New Blog Updated: Cinnamon and Magnesium to reduce Inflammation and Insulin Resistance (and lessen diabetes onset risk)

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Cinnamon and Magnesium to reduce Inflammation and Insulin Resistance (and lessen diabetes onset risk)

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What's in your protein shake? Maybe cadmium, arsenic, mercury, and lead...

So, I dropped by to read Melting Mama (who is a very cool, funny, ragingly honest blogger that I like to read regularly), and see a very helpful post for June 1 on the Consumer Reports test of protein drinks. I'm glad she posted this, cause I had tried to find an online source for the test results (didn't want to subscribe again to CR, as I had been a subscriber for years and, really, hardly ever went to the site to get my money's worth.) She has the chart up. Go see it.

I admit it. Yes, I confess. I have several big cannisters of protein mix in my kitchen. (Or, more specifically, under the kitchen table, as I have a storage issue here.)

No, I didn't have gastric bypass. No, I'm not a low-carber. No, I'm not an elite muscle-building athlete.

So, why?

Cause I can't eat before my exercise training session. If I have breakfast (ie, solids), I get crazy reflux when I lie down, invert, etc. So, for almost two years, since I began regular  Pilates training, I've had my cocktail I mix up in a shaker prior to exercising. I noticed on days I didn't use it and caved and had an egg with toast or toast and cheese or something else with a solid, I'd get the mini-acid-reflux pukies. When I had nothing but tea, I pooped out, no energy to finish an hour-long exercise session.

Enter BSN Syntha 6 and Dessert Lean. I liked the flavors (I have banana pudding, cinnamon roll, mochaccino, & chocolate). I liked the ease of mixing with water.I use it in combination with Amazing Grass and Acai Splash (and sometimes Green Magma) to get antioxidants, protein, etc before my workout. It gives me the energy to get through it, and at fifty years old and morbidly obese, anything that gets me through an hour of exercise, I'll take it. :) (Well, as long as it's not illegal or loony or makes me look like a strung-out crack or meth 'ho.)

I never have more than one scoop a day (unlike the Consumer Reports study that uses 3 servings a day as their comparison standard amount). I sometimes have half a scoop.

I also recently got some Any Whey (wish that was in their study) to punch up the protein content in my husband's occasional breakfast waffles and pancakes (as he does tend to NOT get enough protein, usually none to almost none with breakfast,  and has had some muscle loss consequently).

So, for myself, what to do?

Well, I'm not gonna toss it in the trash. The quantities in the BSN as listed (yeah, I use THAT chocolate one) divided by 3 or more (as I use 1 to less than one scoop and only on VIGOROUS exercise days, which is usually 2x, and sometimes 3x a week).

I will not repurchase, however, and will figure out a better way to prep for exercise WITHOUT protein shakes. If that means experimenting with smoothies (ie, peanut butter and milk with banana or somesuch), then so be it.

I don't eat protein bars anymore (never really loved any of them other than Supreme Protein, and that had an amazing amount of calories!). The peanut contamination sort of got me to toss what I had.

However, if you take protein shakes daily--and I assume bars with protein isolates mixed in may have this very same issue, and Consumer Reports should look into that-- or, worse, multiple times a day, it's time to sit down and have yourself a good think and self-talk over it. Definitely don't have it more than once a day (if you're supplementing meals). Start cutting back a bit today if you are using it multiple times a day and have stocked up on the brands with worst contamination (Muscle Milk, whoa, glad I never bought that). If you are determined to continue to consume protein-rich mixes/shakes, then at least buy the ones that did well on the Consumer Reports tests: Solgar Whey to Go, Optimum Nutrition Platinum Hydro-Whey (dang, long name), Six Star Muscle Professional Strength Whey (dang, another long one).


I used to drink EAS myoplex in dark chocolate (the low carb one) back when I did a low-carb phase. I won't be buying them again.

I wonder if they've tested the protein additives--or toxins-- in marketed food programs with protein shakes and protein bars and protein-enhanced this and that? If they're using those whey isolates, etc, just like protein powders, this could be an issue.

Are you drinking protein shakes/mixes/bars? Does this Consumer Report study concern you? Are you going to alter your habits re ingestion of these protein products?

Argh, Double Argh; Loading Up Pantry with Superfoods Powders; Have you tried MSM for saggy skin?

I do NOT have a handle on my eating. Just as the scale started going downwards with the combo of delivery meals and raw meals, I got sick. Allergy season is kicking my crappy respiratory and immune system to the curb. I've been congested and wheezy (I have bad asthma since childhood) for two weeks, but last week was really bad and I haven't been able to leave the house. Sitting still lets me breathe. Moving means I need more oxygen and I feel gaspy. It's like a fat person is pushing a knee against my sternum and strangling me at the same time.

Sucks.

So, hubby has been bringing in soups and meals, and I've been eating comfort foods and the scale is up to 269...again. Crap.

I visited iHerb (love this site, my newest online discovery and addiction). I have ordered a bunch of powdered raw and green supplements from Healthforce Nutritionals (just got them a couple days ago) and Madre Labs (should arrive in a week or so).

