Dr. Alicja: Your life:
Variety is the Spice of Life
Trace Elements
Cholesterol and All That
Vegetables and Fruits - To Cook or Not to Cook?
The Role of Whey Protein in Your Diet
Allergies
The Ups and Downs of Weight
The Power of Positive Thinking
Things to Keep in Mind
References
Titanium
8. No grease splashes on clothes and no greasy residue is left on plates, there is a clean stove, no oven cleaning because roasting can be done in the pan
Glutathione and Cell Health
Notice:
You can
Healthier, Sexier and Longer 3.
Further Thoughts About a Healthful Diet
Now that we've listed the components of three good breakfasts, there are some further things to say about them: Which is better, we may ask, when we have the choice of either eating the vegetable or fruit as such or extracting its juice? Part of the answer is related to fiber. Juice, unless it is heavy in pulp, contains only a minimum of solid fiber. But if we consume a piece of fruit or vegetable itself we get all its fiber, which is largely composed of the cellulose that makes up the major portion of the plants cell walls,’as well as some protein. Although cellulose is a polymer of the sugar glucose, it is very difficult for animals to digest. If you were a cow or a sheep, you would have bacteria in your digestive tract that would break down cellulose, to form glucose that you could use for part of your energy requirements. But as a human, you lack such bacteria, and the cellulose fibers you eat are not digested.
In humans cellulose serves entirely different purposes. It moves through the intestines, acting like a paper brush or broom, partially filling the intestinal space, or lumen, and mechanically sweeping undigested food and bacteria farther along the tract. Thus, it cleans and refreshes our folded, very septic, intestines; we might say that it acts as a cleaning lady - tough on dirt in the intestines. But there is a second function that can also be important - cellulose can adsorb, or hold tightly on its surface, glucose and other nutrients. If glucose is thus prevented from being absorbed through the intestinal wall, it has the effect of lowering one's sugar intake and acts as some protection against its conversion by the body to excess fat. By removing pulp you remove from your food the fiber needed to regulate your digestion.
Of course, freshly prepared plant juices or pulps are also very good, but they are second-best, because shredding, pulping and juicing have two bad results: removal of some of the cellulose fiber which functions in humans as just described, and also offsets oxidation processes and the release of free sugars from the glucosides of phenolic compounds in the plants stored in the sap (more of this later). Remember, too, not to let plant tissues oxidize by keeping them too long between chopping and eating. Preparing it, yourself has the great benefit that no preservatives are added, and you might have the choice of origin of the vegetables, if you know whether they are organically grown or whether they have been genetically modified.
One other thing we should remember in this connection is that fruits contain more sugar than vegetables. A glass of clear fruit juice, such as pulp-free orange juice, can contain eight or more spoonfuls of sugar.
Now, a few other points to remember:
First and very important, make sure that you are not allergic to glutins in the grains, lactose or casein in milk, or some fatty acids and phenolics in nuts.
The whey protein in breakfast 3 is best taken on an empty stomach so that these proteins and peptides will penetrate the wall of your gut rapidly; then after 20-30 minutes, you may continue with your breakfast. If taken with coffee or juice, both containing phenolic compounds, which strongly react with proteins, these highly beneficial peptides of milk serum could be partially precipitated, and therefore less available for absorption.
Eat bread without additives such as sugar (molasses are mostly sugar, too), and no sweetened breads unless you go outside and exercise. White bread is rich in calories, having a high content of starch, which breaks down the glucose for energy, with smaller amounts of proteins from the cytoplasm of the layer around the stored sugars. And so oxidizing agents have to be reduced, hence glutathione should be increased.
White cereal, white flour and white sugar should not be consumed regularly. White table sugar (a pure disacchride) as well as white bread, flour, noodles and rice (which are very high in starch) are not allowed if you have tendency to gain weight, because as thousands of glucose molecules are formed by the breakdown of one starch molecule, and released during digestion, which is like disconnecting wagons from a very long train. They are stored in human cells as fat if not used immediately for energy large amounts of starch are advised only before long periods of hard work.
Flax is good for you because of its content of natural anticancer products (glucanes) and high concentrations of essential unsaturated gamma-3-atty acids, as well as secondary metabolites from seed covers serving as antioxdants.
I could finish this cookbook here, because I do not care if you eat anything after one good meal a day, but I'm going to continue because there are some more general things worth knowing about your diet.
