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Fizzy Drinks Can Damage Liver

Just two cans of fizzy drink a day can increase risk of liver damage by 80 per cent.
………………….Drinking Fruit juice

Health risk: Just two glasses of fruit juice each day can increase the chance of developing fatty liver disease by up to 80 per cent

Drinking just two glasses of fruit juice or fizzy drink each day may cause long-term liver damage resulting in the need for a transplant, according to new research published today.
Liver damage is usually associated with alcohol abuse but a new study has found that drinks with a high sugar content can cause a condition called fatty liver disease, making them even more dangerous than alcohol abuse.

Israeli scientists found that people who drank a litre of high-sugar fizzy drinks or fresh fruit juice each day were five times more likely to develop fatty liver disease

They found that even a couple of cans of beverages such as Coca Cola raised the risk of liver damage, as well as diabetes and heart damage.
Doctors at the Ziv Liver unit in Haifa, Israel compared two groups of volunteers, neither of which had a risk of developing fatty liver disease.
The results at the end of the study showed that 80 per cent of those who had consumed high-sugar fizzy drinks and fruit juices had fatty liver changes, while only 17 per cent of the control group – who had not been drinking sugary beverages – developed fatty livers.
More…Alcohol fuels rising rates of oral cancer in middle age
Always look on the bright side of life… it could help fend off a heart attack

Dr Nimer Assy who lead the study said the research showed that long-term consumption of high-sugar beverages could result in liver failure and the need for a transplant.
He explained that freshly-squeezed fruit juices could be as dangerous as highly sweetened carbonated soda.
‘The ingredient in fizzy drinks and juices that causes the damage is a fruit sugar called fructose, which is highly absorbable in the liver,’ he said.

‘It does not affect insulin production and goes straight to the liver where it is converted to fat.

‘Fructose increases the chances of suffering from a fatty liver, which can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer.’
The father-of-five, who confessed to letting his own children drink Coca Cola recommended that parents limit their children’s intake of sweetened beverages to no more than one cup, juice box or can each day.
He added that parents should replace the juice in their children’s lunch boxes with a bottle of water.
To reap the maximum benefit from fruit, and to avoid the risk of liver damage, Dr Assy suggested eating the fruit whole: ‘Whole oranges have fibre that prevents fructose from being absorbed into the liver,’ he explained.
Dr Assy’s study was inspired by patients with fatty liver disease at his clinic: ‘We have noticed recently that there are many patients coming to the clinic with fatty infiltration of the liver.
‘Usually the risk factor is for people with obesity, diabetes and alcohol abuse, but we noticed some people without these pre-conditions could have fatty liver.’
Dr Assy said that even diet drinks containing artificial sweeteners were not without risk.
‘While diet drinks do not contain fructose, they do have aspartame and caramel colourants – both these can increase insulin resistance and may induce fatty liver,’ he said.
Imogen Shillito, the British Liver Trust’s Director of Information and Education said: ‘We’re very concerned that the rising tide of obesity is putting people’s liver health at risk. Fatty liver disease in the UK is set to get worse with the rising rates of obesity.

‘This research highlights that people should watch their sugar intake as well as their alcohol intake in their drinks to avoid liver damage and reduce the risk of liver cancer.

You may click to see:->
Alcohol fuels rising rates of oral cancer in middle age
Always look on the bright side of life… it could help fend off a heart attack

Women warned to stop drinking cola to avoid brittle bones

‘A healthy diet, including fresh fruit and regular exercise, will help reduce your risk of developing fatty liver disease.‘


Source:MailOnline: 9th. Aug.2009

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Health Alert

Food Additives to Remove From Your Diet

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Many food additives have been studied and linked to various diseases. Becoming informed about the additives in everyday food items can make for an easier shopping experience and healthier food for everyone.

………………..CLICK & SEE

Here’s a list of some of the most medically questionable and harmful additives in everyday foods:

1.Sodium nitrite
2.BHA & BHT
3.Propyl gallate
4.Monosodium glutamate
5.Trans fats
6.Aspartame
7.Acesulfame-K
8.Food colorings (Blue, Red, Green, Yellow)
9.Olestra
10.Potassium bromate
11.White sugar
12.Sodium chloride (salt)
Since some of these may not be familiar to you, sodium nitrite is a preservative added most commonly to bacon, ham, hot dogs, sandwich meats, and smoked fish. BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) are other preservatives added to foods like cereal, gum, potato chips, and vegetable oils. Propyl gallate is found in meats, chicken soup base, and gum. All of these preservatives have been linked to cancer.

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) can cause migraines and other adverse effects. Trans fats are being eliminated from most foods, as the studies linking them to heart disease, strokes, and kidney problems are widely accepted.