I was pretty much an invalid 20 years ago and had to quit work due to my immune and respiratory issues. I began to supplement big time back then and found it actually helped. When my blood sugar started soaring, I avoided getting on pills for it by switching the composition of meals (didn't really lose much weight, just didn't eat carbs or sweets without a full meal with protein, fat, and fiber) and adding cinnamon supplements and alpha lipoic acid and beta glucans. Worked. My labs came back great within a few months. And although I didn't lose weight until several years after (and only 30 since my high), I've pretty much kept the habit of not eating carbs by themselves and taking cinnamon when I cave to sweets.

The combo of whey protein, barley grass, acai/berry juice, and amazing grass has given me a bit of extra perk for working out, especially when I don't sleep well. So, I know that these things do work for me to some degree.

I've used Green Magma and Berry/Acai Splash for years and added Amazing Grass recently to my pre-workout regimen, but I decided to try some new "more packed" powdered nutritionals. I saw the link for the Healthforce Nutritionals raw food supplementary powders on The Skinny Online and the website for the products piqued my curiosity.  I do find the taste has that mild freshness to it, but it's not great tasting. I pretty much gulp the stuff down fast. :D

From Madre Labs products, I'm ordering a bunch of free powder and beverage samples (like an instant coffee and mushroom, cocoa and mushroom, vitamin c, etc). From the superfoods, I got the Midori Greens (redundant as, being a Japanese  manga fan, I know "midori" means "green") and the Eureka Berries. The former (Midori) has some superfoods not already in my rotation. The latter includes chokeberry, and after reading about it in a blog at Diets in Review, I decided I want to add it to my supplement line-up.

The other things I'm getting from iHerb I had never heard of until I watched a video linked from Melting Mama.  The info wasn't on THAT video about a woman who was on her own reducing plan that included multiple 100 calorie shakes per day plus two very light meals and a lot of New Agey spirituality. Her loss is impressive. But what was MORE impressive to me was her lack of loose, hanging, stretch-mark-riddled flesh. Her belly looks amazing for someone who's lost like 100 pounds. She posted another video, with some of her own humor added, where she theorizes on why her skin handled the loss well. I figured it was worth trying the MSM (sulfur supplement and moisturizer with the stuff). I ordered capsules and the cream.

You might wanna check out this article, too.  It mentions other vitamins and zinc along with MSM. After Sparking earlier this year, I learned I'm continually deficient dietarily in zinc (and zinc in those multivitamins tends to be poorly absorbed), so I purchased ionic liquid zinc. It tastes AWFUL. But now that I see it relates to skin health/elasticity, I need to be more diligent.  I already have saggy skin, and if MSM and superfoods and zinc can help in any way with skin, general immune  health, and weight loss, why not?

If you've used any of these superfoods or the MSM products with some good result (or no result or bad result), do let me know.

So, there it is and here I am, just plain NOT doing well due to an assortment of reasons mental and physiological and seasonal, but not giving up. Nope. Uh-uh. Hanging in there.

Hope this spanking fresh week we've been given to live is a fat-reducing, health-producing one for us all...

The Micro-Awareness Upside of Tracking Food: What Ae You Lacking? What are you overdoing?

After tracking my food intake for a couple weeks, I noticed something interesting--and slightly distressing: I am consistently ranking way, way low on zinc, and often ranking low on folate. I almost never make the recommended minimum for potassium, and I wouldn't make magnesium without my regular supplementation (and from what I've read, few Americans do make it to minimums on these two nutrients). Also, I just about always go over the recommended maximum for salt\--no surprise-- and often go over for cholesterol, easy if I have two eggs in the AM. I sometimes don't make the minimum for calcium (now that I've drastically reduced pizza, takeout Italian, and cheese enchiladas!) without a pill.

I have started using my nutritional report to see what supplements to add to dinner or my evening snack. I was already long accustomed to taking calcium and magnesium and vitamin D--I am after all female and don't want osteoporosis. I'm asthmatic and pre-diabetic, so I've taken magnesium supplements for about 10 years for those particular conditions.

Since Sparking my nutrition, I've consciously been trying to add even MORE potassium to my diet via foods, but even on really conscientious days, even with 11 or more fruits and veggies, I don't make the 4500 mark (though I can get real close). So, I'm gonna start tweaking. I have high BP, so this is important. And I need to wean myself of my sodium addiction (that is gonna be tough.)

So, supplements take care of adding calcium, magnesium, Vit D, and, as needed, when I fall short of B12 or some other B (I have stress B complex that I use on hard exercise days).

So, what about zinc and folate?

Foods highest in zinc and my issues:

Shellfish and oysters--can't eat them. I have terrible seafood allergies. I end up in the E.R.

Pine nuts--hate them in anything except pesto sauce (which can only be eaten in moderation, as it's pretty calorie-rich)

Brewer's Yeast--Hey, I used to take that as a kid (my sister was into it in the seventies). A possibility, as long as I am not sensitive to it these days. (I am hyperallergy-prone.)

Wheat Germ--excuse me, ugh. Have tried many times to eat this. Ick.

