Most of us now understand that table sugar is detrimental to our health, not only to our waistlines, but in myriad other ways, including causing inflammation that leads to a host of health problems including high blood pressure and diabetes. I don’t need to go all the way down the list because I know I’m preaching to the choir for most of you.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a comparative Johnny-come-lately to the sugar dangers radar screen and it’s a subject that bears closer examination.

Table sugar is composed of fructose and glucose. You might say,
“But fructose is a natural fruit sugar!”

You’d be right. The glucose molecule is needed for energy by the human body, so it is a necessary nutrient. No, it’s not necessary in the form of table sugar, but it’s found naturally in virtually all carbohydrates, in varying amounts depending on whether you’re looking at a piece of broccoli or a serving of white rice.

Beware of fructose

Fructose, on the other hand, is converted into a range of waste products in the human body within minutes, including uric acid.

Uric acid is a major inflammatory compound that, among other things, causes high blood pressure, a major contributing factor for heart attack and stroke.

Without getting too technical, let’s say that high uric acid levels in the body cause lower nitric oxide levels, constricting blood vessels and raising blood pressure. Uric acid excess also contributes to kidney disease, fatty liver, all types of cardiovascular disease and pre-eclampsia in pregnant women.

Let’s focus on hypertension for today.

Sugar consumption translates to high rate of hypertension

It’s not coincidental that, as our natural per capita sugar consumption increases, our national levels of high blood pressure have increased in tandem.

In 1800, sugar was a luxury with the average person eating less than four pounds a year. Today, it is an obsession with the average person eating an astounding 153 pounds a year. Worse yet, our national sugar addiction increased by 20 percent in just ten years, two percent a year!

On the same time frame, our national rate of hypertension went from 5% of the population in 1900 to 31% today. The connection is obvious.

If sugar isn’t bad enough, manufacturers began to substitute high fructose corn syrup for sugar in many products beginning in the mid 1970s. Your average can of Coke has 40 grams of sugar—now all of it HCFS.

HCFS is everywhere

HCFS is now found in all kinds of products, not surprisingly on the sweet ones like the breakfast cereals and breakfast pastries to which most kids are addicted, but also in some products you’d never imagine would have added sugar.

How about breads, mayonnaise, catsup (bottled BBQ sauce is even worse!), hotdogs and lunch meats, peanut butter, salad dressings, kids’ packaged snacks, spaghetti sauce and canned soups? Here’s a link to a site with many name brands that contain HFCS.

HFCS is a stealth ingredient in many, if not most, processed foods. It’s cheaper than sugar and the manufacturers care much more about their bottom line than about your health.

The easy answer is to avoid processed foods. The harder answer is that most of us do use them from time to time.

Be a label reader

I’ve often urged you to become an avid label reader. That skill is more important now than ever. There are bottled and canned foods that do not contain HFCS. You’ll do pretty well if you select organic store brands.

The best article I’ve read on this subject was written by Dr. Joe Mercola.

This article is definitely worth a close look, including the chart showing the natural fructose in fruit and his suggestions to limit your intake of fructose through fruit to 15 grams a day. That’s less than half a mango or just a little more than a cup of seedless grapes, much more of the less-sweet fruits like citrus fruits, most berries, apples and melons.

In my wanderings through Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim last month, I came across Measure Up Bowls, the most brilliant weight control tools I’ve seen.

Recognizing portion size

The idea is ridiculously simple: You achieve portion control by eating your food out of one of two attractive white ceramic bowls that have subtle measurement markings. That’s it.

Now I’m guilty of the sin of failing to recognize correct portions. How much is a ½ cup serving of cereal (not to speak of ice cream)? Like most of us, I overestimate the size of the portions I’m eating, so this simple and effective tool is reining me back in.

