The science is in – for mild to moderate depression, pharmaceutical antidepressants are no more effective than placebos.  But the science also says that there are four steps you can take that are effective to reduce depression.  Reducing or eliminating mild/moderate depression is all about anti-inflammatory foods, supplements, exercise and a shift in cognition (perception).

ONE OF my favorite doctors in the public arena is Dr. Andrew Weil.  Among the many reasons that I like him is that he’s joyful, smart, articulate, iconoclastic, has debunked many myths and misrepresentations in the health field, written insightful books, and has promoted “functional medicine”, which seeks to understand and treat a person’s entire body as it relates to the root causes of disease or dysfunction, not simply wrestle with symptoms. (Whew!)

So, when I heard that the good doctor was to be interviewed by Ira Flatow on Talk of the Nation about his new book, Spontaneous Happiness: How to Discover and Embrace Your Body’s Natural Ability to Maintain and Heal Itself, I tuned my dial to KQED and opened my mind to be educated.

Mr. Flatow set the stage before introducing Dr. Weil by citing some ugly statistics: In America, use of medications are up by over 400% since 1988, and one in ten people over the age of 12 take antidepressant drugs according to the CDC.

(Listen to the podcast here.)

For Most, Antidepressant Drugs Don’t Work

Dr. Weil is not the only health practitioner who thinks that this state of affairs is ridiculous.  He and others (notably, Dr. Mark Hyman) point out that not only can antidepressant pharmaceutical drugs cause dangerous side effects, but that for mild to moderate depression, they do not work any better than placebos.

The common antidepressant drugs are of a drug classification called “Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors”, or “SSRI”. Over the years, the pharmaceutical companies with their ubiquitous TV ads have done a good job of convincing too many of us that normal, cyclical (like with the onset of winter) bouts of mild to moderate depression is a big problem that you better not cope with all by yourself, so take this drug.

Problem is, antidepressant drugs don’t work for mild to moderate depression*  – you’ll do as well with a sugar pill, on average, but (adding injury to insult), they can cause pernicious side effects, such as:

• Nausea
• Dry mouth
• Headache
• Diarrhea
• Nervousness, agitation or restlessness
• Reduced sexual desire or difficulty reaching orgasm
• Inability to maintain an erection (erectile dysfunction)
• Rash
• Increased sweating
• Weight gain
• Drowsiness
• Insomnia

(*Bi-polar and severe depression is in a completely different category, and those with these conditions need to stay on their meds.)

And there’s another pretty whomping problem with the SSRI class of antidepressant drugs… with long-term use SSRIs can produce the very same problem – depression – that they’re made to alleviate.  This situation is described by the “homeostasis effect”, whereby a system, like the body, endeavors to bring itself back to the norm when an outside or unnatural agent is introduced into the system.

Although not often described as such, we hear about this all the time when a doctor or news report describes that some bacteria has become resistant to inoculants, and as such are called, “drug-resistant bacteria”. This also is common with allergy or acid reflex drugs, wherein for some people the more they’re used, the less effective they become.

The Role of Inflammation on Depression

Over the past few years, scientists have been isolating inflammation as a root cause of many degenerative diseases, such as arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and others.  I just got 162,000,000 results from a Google search for “inflammation-based diseases”.  Naturally, given this growing understanding of the linkage of inflammation and disease, the marketplace now offers us “Inflammation Diets”, including the spot-on inflammation-reducing tips from Dr. Weil himself.

Inflammation is a prevalent physical and mental health problem because of the poor food choices we make. In the Talk of the Nation radio interview, Dr. Weil briefly describes how processed and manufactured food can cause inflammation, in part by disrupting the right balance between Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids, as well as by dominating the banquet of food choices which consists of poorly grown meat (animals fed grains not grass), simple carbohydrates (white flours, rice, food in boxes) and fats (saturated, trans fat, hydrogenated).

The first clue about the causal link between inflammation markers in the body and depression happened on farms in the 1950s.  Farmers recognized that when their cows, sheep and pigs were sick because they exhibited a specific behaviors: they became anti-social, maintained distance from the herd, were listless.

In the 1970s, scientists discovered inflammation markers in the blood supply of sick animals that they termed, “Blood Factor X”.  They soon understood that much of the sickness exhibited by farm animals had to do with inflammation.  In people, the researchers discovered that inflammation could induce changes in the brain that could instigate depression, leading some very few in the medical field to treat mild to moderate depression via anti-inflammatory foods and treatments.

Four Steps to Reduce Depression

Back now to Dr. Weil’s new book, Spontaneous Happiness.  This book presents a step-by-step, week-by-week , scientifically-based road map for improving, or eliminating mild to moderate depression.  (There’s a link to it below.)

I have not read the book, but from Dr. Weil’s radio interview, I can summarize what I’ll call “four steps to reduce depression”.  Step one is to avoid foods that cause inflammation — those processed, manufactured foods — and to eat instead anti-inflammatory foods.  Step two is to take certain, proven supplements proven to reduce mild to moderate depression.  Step three is to exercise.  Step four is to change one’s perception, a cognitive behavioral shift, if you will.

