Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

In Wednesday’s issue of THB Undercover we discussed the myth that exercise is the key to weight loss. It is a myth that has been promoted, in part, by the food companies, who want you to believe that you can eat anything and as much as you want… as long as you exercise.

Exercise can certainly benefit your weight-loss efforts. But it only accounts for about 20% of the equation. The foods and nutrients you put in your body are far more important. Exercise is simply no match for a bad diet.

However, exercise is a powerful and effective way to prevent disease. It can improve your immunity. It helps to lower stress. It can even improve your memory and cognition. And an active life most certainly helps to maintain your youth and increase longevity.

And on that note…

Doctors have discovered that regular exercise keeps your DNA young…

In the last 20 years, the number of overweight children and adolescents has tripled. Adults have fared just as poorly. Currently more than two thirds – almost 70% – of Americans are considered overweight or obese.

But it has very little to do with how much or the types of food we put in our mouths. That is, if you listen to the candy and snack food manufacturers, beverage companies, processed food industry and the fast food restaurants. According to these groups, the reasons why we are so fat are because we are just lazy and sedentary. We don’t exercise enough.

I won’t argue that most of us should be more active. But that is NOT the reason we are so fat. In fact, studies show that exercise is quite ineffective when it comes to weight loss. But more on that in a moment…

This week, I watched the documentary Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat. In one segment, the filmmakers highlight the government’s efforts in 2007 to address the obesity crisis. President Bush, various legislators and the Department of Health and Human Services were all involved in drafting the government’s statements and recommendations.

But rather than viewing this as an opportunity to improve the nation’s health, the food industry saw it as a threat to their business. They were concerned that the government might recommend eating less processed junk food (Gasp!). So they mobilized their full army of lobbyists to shape the government’s message to their benefit.

Several years ago I visited my brother, who was serving in the Peace Corps in the mountains of Panama. Each morning we planned our day, while enjoying a rich cup of some of Central America’s finest coffee. That is, until we reached the San Blas islands.

The San Blas are inhabited by an indigenous culture called the Kuna. The Kuna have their own morning ritual, but it doesn’t involve coffee. They drink a cocoa beverage that is rich in natural flavanols. In fact, they drink this beverage throughout the day.

I was reminded of this when I read a recent study which shows that the Kuna Indians who live on the mainland of Panama have a normal distribution of heart disease and high blood pressure. By contrast, those that still live in the Islands (and consume this beverage daily) have an extraordinarily low incidence of these conditions. Another study showed that the relative risk of death from heart disease on the Panama mainland was 1,280% higher than on the islands. The relative risk of death from cancer was 630% higher.

Clearly, there can be other dietary reasons why the Kuna who live in the cities have health concerns that their relatives at home do not. But these studies strongly support what is already known about cocoa – it is extremely rich in heart-healthy and brain-boosting antioxidants and other beneficial nutrients, like magnesium.

It is bad enough that mainstream doctors and dieticians erroneously focus on saturated fat and dietary cholesterol as the cause of heart disease – something which has never been proven. Perhaps even worse is that the alternatives they suggest HAVE been proven to cause heart disease… among a range of other chronic diseases.

In his recent calls to “ban butter,” Dr. Shyam Kolvekar suggests that it will make a “world of difference” to replace it with polyunsaturated fats like margarine or sunflower oil. He is correct. It will make a world of difference. It will dramatically increase your risk of heart disease, cancer, asthma and macular degeneration, to name just a few degenerative conditions associated with these fats.

And since Dr. Kolvekar’s concerns are “for the children”… let’s start there.

The journal Intelligence published a report last year that what children eat can have a significant impact on their intelligence. The researchers stated that they “found a number of dietary factors to be significantly associated with intelligence measures.”

So, what was their most consistent finding? It was the association between margarine consumption and lower IQ scores. The children who ate margarine every day had IQs that were up to six points lower than children who did not.

Before we get into today’s message, we wanted to pass this along. Many THB readers have asked us the best way to help the people of Haiti.

Many reliable and worthwhile organizations are offering support. But you may be wondering which cause will put your donation directly into the relief effort. Our colleague Byron King – who writes for The Daily Reckoning – notes that the Hospital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) near Port-au-Prince is a worthy recipient of your dollars. This hospital is not only one of the few medical centers not seriously damaged by the earthquake, it is also the only hospital in the region with surgical suites.

