The Food Sensitivity Journal posted some great information about gluten free summer camps for kids. Hopefully there are some camps here that are in your area or can be of some help to you.
If you have any other gluten free resources please let us know. Send a direct message to us on Twitter @thealcattest
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Joe Rogowski, head trainer for the Orlando Magic, uses the ALCAT Test on his players
Joe Rogowski, head trainer for the Orlando Magic, uses the ALCAT Test on his players to help them cope with fatigue, digestive issues and to build strength and endurance. He was recently interviewed by ESPN on his training methods for different players. Stay tuned to the ALCAT blog to hear more from Mr. Rogowski on how he uses the ALCAT Test.
Stomach’s Sweet Tooth
Turns out taste is not just for the tongue
By Rachel Ehrenberg
Science News
March 27th, 2010; Vol.177 #7 (p. 22)
People deceive their taste buds every day — a dash of Sweet'N Low in the coffee, perhaps, a diet soda or a stick of sugarless gum. These little white lies seem to cover up harmless, even healthy choices. After all, fooling the mouth with artificial sweeteners provides a fix without the calories or the cavities. But these sweeteners aren’t just tricking the taste buds on the tongue.
Taste, scientists are discovering, is a whole-body sensation. There are taste cells in the stomach, intestine and, evidence suggests, the pancreas, colon and esophagus. These sensory cells are part of an ancient battalion tasked with guiding food choices since long before nutrition labels, Rachael Ray or even agriculture existed. While taste cells in the mouth make snap judgments about what should be let inside, new work suggests that gut taste cells serve as specialized ground forces, charged with preparing the digestive system for the aftermath of the tongue’s decisions.
Stimulating these gut cells triggers a complex series of events that can dial down, or amp up, the digestion and absorption of the body’s fuel. When hit by bitter — potentially toxic — substances, gut taste cells sound an alarm that may lead to slower absorption or spur vomiting. And when the gut’s taste sensors encounter something sweet, they send a “prepare for fuel” missive that results in cranked-up insulin levels in the blood.
Though scientists don’t fully understand what follows, studies hint at a tantalizing, if convoluted, connection between gut taste cell activity and metabolism. Figuring out such connections may one day lead to new therapies for treating type 2 diabetes, obesity and other disorders. And the sweet-focused research could help explain recent counterintuitive findings that link such problems with drinking diet soda.
Rumblings from the gut
The gut’s taste cells appear to be built from the same machinery as the taste cells of the tongue, the structures of which scientists have only recently nailed down. Taste cells interact with what are called “tastants” via receptors, specialized proteins that protrude from cell walls and bind to specific molecules drifting by. When a tastant binds to a receptor, it signals other molecules that, in the mouth, immediately send an “accept” or “reject” message to the brain.
Bitter compounds activate a family of receptors called T2Rs — there are roughly 25 kinds in humans, a variety that reflects the importance of detecting potential toxins and avoiding lethal diet mistakes. But sweet tastes and savory ones, also called umami, appear to have one receptor each. Related proteins make up both receptors, a shared structure that makes evolutionary sense since the two detect valuable, energy-rich foods. The sweet receptor is built from two proteins, dubbed T1R2 and T1R3, while T1R3 combines with a different subunit to make the umami receptor.
A signaling molecule triggered by tongue taste receptors led scientists to the gut’s sensors in the late 1990s. Researchers found gustducin, a protein that gets the message going when the mouth’s sweet, bitter or umami receptors are hit, in some gut and pancreas cells in rats. Nearly 10 years later, scientists established that gut cells using gustducin were “tasting” too. A team including Robert Margolskee and Bedrich Mosinger, then at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, reported that taste receptors weren’t just active in the rodent gut, but also in human intestinal cells.
In the mouth, stimulating sweet receptors sends a quick go-ahead to the brain, which rapidly sends more missives, ensuring that saliva is pumped and chewing and swallowing ensues. Sweet taste receptors in the gut seem to take this response to the next level, affirming that fuel is indeed incoming and setting off reactions to cope with it.
Gut taste cells appear to regulate, in part, secretion of insulin, a hormone crucial for telling body tissues whether they should tap newly arrived glucose or valuable stored fat for energy. Blocking sweet taste receptors in human intestinal cells grown in a lab dish reduced release of an important hormone, glucagon-like peptide-1, known to increase insulin secretion, Margolskee and Mosinger reported in 2007 in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Mice without working gustducin also released less of the hormone. And the mice made less of a protein that helps with glucose absorption, suggesting that their bodies hadn’t fully gotten the fuel-delivery message, the researchers, both now at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, reported in a second paper in the same issue of the journal.
A dietary sugar and building block of carbohydrates and many dairy products, glucose is the fundamental fuel: The body metabolizes glucose to make ATP, the energy currency of cells. Fuel’s a hot commodity, so it’s fitting that taste cells in the gut prepare the body to take advantage of it when it’s available, says Pankaj Jay Pasricha of Stanford University School of Medicine. If the body doesn’t know glucose is there, cells can’t exploit the molecule to move muscles, fire nerves or do any other basic body function.
The gut isn’t just a pit stop where foods are made usable, he says; it is also a signaling station that keeps the body in tune with what’s about to happen.
“It’s not surprising,” says Pasricha. “It’s surprising that it took us so long to find out.”
Answers from within
The discovery that gut taste cells play a role in that signaling system may help explain several persistent mysteries of metabolic science.
Scientists have long been puzzled by the fact that the pancreas releases far more insulin when a person ingests glucose than when it is injected directly into the blood. Known as the incretin effect (incretins are gut hormones that trigger insulin release), the response is thought to be due in part to glucagon-like peptide-1 activity. The link between taste cells in the gut and the release of GLP-1 may explain the effect, Pasricha and Stanford colleague Kelley Yan wrote in a commentary in the July 2009 Gut. If the gut never tastes glucose because the sugar enters via an IV, the body might not prepare for the fuel delivery.
