Friday, August 17, 2007

The Role of Whey Protein in Your Diet

The best food is colostrum, the first food your mother produced after giving birth. It is best because it is at the right temperature (not cooked) at 37 C, delivered to you directly without processing and without preservatives. So how do we get such food when we become adults? Without pasteurization, with low fat, no lactose and casein, such perfect food can be delivered by Immunotec Inc. from Montreal, developed by Dr. Bounous, a surgeon at McGill University, which was patented in the U.S.A., Canada, Japan and Australia.

Start your day with this whey protein, or any other, that has been produced from cows milk without high temperatures) and rehydrated in water and thus, as liquid, is very easily absorbed from an empty stomach before you consume any solid breakfast. Eating whey protein at breakfast, or before as the first drink of the day, gives you precursors for the production of glutathione. Remember to drink milk serum protein 20-30 minutes before you start your breakfast to prevent any precipitation.

It is interesting to compare the proportions of the components of cows 1 milk and human milk, to see the differences, including the fact that milk may cause serious allergies.

The Ups and Downs of Weight

Excessive weight gain or loss signals some alteration in your physiology. Observe, too, if you are not gaining weight or are losing it too rapidly. If you are, there is some underlying problem because your body's homeostasis should maintain a more or less constant weight, and there should be no need to go on a diet to lose weight. Look for a problem. Consider whether there may be some connection between your appetite (and weight) and your lifestyle, blood type, and gene pool. Has the nature of your work changed recently to a more sedentary one, thus reducing your need for calories? These may offer clues.

Losing weight starts with a diet pyramid, of which the base is water. Water is the easiest to lose because we are built of 75% water, and you lose water first. Sweating and evaporation makes the body lose water, which come back, as it does to dry lichen during rehydration. Don't fool yourself!

During fad dieting the next nutrient after water that we get rid of is carbohydrate (sugar) deposited as glycogen which, like starch, is a glucose polymer. Glucose itself cannot be retained as a storage material in the cells because it would absorb a lot of water, being responsible for osmotic pressure in the cytoplasm. The more glucose, the more water and the cell would burst. But we can keep glucose handy, so to speak, (because it is a handy source of energy for rapid use and especially for the working brain) by forming some molecules of glycogen for 20 minutes work, whether it is to escape from a predator crucial for our remote ancestors, hard work to get food or just moving rapidly from one place to another.

After a 20-minute workout, voluntarily or involuntarily, we start to get energy from the protein of our muscle cells so at the beginning dieting people lose muscle tissue and become weaker, and feel sluggish and out of energy. Protein metabolism to yield energy leaves behind its nitrogen which, when oxidized, produces the strongest and worst free radicals. NO and N02. These are eventually converted to uric acid, which requires a lot of detoxification. This is where glutathione is very useful as a scavenger of toxins and free radicals.

Glutathione and Cell Health

Glutathione: a Buzz Word of the 21st Century

Glutathione is a tripeptide built of only three amino acids the smallest protein, containing only two peptide bonds, between glycine, cysteine and glutamic acid. Glycine is the smallest amino acid, glutamic acid is an acidic amino acid and cysteine is a thiol a molecule with a -SH group. This allows a hydrogen ion or proton (HI-) to be easily removed from the sulfur that is responsible for the reductive power of glutathione. The glutamic acid carboxyl group -COOH can release HI- too, and functions even at low pH- important especially in the case of mitochondrial glutathione.

Two linked processes are of central importance in biochemistry - oxidation and reduction. Oxidation is essential to all multicellular organisms, including humans, as it provides most of the energy they need to function. Reduction is also a beneficial process. But oxidation has its negative side as well; it is a very aggressive process involving the splitting of molecules and leading to the formation of free radicals and oxidation products; As we humans cannot avoid oxidation, we had to evolve some means of cleaning up after it, and cells had to develop antioxidants as scavengers of free radicals to make order in the vicinity of reaction sites.

In the chemical process, molecules do not simply disappear. Split molecules in one place are combined with another molecule somewhere else; hence, reduction takes place simultaneously with oxidation, and, overall, we have what is called a redox reaction.