What we need in our diet is diversification. My most smiling face is variety! Repeating things time after time will make you bored even if they are the best things for you. The same is true for your physiological processes. After a good start, anything not in excessive amounts is acceptable, if you eat a variety of nutrients. This is important because the greater the variety of plant species you eat the more phytochemicals you get, which can play the role of antioxidants and scavengers of free radicals, while some can be antibacterial and anticancer. We are continually finding more and more of chemicals in food that is active antioxidants, as are secondary metabolites (the field of knowledge of phytochemists). For instance, a particular plant produces a unique substance for its defense, such as digitalis or coumarin or a certain species or even one sex of a species forms unusual molecules e.g., cholesterol and its derivatives such as testosterone and estrogen. The specific derivative depends on the availability of enzymes in a particular sex of a species. In Ginkgo biloba, for instance, the male and female plants have different chemical components. Should we perhaps in future be considering the sex of the plants in our diet, since male Ginkgo biloba contains more glutathione than the female? One plant may contain about 300 active chemicals, while if you add two more the number can reach 900.
I have mentioned trace elements in passing. Plants contain these important minerals, but don't produce them. They are absorbed from the soil in the water taken up through the plant roots; and we have to be sure that the soil the plants grow on is not depleted of the more than 60 essential elements the body needs. Trace elements will soon become a buzzword, and we shall say more of this later.
Most of what we hear about cholesterol is bad, since it contributes to the buildup of plaque in our blood vessels that can lead to heart attacks. But we must also remember that cholesterol is essential in the diet. Not only is it a precursor of some essential hormones, including our sex hormones, but also it contributes to building every cell membrane, which ensures the cell s isolation from the environment, although it is still connected with neighboring cells. Our brain has 60-85% fats and cholesterol for isolation of the nerve signal.
The brain derives its energy from glucose that need not be delivered from the diet as table sugar, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Polysaccharides, with some protein from the aleurone layer of the seed, will do adequately.
Look at Fig. I and realize which parts are removed during the preparation of white flour. Whole grain means polysaccharides are included, and carbohydrates in the center of the grain, as well as proteins farther out, and phenolic compounds still farther out in the seed coat. Look at the seed it always has a dark, thin cover that is very important, because this tissue contains a great variety of phenolic compounds, which function as antioxidants.
The less cooking the better, because high temperature destroys vitamins and permits oxidation. It is preferable to eat plant cells fresh because of the fact that phenolic compounds in sap, proteins in the cytoplasm and some enzymes in cell walls are not precipitated and are thus active. If we have to cook them, we should be drinking the cooking water, as it contains trace elements that have been removed from the cells.
The best food is colostrum, the first food your mother produced after giving birth. It is best because it is at the right temperature (not cooked) at 37 C, delivered to you directly without processing and without preservatives. So how do we get such food when we become adults? Without pasteurization, with low fat, no lactose and casein, such perfect food can be delivered by Immunotec Inc. from Montreal, developed by Dr. Bounous, a surgeon at McGill University, which was patented in the U.S.A., Canada, Japan and Australia.
Start your day with this whey protein, or any other, that has been produced from cows milk without high temperatures) and rehydrated in water and thus, as liquid, is very easily absorbed from an empty stomach before you consume any solid breakfast. Eating whey protein at breakfast, or before as the first drink of the day, gives you precursors for the production of glutathione. Remember to drink milk serum protein 20-30 minutes before you start your breakfast to prevent any precipitation.
It is interesting to compare the proportions of the components of cows 1 milk and human milk, to see the differences, including the fact that milk may cause serious allergies.
You may be one of those unfortunate ones who have allergies, and to identify them depends on your observation as well as the doctor's expertise. I have been touching on allergies in this discussion. They are common and widespread, and you need only observe whether you have any. Only careful attention to allergic reactions after what we eat or from our environment can give us clues about what to ask our doctor if we experience an allergy. Allergic reactions can be immediate, e.g., watery eyes within minutes or even seconds, or they may not be evident until after a few days. Hence noting what we have eaten and analyzing what different things we did several days before is necessary. Nobody knows better than you.
Excessive weight gain or loss signals some alteration in your physiology. Observe, too, if you are not gaining weight or are losing it too rapidly. If you are, there is some underlying problem because your body's homeostasis should maintain a more or less constant weight, and there should be no need to go on a diet to lose weight. Look for a problem. Consider whether there may be some connection between your appetite (and weight) and your lifestyle, blood type, and gene pool. Has the nature of your work changed recently to a more sedentary one, thus reducing your need for calories? These may offer clues.
Losing weight starts with a diet pyramid, of which the base is water. Water is the easiest to lose because we are built of 75% water, and you lose water first. Sweating and evaporation makes the body lose water, which come back, as it does to dry lichen during rehydration. Don't fool yourself!
