Down 50 Pounds! Overweight No More!

I have lost 50 pounds since I started the Oil-Change Diet. That is 1/3 of my current weight or 1/4 of my initial weight. At 153 pounds I am no longer overweight, my BMI is now below 25. I was initially very surprised by the 15 pound weight loss in just 3 weeks when I started this diet. That was the same time period that I was able to get off of the 5 prescriptions I was on–a total of 9 pills a day. Those prescriptions were for arthritis, (etadolac), blood pressure (hctz), heart rhythm (toperol), pain (gabapentin), and cholesterol (lipitor). I was measuring my blood pressure and I would cut my medication in half when my systolic and diastolic pressure was at least 5 pressure units below the upper limits my doctor had given me (140/85). It took about a week on the diet before I cut my blood pressure and hearth rhythm medications in half and then another week I was able to cut them again. After about 2 weeks I cut my arthritis medication in half as well as the pain medication. By the end of three weeks I quit all the medications I had been taking except the 81 mg aspirin, which I still take.

Based on what I had read about the effects of omega-6, I had hoped that reducing my ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 would help with my blood pressure and arthritic pain. I was totally surprised that eliminating all the major sources of omega-6 had eliminated my need for all of my blood pressure/heart rhythm and arthritis/pain medication, I was even more surprised at the weight loss–15 pounds in just 3 weeks. Clearly that could not be from calorie restriction and it certainly was not due to exercise as my activity level was unchanged. That initial loss was from reduced swelling and fluid retention that was part of the physiological response to the high levels of omega-6 that had been in my diet.

The additional 35 pounds I have lost came slowly, 2 to 3 pounds a month at the start and only a pound or 2 a month in the past 6 months. It is not like I had not tried to lose weight before. I had been trying for at least 20 years with short term losses that were quickly regained as I added a pound or 2 a year. What is different now is the fact that I do not have that need to feel stuffed before I quit eating. I had been guessing that that might have been due to changes in serotonin levels or receptors, but I found an article that actually points to a different reason. Omega-6 fats are used to create endocannabanoid hormones and these marijuana like hormones, like marijuana, stimulate our appetite and make us overeat.

Unlike the initial 15 pounds, I have been trying to lose these last 35 pounds. I weigh my self every day and while my weight fluctuates 3 to 4 pounds over a week, when I see it increasing, I make sure I choose lower calorie foods for a few days. I reduce my intake of cheese and increase my intake of low calories foods like salads, veggies and egg beaters. I never go hungry, if I get hungry I eat. I always have breakfast, lunch, dinner and a dessert a couple hours after dinner. I generally have at least one snack a day in the afternoon, but sometimes have a snack mid morning as well. Primary snacks are fruit, sometimes with cheese, but sometimes it is cheese with omega-3 crackers or pretzel chips. I also use fresh coconut and occasionally have a chocolate-coconut chia bar that I make as a snack.

I try to eat seafood several times a week and I cook with very little fat–coconut oil or real butter. I eat some meat, mainly chicken and pork, but I keep the portions small (3 to 4 oz). I try to keep the grain based carbohydrates low–very little pasta, rice or bread. We get most of our carbs from fruits and veggies. We do eat out and have pizza occasionally–a really cheesy calorie dense pizza with bacon, chicken and lots of cheese, but now I don’t find it that hard to stop at 1 or 2 slices instead of 4. We do eat-out at restaurants, but I try to order seafood that is grilled or prepared with very little fat. Our desserts are usually strawberries or blueberries and whipped cream–real whipped cream–not a bad way to end the day!!

Scintillating Findings From New Orleans: Low Carb Diet Is Better than Low Fat for Losing Weight and Preventing Heart Disease

The one improvement I would recommend is to keep the omega-6 in that fat low, keep the omega-3 up. If you need to know where the omega-6 comes from check my book.

Omega-3 Enhances Pineal Gland Function

Here is an abstract from a publication on the benefits of omega-3 and the effects on our pineal gland. The pineal gland affects melatonin production which affects sleep. The pineal gland also affects our response to drugs that affect the brain. The natural increase in nighttime melatonin level affects our sleep patterns.

A little explanation of their terminology– 22:6n 3 refers to a 22 carbon fatty acid that has 6 double bonds and the first double bond is 3 carbons from the end–ie omega-3 (this is DHA). 20:4n 6 is the omeaga-6, arachidonic acid.

