– By Becky Hand, Licensed & Registered Dietitian

The History of Stevia: From Supplement to Sweetener
Stevia is derived from the leaves of a South American shrub called Stevia rebaudiana. Its green leaves contain a substance that is 250-300 times sweeter than table sugar. The leaf extracts have been used for years in Brazil, Paraguay, Japan, South Korea, and China to sweeten foods in small to moderate amounts.

About 40 years ago, scientists began to study stevia in a laboratory setting. Some studies showed that stevia may reduce fertility or cause genetic mutations that could lead to cancer. In the 1970s, it was banned as a food ingredient in the United States. Then in 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act made it legal to sell stevia in the United States as a dietary supplement only. Unlike foods, supplement manufacturers are not required to prove that their products are safe for consumption. For more than a decade, stevia powders, liquids and extracts were sold, usually in health food stores, as supplements, not foods. During this time, companies could not sell or market stevia as a food or an ingredient in any food product.

In 2004, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, an international regulatory authority, re-evaluated the research on stevia and requested additional information from ongoing toxicological and clinical studies. (To see a PDF version of that report, click here.)

There are two main sweetening chemicals in the stevia leaf: Rebaudioside A (also called Reb A or Rebiana) and stevioside. These two purified forms have received the most recent research. The July 2008 journal Food and Chemical Toxicology published eight studies on stevia. (You can obtain abstracts from these published studies through www.pubmed.com.) One report showed no reproductive toxicity in rats exposed to the sweetener for two generations, and two human studies showed that 1,000 milligrams of Rebaudioside A per day was safe for healthy adults, as well as those with Type 2 diabetes. They did not report on stevioside.

Around this time, several food manufacturers petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, stating that they consider Rebaudioside A (the highly purified extract of stevia) to be “GRAS” (Generally Recognized as Safe). When the FDA adds a food (or ingredient) to the GRAS list, it can be sold in foods and as a food product, even without prior FDA approval and without definitive proof that the food actually is safe.

In December 2008, the FDA concluded that Rebausioside A, the highly purified form of the leaves of the stevia plant, could have GRAS status as a general-purpose sweetener in foods and beverages. That means that stevia is no longer a supplement. You can now find it in the baking aisle, next to other sugars and artificial sweeteners. It is also an ingredient in some foods and beverages, used much like artificial sweeteners are, in diet soda, diet drinks, pudding, yogurt and other food products.

Not all food and nutrition experts are content with this research or with the FDA’s ruling to add stevia to the GRAS list. Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is encouraging more testing. While Jacobson doesn’t say that stevia is harmful, he doesn’t think it should be marketed until new studies establish that it is safe. (To see CSPI’s stance, along with Jacobson’s letter to the FDA, click here.)

Marketing
Despite lingering controversy, food manufacturers didn’t waste any time bringing this zero-calorie sweetener to the public. As we are publishing this article (Feb. 2009), three companies sell stevia on your grocery shelf:

• Truvia (from Coca-Cola and Cargill) is marketed as a tabletop sweetener. The Coca-Cola company will also sweeten Sprite Green and Odwalla juice drinks with Truvia.
• PureVia (from PepsiCo and Whole Earth Sweetener Co.) is marketed as a tabletop sweetener, and Pepsi will use it as a sweetener in three flavors of SoBe Lifewater.
• Sweetleaf by Wisdom Natural Brands started selling in the summer of 2008.

This Dietitian’s View
Adults should consume no more than four artificially sweetened products daily, and that includes products sweetened with stevia. This guideline gives you the freedom to enjoy sweet foods without added calories or carbohydrates, but in amounts that won’t take the place of other more nutritious foods that should make up the bulk of your diet.