Step 1 – Eat Anti-inflammatory Foods

Feed animals that eat grass rather than grain (like corn) have substantially more omega-3 fatty acids in their meat.  Flaxseed oil, pumpkin seed oil, walnut oil and fish oil are rich in omega-3 fatty acids; wherein corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed oil, and olive oil (olive oil being a perfectly good oil in moderation and appropriate for cooking) contain omega-6 fatty acids.

A healthy diet should consist of roughly 2 – 4 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids.  The typical American diet tends to contain 14 – 25 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids, and many researchers believe this imbalance is a significant factor in the rising rate of inflammatory disorders in the United States.

[Want to learn more about healthy and unhealthy fats? Read Eating Fat is Good… Maybe…Could Be… Sometimes.]

Recently, the FDA established a new food pyramid that is no longer a pyramid, but a plate.  I describe it in Yes, Choose My Food Plate and The New Food Pyramid is a Plate.  Dr. Weil responded by creating a plate of his own, but ahhh, kept it as a pyramid.  Confused?  Don’t be… be it plate or pyramid, the point is to know what foods to eat, and Dr. Weil conscientiously chooses inflammation-fighting foods.

What is Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid?

• It is a practical eating guide that consumers of all ages can use, with tips on how to reduce risks of age-related diseases and improve overall health through diet.
• It is an interactive educational graphic to help today’s families prevent disease while eating well.
• It is a simple tool that promotes optimum health and healthy aging by providing dietary advice that addresses inflammation.

Learn more about it here.

As mentioned, the key foods to avoid are those that are processed and manufactured (in boxes, cans and plastic);  grain-fed meat and dairy as opposed to animals raised on grass;  simple carbs such as white bread, white rice, potatoes; and unhealthy fats, such as trans fats, saturated fats and partially hydrogenated oils.

Here’s a list of Dr. Weil’s recommended food choices

Step 2 – Take Antidepressant Supplements

The proven supplements to help ameliorate mild to moderate depression include fish oil, vitamin D3, vitamin B12 and SAMe.

I’ve written about SAMe and a powerful type of fish oil called, “krill oil” in Emotional Wellbeing (Chemistry Helps!), and about Vitamin D3 here and here.

Dr. Weil recommends two to four grams of fish oil per day.

Don’t worry about contaminant in your fish oil supplement if manufactured from a reliable brand, as typically they are molecularly distilled and thus free from PCBs and mercury, etc.

Step 3 – Exercise!

Exercise is a proven method to improve mild to moderate depression.  Whether you’re doing an aerobic or anaerobic exercise, it does a body, and a mind good.  One reason is that exercise decreases the stress hormones such as cortisol, and increases those “feel-good” endorphins, such as epinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine.

I have two rules for beginner exercisers:

1. Recruit a buddy to do it with you, and

2. Begin with an exercise routine that you’re willing to consistently do.

If you’re completely out of shape, walk, and walk quickly.  When this becomes comfortable, walk up hills.  If you can, begin jogging.  In between walking days, learn and do yoga or some strength-producing exercises, such as push-ups and squats.  Begin on your knees if you need to for the push-ups, and hold on to a chair for the squats.

Step 4 – Change Your Perception

A teacher once told me and the rest of the class, “Attitude is everything!”.  The near-miracle is being able to change it, cause for most of us our attitude is cemented in place, and perhaps it’s not a very good place.

But for those of you that are willing to work on shifting your mind set to improve your mental well being, consider the following information gleaned from Dr. Weil, with a healthy (hopefully) dose of my interpretation.

First, it’s helpful to know that some amount of depression is quite normal.  What would be abnormal for all except Buddhist monks is to be always happy. Getting a bit depressed is common during specific times of your life and in seasons of the year.  Common times to feel low in life are after child birth, when the kids fly the nest, during menopause, during a career shift, when middle age first hits, during illness, etc.  The onset of winter, with its cold and reduced light, can also ignite depression.

Know that when mild to moderate depression happens – the kind that DOES NOT bring you to the highest bridge or building in the neighborhood – there are better methods to combat it than drugs, as this post has been imploring.  Along with the three steps already described, working on changing your perception could be very helpful.

Dr. Weil suggests to begin improving your perception/cognition with shutting off the things that make your mind flutter, meaning things that distract you from being present, from being focused on one thing at a time.

Turns out, whether you believe it true for you or not, humans are not good at multi-tasking.  This has been studied exhaustively.  The brain doesn’t multi-task well, so what it does is shift back and forth between the things you’re doing, trying to focus individually on each thing, and not doing it well.  This does not produce calmness – just the opposite.