Taste-receptor cells in the gut may also be responsible for two odd side effects of existing medical treatments, some scientists have suggested.
Many people with type 2 diabetes are insulin resistant — meaning their tissues ignore the hormone’s signal to absorb glucose from the blood, which may lead to dangerously high blood sugar levels. Some overweight patients who undergo gastric bypass surgery experience an almost instant decrease in insulin resistance, Pasricha notes. The surgery shortens the nutrient-absorbing portion of the small intestine. Some scientists think this could give taste cells at the tail end of the intestine — cells that may still function properly — a chance to ramp up local secretion of GLP-1 and restore normal metabolism.
The second case involves people with type 2 diabetes who take fibrates, drugs often used along with statins to treat high cholesterol. Side effects can include lower blood sugar levels, suggesting less insulin resistance.
Mosinger and colleagues noticed that fibrates are structurally similar to lactisole, a known blocker of sweet receptors. The researchers exposed mouse and human cells decked with sweet receptors to various concentrations of the compounds. Fibrates blocked sweet receptors in human cells but not in mouse cells, the team reported online in October in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. This blocking may somehow affect insulin resistance, Mosinger proposes.
“We are still in the stage of intense research,” he cautions. Eventually such research may yield targets for new therapies: “Many people are hopeful that in the future there could be treatments.”
Bitter taste receptors in the gut may also be good future drug targets, says Catia Sternini of the University of California, Los Angeles. In the mouth, these receptors send red-alert rejection signals, but gut bitter receptors seem to play a role in slowing or preventing the absorption of toxic compounds that make it past the tongue. “These bitter receptors could be seen as a second line of defense,” Sternini says. “They help the gut distinguish the good from the bad. If there is a toxin, the response is to try to reduce damage.”
The mechanisms still aren’t clear, she says, but work suggests that activating gut bitter receptors can trigger reactions that convince a body that it’s satiated.
Scientists have only just begun to explore the sweet, umami and bitter receptors in the gut. Work on sour and salty receptors — assumed to also be present — has just begun. And taste cells represent a fraction of the gut’s signaling system. Gut signaling cells make up less than 1 percent of the cells of the intestinal wall, yet together these signaling cells constitute the largest hormone-releasing organ of the body, Sternini pointed out in 2007 in Current Opinion in Pharmacology. “The gut,” she says, “is an amazing organ.”
Twists and turns
This vast hormonal landscape is a complex one involving multiple signals that might be received locally or far away. Stimulating gut taste receptors leads down roads much more long and winding than those that bring taste from the tongue to the brain, says Jayaram Chandrashekar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Va. (Chandrashekar is lead author of a recent paper in Nature that confirmed the identity of the tongue’s salt taste receptor.) When a taste receptor is hit in the mouth, the brain gets the message almost instantaneously. But the effects of triggering gut taste cells may take minutes. “The link between activation and nutrient absorption has to take into account this delay,” Chandrashekar says. “It is probably more complicated than the tongue and involves multiple pathways.”
This complexity makes gut tasting hard to study, as does the fact that what tastes sweet or bitter to a person doesn’t necessarily taste that way to mice and rats, which are often used in lab experiments. For example, sweet taste cells on the human tongue appear broadly tuned to recognize a number of compounds, including the sugars fructose, glucose and sucrose; several artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin (Sweet'N Low) and aspartame; and some amino acids and sweet proteins. But mice, for example, don’t seem to respond to aspartame, the sweet of Equal and NutraSweet.
Taste preferences also differ in animals that are more closely related than mice and men, so results may depend on the model organism. Research suggests chimpanzees and gorillas taste aspartame as sweet, while New World primates, such as marmosets and capuchins, don’t. (Fruit flies do, scientists reported in 2008.) A recent survey of the sweet tastes of animals in the order Carnivora, which includes lions, house cats, ferrets and dogs, found all of the animals were indifferent to six artificial sugars, except the red (a.k.a. “lesser”) panda. The red panda gulped down solutions with aspartame, neotame and sucralose, researchers reported in April 2009 in the Journal of Heredity.
Red pandas aren’t the only ones that fancy artificial sweeteners. Humans, like their chimp relatives, taste these compounds as sweet. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suggest that regular consumers of diet drinks slurp more than three 8-ounce servings per day. But if the artificial sweeteners in these drinks are stimulating gut taste receptors, there may be consequences. Three recent studies assessing large data sets found an association between drinking diet soda and the risk of developing metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.
“The diet soda association was not hypothesized and deserves further study,” notes one report, published in Circulation in 2008. These studies can’t establish causation. Indeed, heavier people more at risk of developing metabolic problems may drink more diet soda to begin with. But the results are interesting, notes a commentary published in December in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Diet drinks are often enjoyed without food, which means the gut may be preparing for fuel that never arrives.
So beware those little white lies. Thousands of years of evolution have yielded a finely tuned digestive machine, one that recognizes incoming energy and knows how to make the most of it. These intricate chains of events evolved during a time when that sweet zing reliably indicated food rich in valuable calories. And for thousands of years, the gut reacted appropriately.
Perhaps that adage “trust your gut” should be accompanied with another edict: “Tell it no lies.”
By Rachel Ehrenberg
Science News
March 27th, 2010; Vol.177 #7 (p. 22)
People deceive their taste buds every day — a dash of Sweet'N Low in the coffee, perhaps, a diet soda or a stick of sugarless gum. These little white lies seem to cover up harmless, even healthy choices. After all, fooling the mouth with artificial sweeteners provides a fix without the calories or the cavities. But these sweeteners aren’t just tricking the taste buds on the tongue.
