The liver is the largest internal organ – and the largest gland in the body

The General of the Army:

In traditional Chinese Medicine, the liver is “General of the Army,” in charge of overall energy, harmony and strategy. According to Chinese doctors, the body’s smooth flow of energy depends on a healthy liver. Chinese physicians treat elevated blood pressure, depression, and excess weight, in part, by supporting liver function.

There is no substitute for a healthy liver! The liver detoxifies blood and stores blood, especially when we’re resting or sleeping. As Supreme Commander of metabolism, the liver makes and stores sugar (as glycogen), converts excess sugar into fat (triglycerides), and manufactures the lipoproteins (VLDL, LDL & HDL) that move liver-assembled fat and cholesterol throughout the body.

The liver regulates protein synthesis and breakdown. All amino acids absorbed from food in the small intestine are transported to the liver where they are recombined to meet the body’s ongoing protein requirements. Also, the so called nonessential amino acids are produced in the liver as are a wide range of critical hormones and vital immunological substances.

After the skin, the liver is our largest organ (weighing about 3 pounds) and the largest gland in the body. Shaped like a football flattened on one side, the liver has two lobes of unequal size and shape. The liver is located in the upper abdomen under the rib cage on the right side. (The liver’s uppermost hump lies just behind your right nipple.)

Each day the liver makes a quart of bile – a mixture of cholesterol, fluids, and salts. Stored in the gall bladder, bile is an emulsifier necessary for digesting and absorbing fat and fat soluble substances:

• Many toxic substances are eliminated in the bile
• Bile coats our slow-moving feces – protecting us from infection
• The only way cholesterol leaves the body is in the bile (much is recycled back to the liver)
•  sorry Cheerios!

The liver is in charge of detoxification, digestion, assimilation, and a wide variety of biochemical reactions, including blood sugar control. Given its complex duties, the liver is the only organ with a dual blood supply. An overworked liver can be a voracious  “blood hog,” balancing two blood supplies as – minute by minute – three pints of blood reach the liver:

• Oxygenated blood from the heart via the hepatic artery
• Nutrient-rich blood (& toxins) from the stomach, spleen & intestines (portal vein)

These above vessels further divide and eventually empty into the microscopic spaces between rows of liver cells called sinusoids – wherein the mobile, octopus-like Kupffer cells reside – moving about the sinusoidal spaces engulfing dangerous chemicals, bacteria, cancer cells, dead cells, incompletely digested or denatured proteins, parasites, yeasts and a legion of foreign particles. Once the Kupffer cell has its victim ingested, it chews it up with enzymes and destroys it.

If Kupffer cells become overloaded, many different symptoms of poor health may occur. Today, in the U.S., fatty liver disease is epidemic and liver (and pancreatic) cancer are on the rise.

• Up to 25% of Americans have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
• Liver disease is the 4th leading cause of death in the United States for people between the ages of 45 and 54 years.
• Over 5 million Americans have chronic Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C infection.

The liver is the Supreme Commander of metabolism – “General of the Army.”

If you suffer from abdominal bloating, allergies, bad breath, coated tongue, depression, poor digestion, excessive body heat, frequent fatigue, gall bladder disease (inability to tolerate fatty foods), headaches, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, overweight, skin problems, sleep disturbances, and sugar cravings, you may want to consider a love your liver program.

Liver stress factors to avoid:

Artificial sweeteners, food additives (all 2,000), food colors, pesticides, synthetic chemicals, workshop solvents, many commercial household cleaners, insecticides, sun-blockers (the latter two in combination harmed our Gulf soldiers).

Damaged fats:  Trans fats, partially hydrogenated fats (same thing), margarine, vegetable shortening, excess omega 6 linoleic acid found in commercial vegetable oils (soybean and canola).

Excess alcohol (one drink a day is too much if you have impaired liver function), excess sugar, any High Fructose Corn Syrup, excess easily-digested carbohydrates, and packaged foods containing powdered eggs and milk – and the oxidized cholesterol they should be warning you about.

Synthetic Prescription drugs (especially cholesterol-lowering statins), synthetic hormones, synthetic fat soluble vitamins such as synthetic dl-alpha Vitamin E – found in many cheap one-a-day multiples. Long term use and/or high doses of over-the-counter pain killers

Liver Therapies to investigate:

Artichoke leaves stimulate bile and contain compounds (caffeoylquinic acids) that protect and help regenerate liver function.

