By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Tim Noakes, a well-respected scientist, researcher, physician and professor at the Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, is one of the world’s foremost experts on low-carb diets. In fact, he was instrumental in getting the low-carb diet revolution off the ground.

He’s also an accomplished athlete. As a long-distance endurance runner with 70 marathons under his belt, he had long promoted high-carb diets, himself consuming 400 grams of carbs a day or more when preparing for a race.

Eventually, he discovered this wasn’t the best way to improve athletic endurance and health, and ended up writing a number of popular books on low-carb diets.

From High to Low Carb

Noakes graduated from medical school in 1974. At the time, he was also running, and this was when the high carbohydrate diet really started to become popularized.

Following the advice of one of his professors at the cardiology unit where he worked, he changed to a high-carb diet and began promoting it in his writings, including the book, “Lore of Running,” which was widely read.

“There it says that you must eat lots of carbohydrates for both health and performance. I continued to do this for 33 years until 2010,” Noakes says.

One day in 2010, he went for a run and had one of the worst runs of his life. He also admitted he was overweight, which didn’t help. By chance, that same day he received an advertisement for Dr. Eric C. Westman’s book, “The New Atkins for a New You: The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great.”

It claimed you could lose 6 kilos (13 pounds) in six weeks, which he didn’t believe because he’d tried many diets and none worked. Despite that, he bought the book, and within two hours of reading, he realized he’d had it all wrong all this time.

“I decided then and there that I was going to go low-carb. I started at lunchtime on that day. I’ve been on that diet now for the last six years. I’ve dropped 20 kilograms (44 pounds) in weight. My running returned to what it had been 20 years earlier,” he says.

“I subsequently discovered that I have type 2 diabetes because of a strong family history and all these carbohydrates. But I’m glad to say today all my blood tests are within the normal range. I am taking medication. But … in six years with diagnosed diabetes, I have not worsened.

In fact, I’m probably slightly better than I was six years ago, which is completely contrary to what would happen if you followed conventional advice. Anyway, I decided that I’d start reading. I read all your work. I read all the books. I started doing research.

That convinced me that this is a really important change that we need to promote throughout the world. Clearly, the diabetes and obesity epidemics started in 1977. It’s caused by the dietary guidelines. I slowly began to understand [how] industry has driven the bad guidelines …

I also do intermittent fasting. I only eat between lunchtime and … 8 p.m. … I found that that’s been really helpful. It’s about a 16-hour fast and an eight-hour period where I eat.”

Diet Revolution Leads to Legal Wrangling

In 2013, Noakes published “The Real Meal Revolution: Changing the World, One Meal at a Time,” which turned into the best-selling book ever in the history of Southern African literature. The success of this book produced major changes in dietary understanding in Southern Africa.

Alas, its success also led to legal action being taken against him by the Health Professions Council of South Africa, which is a professional medical licensing and regulatory board. The action came after he posted low-carb advice to a pregnant woman on Twitter.

As a result, the president of the Association for Dietetics in South Africa wrote a long letter to the Health Professions Council, challenging his ability to practice medicine.

“It is so bad that my own university dissociated itself from me,” Noakes says. “At my hospital, Groote Schuur Hospital, you are not allowed to prescribe a low-carbohydrate diet for any condition. You’re not allowed to discuss the diet among the doctors.

If you do practice it or if you were to prescribe it, something would happen to you. That’s how strong the movement against it is. It’s absolutely astonishing. The worst bit for me actually wasn’t the trial and being accused of malpractice and so on. The worst bit was my university.

The dean of medicine wrote to the local newspaper and said they dissociated themselves from my views and all those who support the low-carbohydrate diet.

Of course, they had no evidence for it, but here I’d worked at this university for 35 years or so, and was one of the better-known scientists. That they could do that was absolutely astonishing. But … it does seem that industry was strongly involved.”

Overwhelming Evidence

During the hearing, he presented five and a half days of testimony about the low-carb diet. He was also cross-examined for three and a half days. Then for another three days, expert witnesses were heard, including Nina Teicholz, Zoe Harcombe and Caryn Zinn, all three of whom presented a remarkably sturdy case for its use.