Examples of a single serving include:

• 8-oz diet soda (or other beverage)
• 1/2 cup sugar-free pudding or gelatin dessert
• 8 ounce container of sugar-free yogurt
• One packet of artificial sweetener (added to any food or beverage)

It is one thing to sweeten your cup of tea in the morning with a little stevia. But in the United States, we live in a world of excess. We don’t have one cup of tea; we have two or three, plus sweetened coffee, oatmeal, soda, smoothies and snacks, for example. Now that beverage companies have started using stevia, I can only assume that millions of people of all ages will consume large amounts of this sweetener throughout their lifetime. Just as I do with real sugar, natural sweeteners, sugar alcohols and sugar substitutes, I still preach moderation. It may sound boring, but it is the safest route to take.

Further Reading
The Truth about Stevia, the So-Called “Healthy” Alternative Sweetener by Natalie Digate Muth, M.D., M.P.H., R.D. for the American Council on Exercise (acefitness.org).

Unlike white fat, which functions primarily to store up fat, brown fat (also known as brown adipose tissue) burns fats to generate heat in a process known as thermogenesis. The research, led by scientists at the University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories at the Institute of Metabolic Science, discovered that the protein BMP8B acts on a specific metabolic system (which operates in the brain and the tissues) to regulate brown fat, making it a potential therapeutic target.

The scientists believe that activating brown fat could help to support current weight loss programs, which individuals often struggle to maintain.

Other proteins made by the body can enhance heat production in brown fat, such as thyroid hormone but often these proteins have important effects in other organs too. Therefore they are not good targets for developing new weight loss treatments. However, BMP8B seems to be very specific for regulating the heat producing activity of brown fat, making it a more ideal mechanism for new therapies.

The experiments showed that when mice lacked the protein BMP8B they found it more difficult to maintain their normal body temperature. They also became much more obese than normal mice, particularly when fed a high-fat diet.

Additionally, when the researchers treated brown fat cells with BMP8B they responded more strongly to activation by the nervous system. Furthermore, when BMP8B was administered to specific parts of the brain it increased the amount of nervous activation of brown adipose tissue. The result was that these BMP8B-treated brown fat cells burned more fat and mice given BMP8B in the brain lost weight.

Professor Toni Vidal-Puig, lead author of the study  states that, “A major feature of current weight-loss strategies is that people lose a lot of weight early on, but then reach a plateau despite continuing to follow the same diet regime. This is because the human body is incredibly good at sensing a reduction in food consumption and slows the metabolic rate to compensate. A strategy to increase brown fat activity could potentially be used in conjunction with current weight loss strategies to help prevent the typical decrease in a person’s metabolic rate.

In the meantime, there are other mechanisms that can potentiate the body’s metabolism permanently. To learn more, click here.

“Scientists are observing with increasing alarm that some very common hormone-mimicking chemicals can have grotesque effects.

A widely used herbicide acts as a female hormone and feminizes male animals in the wild. Thus male frogs can have female organs, and some male fish actually produce eggs. In a Florida lake contaminated by these chemicals, male alligators have tiny penises.

These days there is also growing evidence linking this class of chemicals to problems in humans. These include breast cancer, infertility, low sperm counts, genital deformities, early menstruation and even diabetes and obesity.

Philip Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, says that a congenital defect called hypospadias – a misplacement of the urethra – is now twice as common among newborn boys as it used to be. He suspects endocrine disruptors, so called because they can wreak havoc with the endocrine system that governs hormones.

Endocrine disruptors are everywhere. They’re in thermal receipts that come out of gas pumps and A.T.M.’s. They’re in canned foods, cosmetics, plastics and food packaging. Test your blood or urine, and you’ll surely find them there, as well as in human breast milk and in cord blood of newborn babies.

In this campaign year, we are bound to hear endless complaints about excessive government regulation. But here’s an area where scientists are increasingly critical of our government for its failure to tackle Big Chem and regulate endocrine disruptors adequately.

Last month, the Endocrine Society, the leading association of hormone experts, scolded the Food and Drug Administration for its failure to ban bisphenol-A, a common endocrine disruptor known as BPA, from food packaging. Last year, eight medical organizations representing genetics, gynecology, urology and other fields made a joint call in Science magazine for tighter regulation of endocrine disruptors.

