Stephanie Santoro, Spencer Acker by Unknown Author

By Unknown Author

The bride is a student of nutrition and health; the groom is a retail marketing manager.

Published: May 30, 2015 at 08:00PM

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Foods Bite with Dr. Hyman – Olive Oil

Willow H asks: “ Dr. Hyman recommends that we cook with olive oil, but I have been hearing that we should not do that.  What’s the story?  What should we cook with and why?”

Dear Willow,

For generations, household and professional cooks have used olive oil and even extra-virgin olive oil.  Culinary history coupled with a solid track record can’t be wrong, so let’s look at the science behind this wondrous oil and determine fact from fiction.

All oils are made up of different types of fat: Monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated fats.  We used to believe saturated fats were harmful to our health, while monounsaturated and polyunsaturated were the optimal choices, but recent studies have shown saturated fat can actually be healthy.

Saturated fats are known as fats that solidify at room temperature.  They have zero double bonds and are completely “saturated” with hydrogen molecules.  This makes them a sturdy fat that lends nicely to higher melting points than less-saturated fats, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

There are several subtypes of saturated fats: Short, medium and long.  Our body has uses for each subtype. While we once thought butter and coconut oils were bad for us, we now understand that these fats can belong in a healthy diet.

For example, butter contains short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate, which help provide energy for the gut as well as protect us from digestive issues.  Coconut oil contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) that serve as direct fuel for our cells.  MCTs in coconut oil help us burn fat, not store it!

It turns out sugar, not fat, is the culprit for belly fat and love handles.  Don’t fear saturated fat; enjoy it in moderation.

Unlike saturated kinds, polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) have several double bonds, which means they have given up their hydrogen molecules and have become less sturdy.  These fats are more fluid and liquid at room temperature, which makes them great for our arteries and health.

Because they have several double bonds, they are much more fragile than saturated fats.  When exposed to heat or light, they become more fragile and tend to break down and oxidize. Oxidized fats are dangerous for your health and your waistline!

The most important PUFAs are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and linoleic acid (LA).  ALA is the famous omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oils.  These are highly anti-inflammatory, and I want you to eat plenty of them daily.

LA is the omega -6 fatty acid ubiquitously found in plant foods like nuts and seeds (hemp, borage, safflower, sunflower, corn, sesame, etc.) and even some animal fats.

Monounsaturated fats (MUFAs), like polyunsaturated fats, also contain a double bond – but just one, hence the “mono.”  With just a single double bond, these fats are the best of both worlds.

Monounsaturated fats are fluid and readily available to every cell in the body, yet they are not as fragile as polyunsaturated fats, making them a sturdy fat that can stand up to heat better than polyunsaturated fats.  Remember, polyunsaturated fats have more kinks in their chain, making them less sturdy.

Monounsaturated fats get their claim to fame from their oleic fatty acids.  Many of you have probably read in my articles or books that high-oleic fatty acids are ideal for our health.  My favorite source of this happens to be olive oil, especially the extra-virgin kind.

So if olive oil is only somewhat sturdy (yet able to withstand heat better than PUFAs), perhaps cooking with olive oil isn’t the safest thing in the culinary world?

Well, theoretically that would make logical sense and we would only be cooking with sturdy saturated fats. However, there is more to olive oil than just being a monounsaturated fat.

Olive oil has been tested vigorously. From this testing, researchers have determined why it can maintain integrity under heat and exposure to harsh cooking conditions such as high heat baking, sautéing, and even frying.

It turns out that olive oil contains a plethora of phenols (antioxidants) such as polyphenols.  Polyphenols have been extensively researched. They are one of the reasons why olive oil does not oxidize, as you would expect it to under high heat conditions.

Here is the most surprising part – it turns out that extra virgin olive oil may actually even be the better option to cook with!  Because the olives are cold-pressed and barely processed (hence the “extra virgin” name), the oil contains a higher amount of those protective antioxidants than the additionally processed stuff – the olive oil.

All that cloudy stuff you see in your extra virgin olive oil is actually a sign of its strength and ability to protect you.  Whenever possible, choose extra-virgin olive oil for salads and even for cooking!

A recent article in the New York Times based on author Tom Mueller’s book Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil concluded that unfortunately, not all olive oils are what they seem, nor are they created equally.  So, make sure you select oil you can count on as being true olive oil (not a mixture of olive with canola or soybean as some manufacturers are doing these days to cut costs).

I like to treat myself to oils from boutiques that are almost always 100% pure olive.  But you can find a good olive oil in grocery stores across the country or even order online from markets such as Thrive.  Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and even Costco offer good quality olive oils such as Lucini.  For a list of oils, you can check out Mueller’s helpful list.

Bottom Line:  Between its molecular structure and antioxidant status, olive oil is a great option to use for cooking, baking, and of course, on its own drizzled onto salads or veggies.   Enjoy this tasty oil traditionally used for generations knowing you are healing (and turning on your fat burning genes!) with each delicious bite.  And if you want to experiment with other oils, my favorites to cook with are coconut oil (and coconut butter), avocado oil, and even the fat from grass-fed butter (as long as you tolerate dairy).

Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD.