Broccoli and other members of the brassica family (cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, kholrabi) support the liver’s detoxification enzymes.

Butter and Coconut contain anti-microbial short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids that go directly to the liver (via the portal vein) for energy and detoxification. Saturated fats protect the liver from the toxic insults of alcohol and medications.

Dandelion root, leaf and flower support blood purification and relieve liver congestion

DHA (found in fatty fish, liver and pastured eggs) reduces inflammation, oxidative stress, fibrosis and liver damage

Eggs (from small producer chickens) provide lecithin, needed fats, and complete protein. (A lack of protein depletes glutathione and impairs the liver’s ability to detoxify)

Milk Thistle contains silymarin, one of the most liver-protective substances known – based on extensive German use – a must for serious liver diseases.

Onions and garlic are rich in sulfur-containing compounds that support the main detox pathway for environmental chemicals and certain drugs and food additives.

Taurine is one of the major nutrients involved in the body’s detoxification of harmful substances and drugs and is a key component of bile.

Tumeric and ginger reduce inflammation

“A stitch in time saves nine.”

Doctors test for liver damage – not impairment. One of the keys to good health and a long life is paying attention to the Supreme Organ of the body – your liver!

“Happiness is said to reside in and emanate from the Liver,” writes Ron Teeguarden -  “http://www.ronsblogworld.com/ – blogging: Chinese Tonic Herbs

It’s 2013 – time to get your blood moving!

1.  Use butter. Stop eating margarine. Butter, especially from pastured cows, is a much-needed daily source of infection-fighting Vitamin A. Margarine has none.

Stop using vegetable shortening. Lard, from outdoor-living pigs, is a much-needed daily source of infection-fighting Vitamin D. Crisco has none.

Together fat soluble Vitamins A & D fight infection as they help our bodies absorb minerals.

 2.  Avoid deep-fried foods unless prepared in heat-and oxidation-resistant more stable saturated fats like coconut, beef tallow or creamy lard.

Most restaurants use chemically unstable, highly processed vegetable oils that – in very small amounts – promote oxidation – cellular damage.

Trans-free or not, most restaurant-prepared French fries contain the truly ‘bad’ fat of mass destruction: damaged omega 6 linoleic acid.

 3.  Eat an orange; don’t drink orange juice.  As the Corn Growers Association crowed about $20 million times, “Sugar is Sugar.”

They’re right:  a 10 oz glass of orange juice contains the sugar of 6 to 8 large oranges – several teaspoons of sugar.

Excess sugars, especially the combination of glucose and fructose – as in white sugar or HFCS – promote sticky traffic jams in the liver – and ultimately fatty liver disease, now increasing even in younger people.

4.  Include fresh eggs for breakfast (unless you are allergic to them). Most of us need 30 grams of protein before noon. Complete protein-rich eggs (7 grams per large egg) provide the building materials needed by your body to build cell membranes and other structures – and provide steady energy all morning long. Sugar can’t do that!

 5.  Avoid dried or powdered eggs and milk found in packaged, processed food products. Dried eggs and milk provide oxidized cholesterol, the only type of cholesterol “They Should Be Warning You About – but don’t.” Choose fresh eggs and whole raw milk from small producers as much as possible; avoid dried, powdered or pasteurized products that promote cellular rusting.

 6.  Stop using commercial vegetable oils, such as canola, soybean, and sunflower. If the genetically modified organisms don’t bother you, the excess omega 6 and the trans fatty acids produced during high temperature, high pressure deodorization should. (Our traditional healthy fats don’t need high heat processing or chemical solvents  like hexane.)

There is no such thing as the average person – we are all genetically and biochemically unique. For optimum function, we each have unique nutritional needs and specific environmental requirements.

7.   Have a glass of water first thing, but remember, there is no one formula for how much water we need daily. As noted by Roger J. Williams, PhD, author of Biochemical Individuality, “We’re more different than alike.”

Food also contains water, and for optimum digestion, most people should restrict water during a meal. Get in the habit of intentionally drinking water – stay hydrated – but don’t overtax your kidneys or follow “one-size-fits-all” advice about much of anything health or medical.

8.  If you supplement with one mineral, make it magnesium.  While I am not in the supplement business, I recommend magnesium-emphasized ConcenTrace Mineral Drops. They provide all minerals in easy-to-absorb ionic form, including 250 mg of magnesium in ½ teaspoon. Simply add to your drinking water. There are other useful magnesium compounds to consider as well; cheap magnesium oxide is not one of them.

