THE G.I. FACTOR: ANSWERED QUESTIONS

Is the G.I. factor able to predict the effect of a mixed meal containing foods with very different G.I. factors?

Yes, the G.I. factor can predict the relative effects of different mixed meals containing foods with very different G.I. factors. Over fifteen studies have looked at the G.I. factors of mixed meals. Twelve of these studies showed an excellent correlation between what was expected and what was actually found. You can predict the G.I. of a mixed meal by making a few simple calculation.

The other three studies which did not show the expected correlation came from a particular group of researchers who were not using standardised methodology for working out the G.I. factor from the area under the curve. In addition, their meals were high in fat instead of carbohydrate, and this tends to reduce the impact of any one carbohydrate food.

Won’t the areas under the curve become equal (despite the different curves for a high and low G.I. food) if the testing is continued long enough?

Some people have assumed that the total area under the curve (for high and low G.I. food) will be the same if the blood sugar is simply measured for long enough. However, this is not the case because the body is able to restore normal blood sugar levels more quickly after a slowly digested food than a quickly digested one. An analogy is turning on a tap full force above a bucket with a small hole in the bottom of it. The bucket will fill up fast and empty slowly. In contrast, the same amount of water delivered as a slow trickle will empty with minimal accumulation (viz area under the curve) in the bucket.

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FAT LOSS: FIXED FACTORS

Gender. There are major differences between males and females in fat loss responses to exercise. Female fat cells are predominantly less lipolytic than those stored around the abdomen of males, and are hence less responsive to exercise. Most researchers now agree that this has a biological function in providing females with an energy reserve for reproduction. There is some suggestion that female gluteal-type fat cells may even be resistant to some types of activity, such as high intensity exercise in younger, pre-menopausal women. Studies carried out at McMaster University in Canada have also shown that, unlike males, female athletes seem to be less effective in ‘carbohydrate loading’ for long endurance events such as the marathon.4 (Carbohydrate loading is a technique whereby large amounts of carbohydrate are eaten 3-4 days before an event in order to ‘fill’ the glycogen reserves which supply immediate energy for the event. This ‘suggests the capacity for glycogen storage is decreased in females and they prefer to use carbohydrate for immediate energy rather than storage.)

Differences in the hormonal environment and body composition lead to a greater fat loss response to a set exercise load in men, and a guaranteed response to almost any form of exercise in younger men. Biomechanical differences and the higher proportion of body fat in women make them more efficient at some forms of exercise, thus using significantly less energy than men for a set exercise stimulus. It has been estimated, for example, that an average-sized woman will use approximately 40 per cent less energy than an averaged-sized man in walking an equivalent distance. Swimming involves an even greater energy differential between genders because of the higher proportion of body fat and the lower centre of gravity in females (enabling them to float more effectively and maintain a more efficient body position). Research at Leeds University in England suggests that females may also eat more after exercise than men, thus making up for the extra energy used during the activity.

All of this has led Dr Gilbert Gleim, a US exercise scientist, to conclude that: . . As an isolated weight loss modality . . . Exercise should not be counted on to produce desired weight reductions (in women) unless the woman is committed to many hours of exercise a day’.

Exercise prescriptions then need to take account of the greater lipolytic resistance which occurs with reduced energy balance, greater compensatory eating and the reduced muscular response

To resistance training. All of this suggests a need for a significantly greater total amount of exercise in females in order to achieve the same fat loss benefits from exercise as a man. On the more positive side, any amount of exercise in women (as well as men) has been shown to improve health profiles such as blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugars and feelings of well being, even if it doesn’t have a major impact on body fat. Older females, with a higher proportion of upper body fat, might be expected to respond more like a man, at least in the reduction of their upper body fat to a given exercise load.

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WHAT IS FAT?

Fat is a highly valuable substance which exists in some form in many plants, seeds and animals. In plants and seeds, it is mainly stored in the form of oils. In humans and animals it’s stored in body tissue known as adipose tissue, which is made up of many fat cells or adipocytes. The main types of fats in plants and animals are called triglycerides. The main function of the fat cell is as a storage reserve of these triglycerides for energy, but it also has secondary functions of providing a ‘cushion’ or protection for the organs of the body and insulating against heat loss. Before it gets into the fat cell, fat in the bloodstream also acts as a transport medium for fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E and K.

