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                                          by 

                           B.J. Daneshfar, M.D.  

It is often said, " You are what you eat.  "   Thus, it is very important to consume healthy foods, which are nutritional and good for the body.  For the last two centuries, the use of refined sugar and simple carbohydrate products has risen dramatically.  This is most likely related to the industrial revolution and ability of the industries to produce processed foods efficiently and cheaply.  The consumption of large amounts of sugar and simple carbohydrate containing foods have escalated over the last several decades and has increasingly lead to obesity, hypertension, diabetes, gout, and most importantly mixed connective tissue disorders including scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and conditions representing a mixture of some of these diseases with complex patterns of presentation.  It is important to note that sugar was first identified and described in 500 A.D. and until 1800’s; it was not available in large supply.  Thus, sweet foods such as honey, sweet breads and simple carbohydrate treats and foods containing such were available only to the royalty and the very rich. And of course they were plagued with again, obesity, hypertension, mixed connective tissue disorder and gout as well as atherosclerotic cardiac conditions (heart diseases).

As one consumes simple sugars and carbohydrates, there is a positive stimulus for insulin to be secreted by the pancreas and to reduce the blood sugar levels that rise.  Since the population at large generally has adequate and replete amounts of glycogen in their muscles and livers because of general inactivity, then the only place that sugar can be stored is in the fat cells of the body as fat.  Thus because of large amounts of simple carbohydrate intake, high levels of insulin will exist in the circulation and blood, which will increase fat accumulation into the fat cells.  The  higher levels of insulin that is present with today’s common diets will not allow any of the stored fat to get out of the fat cells to be utilized as energy by the body.  This trend will lead to continuous gain of weight leading to obesity.  With obesity there is loss of range of motion of joints of the extremities and more importantly of the spine.  There is also excessive amounts of stress placed on the spine due to loss of normal curvature of the spine that is necessary for its normal function.

The only hormone that mobilizes fat out of the fat cells and amino acids and proteins out of muscle and liver tissues is glucagon.  Glucagon is a hormone of starvation when blood sugar drops.  That is glucagon is usually active when the body's blood glucose levels or blood sugar levels drop below a critical value where this hormone is mobilized by the body to release sugar and proteins from the muscle and the liver cells.  With glucagon circulating fat and amino acids, which are building blocks of proteins, are mobilized from the muscle tissue and fats are mobilized from the fat deposits of the body to be burned as energy.  In today's society where high amounts of refined sugar and simple carbohydrates are consumed practically around the clock there is always insulin surges in the blood and therefore there is very little of the time where glucagon stimulation is initiated.  Therefore breakdown of fat can not occur to allow appropriate weight loss to take place.  Thus the general trend is high insulin levels at all times and increasing of fat deposits in an individual typically leading to an overweight body structure and ultimately obesity.  It is important to note that glucagon and insulin are antagonistic hormones.  When the levels of one is high in the blood, the levels of the other is low.  Overweight body habits and obesity is associated with increasing frequency of degenerative diseases such as mixed connective tissue disorders, systemic lupus erythromatosus, scleroderma, arthritis of all types, heart disease, vascular disease, propensity to develop diabetes, and increasing frequency of cancers.

The following are my recommendations that will improve the insulin/glucagon ratios and dynamics which reduces insulin surges and therefore improves the levels of glucagon which will mobilized fat from the fat stores as well as allow better utilization of the basic molecules that the body uses for energy and building blocks such as fats, proteins, and sugars.

Fats/oils:  It is recommended that canola, sunflower, soy, safflower, vegetable, cottonseed, and corn oil be avoided. These are polyunsaturated fats that eventually in the body will become polysaturated fats. This includes all foods that contain these oils, which are in breads, chips and other convenience items.  All hydrogenated fats should be avoided.  Hydrogenated fats are made by bubbling hydrogen under high-pressure and heat into vegetable oils such as safflower, cotton seed or soy oils where these oils becomes solidified and thus they are called hydrogenated oils.  These are used in multiple packaged foods available on the market.  In general the body does not handle hydrogenated oils well.  Avoid margarine, Crisco, Cool-Whip, Olestra, and Olin.  Acceptable fats and oils are real butter, cream, sour cream, nuts and seeds, olive oil, unrefined vegetable oils, and flax seed oil.  Majority of the oils in olive oil are monounsaturated fats, which are more beneficial to the body.  Oils contained in nuts and seeds are fine in the unroasted forms.  Roasting nuts and seeds oxidizes the natural oils into bad fats for the body.

Avoid Toxins by avoiding animal fats.  Most toxins concentrate in animal fats.  Avoid especially chicken skin and fat.

