The Health Blog by Ryan Healy

Refined vs. Unrefined Carbs

Here's an excerpt I was forwarded from Alex Jamieson's The Great American Detox Diet. The description of white bread as paste is especially illustrative.

"Do you remember making papier-mâché projects in arts and crafts class? The usual tools were strips of newspaper and a bowl of paste. That paste was made of a simple, cheap combination of ingredients: just standard white flour and water. It was sticky, it was gooey, and it worked like glue that hardened in no time. Now think about the last time you ate a piece of white bread or other refined-flour product. The flour in that white bread, once it was moistened with your saliva, became like that pasty glue, and this is what was sent into your digestive system: a gummy, nutrient-poor glob of starch. This is what your digestive system looked forward to processing. It's not tough to imagine how little nutrition was drawn from this ball of sticky matter, or how difficult it was for your body to finally eliminate it.

"What's been 'refined' out of these processed carbohydrates are all the beneficial nutrients that nature originally put into them. The bran, the fiber, and most of the vitamins and minerals have been stripped away, leaving a bland, white, longer-lasting and shelf-stable product. White flour has only 20 percent of the vitamins and minerals and 25 percent of the fiber of the original wheat kernel. That's why a lot of bread products are 'enriched' with vitamins and minerals—they don't contain enough to mention otherwise. Whole wheat flour still contains the hull, germ, and bran of the grain and offers more fiber and nutrients. I look forward to the day when fast-food restaurants offer whole grain buns and fiber-rich side dishes to their customers, instead of the empty carbs that they now push on us so aggressively."

The Great American Detox Diet

Alex Jamieson, Morgan Spurlock's fiancee, has written a book about the diet she put Morgan on to help him recover from his 30-day McDonald's-only diet. The book is called The Great American Detox Diet. It's scheduled to be released on June 4, 2005. Could be a good read....

Kevin Trudeau, Part 2

The controversy surrounding Kevin Trudeau continues. In the past week, my first Kevin Trudeau article has received eight more comments, even though I wrote the article back in February.

The situation on Amazon.com hasn't seemed to change at all. Here are some excerpts from recent reviews.

May 14, 2005:

• "It is not what I expected after watching the TV infomercial."
• "What a horrible experience. It is the biggest scam ever!"

May 13, 2005

• "Zero stars if I could. This doesn't even qualify as a book in my opinion."
• "I watched the show, which tells you nothing. I paid $30 for the book, which also tells you nothing."

May 12, 2005

• "What a lousy book. I'm so sorry I didn't look this book up before purchasing. He never does get to the 'cures.'"
• "This book is awful! Don't waste your time or money on him."

May 10, 2005

• "Kevin Trudeau is a quack."

The people who've given Natural Cures good reviews (and those are few), seem to acknowledge that the book gives little specific information, but then go on to praise Trudeau as a "hero" because of his fight against the FTC.

I went to NaturalCures.com and read the sales copy. I believe Kevin Trudeau continues to make sales because he's positioned himself as a champion of truth and a martyr.

Many times he notes that he accepts "absolutely no advertisers" on his web site, and that he doesn't promote any supplements. This is his evidence that his opinions aren't tainted and that he only tells the truth.

He then talks about his ongoing battle with regulatory agencies and says, "Please note that the FTC and FDA are actively and aggressively trying to shut down and prevent this web site from even existing."

This statement alone would cause me to pause before purchasing. You mean I could pay for a subscription and the web site could just disappear? No, thanks.

But then Trudeau really starts to hint at the incompleteness of his web site when he says: "NaturalCures.com is in its infancy"... "This is the beginning of the beginning"... "My goal is"... "My mission is"... "We have a long way to go before this web site will be fully active"... "When this web site is fully active, it may include"....

Notice how much of the language is future tense? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Kevin Trudeau is coming right out and saying, "This web site is under construction!"

I wouldn't buy a subscription to NaturalCures.com based on the promise of the site's future content. I'm surprised that so many other people have.

If this article hasn't convinced you one way or another about Kevin Trudeau's book and web site, I highly suggest you do your due diligence before opening your wallet.

Cookie Monster Makeover

Amazing... Cookie Monster has gotten a makeover. Now, in addition to gobbling cookies in a flurry of hands and crumbs, Cookie Monster will also scarf down fruits and vegetables.

Even a new song has been written for Cookie Monster's new image: "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food." The goal of the new song is to help kids understand the role of moderation in diet.

If you're a long-time reader of The Health Blog, you know I'm not a big fan of television. But I am glad to see that Sesame Street is making an effort to influence children to develop healthy habits.