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How to Make Dinner Conversation Deeper and More Meaningful

I recently read how an Apple Watch has become the latest gadget to distract us from the immediacy of being present with someone. With the constant barrage of laptops, iPads, smart phones, and now “smart watches,” being aware and enjoying someone’s physical company oftentimes falls on the back burner.

It’s not just that we are less present. Incredibly busy lives also mean many of us shy away from cooking or even having a family dinner together. Between our never-ending to-do lists, demanding jobs, children’s busy schedules, and perhaps less-than-stellar skills in the kitchen, cooking, or even eating together seems to slide down on our list of priorities.

That’s unfortunate, considering the numerous benefits of making a meal or even sitting down together to eat.

Amidst today’s go-faster, do-more mentality, I have a radical proposal. I want you not only to reconnect with your kitchen and the bounty of benefits it offers; I also want you to reconnect with each other:  Sit down and have a meal together.

If you have a family, you can bring everyone together for this event. If you live alone, invite friends over. Humans crave togetherness and connecting, and preparing a meal and then enjoying stimulating conversation becomes an energizing situation that plies us away from our laptops, smart phones, and other technological gadgets that serve a purpose but also disconnect us from other people.

It is not just that we are bombarded by toxic news and endless gossip. We also live in a toxic food environment, with its slick combination of sugar, salt, and fat that’s pumped into a wide range of packaged food. As a result, our genes (and our jeans) are overwhelmed. Our taste buds have been assaulted. Our tongues and our brains become victim to craving even more of these toxins. Diabesity and all its repercussions have become the price we pay for this toxic-food onslaught.

Slowing down and enjoying healthy food, surrounded by great conversation, becomes one of the most radical things you can do to fight this toxic food environment. If you have kids, you are establishing lasting habits they will carry on.

That becomes especially critical when you consider in less than a decade, the rate of pre-diabetes or diabetes in teenagers has risen from 9 percent to 23 percent. Almost one in four kids has pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.

Even more shocking, 37 percent of kids at a normal weight have pre-diabetes and one or more cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or high blood sugar. Besides raising the risk for chronic, life-threatening diseases, the sad truth is that obese children will earn less, suffer more, and die younger.

You can reverse this massive problem for yourself and for future generations, and the cure lies in your kitchen. Cooking together and having friendly conversation needn’t become time consuming or otherwise burdensome. Start with one night a week. Make it mandatory, require everyone to put away technological gadgets, and make dining together an event.

Cooking real food is a revolutionary act. Sitting down and having stimulating conversation has become a lost art. Our children will grow up without these survival tactics, and their children will face the same fate—not being able to identify common fruits and vegetables, not realizing where food comes from, and feeling isolated rather than connected with others.

We can change that, one meal at a time.

5 Steps to Disconnect and Reengage

Whether you’re preparing food together or passing it around the family table, it’s a wonderful time to reconnect, get the day’s download, share laughs, and discuss important events. Start your new ritual by making your kitchen as warm and inviting as possible.

I’ve found these five strategies can help your family gather around the dinner table for a fun, convivial meal: 

1. Reclaim your kitchen. Throw away any foods with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, sugar, or fat listed as the first or second ingredient on the label. Fill your shelves with real, fresh, whole, local foods when possible. And join a community support agriculture network to get a cheaper supply of fresh vegetables weekly or frequent farmers markets.
2. Learn how to shop and cook. You can make this a family activity, and it does not need to take a ton of time. Keep meals quick and simple.
3. Make your kitchen inviting. Create a family playlist that puts everyone in a good mood. Invest in terrific lighting. Change your curtains. Open your windows. Put stools by the counter, or pillows on your chairs. Make the kitchen a place you and your family want to gather.
4. Reinstate the family dinner. Read Laurie David’s The Family Dinner. She suggests the following guidelines: Make a set dinnertime, no phones or texting during dinner, everyone eats the same meal, no television, only filtered or tap water, invite friends and family, everyone clean up together.
5. Eat together. No matter how modest the meal, create a special place to sit down together, and set the table with care and respect. Savor the ritual of the table. Mealtime is a time for empathy and generosity, a time to nourish and communicate.

Don’t Let Perfection Derail Your Efforts 

Once you set up your environment for success, let the fun begin! I recommend getting your family involved in the entire process, from prepping ingredients to cooking to sitting down and enjoying the results of your labor.

If you’re new to cooking or your skills have gotten rusty, don’t aim for perfection with your first recipe—aim for experimenting and practicing. Start with one of my more basic recipes with a few ingredients and work your way up to something more complex.

Enlist help from family members—drag your kids away from their video games and ask them to measure ingredients, pull food from the fridge, or even chop veggies if they’re ready to take on this task. Decide on meals together to get everyone excited about what’s in store.

I encourage you to start your own family traditions around cooking and enjoying meals together. One of my favorite things to do with my kids is to hang out in the kitchen, chopping vegetables, telling stories, catching up, cooking, and anticipating sharing a great meal together. Once you get in the habit of nourishing your family life in this way, you’ll never want to return to solo dining out of plastic containers and take-out boxes.