“For example, when Nina — [who] wrote the book ‘The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet’ — when she finished, the lawyer for the prosecution could not cross-examine her.

He just threw up his hands and quit. He didn’t have anything to say. Zoe Harcombe was the same. She has just completed her Ph.D., showing there was never any proven evidence to change the dietary guidelines in 1977.

She presented her Ph.D. thesis. Again, the evidence is absolutely overwhelming. The end result is that we’ve had 23 days in court so far, and we won every single moment for 23 days.

We won everything. They have not been able to pin one thing on me. I think it’s the first time in history that a diet has been put before a legal jury to decide whether or not it’s true.”

The final decision, more than three years after the Tweet was posted, was that Noakes was found not guilty of misconduct.

It remains to be seen whether the health professional council, the statutory party that took action against Noakes, will have to change their nutritional guidelines and update all nutrition and dietetics teaching in South Africa. As noted by Noakes, “That could be a huge moment for South Africa and perhaps for the rest of the world.”

Corporate Influence

At the request of CrossFit founder Greg Glassman, investigative journalist Russ Greene visited Noakes in South Africa. He went through all the transcripts of the trial, and then began digging into the backgrounds of all the expert witnesses testifying against Noakes. Most of them turned out to be linked to an organization called the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), which is a Coca-Cola funded organization.

ILSI is basically a front-group for the beverage industry, and has links to Monsanto, Pfizer, Unilever and, in the past, the tobacco industry. Green wrote an exposé, “Big Food vs. Tim Noakes: The Final Crusade,” which is posted on his website, therussels.crossfit.com.¹

“It’s an amazing exposé, which suggests there was a coordinated effort in South Africa to bring me [down] and that it was driven by industry. The reason was we were getting too close to questioning the role of sugar and carbohydrates in ill health. We haven’t proved it, but there’s enough evidence out there to suggest there were things behind the trial that one would not have thought about,” Noakes says.

Beverage Industry Hurt Athletes With Manipulated Science

This isn’t the first time Noakes has taken on big industry. In 2010, he published “Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports,” a book exposing how industry influences science, and how the beverage industry has influenced the drinking guidelines for athletes.

He wrote the book because he was angry about people being hurt as a result of these manipulated guidelines. While rarely discussed, exercise-associated hyponatremia — drinking too much or overhydrating — actually contributes to many unnecessary deaths. Noakes explains:

“When I started running marathons in the 1970s, we didn’t drink during races. In fact, I ran a 56-mile race and I think I had four drinks. You’d have a drink every hour and you would literally swirl your mouth out with water and that would be about it. No one came to any harm. Then in about 1974 I began actively to promote drinking during marathon races. I became very active in South Africa saying there was not enough fluid available to marathon runners …

By 1981, the race … had a drinking station every mile. They had 56 drinking stations in a 56-mile race. At the end of that race, a lady was unconscious. She was hospitalized … Her blood sodium concentration had fallen. She wanted to know what had happened. She said, ‘Maybe I took too little sugar or salt during the race. What should I do about it?’ I said, ‘I have no idea.’

I then decided to investigate. Over the next 10 years, we were able to show that … she had overdrunk fluids. She’d retained the fluids, [which] caused her brain to swell, [causing] her to go unconscious. She’d remained unconscious for four days. We provided definitive evidence that it was overdrinking that caused the problem.”

In 1993, the first American marathon runner died from overhydration. Still, in 1996, the American College of Sports Medicine, funded by Gatorade, produced new drinking guidelines stating that dehydration is the killer when you exercise, and you should drink “as much as tolerable” during exercise.

Other deaths followed, all of which were completely unnecessary. In 2002, a young female runner died shortly after completing the Boston marathon. Cause of death: water intoxication. As recently as last year, two American football players died from overhydration. An estimated 3,000 athletes have also been hospitalized for hyponatremia, but fortunately almost all have survived. Yet, there have been at least 16 completely unnecessary deaths of which we are aware.