During fad dieting the next nutrient after water that we get rid of is carbohydrate (sugar) deposited as glycogen which, like starch, is a glucose polymer. Glucose itself cannot be retained as a storage material in the cells because it would absorb a lot of water, being responsible for osmotic pressure in the cytoplasm. The more glucose, the more water and the cell would burst. But we can keep glucose handy, so to speak, (because it is a handy source of energy for rapid use and especially for the working brain) by forming some molecules of glycogen for 20 minutes work, whether it is to escape from a predator crucial for our remote ancestors, hard work to get food or just moving rapidly from one place to another.
After a 20-minute workout, voluntarily or involuntarily, we start to get energy from the protein of our muscle cells so at the beginning dieting people lose muscle tissue and become weaker, and feel sluggish and out of energy. Protein metabolism to yield energy leaves behind its nitrogen which, when oxidized, produces the strongest and worst free radicals. NO and N02. These are eventually converted to uric acid, which requires a lot of detoxification. This is where glutathione is very useful as a scavenger of toxins and free radicals.
Negative feelings are depressing and contagious. Do not expose others to them and do not let others affect you with them. Life is too short! You should consider if you have only positive thoughts, because negative ones lead to the formation of free radicals in your body and we have to detoxify them. If you have bad thoughts, order yourself, Next, please, until you get a good one. If you still have bad thoughts do not write to me. I avoid negatively thinking people; it is contagious.
Remember: Reduction is good for you, and oxidation in most cases is not, unless you need extra energy at a given moment. But you pay for this energy by forming free radicals, which glutathione could help you to detoxify.
Remember: Every chemical reaction goes in both directions towards oxidation and towards reduction; hence they are called redox reactions - something for something. More in the next volume and in Fig. 1.
Remember: Antioxidants (buzzword of the 21st century) consist of thousands of compounds in our diet that reduce oxidized molecules, but which at the end are eliminated from our body or reduced again by glutathione (another buzzword of the 21st century); thus we should increase the glutathione concentration inside our cells.
We have to remember that humans still survive in spite of our lacking a very good biochemical system to synthesize all the substances we need. (Compare the green plant, which can manufacture all its metabolic needs from just carbon dioxide, water, and soil minerals!)
Remember: Don't let the media convince you that you need spend a lot of money buying antioxidants. They are in all foods just look for them.
Remember: Do not fool around with your hormones. They cooperate to keep your physiology in horneostasis.
Bounous, G. , Stevenson, M.M. and Kongshavn, P.A.L. Influence of dietary lactalbumin on the immune system of mice and resistance to Salmonellosis. Journal of Infectious Diseases l44:281(1981).
Bounous, 0., Papenburg, R., Kongshavn, P. A. L., Gold, P. and Fleiszer, D. Dietary whey protein inhibits the development of dimethylhydrazine induced malignancy. Clinical and Investigative Medicine II: 213-217 (1988).
Bounous, G., Gervais, F., Amer, V., Batist, G. and Gold, P. The influence of dietary and whey protein on the diseases of aging. Clinical and Investigative Medicine 12: 343-349 (1989).
Bounous, G. and Gold, P. Immunoenhancing property of dietary whey protein in mice: Role of glutathione. Clinical and Investigative Medicine 12:154-161 (1989).
The secret metal that changed my cooking
Titanium is a very hard, uncreative metal, and thus has very important advantages when used in cookware:
1. It does not rust (hence used up to now in rocket engines, and human joint replacements)
2. It does not readily react with other molecules, and thus, during cooking, it is not transferred into our food as aluminum and iron are
3. Food does not stick to it, so meals prepared in it are easily removed, and cleaning is extremely easy
4. Even food burnt to charcoal is easily removed by peeling, so that pans are not rendered unusable as may be the case for Teflon-coated ones
5. Water circulates within an evenly heated pot, without quickly evaporating, so food is juicy and every vegetable cooked together with others retains its own flavour. Circulation of water means that no extra water, or at most a few milliliters, is needed, and juices stay within the cooking tissue.
6. Because of titanium's very high melting point, even severe accidental overheating on the stove element will not melt the pot, and danger of fire is reduced
7. (Most important) because food does not stick to the pan, no fat is needed in cooking, so healthy, grease-free cooking is possible.
