Could we be witnessing the final nail in the coffin for high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)? Despite the Corn Refiners Association's continued assurances that HFCS is perfectly safe, a new study out of the University of California in Los Angeles, published in the journal Cancer Research, has found that fructose triggers pancreatic cancer cells to proliferate and grow more quickly. Certainly, resulting headlines like "Cancer cells slurp up fructose" aren't helping the sugar's image.

This study just adds to the charges against fructose: obesity, diabetes, increased triglycerides in the blood, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver to name a few. But the most important finding of the study is that fructose is used differently by the cancer cells than sucrose.

It was previously believed, and asserted repeatedly by the HFCS industry, that sugar is sugar is sugar, meaning all sugars are treated the same way in the body. Not so. Pancreatic tumour cells fed both glucose and fructose in this study were found to use the two sugars differently. The researchers said this study may help to explain other studies that have linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest types of cancer.

The researchers found that fructose, compared to glucose, activated a key cellular pathway that causes cancer cells to divide and multiply. In other words, while the tumor cells thrive on glucose, they readily use the fructose to proliferate. And not only did cancer cells prefer it, fructose also triggered cellular processes that enabled tumor cells to more rapidly use both glucose and fructose.

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues as well as improve their overall health.


Weight loss is a delicate process, and one that's dependent upon healthy hormonal balance. One of the key components to slimming down successfully is to identify your current state of hormonal imbalance through a proper assessment, which then allows the formulation of a strategic formula for weight loss success. Let's consider six formulations for some of the main hormones that influence your body composition:

Insulin

Insulin is a signal in the body that allows glucose from the food we eat to be used as fuel. These sugars, if not used or burned off, will be stored as fat, so essentially, insulin is responsible for our flab. When nsulin levels are too high, weight tends to accumulate in the "love handles" area around the waist.

Despite the fact that I'm always harping on about processed foods and how bad they are for you, it seems some of my regular readers still don't get it. I get comments all the time that I should ease up on processed food bashing, that "everybody eats it" and that it's not that bad. The thing is, it is that bad.

How bad? Well, a study in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that eating processed foods actually leads to depression in middle age. Eating processed foods filled with chemical additives, refined grains and sugars, processed meats and trans fats can bring you down. Who'd have thought?

Eating a whole food diet, on the other hand, was found to prevent the onset of depressive symptoms.

While previous studies focused on particular nutrients and their link to depression, this is the first to look at overall diet trends and mood disorder. The researchers examined data from 3,486 participants over five years. Subjects were separated into two groups based on their eating habits - the whole food group (eating vegetables, fruits and fish) and the processed food group (eating sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products) - and each were asked to fill out a depression questionnaire.

When it comes to working out, you already know that what you eat counts. But a growing body of research now shows that when you eat counts too, or, more specifically, whether or not you eat before you break a sweat. And if you want to burn the most amount of fat possible -- honestly, who doesn't? -- avoiding food before your fitness session is the way to go.

That's the conclusion reached recently by researchers in Europe, who studied cyclists and found that those who didn't eat before setting off burned significantly more calories than those who did eat. It makes sense, really -- when the body can't rely on recently-consumed carbohydrates to fuel the workout, it turns instead to fat reserves.

"When you exercise (after fasting), your adrenaline is high and your insulin is low. That ratio is favorable for your muscles to oxidize (break down) more fatty acids," Peter Hespel of the University of Leuven in Belgium told MSNBC. Hespel also goes on to suggest that exercising without eating can build muscle that more readily absorbs glucose, which he thinks can help prevent and treat obesity-related conditions like diabetes.

It looks like my wish has come true. Last October, I mentioned the need for studies that separate processed meats and unadulterated meats when looking at the effect of meat on our health. There is now such a report. (While I had also wanted these hypothetical studies to compare organic, naturally-raised meats versus factory- farmed meat, I didn't get my wish, but the research is going in this direction.)

A new meta-analysis review published in the journal Circulation found that while an average of 50 grams of processed meat consumption per day was associated with a 42 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease and a 19 percent increase in type 2 diabetes, 100 grams of unprocessed red meats per day was not associated with these risks. They also noted that unprocessed red meat consumption was not associated with stroke, although this was not a strong association and requires more research.

