What the Heck is the ALCAT Food Sensitivity Test and Why Should I Care?

VeggiesMasahiro Ihara
This is a universal issue that we all need to be aware of.  Sensitivities to foods and other substances cause a reaction by our immune system and over time, this can result in a host of problems.  

Even though we sell the Alcat test, please don’t dismiss this as a sales letter... you never have to take the test to benefit from this article!  Below, I will cover:

  1. What is a food sensitivity and how can it affect me?

  2. How does the Alcat test work?

  3. What can I do today, even if I don’t take the test?

 

What is a food sensitivity and how can it affect me?

If you learn just one thing from this article, then let it be this... you can be sensitive to anything you put in or on your body.  The results of that sensitivity can be subtle and delayed, making it very tricky to figure out.  However, just being aware to the fact that you could be sensitive...

Fructose Overload (Infographic)

Of all the foods that can inflict damage on your body, sugar - especially fructose - is one of the most dangerous. Soda is just one among the many food and beverage sources of fructose, the largest calorie source of Americans today. The sad fact is that the average American drinks more than 60 gallons of soft drinks each year.

 

Often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, fructose is a potent pro-inflammatory agent that speeds up aging, leads to insulin resistance and obesity, and sets the stage for chronic disease, such as high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, high blood pressure, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, liver disease, cancer, arthritis, and gout.

 

It is recommended to keep your fructose consumption to less than 25 grams per day. If you have a condition related to insulin resistance, keep it below 15 grams. Through this infographic titled "Fructose Overload," discover common fructose foods and drinks you should avoid like the plague, along with stealth sources of this sweetener.

 

You probably don't know this, but fructose is hidden in many of the foods you eat every day....

2 Minute Look at the Mediterranean Diet – Can it Lower Cardiovascular Risk?

Mediterranean dietnitdoggx

The New England Journal of Medicine recently published the results of a clinical trial that asked the question; Does eating a Mediterranean diet reduce the likelihood of having a cardiovascular event in people with high risk factor?

 

The trial included 7447 people age 55 to 80 (57% women) and spanned 4.8 years. None of the participants had known heart problems before the trial began, but all of them were at risk. This meant that everyone in the study had either Type II Diabetes or at least 3 cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, high LDL, low HDL, overweight, family history, or smoking).

 

Everyone was split into one of three groups: a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with mixed nuts, or a control diet (just advised to reduce dietary fat).

 

When the dust settled and they excluded the ones that didn’t stick to the diet, they found that the folks eating a Mediterranean diet had a 29% lower risk...

5 Ways To Eat Locally Grown Food Without Even Getting Your Hands Dirty

Farmers Market photo by USDAgov

This article also includes the best resources for finding each of these great food sources!

 

If you don’t have the time, space, interest, or desire to grow all of your own food, then you’re in luck! There are several options that will help you, your family, and your community.  Now, I’m not going to go into a long diatribe about mass produced, long haul food.  Just for arguments sake, I’m going to assume we all agree that buying food locally from farmers we know, and farms we could actually visit, is a pretty good thing.

 

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)

CSA farms have been around for over 25 years, but most people I talk to have never heard of them.  It’s like the garden stock market;  you buy shares with a local farmer and those shares stake your claim to a portion of the bounty.  Each week of the season you will receive a box of farm fresh goodness.  Some CSAs will...

Fatty Foods Make You Hungry

We've always thought that our feelings of hunger stem from an empty stomach but, recent research shows that it is in fact the presence of fatty foods in our stomach that results in the hunger sensation. Ghrelin is the so-called "hunger hormone" that is involved in this process. It also stimulates the uptake of nutrients and facilitates the storage of fat in the body. However, ghrelin does not function by itself; it needs to be activated. For this to happen, it must be combined with a fatty acid. There is a specific enzyme called ghrelin O-acyl transferase, or GOAT, which enables the fatty acid to be added to the hormone in a process called acylation. High concentrations of ghrelin are found in the body prior to meals and after eating the levels decline. For over a decade the thinking has been that ghrelin accumulates during the periods when we are not eating and that the fatty acids which are required for the activation of the hormone were produced by the body during this time as well. Now, according to research published in the June 5, 2009 edition...