How Industry Controls Information

Finally, in 2007, the American College of Sports Medicine revised their guidelines to what Noakes had suggested, which is that you should drink to thirst.

“It took a lot of time to change. The only reason we could change was because two scientific journals in the entire world were independent of the sports drink industry. [The] industry … makes sure its key opinion leaders, who have funds to do research, also happen to be the people who draw up the guidelines, whether they be dietary, cholesterol or drinking. In addition to that they are the main reviewers of journal articles.

Over a 10-year period, we would submit papers and I knew they went to exactly the same reviewers every time. It didn’t matter which journal we sent them to … But there were two journals that were independent, the British Journal of Medicine and the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine. They published our work. I always knew that if there were two journals open to our papers … we would win in the end. In the end, we did win, because in the end all that matters is the truth.

But if those two journals had also been controlled, if they’d had the same editorial boards, we wouldn’t have ever done it. That was how I learned that is how industry controls information. They actively do it. They actively support people to make sure that only guidelines that benefit industry are ever published.”

With Fewer Carbs, You Don’t Need Insulin

One of the absolute worst things conventional medicine does is treat type 2 diabetics with insulin. This only exacerbates the problem. The key to treating and reversing type 2 diabetes is to cut down on net carbs, replacing them with high amounts of healthy fats and moderate amounts of protein. Noakes has researched reversal of type 2 diabetes in South Africans, coming to the same conclusion.

“It seems to me that provided you remove the carbohydrates, you don’t need the insulin,” he says. “We’re looking at the whole body … [W]e’re looking at every organ in the body that we believe has been influenced by type 2 diabetes.

We’re seeing how they differ in people who reversed their type 2 diabetes on this diet, versus those who continue to be treated with standard therapy, including insulin … [This has] not been done anywhere else in the world. It’s just the most exciting work I can think of.”

Removing net carbs is only one side of the equation, though. That will reverse the insulin resistance, but equally important is having the ability to burn fat as your primary fuel. Paradoxically, driving your insulin level too low can result in a rise in blood sugar. The reason this can happen is because the primary function of insulin is not to drive sugar into the cell, but to suppress the production of glucose by the liver (hepatic gluconeogenesis).

In situations like this, eating a piece of fruit, for example, will actually lower your blood sugar. This is what happened to me, as I went a bit too extreme in my ketogenic approach. That got me to explore this whole process, eventually concluding that continuous ketosis may not be a wise long-term approach.

You actually need this cycling, where you go through a one-day-per-week fast and one or two days a week of feasting, where you eat maybe 100 or 200 grams of carbs. Noakes is planning clinical trials with type 2 diabetics where they will be looking at these kinds of variations.

Are Carbs Bad for All Athletes?

It’s worth noting that some athletes may not perform at their best on a ketogenic (high-fat, low-carb diet). I believe that if you’re doing ultra-endurance events like marathons, the ketogenic diet is the way to go. But for high-performance spurt, interval types, it might not be your best bet. It’ll help you from a health perspective, but it may not optimize your performance like it will for long-distance running. Noakes weighs in on the topic, saying:

“I say the ideal diet for sports is the one that’s ideal for life as well … I spent 20 years of my life studying glucose metabolism in the body during exercise. The question I want to know is, how can adding a little bit of carbohydrate make you run faster? For example, if you ingest carbohydrate during exercise, because you’ve got plenty of fat on board, why would you need a little bit of carbohydrate?

To some extent, I think the carbohydrate effect is a drug effect, particularly during exercise. If you’re taking carbohydrates, I think it’s acting like a drug, because metabolically, I can’t see how it would make any difference. It’s really interesting.

When we do these studies, we take people on high-carbohydrate diets and we put them on a high-fat diet. The performance does come down. But I wonder to what extent, as to the withdrawal of the drug effect as much as a metabolic effect … I think even if you’re cycling the Tour de France, you don’t need more than 200 grams of carbohydrate a day.”

Insulin Resistance Is the Real Killer

According to Noakes, “[I]nsulin resistance is the real killer and … we need to understand that … [the] main driver [of chronic disease] is insulin resistance and a high-carbohydrate diet.”