Taste, scientists are discovering, is a whole-body sensation. There are taste cells in the stomach, intestine and, evidence suggests, the pancreas, colon and esophagus. These sensory cells are part of an ancient battalion tasked with guiding food choices since long before nutrition labels, Rachael Ray or even agriculture existed. While taste cells in the mouth make snap judgments about what should be let inside, new work suggests that gut taste cells serve as specialized ground forces, charged with preparing the digestive system for the aftermath of the tongue’s decisions.
Stimulating these gut cells triggers a complex series of events that can dial down, or amp up, the digestion and absorption of the body’s fuel. When hit by bitter — potentially toxic — substances, gut taste cells sound an alarm that may lead to slower absorption or spur vomiting. And when the gut’s taste sensors encounter something sweet, they send a “prepare for fuel” missive that results in cranked-up insulin levels in the blood.
Though scientists don’t fully understand what follows, studies hint at a tantalizing, if convoluted, connection between gut taste cell activity and metabolism. Figuring out such connections may one day lead to new therapies for treating type 2 diabetes, obesity and other disorders. And the sweet-focused research could help explain recent counterintuitive findings that link such problems with drinking diet soda.
Rumblings from the gut
The gut’s taste cells appear to be built from the same machinery as the taste cells of the tongue, the structures of which scientists have only recently nailed down. Taste cells interact with what are called “tastants” via receptors, specialized proteins that protrude from cell walls and bind to specific molecules drifting by. When a tastant binds to a receptor, it signals other molecules that, in the mouth, immediately send an “accept” or “reject” message to the brain.
Bitter compounds activate a family of receptors called T2Rs — there are roughly 25 kinds in humans, a variety that reflects the importance of detecting potential toxins and avoiding lethal diet mistakes. But sweet tastes and savory ones, also called umami, appear to have one receptor each. Related proteins make up both receptors, a shared structure that makes evolutionary sense since the two detect valuable, energy-rich foods. The sweet receptor is built from two proteins, dubbed T1R2 and T1R3, while T1R3 combines with a different subunit to make the umami receptor.
A signaling molecule triggered by tongue taste receptors led scientists to the gut’s sensors in the late 1990s. Researchers found gustducin, a protein that gets the message going when the mouth’s sweet, bitter or umami receptors are hit, in some gut and pancreas cells in rats. Nearly 10 years later, scientists established that gut cells using gustducin were “tasting” too. A team including Robert Margolskee and Bedrich Mosinger, then at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, reported that taste receptors weren’t just active in the rodent gut, but also in human intestinal cells.
In the mouth, stimulating sweet receptors sends a quick go-ahead to the brain, which rapidly sends more missives, ensuring that saliva is pumped and chewing and swallowing ensues. Sweet taste receptors in the gut seem to take this response to the next level, affirming that fuel is indeed incoming and setting off reactions to cope with it.
Gut taste cells appear to regulate, in part, secretion of insulin, a hormone crucial for telling body tissues whether they should tap newly arrived glucose or valuable stored fat for energy. Blocking sweet taste receptors in human intestinal cells grown in a lab dish reduced release of an important hormone, glucagon-like peptide-1, known to increase insulin secretion, Margolskee and Mosinger reported in 2007 in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Mice without working gustducin also released less of the hormone. And the mice made less of a protein that helps with glucose absorption, suggesting that their bodies hadn’t fully gotten the fuel-delivery message, the researchers, both now at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, reported in a second paper in the same issue of the journal.
A dietary sugar and building block of carbohydrates and many dairy products, glucose is the fundamental fuel: The body metabolizes glucose to make ATP, the energy currency of cells. Fuel’s a hot commodity, so it’s fitting that taste cells in the gut prepare the body to take advantage of it when it’s available, says Pankaj Jay Pasricha of Stanford University School of Medicine. If the body doesn’t know glucose is there, cells can’t exploit the molecule to move muscles, fire nerves or do any other basic body function.
The gut isn’t just a pit stop where foods are made usable, he says; it is also a signaling station that keeps the body in tune with what’s about to happen.
“It’s not surprising,” says Pasricha. “It’s surprising that it took us so long to find out.”
Answers from within
The discovery that gut taste cells play a role in that signaling system may help explain several persistent mysteries of metabolic science.
Scientists have long been puzzled by the fact that the pancreas releases far more insulin when a person ingests glucose than when it is injected directly into the blood. Known as the incretin effect (incretins are gut hormones that trigger insulin release), the response is thought to be due in part to glucagon-like peptide-1 activity. The link between taste cells in the gut and the release of GLP-1 may explain the effect, Pasricha and Stanford colleague Kelley Yan wrote in a commentary in the July 2009 Gut. If the gut never tastes glucose because the sugar enters via an IV, the body might not prepare for the fuel delivery.
Taste-receptor cells in the gut may also be responsible for two odd side effects of existing medical treatments, some scientists have suggested.
Many people with type 2 diabetes are insulin resistant — meaning their tissues ignore the hormone’s signal to absorb glucose from the blood, which may lead to dangerously high blood sugar levels. Some overweight patients who undergo gastric bypass surgery experience an almost instant decrease in insulin resistance, Pasricha notes. The surgery shortens the nutrient-absorbing portion of the small intestine. Some scientists think this could give taste cells at the tail end of the intestine — cells that may still function properly — a chance to ramp up local secretion of GLP-1 and restore normal metabolism.
The second case involves people with type 2 diabetes who take fibrates, drugs often used along with statins to treat high cholesterol. Side effects can include lower blood sugar levels, suggesting less insulin resistance.
