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Bad news for seltzer drinkers: your habit might be making you hungrier

Does Sparkling Water Cause Weight Gain?

By Danielle Shine, a professional natural foods chef

Plain water is too, well, plain, for many people, causing them to opt instead for sparkling. Sparkling, seltzer, fizzy, bubbly, club, or soda water is water that has been put under pressure to create fizz. In other words, water is “married” with pressurized carbon dioxide to create those delightful little bubbles that dance all over your tongue.

This kind of carbonated water is sold across the globe as plain, ready-to-drink sparkling water (think San Pellegrino), as part of pre-flavored soft drinks (everything from La Croix to Lemonade), and can also be made at home via special appliances, the most common being Soda Stream.

Discovered way back in 1767, carbonated water became the beverage of choice for many—its only reported downfall (until now) was its acidic nature, which can take a toll on your tooth enamel. Dentists have always been quick to dispel this issue by highlighting soft drinks, in comparison, are about 100 times more erosive for teeth.

One study, though, points to the fact that sparkling water can increase hunger and cause weight gain. Who? What? Where? How? Why?

A study undertaken by researchers from Birzeit University in Palestine, published in the peer-reviewed Obesity Research and Clinical Practice Journal, put carbonation under the microscope for a period of six months.

The researchers wanted to know whether carbonation alone contributed to weight gain linked to obesity, so they fed a group of male rats the same standard diet PLUS one of four different drinks each: tap water, plain still water, plain carbonated water, and diet carbonated water.

The verdict? The rats that drank diet or plain carbonated drinks ate more and gained significantly more weight compared to the rats that drank flat soda or plain water. The researchers discovered the rats’ weight gain was associated with increased production of ghrelin, the hormone responsible for telling you when you are hungry. Put simply: Every single time you feel like eating food, your ghrelin is speaking to you; it’s causing you to feel hungry. Try to ignore this reaction, and you’ll quickly graduate from hungry to hangry.

To be more sure of these results, the study also compared the effects of carbonated drinks in 20 young men, which resulted in finding that they, too, had higher ghrelin levels after drinking the carbonated drinks versus drinking flat soda or still water. With all this said, it’s important to acknowledge the undeniable fact that poor diet and choice of carbonated drink will always play a huge role in the whole weight-gain-leading-to-obesity issue.

In other words: You are not going to become obese if you keep loving your La Croix or ordering sparkling water instead of still. What you do to move your body each day (exercise) and eat to feed your hunger all counts! This study simply proves that carbonated/bubbly/fizzy soda or water WILL cause your hunger hormone to ramp up each time you drink it.

It’s just one of many reasons to cut down on your sparkling water consumption, including the amount of money spent on the beverage. You don’t need to put yourself out hundreds of dollars to hydrate — and you don’t need to fill the environment with all of the packaging that comes with canned and bottles water either!

In my (humble) natural foods chef opinion, I think you’re better off leaving the bubbles to soak in during bath time. Stick with still water, flavored if you must with natural things like: 1. chopped fruit: Slice organic lemon, lime, or orange, and keep the peel on because it’s better for you. You could also try sliced strawberries, kiwi, a few blueberries, or even some cucumber  2. a little raw honey or date or maple syrup.   3. fresh herbs: I highly recommend adding some sprigs of fresh mint leaves.  4. fresh spices: Slice some fresh ginger (a little goes a long way), and add it to your still water for instant digestive support for your gut garden.

Happy (noncarbonated) drinking!

*Club soda or soda water usually houses additional sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, or similar added ingredients. Some seltzer water may also house additional ingredients; always check the ingredients label.

Is It Possible To Eat Too Much Fruit?

By Markham Heid
June 6, 2018
Time Health

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was, briefly and famously, an ardent fruitarian—meaning he ate a diet composed primarily of fruit, which he believed would cleanse his body of harmful fluids. Just as famously, the actor Ashton Kutcher tried adopting Jobs fruit-centric diet, until he ended up in the hospital with an out-of-whack pancreas.

So is it bad for your health to eat a lot of fruit? Though a famous study from 1980 argued that based on the evolution of human jaws and teeth, our ancient ancestors used to eat a diet dominated by fruit, there’s not a lot of good evidence for or against fruit-heavy diets for modern humans. “There are some people out there who are fruitarians, and from what we can tell they’re perfectly healthy,” says Dr. Robert Lustig, a neuroendocrinologist and professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. (However, full-blown fruitarianism is so restrictive that it has been linked to nutritional deficiencies in some people, and may be unsafe for children and those with certain medical conditions, like diabetes.)

