Joann Goodman Health Coach at The Metabolic Wellness Hub

06/29/2023

Give this a listen. It’s only about 11 mins but has so much important information.

The diet prescribed by the nutrition guidelines and the CDC is not healthy. The recommendations to eat high carb and low fat leads to disease while the opposite, low carb and high protein and fat reverses disease. It’s time to stop believing the lies.

Weight loss and maintenance is about more than appearance. The internal health of your body is even more important.

A compelling discussion of a case of pre-diabetes from the USA today. There is an epidemic of Type II diabetes in America. Dr. Dayspring and Gary Taubes disc...

06/10/2023

There are 2 main ways that T2 diabetes develops. One, as fat cells fill up they can no longer accept glucose and glucose builds up in the blood. This is very common but doesn’t explain how thin people also develop T2 diabetes.

I’ve mentioned, Ironman World Champion, Sami Inkinen before. The year he won the world championship he was also diagnosed as pre-diabetic. He was very fit and ate very clean, so how was this possible?

Endurance athletes are told they must eat huge amounts of carbs in order to fuel their workouts. This leads us to the second way T2 diabetes can develop. A person can burn enough energy to maintain a low body weight and yet still have a large enough and frequent enough carb intake that the body can’t clear the glucose out of the blood fast enough.

Here’s my analogy: Say there is a construction worker (Ivan) who’s job it is to move a pile of dirt (glucose) into a bin (cell). Another worker’s (Ernie) job is to move the dirt out of the bin and burn it for energy. All is good as long as the amount Ivan puts in the bin is the same that Ernie takes out and the amount of dirt being brought to the pile is little enough that Ivan can move it to the bin and the pile doesn’t get too big.

But if Ernie moves too slow the bin can fill up and Ivan won’t be able to move dirt out of the pile and into the bin because there is no more room. Then Ivan has to slow down and the pile begins to get too big. (Overweight diabetic)

Or Ernie and Ivan may be moving dirt as they should but the delivery of dirt to the pile is too large or often and Ivan can’t move it fast enough to prevent the pile from getting too big. (Thin diabetic)

In both cases, however, if the delivery of dirt is reduced and happens less often, then Ivan and Ernie can catch up and get the pile of dirt back down to normal. And that will happen even faster if Ernie works faster to empty the bin and makes more room for Ivan to move dirt from the pile and into the bin.

So our goal is small, infrequent deliveries and getting Ernie to work faster.

05/22/2023

Calories In vs Calories Out, Eat Less and Move More, has been the weight loss advice given for decades and it works IF you want to be hungry all the time. But when you understand that calories from different foods are different then you can make weight loss a lot easier on yourself.

According to one of my textbooks, as a society, we are eating the same amount of calories that our thin 1970’s versions were but we are gaining more weight. I’m pretty skeptical of this claim, which is based on notoriously inaccurate 24hr food recalls, especially since our meals have been super sized, our beverages are highly sugared, and snacks are abundant.

But let’s assume the claim is accurate. How could the same calorie cause more weight gain?

For the last 40 years especially we have been told to eat a high carb diet. Much of those carbs were in the form of grains and refined sugars. Carbs are the only macronutrient that has only one job, to provide energy. When more carbs are eaten than needed for energy the excess is converted to fat and stored for later use.

Dietary fat is also stored as energy but it also has a great number of jobs in the body from lining every cell and protecting organs to building hormones and making up much of the brain’s tissue.

Protein is only used for energy as a last resort. It’s primary job is to build tissue but is also needed to create hormones and DNA.

As our diet shifted toward a high carb diet, more calories were consumed that had no other job than to be stored as energy in the form of fat.

Another shift was from homemade meals that had minimally processed ingredients to meals that were highly processed. The more processed a food is the less work that needs to be done to digest it. It’s estimated that an additional 200 calories/day is conserved (not used) due to eating highly processed food.

So what should you do with this information?
Shift your diet away from a high carb diet to a high animal protein and low carb vegetable diet and away from processed foods to fresh ingredients. This alone will make a huge impact on how your body uses the calories you provide it and how many calories are stored as fat.