Fruits/sweets: Avoid all sugar and simple carbohydrate foods including fruit juices and fruits that you don't eat the skin of.  Apples, apricots, berries, cherries, fresh coconut, great fruits, kumquats, lemons, limes, mango, papaya, melons, peaches, pears, pineapple, oranges, tangerines, and pomegranate, one may eat always fresh with real cream but no sugar.  These can be consumed with limitations -- approximately 1 to 2 servings per day.  Avoid grapes, prunes, dates, raisins, figs, bananas, and plumes for at least 6 months if your goal is weight loss.  This is due to their high natural sugar content.  It is important that even these fruits be consumed occasionally.  Avoid all dehydrated or dried fruits as they are concentrated in sugars. Avoid bakery products such as pastries cakes, pies, pudding, sweet custards, sweet jelly or marmalade, Jell-O, ice cream, chocolate candy or other products.

Avoid any foods with artificial additives, colorings, and preservatives or sweeteners.  It is very important to read labels.  One must avoid prepackaged instant foods, which are generally made from simple carbohydrates, and refined sugar as well as containing hydrogenated oils.

Starches/flours: Avoid starches such as macaroni, spaghetti, rice, noodles (except for whole grain pasta in small amounts), potatoes (fried, mashed, etc.).  Baked potatoes may be consumed, skin and all, once or twice a week.  Brown rice is acceptable in this diet.  Real whole wheat bread, Ezekiel bread, oatmeal are acceptable.  Breads that are firm, not soft and made from whole grain flours such as wheat, soy, brown rice, or oatmeal are acceptable, but should be limited to no more than five servings per week.  Unprocessed cereals, cooked or soaked, such as oatmeal, cracked wheat, brown rice, barley, millet or buckwheat are acceptable.  It is best to use long cooking oatmeal and rice as opposed to instant products.  Again, these should not be consumed any more than five servings per week.

Vegetables: Any raw or lightly cooked (steamed) vegetables may be consumed as much as one can tolerate to moderation.  This includes artichokes, asparagus, avocado, beets, greens, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, collards, cucumber, egg plant, garlic, kale, lentil, leaf lettuce, lima beans, mustard greens, mushrooms, okra, onions, peppers, pumpkin, spinach, radishes, sauerkraut, soy beans, squash, string beans, sprouts, tomatoes, rutabagas, turnips and greens, watercress, parsley, and cilantro. Garlic is quite good with many beneficial effects for the body better too numerous to list at this time. It is important to note that corn, green peas, mixed vegetables, potatoes, and candied carrots are high in sugar content and thus carbohydrate content and once consumed and digested will produce large insulin responses in the blood.

Proteins: All unprocessed lean meats, such as beef, lamb, chicken, fish, turkey; eggs, natural cheeses, plain yogurt, legumes and nuts are acceptable.  Organically fed animal proteins are best.  For snacks, raw sunflower seeds, raw pumpkin seeds, raw almonds, granola, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, cottage cheese, natural cheeses, or natural peanut butter with a half slice of whole grain wheat bread, and plain yogurt may be consumed.  Processed meats should not be consumed.

Beverages: It is best to avoid alcoholic beverages in general.  A glass of red wine is generally acceptable on a daily basis because of its heart protective effects.  Carbonated soft drinks either regular or diet should be avoided.  Many soft drinks contain high amounts of phosphoric acid, which is a potent chelator (a compound that combines or attaches to another compound or element making a fairly strong bond) and leaches the body of calcium and other necessary metal elements. Too much soft drink intake can easily cause osteoporosis because of the strong bond that forms between phosphoric acid and calcium in the body.  More important, 99.9% of the reactions that occur in the body require calcium.  When calcium is not available due to combination or attachment to phosphoric acid, these reactions can not take place. therefore the body functions become faulty.  One example is bad or faulty making of essential  proteins the body needs such as tendons and joints. Lumbar spinal discs can also be made faulty and can prematurely rupture or herniate.  The proteins necessary for the function of the immune system is another area where loss of calcium and other essential metals can become a problem.  It is important to note that diet drinks and sweeteners contain the additive sweetener aspartame.  In a typical diet soft drink, approximately 40-50 percent of the contained aspartame will have decayed within 6 to 8 weeks after production.  Ten percent of this material generally converts to methanol, which is wood alcohol.  7 cc or 1/4 oz. of wood alcohol (methanol) is so toxic to the retina that it will cause blindness in all individuals who consume this amount of methanol.  Thus it is best that any amount of aspartame be avoided. 1 to 2 packets of Saccharin (generally in pink packets) daily used to sweeten beverages are acceptable.  A more acceptable sweetener is stevia or Nature's Taste, which can be used to sweeten cold and hot beverages.  Stevia can also be used in cooking.  Coffee and tea in moderation ( one to two cups) is also acceptable for daily consumption.  Green tea is quite good with antioxidants that are 100 times more potent than vitamin E making this beverage quite good for daily consumption.  Four to five cups of green tea daily has been shown to reduce many cancers and pre-cancerous conditions. Butter milk, herb teas may also be consumed without sweetening artificially and or with table sugar.  In general table sugar is a better sweetener if used in moderation than any artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.  This is because natural sugar is safer for consumption. It is very important to consume 6 to 8 eight to 12 ounce glasses of water daily as well.  Coral Calcium treated distilled water is most preferable.  Coral Calcium treated distilled water has many health benefits.  For more information on Coral Calcium go to Dr. Bennert's website and once there, search for or click on Coral Calcium. The web address is  http://www.drjoasis.com

All beverages can be made using Coral Calcium treated distilled water such as tea, coffee, lemonade, limeade, etc.