Mosinger and colleagues noticed that fibrates are structurally similar to lactisole, a known blocker of sweet receptors. The researchers exposed mouse and human cells decked with sweet receptors to various concentrations of the compounds. Fibrates blocked sweet receptors in human cells but not in mouse cells, the team reported online in October in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. This blocking may somehow affect insulin resistance, Mosinger proposes.
“We are still in the stage of intense research,” he cautions. Eventually such research may yield targets for new therapies: “Many people are hopeful that in the future there could be treatments.”
Bitter taste receptors in the gut may also be good future drug targets, says Catia Sternini of the University of California, Los Angeles. In the mouth, these receptors send red-alert rejection signals, but gut bitter receptors seem to play a role in slowing or preventing the absorption of toxic compounds that make it past the tongue. “These bitter receptors could be seen as a second line of defense,” Sternini says. “They help the gut distinguish the good from the bad. If there is a toxin, the response is to try to reduce damage.”
The mechanisms still aren’t clear, she says, but work suggests that activating gut bitter receptors can trigger reactions that convince a body that it’s satiated.
Scientists have only just begun to explore the sweet, umami and bitter receptors in the gut. Work on sour and salty receptors — assumed to also be present — has just begun. And taste cells represent a fraction of the gut’s signaling system. Gut signaling cells make up less than 1 percent of the cells of the intestinal wall, yet together these signaling cells constitute the largest hormone-releasing organ of the body, Sternini pointed out in 2007 in Current Opinion in Pharmacology. “The gut,” she says, “is an amazing organ.”
Twists and turns
This vast hormonal landscape is a complex one involving multiple signals that might be received locally or far away. Stimulating gut taste receptors leads down roads much more long and winding than those that bring taste from the tongue to the brain, says Jayaram Chandrashekar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Va. (Chandrashekar is lead author of a recent paper in Nature that confirmed the identity of the tongue’s salt taste receptor.) When a taste receptor is hit in the mouth, the brain gets the message almost instantaneously. But the effects of triggering gut taste cells may take minutes. “The link between activation and nutrient absorption has to take into account this delay,” Chandrashekar says. “It is probably more complicated than the tongue and involves multiple pathways.”
This complexity makes gut tasting hard to study, as does the fact that what tastes sweet or bitter to a person doesn’t necessarily taste that way to mice and rats, which are often used in lab experiments. For example, sweet taste cells on the human tongue appear broadly tuned to recognize a number of compounds, including the sugars fructose, glucose and sucrose; several artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin (Sweet'N Low) and aspartame; and some amino acids and sweet proteins. But mice, for example, don’t seem to respond to aspartame, the sweet of Equal and NutraSweet.
Taste preferences also differ in animals that are more closely related than mice and men, so results may depend on the model organism. Research suggests chimpanzees and gorillas taste aspartame as sweet, while New World primates, such as marmosets and capuchins, don’t. (Fruit flies do, scientists reported in 2008.) A recent survey of the sweet tastes of animals in the order Carnivora, which includes lions, house cats, ferrets and dogs, found all of the animals were indifferent to six artificial sugars, except the red (a.k.a. “lesser”) panda. The red panda gulped down solutions with aspartame, neotame and sucralose, researchers reported in April 2009 in the Journal of Heredity.
Red pandas aren’t the only ones that fancy artificial sweeteners. Humans, like their chimp relatives, taste these compounds as sweet. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suggest that regular consumers of diet drinks slurp more than three 8-ounce servings per day. But if the artificial sweeteners in these drinks are stimulating gut taste receptors, there may be consequences. Three recent studies assessing large data sets found an association between drinking diet soda and the risk of developing metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.
“The diet soda association was not hypothesized and deserves further study,” notes one report, published in Circulation in 2008. These studies can’t establish causation. Indeed, heavier people more at risk of developing metabolic problems may drink more diet soda to begin with. But the results are interesting, notes a commentary published in December in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Diet drinks are often enjoyed without food, which means the gut may be preparing for fuel that never arrives.
So beware those little white lies. Thousands of years of evolution have yielded a finely tuned digestive machine, one that recognizes incoming energy and knows how to make the most of it. These intricate chains of events evolved during a time when that sweet zing reliably indicated food rich in valuable calories. And for thousands of years, the gut reacted appropriately.
Perhaps that adage “trust your gut” should be accompanied with another edict: “Tell it no lies.”
Thursday, March 25, 2010
ALCAT for Athletes? Dr. Craig Koniver discusses how the ALCAT Test can benefit those looking for peak performance
Dr. Craig Koniver of Primary Plus Organic Medicine in Charleston, SC uses the ALCAT Test on his clients to help them reach optimal wellness...and performance. Countless celebrities and athletes have used the ALCAT Test to lose weight, improve recovery time and gain energy.
Speaking of Athletes, Chris Hovan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took an ALCAT Test in 2009 to help improve some respiratory problems and improve his body mass.
Speaking of Athletes, Chris Hovan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took an ALCAT Test in 2009 to help improve some respiratory problems and improve his body mass.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
NOT ALL CALORIES ARE CREATED EQUALLY
Researchers at Princeton University find that calories from high fructose corn syrup are more likely to cause weight gain than regular table sugar
DEERFIELD BEACH, FL – March 24, 2010 – According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rates of obesity in the United States have skyrocketed since the introduction of high fructose corn syrup in 1970. In that time, obesity rates have gone from 15 percent of the U.S. population to roughly one-third.
A new study published in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior by researchers at Princeton University found that rats with access to high fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.
One reason for this, according to Roger Deutsch, author of Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat and President of Cell Science Systems, Corp. (CSS), is that certain chemicals in the immune system, specifically Interleukin-6 and TNF-alpha, interfere with sugar metabolism. IL-6 is released from T Cells and macrophages to stimulate immune response to trauma, whereas TNF-alpha is used to regulate immune cells.