 9.   Eat fermented vegetables and old fashioned bone broths. It’s vital to learn about traditional food preparation techniques. Fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut are incredibly good for our gastrointestinal health – home of the immune system. Bone broths are inexpensive to produce mineral-rich elixirs. (Chicken soup from slowly simmering chicken bones is a rich source of antimicrobial monounsaturated palmitoleic acid – eat the skin too.) These are key foods that have promoted good health and longevity throughout the ages.

 10.  Walk – don’t run. If you need a reason to walk, buy a dog. Any veterinarian will tell you dogs need daily exercise. Don’t be a couch potato, but don’t over-exercise; running and extreme exercise can enlarge the heart.  (The number one cause of death among marathoners is heart failure.)

 11.  Eat red meat and juicy fatty pork. Lamb and pastured beef are your best sources of L-Carnitine and zinc, while pork is your best source of Vitamin B-1. Beef, pork and chicken livers provide abundant Vitamin A and all B-Vitamins. These animal foods are nutrient dense – provide complete protein – and when purchased from small producers, contain no hormones or antibiotic residues. Make sure YourPlate doesn’t look like MyPlate.gov!

12.  Need to lose weight (burn fat)? Go to a used bookstore and purchase a copy of Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution or the original Diet Revolution (1972) if you can find one. The Atkins and/or Paleo approach to eating is based on the traditional nutrient-dense foods that kept our ancestors happy and healthy. Learn more about Paleo and Atkins to BURN FAT and stay healthy in 2013.

13.  Learn more about tonic herbs. Learn about traditional foods – and learn more about tonic herbs. As an example, silymarin from milk thistle seeds enhances the metabolism of liver cells and protects the liver from toxic injury. Use it daily for 3 months (or longer) to help repair and rejuvenate the liver. No pharmaceutical drug can do that!

Hawthorn berries, flowers and leaves – when taken over time – nourish the heart and help dilate the coronary arteries. In Germany, hawthorn is widely prescribed as a cardiotonic because European science has confirmed that hawthorn increases the heart’s muscle tone.  Hawthorn extracts (powder or liquid) are even better when used in conjunction with circulation stimulants like cayenne pepper and ginger.

Cayenne and ginger help regulate unwanted blood-clot promoting fibrin – a blood protein that builds up after meals and in excess promotes heart attack and sudden death. While these circulation stimulants clean the blood, milk thistle and hawthorn nourish the liver and heart, respectively.

Remember, “A stitch in time saves nine.”

This women is suffering from cellular starvation; chronic high insulin levels prevent her from accessing her abundant stored energy and constant hunger is the result.

Flat in the ’60s and ’70s, obesity only began to increase after 1980, the year the ”low fat” Dietary Guidelines for Americans became the “Cornerstone of U.S. nutrition policy.” But if you limit fat and foods that contain fat – like red meat – you must eat more of something else and for a majority of Americans that something else has been carbohydrates.

For more than 30 years, we’ve been told to emphasize foods that raise blood sugar:  box cereal, bread, fruit, fruit juices, pasta and grain. As a result, we dramatically increased our consumption of breakfast pastries, grain products, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and a host of ”low fat” products often displaying the American Heart Association low fat ”seal of approval.”

But here’s the rub:  Carbohydrates elevate blood sugar; fat and protein do not. (Excess protein can turn into glucose;  fat never does.) Chronic elevated blood sugar leads to high insulin. As the fat storage hormone, insulin converts excess sugars into fat – and as long as insulin is at a high level in the circulation, fat is locked up. A person may have stored energy to burn – but cannot access the fat (adipose tissue) when insulin remains elevated.

Daily excess carb intake keeps stored fat under hormonal lock and key. As long as insulin remains elevated, stored fat is not available as energy to the body’s trillions of hungry cells.

Obesity is a consequence of cellular starvation - not eating too much. A lean person with a “healthy appetite” is never accused of eating too much. The problem:  locked up adipose fat -  cellular starvation – hunger – carbohydrate cravings. It is the quality of the calories that matter  – and how those calories influence our hormones and metabolism.

Eat fat and your body burns fat.