"When you tease [the data on] these meats out, you see different associations for disease risk between processed and unprocessed meats," lead researcher Dr Renata Micha from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA told Heartwire CME.

At the beginning of the year, researchers from the Research Institute at Bastyr University completed a study that found the ancient Chinese energy healing modality qigong (also known as ch'i kung) helped lower some of the markers associated with type II diabetes. The findings are published in the January 2010 issue of Diabetes Care, the official journal of the American Diabetes Association.

Qigong is an internal, subtle energy, meditative practice that promotes the circulation of qi or chi energy throughout the body. This energy is considered the life force and working with this life force with movement or stillness (standing, sitting or lying down) is thought to enhance the overall health of the practitioner.

Understandably, this discipline lies outside of the domain of modern western science. However, there is a movement, in both China and the West, to study this practice using scientific methods. It is for this reason that this latest study is of such keen interest.

Researchers compared three variables: the effects of qigong versus the effects of resistance exercise training versus the care usually given to those with type 2 diabetes (as the control group).The qigong group practiced the energy technique twice a week for 12 weeks, as well as meeting with a qigong practitioner once per week to make sure the exercises were being done correctly. This schedule was mimicked by the resistance exercise group. The control group simply continued with the usual care for type II diabetics, as recommended by their doctor.

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues as well as improve their overall health.

We are still working our way though the eight hormonal imbalances that cause weight loss resistance. This week the topic of discussion is low thyroid hormone.

So far we've covered: Do you have too much estrogen? And, Are you a hotbed of inflammation?

Like so many other hormones, thyroid hormones must be present in the appropriate balance to ensure optimal health. Thyroid hormones regulate our metabolism and organ function. They directly affect heart rate, cholesterol levels, body weight, energy, muscle contraction and relaxation, skin and hair texture, bowel function, fertility, menstrual regularity, memory, mood and other body processes.

Too much thyroid hormone leads to hyperthyroidism, a condition that throws the metabolism into chronic high gear. Those with hyperthyroidism feel hot and experience a rapid heart rate, weight loss (or weight gain, if they eat a lot more due to increased appetite), irritability, insomnia, shakiness, and digestive troubles. Sufferers can also feel hyper, although fatigue is very common as well. Over time, hyperthyroidism can be extremely detrimental to bone density and muscle mass.

I was in Kensington Market in Toronto over the weekend and came across a fruit market that was selling hundreds of edible plants - every different sort of herb, fruit and vegetable plant you can imagine. There were at six different types of thyme, most of which I had never heard of.

And one plant I was surprised to see was the stevia plant. There was a time when you couldn't find stevia plants north of Mexico unless someone had smuggled it in, but now they're sold here on the street. The stevia plant has a natural sweetness, yet provides negligible calories. But, unlike artificial sweeteners, it is safe, has no known side effects and is actually beneficial.

The plant and its extracts were originally banned in Canada, but were later allowed to be sold as a supplement even though the primary use is as a sweetener. Last year Health Canada updated the rules on stevia allowing it to be added to natural health products as a non-medicinal additive opening the doors for food and beverage makers to use stevia in their products. But even now you'll usually find stevia in the supplement section of a health food store, not with the other sweeteners in the grocery section.

The stevia plant is native to South America where it has been used by the native populations for centuries. For the last 20 years, stevia extracts have been used in Brazil and Japan as commercialized sweeteners, widely promoted as appropriate for diabetics. This is where the sweetener really shines - adding a sweetness without causing any of the negative effects of sugar or artificial sweeteners. I use it myself every morning in my smoothie, avoiding the necessity of using other sweeteners or even juice, which can still be high in sugar.

The last time you suffered through a sinus infection, sprained an ankle or felt the irritating itch of a mosquito bite, you experienced the effects of inflammation first hand. Infections or injuries trigger a chain of events called the inflammatory cascade. The normal, familiar signs of inflammation such as redness, pain, swelling and fever are the first signals that our immune system is being called into combat.

Behind the scenes, the body strives to maintain a critical balance between the signals that enable and sustain this protective response and the signals that announce the battle has been won. Eventually, the inflammatory response stands down and the body's powerful, natural anti-inflammatory compounds move in to initiate healing.