“As the flow of people urgently seeking care increases over the next few days and weeks, our resources will be pushed to the breaking point. It is critical that we receive support to help us continue with our mission,” writes HAS Managing Director Ian Rawson on the hospital’s blog. (You can read more about the HAS relief efforts here.)

You can make an immediate impact with your donation at www.hashaiti.org.

In the Tuesday issue of Total Health Breakthroughs, I began a discussion of grains. But the focus was not on their high glycemic index and effect on your blood sugar. We have covered that many times before. This week, we’re looking at the “anti-nutrients” in grains, and the fact that a grain-fed diet is foreign to our genetic blueprint. We continue the discussion today…

Stone Agers Living in the Space Age…

We call the modern era the “Space Age.” And considering that we regularly send men and machines into space, the description fits. The acceleration of our technological achievements in the last century is astounding. In fact, with the advent of portable personal computers, our world has changed drastically in just the last ten years.

But we are not advancing rapidly in every respect. In some ways our pace of change is glacially slow. While the world around us might change rapidly, the world within us has hardly changed at all in hundreds of thousands of years.

And that can pose problems when it comes to our health.

Today I am going to touch the “third rail” of human nutrition… Grains!

On an electric railway, the “third rail” is charged with high voltage power. In other words, do not touch! But the “third rail” has also become a metaphor for ideas that are controversial, “highly charged” and “untouchable.”

When it comes to nutrition, whole grains are the third rail. Most people now understand that refined grains are not good for us. But there is still a very vocal majority who stand ready to defend whole grains from the slightest insult.

Whether it is the result of pervasive marketing or industry-influenced government propaganda, the result is the same. An entire generation has been led to believe that whole grain foods are not only nutritionally sound, they are vital to health.

The truth is that whole grains are not a health food. They are not essential in the diet. And in fact, they are mildly poisonous.

“But you need the vitamins, minerals and fiber…”

Don’t equate your “age” with your risk of disease…

A recent article about Alzheimer’s in a major health publication stated that “Age is the biggest risk factor for the disease.” The author was referring to the fact that the prevalence of Alzheimer’s doubles every five years in people over 65.

I believe this is a big mistake. And it’s one that is too common. “Age” is widely claimed to be the “biggest risk factor” for macular degeneration. And it is listed among the major risk factors for stroke, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The problem with equating the risk of these diseases with a meaningless number – our age – is that it allows us to abdicate responsibility. It takes the focus off the true causes of disease and puts it on something that we can do nothing about – the hands of time. Oh, well… that’s just what happens when you get older.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. The degenerative diseases we associate with aging have little to do with our chronological “age.” Rather, they are the long-term ramifications of unhealthy choices that turned into lifelong habits! These diseases do not magically appear at a certain age. They are the end-result of poor nutrition, stress and toxic overload over a long period of time.

When we think of the improvements that exercise can bring to our bodies, we usually think of athletic performance. Exercise increases our strength and makes us fitter. And we know that it can improve the health of our heart and lungs. But regular exercise can do a lot more than this.

It can improve your memory and cognition. It can defeat depression. It provides a powerful boost to your immune system. And it can even make your very DNA functionally younger.

I hope that one of your New Year’s resolutions is to exercise more this year. In today’s issue – several reasons why you should…

Exercise for Your Body Creates the Building Blocks for Your Brain

On a recent visit home, I saw our neighbor Tom. He was out for his brisk daily walk and we stopped to chat. As always, I was impressed. Tom is 84 years old and he still walks two to three miles most days. His mind is sharp too. He is quick with a joke. And he always remembers the details of previous conversations.

I begin today’s message with something I wrote about four years ago. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, it has now come to pass…

Selling Sickness: Turning Healthy People into Patients

In his book, Selling Sickness, medical journalist Ray Moynihan reveals comments made by the head of Merck pharmaceuticals thirty years ago. The CEO of Merck was distressed that his company’s products were limited to sick people. In an interview with Fortune, he openly wished for his company to be “more like Wrigley’s chewing gum.” He dreamed of making drugs for healthy people so they could “sell to everyone.”

The drug giants now fund aggressive, multi-billion dollar marketing campaigns. Their goal is to expand the boundaries of illness. Case in point: statin drugs.

Statins are already some of the most widely prescribed drugs. The pharmaceutical marketing machine is looking for ways to grow that market. Currently, the drug companies are pushing for statins to be used to treat everything from Alzheimer’s, to diabetes and arthritis.