“Sure, calories in vs. calories out: it’s a law of physics. But the “calories out” part of the equation is impacted by complex biological processes dependent on immune function,” said Deutsch. “Immune function, in turn, is dependent on so many factors: genes, digestion, liver transformation of chemicals in food, etc. These factors are person specific.”
Another cause of the extreme weight gain associated with high fructose corn syrup, said Deutsch, is the body’s inability cope with an unnaturally proportioned, over processed sugars.
“Since the beginning of time, humans have been consuming unprocessed sugars without a problem. However, once HFCS was introduced obesity and inflammatory disease rates skyrocketed. By identifying the items that cause inflammation, such as HFCS, you can dramatically reduce the amount of chronic inflammation, which leads to many different diseases, including obesity,” said Deutsch.
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CSS is a life sciences company and the worldwide market leader in food sensitivity testing as the manufacturer of the ALCAT Test. ALCAT identifies cellular reactions to over 350 foods and chemicals. These inflammatory reactions are linked to chronic health problems like obesity and diabetes, as well as skin, heart, joint, and digestive disorders. Located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, CSS is a FDA-inspected and registered, ISO Certified, cGMP medical device manufacturer and operates a CLIA-certified laboratory.
High-Fructose Corn Syrup Prompts Considerably More Weight Gain, Researchers Find
ScienceDaily (Mar. 22, 2010) — A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.
In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.
"Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true, at least under the conditions of our tests," said psychology professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction. "When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."
In results published online March 18 by the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, the researchers from the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute reported on two experiments investigating the link between the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup and obesity.
The first study showed that male rats given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, in conjunction with the standard diet. The concentration of sugar in the sucrose solution was the same as is found in some commercial soft drinks, while the high-fructose corn syrup solution was half as concentrated as most sodas.
The second experiment -- the first long-term study of the effects of high-fructose corn syrup consumption on obesity in lab animals -- monitored weight gain, body fat and triglyceride levels in rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup over a period of six months. Compared to animals eating only rat chow, rats on a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup showed characteristic signs of a dangerous condition known in humans as the metabolic syndrome, including abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly. Male rats in particular ballooned in size: Animals with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight than those eating a normal diet. In humans, this would be equivalent to a 200-pound man gaining 96 pounds.
"These rats aren't just getting fat; they're demonstrating characteristics of obesity, including substantial increases in abdominal fat and circulating triglycerides," said Princeton graduate student Miriam Bocarsly. "In humans, these same characteristics are known risk factors for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes." In addition to Hoebel and Bocarsly, the research team included Princeton undergraduate Elyse Powell and visiting research associate Nicole Avena, who was affiliated with Rockefeller University during the study and is now on the faculty at the University of Florida. The Princeton researchers note that they do not know yet why high-fructose corn syrup fed to rats in their study generated more triglycerides, and more body fat that resulted in obesity.
High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose are both compounds that contain the simple sugars fructose and glucose, but there at least two clear differences between them. First, sucrose is composed of equal amounts of the two simple sugars -- it is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose -- but the typical high-fructose corn syrup used in this study features a slightly imbalanced ratio, containing 55 percent fructose and 42 percent glucose. Larger sugar molecules called higher saccharides make up the remaining 3 percent of the sweetener.
Second, as a result of the manufacturing process for high-fructose corn syrup, the fructose molecules in the sweetener are free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized.
This creates a fascinating puzzle. The rats in the Princeton study became obese by drinking high-fructose corn syrup, but not by drinking sucrose. The critical differences in appetite, metabolism and gene expression that underlie this phenomenon are yet to be discovered, but may relate to the fact that excess fructose is being metabolized to produce fat, while glucose is largely being processed for energy or stored as a carbohydrate, called glycogen, in the liver and muscles.
In the 40 years since the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup as a cost-effective sweetener in the American diet, rates of obesity in the U.S. have skyrocketed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1970, around 15 percent of the U.S. population met the definition for obesity; today, roughly one-third of the American adults are considered obese, the CDC reported. High-fructose corn syrup is found in a wide range of foods and beverages, including fruit juice, soda, cereal, bread, yogurt, ketchup and mayonnaise. On average, Americans consume 60 pounds of the sweetener per person every year.
"Our findings lend support to the theory that the excessive consumption of high-fructose corn syrup found in many beverages may be an important factor in the obesity epidemic," Avena said.
The new research complements previous work led by Hoebel and Avena demonstrating that sucrose can be addictive, having effects on the brain similar to some drugs of abuse.
In the future, the team intends to explore how the animals respond to the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in conjunction with a high-fat diet -- the equivalent of a typical fast-food meal containing a hamburger, fries and soda -- and whether excessive high-fructose corn syrup consumption contributes to the diseases associated with obesity. Another step will be to study how fructose affects brain function in the control of appetite.
The research was supported by the U.S. Public Health Service.
Editor's Note: In response to the above-mentioned study, The Corn Refiners Association issued a statement titled "Gross Errors in Princeton Animal Study on Obesity and High Fructose Corn Syrup: Research in Humans Discredits Princeton Study" (http://www.corn.org/princeton-hfcs-study-errors.html).
In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.
"Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true, at least under the conditions of our tests," said psychology professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction. "When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."
In results published online March 18 by the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, the researchers from the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute reported on two experiments investigating the link between the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup and obesity.
The first study showed that male rats given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, in conjunction with the standard diet. The concentration of sugar in the sucrose solution was the same as is found in some commercial soft drinks, while the high-fructose corn syrup solution was half as concentrated as most sodas.