And while I'm on the subject of children's media, let me call your attention to something else I've noticed... That is, children's books are rife with references to sweets and sugary foods.

Stephanie and I have gotten into the habit of taking our two-year-old daughter Annabelle to the library every week or two. We check out about ten different board books each time to keep Annabelle's reading material fresh.

What's been shocking to me is how many books focus on sweets and sugary foods. One that comes to mind is Sheila Rae's Peppermint Stick. Another one (which I happen to think is a great book) is Jamberry.

The trouble is that nearly every book we check out reinforces emotional attachment to sweets. Frankly, it's hard enought to get children to eat healthy foods without the contrary influence of television and children's books. With their influence, it's even harder.

So—bravo to Sesame Street for bringing moderation into Cookie Monster's life. And if you happen to write children's books, would you please help us parents out and not write about sweets. Thanks.

Richard Koch on Health

I just finished reading The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch, and in the final pages of the book, Koch mentions his perspective on healthcare and how 80/20 Thinking can cure some of its ills.

“Two decades ago, the U.S. surgeon general very sensibly tried to attribute the causes of illness and concluded that only 10 percent of it was attributable to medical care or its absence and fully 50 percent was related to personal behavior. Yet U.S. budgets, under both Republicans and Democrats, have allocated 20 times more spending to corrective medical care than to all the programs encouraging better nutrition, health education, self-care medication, and personal fitness.” (p. 255)

Koch goes on to suggest that the government ought to reverse its allocation of dollars so that educational health programs receive far more funding than corrective medical care because the greatest payback would come from altering the personal behavior that causes 50 percent of all illnesses.

In addition to what I’ve quoted above, Koch makes two additional statements I found myself in agreement with.

“In the case of healthcare, as in most areas, prevention is better and a great deal cheaper than stopping it later; and creating habits of healthy living among the young, habits that are likely to endure through a long lifetime, will do more good than almost any other form of social expenditure.” (p. 255)

And finally:

“We probably need fewer hospitals, fewer doctors, and fewer nurses and more voluntary and home-based health workers, more nutritionists, more gyms, more fitness equipment, more parks, more cycle lanes, and high taxes on unhealthy food.” (p. 255)

With the exception of his comment about taxing unhealthy foods, I agree with what he’s saying: we need to encourage preventive healthcare and discourage people from making poor health decisions. Maybe, in a small way, The Health Blog is doing just that.

The pH Miracle

I finished reading The pH Miracle almost three months ago, but my copy has only yesterday come back into my possession. I am now ready to tell you what The pH Miracle is all about.

Robert O. Young, Ph.D., and his wife Shelley Redford Young put forth a simple idea in their book: that the pH of your blood is the most significant single indicator of your overall health.

Based on his research and analysis of thousands of live blood tests, Robert believes the ideal pH for blood is 7.365, or slightly alkaline. (By the way, the pH scale starts at 1 and goes to 14. Low numbers indicate acid and high numbers indicate base. Seven, the center of the scale, is neither acidic or basic.)

When your body is acidic, as most Americans are, then you are prone to develop diseases and symptoms that reflect your body’s overly acidic state. Here’s what Robert and Shelley say.

“We’re starting from the premise that of all the balances the human body strives to maintain, the most crucial is the one between acid and base (or alkaline). The body will go to great lengths to maintain the appropriate, slightly basic, nature of its blood. But it is all too easy and far too common for body tissues to become acidic. Such an imbalance sets the stage for chaos, opening the door to sickness and disease. Overacidification of body fluids and tissues underlies all disease, and general “dis-ease” as well. For one thing, it is only when it is acidic that the body is vulnerable to germs—in healthy base balance, germs can’t get a foothold. Furthermore, acids are the expression of all sickness and disease. In short, good health requires a body in proper acid/base balance. Proper diet (like the one laid out in this book) is the only way to ensure that.” (p. 13)

When your body becomes too acidic, your lymphatic (immune) system will try to do whatever it can to neutralize and eliminate the excess acids in your body. While your body exhausts itself trying to dispose of the acids, you may experience some unpleasant side effects.

“This imbalance in the blood pH leads to irritation and inflammation and sets the stage for sickness. Acute or recurrent illnesses result from either the body trying to mobilize mineral reserves to prevent cellular breakdown or emergency attempts to detoxify the body. For example, the body may throw off acids through the skin, producing symptoms such as eczema, acne, boils, headaches, muscle cramps, soreness, swelling, irritation, inflammation, and general aches and pains. Chronic symptoms show up when all possibilities of neutralizing or eliminating acids have been exhausted.” (p. 15)

So what’s the solution? How do we prevent our bodies from acid overload? The Youngs say the answer lies primarily in what we eat.