Bowl creator lost 80 pounds

It certainly did the job for Heather Harvey, creator of the bowls. After the birth of her first child, Heather was eager to shed those extra baby pounds. Inspired by her personal trainer to take careful note of her portion sizes, Heather began a search of attractive bowls that would help her measure her food without having to wash a separate measuring cup. She looked for measuring bowls that wouldn’t call attention to her diet plan, but there were none on the market.

So Heather took the bull by the horns, developed her own bowls and got a patent for them. The rest is history. She shed 80 extra pounds and created a lucrative business with this simple idea.

A set with a large bowl holding up to 2 cups and a smaller one that holds up to ¾ cup sells for around $30. The Measure Up team is currently developing a non-toxic version with snap-on lids for portable purposes

I love this idea because of its simplicity, elegance, inventiveness and practicality. Thanks for the gift of a set, Heather. I’m using them!

by Kathleen Barnes

The health care reform law has its benefits and its drawbacks, but requiring restaurant chains to post nutrition information is a stroke of genius.

Starting next year, any restaurant with more than 20 stores must post calorie counts right next to the item on the menu and have full nutrition information, including fat, sodium and sugar content available on the premises of the restaurant, not just on a distant website.

Calorie counts will also be posted on menus at drive-thrus.

Better choices

What does this mean to you? Maybe it will give you pause when you decide to order a double Whopper with cheese at a whopping 1010 calories, and instead go for the 360-calorie cheeseburger. Or skip the 2210-calorie bloomin’ onion appetizer at Outback (134 grams of fat!) or even the Wendy’s deceptive chicken BLT salad at 780 calories, Ruby Tuesday’s healthy sounding Bella turkey burger at 1145 calories and the On The Border grande taco salad with beef at 1450 caories.

I personally think a great deal of the obesity problem in America is a skewed idea of how much we are eating and how many calories and fat we are consuming. Armed with easily available information, I have the faith we’ll all start to make better choices.

Restaurants making better choices, too

I think it’s also possible that restaurant chains, being legally required to bare their secrets that have enticed us for so long, may actually start to rein themselves in make their products healthier and less calorically out of the ball park and perhaps even (imagine this!) reduce portion sizes.

Similar laws have been in effect in New York City for some time and several states were considering their own laws before the federal legislation trumped them.

There are limits to the law: It only applies to chain restaurants with more than 20 stores. At latest count, that means about 200,000 restaurants. It does not apply to the 375,000 restaurants and small chains, nor does it apply to schools, hospitals and corporate cafeterias.

But it’s a start. A good start.

by Kathleen Barnes

If you haven’t yet relegated your nonstick cookware to the dustbin, you now have even more reasons to do so now.

Even though Teflon™ (technical name: PTFE or polytetrafluoroethylene polymer) has been on the market for more than 50 years, numerous studies show that it can offgas toxic chemicals at high heats. The Environmental Protection Agency says it is “likely” that Teflon™ causes cancer.

Thyroid risk

Now a recent study implicates Teflon™ in thyroid disease. A British study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives (affiliated with the National Institutes of Health) shows that people with high levels of perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA), a compound found in Teflon™, are more likely to develop thyroid malfunction as well as to have various types of cancers.

Teflon™ is used in cookware, but also found in stain resistant carpet and fabric coatings.

Dupont, the manufacturer of Teflon™, says the non-stick coating is safe and adds that it has had no adverse health effects in humans. It adds that there is conflicting evidence on the thyroid issue.

Trace amounts of PFOA have shown up in blood samples taken from people across the country. When rats and mice were exposed to PFOA in far greater amounts, they developed brain tumors.

Now, an EPA advisory panel reports, “PFOA is a likely carcinogen in humans.”

Carcinogenic fumes

In terms of toxic fumes, Dupont says its cookware doesn’t decompose, possibly releasing toxic gases, until the pan reaches 680 degree Farenheit.

However, those high heats are easy to achieve. Studies show that an empty pan left on a burner for as little as three minutes can reach temperatures of 700 degrees.