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener found in products like NutraSweet and Equal as well as diet foods and soft drinks. And acesulfame-K is a newer sweetener used in soft drinks and some baked goods.

Many food colorings have been banned by the FDA, but some can still be found in foods that require a particular color. Olestra was common for a time in potato chips as an additive that prevented fat from being absorbed in your digestive system. Food colorings have been tied to cancer and Olestra also blocks vitamins from being processed.

Potassium bromate is sometimes added to white flour, breads, and rolls to increase the volume of the products, but it has cancer-causing properties that have prompted some states in America to actually require a label to that effect.

Finally, white sugar and sodium chloride (salt) can be dangerous if not kept to a minimum.

Source: Health News June 29, 2009

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Suppliments our body needs

Erythritol

3D-model of a sucrose molecule. Created by Mic...Image via Wikipedia

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Erythritol is a naturally-derived sugar substitute that looks and tastes very much like sugar, yet has almost no calories. It comes in granulated and powdered forms.

Erythritol has been used in Japan since 1990 in candies, chocolate, yogurt, fillings, jellies, jams, beverages, and as a sugar substitute.

Erythritol is classified as a sugar alcohol. Sugar alcohols, also called polyols, are sugar substitutes that are either extracted from plants or manufactured from starches. Some of the more common sugar alcohol sweeteners are sorbitol and xylitol.

Sugar alcohols also occur naturally in plants. Erythritol is found naturally in small amounts in grapes, melons, mushrooms, and fermented foods such as wine, beer, cheese, and soy sauce.

Erythritol is a natural sugar alcohol (a type of sugar substitute) which has been approved for use in the United States and throughout much of the world. It occurs naturally in fruits and fermented foods . At industrial level, it is produced from glucose by fermentation with a yeast, Moniliella pollinis. It is 60-70% as sweet as table sugar yet it is almost non-caloric, does not affect blood sugar, does not cause tooth decay, and is absorbed by the body, therefore unlikely to cause gastric side effects unlike other sugar alcohols. Under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling requirements, it has a caloric value of 0.2 calories per gram (95% less than sugar and other carbohydrates), but some countries like Japan label it at 0 calories. European legislation actually considers it at 2.4 kcal/g but pending discussion will certainly achieve a 0 kcal/g caloric value by 2009.

Erythritol and human digestion
In the body, erythritol is absorbed into the bloodstream in the small intestine, and then for the most part excreted unchanged in the urine. Because erythritol is normally absorbed before it enters the large intestine, it does not normally cause laxative effects as are often experienced after over-consumption of other sugar alcohols (such as xylitol and maltitol) and most people will consume erythritol with no side effects. This is a unique characteristic, as other sugar alcohols are not absorbed directly by the body in this manner, and consequently are more prone to causing gastric distress .

As a whole, erythritol is generally free of side-effects in regular use, but if consumed in very extreme quantities (sometimes encouraged by its almost non-caloric nature), effectively consuming it faster than one’s body can absorb it, a laxative effect may result. The laxative response does not begin until you cross your body’s natural absorption threshold, which is the point at which you have ingested more erythritol than is found in reasonable servings of food products and is usually a larger amount than most people will eat in a single sitting. Erythritol, when compared with other sugar alcohols, is also much more difficult for intestinal bacteria to digest, so it is unlikely to cause gas or bloating [5], unlike maltitol, sorbitol, or lactitol. Allergic side effects can be itching with hives.

How is Erythritol Made?
Erythritol is usually made from plant sugars. Sugar is mixed with water and then fermented with a natural culture into erythritol. It is then filtered, allowed to crystallize, and then dried. The finished product is white granules or powder that resembles sugar.

How Sweet is Erythritol?
Erythritol is approximately 70 percent as sweet as table sugar (sucrose). Some manufacturers, however, claim that their erythritol products are as sweet as sugar.

Physical properties

Heat of solution
Erythritol has a strong cooling effect (positive heat of solution when it dissolves in water, often combined with the cooling effect of mint flavors, but proves distracting with more subtle flavors and textures. The cooling effect is only present when erythritol is not already dissolved in water, a situation that might be experienced in an erythritol-sweetened frosting, chocolate bar, chewing gum, or hard candy. When combined with solid fats, such as coconut oil, cocoa butter or cow’s butter, the cooling effect tends to accentuate the waxy characteristics of the fat in a generally undesirable manner. This is particularly pronounced in chocolate bars made with erythritol. The cooling effect of erythritol is very similar to that of xylitol and among the strongest cooling effects of all sugar alcohols.