The CDC in Atlanta referred to diabetes as a “dangerous runaway train.” Obesity feeds diabetes, and in all 50 states, the obesity rate is over 20 percent. The first step in ending obesity and type II diabetes is revising the “low fat” high carbohydrate Dietary Guidelines for Americans – in 2015.

USDA will be selecting a 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee next year. You better believe Big Sugar will want to pick their own committee member again – the Carbohydrate Chair – and keep the bad news about easily-digested carbohydrates out of the official Dietary Guidelines for another five years.

If you are tired of the worn out mantra low fat = good health, please pass this story on!

As Sophia Loren said, “Don’t cry about things that can’t cry over you!”

The feared final event in coronary heart disease – the number one cause of death – is a blood clot blocking off blood flow in a coronary artery. Without overt symptoms, blood clots develop in our arteries on a regular basis. They are not large enough to cause harm, or they are quickly dissolved by the body’s own intrinsic clot-dissolving process (fibrinolysis).

Although these numerous blood clots may readily dissolve, over time they contribute to plaque size and the further narrowing of the artery. Unstable artery health is the result of repeated blood clots forming over existing plaques. UK cardiologist Malcolm Kendrick hypothesizes that:   “Atherosclerotic plaques are just remnants of repeated blood clots, which, in time, turn into a form of scar tissue.”

One function of a healthy endothelium (the smooth, Teflon-like artery lining) is to prevent buildup along the artery wall. As we age and as the lining is chronically damaged, blood clots and plaque formation increase and can eventually get the upper hand.

If clotting over the damaged endothelium leads to increased risk of a heart attack, then preventing this injury and inflammation will help reduce clotting and plaque buildup – but how do we do that?

EASY FIVE STEP PLAN:

1. If you smoke, quit! Smoking creates free radicals that damage the artery wall. Also, smoking increases fibrin, a blood protein that collects platelets together into a clot. (Air pollution – while unavoidable at times – also causes endothelial damage.)

2. Consider enjoying a small amount of alcohol. A daily drink or two reduces free radical synthesis and fibrin buildup. Excess alcohol, however – more than two drinks – leads to blood platelet stickiness and increased blood clot formation.

3. Restrict high glycemic, blood-sugar-raising sugars and grains. Elevated blood sugar – via glycation reactions – causes endothelial damage. Glycation damage occurs when excess sugar attaches – without the aid of an enzyme – to a protein or a lipid, damaging, as an example, hemoglobin and LDL, respectively. Damaged hemoglobin is a marker for diabetes ( (hemoglobin A1c test); small dense oxidized LDL is associated with heart disease.

4. Fix your fats by (1) Including a variety of healthy traditional fats in your diet such as butter, coconut, palm, extra virgin olive oil,  and lard (from pastured pigs). (2) Include omega 3 fatty acids in your diet. (Our bodies can’t manufacture omega 3 EPA and DHA.) In just small amounts, omega 3 fats have strong anti-coagulant effects in blood. Consider eating flaxseed and two or more meals of fatty fish weekly, including sardines, herring, salmon or mackerel.

(3) At the same time, restrict highly processed heat-damaged omega 6 vegetable seed oils such as Canola, sunflower, safflower and soybean. Too much omega 6 and not enough omega 3 = inflammation, infection and damage in the coronary arteries.   Remember, too, that grass fed beef and lamb and eggs from pastured chickens provide more omega 3 and less omega 6 than their grain-fed counterparts.

5.  Learn how to neutralize the harmful effects of stress!  Stress of all kinds (physical and psychological) causes the release of adrenaline, cortisol, and growth hormone – fight or flight hormones that damage the endothelium by increasing blood stickiness and raising blood sugar. Resistance is the devil; acceptance will help set you free of damaging, blood-sugar raising stress reactions.

The bottom line: Avoid first and second hand smoke. Vacation in the country (unless their fracking).Considering enjoying a cocktail or a glass of wine with your evening dinner. Restrict cheap, high glycemic carbohydrates that raise blood sugar. Avoid the highly processed vegetable seed oils while emphasizing fatty fish, flaxseed and our traditional, healthy pastured animal foods. Yes, managing stress is a challenge but may be most important of all.

As Sophia Loren said, “Don’t cry about things that can’t cry over you!”

Magnesium deficiency is widespread and is related to obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart disease.

As the late Dr. Atkins was quick to point out, while magnesium is the most important mineral for the heart, few cardiologists bother to (1) test for it properly and (2) prescribe it to their patients. While potassium is more abundant within our cells than magnesium, potassium on average is also 5 to 10 times more abundant in our food. (You don’t have to eat carb-dense bananas to ensure adequate potassium levels.)