Choosing Inspired Conversation

“But I have no clue what to talk about with my kids or partner,” a patient will occasionally confess when I propose the dinner-conversation idea. We know more about the latest celebrity gossip than we do our own family and friends.

Life coach, Lauren Zander, (Co-founder of The Handel Group and Creator of The Handel Method™) has a fantastic mealtime tradition to change that. She calls it “Creating a Conversation.”

Here’s how it goes. At the start of the meal, your family or dinner guests suggest a potential question to be answered by each person at the table. Everyone must agree on the question.

Once a question is decided upon, everyone at the table must answer the question. The fun is in getting everyone to share about themselves and connect with each other. That’s when the magic happens! You will start to get to know your family and friends on a deeper level.

To help you get started, here’s a list of some of our favorite dinner conversations:

• What’s your favorite thing about the person sitting to your right? Why?
• What’s something you can confess that nobody at the table knows about you?
• If you could pick any career in the world, regardless of ability/age, what would it be? Why?
• What’s a city, town, or country you’ve never seen that you’d like to visit? What draws you to this destination?
• What’s your very first memory of life?
• Tell the story of your first true love. Who was it? How old were you? What happened? Do you know anything about where that person is right now?
• If the house were on fire, and you could save just one of your possessions, what would it be? Why?
• If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be and why?
• What’s the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you and what did you learn from it?
• If you could give the person to your left a superpower, what would it be? Why?
• What’s something you have seen, heard, experienced this week that touched you?
• Tell a story of someone you deeply loved.   Let us know what made that person special.
• What do you love most about your life? Why?

Diving Deeper into Dinner Discussions

Are you ready for a deeper, yearlong, working-on-your-life dinner experience? Life Coach Lauren Zander has another mealtime project, one that includes bringing your family/community together to inspire and make a difference in each other’s lives.

Here’s how to play. Keep in mind it’s a yearlong event. You have a kickoff dinner where each guest chooses an area of life from the list below and creates a dream in that area. They must dream big while also making the dream inspiring and doable.

Once everyone has expressed their dream, each person at the table must make at least two promises that will help them achieve that dream. Then they choose someone at the table to be their accountability partner who will help them keep those promises.

Every six to eight weeks, schedule a dinner with the same guests so you can meet up, have a great meal, and everyone can give updates on how they are doing with their dreams. You will be amazed at the changes a community can create for each other.

In which area do you choose to dream big?

• Career – how is it going? Are you doing what you love?
• Body – weight, appearance, how you look
• Money – are you happy with what you’ve earned, saved, or how you manage it?
• Fun & Adventure — vacations, self-indulgent time, out-of-the-ordinary events
• Learning —is there something you want to learn that interests you? Such as how to fly a plane, play the guitar, or speak Spanish?

I would love to hear from you about your favorite dinner conversation or the dreams you are achieving. You can post your favorite dinner conversations or your progress on your dream below or on my Facebook page.

If you want more help turning your dreams into reality, then please visit Coach Lauren’s website to learn more about how she and her team can help you to dream big!

Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD.

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Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way.

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Parachute Testing for NASA’s InSight Mission

This parachute testing for NASA’s InSight mission to Mars was conducted inside the world’s largest wind tunnel, at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, in February 2015.

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View From an F-15D

NASA pilot Jim Less and photographer Jim Ross pull their F-15D #897 aircraft away from a KC-135 refueling tanker. NASA is supporting the Edwards Air Force Base F-15 program with safety and photo chase expertise.

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Europa’s Jupiter-Facing Hemisphere

This 12-frame mosaic provides the highest resolution view ever obtained of the side of Jupiter’s moon Europa that faces the giant planet. It was obtained on Nov. 25, 1999 by the camera onboard the Galileo spacecraft, a past NASA mission to Jupiter and its moons which ended in 2003.

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One Spirit Medicine

My friend and colleague, Alberto Villoldo PhD, is a medical anthropologist who has spent the last 25 years studying and working with the medicine men of the Amazon and Andes. These sages were the first doctors in history, and they repaired the body, the mind, and the spirit to create health. They did not treat disease or diagnose illness, and did not have specialists that treated the brain and the gut and the heart separately. They learned that if you could create the emotional, nutritional, and spiritual conditions for health, disease would resolve itself. And unlike Western medicine that has over 14,000 different diagnoses, they recognized only one ailment, the disconnection from nature and from our own nature and purpose. They called their practice One Spirit Medicine.

Alberto writes in his new book One Spirit Medicine: “Years ago I asked an old man in the Amazon rainforest what he did to avoid the diseases of old age. ’Simple, he replied. Live a long and healthy life.’ I laughed and said he had not understood the question: I wanted to know how to avoid the diseases of old age. He smiled and repeated the same answer. ”

The practices that are an everyday part of the ancient shamanic way all support a long and healthy life. The super-nutrients in the organic foods they eat turn on the antioxidant mechanisms in every cell, quench free-radical activity in the brain, and switch on the longevity genes that prevent the illnesses associated with old age. The spiritual teachings help us shed debilitating and disempowering stories from the past that keep us reliving old traumas and the health history of our ancestors. And the vision quest supports us in finding new guiding myths to help us heal body and mind, and recover our passion.