So, the first thing to awaken to is how you manage your day.  If too much multi-tasking is happening, try to simply focus on one thing at a time till it’s as complete as you need it to be for the day.  Improve your well-being by turning off the TV and all the electronics that compete for your attention, like every time that “ping” sound happens on your cell phone to alert you to a new text message.  That sound and inevitable reaction, takes you from your focus.  On a subtle level, it’s stressful if frequently repeated.

There are two things to practice in order to shift perception and improve mild to moderate depression, says Dr. Weil in this radio interview: Meditation and Gratitude.

Meditation takes practice.  No one’s good at it immediately.  But it’s worth trying because meditation helps you change your reaction to things.  As the saying goes, “You can’t change what happens to you, but you can change your reaction to it”.

One basic method to learn to meditate is simply to sit comfortably in a place where there’ll be no distractions for 15 minutes (to start), close your eyes and follow your breath.  “Follow your breath” means to stay focused on it, allowing the breath to come in and go out as it will.  Soon, just by focusing on it, the inhalation and exhalation will become longer and deeper.  When your mind drifts, gently bring it back.  If silently reciting some mantra, or affirmation helps, add that.  If focusing on an object in your mind’s eye helps, do that.  But first get used to following your breath.  Over time, you’ll realize that every stress point in your life is being handled with greater ease.

Be grateful. Even those of us in very bad situations can find something day to day to be grateful about.  Try… you will find something.  The key for this to improve your mindset is to recognize those things for which you’re grateful, and express it.  This can be done each evening before bed when you write down the things for which you have gratitude that happened, or were recognized that day.

I close this post with the admonition that all that’s written may be considered helpful tips to help reduce mild to moderate depression, not severe depression.  If you’re on a doctor-prescribed antidepressant, you will need to work with your doctor to wean yourself from the drug as you incorporate the suggestions here reported.

Many blessings to you.

Related posts:

1. Dr. Weil and Kevin Rose Talk Health (Video)
2. Get Relief from Depression with Rumi
3. Top 10 Health Posts of 2011

Just heard on TV (so it must be true) that 1/3 of Americans have high cholesterol, so this topic is both timely and important.  Do you know your cholesterol numbers?  Would be a good idea, as well as learning more about cholesterol right here… read on…

[Update: It's a world wide problem.]

[Update 2: Check out one man's pursuit of healthy cholesterol numbers.]

ONE OF my longest, detailed and perhaps boring post is about dietary fat.  I really dug into this topic because people seem to be so confused about the types of fat, and which are “good” or “bad”.

(If you have time to kill, read: Fat is Good…Maybe…Could Be…)

Ever since I wrote that post, I thought I should return to the topic and explain things more simply.  But I don’t have to, because Dr. Rebecca S. Reeves has done it already in her succinct article, Heart Health: 12 Myths About Cholesterol, which I summarize below.

“What does cholesterol have to do with fat”, you may ask?  “And why should I care”? Well, let’s first define cholesterol… from my “Fat” article, I quote:

“Cholesterol, is one of a class of complex lipids called “sterols“, and comes in two forms: the “bad” form associated with low density lipoproteins (“LDL”), and the “good” form associated with high density lipoproteins (“HDL”).”

Clear as mud, right?

Well, again from my “Fat” article, another attempt:

“Bad fats are saturated fat and trans fat.

Fats containing saturated fatty acids are called Saturated Fats. Examples of foods high in saturated fats include lard, butter, whole milk, cream, eggs, red meat, chocolate, and solid shortenings. Excess intake of saturated fat can raise your blood cholesterol and increase the risk of developing coronary artery disease.”

“Trans Fats are found in vegetable shortenings and in some margarines, crackers, cookies, and snack foods, and will increase the shelf life of oils. But trans fats will not extend your shelf life; rather, just the opposite – consumption of trans fatty acids increases blood LDL-cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol) levels and raises the risk of coronary heart disease.  A nice recipe for a short life.”

(More on all that here.)

OK, needed to connect the dots between cholesterol and fat before turning to Dr. Reeves’ article where she sometimes uses the two terms interchangeably.