But for healthy adults, experts say that eating lots and lots of fruit is unlikely to get you into trouble, as long as it’s part of a normal diet.

The main concern with overeating fruit is its natural sugar. While fruit is certainly high in the sweet stuff, research has consistently linked whole fruit consumption to a reduced risk for obesity and other metabolic diseases, says Lustig, who is the author of Fat Chance, a book that examines the health risks associated with eating too much processed sugar. Whole fruit also has a few built-it advantages that seem to mitigate any sugar-driven health risks.

For one thing, whole fruit has both soluble and insoluble fiber. Together, these two fibers form a gel-like “latticework” on the inside of the duodenum in the small intestine, he says. That latticework prevents a significant portion of the fruit’s sugar from being absorbed early on during the digestive process. “Like stopping a tsunami wave by building an underwater wall, this gel barrier limits the rate of sugar absorption so that the liver is not overwhelmed,” Lustig explains.

Instead, the sugar and other components of fruit quickly move farther down the small intestine to the jejunum and ileum. While the early part of the digestive tract is largely free of bacteria, these later structures are home to trillions of gut microorganisms. “They ingest and metabolize more of the sugar, so again, even though you consumed it, you don’t absorb it,” he says.

Along with helping to control the absorption of fruit sugars, the combination of soluble and insoluble fiber in whole fruit also “greases the wheels” of digestion, Lustig says. Your gut signals to your brain that you’re full once the stuff you’ve eaten reaches your ileum. And because fruit fiber helps food molecules reach your ileum sooner, you tend to feel full more quickly after eating fruit than if you’d eaten foods lacking fiber. As a result, “fruit consumption is self-limiting, so the chances you will overeat fruit are relatively low,” he says.

Heavy fruit consumption may come with some downsides. “An excess of whole fruit can give you diarrhea,” says Dr. Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington. The expense of whole fruit is also not inconsiderable. “People who want affordable fresh fruit are pretty much limited to bananas, oranges, apples, bananas, melon, pineapple,” he adds. Eating lots of berries would cost you a lot more, especially if you prefer organic.

One critical thing to keep in mind: Drinking fruit juice or fruit-based smoothies is not the same as eating whole fruits, and both of those beverages may pose a number of health risks. Some recent evidence, including one 2013 study from Harvard School of Public Health, has linked fruit juice to an increased risk for diabetes. While the evidence tying juiced and blended fruit to health problems is somewhat mixed, Lustig says both of these processes either remove or destroy the stringy bits of insoluble fiber that help limit the rapid absorption of sugar in the small intestine. “A smoothie is probably better than fruit juice or a soda, but you’ll still get a peak of insulin, which contributes to metabolic pathology,” he says.

Some fruits may be better to indulge in than others. Berries, though pricey, have been linked to both improved heart and brain health. And while some online sources give pineapple, bananas, and other so-called “tropical” fruits a bad rap—mostly because they’re higher in sugar than many domestic fruits—Lustig says they also tend to have proportionally high amounts of fiber, and so aren’t inherently dangerous.

There’s only one fruit he says may be worth watching out for: grapes. “Grapes are outliers in terms of their sugar-to-fiber ratio,” he says. “They’re basically little bags of sugar.” While he doesn’t recommend avoiding grapes entirely, they’re not the best fruit to overeat.

If you love whole fruit, there’s little evidence that indulging in it—even a whole lot of it—is bad for your health.

Berberine IR

Written By: Steven Horne

Berberine is an alkaloid found in many herbs traditionally used for fighting infection and improving the health of the gastrointestinal tract. It is a bright yellow color, which means some of the plants containing it have also been used as yellow dyes.

Berberine is a major component of the popular Western herbs goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium) and barberry (Berberis vulgaris). It is also found in the two popularly used Chinese herbs, Amur cork tree (Phellodendron amurense) and coptis or goldenthread (Coptis chinensis). Other plants containing this alkaloid include yerba mansa and yellowroot.
Although herbalists have benefited from these plants for many years, recent research into the properties of berberine has brought this compound to the attention of medical science. Here are some of the benefits showing up in the research.

Blood Sugar Regulation
Berberine has shown some benefits in the treatment of insulin resistant (type 2) diabetes. It helps to reduce blood glucose levels and appears to reduce insulin resistance. In one study, 36 adults who had been recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were given berberine or the drug metformin. The berberine performed as well as the drug in lowering blood sugar.