Next time you're wondering how those extra pounds keep creeping up on the scale, consider this: It might not be down to your lack of gym-time; rather it could be that you're not getting enough inactive time. We're talking about your sleep habits, and recent research shows that how much (or how little) you get every night can have a big impact on your waistline ... and health. In fact, even just one sleepless night can send your metabolism into chaos.

According to studies recently published by the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, sleeplessness can affect how your body produces and uses insulin, which can both hinder your metabolism and lead to serious conditions like diabetes.

They determined this by monitoring nine adults, after both a night of eight hours sleep and a night of just four hours. They found that restricting the amount of sleep participants were able to get led to a reduction in insulin sensitivity. Insulin, of course, is the hormone that helps your body metabolize glucose, so it goes without saying that it's a crucial aspect to helping your body run smoothly.

Have you been unable to lose weight even with a healthy diet and exercise? Our bodies are wired to send us signals when something isn't right, but often we're too busy to hear them. The symptoms of hormonal imbalance are experienced by many every day. Recognizing and treating these subtle warnings is essential to weight loss, yet so many of us have been imbalanced for so long, we don't even know what normal is anymore.

First, in terms of health benefits, walking has been associated with improvements in both physical and mental health. For example, a US study conducted at Arizona State University found that women who accumulated more steps per day (on average more than 10,669 steps per day) had a lower body mass index (BMI), a lower percentage of body fat, smaller waist circumferences, lower levels of serum leptin, C reactive protein, and insulin, suggesting less risk of chronic disease, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

Now that soft drink consumption has been brought to light as one of the main concerns in the obesity epidemic, public health officials in several countries are trying to come up with ways to force or manipulate the public into consuming less.

In the U.S. the discourse has centred around the idea of a "Soda Tax." This new federal tax is currently being discussed by the Senate Finance Committee as a consideration for a way to help pay for the universal health care plan put forward by President Obama. It is thought that the three cent tax would help on two fronts - by discouraging soda consumption as well as helping to pay for health care.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill research team leader Kiyah Duffey writes, "While such policies will not solve the obesity epidemic in its entirety... they could prove an important strategy to address overconsumption, help reduce energy intake and potentially aid in weight loss and reduced rates of diabetes among U.S. adults." She goes on, "Our findings suggest that national, state or local policies to alter the price of less healthful foods and beverages may be one possible mechanism for steering U.S. adults toward a more healthful diet."

Almost a year ago I wrote a post on an ingredient added to almost every supplement on the market - magnesium stearate. My question at the time was, although it seems to to have a strongly negative effect on a small segment of the population, is magnesium stearate actually harmful to the population at large?

While I still don't have an answer to that question, over the past year a number of people have contacted me about their various reactions to magnesium stearate. And today, I received an interesting email I thought I'd share with you. Here it is, followed by my response.

Hi Doug,

Your article on magnesium stearate is for the most part true. However, you might be interested in some personal experience that indicates that for a small portion of the population ( perhaps one percent), magnesium stearate does pose problems.

I've had type one diabetes for forty years and have been living with a kidney transplant for fourteen years. Since 1990 I've had some unexplained symptoms. After making some observations I determined something in my supplements was causing these problems. Upon replacing them with supplements that didn't have magnesium stearate, I've noticed some amazing results.

My transplant has been slowly failing (this is expected). I have been mildly anemic for nearly a year and my test results indicate chronic renal disease. Bilirubin, a breakdown product of red blood cells, has also been inexplicably high for nearly a year as well.

Each morning, we dish out a few links we love.

Fretting about Easter eggs already? Don't worry -- studies show that small amounts of dark chocolate eggs might actually be good for you. So the only thing to worry about is how to stop after a few.

We all know that fast food is bad for our health, but recent studies show that it's bad for our personality too! Ouch.

Think your kids are especially lazy? Well, at least you can take comfort in knowing that they're not the only ones -- studies of over 30 countries show that a third of the world's young ones are couch potatoes.

Dealing with diabetes? Here are some tips on how to manage your injections.

Need another reason to quit smoking? Research shows that excessive puffing lowers your IQ.