The 12 Myths About Cholesterol

1. Healthy diets eliminate the most fat.  Not necessarily – you need fat in your diet, at least 25% of total calories.
2. All fats are equal. No, some are good, some OK, some bad. Good are Monosaturated (olive oil, peanut oil, avocado); and Polyunsaturated (salmon, seeds, nuts, vegetable oils). OK is coconut oil, a saturated fat, yes, but with a different chemistry.  Bad are Saturated (fatty red meats, butter, palm oil); and Trans fat (anything termed “hydrogenated oils”, typically in packaged foods and fast foods, like French fries.
3. Low fat = low calorie. Nope.  When the fat is taken out, often other high calorie stuff is put in, like sugar-type stuff.  Plus you might wind up eating more of the low fat, high sugar food and thus consume more calories.
4. Olive oil has less calories than other oil. All oils have 9 calories per gram.
5. No “trans fat” means the food is healthy. Maybe… what replaced it, saturated fat? Just minimize your consumption of manufactured, packaged food.
6. Plant “sterols” will reduce cholesterol. Yes, if you eat about 100 pounds of the veggies, fruits and grains each day.
7. The food label says, “Contains plant sterols” and this will lower cholesterol. Depends on the amount… you need 0.8 grams of plant sterols per day may reduce your risk of heart disease.  Look for the CoroWise logo on the label.
8. Plant sterols reduces blood cholesterol by dissolving it in the intestines. Plant sterols work by reducing the absorption of cholesterol from your intestines, which in turn reduces the level of LDL (bad) cholesterol in your body. Cholesterol that is not absorbed is eliminated from your body.
9. Plant sterols do not lower cholesterol. Wrong – studies show that plant sterols are effective at lowering LDL cholesterol if you consume between 0.8 and 3 grams per day.
10. No plant sterol is need if you have normal cholesterol levels. May not be needed if your LDL number is good, but whether your cholesterol is high or “normal”, plant sterol will lower LDL.
11. Children and pregnant women should avoid plant sterols. No, there’s no “should” here… consuming plant sterols for them may be unnecessary since children and pregnant women usually do not have high cholesterol, but doing so is not harmful.
12. It’s a good thing to eliminate cholesterol completely from your diet. For most of us, it’s safe to have 300 mg of cholesterol daily, the recommended daily limit.

Well, there you have it.  If you have any thoughts or suggestions or experiences to share on the topic, please go to the Comments section below and weigh in.

Related posts:

1. Eating Fat is Good… Maybe…Could Be… Sometimes
2. Cholesterol Drug “Lipitor” Loses its Patent – A Good Deal for You?
3. High Cholesterol? Do Something!

As food gets more manufactured, we need to be ever more vigilant about what we eat. Our health depends upon it.

[Be patient… story in the video starts after a 15 second ABC commercial.]

IT SEEMS that news of food contamination has spiked recently. Every other month it’s some sorta meat that’s contaminated, hormone-filled, swimming in anti-biotics; or perhaps spinach or some other vegetable tainted with salmonella. And now it’s time for fish oil supplements and various snack foods to take their turn.

PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl compounds) are the carcinogenic culprit in the fish oil supplement case, and good ole salmonella makes it’s repeated visit to spread itself all over a wide range of processed foods – including soups, snack foods, dips and dressings -via a flavor-enhancing ingredient.

So, I’m going to flesh out these two stories just a bit, and — as ever — encourage you to start reading labels, forgo the processed food, and wash your veggies. First up, fish oil.

PCBs in Fish Oil

Small fish eat PCBs. Big fish eat the small fish. You eat the big fish, or supplement with the oil extracted from them. Various watch groups test for PCB in fish, but — despite the industry’s declaration of stringent standards — unhealthy levels of PCBs have been found in lab tests of ten fish oil brands marketed by ten reputable supplement companies.

PCB has an infamously storied career. It has sickened thousands of people and is considered a voracious carcinogen. According to California law, people should not be exposed to more than 90 nanograms of this carcinogen a day. But the results of tests of all ten fish oil supplements contained 90 nanograms, all more. These companies include GNC, Omega Protein, Rite Aid, CVS, TwinLab, Now, NatureMade, etc.

(Read statements made by these companies here.)

The doctors interviewed about PCB and fish oil are recommending that those with heart disease, or prone to it, continue with fish oil supplementation. Omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish oil have been clearly demonstrated to support heart health. (Watch the video above.)

Those with healthy hearts might revisit the benefits of taking fish oil. I fit into that category. My intention is to redouble my effort in finding the purest source for omega-3. The kill oil and cod liver oil I take seems to be OK, based on the Internet research I did after this story broke.

Now to the salmonella story.

Salmonella in Processed Foods

Regular readers of this blog are well aware of my penchant for wailing against processed foods (“non-foods”). They’re so prevalent that some kids can not identify most fruits and vegetables. Well, here’s yet another story presenting yet another reason to eat what farmers grow, rather than what food factories create.

Over the last few days, there’s been a major recall of hundreds of processed foods where salmonella contamination has been discovered. We’re talking soups, snack foods, dips, dressings and other processed foods that have one thing in common: Salmonella was found in the hydrolyzed vegetable protein used as a flavor-enhancing ingredient.

The good news is that the risk to health is relatively small, particularly since the salmonella is destroyed from heat when cooking the food it’s in.

The bad news, in my opinion, is that this s just the tip of the iceberg. The Food and Drug Administration finds only a small amount of the offenders, and the processing processes will only continue to add risk to this type of “food”.

Which bring me to my usual exhortations to focus on real food, hopefully grown locally, that you wash, cook minimally and eat with gusto. It’s not so hard. Check out these posts: Diet 101 and The Basics — My Approach to Health.