Unfortunately, most medical schools around the world still do not teach medical students about insulin resistance, and one of the primary reasons for this is because medical schools are strongly influenced by the food industry, which wants you to believe that eating fat is dangerous and eating sugars and grains (net carbs) is healthy.

Neither is true, but these ideas are driven by financial motives. We need to remember that diabetes is one of the greatest growth industries in the world. If it can be reversed or prevented by a relatively simple dietary change, then that industry collapses.

“What I would like to dedicate the rest of my time to is trying to get medical schools to change the focus of the teaching of nutrition and to admit that we failed by telling people to eat a high-carbohydrate diet, and that we have to replace that with an understanding that carbohydrates and insulin resistance are the problem. The broad range of diseases that we see is linked to that,” Noakes says.

“There’s a paper in the Journal of American Medical Association … Chinese people with diabetes were compared to Chinese people without diabetes. The risk for all the common chronic diseases was two to three times greater. It was frightening. There wasn’t a condition that wasn’t listed there.

We have to realize we’re heading toward a disaster because we don’t understand that you must treat insulin resistance with a low-carbohydrate diet. Unless we do that, we’re not going to address the health of our nations … We used to be very lean. That’s what we’re designed to be. We have to somehow get back to that original state, because humans are … not designed to be fat.”

Sugar Addicts Are Particularly Intolerant to Carbohydrates

While I believe limiting protein is just as important as cutting carbs, Noakes believes restricting carbs is the primary key for diabetics. As for how much carbohydrate is too much, we agree that an ideal limit for health is 25 grams of net carbs per day. My recommendation for diabetics is stricter than his, however, as I recommend a maximum of 15 grams of net carbs per day until your insulin resistance is resolved.

Noakes suggests a range of 25 to 100 grams, depending on your levels of exercise and of insulin resistance, with 25 grams being the maximum for those with marked insulin resistance/Type 2 diabetes. He also notes that people with sugar addiction or carbohydrate addiction who are morbidly obese tend to be incredibly intolerant to carbohydrates, and need to be particularly mindful not to exceed 25 grams of net carbs.

“The people that I’ve helped lose 80, 100 kilograms, that’s 160 to 200 pounds, they literally cannot eat 26 grams of carbohydrates. They have to stick to 25. Once they get up to 50 grams … they move back toward the addictive nature,” Noakes says.

“They start to eat more carbohydrate, and very quickly, they’re eating 100, 200, back to 400 grams. People don’t understand that if you have a real weight problem and you’re morbidly obese, you’ve really got to be strict 25 grams and no more. I think it’s the same with type 2 diabetes. You’ve got to stick to 25 grams.”

Dr. Noakes was one of the experts I sought to help edit my new book “Fat for Fuel” for accuracy. Unfortunately, he was in the middle of his trial and could not edit it. However, there is little doubt in my mind that “Fat for Fuel” is the finest resource you can obtain to give you the practical details of how to implement the strategies that Noakes discusses.

To Learn More, Join Me at My Upcoming Live Lectures

There are many professionals or others who would like to dive deep into the details and if you fall in that category, I want to offer you some opportunities to learn more. On June 14 and 15, 2017, I will be in Colorado Springs for the SopMed’s third medical ozone and ultraviolet light therapy training. The 14th I will be giving a three-hour course that goes into many of the details that are not discussed in my new book “Fat for Fuel,” either because I learned of them later or there was not room to fit them in the book.

If you are specifically interested in nutritional ketosis, there will be a large number of experts lecturing at the Low Carb USA event in San Diego August 3-6. I will be one of the speakers along with Gary Taubes and Stephen Phinney. You can see the entire list of invited speakers lower on the page. The Early Bird Special, which saves you $100 on the ticket price, ends on April 30.

I am also speaking in Florida in November. If you are a physician and are interested in learning about how you can use the ketogenic diet and other therapies for cancer, heart disease, Lyme and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, please be sure and come to our ACIM conference in Orlando, Florida on November 2 through 4 at the wonderful Florida Conference and Hotel Center.