PTFE fumes certainly effect birds and other small animals and there is evidence they effect humans. Studies report flu-like symptoms experienced by people who are near fumes from nonstick pans. The Environmental Protection Agency has even given the syndrome a name: polymer fume fever.

Other studies show that even higher temperatures cause the release of several other types of toxic gases.

All cookware with nonstick coatings can have the same problems, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG). More information on the Teflon™ studies is available from the EWG.

Coming soon: How to choose safe cookware.

By Kathleen Barnes

If you’ve ever thought that your voice isn’t heard, it’s just not true. I am a strong proponent of letting my elected officials know what I think. I do so often and as politely as possible.

Now I can salute Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for withdrawing support for his own legislation – a bill that would severely curtail Americans’ ability to choose the vitamin supplements we want to take. It’s rare to hear a politician admitting an error and it’s refreshing.

The power of grass roots pressure

On Feb. 4, McCain introduced the Dietary Supplement Safety Act, legislation that would give the pharmaceutical industry-controlled and funded corrupt Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over vitamin supplements. After a massive grass roots campaign against the measure, McCain withdrew his support for the bill in early March.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) also played a pivotal role in persuading McCain that increased government regulation of dietary supplements is misguided. Sen. Hatch was a major sponsor of the supplement-industry friendly 1994 DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act) and received major campaign contributions from the supplement industry.

McCain’s apparent intention was to regulate the use of steroids by professional athletes with his bill, but he seemed to be unaware that the bill had more far-reaching ramifications.

The bill would have made most dietary supplements available by prescription only.

I’m very aware that the supplement industry occasionally runs riot and that unquestionably there are unscrupulous supplement manufacturers.

Who is making money here?

At the same time, when I look at an issue like the McCain bill, I like to look at the bottom line: Who will benefit the most from the legislation?

The answer is obvious: The pharmaceutical industry.

There is no end to the greed of this industry, which already makes billions on drugs, some of which have been proven unsafe. Now the industry gets a windfall from the 32 million more people who will have health insurance and become consumers of pharmaceuticals. But still, they want a big piece of the action from the millions of Americans who choose preventive care and natural treatment through dietary supplements. This is one if the few times the smaller supplement manufacturers who donate to Sen. Hatch’s campaigns have come out on the upside.

However, I’ve never known the pharmaceutical industry to stay down for long. We all need to stay on the lookout for another bill or an end run around this one.

Did anyone else notice that drug company and hospital stock soared the day after the health care reform bill was passed?

If Sen. John McCain has his way, Americans’ access to herbs, minerals and dietary supplements will be severely curtailed.

McCain’s newly introduced bill the Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) will give the FDA complete control over all dietary supplements.

The DSSA will repeal parts of the DSHEA (Dietary Supplement and Education Act).

I know this sounds like a bureaucratic an alphabet soup and it is. It also has the potential to turn into a health care nightmare.

Bureaucractic alphabet soup

DSHEA, enacted in 1994, protects two types of supplements: 1. supplements that have been in the food supply and are not chemically altered and 2. supplements that were sold before 1994.

DSHEA as it exists today is far from perfect, largely because it gives the FDA control over new supplements and discourages the development of new products. However, DSHEA does prevent the FDA from arbitrarily banning or reclassifying supplements.

The McCain bill, if passed, gives the very much flawed FDA the power to create a list of approved supplements that can remain on the market and to ban all others.

Switching the focus

I’ll return to the flaws of the FDA in a moment, but it’s important to understand that Sen. McCain apparently has the intention with this bill of protecting us against steroid use by professional athletes. The DSSA is supported by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which is funded by major league baseball, football and other sports teams.

It appears that major league sports is attempting to shift the focus away from its shameless drug use by claiming some players were unknowingly exposed to steroids through supplements.

