fructose corn syrup (doubling the fructose over table sugar) isn’t working out so well. Dr. Robert Lustig, author of Fat Chance suggests that 60% of today’s youth have Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Before suggesting sugar alternatives, let me express my passionate opinion about added sweetness in general. If you continually feed your sweet tooth, no matter what the sweetener, you will have a much harder time appreciating the more subtle sweet and deliciousness of whole foods. Cut the added sugar and your brain will adaptively begin to prefer the flavors of your favorite fruits and veggies, while your body reduces your fat storage. Regarding taste, Sucrose (table sugar) is our gold standard and the zero calorie Non-Nutritive Sweetners (NNS) can’t compete, including Aspartame (Equil, Nutrasweet), Saccharin (Sweet-nSow) or Sucralose (Splenda). After tons of research there is little evidence that any of these cause toxicities when consumed in reasonable amounts. Yet there are a handful of recent studies showing they might result in gut dysbiosis, insulin resistance or increased appetite. Many patients ask me about Stevia, which tastes good and seems safe, but has been studied far less than Aspartame. Warning: Just because something is “naturally occurring” doesn’t necessarily make it safe. Alcohol sugars such as Erythritol, Sorbitol and Xylitol are not considered NNSs because they have some calorie count, though each have some advantages. I frequently recommend Xylitol for my cavity-prone patients, because unlike any other sugar, it inhibits our cavity-causing bacteria to excrete acid. Two good-tasting and promising sweeteners on our forefront are Monk Fruit (from the luohan guo plant) and Allulose, the mirror image of the fructose molecule but behaves opposite, metabolically. Allulose is fully absorbed (so it has no GI effect), fully excreted by the kidneys and drags blood glucose with it, actually lowering your insulin resistance. I hope this small article on a vast subject whets your appetite to keep learning together.
Dr. Susan Maples is a dentist in Holt. She is also a speaker, health educator and author of Blabbermouth. Learn more at drsusanmaples.com. or call (517) 694.0353.
Are you safe?
HEALTH
Does a normal stress test mean you are safe from a heart attack?
E
ach of us has 60,000 miles of circulation with our arteries, veins and capillaries supplying blood to every organ in our body, and our heart needing to beat 35 million times a year. In politics the debate is often about improving infrastructure, but for each of us it should start with our own critical circulation infrastructure. How can we know that our arteries are clean? Although we can do blood tests that can help us identify some of the risk, many people go on to have a heart event with seemingly normal risk. Of those, 40 percent have sudden death and their first symptom was the only and last one. Stress tests can be helpful but they are only sensitive to tighter blockages, and many people don’t show symptoms. A heart attack can occur from even a 40 percent blockage that suddenly ruptures. Newer technologies, such as measuring the thickness of the carotid arteries in the neck by ultrasound, have emerged to detect pre-clinical changes in the arteries. Called CIMT (Carotid Intima-Medial Thickness Test), it can give us a safe and cost-effective clue that more is
happening than we even realize. The scan is non-invasive, takes about 10 minutes and is performed by a sonographer. There is no preparation needed for the test and there is no radiation or injections involved in the scan. Also, there is no need to disrobe. The test detects not just calcific (hard) plaques but the more subtle soft plaques in the carotid arteries (the arteries of the neck). Studies have shown that the presence of carotid plaque correlates very well with coronary plaque (plaque in the heart arteries). The easy access to the carotid arteries in the neck therefore make this test a very useful tool to indirectly assess the heart arteries. The images can help guide options for treatment and can be rechecked for improvement at a later date. This gives us a way to more accurately look at our risk of heart disease, stroke and heart events. Dr. Alicia Williams, D.O. is a Board Certified Cardiologist at The Center for Optimal Health. Reach her at (517) 324.9400 or at www. cfohealth.com.
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