Although potassium is present in highest amounts, magnesium is dominant in regulating essential biochemical processes. Calcium also plays an important role in human chemistry – both are present in the blood, bones, and muscles – but magnesium is predominant in muscle cells and tends to control and balance other mineral electrolytes including calcium, potassium and sodium.

Magnesium is the mineral band leader

The heart and the smooth muscles in the blood vessels are particularly sensitive to the balance of calcium and magnesium. Magnesium has a relaxing effect; calcium makes them more rigid. As a natural calcium-channel blocking agent, magnesium displaces and excludes excess calcium within cell membranes. As a natural muscle and artery relaxant, magnesium sufficiency is a key factor in maintaining normal blood pressure and heart beat.

Overall, magnesium ensures that the heart can pump a larger volume of blood without increasing oxygen requirements. Magnesium’s anti-platelet activity enhances the flow of blood in all blood vessels and without the tendency like aspirin to promote bleeding. In the Physician’s Health Study, participants who took aspirin (Bufferin) had twice as many hemorrhagic strokes as those who took a placebo.

Ten important things to know about magnesium

1. Routine blood tests do not reveal intracellular magnesium. When your doctor says “your magnesium is fine,” she simply means the 1 percent normally found in the blood is present. A correlation does not exist between blood (serum) and intracellular magnesium. The measurement of magnesium in serum has very limited medical significance.
2. Metabolizing highly processed carbohydrates – food products with corn syrup, sugar, flour, and box cereals – cause magnesium losses in the urine. Magnesium is required for optimum blood sugar control.  Poor blood sugar control, in turn, increases the rate of magnesium excretion further impairing blood sugar metabolism. (Dr. Atkins referred to type 2 diabetes as a magnesium deficiency disease.)
3. Commonly prescribed diuretic drugs prevent the kidneys from recycling magnesium (and potassium and sodium), yet most doctors tell their patients to supplement with calcium – not magnesium. Excess calcium from supplements and so called fortified food products aggravates the important calcium-magnesium balance in favor of calcium.
4. Stress of all kinds causes loss of magnesium. Extreme exercise, running, sweating, and even shivering in the cold promotes magnesium excretion. Anger, driving in rush hour traffic, depression, guilt, and fear all involve sympathetic nervous system activation, increased adrenaline – and loss of magnesium.
5. We need stomach acid to absorb minerals. Our bodies require magnesium to produce stomach acid. A magnesium deficiency reduces stomach acid which, in turn, reduces mineral absorption. (Keep in mind that the symptoms of excess and insufficient stomach acid are the same.) Don’t reach for an “antacid,” get your intracellular magnesium tested instead.
6. Due to low stomach acid, reduced nutrient absorption, and the use of diuretic drugs for hypertension, the elderly are at greatest risk of magnesium deficiency. Most cases go unnoticed because doctors do not perform intracellular testing (see #1 above) and quite often discourage any type of nutritional supplementation.
7. A quick way to produce kidney stones in animals is to put them on a magnesium deficit diet. Magnesium increases the solubility of calcium in the urine, helping to prevent stone formation. Also, most patients with Chronic Fatigue, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and MS are deficient in magnesium and would likely benefit from supplemental magnesium.
8. Magnesium, boron, strontium and many other minerals add significantly to the quality of bones and teeth. Magnesium regulates the absorption and utilization of calcium. Without sufficient magnesium, bone building and joint health suffer. Regardless of calcium intake (usually too much), magnesium deficiency leads to arthritis, brittle bones, and osteoporosis.
9. Concentrated 18 times greater in the heart muscle than in the bloodstream, magnesium regulates heart beat. Magnesium is vital for the heart, arteries, and the cardiovascular system. People dying as a result of obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and coronary heart disease have this in common: intracellular magnesium deficiency.
10. Supplemental calcium and magnesium should be in a 1:1 ratio or perhaps a 2:1 ratio in favor of magnesium. (Multiple vitamins fail in this regard and often contain cheap, poorly absorbed calcium carbonate and magnesium oxide. While natural whole food is always our best source of minerals, magnesium levels in food have declined substantially during the past 100 years (USDA testing). Remember, too, that we cannot absorb minerals in food or supplements without adequate levels of fat-soluble vitamins A & D – found only in animal food. To increase your mineral absorption, use butter (vitamin A) and lard (vitamin D) on a regular basis.