While triglycerides are the main type of fat used by the body, two other fats, cholesterol and phospholipids, also have important functions. Cholesterol is a waxy fat-like substance which is used for the production of certain substances such as sex hormones, and in the structure of cell membranes (cell lining). The phospholipids make up part of the structure of every cell, particularly the cell membrane. In our diet, almost all of the fat is in the form of triglycerides with only a small amount of cholesterol and phospholipids.

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THE SECRETS OF STAYING HEALTHFULLY YOUNG: THE SCIENCE OF MACROBIOTICS

A great physician, Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, who lived in Berlin about 150 years ago, wrote a book to which he gave the title Makrobiotik—»The art of prolonging human life.» Now, after 150 years, macrobiotics have become suddenly very popular in the United States. What are macrobiotics?

Hufeland’s definition of macrobiotics was «the art of living longer.» In the present technological and atomic age, macrobiotics means more than just «living longer.» It is the study and application of fundamental factors essential for optimum health and longer life free from disease. Due to improved sanitation, reduction in infant mortality and modern surgery, man’s average life expectancy has increased. But simultaneously, with the advance of technological and chemical sciences, the harmony between man and his natural health-giving environment has become disturbed. This disharmony has brought upon man a host of so-called degenerative diseases. Denatured, devitalized foods, a polluted and poisoned environment, the mental and physical stresses of the competitive world, have resulted in a gradual deterioration of health which has now reached catastrophic proportions.

It is hardly worthwhile to learn how to live a long life, if you have to live a life of miserable suffering from one agonizing disease after another. A long life would make sense only if it could be lived in vibrant health, enjoyed in the active productive pursuit of one’s most treasured interests. The fact is that very few people now really enjoy perfect health. Most are sick, semi-ill or «fictitiously healthy.» living in a chronic state of mesotrophy, or half-health. Therefore, the modern meaning of macrobiotics is «the art of living longer in good health» or, in other words, the art of living younger longer!

I have referred previously to the International Society for F-e-search on Nutrition and Vital Substances. The Scientific Counsel of this Society is composed of over 400 great scientists from 75 countries, representing doctors of medicine, bio-chemistry, nutrition, natural sciences, etc. A great many of these are Nobel Prize Winners. This most authoritative scientific forum conducts objective, scientific studies and research, and through its annual conventions disperses recommendations to various governments and their health organizations, as well as to the World Health Organization.

This Society has conducted a seven-year study of macrobiotics, or the fundamentals of healthier and longer life in our modem technological society. Its findings and conclusions in regard to macrobiotics were adopted at the Society’s 7th International Convention.

Note this: you may read any number of popular health books or listen to the subjective, personal opinions of this or that health lecturer—usually with each one of them offering a different road to glorious health and long life—and you are no wiser in the end. But here is the united consensus of a large body of responsible and respected scientists, based on the objective study and research of all available scientific data. It would be wise to listen to them.

The following resume is based on Resolution No. 25 of the International Society for Research on Nutrition and Vital Substances.

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WHAT CAUSES MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS?

Multiple sclerosis is most prevalent in the so-called highly civilized (read: chemicalized!) countries. It is rarely encountered in Italy and the South American countries. Italians and South Americans living in the United States and eating the American diet show, however, the same incidence of the disease as other Americans. Researchers feel, therefore, that there must be a relationship between diet and the incidence of multiple sclerosis. Some surveys in Europe show that the disease seems to increase in areas with a higher consumption of animal fat and milk. Diets low in fat were tried on patients at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, with encouraging results.

In England it was observed that there was an unusually high incidence of the disease in lead-mining areas, which prompted many investigations. It was also shown that the lead content of the teeth of patients with multiple sclerosis was «significantly» higher than that of the control groups.

Many other researchers have linked lead poisoning to multiple sclerosis. The Finnish researcher, Martti Salmi, believes that the incidence of multiple sclerosis is closely related to the occurrence of lead in the soil and the environment. It seems that there is a higher incidence of the disease in the northern hemisphere, with the number of cases increasing as one goes farther north. It has been shown that glacial ice distributed lead-bearing materials to the soils in the northern countries. Also, lead in the air from leaded gasoline is suspected as the cause of the disease.

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