05/20/2023

I feel like this applies to people’s health too but not everyone leaves. Some people choose to stay in an abusive relationship with food.

05/17/2023

Here are some indicators of health. Use this to determine if you are healthy and to use as a goal.

You should have no chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is a sign that there is frequent damage being done to the body. Chronic pain, acne, rashes, and chronic heart burn are all signs of chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is most often caused by foods.

If you need a CPAP, that’s a sign of poor health and you can do something about it. Reducing inflammation is the first step. Weight loss is the next.

Normal blood sugar is the biggest thing you can do to improve your health. This will reduce inflammation and without inflammation there is no buildup of calcium in the arteries so your Coronary Artery Calcium (CAC) score will be low.

Often, once you start eating healthy, your body fat will take care of itself. A thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to lose *weight*, you want to lose *fat*. You want to preserve protein.

Weak bones are life shorteners. If you fall and break a hip, the chance you don’t survive for the following 12 months is extremely high. For bones to stay strong you need 2 things, good nutrition and strength training.

This leads right into the next health marker, strength. Here are 2 you should be able to do at a minimum, a body weight squat and get up off the floor unassisted. Strength training just twice a week can increase muscle strength and bone strength. More muscle mass also helps with blood sugar control.

Strength training sessions should include flexibility and balance work. Both will help prevent injuries and falls.

Aerobic capacity is your ability to increase your heart rate and breath rate. This is exercise specifically for your heart and lungs. Start with just a brisk walk.

Finally, memory problems are a sign that the brain has become insulin resistant. The best ways to prevent this and even reverse it once it’s started is to keep blood sugar in the normal range and to exercise. Word games and puzzles are not what keeps your brain functioning optimally, exercise absolutely improves brain function though.

05/12/2023

T2 diabetes is a carbohydrate toxicity. If you want to manage your diabetes, keep taking pills, eating all the carbs, and heading down the path to diabetes complications.

But if you want to reverse your diabetes, have control of your blood sugar, have normal blood sugar levels, and avoid diabetic complications then you have to reduce your carb and sugar intake.

05/11/2023

Why should you prioritize protein?

• It is the macronutrient that keeps you feeling full the longest.
• It builds and maintains muscle and other tissue.
• Since it is used for building tissue, it is only used to provide energy as a last resort, so it’s calories are almost free.
• It is not stored as fat like carbs and fat are.
• As you get older you need more protein to maintain muscle mass which is important as muscle mass is a predictor of longevity.

We’ve been told to limit protein intake, especially red meat, for far too long and that is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. You cannot over eat protein. You will get full long before you eat too much of it.

People that struggle with craving and overeating carbs generally are not eating enough protein.

Red meat especially is nutritious and is the only food that you could survive on if that’s all you ate.

As far as claims that red meat causes cancer or heart disease, they are false and studies critical of meat have recently been called out for their shoddiness. There has never been a single study done that evaluated red meat, or any meat, in the context of a healthy diet that is absent of processed foods. In every study that claimed eating meat causes cancer or heart disease, the diet consisted of highly processed foods, such that the standard American diet consists of.

Recent evidence suggests that even a carnivore (meat only) diet is useful for reverse a myriad of chronic diseases and autoimmune disorders.

So eat more protein and have some veggies on the side.

05/10/2023

Do you get muscle cramps? Charlie horses in your legs? How about frequent headaches? Feel dizzy sometimes after standing up? Feel shaky or jittery?

These are all symptoms of low electrolytes. Other symptoms include lethargy, feelings of anxiety, and heart palpitations.

Electrolytes are minerals that are necessary for every nerve impulse in your body and when they get low your body starts having problems.

Drinking too much water can flush out electrolytes as can diuretic medications. The body is capable of removing excess electrolytes and being low is far worse than being high.

Nutrition guidelines and doctors recommend limiting salt but that often causes problems and it doesn’t lower blood pressure. High blood pressure is caused by high blood sugar and high insulin.