If you are a patient, there will be a separate and less expensive track on the same date and location.  However, you will need to come back to this page in a few days as the registration page for the event is still not up. The Early Bird Special, which saves you $100 on the ticket price, ends on April 30.

http://articles.mercola.com/herbs-spices/lobelia.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=secon&utm_campaign=20170424Z1_UCM&et_cid=DM141335&et_rid=1980243242

Lobelia (Lobelia inflata), or Indian tobacco, is a flowering herb that is named after the Belgian botanist, Matthias de l’Obel.¹ It was formerly used as a substance during smoking cessation, but has since been discontinued because of mixed results.

In a broader sense, lobelia can refer to a wide variety of flowering plants, with some botanists claiming that these varieties belong to a separate family, Lobeliaceae.² One of the most common and popular variety of lobelias is the Lobelia inflata variety.

Other varieties of lobelia plants include both Lobelia siphilitica and Lobelia cardinalis. These varieties can normally be distinguished from the Lobelia inflata through the differences in the color of their flowers.

Lobelia siphilitica is the most cultivated variety of this plant and is often called the “great blue lobelia” because of its vivid blue flowers, as opposed to the pale color of Lobelia inflata.³ Lobelia cardinalis is also much easier to differentiate because of the distinct bright red color of its flowers.⁴

Because of its dainty flowers, lobelia plants are usually planted in the garden or window boxes to visually improve people’s surroundings. However, because of its beauty, its nutritional components are typically overlooked.

Nutritional Benefits of Lobelia Inflata

Here are some of the benefits that you’ll likely receive when you start using lobelia therapeutically:⁵

How Do You Use Lobelia?

There are various ways in which lobelia can be used. The tincture of the herb can be usedto help alleviate sprains, bruises and various skin conditions. A poultice can also be used topically and may help relax your muscles, especially smooth ones.⁸

Listed below are the various forms that lobelia is available in along with the recommended intake dosages:⁹

It should be noted that these are only recommended doses and an individual’s tolerance level for this herb may vary. Consult your physician to determine the appropriate dosage for you, so that you can avoid ingesting too little or too much of this herb.

Here’s How You Can Grow Your Own Lobelia

Lobelia is commonly planted in regions with low temperatures. But while they thrive well in cold climates, they are actually very sensitive to frost. Listed below is a step-by-step guide on how to successfully plant lobelia in your backyard either for ornamental or medicinal purposes:¹⁰

Try This Recipe for This Muscle Relaxer Tea

Because of the strong effects of lobelia when taken in its pure form, some people choose to incorporate it into their various tea recipes. One such example is a recipe from Living Herbal Tea that combines lobelia with other tea leaves:¹¹

Watch Out For These Contraindications and Possible Side Effects of This Herb

Lobelia, even though it has a variety of health benefits when taken in moderation, may actually be poisonous when ingested in large quantities. It’s also poisonous for pets and other animals, and should be removed from the vicinity where these pets reside to avoid them from being harmed.¹² Some of the side effects that you may experience when you ingest lobelia include the following:¹³

Lobelia should also be avoided if you suffer from the following conditions and diseases:

Lobelia should also be avoided by people who suffer from liver or kidney disease, seizures and shortness of breath. Like other herbs and medications, the use of lobelia should also be avoided by pregnant and breastfeeding women, as it may cause adverse effects.¹⁶

By Dr. Mercola

Americans struggle with high levels of certain diseases like cardiovascular disease and related high blood pressure. In fact, the World Health Organization ranks this malady, also known as hypertension, as playing the leading role in heart disease.¹

Conventional medicine says eating too much sodium is one cause of high blood pressure, but more studies are revealing that it’s actually an imbalance between your sodium intake and your potassium levels that may be the problem. According to one study:

“Findings suggest that public health efforts directed toward increasing consumption of K+ [potassium]-rich natural foods would reduce BP [blood pressure]and, thus, cardiovascular and kidney disease.”²

Potassium deficiency, known as hypokalemia, can be so serious that it could be fatal. One sign that you may be deficient is high blood pressure, but other things to look for include:

• Fatigue
• Muscle weakness
• Abdominal pain and cramps
• Abnormal heart rhythms
• Muscle paralysis

Potassium: The ‘Good Salt’

There are a few facts about potassium that few people are aware of. First, it’s an essential mineral, but another thing to note is that, as an electrolyte, it plays a crucial role in regard to your blood pressure.