Blood Lipid Regulation
High levels of blood fats (triglycerides) are typically associated with diabetes and its precursor, metabolic syndrome. High levels of these free fatty acids are known to be toxic to the pancreas and increase insulin resistance. Berberine has been shown to help lower triglycerides and cholesterol, working by a different method than statins, so it lacks the dangerous side effects associated with these drugs.

Infections
Plants containing berberine have been used by many cultures to treat infectious diarrhea, intestinal parasites, urinary tract infections and other infections. Berberine has been shown to have antimicrobial activity against many types of bacteria, viruses and fungi. For example, goldenseal has been listed in the official materia medica of many countries as a cure for giardia (amebic dysentery) and herbs like barberry have been very effective in treating fungal infections.

Intestinal Dysbiosis
Intestinal dysbiosis is an imbalance in the microbes living in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. One of these imbalances is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). SIBO causes belching, burping, acid indigestion about one hour following meals and bloating. SIBO is a primary cause of leaky gut syndrome and has been linked to numerous health problems, including acne, chronic fatigue, diabetes, fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, inflammatory bowel diseases and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and obesity. This does not mean that intestinal dysbiosis is the cause of all of these problems; it just means that it may be a contributing factor or a co-factor in these health problems. Helping to regulate the microbes in the GI tract may be part of the reason why berberine has such broad-reaching health benefits.

I have personally used it for this purpose and found it to be one of the most helpful remedies I’ve tried. It reduced gas, bloating and belching and also increased my overall energy.

MRSA
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria are problematic because they resist antibiotics. Berberine not only has activity against MRSA, it appears to help restore the effectiveness of other antibiotics by inhibiting the mechanisms these organisms use to resist the drugs.

Cardiovascular Health
By helping to reduce blood sugar and blood lipid levels, berberine is clearly beneficial to cardiovascular health. But, there is more. Studies suggest that berberine (or herbs containing it) may be helpful for heart problems. Coptis, one of the berberine-containing herbs, has been used in Chinese medicine to treat hypertension and chronic heart failure. A study published in the American Journal of Cardiology in 2002 showed that patients being treated medically for congestive heart failure showed greater improvement when berberine was added to their program in comparison to a placebo. Exercise capacity improved, heart function improved and mortality was reduced. Berberine also appears to help lower blood pressure

Other Benefits
There is some researching suggesting that berberine (or herbs containing it) may be helpful in certain types of cancer, such as liver, breast and prostate cancer. Berberine also appears to have antidepressant activity, increasing norepinephrine and serotonin levels while lowering dopamine. It may also have protective effects against Alzheimer’s disease.

Suggested Use
Berberine IR contains 335 mg. of berberine from Indian Barberry. Suggested use is one capsule three times daily. One can also obtain the benefits of berberine by taking herbs like goldenseal and Oregon grape.

Selected References
Efficacy of Berberine in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2410097/)
Berberine supplement benefit, side effects by Ray Sahelian, M.D. (http://www.raysahelian.com/berberine.html)
Berberine hydrochloride: anticancer activity and nanoparticulate delivery system (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3173044/)
Berberine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berberine)

Berberine IR™ (90 Caps)  Stock Number: 1398

Turn cells from “idle” to “on” in the glucose metabolism process. Berberine IR also combats endotoxins, promoting a healthy gut microbiome.

Benefits:

  • Supports healthy glucose metabolism
  • Supports gut health to combat endotoxins

How It Works:

Glucose Metabolism Support

Berberine IR naturally supports healthy blood glucose levels by up-regulating enzymes that trigger blood glucose metabolism. Utilizing a time-honored ingredient found in both Traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic formulas, Berberine IR works to support blood sugar balance and glucose metabolism through a unique cellular action. Berberine, a constituent of certain plants, helps activate a key enzyme that supports blood glucose metabolism, turning your cells from “idle” to “on” and helping them to use glucose efficiently.

Additionally, Berberine IR supports healthy gut performance to help combat endotoxins. High-carbohydrate diets change the microflora of the gut, increasing bacteria that produce endotoxins. These endotoxins are released into the bloodstream and interfere with normal glucose metabolism. Berberine specifically supports gut health by inhibiting the ability of endotoxins to bind to muscle cells, thus helping to support proper glucose metabolism function. Its unique mechanism of action makes Berberine IR an excellent option for those who wish to start or strengthen their glucose management regimen. Support your body’s ability to metabolize blood glucose with Berberine IR.

Ingredients: Berberine (Berberis aristata)

Recommended Use: Take 1 capsule three times daily before a meal.

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