Includes articles related to various topics of food, micronutrients, macronutrients and how they are related to overall health.
This video describes how blood sugar is regulated by the 2 main pancreas hormones, insulin and glucagon, as well as what happens when regulation goes wrong. Time Stamps The Pancreas – endocrine cells 0:04 Insulin and Glucagon 1:08 How different nutrients impact blood sugar 1:41 Negative feedback regulation 4:21 How insulin decreases blood sugar 6:38 …
In order to build skeletal muscle there needs to be an overall increase in synthesis and a decrease breakdown. Resistance training causes muscles to breakdown and then rebuild if there is enough protein for the rebuilding process to occur. The main nutritional factors that stimulate muscle protein synthesis are: Amino acids from eating protein – …
When someone says “I have high cholesterol”, what they actually mean is that they have high LDLs, which are low density lipoproteins where cholesterol is just one component of group of molecules. Dietary cholesterol is one single molecule and has important biological functions in our body. Dietary Cholesterol Cholesterol is shown in the following diagram. …
The short answer is yes AND no! It is not quite as clear cut as “sugar is sugar”. What is the same? Sucrose has the same chemical structure no matter what the source. Sucrose is a disaccharide that contains 50:50 glucose and fructose molecules. Glucose and fructose are both monosaccharides that have the molecular formula …
Is eating sugar in fruit the same as eating table sugar? Read More »
A very common argument against intermittent fasting is that you are starving your body and this will lead to a slower metabolism and weight gain in the long run. Intermittent fasting will not cause your body to think it is starving if you are following one of the standard intermittent fasting methods (see below). In …
One thing that has been shown over and over about nutrition research is that people have difficulty accurately estimating how many calories they consume, and how much protein, fat, and carbs they consume. It is one factor that makes retrospective nutrition research studies very difficult to interpret. There are many different types of diets that …
Chronic inflammation is highly associated with chronic diseases so we want to minimize excessive inflammation as much as possible. Inflammation is when the immune system reacts to foreign substances or microorganisms in order to protect the body. When the immune system fights of infectious organisms or harmful substances, it can be quite reactive and causes …
What kind of diet works best? Low fat diet? Low carb diet? Do total calories matter? The most popular theory right now is that carbs increase weight gain because carbs stimulate insulin, which is a hormone that causes our liver to convert carbs into fat, so reducing carbs will help you lose weight. But, there …
Throughout human evolution periods of feasting have been followed by periods of fasting. Our body is physiologically adapted to spending a little time without food. Skip eating for a day or so, 24-36 hours, and just consume water, tea, or bone broth and feel the health benefits. I suggest fasting from about 6pm after you …
Most of the fats in our diet are beneficial. We need to have fat to make cell membranes, produce certain hormones, transport dietary fats in the bloodstream, produce bile, make energy, absorb fat-soluble vitamins, produce lung surfactant, and produce myelin on nerve cells. But there is one type of fat that has no beneficial effects …
If you are going to eliminate one thing from your diet it should be trans fats Read More »
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that has several important functions in our body. Getting into the winter months, it may be time to think about adding a vitamin D supplement. Studies show that approximately 40-50% of North Americans and about 1 billion people worldwide are deficient in vitamin D. Vitamin D is primarily made …
I thought it would be a good idea to explain what an alkaline diet is and how pH is regulated in the body and then you can make your own decision about it. According to the alkaline diet there are certain minerals that are acidic or alkaline – acidic foods lead to disease whereas alkaline …
The Alkaline Diet – understanding how pH works in our body Read More »