While that is preposterous and I, for the life of me, cannot understand why legislators need to interrogate athletes about illegal drug use when we’ve got two wars, economic disaster and a health care crisis to deal with, the upshot of the McCain bill is to dismantle the dietary supplements industry as we know it.

Who is the beneficiary?

Who would benefit from the dismantling of the dietary supplements industry? Not you and me, my friends. Plain and simple: The pharmaceutical industry will be the only beneficiaries of the McCain bill.

The FDA receives substantial funding from the pharmaceutical industry, so its interests are in protecting the funding source—pharmaceutical industry, not the American people.

The pharmaceutical industry is hostile to supplement companies because natural supplements can prevent diseases that are treated by drugs sold at enormous profits by these very same drug companies.

It’s not a very big leap of logic to the certainty that under the McCain bill, the FDA will be hostile to supplement companies and our access to dietary supplements, minerals and herbs will be severely curtailed.

Here’s where you can read the entire bill.

Contact Sen. McCain and say “NO”

I am very careful not to engage in political partisanship in these pages. However, I feel compelled to engage in political advocacy here for the benefit of every American.

Sen. McCain’s bill, if passed, will have far-reaching and potentially disastrous effects on preventive h ealth care and on eevery single one of us. All of us need to tell Mr. McCain right now that this bill is very misguided.

Contact Sen. McCain by e-mail or by calling (202) 224-2235.

Please contact him now and often until we are absolutely certain this bill is dead and buried.

The new CARD consumer credit protection act takes effect next week—and not a moment too soon.

We’re still in a feeding frenzy of credit car companies raising interest rates through the stratosphere while they still can.

Now, hopefully, those ridiculous rates will slow down. I recently heard of one that was 250%! Most us have experienced rates of 36% or even 44% despite good credit scores and pristine payment histories.

One of my companies recently reduced my credit limit from $9,500 to $500 just because I hadn’t used the card for a few months. I decided to vote with my feet since they had initiated a hit to my credit score, I’d just bite the bullet and say goodbye to them.

The new CARD act doesn’t mean that your credit card company can’t still put the screws to you, but there are some limits.

Here’s what you get starting next week:

• Banks must give 45 days notice before raising the interest rate on future purchases.

• Your interest rate on existing balances can’t be raised until you’re in default for 60 days.

• Your monthly statements going forward will reflect how many years you’ll be in debt if you only make minimum payments.

• Any annual fees must be capped at 25 percent of your card’s limit.

• If you have multiple interest rates on your account, anything you pay over the minimum balance will be applied to the highest rate first. But beware, if you only pay the minimum, the money will still be applied to the lowest balance first.

• Teaser rates on new cards must be honored for one year.

* Credit won’t be extended to people under 21 without a co-signer, except in very specific circumstances.

• Two-cycle billing will no longer be allowed. This was a sneaky way that banks would charge massive interest if one month you paid in full and the next month you didn’t.

If you’ve always followed the religion of annual mammograms and now you’re confused by recent government guidelines recommending fewer mammograms over a woman’s lifetime, you’ve come to the right place.

This is the second part of a three-part series that began with an article discussion the dangers of mammograms.

Thermogvrams are a safe and effective alternative to mammograms.

Here’s some information on thermograms from The Secret of Health: Breast Wisdom, a book I wrote two years ago with Dr. Ben Johnson:

Thermography is absolutely the best preventive tool because it can pick up a potential problem long before a mammogram might, yet, unlike a mammogram, it is noninvasive, painless and exposes you to no radiation.

Thermography has been FDA approved for more than 30 years and can be used for all types of body tissue, not breasts alone. A thermogram offers information about your breasts that no other technology can provide. Its best use is as a preventive tool to track a woman’s breast health over a period of years and to catch potential problems before they become big problems.

Thermography is an infrared heat digital imaging system. The machine does not even touch your skin. It shows color images of heat in the tissue and gray scale, which shows vascularity or circulation in the breast.