9. Undesirable trans fatty acids are not formed during cooking from the added fat
10. as no fat need be added, and calories are thus saved during cooking, we can later add butter or cheese for flavour, not melted at high temperature, and temperature-sensitive food components such as vitamins and proteins are not destroyed
Titanium cookware has brought back joy to my cooking, when food contains natural juices and bouquets of natural flavour, and gives me carefree moments of greaseless surroundings and easy dishwashing. My greatest enjoyment is cooking with eggs.
(Glutathione: a Buzz Word of the 21st Century
Alicia M. Zobel, PhD
Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Glutathione is a tripeptide built of only three amino acids the smallest protein, containing only two peptide bonds (see the glossary, Fig. I), between glycine, cysteine and glutamic acid (Fig. 2). Glycine is the smallest amino acid, glutamic acid is an acidic amino acid and cysteine is a thiol a molecule with a -SH group. This allows a hydrogen ion or proton (HI-) to be easily removed from the sulfur that is responsible for the reductive power of glutathione. The glutamic acid carboxyl group -COOH can release HI- too, and functions even at low pH- important especially in the case of mitochondrial glutathione (Fig. 3).
Two linked processes are of central importance in biochemistry - oxidation and reduction. Oxidation is essential to all multicellular organisms, including humans, as it provides most of the energy they need to function. Reduction is also a beneficial process. But oxidation has its negative side as well; it is a very aggressive process involving the splitting of molecules and leading to the formation of free radicals and oxidation products; As we humans cannot avoid oxidation, we had to evolve some means of cleaning up after it, and cells had to develop antioxidants as scavengers of free radicals to make order in the vicinity of reaction sites.
In the chemical process, molecules do not simply disappear. Split molecules in one place are combined with another molecule somewhere else; hence, reduction takes place simultaneously with oxidation, and, overall, we have what is called a redox reaction:
-e
oxidation
electron removal
A+B
C+D, e.g., H20
014+11
reduction
electron addition
Such migration of electrons in water, important because 75% of our body is water, and in other molecules, is dangerous in itself because electrons removed from a molecule bombard other molecules in the vicinity, there being no emptiness in a cell. The electrons removed can in turn bombard other molecules, causing aberrations, the worst of which are in the DNA of which the genes in the cell nucleus are built. Bombardment with electrons causes mutations in the nucleotides of DNA (more in volume II), and these aberrant genes transmit, from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, aberrant information concerning how to build protein and what to put into the protein molecule. As a result, the protein is formed incorrectly, the enzyme or other protein molecule is inactive or less reactive and part of the cell s physiology is altered.
Sometimes, when a mutation is within an oncogene, or cancer-causing gene, this oncogene can be unblocked and lead to the development of a cancer cell. We know that a cancerous tumor arises from just one cell in which the ability to control mitoses has been lost, and when such a cell starts to divide rapidly it forms a shapeless, disorganized tumor
There thus seems to be a firm connection between one bombarding electron and a tumor. The initial cancer cell can divide further, and becomes dangerous, unless it is destroyed by the lymphocytes of our immune system. These recognize the foreigner, engulf it and digest it in their cytoplasm.
Such digestion processes happen every day in many organs of our bodies scientists have estimated that at least nine cancerous or precancerous cells are formed daily within the human organism, and are alt destroyed. But what happens if our immune system is weakened? When the immune system is not fully functional, or if there is another disease in the body, or if we have been exposed to radiation, more of such bombarding electrons form, the number of mutations increases, and if one precancerous cell escapes the lymphocytes it can result in cancer.
Similar mutations from bombarding electrons or very small free radicals (OH; NO, N02) can occur in another part of the DNA that is not an oncogene. In this case, no cancer develops, but the protein formed because of the mutated information is an altered protein that in turn leads to alterations to the biochemistry within the cells. Such cells, having been altered, are not healthy. Also unhealthy are cells with viruses and bacteria that have penetrated into them, having escaped the immunological responses. The conclusion is, therefore, that the body's strongest defenseis its immune system, which can not only recognize and identify the foreign antigen, but can also then destroy it. Every cell of our body should work with maximal efficiency and should be maximally healthy.
Glutathione contributes to such maximal efficiency by reducing the number of toxins, free radicals and oxidants in our cells. Production of cellular glutathione this master antioxidant is enhanced in every cell by the increased availability of glutathione precursors, an4 especially by the one that occurs naturally in the lowest concentrations in diets cysteine.
Follow this link to continue Alicjas main presentation.
This publication is intended for reference only, not as a medical guide or a manual for self-treatment. If you suspect you have a medical problem, please seek competent medical care. The information here is designed to help you make informed decisions about your health. It is not intended as a substitute for any treatment prescribed by your doctor.
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