Alberto explains that the key to optimum health is to revise the unconscious programming and limited beliefs that have been driving us, thereby updating our neural networks to support healing and transformation.

One Spirit Medicine is part of a new wellness model that doesn’t rely on medication to fix physical problems or mood imbalances. Unlike many pharmaceutical and over-the-counter remedies, the medicine of the shamans carries no side effects or warnings written in fine print. It will not cause dependency. You will not have to beg your physician to write a prescription for it, or argue with your pharmacist over whether or not your prescription renewal has been approved.

The message of One Spirit Medicine is that you don’t need to track down a shaman to find Spirit, or look outside yourself to find health. You only have to look within. That’s where you will receive One Spirit Medicine.

At the heart of the book is the idea that how we perceive the world “out there” is a projection of internal maps that shape our beliefs and guide how we think, feel, and behave. Stored as neural networks in the brain, these maps hold the unconscious programs that drive our experience of life and the state of our health.

Today, we know this belief as epigenetics, the ability that our foods, our moods, and our sense of inner peace have to switch on the genes that create health and switch off the genes that create disease.

I have travelled with Alberto to the headwaters of the Amazon and the high Andes, met the shamans that he has worked with, and been surprised at how similar their practices are to those of Functional Medicine. Except that these medicine men and women work directly with energy, taking out what doesn’t belong in the person’s body, and putting in the right energies and ‘wisdom’ that they need to heal.

The wisdom of the ancients is being newly discovered in the language of our biology. Alberto Villoldo translates advances in the science of creating health and integrates them with spiritual and life practices from shamanic traditions — the one medicine we all need to reclaim body, mind, and soul. There is no one better to guide us on our journey toward living a light-filled, vibrant life.

One Spirit Medicine is available now at Amazon, and I encourage you to order your copy today!

Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD.

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Coronal Loops Over a Sunspot Group

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory images the solar atmosphere in multiple wavelengths to link changes in the surface to interior changes. When AIA images are sharpened a bit, such as this AIA 171Å channel image, the magnetic field can be readily visualized through the bright, thin strands that ar

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Eat Healthy on a Budget with these Strategies

Knowing full well we are short on time and often money, fast food manufacturers and grocers lure us into convenient, heavily processed meals that take a toll on our waistline, our overall health, and believe it or not, our budget.

With our busy lives, these temptations seem so much easier and affordable than cooking. Between our never-ending to-do lists, demanding jobs, children’s busy schedules, and perhaps less-than-stellar skills in the kitchen, cooking seems to slide down to the bottom of our list of priorities.

Unfortunately, we’ve now raised several generations of Americans who don’t know how to cook. And it’s killing us.

The food industry wants us to believe that cooking is difficult, time-consuming, inconvenient, and expensive. They’ve brainwashed us to believe that we “deserve a break today.”

Nonsense. You can eat well for less money by making simple, whole, fresh food. In fact, a simple dinner for a family of four consisting of roast chicken, vegetables, and salad can cost about half of what dinner at a fast food restaurant would.

I visited an obese sick family in the south who had never cooked. They lived on food stamps and disability. With one simple cooking lesson and the guide from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) called “Good Food on a Tight Budget,” they started cooking.

The mother lost over 100 pounds, the father lost 45 pounds, and their obese teenage son lost 40 pounds. The son then gained the weight back because a fast food chain offered the only job for teenagers in the food desert where they live. It’s like sending an alcoholic to work in a bar!

While today over 50 percent of meals are consumed outside the home, I want to help you reconnect with your kitchen, discover the bounty of benefits it offers, and learn just how inexpensive eating healthy and preparing your own food can be. 

The Expensive Cost of Cheap Food

When people tell me they cannot afford organic produce or healthy cuts of meat, I ask them to consider the gargantuan markup of many convenience foods. Manufacturers package them in “value-priced jumbo sized” containers and grocery stores promote them with price cuts to create the illusion we are getting value.

When people tell me eating healthy is expensive, I ask them to factor in what they spend on designer coffees, bodegas, grab-and-go meals, and other conveniences that might spare them a little time but at the expense of their health.

Relying on inexpensive, overly processed food is tempting given our demanding lives and schedules, but the cost is quite large.

Feasting on the sodium, fat, and sugar bombs disguised as food can lead to serious diseases that cost hundreds of dollars in doctor’s visits and prescription drugs. Chowing down on these things make us sick and sluggish, resulting in less productivity. When we feel crummy, it ripples into other areas of our lives. We have less patience for our loved ones, for instance, and less energy to work or enjoy ourselves.

In the bigger picture, that “value menu” is anything but a value. 

You Don’t Need to Spend Half Your Paycheck to Eat Healthy

Even if time and money aren’t on your side, you can still eat healthy. This is one of the most common misconceptions I hear. I understand the challenges of trying to eat well with limited financial resources, limited time, or both. But you don’t have to be rich or retired to eat well and take care of yourself.

I know what it’s like to live on very little. In college and medical school, I lived on $300 a month (for rent, food, and entertainment). And in residency, I lived on $27,000 a year while supporting a wife and two children. Even though that was 20 years ago, it still wasn’t much for a family of four.