Related posts:

1. Beware Stress…
2. How Depressing is Your Food? And You?
3. Mind Over Food — 7 Steps for Food Control

The bottom line on Soda, Energy Drinks, Diary, Soy, Vitamins (esp. Vitamin D), Omega-3, Cell Phone Radiation, Eye Health, Antioxidants, Atkins, Trans Fat, Depression, Exercise, Juice Cleanses and Tea… whew!

IN THIS insightful exchange, Kevin Rose, the co-founder of Digg, interviews Dr. Andrew Weil, medical doctor, integrative medicine specialist and botanist, about many of the hot health topics of the day.

You’ll enjoy the video, but I’ve also made a transcription below of the interview (not verbatim, mind you) organized within the topics discussed, with my comments or amplification [in brackets]. Enjoy.

___________________________

Soda

Sugar is the big problem. Sugar drives obesity and type 2 diabetes in the U.S. If you want a carbonated drink try sparkling water with lemon, or a bit of fruit juice. Beware high fructose corn syrup masquerading as some good form of sugar. It’s not. It’s a marker for cheap, low quality foods. [Corn is a heavily subsidized crop in the U.S. which accounts for its use as a sugar. Read more about this here]

Energy Drinks

They may keep you up at nights for some all-night bender or work effort, but the usual ingredient that enables this is caffeine. [Caffeine spikes cortisol levels. Cortisol is the "stress hormone".] Added to the caffeine is sugar. You can at least avoid one bad ingredient (sugar) by drinking caffeinated coffee or tea , though if addicted to caffeine, you’ll get an insufficient “lift”  for your all-nighter.

In Japan, they often drink Matcha Tea, developed to help keep monks awake during meditation. Another energy drink alternative is a drink with bitter orange in it. Chino, made by San Pellegrino, contains some variety of bitter orange and is known to help keep people alert.

Diary

Cow milk and its derivatives, such as cheese, can be problematic for some. High in saturated fats [more about fats], milk can challenge artery and heart health. For some, milk sugars (lactose) and/or the milk protein (casein) are indigestible. Casein protein can irritate the immune system and can cause or exacerbate allergies.

If one or both parents have a history of milk intolerance, it would be wise to keep their infants off milk for first two or three years of life in order to prevent skin issues, allergies and sinus problems.

Another issue with milk concerns how it’s made. It’s common to produce milk from cows given a steady diet of hormones and antibiotics.

A Mongolian physician studied diary practices in Mongola and the U.S. and reported her findings in a Harvard journal. She found that farmers in the U.S. keep their cows always lactating, resulting in a high level of sex hormones being produced in their milk. In Mongola, farmers did not attempt to do this; the cows there only produced milk during their natural cycle.

Soy

[The value of soy in the diet has become a hotel debated issue] It’s important that whole soy, not fake hot dogs with soy isolates or soy supplements, be consumed. Don’t over do it. A half cup per day is fine.

Vitamins

Does quality matter? Yes, although price is not always equivalent to quality, it’s worth going for quality. Although vitamins are not a substitute for food, they do provide insurance against gaps in your diet, and for specific therapeutic and preventative effects.

Vitamin D

Deficiency is the rule. Most of us are not producing enough vitamin D via sun exposure, which other than supplementation, is the only sure way of getting it. Latitudes north of Atlanta, the sun too low in the winter to get enough. 2,000 units per day with your largest meal for absorption [with vitamin A is a good idea to help prevent toxicity, although this is rare]. Latest research indicates that vitamin D users contract flu much less often than those bereft of it. Even 4,000 units per day is not too high. Get tested [a blood test] to find out your level [before taking more than 2,000 units per day].

Omega-3

This is our biggest nutritional deficiency. Two to three grams fish oil supplemented every day is a good idea, even if you eat fish. Sockeye salmon (not farmed cause only eats insects and algae) sardines, anchovies are good choices as they’re lower on the food chain and therefore less likely to contain contaminants. Krill oil is great but is being over-harvested, and the population is not sustainable.

Vegetable sources of omega-3 such as hemp, flax and chia are good to have in your diet, but they have a different molecule of omega-3 than fish oil, which isn’t as effective. Algae is a better option, but currently is not well developed.

Cell phone radiation

There’s contradictory research here. Money seems to be an influence, as large industries have a stake in the outcome. Err on side caution. Limit your use. Distance yourself from the source of radiation. Don’t glue the phone, or phone apparatus to your ears. The radio magnetic field falls off exponentially to distance, [meaning that for each increment of distance from, say, your head, there's a multiple reduction in the strength of the field]. Use the speaker phone.

Eyes

[Knowledge workers today stare constantly at computers causing eye problems as is described here.] Every few minutes look away from whatever you’ve been staring at intently close up. Two things that help eyes are glasses that protect from UV radiation, and vitamin supplements like carotenoids, vitamin E, zinc, vitamin C and selenium. There are good formulas in the market. [Check out Envision Good Eyesight.]

Antioxidants

There’s no need to consume lots of the so-called “super fruits”. Pomegranate juice is fine, but expensive and unnecessary. Blueberries are cheaper and a good fruit antioxidant. Make sure you eat across the color spectrum. Consume lost of different colored fruits and vegetables. Tea, red wine and dark chocolate with 70% or more coca, are all good antioxidant-filled foods.