Pineal glands from n 3 deficient rats, an 87% reduction of 22:6n 3 (docosahexaenoic acid) was observed, and this decrease was accompanied by increases in 22:4n 6 (docosatetraenoic acid, 3 fold), 22:5n 6 (docosapentaenoic acid, 12 fold), and 20:4n 6 (arachidonic acid, 48%), The significant decrease of 22:6n 3 containing species in phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), and phosphatidylserine (PS) was also evident. These decreases in 22:6n 3 containing PL species were compensated by substantial accumulations of 22:4n 6 or 22:5n 6 and slight increases in 20:4n 6 containing PL species in PC and PE, In PS, however, the accumulation of n 6 species was not adequate to compensate for the loss of 22:6n 3 species. N 3 deficiency significantly reduced non esterified 20:4n 6 and 22:6n 3 levels in pineals (25% and 65%, respectively) and led to a more than 60% increase in the daytime pineal melatonin level. These results suggest that n 3 fatty acids may play a critical role in regulating pineal function. Zhang HJ; Hamilton JH; Salem N; Kim HY. N 3 fatty acid deficiency in the rat pineal gland: effects on phospholipid molecular species composition and endogenous levels of melatonin and lipoxygenase products. J LIPID RES 1998; 39: 1397 1403.

Why I Eat Fat: The Cholesterol Issue

This gallery contains 2 photos.

? This month I have been writing a series on fat truths and why I eat it. I have covered the basics and discussed some problems we can run into with modern-day dietary and cooking habits. If you would like…

Coconut Nectar Pancakes… Yummy!

Another good low omega-6 recipe. Sam’s club now has coconut flour.

Yummy Yummy Baby!

Ingredients

1 cup of Coconut flour (or gluten free blend of choice)

1 Tablespoon ground flax seed
1 Tablespoon of Coconut Sugar
2 teaspoons Baking powder
2 Egg replacement
¼ teaspoon Sea salt
2 Tablespoons Coconut Agave Nectar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 Cup of Coconut Milk
1 Tablespoon of melted Coconut Oil

Instructions:

In a medium size mixing bowl, sift together flour, flax meal, baking powder, sugar and sea salt.

In a separate bowl, combine Coconut Oil, Coconut Agave Nectar, Vanilla, and Coconut milk.

Slowly mix in half of the liquid into dry bowl, stirring continuously, add the rest… ¼ cup at a time to avoid a runny batter (not all gluten free mixes are the same, adjust as needed).

Mix until you get the lumps out of the batter. You don’t want it to be too thick or too runny.

Usually about 1 cup + 2 tablespoons of flour…

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Fat is Essential, You Just Have to keep it Balanced

For decades we were told that fat will make you fat. It became public enemy number one in the diet world. Saturate fat was considered especially bad and we were told that if we eat any fat, it should be polyunsaturated fats. Fat Free became the new marketing focus in the grocery aisles. Carbohydrates based foods were the substitute, made from refined grains, sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup. The result was more weight gain, not the weight loss that was to be expected by avoiding the higher calories in fat. Then we were introduced to the Atkins diet—a diet based on fat—and people were losing weight on it! Not that I would recommend the Atkins diet, but it certainly put an end to the theory that fat makes you fat.
The omega-3 and omega-6 fats are essential for life, we cannot live without them. It is not difficult to get them in our diet, but we need to keep them in balance. That is what is difficult — keeping them balanced, especially given the food choices we have with our industrial agriculture and food industry providing what we have in our grocery stores. Our industrial agriculture system produces millions of tons of grains and carbohydrate rich foods. The fats in most of these foods are high in omega-6, producing omega-6/3 ratios in excess of 10 to 1 and as high as 20 to 1 in some. These high ratios are behind many of our medical problems.
Our bodies do make fats. We can take carbohydrate energy and turn it into fats like triglycerides and cholesterol. We can make a wide variety of fatty acids up to 16 carbons long, but we cannot make the 18, 20 and 22 carbon omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Our bodies do need some of the fats that it makes, but often it is just a way to store excess energy. Cholesterol and triglyceride levels in our bloodstream are indications that we are probably consuming more calories than we are burning—in other words they are indicators of overeating, which is generally pretty obvious based on our height to weight ratio or BMI. Overeating has created a nation that now has 1 in 3 considered obese.
How did we get here? There are a combination of factors; reduced need for physical labor in our jobs, increased intake of sugar, especially high-fructose corn syrup, the makeup of our processed foods and increasing reliance on them, our increasing omega-6/3 ratios which produces hormones that stimulate appetite. As the calories we need to do our jobs decreased, we did not reduce our intake of calories in proportion. Some suggest that sugar is even addictive, giving us a sugar high that the pleasure centers in our brains want us to repeat. The high omega-6/3 ratio produces endo-cannabanoids, which act like marijuana and give us the munchies. All of these factors are singly or in combination producing an obesity epidemic.
Obesity alone is an indicator of a risk for heart disease. It increases the work our heart has to do to maintain circulation. It increases the risk of artery clogging cholesterol and fat deposits. It is part of the reason that medical science jumped to the conclusion that cholesterol was a major cause of heart disease. In addition, they assumed that dietary intake of cholesterol was the real problem, without really understanding the mechanisms behind the manufacturing of cholesterol in our bodies. Ultimately pharmaceutical companies identified drugs that could block the enzyme (HmgCoA ) that our cells use to make cholesterol. However, that doesn’t eliminate the underlying problem of obesity and the drugs (statins) come with their own set of problems.
It was the focus on cholesterol and its correlation with heart disease that pointed us in the wrong direction for the past 30 to 40 years. Dietary sources of cholesterol and saturated fats were to be avoided. In their place, vegetable oils with polyunsaturated lipids were recommended. The medical community had made a common mistake of assuming that correlation implied cause without identifying the mechanisms that could prove cause. Now, with the idea that cholesterol was the cause of heart disease so ingrained in the minds of doctors and people, it has been very hard to correct that mistake and teach people about one of the real causes of heart disease—Omega-6!
The statins have no effect on excess omega-6 and the increased inflammation, clotting and adhesion that it produces. Taking fish oil will help balance the essential fat ratio, but it won’t help much if we continue to consume massive amounts of omega-6 typical of most on western diets. Even those on vegan and vegetarian diets can have excessive omega-6 if they are not aware of the sources and do not eat seafood.