These days, I’m even busier, but I haven’t forgotten how to incorporate simple but effective strategies for eating good-quality, healthy food that’s prepared with little money and time.

Likewise, I’ve met numerous folks with limited finances and time who nonetheless have access to good quality food. Trust me, they don’t search out arcane ingredients or shop at trendy food boutiques. Instead, they realize the immediate and long-term value of eating healthy and employ some savvy strategies to make their food budget work harder. 

Dispelling 3 “Healthy Eating on a Budget” Myths

I mentioned earlier that the food industry spends billions of dollars each year and has become incredibly crafty at convincing us that sugary, processed foods are a real value. Let’s look at three of their myths and consider the truth about eating healthy.

1. Healthy food costs more. Research shows eating healthy, whole, real food isn’t necessarily more expensive than eating junk food, fast food, processed foods, or convenience foods. In fact, the top four things purchased in supermarkets are ALL drugs: sugar, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol! If you give up those “drugs,” your grocery bill will go down dramatically.
2. Healthy food is hard to find. You don’t have to shop in a gourmet food store, a health-food store, a farmer’s market, or eat only organic to eat well. There are plenty of healthy foods right in your local supermarket. Just shop around the outside aisles of the store. Another convenient way to access healthy food is online.
3. Healthy food takes lots of time to prepare. You don’t have to spend hours cooking complex meals to eat well. Good quality, fresh food is easy to prepare and enjoy once you learn how. 

10 Strategies to Eat Well on a Budget

Ultimately, it is up to us to take control of our kitchens and our lives. The most radical message we can send the food industry – which considers money, not our health in regard to its bottom line – is to prepare our own meals, make the best food selections within our budgets, and reclaim our health.

This does not mean turning bargain food shopping into a second hobby. We are all overworked, overstressed, and overtaxed. Most of us don’t have time to scrupulously compare store prices or cut coupons.

Even so, there are ways of making choices that work within our resources. Here are 10 ideas based on how I save time and money AND create better health for myself. 

1. Keep a journal. This might be the most eye-opening experience you will encounter to better budget your time, resources, and money. For just one week, keep a journal of every cent you spend and how you spend every hour of the day. Think of money as your life energy. It represents your time in physical form. How do you want to spend this life energy?
2. Choose three things that give you more money. For example, don’t buy that $2.00 coffee every day — that’s $730.00 a year! Likewise, you might find yourself gravitating to the vending machine daily. You can put that money towards much better use.
3. Buy in season. You will almost always get fresher produce, probably locally grown, for less money, when it is in season.
4. Learn the Dirty Dozen. Not everyone has the budget to buy 100 percent organic, but the more you can, the more you will avoid GMOs and have better health. To learn the most and least pesticide-ridden foods, visit this link.
5. Frequent discount grocery stores. Search out cheaper sources of fresh, whole foods in your neighborhood. My top choices are stores like Trader Joe’s and shopping clubs like Costco or Sam’s Club, where you can buy vegetables, olive oil, fruits, nuts, canned beans, sardines, and salmon at much lower prices than regular supermarkets or other retail chains.
6. Think about joining your local food co-op. Co-ops are community-based organizations that support local farmers and businesses and allow you to order foods and products in bulk at just slightly over the wholesale price. This takes a bit of advance planning but will save you money.
7. Join a community-supported agriculture program. Buy direct and cut out the middleman. We get organic, mostly seasonal, local vegetables delivered to our house for $55 a week, or a little more than $10 a person for a family of four per week. We don’t always get to choose what we get, but it makes us more creative cooks.
8. Keep some basics on hand. Develop a repertoire of cheap, easy-to-prepare meals. Have the ingredients available at home at all times so you don’t get stuck eating food that doesn’t make you feel well or help you create the health you want. This takes planning but is well worth it.
9. Create a “potluck club”. Have coworkers share the responsibility of making lunch for the group once a week or every two weeks. No more buying lunch out, and you get to eat real, whole fresh food and only have to cook a few times a month. Or create a “supper club” with a group of friends; rather than go out to dinner, once a week or once a month rotate dinner parties at one another’s homes. You will build community and health at the same time.
10. Order staples online. Why pay retail for healthy kitchen staples like turmeric, coconut oil, and almond butter? My new favorite online store, Thrive Market, has everything I need at discount prices. They have a stellar reputation and top-quality products for less than you’d pay at most retail or grocery stores. Once you become a member, you’ll have direct access to wholesale prices on over 3,000 healthy, organic foods and products at 30 to 50 percent below retail, with fast shipping directly to your door.

Thrive Market is offering my readers a one-month trial membership. Even better, they’ve created an amazing opportunity to win a $1,000 shopping spree at Thrive Market, so you can stock up on everything from healthy, gluten-free snacks to green home products.

Ready to start saving? One grand-prize winner will walk away with a free 1-year membership and $1,000 to spend at Thrive Market. Click here to qualify for the trial membership and enter for the shopping spree. Don’t miss your chance to win!

Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD.

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Healing Meals – Steamed Salmon with Lemon Caper Cream Sauce

Steaming salmon creates a moist, succulent fish that easily flakes with the touch of a fork.  This simple sauce dresses the fish, celebrating the fresh flavors of spring and providing a delicious and quickly prepared weeknight option.  We suggest serving with roasted asparagus or with Dr. Hyman’s favorite asparagus side dish.