Bittersweet (dark) Chocolate

There are several reasons for eating bittersweet chocolate. Dark chocolate has a stimulant called theobromine, a bitter alkaloid in the cacao plant. The fat in chocolate gives a pleasant mouth feel. It contains antioxidants, and might lower cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and contain mood enhancing chemicals. [More in this article: Make Love with Bittersweet Chocolate]

Atkins

[The Atkins has fallen out of favor of late over claims that it isn't healthy nor sustainable.] A better diet is the South Beach diet, a relatively easy way to drop weight quickly. An anti-inflammatory diet is also a good way to go. It’s similar to the Mediterranean Diet, consisting of low glycemic foods, the healthy fats. [Eating Fats is Good and A Blueprint for Eating Right]

One quick diet tip: Avoid products with flour and sugar.

Trans Fat

[This is a type of fat created to help maintain a long shelf life for processed foods] It’s similar to high fructose corn syrup in that it is unhealthy, doesn’t belong in food and is evidence of low quality food. Read labels.

Tip: If you don’t recognize the ingredient and/or you wouldn’t use it to make the food at home, don’t buy it.

Depression

If mild to moderate, you can self manage depression through daily aerobic exercise (at least five days per week), and consuming supplements like vitamin D, fish oil (up to five grams/day) and SAMe. It’s also very helpful to get enough sleep, and reduce the consumption of caffeine and alcohol. [More: Do Depression Drugs Work? and How Depressing is Your Food? ]

Exercise

At a minimum, get your heart rate up every day. If you’re dealing with depression, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least five days per week. [If you're not into biking, ruining, or gym machines, simply walk up a hill. If there's more gas in the tank, lean and do yoga stretches.]

Juice Cleanses

Vegetable juice oriented cleanse are better than fruit juice cleanses because of the high sugar content in fruit. But the first best detox method is to stop putting toxins in the body! Next, enhance the regular forms of detoxification by drinking more water to increase urination, aerobic exercise to increase breathing [which by this I think Dr. Weil is referring to the sweating that helps toxins inside the body exit through the skin]. [More on cleansing: Detoxifying Your Way to Nirvana and It’s Detox Time.

Tea

There are many good teas, but Green tea has been researched the most. A report last year conducted in Japan showed lower death rates among those drinking four to five cups of green tea each day.

Dr. Weil drinks Matcha tea each morning. He’s also intrigued by the fermented Turmeric Tea drunk in Japan, which is excellent for reducing inflammation. They drink the Turmeric Tea unsweetened and cold. Controlling inflammation seems to be a secret to avoid chronic disease. In India turmeric is used daily. Try a level teaspoon added to stews and soups. In Other than tea

The key to tea is quality which can be sourced in tea shops, tea parlors or online.

_____________________________

Well, that’s it.  Let me know in the “comments” section below if any of this was useful, or if you possess an alternative reality.  Also, let’s show Kevin Rose that we liked his interview by “Digging” his story… just click on the “Share This” icon below and then click “Digg”.

Related posts:

1. Dr. Weil’s Four Alternatives to Antidepressant Drugs
2. Sugar Lover? Which Type Are You?
3. How Depressing is Your Food? And You?

(It Really Depends… and You Need To Get It Right!)

Fatty Acid Molecule

Certain fats are critical for health. Aim for fat consumption of Omega-3 and Monosatuated Fatty Acids in the range of 20 to 25% of your daily caloric intake; ideally, as little as possible from Saturated and Trans Fat sources.  Read on for specifics.

THERE ARE  few things more confusing to us than fat.  Certainly, when sagging around the waist, this unsightly jiggly is either actively ignored, scorned, or both.

But this post is not about the waistline tire, or inter-muscular fat per se, but about the macronutrient called fat, which along with its two siblings — protein and carbohydrates — is necessary, important and vital to good health.

IF the fat’s the right type.

Before I delve into why, let’s examine just what makes up the fat macronutrient, starting with names.

Here are the terms related to and/or used for “fat”:

polyunsaturated fat
fatty-acids
trans fatty acids
omegas
triglycerides
cholesterol
phospholipids
lipids
saturated fat
monosaturated fat oils

All of these are connected to each other in one way or another.  Without understanding how they’re related, all these terms can be very confusing.  So, let’s demystify things a bit and then apply what we’ve learned to practical action.

First up is terminology.  What we think of as fat is really a “lipid”, whether they be in liquid or solid form.  Lipids are important for cells’ energy storage and structure, and include these compounds:

-     fatty acids

-     triglycerides

-     oils

-     phospholipids

-     cholesterol (a “sterol”)

Next, let’s define these lipids, relate them to each other, and examine which are “good” and “bad” for you and why.