Related sources

Intracellular mineral testing:  http://exatest.com

Readily absorbed ionic magnesium and trace minerals:  http://traceminerals.com

Stress reduction focused on the intelligence of the heart:  http://heartmath.com

The nonprofit Weston A. Price Foundation is located in Washington, DC

The Weston A. Price Foundation’s Healthy 4 Life plan recommends nutrient-dense animal and plant foods, with particular emphasis on healthy traditional fats like butter, lard, egg yolks and coconut oil.

The current obesity epidemic emerged as our nutrient-dense traditional fats were replaced by highly processed vegetable oils and refined carbohydrates. The failed 2010 Dietary Guidelines continue to demonize saturated fats and animal foods such as egg yolks, butter, whole milk, cheese, bacon and lard for cooking.

According to Sally Fallon, President of the Foundation, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines represent an unscientific demonization of saturated fats: “A recent meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies found no evidence that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease.”

The October, 2010, journal Nutrition stated:

“…the 2010 DGAC Report continues to make one-size-fits-all recommendations that are based on evidence that is weak, fragmented and even contradictory in nature.”

“The application of the DGAC recommendations has constituted a population-wide dietary experiment that should be brought to a halt,” says Adele H. Hite, MAT, lead author of the Nutrition article.

Fallon Morell notes that by restricting healthy animal fats in school lunches and diets for pregnant women and growing children, the USDA Guidelines will accelerate the tragic epidemic of learning and behavior disorders.

The nutrients found most abundantly in animal fats and organ meats—including choline, cholesterol and arachidonic acid—are critical for the development of the brain and the function of receptors that modulate thinking and behavior.

The vitamins and fatty acids carried uniquely in saturated animal fats are necessary for normal reproduction.  The Weston A. Price Foundation warns that the 2010 Guidelines will increase infertility in this country, already at tragically high rates.

The Healthy 4 Life plan has four food groups:

a.  Animal foods

b. Grains, legumes and nuts

c. Vegetables and fruits

d. Healthy fats

The Healthy 4 Life can be ordered online at www.westonaprice.org or obtained by calling (202) 242-4394.

Walk - Don't Run! - unless a tiger is chasing you!

1. Use butter – not margarine.  Butter has been eaten for a few thousand years; margarine less than 100. Butter contains infection-fighting Vitamin A; margarine none. Butter is 80% fat, 20% water, and contains 12 different fatty acids including 15-17 percent short and medium chain fats shuttled via the portal vein directly to the liver. (Don’t miss out on that!)

2. Avoid restaurant French fries. They are deep fried in highly processed, highly reactive vegetable oils. Even though the trans fatty acids may be largely out, the new fangled interesterified oils are no better and may be worse! If you like potatoes, deep fry them at home in beef tallow (drippings) or fry them on the stove top in creamy lard

3. Include fresh eggs for breakfast. There’s 7 grams of perfect protein in one egg.  (Most of us need at least 30 grams of protein before noon.) Eggs fried in butter or bacon fat or whipped up into an omelet will satisfy your hunger for hours. A “free food,” eat as many as you like. Remember, heat-damaged and sugary boxed breakfast cereals raise blood sugar fast; they have a high glycemic index (GI) rating.

4. Eat an orange; don’t drink orange juice. A 10 oz. glass of orange juice contains the sugar of several large oranges. The sugar in fruit juice has the same deleterious effect on blood sugar as the sugar in Mountain Dew.  Besides if you eat an orange (or share one) you get all the nutrients an orange has to offer (Vitamin C, bioflavonoid, and some fiber)  – without all that extra sugar squeezed into a glass of juice.

5. Limit white table sugar; more strictly avoid high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Both contain glucose and fructose. The glucose component raises blood sugar; the fructose raises triglycerides (blood fats made in the liver).  HFCS is the worst choice because the glucose and fructose are not bonded together – a not so sweet freak of nature.

6. Stop using commercial highly processed vegetable shortenings and oils for cooking. As is the case with margarine, no traditional diet included these inflammatory-franken-fats. Instead use our traditional fats for cooking: butter, tallow (drippings), lard, coconut, palm oil, extra virgin olive oil and high quality sesame oil for stir-fry.