In spite of loads of studies and reports to the contrary, the fact is that it’s the balance between salt and potassium that will balance the health of your cells, not lowering your salt intake, unless of course, you’re talking about processed table salt.

Foods With High Potassium Content Help Lower Blood Pressure Levels

People with higher intakes of potassium tend to have lower blood pressure levels, so finding the foods to eat that contain it will definitely be good for you. For a good balance of potassium to sodium in your diet, eat fresh, whole, potassium-rich foods. I recommend:

A passionate reader asked me to add this to my post about Brussel sprouts. https://www.jenreviews.com/brussels-sprouts/. This is a great and informative post with some science and recipes on Brussels sprouts.  My hubby likes them so we eat them a lot.

Additionally, Authority Nutrition³ notes other foods with high potassium content, such as leafy greens, tomatoes and sweet potatoes, wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon, melons, bananas, oranges and apricots. Fruits should be eaten in moderation, however, due to the fructose content.

Besides significantly lowering your blood pressure, pomegranate juice may protect your cells from negative effects like premature aging.

It’s also high in antioxidant polyphenols to cut your cancer and heart disease risks, and more antioxidants from tannins, anthocyanins and ellagic acid than green tea and red wine, Prevent Disease adds.⁴

Fruit polyphenols have been shown to have such a positive influence on potentially fatal heart-related issues that related research may even help change recommendations on what fruits are most beneficial to consume for optimal cardiovascular protection, one study concluded.⁵

A Florida study⁶ reported that 1 cup of blueberries a day may lower blood pressure and relax arteries. Around 50 hypertensive women were given either 22 grams of freeze-dried blueberry powder or a placebo powder to eat, with the result that the first group, on average, had a 7 mmHg drop in systolic blood pressure.

Raw grass fed yogurt is rich in probiotics, which helps keep blood pressure at balanced levels.

A review of several studies⁷ found that probiotics may benefit this area of your health naturally because they help optimize your cholesterol and lower blood sugar levels. And small amounts of dark chocolate provide flavonoids that cause blood vessels to dilate.⁸

Lifestyle Changes You Can Make to Lower Your Blood Pressure

Most people will say they want to live a “healthy” life, but it’s usually small, day-to-day decisions that make the difference in the long run. Blood pressure affects your body in a systemic way. If you struggle to maintain healthy levels, you may want to take a good look at your diet.

Conventional wisdom usually tells you to limit your salt intake, but the most impactful way to do the job is to cut down on sugar. As “bad” as salt is touted to be, sugar is far worse.

While you probably already know that processed foods are far too high in refined sodium, it’s refined sugar that’s the real culprit in the high incidence of high blood pressure and, consequently, the trickle-down effect of diseases that all too often follow along behind, such as metabolic syndrome, atherosclerosis, stroke and heart attack.

More and more studies indicate that sugar can be implicated in high blood pressure levels.⁹ In fact, one study shows that women who drank just one soda per day had higher levels that those who drank less than that.¹⁰

Researchers at the University of California–San Francisco and Touro University California conducted a study¹¹ published in the journal Obesity that looked at the effects of limiting sugar intake. The study subjects were 43 children between the ages of 9 and 18 years.

For nine days, all the children ate meals, snacks and beverages with reduced sugar; however, they were allowed to eat fruit. Their fasting blood sugar levels, glucose tolerance and blood pressure were recorded before each meal.

All of them were given the same amounts of protein, fat and carbohydrates as before, including hot dogs, chips and pizza, but added sugar was replaced with bagels and cereal. In fact, sugar went from 28 percent to 10 percent. Carbs and fructose were reduced from 12 percent to 4 percent.