Blending for sugar-like properties:
Beyond high intensity sweeteners, erythritol is often paired with other bulky ingredients that exhibit sugar-like characteristics to better mimic the texture and mouthfeel of sucrose. Often these other ingredients are responsible for the gastric side effects blamed on erythritol. The cooling effect of erythritol is rarely desired, hence other ingredients are chosen to dilute or even negate that effect. Erythritol also has a propensity to crystallize and is not as soluble as sucrose, so ingredients may also be chosen to help negate this disadvantage. Furthermore, erythritol is non-hygroscopic, meaning it does not attract moisture, which can lead to products, particularly baked goods, drying out if another hygroscopic ingredient is not used in the formulation.

Very commonly, inulin is combined with erythritol, due to inulin offering a complementary negative heat of solution (warming effect when dissolved that helps cancel erythritol’s cooling effect) and non-crystallizing properties. Unfortunately, inulin has a propensity to cause gas and bloating when consumed in moderate to large quantities, particularly in individuals unaccustomed to it. Other sugar alcohols are sometimes utilized with erythritol, particularly isomalt due to its minimally positive heat of solution, and glycerin which has a negative heat of solution, moderate hygroscopicity, and non-crystallizing liquid form.

Erythritol and bacteria:
Erythritol has been certified as tooth-friendly[7]. The sugar alcohol cannot be metabolized by oral bacteria, and so does not contribute to tooth decay. Interestingly, erythritol exhibits some, but not all, of the tendencies to “starve” harmful bacteria like xylitol does. Unlike xylitol, erythritol is actually absorbed into the bloodstream after consumption but before excretion. However, it is not clear at present if the effect of starving harmful bacteria occurs systemically.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythritol
http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/herbsvitaminsa1/a/Bee_propolis.htm

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The Miracle Berry

Imagine an extract from a berry that would make sour things taste sweet and help you lose weight. Then imagine not being allowed to take it.

 CLICK & SEE

The berry makes sour things taste sweet

The world is getting fatter. One billion people are overweight, and 300 million of those are clinically obese.

The search is always on for replacements for those things that, eaten in excess, make us obese – fatty and sugary foods. There is no miracle pill that can replace either. Nearly four decades ago one man came close to providing a tablet that could reduce our love of sugar. In the 1960s, Robert Harvey, a biomedical postgraduate student, encountered the miracle berry, an African fruit which turns sour tastes to sweet.

“You can eat a berry and then bite into a lemon,” says Harvey. “It becomes not only sweeter, but it will be the best lemon you’ve tasted in your life.”

FIND OUT MORE…
The Miracle Berry, presented by Tom Mangold, is on Radio 4 at 2100 BST on 28 April
Or listen again on the BBC iPlayer

More importantly, this “miracle” can be used to manufacture sweet tasting foods without sugar or sweeteners, which have always been plagued by an after-taste.

Spotting the potential health benefits, and the healthy profits, that the miracle berry promised, Harvey founded the Miralin Company to grow the berry in Jamaica and Puerto Rico, extract its active ingredient in laboratories in Hudson, Massachusetts, and market it across the United States. At first, Harvey aimed his products at diabetics.

“In market testing, diabetics thought our product, as the name implies, was a miracle.”

But Harvey’s sweet dream of making the world healthier came to an abrupt end. On the eve of the launch in 1974, the US Food and Drugs Administration unexpectedly turned against the product.

Legal advice and contact with the FDA had led Harvey to believe that the extract from the berry would be allowed under the classification “generally recognised as safe”. Having been eaten for centuries in Africa, without anecdotal reports of problems, it could be assumed not to be harmful.

But the FDA decided it would be considered as an additive which required several years more testing. In the poor economic climate of 1974, this could not be funded and the company folded.

“I was in shock,” says Harvey. “We were on very good terms with the FDA and enjoyed their full support. There was no sign of any problem. Without any opportunity to know what the concern was and who raised it, and to respond to it – they just banned the product.”

He remembers a number of strange events leading up to the FDA’s decision, beginning immediately after one particular market research test.

His investors, including Reynolds Metals, Barclays and Prudential, had put up big money. They were looking for big returns.

“From the beginning my interest was in the diabetic market but my backers wanted to put double zeros after the numbers we were projecting.”

So, in the summer of 1974, miracle berry ice lollies, in four different flavours, were compared to similar, sugar-sweetened versions by schoolchildren in Boston. The berry won every time.

Don Emery, then vice president of the Miralin company, recalls the excitement.

“If we had got beyond the diabetic market we could have been a multi-billion dollar company. We’d have displaced maybe millions of tons of sugar and lots of artificial sweeteners as well.”

A few weeks later, things turned sour. A car was spotted driving back and forwards past Miralin’s offices, slowing down as someone took photographs of the building. Then, late one night, Harvey was followed as he drove home.

“I sped up, then he sped up. I pulled into this dirt access road and turned off my lights and the other car went past the end of the road at a very high speed. Clearly I was being monitored.”