7. If you supplement with one mineral, make it magnesium. Magnesium is the mineral bandleader. Without sufficient intracellular magnesium (not measured in a routine blood test), calcium can become a bully in soft tissue throughout the body (“hardening of the arteries”). Excess white flour, sugar, stress and too much alcohol deplete magnesium – but not calcium. Remember, a doctor’s blood test does not reveal intracellular magnesium levels.

8. Walk don’t run. Walking is the best exercise – running can kill you. The #1 cause of death of marathon runners is coronary heart disease and heart failure. If a tiger is chasing you – run – otherwise try walking, swimming, bicycling, gardening, and even shopping as exercise. Exercise is not a weight loss strategy – rather it’s a good way to “work up an appetite.” (Why We Get Fat, Gary Taubes)

9. Synthetic sweeteners are worse than small amounts of sugar. Artificial sweeteners create a host of problems including a strong, persistent craving for the real thing! For sweetness, why not eat blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in heavy cream – what Dr. Atkins enjoyed for lunch. (New Diet Revolution, Dr. Robert C. Atkins)

10. Eat a variety of organic vegetables. Salt and butter them to taste or serve them in a high fat cream sauce (better mineral absorption). Don’t forget cabbage containing Vitamin C in the core of the plant not destroyed by moderate heat cooking. Fermented cabbage (sauerkraut) is an excellent tonic for our gut. Remember, when you hear “fruits, vegetables and whole grains” – emphasize the vegetables. Excess fruit, fruit juices, cereals and grains raise blood sugar and insulin levels associated with obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart disease.

High quality eggs are health promoting. They’re especially important for growing children. If you’ve been afraid of eggs – you better get crackin!

Emphasizing healthy natural fat and complete protein is the best way to start you day. We need – on average – 30 grams of protein before noon. If there is a perfect protein food, eggs would top the list. Eggs contain all eight essential amino acids and are a good source of the sulfur-containing amino acids (methionine, cysteine and cystine) important for antioxidant protection and detoxification.

Eggs are our best dietary source of phosphatidylcholine (lecithin). Lecithin is a protector of every cell in the body and provides choline, a B-vitamin like nutrient that helps keep cholesterol suspended in the blood and helps remove elevated homocysteine. Egg yolk provides the best highest biological quality lecithin

Eggs are a concentrated source of lutein and zeaxanthin. Lutein and zeaxanthin form a yellowish deposit in the macula, the sensitive light-gathering area at the back of the eye. Without these antioxidants, blue and ultraviolet light will cause free radical damage to the eye. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness among people over fifty.

Eggs also provide folic acid, B-6 and B-12, vitamins that help prevent homocysteine buildup in the blood. People have been told not to eat the yolk which contains two-thirds of an egg’s B-12 and is rich in calcium. Other nutrients in eggs include “heme’ iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, trace minerals and vitamins A, D, E and K.

Decades ago, the Cereal Institute, members of the National Cholesterol Education Program, sponsored a trial in which they gave volunteers “dry egg powder.” Dry egg powder contains oxidized cholesterol – the only form of cholesterol that is harmful. Can you believe this is the only study that condemned eggs decades ago? And, in spite of the threat they pose to our health, the big food companies have no problem putting dry egg powder into most processed, packaged foods.

What do highly processed boxed cereals have to offer? Do they contain any naturally occurring lutein, zeaxanthin, choline, methionine, cysteine, cystine, vitamin B-6 or vitamin B-12? Hardly any – but most contain a lot of sugar. When you pour skim milk on high glycemic boxed cereals you are adding milk sugar to refined sugar to grain sugar. You’ll get your sugar all right – in the form of high fasting glucose and you’ll get none of the premier antioxidants and sulfur-bearing amino acids found in eggs.

Boycott highly processed heat damaged Puffs, Charms, Circles, Flakes and Pops. Instead, eat fresh brown eggs for breakfast – as many as you like – poached, scrambled, or fried slowly in butter, lard, coconut or olive oil. Free range small producer eggs are best – rich in fat-soluble vitamins A and D plus the special omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. Most important, fresh brown eggs from pasture fed chickens contain a 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 essential fatty acids.

Foraging chickens eat worms, seeds, bugs and grass and lay nutritious salmonella-resistant eggs. Large producer battery chickens are force-fed grains, soybean mash, antibiotics and even bakery waste. Overcrowded production methods jeopardize the safety and nutritional value of large producer eggs.