Fatty Acids

Fatty acids are organic acids, particularly those chains of carbon that are not branched. (“Branched” indicates that the series of atoms connected together that make up the fatty acid can resemble a fork in that they divide or separate into two or more branches.)

Fatty acids serve as energy for the muscles, heart, and other organs, as building blocks for cell membranes, and as energy storage for the body. Those fatty acids not used up as energy are primarily converted into triglycerides, but also exist  as components of phospholipids and cellular membranes.

Triglycerides

Triglycerides are fats that contain, in varying proportions, three groups of fatty acids – saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated – plus a molecule of glycerol.

They are the chemical form in which most fat exists within food as well as in the body.  They store energy in the body, and in effect, it is stored triglycerides – aka body fat – that we remove from our bodies when dieting (hopefully).

Oils

Oils are triglycerides with low melting points — liquid at room temperature, contrasting with fats that are solid at room temperature given their higher melting temperature.

• Polyunsatured Fats are fatty acids triglycerides that are room temperature liquid oils, such as corn oil.
• Monosaturated Fats are fatty acid triglycerides that are also room temperature liquid oils but tend to solidify when refrigerated, like olive oil.
• Saturated Fats are fatty acid triglycerides that are typically solid at room temperature, such as tropical (coconut) oils, butter, margarine and animal fat. They are the only fatty acids that raise blood cholesterol levels

Phospholipids

Phospholipids are a variation of triglycerides where one fatty acid is replaced with a phosphate group, and are important for forming the structural basis of cellular membranes.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol, is one of a class of complex lipids called “sterols“, and comes in two forms: the “bad” form associated with low density lipoproteins (“LDL”), and the “good” form associated with high density lipoproteins (“HDL”).

HDL is thought to remove excess cholesterol from the body; whereas LDL is thought to elevate cholesterol in the blood, which can first lead to excess deposits of cholesterol and fat in the arteries, and then to heart disease and/or stroke.

[Sidebar: Take the American Heart Association Cholesterol Quiz]

OK, so for those of you still with me, on to the stuff you really care about…

The Bad Fat

–> Bad fats are saturated fat and trans fat.

Fats containing saturated fatty acids are called Saturated Fats. Examples of foods high in saturated fats include lard, butter, whole milk, cream, eggs, red meat, chocolate, and solid shortenings. Excess intake of saturated fat can raise your blood cholesterol and increase the risk of developing coronary artery disease.

Trans Fats are found in vegetable shortenings and in some margarines, crackers, cookies, and snack foods, and will increase the shelf life of oils. But trans fats will not extend your shelf life; rather, just the opposite – consumption of trans fatty acids increases blood LDL-cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol) levels and raises the risk of coronary heart disease.  A nice recipe for a short life.

The Good Fat

–> Good fats are polyunsaturated and monosaturated fatty acids

Monosaturated Fatty Acids contain one double bond in their chemical chain. Examples of foods high in monounsaturated fat include avocados, nuts, and olive, peanut and canola oils. Scientists believe that increased consumption of monounsaturated fats (like nuts) is beneficial in lowering LDL cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol) and lowering the risk of coronary heart disease, especially if monounsaturated fats are used to substitute for saturated fats and refined sugars.

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids contain more than one double bond in their chemical chain. Unlike saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat does not raise cholesterol levels. In fact, like monosaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats lowers levels of the bad cholesterol lipid, LDL. Unlike monosaturated fats, however, polyunsaturated fat is believed to lower the good cholesterol lipid, HDL, as well.

But despite polyunsaturated fatty acids’ propensity to lower the “good” HDL, they are essential to our diet because they include a special family of essential fatty acids which the human body cannot manufacture for itself called omega 3, omega 6 and omega 9 fatty acids. If you have high cholesterol, don’t overindulge with foods containing polyunsaturated fatty acids, but do include them in your diet.

- Omega-3 Fatty Acids are the best of the three “omegas”. Omega-3 fatty acids are a class of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids with the double bond in the third carbon position from the methyl terminal (hence the use of “3″ in their description). Omega-3s are used in the formation of cell walls, making them supple and flexible, and improving circulation and oxygen uptake with proper red blood cell flexibility and function.

Fish, plant, and nut oils are the primary dietary source of omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, mackerel, halibut, sardines, tuna, herring, krill, algae, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed oil, purslane, perilla seed oil, walnuts, walnut oil, and spinach.

- Omega-6 Fatty Acids are a class of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids with the initial double bond in the sixth carbon position from the methyl group (hence the “6″). Examples of foods rich in omega-6 fatty acids include corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, and cottonseed oil.

- Omega-9 Fatty Acids are polyunsaturated fatty acids with the initial double bond in… you guessed it… in the ninth carbon position. The niners are important, but it’s not essential that you consume them because the human body can manufacture omega-9 fatty acids in limited amounts. These are found in olive oil (extra virgin, cold pressed is best), olives, avocados, almonds, peanuts, sesame oil, pecans, pistachio nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, etc.