Steamed Salmon with Lemon Caper Cream Sauce

By Mark Hyman, MD
Published: May 21, 2015

• Yield: 4 Servings
• Prep: 10 mins
• Cook: 15 mins
• Ready In: 25 mins

Steaming salmon creates a moist, succulent fish that easily flakes with the touch of a fork. This simple sauce dresses the fish, celebrating the fresh flavors of spring and providing a delicious and quickly prepared weeknight option. We suggest serving with roasted asparagus or with Dr. Hyman’s favorite asparagus side dish.

Ingredients

• 1 Teaspoon Arrowroot powder
• 1 Cup plus 1 Tablespoon Water Divided
• 1 Pound boneless, skin-on wild salmon fillets cut into 4 pieces
• 3/4 Teaspoon Sea Salt Divided
• 3/4 Teaspoon Ground black pepper Divided
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil Divided
• 1 Clove of Garlic Minced
• 2 Tablespoons Capers With a drop of brine from the jar
• 1/2 Cup Low sodium broth Chicken or Vegetable
• 2 Tablespoons full fat coconut milk
• 1/2 Teaspoon Lemon Zest or up to a Teaspoon
• 2 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Juice
• 1/4 Cup Fresh Parsley Chopped

Instructions

1. Mix the arrowroot powder with water and set aside.
2. Sprinkle each piece of salmon with a pinch salt and a pinch of pepper. Add about 1 cup of water to a metal steamer and bring to a boil. Add the salmon, cover and steam for 5 to 7 minutes, or until salmon flakes easily with a fork (fish is done when its opaque in the center and the internal temperature reaches 145° F). Reserve a couple tablespoons steaming water if you plan to use later.
3. While the salmon is steaming, prepare the sauce:
4. Heat 1/2 tablespoon of the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic, about 1 minute. Stir in the remaining oil, capers, broth, coconut milk, zest and juice. Stir to combine and cook for about 2 minutes. Taste the sauce and season with remaining salt and pepper, or more as needed. Slowly whisk in the arrowroot mixture, continuously stirring to avoid forming clumps. Cook the sauce for another 2 to 3 minutes or until it thickens and reduces in volume by half. If you prefer a slightly thinner sauce, stir in about 1 tablespoon of the steaming liquid to the lemon caper cream sauce just before serving.
5. Place the steamed salmon on four serving plates. Top each piece of salmon with 2 tablespoons of the sauce. Garnish with the parsley and serve immediately.
6. Nutritional analysis per serving (1 piece of salmon plus 2 tablespoons of sauce): calories 270, fat 18g, saturated fat 5g, cholesterol 50mg, fiber 0g, protein 25g, carbohydrate 2g, sodium 520mg

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SpinSat Investigation Tests New Technology, Returns Data

Equipment and data from the SpinSat investigation returns to Earth today, May 21, 2015, with splashdown of the sixth SpaceX cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. This Nov. 28, 2014 photograph by NASA astronaut Terry Virts captures the predeploy of SpinSat, which was launched into orbit from the station.

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The Advance of Hubbard Glacier

This image, acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, shows Hubbard Glacier on July 22, 2014.

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Journey to Space in a Vacuum Chamber

Supporting the testing of electric propulsion and power systems, VF-5 has the highest pumping speed of any electric propulsion test facility in the world.

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Mount St. Helens at 35

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens gave way to a cataclysmic flank collapse, avalanche, and explosion that killed 57 people and displaced many others. The event dramatically reshaped the volcano and surrounding land in southwest Washington.

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Astronauts at Work on the International Space Station

NASA astronauts Scott Kelly (left) and Terry Virts (right) work on a Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) inside the station’s Japanese Experiment Module.

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Want to Burn Fat? Then Eat More (Not Less) Food

While my books and lectures often focus on weight loss, I never tell my patients to lose weight. I simply help them restore health, and the magic of biology does the rest. Your goal might be to lose weight; my goal is to get you healthy. Either way, we both win.

The key becomes focusing on your food quality, not your calories. That well-worn notion—that as long as you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight— is simply dead wrong. It is antiquated and while some experts still espouse this viewpoint, it does not work.

Newton’s first law of thermodynamics states that the energy of an isolated system is constant. In other words, in a laboratory, or “isolated system,” 1,000 calories of broccoli and 1,000 calories of soda are, in fact, the same.

Here’s the thing. It’s true that when burned in a laboratory setting, 1,000 calories of broccoli and 1,000 calories of soda would indeed release the same amount of energy. But sorry, Mr. Newton; your law of thermodynamics doesn’t apply in living, breathing, digesting systems.

When you eat food, the “isolated system” part of the equation goes out the window. The food interacts with your biology, a complex adaptive system that instantly transforms every bite.

I’ve illustrated how this works elsewhere, following the same number of calories in soda versus broccoli once they enter your body. The next time you hear someone say “a calorie is a calorie,” please refer him or her to this blog.