Shouldn’t our government be as vigilant about threats in our grocery stores as in the mountains of Afghanistan?

Researchers warn that endocrine disruptors can trigger hormonal changes in the body that may not show up for decades. One called DES, a synthetic form of estrogen, was once routinely given to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage or morning sickness, and it did little harm to the women themselves. But it turned out to cause vaginal cancer and breast cancer decades later in their daughters, so it is now banned.

Scientists have long known the tiniest variations in hormone levels influence fetal development. For example, a female twin is very slightly masculinized if the other twin is a male, because she is exposed to some of his hormones. Studies have found that these female twins, on average, end up slightly more aggressive and sensation-seeking as adults but have lower rates of eating disorders.

Now experts worry that endocrine disruptors have similar effects, acting as hormones and swamping the delicate balance for fetuses in particular. The latest initiative by scholars is a landmark 78-page analysis to be published next month in Endocrine Reviews, the leading publication in the field.

“Fundamental changes in chemical testing and safety determination are needed to protect human health,” the analysis declares. Linda S. Birnbaum, the nation’s chief environmental scientist and toxicologist, endorsed the findings.

The article was written by a 12-member panel that spent three years reviewing the evidence. It concluded that the nation’s safety system for endocrine disruptors is broken.

“For several well-studied endocrine disruptors, I think it is fair to say that we have enough data to conclude that these chemicals are not safe for human populations,” said Laura Vandenberg, a Tufts University developmental biologist who was the lead writer for the panel.

Worrying new research on the long-term effects of these chemicals is constantly being published. One study found that pregnant women who have higher levels of a common endocrine disruptor, PFOA, are three times as likely to have daughters who grow up to be overweight. Yet PFOA is unavoidable. It is in everything from microwave popcorn bags to carpet-cleaning solutions.

PFOA’s are derivatives of polyfluorinated chemicals which are used as used as surfactants in various industry- and consumer products, because of their unique properties as repellents of dirt, water and oils.

Big Chem says all this is sensationalist science. So far, it has blocked strict regulation in the United States, even as Europe and Canada have adopted tighter controls on endocrine disruptors.

Yes, there are uncertainties. But the scientists who know endocrine disruptors best overwhelmingly are already taking steps to protect their families. John Peterson Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences and a co-author of the new analysis, said that his family had stopped buying canned food.

“We don’t microwave in plastic,” he added. “We don’t use pesticides in our house. I refuse receipts whenever I can. My default request at the A.T.M., known to my bank, is ‘no receipt.’ I never ask for a receipt from a gas station.” “

Why is hydrochloric acid so important to our digestion? This is because it helps with the basic digestion of foods as well as the assimilation of B-vitamins. B-vitamins are among the most important water soluble vitamins because they feed the central nervous system and brain. Symptoms due to deficiency of B-vitamins include fatigue, mental fog, irritability, and depression.  The population at the highest risk for B-vitamin deficiencies are individuals taking acid blocks such as Tagamet, Nexium, Prevacid, and Tums (to name a few).

Chances are, if you’re on any of these medications, then you are low on B-vitamins.  Sadly, supplementing with an oral B-complex vitamin defeats the purpose as you won’t have enough hydrochloric acid in your stomach to absorb them.

So what is the solution? In order to bypass the gastrointestinal tract injections or IV therapies are given. The vitamins are absorbed immediately allowing for optimum absorption.
To discover more about the wonderful benefits of the B-vitamin Injections or IV therapies please click here.

Vitamin B-shots can be obtained at the various shot clinics offered by Dr. Nirvana. To find the closest Shot Clinic please click here.

