciate me and tell myself that I didn't need to be perfect. I began to believe myself.


Being happy with ourselves doesn't mean that we don't keep trying to look good and slim down, etc. We still need to get in shape and take care of ourselves, we just need to not let it define our feelings. We can't let that be our happiness. Some of my slimmest friends are some of the unhappiest. When I was at my slimmest point, I was more consumed with myself than I am now. It is really all in the attitude.


I think about this last year and how I am where I am now. I know that a huge difference has been the fact that I am so entirely busy that I don't have time to dwell on myself much. I have about 30 minutes to get ready so there isn't much time to stare in the mirror. There is something to the slogan, "Loose yourself in service." 


If you are unhappy with yourself, get out there and serve others. Get too busy to worry about your own problems. Start working out to feel good, letting go of looking perfect. Eat right so you will feel good. You deserve to have energy and health.


Bottom line: No one cares if you are perfect. In fact, people usually like you better if you aren't. People like those who are confident and are uplifting. Those who aren't negative and berating of themselves. Think of who you like to be around the most and you will see. If we become happy with ourselves, we will be better mothers and wives; better friends and better servants. 


I still have my days where I don't feel the best but those are pretty fleeting now. I just change my tone and get out the door. I can honestly tell you all that I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. Consequently, I am not the slimmest I have been. But, that's ok

Coconut oil order

I am putting in a group order for my very favorite coconut oil from Tropical Traditions. A one gallon pail of the Gold Label organic coconut oil is $60, that includes tax and shipping. I am putting in the order Thursday. You will have to pick it up from me if you want it. I need a minimum of at least 6 gallons to get this price.

I will also be ordering oils and supplements on Thursday as well.

Email me if interested. 

Thanks!