The Omega Interplay

There’s a dance between the omegas that’s important to know about — they work together to promote health, but #3 needs to be favored more than #6 and #9.  The balance is important.

Omega-3 fatty acids help reduce inflammation, and most omega-6 fatty acids tend to promote inflammation. An inappropriate balance of these essential fatty acids contributes to the development of disease while a proper balance helps maintain and even improve health.

A healthy diet should consist of roughly 2 – 4 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids. The typical American diet tends to contain 14 – 25 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids, and many researchers believe this imbalance is a significant factor in the rising rate of inflammatory disorders in the United States.

This is one reason that the so called “Mediterranean Diet” gets high marks.  It consists of a healthier balance between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids than the typical American Diet, so say various studies demonstrating that people who follow the Med are less likely to develop heart disease. It also contains the omega-9 fatty acid group, which have been reported to help lower risks associated with cancer and heart disease.

The Mediterranean diet does not include much meat (meat is high in omega-6 fatty acids) and emphasizes foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, including whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, olive oil, garlic, as well as moderate red wine consumption.

[For more on Diet, read Diet 101 and A Blueprint for Eating Right.]

Fat Proportions

So, at long last we get to the end of this epic journey of Fat.

Do this: aim for fat consumption in the range of 20 to 25% of your daily caloric intake; ideally, as little as possible from saturated and trans fat sources, and as much possible from poly and monounsaturated fat sources.

–> Try to consume primarily Monosaturated Fatty Acids and Omega-3 Fatty Acids.  So that means, nuts, avocado, salmon, mackerel, halibut, sardines, tuna, herring, krill, algae, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed oil, purslane, perilla seed oil, walnuts, walnut oil, and spinach.  And cold pressed, double virgin olive oil for cooking, and (along with flaxseed oil) for salads.

Here are some guidelines given three Total Daily Calorie counts:

1,800 Calories a Day

• 40 to 70 grams of total fat
• 14 grams or less of saturated fat
• 2 grams or less of trans fat

2,200 Calories a Day

• 49 to 86 grams of total fat
• 17 grams or less of saturated fat
• 3 grams or less of trans fat

2,500 Calories a Day

• 56 to 97 grams of total fat
• 20 grams or less of saturated fat
• 3 grams or less of trans fat.

Types of Fat

(grams per tablespoon of oil which has about 14 grams of total fat)

Related posts:

1. 12 Myths About Cholesterol
2. Dr. Weil and Kevin Rose Talk Health (Video)
3. Eating for a Long Life: WebMD’s 13 Tips

“Good Fats” are Necessary for Health

Supplements reviewed here: Krill Oil, CLA and Cod Liver Oil

THEY’RE REFERRED to as “essential” because they’re necessary for health.  There are several  important benefits said to accrue from essential fatty acids, such as reduction of inflammation, cardiovascular health, and mood improvement.

I got a chuckle from a study done with London cabbies.  A group of them had their stress levels tested before and after ingesting fish oil for 12 weeks.  Fish oil is rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, one of the “essential” fatty acids.

I saw the cabbie story on TV.  Actors pretending to be customers intentionally criticized and berated the cabbies in this study before and after the cabbies ingested fish oil over some relatively short period of time. The researchers then examined differences in the cabbies’ reactions as they consumed these fatty acids.

It was obvious, and funny to the observer in TV land, that the cabbies were much more relaxed dealing with the “irate” actor-customers after taking the fish oil. As a group, their stress hormone was down by 22%, and their anti-stress hormone went up by 12%.

So, fat can be good, if it comes from the right source.

I use these:

Neptune Krill Oil, NKO This form of omega-3 is absorbed faster and more efficiently than that typically found in fish oil. Neptune Krill Oil supports heart health and cell membrane integrity.

CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a free fatty acid derived from safflower oil related to the omega-6 fatty acids.  It’s also a fatty acid with weight management and immune enhancing benefits.  Since I get plenty of omega-6 from cooking with cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil, I only take CLA when I’d like to cut some fat off my body in combination with augmenting my exercise regime.

Cod Liver Oil, Lemon Flavored by Carlson It ain’t pretty but it’s righteous, and part of my daily supplementation.  I don’t mine the taste, but if this tastes bad to you, after swallowing immediately drink a few gulps of a beverage you like.

Go here for more essential fatty acid product information. (Then scroll down the left hand side and look for ” Essential Fatty Acids” under “Product Categories”.)

Go here for a list of Product Categories on this site.

Supplement Disclaimer

Just as with the descriptive statements made at the various company sites that manufacture and/or sell the supplement products presented in this blog, none, or nearly none, of the potential benefits stated here have been evaluated by the FDA. Likewise none, or nearly none, of the products here can be represented to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Before engaging a supplement program, it always makes sense to get the advice of your health practitioner.

Related posts:

1. Amino Acids for Muscle and Energy
2. Beware Stress…
3. Emotional Wellbeing (Chemistry Helps!)