Raw and Naked! Coconut Oil… a Friend or Foe?

One of the ways that coconut oil helps with all of these medical problems is that it is low in omega-6. Using coconut oil helps reduce your omega-6/3 ratio and that will help prevent, reduce or eliminate many different medical problems. When the MCTs from coconut oil are used to supply energy for our body, it does not produce the oxygen free radicals that we get when our body uses glucose. That prevents a lot of cellular damage.

Yummy Yummy Baby!

Raw and Naked… Coconut is an Antimicrobial, Antioxidant, Anti-inflammatory and Analgesic… truly one of nature’s super-food miracles!

There are at least 17,000 studies describing the medicinal and nutritional effects of Coconut and Coconut oil on health. Over and over again various physicians, researchers, biologist, nutritionist and even pharmaceutical companies have all come to the same conclusion… Coconut is no foe, it can help so many aspects of our health!

Why and how can Coconut have so many medicinal properties?  The short answer is that every part of the Coconut has it’s own unique healing gifts. Today, I will be focused on how Coconut Oil was found to be composed predominantly of a Healthy family of fats called Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) and Keytones.

It is amazing that although Coconut Oil has a long history of nutritional and medicinal uses for thousands of years, Western Medicine continues to use pharmaceutical drugs…

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Cancer Diet Recipe – Buckwheat Soup With Flax Oil

This is a recipe that will be high in omega-3 and low in omega-6. It will help bring your omega-6/3 ratio down. That will not only help prevent cancer, it will also help prevent or eliminate many other health problems.

Breast Cancer Authority

By Breast Cancer Yoga Staff.
Leading by example, Breast Cancer Authority Blog has helped others to change what they eat, or at least consider making some changes. It’s wonderful to see how many relatives, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and perfect strangers are considering a plant-based lifestyle.

Healthy plant-based recipe options & food products continue to multiply. We can’t even keep up with all the creative recipes to choose from–and there’s always a new healthy product out there in the marketplace to try out.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup buckwheat grouts
• 1/2 sweet onion
• 3-5 cups water
• 1 vegetable bouillon (I use Rapunzel)
• 2-3 tbsp Bragg’s Liquid Amino
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 2 tsp chile powder
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 – 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tbsp flax oil
• Herbs of choice

1.  On med-lo heat, gently heat 3 cups water. As it warms, add the buckwheat, onion and bouillon…

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Fish and fatty acid consumption associated with lower risk of hearing loss in women

Hearing loss–yet another medical problem associated with your essential fat balance.

CLINICALNEWS.ORG

Public Release: 10-Sep-2014

Study provides insights to possibly prevent or delay acquired hearing loss

BOSTON, MA – Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that consumption of two or more servings of fish per week was associated with a lower risk of hearing loss in women. Findings of the new study Fish and Fatty Acid Consumption and Hearing Loss study led by Sharon G. Curhan, MD, BWH Channing Division of Network Medicine, are published online on September 10 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN).

“Acquired hearing loss is a highly prevalent and often disabling chronic health condition,” stated Curhan, corresponding author. “Although a decline in hearing is often considered an inevitable aspect of aging, the identification of several potentially modifiable risk factors has provided new insight into possibilities for prevention or delay of acquired hearing loss.”

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The amount of omega-3 (DHA) in a mother’s milk more important than money spent per pupil in predicting test performance

This may be why USA test scores are dropping in comparison to other countries. If you want your kids to do well in school, you have to give them a good balance of essential fats! My book will show you how.

CLINICALNEWS.ORG

Their findings show that the amount of omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in a mother’s milk — fats found primarily in certain fish, nuts and seeds — is the strongest predictor of test performance. It outweighs national income and the number of dollars spent per pupil in schools.

“Breast milk in the USA is among the worst in terms of its fat balance”

Researchers at UCSB and the University of Pittsburgh use breast milk to show a correlation between dietary fats and academic success

By Andrea Estrada

Tuesday, September 9, 2014 – 22:45

Santa Barbara, CA

Hold the Mayo | The UCSB Current

Comparison of amounts of dietary DHA to academic performance

This graph shows the relationship between breast milk fats and test performance. Countries in which diets contain less of the good (omega-3) fat and more bad (omega-6) fat are toward the left. Those with better test score are toward the…

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