Don't blow off breakfast (opinion)

Sunday, December 02, 2012 by: Hesh Goldstein
Tags: breakfast, weight loss, foods

(NaturalNews) Most of us think if we blow-off breakfast we'll lose weight. How would you like to lose 30 pounds within a year?

Let's face it, losing weight isn't easy. But keeping it off is way harder. The people that study weight dilemmas say it can be done with little effort.

Reports say that one in five people can manage to lose 10 percent of body weight and keep it off for at least a year.

In more than 4,000 of successful weight losers (30 pounds lost and kept off) that participated in the National Weight Control Registry, scientists are trying to figure out what they do differently from other people that have a problem losing weight and keeping it off.

Yep, they ate breakfast every day. Well, at least three out of four. Not bacon, ham, or sausage and eggs, but a bowl of high fiber cereal and dried and/or fresh fruit.

Understand one thing, we are not talking about the major brands that became the "enemies of the people" by their contributions to defeat the California GMO labeling bill, and who load their cereals with GMOs and sugar. We are talking about oatmeal and other whole grains.

It seems that people who eat a high fiber cereal for breakfast are more likely to have a low body mass index (BMI), which is measure of obesity.

Women, especially, are 24 percent more likely to have healthy BMI if they eat breakfast. Men who eat breakfast regularly tend to weigh less and are less likely to gain weight, as they get older.

Eating a high fiber cereal suppresses your appetite, allows you to eat less, and improves how your body handles blood sugar after a meal, because it helps food move through your small intestine faster that eating refined cereals.

Not eating refined cereals and grains triggers the body to a "fullness" hormone for two to four hours longer than it normally would when you eat crap.

It was found that whole grain breakfast eaters tend to eat less fat during the rest of the day, yet have more energy for exercise and other physical activities. Using rice milk or hemp milk and dried fruits like black currents, apricots, figs, raisins, and prunes will give you more than enough calcium and save you from ingesting the ever-popular antibiotic, growth hormone, GMO, and pesticide-laden milk from the feed fed the cows. If you are hooked on milk, get goat's milk. It's closer to mother's milk anyway. And getting more calcium is linked to a lower BMI as well.

We have learned that eating whole grains can drop diabetes risk as well. Now, we are learning that eating a bowl of whole grain cereal daily can do this also due to the enormous supply of fiber.

It has been found that people who eat a bowl of cereal seven days a week are 37 percent less likely to get diabetes. If you can do this at least two to six times a week you can still drop your risk by 24 percent.

Whole grains offer stronger protection that refined grains because, as I said, you eat less, your belly feels fuller, you become less hungry, and you wind up eating fewer calories. The good news - fiber has no calories, you can eat as much as you like, and your body needs the fiber to function at its best.

Fiber also slows down the absorption of glucose in your gut, which evens out the spikes in your insulin and blood sugar that normally manifest after eating refined carbohydrates.

What happens is that your cells become more sensitive to insulin over time as you need less of it to handle the rise in blood sugar. Since insulin resistant people are more likely to develop diabetes, improving your sensitivity can lower your risk. Also, whole grains have less effect on your blood sugar than refined grains.

When you regularly eat fiber it leads to changes in the types of bacteria living in your gut. There's obese bacteria found in obese people and lean bacteria found in slim people. Really.

Obese bacteria makes a compound called LPS (lipopolysaccharide), which has been shown to increase weight gain, liver fat, and factors of inflammation and insulin resistance, which are connected in the development of diabetes.

A daily bowl of high fiber, unrefined cereal can help your brain health as well, because the regulating of the blood sugar will lower your risk of Alzheimer's and other dementias.

In people with diabetes, insulin resistance, or chronically high blood sugar, the brain cells can't get enough glucose to do their job. This leads to a fuel shortage, which can damage the blood vessels in the brain, contributing to dementia.

High blood sugar also creates damaging substances called advanced glycosylation end products and keeps your body from clearing beta-amyloid out of brain cells. The buildup of both beta-amyloid and the end products are linked to Alzheimer's.