Carbohydrates: It is generally best to start on a low refined sugar and simple carbohydrate diet with no more than 20 grams of carbohydrates consumed per day, if one's goal is to lose weight.  Thus one's diet will mostly consist of proteins, vegetables and fats that are beneficial as discussed above.  Following four to six weeks of limitation of total daily carbohydrate intake of 20 grams per day, one may increase the carbohydrate intake slowly to eventually consuming no more than 60 to 100 grams of carbohydrates a day.  Remember that the carbohydrates consumed should be from whole grains and complex carbohydrates.

Simple carbohydrates are those carbohydrate compounds or foods that are not complex and generally are made from parts of the grain or starchy foods.  For example white bread is made from bleached flour or enriched flour that are made from part of the grain and not the entire grain.  In contrast whole-wheat flour is made from the entire grain.  White bread, which is made from parts of the grain, will be broken down in the intestines and are absorbed as glucose or sugar molecules into the blood very rapidly.  This will therefore raise the blood sugar quickly and stimulate a more rapid and larger insulin response from the body.  Complex carbohydrates which are made from the grain such as whole wheat bread will be broken down to sugar molecules slower and therefore will be absorbed slower and stimulate a smaller insulin response.  This is especially true for all whole grain carbohydrate foods a good example of which is oatmeal.  On the contrary pastas, which are not made from whole grains, elicit a larger and more rapid insulin response from the body because of higher sugar levels that develop in the blood.  In fact nutritional research shows that simple table sugar will illicit less insulin response because of lesser levels of blood sugar that are developed than pastas that are ingested.  Most pastas are not made from whole grains.  Whole grain pasta may be purchased at a health food store.  Despite contemporary teaching past is not healthy food!

Supplements: It is important to obtain supplemental vitamins and essential oils as well as elements.  This becomes even more important when the individual does not consume a balanced diet.  Most vitamins and essential elements come from vegetables and fruits.  It is my recommendation that all patients should start taking flax seed oil, approximately 4 tablespoonfuls per day.  This may be consumed directly and or mixed with 1/4 portion balsamic vinegar and 3/4 portion flax seed oil plus garlic powder, dill weed, salt, pepper, dried onions, finely chopped cucumbers, and other seasonings to taste and used as salad dressings over salads.  Flax seed oil may be mixed with cottage cheese or plain yogurt for consumption also.  Flax seed oil provides the body with essential fatty acids that the body cannot make and therefore have to be eaten. Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids from cold water fish, such as salmon, is better than flax seed oil except in those individuals that have no gall bladder.

Next I recommend calcium supplementation, magnesium, and manganese supplements as well.  The metabolism of calcium, magnesium and manganese are interrelated and all elements must be present for the body's normal function.  It is also important to consume vitamin C, approximately 4 grams per day (which can be taken in the form of 500 mg tablets-8 tablets per day).  Once again Coral Calcium treated distilled water is best (see above).  Next vitamin E, 2000 IU should be consumed daily.  Vitamin E should be the natural vitamin E that is absorbed well and its efficacy is better also.  Synthetic vitamin E is cheaper but not as beneficial.  Most vitamin E sold is not the form that the body can use being of the wrong type for the body.  Natural vitamin E is what the body can benefit from or can use.  Generally supplemental vitamins in tablets taken with fruits that are high in these vitamins which are in their natural state (that are chelated -- combined with other naturally occurring molecules making them more absorbable to the body as present in fruits and other natural foods) will make them more absorbable to the body as they will be combined with the natural molecules and compounds that are present in the natural foods and fruits.  Therefore if one takes 500 mg of vitamin C and eats an orange and or a green bell pepper, more of the 500 mg of the vitamin C will be absorbed than when it is taken alone.  It is also important to take plenty of water when supplements are taken.  Vitamin B1, B2, B3 can be consumed in the form of Brewer's yeast, as a supplement on a daily basis.  Folate and other B. complex vitamins may be obtained through a B-complex supplement.  B6 and folate (folic acid) are especially important.  Chromium is also an important element for energy metabolism and energy transfer.  Chromium is also an important element to obtain as a supplement. Chromium picolinate is not a good or usable chromium source.  Chromium polynicotinate found in ChromeMate is much better.  For more information please go to http://www.drjoasis.com  Many times most all of the vitamins and elements can be purchased in one formulation and consumed.  It is important to read labels as to what is contained in a vitamin tablet and how much of each vitamin and element is present per tablet or dose. Expensive vitamin formulations are not necessarily the best.  Ionic minerals are best for supplementation and consumption.