What Happens When Children Are Given Less Sugar to Eat?

Before long, the diet proved successful, as the scientists noted decreased blood pressure, improved cholesterol and improved liver function. Fasting blood glucose levels fell five points, while insulin levels dropped by a third.

This is particularly astonishing since the added sugar was replaced with bagels and cereal, which are far from healthy. Imagine if it had been replaced with vegetables or healthy fats! Lead author Robert Lustig stated:

“This study definitively shows that sugar is metabolically harmful not because of its calories or its effects on weight; rather sugar is metabolically harmful because it’s sugar.

(The study indicates) that sugar contributes to metabolic syndrome, and is the strongest evidence to date that the negative effects of sugar are not because of calories or obesity.”¹²

The Epoch Times quoted senior study author Jean-Marc Schwarz:

“These findings support the idea that it is essential for parents to evaluate sugar intake and to be mindful of the health effects of what their children are consuming. When we took the sugar out, the kids started responding to their satiety [fullness] cues.

They told us it felt like so much more food, even though they were consuming the same number of calories as before, just with significantly less sugar. Some said we were overwhelming them with food.”¹³

Active African-Americans Are Less Apt to Develop High Blood Pressure

Certain factors make high blood pressure more prevalent in some people than in others. One study based in Jackson, Mississippi, showed that African-Americans are less apt to develop high blood pressure if they’re physically active on a daily basis.

Further, study subjects who reported engaging in the ideal amounts of moderate to vigorous physical activity were about 24 percent less likely to have high blood pressure years later in comparison to those who didn’t.

As it happens, African-Americans have the highest blood pressure rates of any racial or ethnic group in the U.S., making heart attack, stroke and kidney disease risks more prevalent, and even early death. Unfortunately, the odds are high for this demographic. Dr. Keith Diaz of Columbia University Medical Center in New York explained:

“If you’re African-American, your odds of developing hypertension [are] pretty high. If you’re worried about hypertension or high blood pressure, one of the things you can do to prevent it is physical activity and exercise.”¹⁴

None of the 1,311 participants in the study had high blood pressure when they started it between 2000 and 2004. They were checked again between 2005 and 2008, and again between 2009 and 2013. Half them were monitored for at least eight years.

The upshot? Those getting 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, or at least 75 minutes of vigorous exercise — specifically from programmed physical activity as opposed to household tasks —  were 24 percent less likely to have developed high blood pressure than people who didn’t.

How to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

Most doctors charged with helping their patients with high blood pressure issues will hand their patients a pharmaceutical prescription, but there are remedies for this condition that cost far less, financially, physically, overall time consumed and long-term effects combined. Time¹⁵ and Authority Nutrition listed several, including:

• Breathe. Mindfully slowing the breaths you take and breathing more slowly helps you relax, and relaxing helps improve your heart rate, makes your arteries more flexible and lowers your blood pressure, naturally.
• Relax. Stress does more to negatively affect your body than you can imagine. Bouts of anger or stress, triggering your “fight or flight” hormones, can literally increase your risk of developing heart-related issues. Try the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and other natural methods to calm and soothe your mind.
• Curb the coffee and alcohol. While there are studies that contend that moderate alcohol intake can provide heart benefits, overdoing it can raise your blood pressure, as well as cause subsequent health problems. Caffeine can also be a culprit, and it may come from drinking soda. Give it a rest — literally.
• Walk and exercise regularly. Your heart is strengthened and pumps blood more efficiently, lowering arterial pressure. Just 150 minutes of moderate exercise like walking or 75 minutes of strenuous exercise such as high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can improve both.¹⁶
• Lose weight. Even losing 5 percent of your total weight can significantly lower your blood pressure,¹⁷ and the effect is even greater when you exercise.¹⁸

Many Americans suffer from various chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity, and the main culprit is usually the food they eat. The standard American diet contains excessive amounts of protein and carbohydrates, neither of which is good for your health because it eventually causes you to develop insulin and leptin resistance.

As a result, you gain excess weight, develop inflammation and become prone to cellular damage.