Wheat Bran--well, I do eat whole grain bread, just not as much as my "eat what I want" periods. Weight loss = less food= fewer nutrients. Geesh.

All Bran Cereal= I'd rather take a pill. Another Ew.

Pecans--Like em in salads, but again, oodles of calories.

OK sources and issues:

Liver--you have got to be kidding? My mom used to force me to eat this in my kidling years, and I would gag unless there was a layer about an inch and a half thick of onions on top to mask the nasty texture/taste. I'd rather take a pill than eat even one forkful of liver.

Cashew Nuts: Love them! But again, high calorie price.

Parmesan cheese: Adore it. Use it regularly. But it's not a huge huge source, unless, I guess, I gobble a wedge.

Fish: Um, I really hate going to the ER.

Eggs: Eat em almost every day, gotta watch the cholesterol a bit. Not a great source, unless I eat like 10 eggs.

OK. I understand now why I keep getting low on this one.

Onto folate...

Foods richest in folate and my issues:

Brewer's Yeast: OK, I'm really gonna have to research and try this again (as long as there isn't a connection with Candida or anything else for my immune system). Two birds with one brewer's spoon.

Lentils: Oh, I like lentils. I didn't like Dr. McDougall's version, but I could try to find a great recipe and freeze batches or use them in salads or as an appetizer on bread. Yeah, maybe this could work.

Edamame: I have to limit soy products (I love tofu and soymilk, but the thyroid does not.)

Romaine: Eat it frequently.

Pinto Beans: Like.

Okra: Like a lot sauteed with tomatoes and onions.

Black Beans: I am Cuban-born. Need I say more? We'd kill for our black beans.

~More good sources--spinach, kidney beans, asparagus, broccoli, fresh o.j., papaya, whole wheat bread, etc.

All right, folate is doable. Lots of my fave foods on earth and lots of foods I eat regularly are on here. Have no idea why I'm lagging here. Maybe I need to see if the foods list at Spark is not listing folate properly. I eat some of those foods many times a week.

Still, the point is that this is making me more aware of choices. So much so, that I like to leave a 100 to 200 calories for an after-dinner snack to make up "voids" in my day's nutrition.

I also know that there are supplements I can take, but I'd rather get it from food. Since my 20's, when I first started learning about nutrition (at college, in a class on it, and later on in my own readings to try and improve my chronic conditions), I always believed the food itself, the way God created it, supplied more than science even knew, so it was the better way. Supplements were merely aids, to fill up gaps that imperfect choices make. Not something to utterly rely on to make up for crap eating all the time.

I still believe this. I think back on how much we know now compared to the sixties and seventies about what's in stuff--tea, coffee, fruits, veggies, chocolate, etc. How color is indicative of benefits. And we'll learn more.

Even if you aren't feeling the mojo to reduce calories or diet right now, I recommend you do some nutrition tracking with a free online tool to find out where there are nutritional holes in your diet. You don't want to find out LATER, when your bones are Swiss cheese, that you failed to get enough calcium and Vitamin D and magnesium. You don't want to up your risk of HBP cause you eat too much salt and not enough potassium. You don't want to risk stroke or x or y condition cause you failed to ingest vitamin this or mineral that.

Do a tracker for a couple weeks. It might be a revelation.

So, let's see, gotta make up a new shopping list. :)

But, it does make me stop and consider. So, I did a web search to remind myself what foods are rich in these.

Will This Become The Magic Anti-Fat Pill?

A drug designed to specifically hit a protein linked to the life-extending benefits of a meager diet can essentially trick the body into believing food is scarce even when it isn't, suggests a new report in the November Cell Metabolism.

The drug called SRT1720, which acts through the protein SIRT1, enhances running endurance in exercised mice and protects the animals against weight gain and insulin resistance even when they eat a high-fat diet, the researchers report. The drug works by shifting the metabolism to a fat-burning mode that normally takes over only when energy levels are low.

...The researchers found that a low dose of SRT1720 partially protected mice from gaining weight on a high-fat diet after 10 weeks of treatment. At higher doses, the drug completely prevented weight gain in the animals. SRT1720 also improved blood sugar tolerance and insulin sensitivity and endowed the animals with greater athletic ability.

--from "Drug Mimics Low-cal Diet To Ward Off Weight Gain, Boost Running Endurance" at Science Daily

I gotta say, I sure hope so. I hope it really doesn't have wacky side effects. I have a certain natural skepticism about "magic pills," but that doesn't mean I can't hope for one.

Still, while I wait to see what happens with this, I plan to be drinking more grape juice and wine this season--and to more faithfully take my resveratrol supplement. Heh. Why not?

~

Sparkly Factoid: Adequate Vitamin C Helps Burn Fat

People in a study who had low blood concentrations of vitamin C and walked on a treadmill for an hour burned 25 percent less fat than people with adequate C. But a dose of C brought fat-burning levels back up to par. Why? Seems C is essential for creating carnitine, a substance that turns fat into fuel. Find out how much C you need with this tool.

--from "Slim Down with This Vitamin" at RealAge.Com