The second experiment -- the first long-term study of the effects of high-fructose corn syrup consumption on obesity in lab animals -- monitored weight gain, body fat and triglyceride levels in rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup over a period of six months. Compared to animals eating only rat chow, rats on a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup showed characteristic signs of a dangerous condition known in humans as the metabolic syndrome, including abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly. Male rats in particular ballooned in size: Animals with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight than those eating a normal diet. In humans, this would be equivalent to a 200-pound man gaining 96 pounds.
"These rats aren't just getting fat; they're demonstrating characteristics of obesity, including substantial increases in abdominal fat and circulating triglycerides," said Princeton graduate student Miriam Bocarsly. "In humans, these same characteristics are known risk factors for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes." In addition to Hoebel and Bocarsly, the research team included Princeton undergraduate Elyse Powell and visiting research associate Nicole Avena, who was affiliated with Rockefeller University during the study and is now on the faculty at the University of Florida. The Princeton researchers note that they do not know yet why high-fructose corn syrup fed to rats in their study generated more triglycerides, and more body fat that resulted in obesity.
High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose are both compounds that contain the simple sugars fructose and glucose, but there at least two clear differences between them. First, sucrose is composed of equal amounts of the two simple sugars -- it is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose -- but the typical high-fructose corn syrup used in this study features a slightly imbalanced ratio, containing 55 percent fructose and 42 percent glucose. Larger sugar molecules called higher saccharides make up the remaining 3 percent of the sweetener.
Second, as a result of the manufacturing process for high-fructose corn syrup, the fructose molecules in the sweetener are free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized.
This creates a fascinating puzzle. The rats in the Princeton study became obese by drinking high-fructose corn syrup, but not by drinking sucrose. The critical differences in appetite, metabolism and gene expression that underlie this phenomenon are yet to be discovered, but may relate to the fact that excess fructose is being metabolized to produce fat, while glucose is largely being processed for energy or stored as a carbohydrate, called glycogen, in the liver and muscles.
In the 40 years since the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup as a cost-effective sweetener in the American diet, rates of obesity in the U.S. have skyrocketed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1970, around 15 percent of the U.S. population met the definition for obesity; today, roughly one-third of the American adults are considered obese, the CDC reported. High-fructose corn syrup is found in a wide range of foods and beverages, including fruit juice, soda, cereal, bread, yogurt, ketchup and mayonnaise. On average, Americans consume 60 pounds of the sweetener per person every year.
"Our findings lend support to the theory that the excessive consumption of high-fructose corn syrup found in many beverages may be an important factor in the obesity epidemic," Avena said.
The new research complements previous work led by Hoebel and Avena demonstrating that sucrose can be addictive, having effects on the brain similar to some drugs of abuse.
In the future, the team intends to explore how the animals respond to the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in conjunction with a high-fat diet -- the equivalent of a typical fast-food meal containing a hamburger, fries and soda -- and whether excessive high-fructose corn syrup consumption contributes to the diseases associated with obesity. Another step will be to study how fructose affects brain function in the control of appetite.
The research was supported by the U.S. Public Health Service.
Editor's Note: In response to the above-mentioned study, The Corn Refiners Association issued a statement titled "Gross Errors in Princeton Animal Study on Obesity and High Fructose Corn Syrup: Research in Humans Discredits Princeton Study" (http://www.corn.org/princeton-hfcs-study-errors.html).
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Are Your Kids Depressed or Moody?
If you have kids, you’ll be the first one to notice health and behavioral changes in your children. Children are reacting to artificial sweeteners in harmful ways, but this aspect of the sweetener wars has gone unnoticed in the mainstream health community. The sweetener corporations market to children by placing soft drink machines in public elementary schools, and by influencing doctors that diet sweeteners don’t cause abnormal behavior and emotional stress in children. When you have exhausted all the other reasons for your child’s poor health or mental/emotional problems, then diet chemicals could be the culprit.
The rising numbers of mental disorders have gone unexplained until now. A diet of chemical foods means a diet of malnutrition, and when the body is starved of nutrients, it becomes mentally and physically stressed. Don’t raise your children on diet chemicals – search for healthy alternatives.
Friday, March 19, 2010
The ALCAT Laboratory becomes first to test for compatibility of functional foods and medicinal herbs
New offerings reflect a change in diet and attitude toward wellness
Deerfield Beach, FL – Millions of people use herbs and functional foods to treat countless ailments, from hiccups and hemorrhoids, to balance hormones and stimulate libido. They may work well as natural remedies, but are they safe for everyone?
The ALCAT Laboratory has introduced compatibility testing to over 130 new functional foods and medicinal herbs to already industry-leading lineup of items available for testing.
The ALCAT Test, a functional blood test, measures white blood cell responses to different foods, chemicals, functional foods, herbs, molds, food colorings and food additives, and other substances. These cellular responses have been linked to a multitude of different chronic inflammatory diseases, such as migraines, digestive disorders, obesity, chronic fatigue, aching joints, skin disorders, autism and many more.
“These new herb and functional food panels represent a response to a demand for such testing arising from the shift in the diets of people in the United States and abroad,” said Roger Deutsch, President and CEO of Cell Science Systems and author of the book Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat. “With more people looking to use these items to treat and prevent ailments, we thought it was imperative to expand the number of items we test for to make sure the things we are taking to help us are not actually harming us.”
The 130 items will be split up into three groups: 50 Functional Foods and Medicinal Herbs, 50 Female Herbs and 40 Male Herbs. The first panel is meant to give general coverage to the consumed items within that panel; things like wheat grass juice, St. Johns’ wort, spirulina, bee pollen, echinacea, etc. The latter two are gender specific and contain items commonly found in natural male and female enhancement products. For example, the 50 Female Herbs panel contains items that are commonly used to treat the symptoms of menopause.