Sugar denial:  Finally, at the end of that summer, Harvey and Emery arrived back at the office after dinner to find they were being burgled. The burglars escaped and were never found, but the main FDA file was left lying open on the floor.

A few weeks later the FDA, which had previously been very supportive, wrote to Miralin, effectively banning its product. No co-incidence, according to Don Emery.

Obesity is a massive problem in the West  :  “I honestly believe that we were done in by some industrial interest that did not want to see us survive because we were a threat. Somebody influenced somebody in the FDA to cause the regulatory action that was taken against us.”

The Sugar Association, the trade body representing “Big Sugar” in the US, declined to be interviewed on the subject but flatly denied that the industry had exerted any influence over the FDA.

The Calorie Control Council, which represents artificial sweetener manufacturers in the US, has failed to respond to questions on the issue.

The Food and Drugs Administration also refused to be interviewed and has indicated that a Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation request to look at the relevant FDA files will not be considered for a year. Robert Harvey had requested the same files over 30 years ago.

“We got back the most redacted information I’ve ever seen from FOI. Everything was blacked out. There would have been material in the file that would have embarrassed the FDA, I believe.”

Faced with this silence, it’s virtually impossible to assess what actually happened to prevent the miracle berry’s progress to a sugar-free market.

But one thing is certain, it never got the chance to prove whether it really would have provided a miracle in our ever fattening world. And for Robert Harvey, that’s the biggest shame of all.

“It was a big loss not only for my employees and shareholders but, even more importantly, for diabetics and other people with special dietary needs. It was tragic.”

CLICK TO KNOW MORE ABOUT : MIRACLE BERRY:
MIRACLE FRUIT
DIFFERENT PICTURES OF MIRACLE FRUIT PLANT
*Also known as “miracle fruit” or Synsepalum dulcificum
*Grown in Africa, first documented in 18th Century
*Acts on the sour receptors of the tongue, turning sour tastes sweet
*Effect lasts 30 mins – two hours
*Effect is destroyed in hot foods – eg coffee and baked foods
*Renders an accompanying dry white wine sickly sweet
.
Click to see also:->These berries’ miracle is a sweet one
Miracle berry lets Japanese dieters get sweet from sour
.
Sources: BBC NEWS:28Th. Aptil ’08
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Gene ‘linked to higher gout risk’

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A reason why millions worldwide fall prey to the painful joint condition gout may have been uncovered.

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES
..Gout can be disfiguring and painful

A rise in UK gout cases has been blamed on increasingly unhealthy lifestyles.

However, genetic analysis of more than 12,000 people, published in the journal Nature Genetics, has found that a gene variant may also raise the risk.

Researchers at the MRC Human Genetics Unit, in Edinburgh, said the gene, and the protein it controls, might one day be targeted by new gout drugs.

In a healthy body, uric acid, a waste product found in the blood, is removed by the kidneys and passes out of the body in urine.

However, in some people the kidney cannot get rid of it properly and it builds up in the blood, forming crystals in the joints, leading to inflammation, stiffness and pain.

Various food types have been blamed, with the consensus that diets rich in refined sugars, protein and alcohol increase the risk.

Many thousands of people have a diet which appears to increase the risk of gout, but far fewer actually develop the illness.

Now scientists at the MRC Human Genetics Unit may have worked out why that is.

The gene variation they found, in the SLC2A gene, appears to make it harder for the body to remove uric acid from the blood.

Testing and treatment

Professor Alan Wright, who led the research, said: “The gene is a key player in determining the efficiency of uric acid transport across the membranes of the kidney.”

His colleague Harry Campbell said: “Some people will have higher or lower risk of gout depending on the form of the gene they inherited.

“This discovery may allow better diagnostic tools for gout to be developed.”

At the moment, drug treatment for patients is limited.

Although gout is a disease more usually found in a historical textbook, it is estimated that one million people in the UK suffer from it in some form.

Professor Stuart Ralston, from the British Society for Rheumatology, said that he often came across patients whose lifestyles did not fit the traditional view of over-consumption.

“Until recently you would associate gout with boozing and rich food, but there are plenty of other patients who are quite abstemious. This might be a genetic marker for gout risk.

“What is exciting is that it could be a target for new gout drugs.”

Dr Andrew Bamji, president of the British Society for Rheumatology, said that the research supported a recent study which suggested that too many sugary soft drinks could trigger gout.

He said: “It appears that this gene also plays a role in the control of levels of fructose sugar in the body, which would explain the finding that soft drinks were linked to attacks.”

Click to learn more about:->

What is Gout

Gout surge blamed on sweet drinks

Lower gout risk for coffee lovers

Gout treatments ‘remain unproven’

Sources:BBC NEWS: 10Th.March.’08

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