To avoid this problem, significant changes in your diet are necessary, and the best way is inducing your body into a state of nutritional ketosis, a condition where your body burns fat as its primary fuel instead of sugar. In order to reach nutritional ketosis, you must follow a ketogenic diet. But what exactly is a ketogenic diet?

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about a ketogenic diet — how you can apply it to your lifestyle and what positives you can reap from it.

The Various Benefits of the Ketogenic Diet

A ketogenic diet is a dietary approach that focuses on minimal carbohydrates, moderate amounts of protein and high healthy fat consumption — the three keys to achieving nutritional ketosis. In fact, it’s what I recommend for most people who would like to optimize their health.

There are many reasons why you should try a ketogenic diet. It can be very beneficial for people suffering from chronic conditions, or for people who would simply like to be healthier than their current state. You’ll be excited to know that a ketogenic diet can help with the following:

Different Types of Ketogenic Diets You Can Try

There are several variations of the ketogenic diet based on specific needs:⁴

Put Away These Foods Before Going on a Ketogenic Diet

Before coming up with an actual ketogenic diet food list, it’s important to take a look at what you’re eating first and take out anything that’s unhealthy. This means that you have to remove sugars, starches, packaged and processed foods from your diet, because a ketogenic diet focuses on eating real, whole food.

Furthermore, avoid drinking milk because it contains the carbohydrate galactose — drinking just one glass can basically eat up your entire carb allotment for the day. In addition, avoiding milk helps lactose-intolerant people to implement the ketogenic diet. Many other products should be avoided, such as hydrogenated vegetable oils (canola, sunflower, etc.), peanut butter, soy products and sodas. They may be low on carbohydrates, but they are unhealthy and can wreak havoc on your health.

The Ideal Foods to Eat for a Ketogenic Diet

So now that you’ve taken out all the unhealthy food sources, what’s the next step? When it comes to the core of an actual ketogenic diet, remember that you need to consume only a moderate amount of protein, or about one-half gram per pound of lean body mass, each day. In addition, carbohydrates must be minimized and high-quality fats increased to serve as your new fuel source.

To ease yourself into a ketogenic diet meal plan, I usually recommend adding C8 medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil into your food. It’s typically more expensive than other types of MCT oil, but I prefer it more because it converts into ketones more effectively. You can start with 1 teaspoon per day, then gradually increase your consumption to 2 to 3 tablespoons per day.

If your stomach does not agree with MCT oil, you can try MCT powder, which is easier on your stomach. The table below provides a good overview of other foods rich in high-quality healthy fats:

When building your ketogenic diet meal plan, it’s important to stick to green leafy vegetables because they are rich in fiber, antioxidants and various nutrients. Your best choices include broccoli, spinach, parsley, Brussels sprouts and zucchini.

While fruits are generally healthy for you, majority of them should be are avoided in a ketogenic diet because of their high amounts of sugar. However, certain berries are safe to eat in moderate quantities, such as blackberry, blueberry and cranberry, because they are rich in antioxidants that can support your health.

As for beverages, there are several you can choose from. The most important is water, but you may also drink organic black coffee (without any sweeteners or milk), which is rich in antioxidants. Coconut milk can be consumed as well, as well as herbal teas because they are rich in various antioxidants and nutrients. If you want a more extensive list, Paleo Flourish Magazine has recommendations that encompass various food groups.¹⁵

Ketogenic Recipes You Can Try

It may look like there are plenty of foods not allowed when following a ketogenic diet, but there are actually many recipes that you can cook that adhere this method. Here are three ketogenic recipes that I personally use in my daily routine:

The Side Effects of a Ketogenic Diet

Starting a ketogenic diet can help optimize your health tremendously in many ways. But like any major dietary changes, it can have several undesirable (but not alarming) side effects, such as:

Going into nutritional ketosis by following a ketogenic diet is one of the most radical but highly beneficial lifestyle changes you can make to improve your health. As with most dietary changes, always remember to listen to your body. If you feel any side effects other than the ones listed above, then necessary adjustments may be needed to your food intake.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Ketogenic Diet