In those individuals predisposed to any form of arthritis such as rheumatoid, osteoarthritis, or other mixed connective tissue disorder involving joint arthritic conditions glucose amine and chondroitin sulfate tablets should be taken two to four times a day.  Eating cooked joint tissues of beef, chicken, and pork will provide the same products to the body.

Exercise: It is important to get enough exercise in the form of brisk walking, swimming, running, and bicycling which are activities that increase the demand and function of the cardiovascular system (aerobic exercise).  One should start slowly in aerobic exercises and workup to 20 to 30 minutes daily.  It is important to note that adequate foot care is important making good athletic shoes very important.  Good athletic shoes are a very cost-effective investment when the alternative is considered and adequate foot care, which includes good shoes, is not heeded to.  Muscle toning by use of weight training and strengthening is important in maintenance of good health.  Increase of muscle strength is associated with increase of muscle mass/weight and therefore increases of the body's metabolism.  High body metabolism will burn fat faster.  Spinal exercises that are taught at the Acute and Chronic Pain and Spine Center (ACPSC) or from other sources are important for the maintenance of your spine.  The spine is the common denominator that all the head and the extremities are attached to.  It must be flexible and strong to maintain the movement and force exerted not only by the head but all the extremities. Exercising the arms and legs and the trunk without good range of motion exercises of the spine will not give balanced exercise to the entire body.  Just like one needs to eat a balanced diet, the body needs balanced exercise too. There are certain curves in the spine, which give the spinal column advantage of function.  With an overweight body range of motion of the spine is decreased and or lost. Even with ideal body weight or a thin body one may not have good range of motion of the spine and thus the curves of the spine necessary for maximum efficiency, strength and function of the spine.  Without these curves and adequate strength and function, the spine and its structures will begin to deteriorate and with time accelerate in not only dysfunction but are damaged physically. During exercise it is absolutely important to drink plenty of water and other fluids which are not high in sugar and simple carbohydrate content.

Finally: By now you may be in a state of high anxiety, if not in shock, as I have turned your diet world upside down. Although the information given above is supported by the medical and nutritional literature, it is contrary to what is taught today.  You may even think that this diet is impossible and that you cannot accomplish it.  But really try it and stick to it.  Granted it is hard at first.  But slowly as your body converts to a high metabolism state and burns the excess fat off, you will notice dramatic weight loss and even notice more inches will come off.  Remember at first weight loss occurs that generally is dramatic the more overweight the individual is.  However with time weight loss will decrease.  But inches will continue to come off as the body form improves with loss of fat and increase of muscle mass/weight.  Remember form is more important than weight loss. Some people will actually gain more weight because of muscle mass increase.  Muscle weighs more than fat.  With these changes you will begin to feel better and have a lot of energy, as the body will begin to utilize fats more efficiently.  The satiety (the state of hunger or satisfaction) will be satisfied as carbohydrates do not satisfy the brain's satiety center.  The brains satiety center is satisfied with fat content of the blood and not carbohydrate levels.  That is why after a large carbohydrate meal, many people end up in front of the refrigerator, microwave, or in the cookie jar despite a full stomach, as their satiety center is not satisfied.  This generally occurs after a large Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.  With time you will begin to note that you will have more energy and do not feel like frequent snacking.  And in a few months your body will look and feel better.  You will not eat by the clock as it is done most of the time now.  You will only eat when you are hungry that is when your satiety center in the brain demands it.  Once your body achieves this more efficient state of metabolism, metabolizing what is good for it, consumption of high carbohydrate or refined sugar drinks and foods will actually make you feel bad.  This is because your body is not used to these products any longer.

The first most important steps to take are to: 1) get off all soda and soft drinks;  including diet sodas and diet soft drinks; 2) avoid all bleached flour products-- all fast foods and packaged bread product-- whole grain foods are OK such as oatmeal; 3) avoid sugar and sugar containing foods; 4) avoid bad fats including hydrogenated oils--the best oil to consume is olive oil, butter in small amounts may be consumed also; 5) eat fresh vegetables  and fresh meats--which may be steamed or cooked; 6) fruits in moderation are alright as well.

In the supermarkets stay away from factory packaged foods.  Try to shop at the fresh produce, meats, and non-processed and packaged food isles.  It is also extremely important that one vary one's food intake so that the same types of foods are not consumed more than once every 4 to 5 days.  Eating different varieties of foods is beneficial and very important.  

Copyright © 2002 Acute & Chronic Pain and Spine Center
Last modified: 10/12/06