There are many foods that cause the blood to become alkaline. The Youngs say we should eat far more of these than we currently do. Unfortunately, most of the foods in the American diet are acid-forming. The Youngs say we should eliminate the consumption of these foods whenever and wherever possible.

Something interesting that the Youngs point out: just because a food is acidic does not mean it will cause your blood to be acidic. For instance, lemons, limes, and grapefruit are acidic foods, but they cause your blood to become alkaline.

In The pH Miracle, you’ll find charts of many foods with their corresponding pH levels. Reviewing these charts will open your eyes to how much acid-forming food you’re consuming. As I looked everything over, I found myself pleasantly surprised that some of the foods I like to eat are on the alkaline side of the scale… but I was also somewhat disappointed to find some of my favorite foods on the acid side. You’ll likely have the same experience.

The pH Miracle is a very practical book. The first 198 pages discuss the diet and why it’s important. The latter 130 pages are chock full of recipes and resources you can use to put a healthy diet together.

If you have the time, I highly recommend this book. It’s the most common sense, scientifically-supported book I’ve read on the subject of diet and health.

Buy The pH Miracle at Amazon.com.

The Last 5 Books I've Read

I just finished Michael Masterson's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting this morning. (I mailed out my final assignment yesterday!)

Anyway, I added the course to The Last 5 Books I've Read—the list you can see in the left-hand column of this page. And the TypePad software tried to pull in a book cover that's totally unrelated. Now I can't get the cover to disappear. Oh, well.

The course is not available through Amazon.com. But it is available at The Writer's Life.

Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures

Have you seen that infomercial of Kevin Trudeau pitching his book Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About?

I happened to catch a few minutes of it one night, and it was nearly enough to make me pick up the phone and order. But I decided not to...

And, boy, am I glad! I was over at Amazon.com and looked up the book to see what other people are saying, and it's not good.

Apparently, the book is a pitch-fest for Trudeau's web site. Readers say very few remedies are actually provided in the book; for the majority of them you'll have to purchase a subscription to the web site.

It seems one reviewer, Dr. Michael L. Johnson (real name), has been following reader's comments. And he's observed that Amazon has deleted many of the negative reviews.

"I have contacted Amazon as to why my review (along with over 100 other negative reviews) is no longer viewable. Sounds VERY fishy to me! PLEASE... save your money and DO NOT buy this book."

Is it true Amazon has deleted reviews? I don't know, but you can read the reviews of Natural Cures here.

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TV & Metabolism

I'm currently reading The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn. Although it's not primarily a health book, I did find evidence that shows that television watching decreases metabolism.

"A researcher at Memphis State University monitored the metabolic rates of children watching a regular children's TV program and discovered that as they watched, their metabolic rates dropped to a level somewhere between resting and sleeping. Had they been simply sitting and doing nothing at all, their level would have been significantly higher. The effect was even greater for children already overweight. Since the metabolic rate measures the number of calories a person uses up over time, this finding demonstrates that it's not merely a matter of TV watching displacing some form of exercise that encourages obesity. By reducing the metabolic rate, the act of TV watching itself makes kids more likely to become fat." (pp. 42-43)

And that's just one of five negative health effects the author links to TV watching!

Another point to note: the author's focus is on children, but that doesn't mean adults are exempt from this decrease in metabolism.

So—if you'd like an instant increase in metabolism, simply turn off the TV and do nothing. Even better, turn off the TV and do something... like exercise. :-)

The Will to Live

My friend Bill Gardner is discussing Michael Marmot's new book The Status Syndrome. In Bill's own words:

"Marmot’s fundamental empirical finding is that there is a social gradient in health, that is, when you group people according to their places in social hierarchies, you find better health and greater longevity in each successively higher class."

I suggest you read the entire post to get a better understanding of what Marmot is talking about. At root, Marmot says that a person's place in society determines health and longevity. And, more specifically, that greater autonomy leads to greater health and longevity.

I certainly am willing to believe that this could be true. In fact, it makes very good sense to me. But it seems to me that the will to live may also play a key role in this discussion.

A person with a strong will to succeed will likely have a higher position in society, and, therefore, greater autonomy. And a person with a strong will to succeed will also likely have a strong will to live.

My questions:

1. Are the will to succeed and the will to live closely correlated?
2. If so, could it be will that, at least partially, determines health and longevity?
3. And could a person's good health and high position in society simply be a symptom of a strong will?

Some things to think about.

Update 08/01/2005: Bill Gardner has stopped blogging and has removed his blog from the Internet.