How thermography works

A thermogram is made by a specialized type of digital camera that captures an image of the circulation of blood in your tissues. Having a thermogram is as easy as having your picture taken.

Normal tissue has a blood supply that is under the control of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS can either increase or decrease blood flow to cells. Abnormal (cancerous and pre-cancerous) tissue, on the other hand, ensures its own survival by secreting chemicals that override this ANS regulation, thereby ensuring its own steady blood supply. Cancer can be thought of as being “off the power grid” of the body.

A thermogram monitors changes in circulation that can signal the presence of a tumor.

Thermogram benefits

Breast thermography does not diagnose breast cancer. Instead, it detects changes in breast tissue that indicate the presence of cancer or pre-cancerous states.

Breast thermography has several unique abilities that make it well worth your while:

• It can give tumor warning signals far in advance, up to ten years ahead of invasive tumor growth.
• Unlike after-the-fact warning when a tumor is already present like you’d get with a mammogram, ultrasound, MRI or CT scan, thermography can assess a woman’s risk of developing a tumor and can also assess her hormonal status.
• It can also distinguish between fibrocystic breasts and cancerous tumors.
• It can examine breasts with implants, which cannot be adequately screened with routine mammography because the compression could damage the implant and because the implant can actually block the view of deeper parts of the breast.
• It is effective for breasts of all sizes. Women with very small, very large breasts or very dense often do not receive adequate images from mammograms.
• The rate of false negatives and false positives is less than 10 percent, much better than for mammograms.

What an abnormal thermogram means

Women with a family history of breast cancer are at greater risk of developing the disease, but 75 percent of women who get breast cancer have no family history of the disease. Regardless of your family history, if your thermogram is abnormal, you run a future risk of breast cancer that is 10 times higher than someone with a first degree relative (mother, sister or daughter) with the disease.

Thermography is the only technology to provide women with a future risk assessment.

The luxury of time

If a thermogram shows a woman is at risk of developing breast cancer, this can be a warning she needs to work to improve her breast health.

Monitoring with regular check-ups and thermography will show improvements with time or possibly the earliest signs that a problem may exist. This information lets a woman and her doctor know when or if there is a risk of a problem developing and measures like those we discuss in this book can be taken to prevent a tumor from growing and spreading.

Since one of the greatest risk factors for the development of breast cancer is total lifetime exposure to estrogen, normalizing the balance of the hormones in the breast may be the first and most significant step in prevention. Breast thermography is the only known non-invasive procedure that can detect estrogen dominance in the breasts.

Correct hormone imbalances

If a woman’s thermographic images suggest a relative progesterone deficiency (estrogen dominance), treatment of this condition may play an important role in prevention.

With treatment from her doctor, a woman can use this information to balance the hormones in her breasts. Follow-up thermograms are compared to the baseline estrogen dominant images as part of the treatment monitoring process.

All women can benefit from thermography, but those between the ages of 30 and 50 have the best results because their breast tissues are more dense than those of older women and therefore other screening methods can be less exact.

Watch for more tomorrow on what to expect when you get a thermogram.

–Kathleen Barnes

Despite the outcry that fewer mammograms will kill women, the truth is that mammograms endanger your health.

I’ve talked about the dangers of mammograms and the
benefits of thermograms in the first two articles in this series.

If you’ve decided to schedule a thermogram, congratulations!

If you’re not sure yet or you don’t know where to get one, read more here.

Here’s what to expect when you have a thermogram.