According to the Nutrition Business Journal, supplement sales were over $25 billion in 2008, which is strong evidence that there is a growing shift towards using herbal, natural remedies.
“The body can handle only so much toxicity,” continued Deutsch. “Whether your body just isn’t compatible with an item or it develops a sensitivity over time, it is so important to eliminate the items from your body that are causing these inflammatory reactions.”
To learn more about the ALCAT Test please visit www.ALCAT.com or call 800-872-5228 for more information.
Cell Science Systems (CSS) is a life sciences company and the worldwide market leader in food sensitivity testing as the manufacturer of the ALCAT Test. ALCAT identifies cellular reactions to over 350 foods and chemicals. These inflammatory reactions are linked to chronic health problems like obesity and diabetes, as well as skin, heart, joint, and digestive disorders. Located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, CSS is a FDA-inspected and registered, ISO certified, cGMP medical device manufacturer and operates a CLIA-certified laboratory.
Deerfield Beach, FL – Millions of people use herbs and functional foods to treat countless ailments, from hiccups and hemorrhoids, to balance hormones and stimulate libido. They may work well as natural remedies, but are they safe for everyone?
The ALCAT Laboratory has introduced compatibility testing to over 130 new functional foods and medicinal herbs to already industry-leading lineup of items available for testing.
The ALCAT Test, a functional blood test, measures white blood cell responses to different foods, chemicals, functional foods, herbs, molds, food colorings and food additives, and other substances. These cellular responses have been linked to a multitude of different chronic inflammatory diseases, such as migraines, digestive disorders, obesity, chronic fatigue, aching joints, skin disorders, autism and many more.
“These new herb and functional food panels represent a response to a demand for such testing arising from the shift in the diets of people in the United States and abroad,” said Roger Deutsch, President and CEO of Cell Science Systems and author of the book Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat. “With more people looking to use these items to treat and prevent ailments, we thought it was imperative to expand the number of items we test for to make sure the things we are taking to help us are not actually harming us.”
The 130 items will be split up into three groups: 50 Functional Foods and Medicinal Herbs, 50 Female Herbs and 40 Male Herbs. The first panel is meant to give general coverage to the consumed items within that panel; things like wheat grass juice, St. Johns’ wort, spirulina, bee pollen, echinacea, etc. The latter two are gender specific and contain items commonly found in natural male and female enhancement products. For example, the 50 Female Herbs panel contains items that are commonly used to treat the symptoms of menopause.
According to the Nutrition Business Journal, supplement sales were over $25 billion in 2008, which is strong evidence that there is a growing shift towards using herbal, natural remedies.
“The body can handle only so much toxicity,” continued Deutsch. “Whether your body just isn’t compatible with an item or it develops a sensitivity over time, it is so important to eliminate the items from your body that are causing these inflammatory reactions.”
To learn more about the ALCAT Test please visit www.ALCAT.com or call 800-872-5228 for more information.
Cell Science Systems (CSS) is a life sciences company and the worldwide market leader in food sensitivity testing as the manufacturer of the ALCAT Test. ALCAT identifies cellular reactions to over 350 foods and chemicals. These inflammatory reactions are linked to chronic health problems like obesity and diabetes, as well as skin, heart, joint, and digestive disorders. Located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, CSS is a FDA-inspected and registered, ISO certified, cGMP medical device manufacturer and operates a CLIA-certified laboratory.
Roger Davis Deutsch to speak at the European Congress on Preventative, Regenerative and Anti-Aging Medicine
Speech to focus on food intolerance, inflammation and the aging process
DEERFIELD BEACH, FL – Critically acclaimed author, entrepreneur and medical trendsetter Roger Davis Deutsch will be speaking about food intolerance, inflammation and the aging process at the European Congress on Preventative, Regenerative and Anti-Aging Medicine (ECOPRAM) on March 18, 2010.
Additionally, Deutsch’s speech will focus on how food intolerance may be a major cause of male infertility.
“Male infertility is a growing problem in the United States and around the world,” said Deutsch, author of Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat. “Many men can feel extreme depression and anxiety from this problem.”
The main objective of the ECOPRAM is the dissemination of knowledge about preventive and regenerative medicine throughout Europe, so this is the perfect venue for such a speech.
“Inflammation can cause many different problems in men and women,” continued Deutsch. “We have definitely seen a connection between the inflammatory process and infertility. It’s simple: reduce the inflammation in your body and a majority of the ailments you suffer from will go away.”
Deutsch is also the President and CEO of Cell Science Systems (CSS) – The ALCAT Laboratory. CSS is an international corporation focused on eliminating chronic illness caused by activation of the immune system as a result of food sensitivity. “We analyze the body’s cellular response to various challenges from foods, chemicals, medicinal herbs, additives and molds. Once completed, the practitioner is given an easy to read test result and rotational diet to help ‘clear’ the system, avoiding overload.”
CSS is a life sciences company and the worldwide market leader in food sensitivity testing as the manufacturer of the ALCAT Test. ALCAT identifies cellular reactions to over 350 foods, herbs and chemicals. These inflammatory reactions are linked to chronic health problems like obesity and diabetes, as well as skin, heart, joint, and digestive disorders. Located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, CSS is a FDA-inspected and registered, ISO Certified, cGMP medical device manufacturer and operates a CLIA-certified laboratory.
DEERFIELD BEACH, FL – Critically acclaimed author, entrepreneur and medical trendsetter Roger Davis Deutsch will be speaking about food intolerance, inflammation and the aging process at the European Congress on Preventative, Regenerative and Anti-Aging Medicine (ECOPRAM) on March 18, 2010.
Additionally, Deutsch’s speech will focus on how food intolerance may be a major cause of male infertility.