]]> http://www.drnirvana.com/acid-blockers-prevent-absorption-of-essential-vitamins/feed 0 http://www.drnirvana.com/hidden-food-toxins-causing-weight-gain http://www.drnirvana.com/hidden-food-toxins-causing-weight-gain#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:57:28 +0000 http://www.drnirvana.com/?p=2101 While most weight loss programs address the “how” of weight loss, most programs fail to address the “how” when it comes to weight loss maintenance and what it entails. This is because they fail to recognize the role that food additives play in damaging the parts of the endocrine system responsible for healthy weight management. The majority of the damage is from unnecessary food additives, insecticides and genetically modified (GMO) foods. These factors inhibit the hormones that regulate hunger and fat storage. One such hormone is Leptin.  Research has shown that Leptin, which is found in adipose tissue, is too high or too low among those suffering from Anorexia, too low among those suffering from Bulimia and too high among those who are obese. In order for recovery to take place, Leptin levels must restored to their normal level. Yet the vast majority of health care practitioners are unaware of Leptin, or the role that it plays in eating disorders and obesity. Food additives have been shown to damage Leptin receptors and signaling mechanisms.  This results in food addictions, food cravings, excessive appetite loss, excessive central fat storage, and food allergies that cause bloating, constipation and/or diahrea.  Disturbed Leptin levels also increase the likelihood of relapse among dieters and may explain the phenomenon of yoyo dieting.

In general, the “cleaner” (the less processed) the food, the less damage to the endocrine system; likewise, the less damage to the endocrine system, the less likely the individual is to end up with disordered eating.  In terms of recovery, eliminating food additives, carcinogens, and GMO’s and incorporating “clean” foods has a dramatic affect on overall health.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Try preparing and eating meals made from real, whole ingredients. With grass fed beef and dairy, as well as organic eggs and produce, you can improve your levels of vitamin D and have healthier bones and teeth; You can protect yourself from heart disease, high blood pressure, and all number of neurological disorders; You can experience decreased levels of anxiety and/or depression and in so doing improve the quality of your life significantly.  In other words, eating clean has been a life-changing experience for many and it could be for you as well.

If you’re looking to lose weight in a healthy and balanced manner, Dr. Nirvana’s Weight Loss program addresses these goals. For more information, please call (949) 836-6991.

During and infection, after attacking a cell, the virus injects its genetic material inside and copies itself. This process takes about 12 hours, and you won’t actually feel sick until two or three of these cycles are complete.

At this time, one of the best defenses would be to load up on extremely high dosages of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and herbs. Unfortunately however, the stomach can only absorb a certain amount of them when taken orally.  This is where Vitamin IV Therapies come to the rescue.

Intravenous therapies allow for very large amounts of nutrients to bypass the gastrointestinal system for maximal absorption in the blood. This then translates into immediate use for the body’s defenses.

Receiving an IV just as the body begins to feel run down will eradicate the infection, virus or lethargy quickly therefore preventing the progression of the illness. Concurrently, the body will immediately absorb 100% of the antioxidants it needs to complete the healing and restorative processes of the body.

To find out more about the IV that would be perfect for you, please contact Dr. Nirvana’s office at (949) 836-6991 or click here.

Overeating, poor memory formation, learning disorders, depression—all have been linked in recent research to the over-consumption of sugar. And these linkages point to a problem that is only beginning to be better understood: what our chronic intake of added sugar is doing to our brains.

According to the USDA, the average American consumes 156 pounds of added sugar per year. That’s five grocery store shelves loaded with 30 or so one pound bags of sugar each. If you find that hard to believe, that’s probably because sugar is so ubiquitous in our diets that most of us have no idea how much we’re consuming. The CDC puts the amount at 27.5 teaspoons of sugar a day per capita, which translates to 440 calories—nearly one quarter of a typical 2000 calorie a day diet.

The key word in all of the stats is “added.” While a healthy diet would contain a significant amount of naturally occurring sugar (in fruits and grains, for example), the problem is that we’re chronically consuming much more added sugar in processed foods, generally in the rapidly absorbed form of fructose.

That’s an important clarification because our brains need sugar every day to function. Brain cells require two times the energy needed by all the other cells in the body; roughly 10% of our total daily energy requirements. This energy is derived from glucose (blood sugar), the gasoline of our brains. Sugar is not the brain’s enemy—added sugar is.