-e

oxidation

electron removal

A+B

C+D, e.g., H20

014+11

reduction

electron addition


Such migration of electrons in water, important because 75% of our body is water, and in other molecules, is dangerous in itself because electrons removed from a molecule bombard other molecules in the vicinity, there being no emptiness in a cell. The electrons removed can in turn bombard other molecules, causing aberrations, the worst of which are in the DNA of which the genes in the cell nucleus are built. Bombardment with electrons causes mutations in the nucleotides of DNA (more in volume II), and these aberrant genes transmit, from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, aberrant information concerning how to build protein and what to put into the protein molecule. As a result, the protein is formed incorrectly, the enzyme or other protein molecule is inactive or less reactive and part of the cell s physiology is altered.

Sometimes, when a mutation is within an oncogene, or cancer-causing gene, this oncogene can be unblocked and lead to the development of a cancer cell. We know that a cancerous tumor arises from just one cell in which the ability to control mitoses has been lost, and when such a cell starts to divide rapidly it forms a shapeless, disorganized tumor

There thus seems to be a firm connection between one bombarding electron and a tumor. The initial cancer cell can divide further, and becomes dangerous, unless it is destroyed by the lymphocytes of our immune system. These recognize the foreigner, engulf it and digest it in their cytoplasm.

Such digestion processes happen every day in many organs of our bodies scientists have estimated that at least nine cancerous or precancerous cells are formed daily within the human organism, and are alt destroyed. But what happens if our immune system is weakened? When the immune system is not fully functional, or if there is another disease in the body, or if we have been exposed to radiation, more of such bombarding electrons form, the number of mutations increases, and if one precancerous cell escapes the lymphocytes it can result in cancer.

Similar mutations from bombarding electrons or very small free radicals (OH; NO, N02) can occur in another part of the DNA that is not an oncogene. In this case, no cancer develops, but the protein formed because of the mutated information is an altered protein that in turn leads to alterations to the biochemistry within the cells. Such cells, having been altered, are not healthy. Also unhealthy are cells with viruses and bacteria that have penetrated into them, having escaped the immunological responses. The conclusion is, therefore, that the body's strongest defenseis its immune system, which can not only recognize and identify the foreign antigen, but can also then destroy it. Every cell of our body should work with maximal efficiency and should be maximally healthy.

Glutathione contributes to such maximal efficiency by reducing the number of toxins, free radicals and oxidants in our cells. Production of cellular glutathione this master antioxidant is enhanced in every cell by the increased availability of glutathione precursors, an4 especially by the one that occurs naturally in the lowest concentrations in diets cysteine.

Titanium - The secret metal that changed my cooking

Titanium is a very hard, uncreative metal, and thus has very important advantages when used in cookware:

1. It does not rust (hence used up to now in rocket engines, and human joint replacements)

2. It does not readily react with other molecules, and thus, during cooking, it is not transferred into our food as aluminum and iron are

3. Food does not stick to it, so meals prepared in it are easily removed, and cleaning is extremely easy

4. Even food burnt to charcoal is easily removed by peeling, so that pans are not rendered unusable as may be the case for Teflon-coated ones

5. Water circulates within an evenly heated pot, without quickly evaporating, so food is juicy and every vegetable cooked together with others retains its own flavour. Circulation of water means that no extra water, or at most a few milliliters, is needed, and juices stay within the cooking tissue.

6. Because of titanium's very high melting point, even severe accidental overheating on the stove element will not melt the pot, and danger of fire is reduced

7. (Most important) because food does not stick to the pan, no fat is needed in cooking, so healthy, grease-free cooking is possible.

8. No grease splashes on clothes and no greasy residue is left on plates, there is a clean stove, no oven cleaning because roasting can be done in the pan

9. Undesirable trans fatty acids are not formed during cooking from the added fat

10. as no fat need be added, and calories are thus saved during cooking, we can later add butter or cheese for flavour, not melted at high temperature, and temperature-sensitive food components such as vitamins and proteins are not destroyed

Titanium cookware has brought back joy to my cooking, when food contains natural juices and bouquets of natural flavour, and gives me carefree moments of greaseless surroundings and easy dishwashing. My greatest enjoyment is cooking with eggs.