Preparing for a thermogram

1. Avoid natural or artificial tanning for one week prior to your thermogram.
2. Refrain from saunas, steam baths, and hot or cold packs for at least 24 hours prior to your thermogram. Do not bathe, shower, or exercise during the hour prior to your thermogram appointment. Wait for 36 hours after a high fever before having a thermogram.
3. Refrain from using any tobacco products and consuming any caffeine including caffeinated coffee, tea, or sodas for two hours prior to your thermogram.
4. Remove large jewelry prior to imaging; however, small necklaces actually enable the thermogram technician to sharpen the focus of your thermogram.
6. Avoid shaving your underarms or applying any underarm deodorants or antiperspirants in addition to all powders, creams, or lotions on your arms or chest on the day of your thermogram.
7. Do not exercise, or engage in any activities that will increase your blood pressure.
8. Do not smoke or drink alcohol for a minimum of 24 hours before your appointment.
9. Take only medications that you take regularly. Your physician can give you further information.
10. Wear comfortable clothing that covers your arms and legs to your appointment. A lose button-front shirt is great.
11. Avoid confrontation or emotional stress on the day of your thermogram. That can quite literally raise your skin temperature.

What happens during an exam

When you arrive at your appointment, you be asked to take off all clothing and jewelry above the waist.

You may be asked to wait in an environmentally controlled room for about 15 minutes to get your skin temperature to a definable level.

When you are brought into the imaging room, you’ll be standing in front of the camera with your fingers clasped behind your head, elbows pointing out to the sides. Between 7 and 9 views of your breast will be taken, depending on the size of your breasts.

A second set of images is sometimes taken after your hands have been submerged in cold water for one minute.

Results

Your thermogram will be read by a licensed thermologist and, usually, by your doctor as well. Breast thermograms receive one of five ratings that range from TH1 (no detectable thermal abnormalities) to TH5 (detection of thermal abnormalities correlating with very significant risk for breast cancer).

Any positive result signals a need for further evaluation. Early thermal abnormalities may result in a recommendation to repeat thermography for comparison in 60-120 days.

Depending on the thermology rating and other forms of evaluation, a referral may be made for targeted ultrasound or to a breast specialist.
Doctors trained in holistic medicine may also recommend nutritional, metabolic, environmental, or lifestyle interventions to address early thermal abnormalities.

Cost of a thermogram

The cost of the thermograms is reasonable, generally between $100 and $200, depending on where you live.

Many insurance companies will cover thermography, but since there seems to be an endless variety of insurance plans, be sure to check with your insurer and the provider of the thermogram.

If your insurance plan includes “out-of-network” and non standard-of-care benefits, you will probably receive some insurance reimbursement. Your insurance company may require a referral from your doctor or pre-approval or authorization.

For your doctor’s information, the billing code (known as a CPT code) is 93762. Knowing this number will help you get reimbursement.

If you’re at high risk…

If you are at high risk for breast cancer (biggest risk: breast cancer in your mother or sister and, if you know, the presence of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes) or if you underwent radiation therapy of the chest, your doctor and your insurance company agree that annual MRI screening is warranted. An estimated 1.4 million American women fall into this category, but that doesn’t mean their health insurance companies . will automatically cover the $1,500-$4,000 cost of an MRI. Prepare for at least a minor skirmish, if not a major battle, to get an MRI if you and your doctor think it is necessary.

Some ammo for your battle: Guidelines from the American Cancer Society recommend annual MRI scans in addition to mammograms for all women at high risk of developing breast cancer, starting at age 30.

–Kathleen Barnes
co-author, with Dr. Ben Johnson, of The Secret of Health: Breast Wisdom(Morgan James, 2007)

The new government recommendation that women don’t need mammograms before age 50 and then only every two years is a smart one, but not for the reasons cited by the government panel.

The whole thing is explained in simple terms in a book I wrote with Dr. Ben Johnson two years ago.

Here’s an excerpt from The Secret of Health: Breast Wisdom (Morgan James 2007):

Doctors and the medical community have pounded this into our heads throughout our reproductive lives:

We think mammograms are highly detrimental to your body, mind and spirit. We recommend that you avoid them at all costs.

Fortunately there is a safe and effective alternative to mammograms that few of know about, let alone our doctors.

I’ll post in detail about thermograms tomorrow. Stay tuned.

–Kathleen Barnes