The body, in its effort to remove blood sugar, increases thirst, which increases urination which usually flushed out sodium. But because sodium is so important to the body’s ability to function, the body increases reabsorption of sodium from the urine. This holding on of sodium is what causes the medical field to believe that limiting salt is necessary. However, it’s carbs that need to be reduced to lower blood pressure not salt.

The electrolytes you need to be concerned about are sodium, which you can get from table salt or any variety of sea salt; magnesium, which can be taken in pill form, glycinate is best; and potassium, which can be taken by eating the salt substitute “No Salt” or “NuSalt”.

Food sources of magnesium are leafy greens like spinach, avocado, almonds, yogurt, dark chocolate, and fatty fish.

Food sources of potassium are leafy greens, avocado, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, salmon, and beef.

Taking magnesium glycinate before bed has a calming effect on the body and helps you sleep.

05/10/2023

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U.S. Department of Agriculture"discloses" conflicts of interest on Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee yet doesn't actually list conflicts by name. ??
Lacks transparency, and conflicts impossible to manage publicly. See response by the Nutrition Coalition, which includes quote by a pioneer of evidence-based medicine and one of the world's most highly-cited scientists, Gordon Guyatt

https://www.nutritioncoalition.us/experts-say-disclosure-for-dga-committe-inadequate?fbclid=IwAR3E630ITvp9pRa_ylVwZbeEWYl-4Zc4ugb98oYe1ADCyDUD2KGGZA_b1rw&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

The Nutrition Coalition and other experts expressed surprise and disappointment in the recent disclosure of conflicts of interest (COI) for the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services (USDA-HHS).

05/08/2023

The body positivity movement is one of the most nefarious pieces of propaganda. This is the first time in American history that people have been encouraged to ignore markers of poor health and even been told that those markers don’t mean they are unhealthy.

A person’s value does not come from their appearance, weight, or abilities. Rather it comes from the fact that they are human beings with a soul and were created for a purpose. I agree that some of our ideals about beauty should be broadened but I think those ideals came more often from entertainment and beauty industries.

Being overweight is not a cause of poor health. It is a symptom of poor health. So telling a young teen-20 something person that being overweight is ok and healthy is setting them up for developing chronic diseases early in life. This means chronic pain for life and a shortened life at that as increasingly more people have begun having heart attacks in the 20’s and 30’s (this started pre-co vid, so not poke related). Why would we want to encourage this?

An overweight young woman is much more likely to experience fertility problems because her body is not healthy enough to support a pregnancy, just like an underweight woman can lose her period because she is also not healthy enough to support a pregnancy. An overweight young man will also have lower testosterone levels which affects his s***m count and quality.

There is a reason our natural preference for the opposite s*x is for someone who is fit and within a healthy body fat range. We instinctively know what healthy is and who is most suitable to reproduce.

For far too long we have focused on weight and this has caused eating disorders and dangerous behaviors and damaging thought processes in those trying to be thin but embracing poor health is not the answer.

Rather, we need to stop focusing on weight and focus on doing things that are healthy and weight will fall into place. Eat meat and veggies, avoid processed foods, get active, exercise self discipline. Teach kids this at a young age and be a role model for them and this will solve a lot of health problems we are experiencing as a society.

05/05/2023

Excellent takedown of recent anti-keto propaganda. How can you trust agencies that are supposed to be the authority on health if they lie to you, are funded by pharmaceutical companies, and bash a diet that improves all health makers and gets people off prescription meds?

Trusted health groups like the Amer. Heart Assoc. would like you to think so.

05/04/2023

I hear far too often that eating low carb is extreme. Yet people that adopt a low carb lifestyle find it easy to stick too and find that they are happier eating this way. Why? Because they don’t have joint pain, indigestion, heart burn, fatigue, brain fog, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, or have to take a bunch of pills any more.

They don’t have cravings either or nagging hunger or feel the need to snack all the time. Most meals are pretty simple: meat, eggs, or fish and veggies.

To me, what is extreme, is continuing to eat foods that make you sick while taking medication that hides the symptoms until you are sick enough that the medication can’t hide the symptoms anymore.

Being normal now means feeling terrible and taking handfuls of pills each day. Let me know if you are done being normal and ready to take the (not so) extreme step to take back your health.