THE DIETS AND THE REASON FOR XYLITOL AND PROTEIN

There is a great deal of confusion regarding healthy diets. However, any healthy diet must begin with an understanding of what should and what should not be ingested and the reasons for ingesting one type of food and not ingesting another type of food.

Without talking about vitamins and minerals; only two types of foods are necessary to human life. They are fats and proteins.

Proteins: Proteins are made up of chains of amino acids. It is the amino acids that your body uses. If you are eating foods that contain sufficient amounts of the eight essential amino acids, plus the ten or so other amino acids, you will not need carbohydrate because 60% of the protein will go into the liver as amino acids and will be converted into glucose. These amino acids ae known as glucogenic amino acids. Alanine, Histidne, Glutamine are the main glucogenic amino acids. Glucose is the only carbohydrate that your body can use. It is a sugar. All sugars are carbohydrates because they are made from carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. The other amino acids are used for tissue building. When your body does work, it produces two waste products from glucose metabolism: lactate and pyruvate. These two substances, lactate and pyruvate, return to the liver and are recycled into glucose. The body is very economical.

As you can readily see, strictly speaking, carbohydrate intake is not necessary to your glucose needs.

Oils and Fats: The best biological, physiological and medical research indicates that fat does not cause a problem in the human body. Fat is absolutely necessary for the body’s proper functioning. The body requires, three fats: Omega 3, Omega 6, and Omega 9. Omega 9 is monounsaturated and Omega 3 and 6 are poly unsaturated. All three must be taken in sufficient amounts for optimal health.

The best source on the market for all three oils is flax oil. Flax oil should be purchased only if it is in a completely opaque bottle, has been cold-pressed, and is kept refrigerated. Otherwise it can develop trans-fats. If you wish to buy these oils separately, then you should buy pharmaceutical grade Omega-3 fish oil. You should purchase Borage oil capsules which contain Omega 6. For Omega 9, you should purchase extra-virgin olive oil that states on the label “no trans-fats” or words to that effect.

According to the FDA, there are no safe levels of trans-fats. That means that no oils that contain trans-fats should be ingested. Why shouldn’t they be ingested? They should not be ingested because they imitate cis-fats (unadulterated fats) and clog the pores of the cells making transport of foods into the cells and transport of wastes out of the cells very difficult. Where do trans-fats come from? Trans-fats are found in all vegetable oils that are in clear bottles, which do not state “no trans-fats” This has been confirmed by a study produced by the New England Journal of Medicine. The information is found on the USDA website. They are also found in all foods, of any kind, which contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil of any kind.

THE CARBOHYDRATE PROBLEM: There are three basic types of carbohydrate: indigestible, digestible producing exogenous glucose and digestible producing endogenous glucose.

Indigestible carbohydrate is simply indigestible fibre. It basically causes no problems.

Digestible carbohydrate producing exogenous glucose includes all sugars with the exception of a few which will be mentioned later. Digestible carbohydrates producing exogenous glucose includes all starchy foods. The more exogenous glucose that is produced; the less healthy is the carbohydrate.

Exogenous glucose is the problem to be avoided. It is the carbohydrate that becomes glucose in the small intestine. It then goes into the blood stream. It is not taken up by the liver and stored beyond 5%. Virtually all exogenous glucose goes into the kidneys, the abdominal fat, and into the muscles. If the individual who has ingested this exogenous producing glucose carbohydrate is not exercising enough to use this glucose, then the glucose must be stored in the fat and in the kidneys. Kidney disease is very high amongst people who eat large amounts of high exogenous glucose producing foods. The Atkins diet and the Syndrome X diet are calculated to either completely eliminate all exogenous glucose (the Atkins diet); or to eliminate most of the exogenous glucose (the Syndrome X diet).

The foods that produce this exogenous glucose are those foods that have been so refined that the carbohydrate has been turned into polysaccharides (carbohydrates made of several sugars) that are easily broken down in the intestine into glucose and other sugars. These foods include all flour foods (including whole wheat flour), sucrose and fructose containing foods, all rice foods and potato foods.

Research suggests that it is this type of glucose that causes glycation sometimes known as AGEs. This denotes a process whereby the unused exogenous glucose combines with tissue proteins and prevents the proper functioning of the proteins. As a result, glycation has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, arthritis, kidney disease and a host of other degenerative diseases.

The other type of digestible carbohydrates produces endogenous glucose. Endogenous glucose is produced from carbohydrates which enter the liver and are there made into glucose. In this situation, the body can carefully regulate the amount of glucose which will be permitted into the blood stream. The economy in the use of insulin and the other hormones which usher the glucose into the cells of the body is preserved.

The main commercially available sugar which is not broken down into glucose in the intestine; but rather enters the liver and is there turned into glucose is xylitol. If one has not eaten enough high quality protein to manufacture the necessary glucose in the liver, xylitol will supply the glucose necessary.

True complex carbohydrates which enter the liver can be found in peas, beans and nuts. They are the vegetable sources for high levels of endogenous glucose. Remember, you body cannot readily use exogenous glucose, hence it turns to fat and causes other health problems. If you eat only those foods which must go into the liver to manufacture glucose you will avoid the health problems caused by exogenous glucose.

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