“Male infertility is a growing problem in the United States and around the world,” said Deutsch, author of Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat. “Many men can feel extreme depression and anxiety from this problem.”
The main objective of the ECOPRAM is the dissemination of knowledge about preventive and regenerative medicine throughout Europe, so this is the perfect venue for such a speech.
“Inflammation can cause many different problems in men and women,” continued Deutsch. “We have definitely seen a connection between the inflammatory process and infertility. It’s simple: reduce the inflammation in your body and a majority of the ailments you suffer from will go away.”
Deutsch is also the President and CEO of Cell Science Systems (CSS) – The ALCAT Laboratory. CSS is an international corporation focused on eliminating chronic illness caused by activation of the immune system as a result of food sensitivity. “We analyze the body’s cellular response to various challenges from foods, chemicals, medicinal herbs, additives and molds. Once completed, the practitioner is given an easy to read test result and rotational diet to help ‘clear’ the system, avoiding overload.”
CSS is a life sciences company and the worldwide market leader in food sensitivity testing as the manufacturer of the ALCAT Test. ALCAT identifies cellular reactions to over 350 foods, herbs and chemicals. These inflammatory reactions are linked to chronic health problems like obesity and diabetes, as well as skin, heart, joint, and digestive disorders. Located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, CSS is a FDA-inspected and registered, ISO Certified, cGMP medical device manufacturer and operates a CLIA-certified laboratory.
What is Food Sensitivity?
Here is a great video that talks about food sensitivity and the ALCAT Test. This interview was conducted in Utah in April 2009.
Cell Science Systems Recruits Seasoned Executive To Head New Lifestyle Medicine & Nutritional Solution For Health Care Professionals
Roger Deutsch, Chief Executive Officer for Cell Science Systems, provider of the ALCAT Food and Chemical Sensitivity, announced that Philip Voluck has joined the firm and is establishing a new company that will be known as PreviMedica Lifestyle Medicine & Nutrition.
PreviMedica Lifestyle Medicine & Nutrition will bring a new level of service to healthcare professionals. Addressing the current changing paradigm in medicine, where medical practices are shifting towards incorporating integrative medicine with conventional medicine, PreviMedica will offer healthcare professionals the ability to add a superior all encompassing wellness program to their current practice. One that would encompass state-of-the-art health screenings, the ALCAT Test, blood chemistry testing for inflammatory markers as well as other blood tests necessary to provide a complete pleura of diagnostic services in establishing a preventive medicine practice.
Programs will be provided for lifestyle change that will include nutritional counseling and education, weight control, fitness development, behavior change, healthy cooking and stress reduction.
Mr. Voluck's career spans over 30 years in the healthcare industry, starting in the weight loss industry at Nutri/System Weight Loss Centers, where began as a franchisee and rose to Vice President of Operations and finally President of the company in 1994. Mr. Voluck has also been President of Jenny Craig Weight Loss, part of the initial growth of Smart for Life Weight Loss and Physician Body Solutions, a minimally invasive plastic surgery chain in the Philadelphia area.
Roger Deutsch, author of Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat and President of Cell Science Systems, said, "I chose Phil because he has the reputation of being one of the most well respected franchise, operational, and marketing healthcare professionals in the country today. We're looking forward to his leadership with this new venture."
Cell Science Systems (CSS) is a life sciences company and the worldwide market leader in food sensitivity testing as the manufacturer of the ALCAT Test. ALCAT identifies cellular reactions to over 300 foods and chemicals. These inflammatory reactions are linked to chronic health problems like obesity and diabetes, as well as skin, heart, joint, and digestive disorders. Located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, CSS is a FDA-inspected and registered, ISO 13485 certified, cGMP medical device manufacturer and operates a CLIA-certified laboratory.
PreviMedica Lifestyle Medicine & Nutrition will bring a new level of service to healthcare professionals. Addressing the current changing paradigm in medicine, where medical practices are shifting towards incorporating integrative medicine with conventional medicine, PreviMedica will offer healthcare professionals the ability to add a superior all encompassing wellness program to their current practice. One that would encompass state-of-the-art health screenings, the ALCAT Test, blood chemistry testing for inflammatory markers as well as other blood tests necessary to provide a complete pleura of diagnostic services in establishing a preventive medicine practice.
Programs will be provided for lifestyle change that will include nutritional counseling and education, weight control, fitness development, behavior change, healthy cooking and stress reduction.
Mr. Voluck's career spans over 30 years in the healthcare industry, starting in the weight loss industry at Nutri/System Weight Loss Centers, where began as a franchisee and rose to Vice President of Operations and finally President of the company in 1994. Mr. Voluck has also been President of Jenny Craig Weight Loss, part of the initial growth of Smart for Life Weight Loss and Physician Body Solutions, a minimally invasive plastic surgery chain in the Philadelphia area.
Roger Deutsch, author of Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat and President of Cell Science Systems, said, "I chose Phil because he has the reputation of being one of the most well respected franchise, operational, and marketing healthcare professionals in the country today. We're looking forward to his leadership with this new venture."
Cell Science Systems (CSS) is a life sciences company and the worldwide market leader in food sensitivity testing as the manufacturer of the ALCAT Test. ALCAT identifies cellular reactions to over 300 foods and chemicals. These inflammatory reactions are linked to chronic health problems like obesity and diabetes, as well as skin, heart, joint, and digestive disorders. Located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, CSS is a FDA-inspected and registered, ISO 13485 certified, cGMP medical device manufacturer and operates a CLIA-certified laboratory.
Stay tuned...
Welcome to the official ALCAT blog, where we will post information on the ALCAT Test, nutrition, lifestyle modification and overall wellness. Stay tuned!
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