Research indicates that a diet high in added sugar reduces the production of a brain chemical known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Without BDNF, our brains can’t form new memories and we can’t learn (or remember) much of anything. Levels of BDNF are particularly low in people with an impaired glucose metabolism—diabetics and pre-diabetics—and as the amount of BDNF decreases, sugar metabolism worsens.

In other words, chronically eating added sugar reduces BDNF, and then the lowered levels of the brain chemical begin contributing to insulin resistance, which leads to type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which eventually leads to a host of other health problems. Once that happens, your brain and body are in a destructive cycle that’s difficult if not impossible to reverse.

Research has also linked low BDNF levels to depression and Dementia. It’s possible that low BDNF may turn out to be the smoking gun in these and other diseases, like Alzheimer’s, that tend to appear in clusters in epidemiological studies. More research is being conducted on this subject, but what seems clear in any case is that a reduced level of BDNF is bad news for our brains, and chronic sugar consumption is one of the worst inhibitory culprits.

Other studies have focused on sugar’s role in over-eating. We intuitively know that sugar and obesity are linked (since sugar is full of calories), but the exact reason why eating sugar-laden foods seems to make us want to eat more hasn’t been well understood until recently.

New research has shown that chronic consumption of added sugar dulls the brain’s mechanism for telling you to stop eating. It does so by reducing activity in the brain’s anorexigenic oxytocin system, which is responsible for throwing up the red “full” flag that prevents you from gorging. When oxytocin cells in the brain are blunted by over-consumption of sugar, the flag doesn’t work correctly and you start asking for seconds and thirds, and seeking out snacks at midnight.

What these and other studies strongly suggest is that most of us are seriously damaging ourselves with processed foods high in added sugar, and the damage begins with our brains. Seen in this light, chronic added-sugar consumption is no less a problem than smoking or alcoholism. And the hard truth is that we may have only begun to see the effects of what the endless sugar avalanche is doing to us.

To combat the effects of excessive sugar consumption on the body, Dr. Nirvana’s protocols address the core issues at hand. For more information contact her office (949) 836-6991.

This complex of vitamins is better known as B-Complex. This combination of  B-vitamins will keep your energy up and mentally alert, improve your memory, combat aging, boost your immune system and fight against depression. The elderly, vegetarians or people who are on strict diets often don’t get enough of these important vitamins. Also those who are stressed out, eat a diet of processed foods, or abuse alcohol are likely to be deficient.

Making sure to supplement with a daily multivitamin is important, however receiving a B-vitamin shot once a week allows you to maintain the benefits from the multivitamin.  While taking oral supplements of vitamins is important, the B-vitamin injections allow 100% absorption and assimilation of the vitamins immediately. Most people report feeling invigorated and productive after receiving an injection of B-vitamins.

Due to a high demand, Dr. Nirvana has added an new location and day to receive B-vitamin shots. Every Wednesday from 3:15pm-5:00pm in Newport Beach, Dr. Nirvana will allocate her office hours for B-vitamin Shots and IV Therapies (which are the BEST way to receive high doses of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants).  The IV Therapies will be available by appointment only.

To find your nearest B-Vitamin Shot Clinic location, please click here.

Dieting in general tends to lower serotonin in the brain and this can cause depression in susceptible people.

First and foremost, nutrient intake affects the production of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers that relay signals) in the brain. Specific amino acids are the precursors for neurotransmitters in the brain. Tryptophan, for example, is a precursor for serotonin in the brain and the amino acid tyrosine (as well as phenylalanine which converts into tyrosine in the body) is the precursor for dopamine.

Diets very high in carbohydrates and low in protein are known to raise plasma tryptophan and serotonin levels (which is probably why such diets make some people sleepy). It’s worth mentioning that unless dietary protein is taken to exceedingly low levels (below 5% of total calories), the real-world impact of high-carbohydrates and low-protein isn’t that massive in terms of its effect on serotonin levels in the brain. However this may explain why some people who are prone to depression tend to crave low-protein/high-carbohydrate foods at certain times (stress, seasonal affective disorder), they are trying to self-medicate themselves and improve serotonin levels.