Most of us have learned that if we just cut our intake by 100 calories a day, or increase our exercise a little bit over the long haul, we will lose weight. We’re continually told that it’s all about the calories in, calories out. But as you learned in the broccoli versus soda comparison, biology and metabolism are far more complex than that.

Just going with the math, if you burned an extra 100 calories a day (walking one mile) or consumed 100 calories less per day over 35 days, you would lose a pound. (Remember, 3,500 calories equals one pound.) In theory, over five years you would lose 50 pounds.

Yet studies show that in reality you’re more likely to lose only 10 (not 50) pounds in five years. Why? Because of changes in your metabolism and caloric needs that occur as you lose weight.

You’ll need to consume even fewer calories, or burn even more of them, just to keep losing at the same rate. For most people, this pace of progress is totally demotivating, which is why they generally abandon their small-scale diet and exercise attempts early on.

The Insulin – Weight Gain Connection

If monitoring calories isn’t the answer for weight loss, then what is? While calories do matter to some degree, hormones matter more.

To provide just one example about why hormones – not calories – are the key players in weight loss, let’s briefly look at insulin. When you eat sugar of any kind, your pancreas produces this master metabolism hormone.

Insulin’s job is to help sugar get into your cells. Once sugar is in the cells, it can be turned into energy by your mitochondria (the energy-burning factories in your cells). So insulin is designed to help you use the sugar you eat, or, if you eat more than you need, store it for later use.

At its best, the interaction between your insulin level and the sugar in your blood is a finely tuned machine. You eat some sugar, and your body produces just enough insulin to metabolize it. Later you eat a little more sugar, and the same thing happens again. It is a smooth, harmonious cycle that the healthy body carries out every day without your slightest awareness.

However, problems can occur when there is too much sugar in your diet. When you regularly eat a lot of sugar, especially sugars that are quickly absorbed, the insulin levels in your blood become elevated. Over time, you can become resistant to the effects of insulin and thus need more and more of it to do the same job. This insulin resistance has some very serious health implications as well as a direct impact on your appetite.

Insulin resistance is very much like a drug addiction. When you are addicted to a drug, you develop a tolerance to it and hence need more and more of it to produce the same effect. When you consistently have a high level of insulin in your blood, you develop a tolerance to it. As a consequence, your body’s tissues no longer respond normally to the hormone. Hence, your pancreas produces more of it, elevating your insulin levels even more in your body’s attempt to overcome this resistance.

This turns into a vicious cycle very quickly. When you have more insulin in your blood than you do sugar, your body tells you to eat some sugar to even out the balance. But every time you eat the sugar you cause your insulin levels to go up even more, causing you to want more sugar, and on and on the cycle goes.

In the meantime, you are storing all the excess sugar as fat, slowing down your metabolism, and promoting heart disease, dementia, and cancer. This is a condition known as pre-diabetes. It is also called metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and syndrome X.

The key to weight loss, then, becomes focusing on foods that normalize blood sugar and lower insulin levels. If you eat the same amount of calories from broccoli rather than cookies, you will lose weight.

Food is information that controls your gene expression, hormones, and metabolism. The source of the calories (and the information carried along with the calories) makes a gigantic difference in how your genes, hormones, enzymes, and metabolism respond.

If you eat food that spikes your insulin level, you will gain weight. If you eat food that reduces your insulin level, you will lose weight. This is true even if the food contains exactly the same number of calories or grams of protein, fat, carbohydrates, and fiber.

The Only Diet That Science Shows Works

 Low-glycemic-load diets are the only diets that have been proven to work— these diets don’t spike blood sugar and insulin.

In a landmark large-scale study, only one diet showed the capacity for maintaining the most weight loss over time. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the easiest diet to maintain, and the one that had the biggest impact on preventing weight gain after people had lost weight, was the low-glycemic-load, higher-protein diet.

After looking at all diet studies, the Cochrane Database (an independent group of scientists who reviews all available literature), found that low-glycemic-load diets help you lose weight faster and most importantly, keep it off.

When you focus on real, whole, unprocessed foods, you will automatically create a meal that has a low glycemic load. The glycemic load of a meal tells us how much of and how quickly a fixed quantity of a specific food will raise your blood sugar and insulin levels. The slower these levels rise, and the lower they are, the better.

Controlling the glycemic load of your meals isn’t very hard.You need to combine protein, fats, and whole-food, fiber-rich, low-starch carbohydrates from vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and a limited amount of whole grains and low-sugar fruit.

Another way to think about it is to never eat carbs alone. Combine carbs with protein and fat at every meal or snack. Have an apple, but eat some nuts with it. Have a little whole grain, but only with a meal containing some fish or chicken, fat, and veggies with fiber.  For a guided path to a low glycemic load program, try my Blood Sugar Solution Challenge, starting on May 20.  Click here to learn about the tools and resources that I share through the Challenge.

 10 Strategies to Lose Weight without Reducing Calories

I mentioned at the beginning I never tell patients to lose weight. I simply provide some effective strategies that help them choose the right foods while eliminating the wrong ones. This has nothing to do with calories, counting, measuring, “points,” or otherwise scrutinizing what you eat.

Becoming a qualitarian might be the most important thing you do to reduce your risk for diabesity and lose weight. When you focus on the right foods, you automatically eliminate excess calories in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and other added sugars, trans fat, and other undesirable ingredients.