High quality eggs are health promoting. They’re especially important for growing children. If you’ve been afraid of eggs – you better get crackin!

The Optimal Diet is a variation of the clinically-proven Atkins-style diet - which includes eggs, meats and vegetables

If you are overweight, pre-diabetic or diabetic, or not running on eight cylinders, you may be a victim of carbohydrate poisoning! The most killing diseases facing us today – including obesity – are  a result of the overemphasis on carbohydrates. This can be corrected by grading and restricting carbohydrates – and emphasizing natural dietary fat and complete animal protein.

Food is our fuel. Much depends on what we choose to eat. How long and how well we live depends on how we “fuel” our brain, heart, hormones, kidneys, liver, lungs, skin and bones. Human cells, tissues, and organs function optimally if they are provided what they need when they need it.

It’s easy to argue that fat is the most important macronutrient. Our 70 trillion cells are protected by two layers of fat:  lipid bilayers. Along with protein and water, fat – much of it saturated – is what our bodies are made of. Though included in our diets, carbohydrates should be chosen carefully and restricted in order to keep blood sugar in a narrow healthy range.

For most people, carbohydrates should be restricted to about 60 grams daily, depending on any illness that may be present, or a consideration for a person’s environmental conditions. (A lumberjack will eat more than a tailor.) The body will more easily maintain itself and regenerate health if carbohydrates do not overwhelm hormone systems that keep blood sugar under tight optimum control.

Carbohydrates (carbs) are sugars by another name. Carbohydrates are abundant in fruits, vegetables and grains – in boxed cereals – and in all floury or sweet packaged products. Remember, in the gut, even healthy-sounding broccoli, cauliflower, and zucchini turn into glucose (blood sugar). Our biological requirement for carbohydrates is:  Zero.

(Professor Joanne Slavin, University of Minnesota Nutrition School, Carbohydrate Chair, 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, testified at Meeting One, Day One (October 2008) that humans have no biological requirement for carbohydrates.)

Some foods are a combination of the three macronutrients. As an example, milk contains fat, protein, and carbohydrate. There is protein in many foods (beans, corn, grains, mushrooms, peas, seeds and nuts) but only animal foods (chicken, cheese, eggs, fish, organ meat, pork, and red meat) provide complete high value protein. (Egg white is pure protein.)

The Optimal Diet emphasizes complete animal protein for the maintenance and regeneration of the body and high octane fats to provide energy for – among other things – the digestion and assimilation of protein. The Optimal Diet is not a high protein diet; it’s a high fat diet that offers strength and energy and it’s simple to follow.

The first meal of the day should include fat and protein – about 30 grams of protein before noon. Good quality eggs – 7 grams of protein each – provide high value protein and many other key nutrients (choline). If you eat a 3 or 4 egg omelet before noon, you may not be hungry until dinner. If you eat high value foods, you may not need to eat as much.

As our main fuel, we must choose between fats and carbohydrates. Emphasizing two fuels is a mistake. Our bodies react adversely to “mixing fuels.” Since fats are energy and nutrient dense – and don’t raise blood sugar – they will more fully provide satiety and satisfy the energy needs of the body.

(In the Optimal Diet, there is no need for routine snacking or eating more than two or three meals a day. Eating many small meals a day will result in the digestive organs getting no rest which can lead to a variety of digestive tract ailments.)

On the Optimal Diet, we will cut carbs – not calories. Depending on your circumstances, you can eat up to 3,000 or more calories a day but you will still burn fat. You can pretty much live on steak, chicken, and green salads. For breakfast you can eat as many eggs as you like – and bacon too. You can put full fat dressing on your salads and butter on your steak.

Our bodies evolved to run optimally on a diet emphasizing protein and natural fat, eggs, fish, and meat. We are suffering today because we are eating a diet dominated by carbohydrates; and a high percentage have been milled and refined.  The basis of the Optimal Diet is restricting the macronutrient (carbohydrate) associated with a metabolic disturbance that causes weight gain, hunger, diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, and heart disease.

This diet can work for you. It’s easy to follow and you can eat as much as you want; you’ll never go hungry. Dietary abundance goes hand-in-hand with feeling on top of the world. If you need to, you’ll lose inches as well as pounds. When you burn fat as a fuel you are moving in the direction of health, stabilized blood sugar, lower triglycerides, increased HDL, and energy throughout the day.