In any case, let me explain why carbohydrates can impact all of this, since this will help clear up why lowering carbohydrates can cause problems.

The reason is this, the uptake of some of the the branched chain amino acids are insulin sensitive; for example, when insulin levels go up, blood levels of the branched chain amino acids (leucine, lysine and isoleucine) go down. More tryptophan gets transported into the brain, potentially increasing serotonin production.

So when carbohydrates are reduced (and high quality dietary protein is increased), there is the potential for serotonin levels to be reduced. Between the increase of high quality protein, decreased clearance of them due to reduced insulin levels and the overall effect of dieting in general on plasma tryptophan levels, this all adds up to problems for people at risk for depression.

Both dieting in general and low carbohydrate/higher protein diets in specific can cause issues with depression in susceptible people. It may also explain why it takes a good 2-3 months for symptoms to show up. A very low carbohydrate (100 grams per day or less) and/or higher protein diet would probably cause things to go south that much faster.

Assuming that daily exercise and proper carbohydrate consumption of whole fruits and certain grains are consumed, here are some things to consider if depression, insomnia or anxiety still persist:

1. Adding, alpha-lactalbumin (found in whey protein) to your daily protein intake. High in tryptophan, it will help support serotonin synthesis. Consuming some near bedtime might help with sleep, taking it at other times throughout the day may help with overall mood. Also having a relatively higher carb/lower protein meal at dinner time may help with some of the sleep issues. The carbohydrates can come in the form of vegetables, salads and legumes.
2. Consider supplementing with 5-hydroxytryptophan. 5-HTP is another precursor to serotonin in the brain that many have used to deal with depression and sleep problems.
3. And finally, taking a full diet break (discussed in detail in A Guide to Flexible Dieting) between periods of active dieting. Basically, perhaps every 2 months, taking 2 weeks to raise calories and carbohydrates to restore brain serotonin levels back to normal.

While maintaining an active lifestyle is important, remembering that moderation in all things food is important for a balanced and healthy lifestyle.

The findings won’t come as a surprise to the millions of women who have had bouts of forgetfulness or who describe struggles with “brain fog” in their late 40s and 50s.

Women who report memory difficulties were also more likely to report symptoms of depression, anxiety, and sleep difficulties; therefore, leading to an even more compromised lifestyle and quality of life.

Similarly, osteoporosis also poses a serious health threat for (post) menopausal women. Researchers also found that bio-identical hormone replacement therapy is more effective in reducing the fracture risk if it is begun within 5 years of menopause. Although it is not commonly recognized, men are also at risk of osteoporosis as they age, due to their declining hormone levels as well.

While most women are directed to begin on hormone replacement therapies such as Premarin, causing an increase in the potential for various cancers, a holistic approach to addressing hormones is the safest approach.

A thorough analysis of medical, hormonal, lifestyle, nutritional, and environmental factors are considered by Dr. Nirvana, allowing a comprehensive plan that addresses these factors for a natural approach.

In addition to being a non-invasive, patient-controlled collection, a 24-hour urine sample is most accurate because it provides a stable indicator of output not susceptible to the hour-to-hour fluctuations seen in serum (blood) or salivary measurements. Urine hormone testing is well-established in medical literature as a reliable method of assessing physiological hormone levels.

Urinary estrogens can be a sensitive monitor of liver detoxification capability. Elevated urinary estrogens in normally-cycling women or men may indicate a history of exposure to compounds that stress the liver such as environmental chemicals. This has been observed in peri- or post-menopausal women who have previously taken conjugated equine estrogens such as Premarin.  Interventions intended to improve liver function result in a gradual normalization of the abnormal estrogen levels. Thus measurement of urinary estrogens can give insight into other aspects of physiology and an overall longer, happier life.

For more information on testing, please contact Dr. Nirvana at (949) 836-6991