Simply eat the right foods in the right quantities, and for almost everyone, weight loss will take care of itself. And, you will automatically eat a low-glycemic load diet.

Rather than focus on what you can’t have, I want you to focus on these 10 things to lose weight. 

1. Avoid sugar in all its many forms. Carbohydrates, especially those with a high glycemic load, turn to sugar very quickly. When you eat sugar, you unconsciously trigger a vicious cycle of sugar cravings, increased insulin production, increased appetite, more sugar intake, and more insulin production, until you are in a cycle of cravings, bingeing and crashing all day long. Eventually this leads to insulin resistance, which is a major contributor to weight gain and rapid aging.

2. Eat more fiber. Fiber is the secret key to a low glycemic load. It’s like a sponge that soaks up sugar, thus making it burn more slowly in your digestive system. Eating fiber is advantageous for a lot of reasons. The higher the fiber content of a single food or a meal in total, the harder and longer your body has to work to digest it. You burn more calories, stay full longer, and reduce your appetite.

3. Choose real food. Avoid highly processed, factory-manufactured Frankenfoods. Choose fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and lean animal proteins such as fish, chicken, and eggs.

4. Eat breakfast. The easiest thing you can do to lose weight and increase longevity is to eat breakfast. Studies repeatedly show that eating a healthy protein-containing breakfast helps people lose weight, reduce cravings, and burn calories. Good proteins are eggs, nuts, seeds, nut butters, or a protein shake.

5. Slow down and be mindful. When we eat unconsciously, we eat more. It takes 20 minutes for your brain to register that your stomach is full. The practice of slow, mindful eating is a powerful way to better enjoy your food, lose weight, and improve your metabolism. Before meals, “Take Five”: Take five breaths in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth. Slowly count to five on each in-breath and again on each out-breath. Offer gratitude, and then bring your attention fully to the food.

6. Sleep better. The research is clear: Lack of sleep or poor sleep damages your metabolism, causes cravings for sugar and carbs, makes you eat more, and drives up your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and early death. Getting enough sleep and sleeping well are essential for health and an easy way to maintain blood sugar balance and lose weight.

7. Stay consistent. Eat early, starting with a big breakfast, and eat often. Keep the fire of your metabolism burning all day, rather than slowing it down during periods of “mini-starvation.” After breakfast, eat every three to four hours, and try to schedule meals at the same time every day. Your metabolism will work faster and more efficiently. You will lose weight, have more energy, and feel better.

8. Reduce stress. Chronic stress makes your body pack on the pounds. If you want to lose weight, start by soothing your stressed-out body and mind. Find something that works for you and do it. That might be yoga, meditation, or deep breathing. My UltraCalm CD helps melt away stress, anxiety, and tension.

9. Drink up. Drink at least eight glasses of clean, pure water throughout the day to help with appetite control and flush out metabolic and environmental toxins through your kidneys. Try drinking two glasses of water before you eat; that alone has been proven to help you lose weight. In fact, researchers found that drinking water before meals increases weight loss by about 44 percent.

10. Exercise regularly. People who consistently exercise are able to lose weight better and even more importantly, maintain that weight loss. Even 30 minutes’ vigorous walking can help, and if you want something more intense, try high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or weight resistance. Click here for a comprehensive, easy-to-apply fitness plan (as always, remember to check with your physician before beginning a new or drastically changing your current fitness routine).

I hope you’re able to see why calories are far from the whole picture for weight loss, and how eating more of the right foods can stoke your metabolic fire so you stay lean and healthy. Join my Blood Sugar Solution Challenge and learn how to leverage these strategies successfully with support from me and my team and your peers.

 

References

 Blom A, et al. Effect of a high-protein breakfast on the postprandial ghrelin response. Am J ClinNutr. 2006 Feb;83(2):211-20.

Dennis EA, et al. Water consumption increases weight loss during a hypocaloric diet intervention in middle-aged and older adults. Obesity. 2010 Feb; 18( 2): 300– 7.

Ebbeling CB, Leidig MM, Feldman HA, Lovesky MM, Ludwig DS. Effects of a low-glycemic load vs low-fat diet in obese young adults: a randomized trial. JAMA. 2007 May 16;297( 19): 2092– 102.

Dennis EA, et al. Water Consumption Increases Weight Loss During a Hypocaloric Diet Intervention in Middle-aged and Older adults. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2010 Feb;18(2):300-7. doi: 10.1038/oby.2009.235. Epub 2009 Aug 6.

Jakubowicz D, et al. Meal timing and composition influence ghrelin levels, appetite scores and weight loss maintenance in overweight and obese adults. Steroids. 2012 Mar 10;77(4):323-31. doi: 10.1016/j.steroids.2011.12.006. Epub 2011 Dec 9.

Leidy HJ, et al. Beneficial effects of a higher-protein breakfast on the appetitive, hormonal, and neural signals controlling energy intake regulation in overweight/obese, “breakfast-skipping,” late-adolescent girls. Am J ClinNutr. 2013 Apr;97(4):677-88. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.053116. Epub 2013 Feb 27.

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