So, three steps to lower your risk of dementia:
1. Eat nutritious foods like whole grains that help regulate blood sugar.
2. Lose weight if you are overweight.
3. Exercise 30 minutes a day for at least five days a week.

In case you forgot, those long things that come down from your hips are called legs. If you put one in front of the other, it's called walking. And, if you do it faster it will increase your heartbeat and burn more calories.

Basically, you can protect yourself from heart failure, coronary heart disease, and high blood pressure for less that a few bucks a week by eating a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast.

Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States. In coronary heart disease, the arteries that carry blood to your heart become clogged from plaque buildup. This is known as arthrosclerosis. As the arteries narrow, your heart can't get enough oxygen or nutrients to work effectively.

In one study of postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease, eating 3 grams of fiber daily slowed the progression of arthrosclerosis almost as much as getting poisoned with a statin drug. Eating right gives you serious protection.
One in five 40-year-olds are at risk of developing congestive heart failure, a condition where your heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs.

At first, you feel tired and experience shortness of breath after heavy activity. Don't worry though; eventually light activity will exhaust you. Eating a bowl of oatmeal or some other high fiber whole grain can make you 29 percent less likely to suffer heart failure compared to those that do not due this.

You've heard the saying, "in one end and out the other." What that means is what you put into your mouth make a big difference in how it comes out. Eating the right foods can ease constipation and keep you regular, with less straining.

Why? It's not rocket science. Fiber, especially bran, softens stool, adds bulk, and moves it through the colon faster. Women with bowl disorders, who ate a high fiber breakfast every day improved their constipation and needed fewer laxatives then women who didn't eat the cereal.

But wait, there's more. Whole grain cereals are great sources of magnesium. The magnesium and the high fiber present a double whammy when it comes to fighting constipation. It's also excellent to drink more water with a high fiber diet as it helps with digestion.

Bear in mind that the major cereal companies load their garbage with sugar and fat-laden yogurt, GMOs, and refined grains, which are diametrically opposed to good health.

For what it's worth, I have a few favorite breakfasts. Oatmeal, with rice milk, bananas, blueberries, and pitted dates are yummy. A lot of times I will eat leftover quinoa, buckwheat, or brown rice and steamed veggies. But my all-time favorite is an Amy's all-organic Sonoma burger, on whole rye toast, with avocado on one side and hummus on the other, with tomato, cucumber, sweet onion, ketchup and kale. What's cool about the Sonoma burger is all you have to do is put it in the toaster. Oh yeah, Amy's California burger is all organic as well.

Aloha!

About the author:
I have been doing a weekly radio show in Honolulu since 1981 called "Health Talk". In 2007 I was "forced" to get a Masters degree in Nutrition because of all the doctors that would call in asking for my credentials. They do not call in anymore. Going to www.healthtalkhawaii.com enables you, among other things, to listen to the shows. I am an activist. In addition to espousing an organic vegan diet for optimum health, I am strongly opposed to GMOs, vaccines, processed foods, MSG, aspartame, fluoridation and everything else that the pimps (Big Pharma, Monsanto and the large food companies) and the hookers (the doctors, the government agencies, the public health officials, and the mainstream media) thrust upon us, the tricks.
After being vaccinated with the DTP vaccine as a child I developed asthma. After taking the organic sulfur crystals (they are harvested from the pine trees in Louisiana) in November of 2008 for 10 days my asthma reversed and has not come back over 4 years later, 18 cases, so far, of autism have been reversed, as has cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, osteoarthritis, joint pain, astigmatism, gum disease, increased sexual activity, heavy metal and radiation elimination, parasite elimination, free radicals elimination, faster athletic recovery time, increased blood circulation, reduced inflammation, resistance to getting the flu, reduction of wrinkles, allergy reduction, reduced PMS and monthly period pain, nausea, migraines and so much more. And it's only possible because of the oxygen it releases that floods the cells of the body. The sulfur, as proven by the University of Southampton in England, enables the body to produce vitamin B12 and the essential amino acids. You can find out more about this incredible nutrient also on my website - www.healthtalkhawaii.com -.
My book, "a Sane Diet For An Insane World", has been published. It can be viewed at
www.asanediet.com.