In the simplest terms, calorie overload involves an imbalance between calories consumed via diet versus calories burned through resting metabolism and physical activity. When we eat too much and exercise too little, we are in a state of calorie overload, the most obvious symptom of which is weight gain. But other factors are involved. We are typically not just gaining weight, we are gaining body fat. And body fat is not a physiologically inert tissue. Recent research indicates that it is “hormonally active”, that it is associated with increased levels of oxidative stress, and that by its sheer mass, it imposes additional physical stress on our bodies and organs.

Frequent, broad excursions in blood glucose are a second risk factor for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Virtually every time we eat, we experience a rise in blood glucose as our foods are digested and sugars enter our blood stream. When we eat big meals rich in simple sugars and starches, the rises in blood sugar tend to be very high. In response, our bodies produce large amounts of insulin to drive that sugar into our cells where it can be used for energy. As this happens, our blood sugar drops, often below pre-meal levels. This makes us hungry and stimulates us to eat again, producing another rise and subsequent fall in blood sugar and encouraging a self-perpetuating cycle. In the short-term, these frequent and broad fluctuations in blood sugar lead to over eating, mood swings, and weight gain. In the long-term they are risk factors for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic disorders.

Glycemic index and glycemic load are two characteristics of foods and diet that are relevant to this discussion. The glycemic index of a food is a measure of the rise in blood sugar that is produced by eating a set amount of that food. Foods with a high glycemic index produce large rises in blood sugar per unit of carbohydrate consumed. Foods with a low glycemic index produce small to modest rises in blood sugar per unit of carbohydrate consumed. The concept of glycemic load adds to the equation the amount of food you eat. If you eat a large amount of a high glycemic food (i.e. if you consume a large glycemic load) you will experience a much higher rise in blood sugar than if you eat a small amount of a high glycemic food or a moderate amount of a low glycemic food (i.e. if you consume a small glycemic load).

Insulin sensitivity is an additional factor of importance in glycemic control. When we are sensitive to our own insulin, it can readily shunt blood sugar into our cells where it is “burned” as energy and thereby disposed of. This helps to maintain healthy levels of sugar in our blood stream. But when we become insulin insensitive, or insulin resistant, we have trouble using and disposing of blood sugar. In response, our bodies over-produce insulin, which in the short-term exacerbates weight gain and in the long-term leads to metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

Regular physical exercise and responsible weight management are keys to maintaining good insulin sensitivity.

Related posts:

1. Glyconutrients: An Overview
2. The 8 Essential Glyconutrients That Should Be In Your Diet
3. Glyconutrients A New Paradigm

There are more than 200 glyconutrients available but only eight are needed by the body. These include xylose, galactose, fucose, glucose, mannose, N-acetylneuraminic acid, N-acetylgalactosamine, and N-acetylglucosamine. These appear in various forms in nature and have individual functions that generally help speed up cell to cell communication, promote the body’s immune system, and improve general wellness.

Xylose, for example, is a typical component of bubble gum and toothpaste that was recently discovered to have anti-bacterial and antifungal properties alongside its property that enhances cellular communication. Glyconutrients that are abundant in human breast milk and dairy products are fuctose and galactose. The former helps in promoting brain development, in warding off infections caused by allergens, and inhibits tumor growth. The latter, meanwhile, plays central role in healing wounds, inhibiting the formation of cataracts, lessening inflammation, and like fuctose, in inhibiting the formation and spread of tumor growth.

Mannose, a nutrient that is important in tissue remodeling, prevention of infections from parasites, viruses, bacteria, and fungi, as well as in preventing the formation of tumor, is found in the gums of Indian sumac and African acacia tree.

The rest of the eight essential glyconutrients are N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylneuraminic acid, and N-acetylgalactosamine. Most of the benefits that may be had from N-acetylglucosamine focus on alleviating symptoms of osteoarthritis such as weakened cartilage, pain, inflammation, and decreased range of motion. N-acetylneuraminic acid, which comes mainly from breast milk, was discovered to have pivotal roles in brain development, learning, memory, and performance. It also has influence over cholesterol levels and blood coagulation. There is, however, no extensive data on N-acetylgalactosamine. Nevertheless, it has been shown to have properties that resemble those glyconutrients that were mentioned previously like the properties to prevent tumor growth and promote cellular communication.

Unfortunately, the body only receives two of these important nutrients in high and regular quantities – glucose or simply sugar which has recently earned a reputation as the underlying cause of various conditions when taken in excess and galactose that is frequently found in dairy products.

Clearly, glyconutrients are all about benefits. There are no known side effects to using supplements containing these sweet nutrients and there is no apparent danger in overusing them.

However, as with anything revolutionary in the field of medical science, glyconutrients are instantly becoming a source of controversies, not because they are nothing but hype but because many marketers are taking advantage of the public acceptance of their value to health. This does not prevent medical scientists and nutritionists from promoting the use of these nutrients, nevertheless.

In fact, the recent years have seen increased interest in glyconutrients that is parallel to the increased interest in promoting health and wellness.

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1. Glyconutrients: An Overview
2. The 8 Essential Glyconutrients That Should Be In Your Diet
3. Glyconutrients A New Paradigm

8 Varieties of Glyconutrients

Of the numerous glyconutrients present in nature, there are only eight notable varieties that are critical in helping to sustain bodily functions, specifically in cellular communication and in promoting immune system responses. These are glucose, galactose, xylose, mannose, fucose, N-acetylneuraminic acid, N-acetylglucosamine, and N-acetylgalactosamine. These generally come from wood saps and gums, seaweeds, mushrooms, berries like cranberries and strawberries, human breast milk, common foods like wheat, bran, corn, and aloe vera and its derivatives.

Glyconutrients Supplementation
Although these nutrients are present in naturally high quantities in nature, drastic changes in food production, chemical composition of the soil, and the manner by which nutrients are preserved in green harvests have all combined to deplete natural foods of these essential substances. The results are diminished capacity of the immune system to respond appropriately to threats against it, higher incidence of autoimmune, chronic and degenerative diseases and disorders, and a generally unhealthy population.

The need, therefore, for supplementation is very high. It has been shown in some clinical studies that the body’s requirement for these nutrients appears on a constant basis. This is because every day, a number of cells die. These are replaced by a new set of cells that require the same or higher dosage of these nutrients.

To answer these needs, companies have formulated various products that contain these nutrients. While many of these products are questionable, a good number of them have been shown to provide the necessary amounts of these nutrients to boost the body’s immune system and improve communication between its cells.

Health Benefits of Glyconutrients
Depending on the type of the nutrient, benefits can range from enhancement of cell to cell communication to improvement on brain development and memory. Each glyconutrient possesses individual properties that make them very essential in preserving optimal health.

Mannose is the most significant of all these nutrients and is known to affect many areas of health. It benefits the body by preventing the growth of tumor cells, by inhibiting infections caused by viruses, bacteria, and parasites, by alleviating symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, by lowering blood fat and sugar, along with others. Glucose, on the other hand, is a staple source of energy and is often consumed in the form of starch, maize or corn, and wheat. Galactose, a type that is found in dairy products as well as human breast milk, promotes cell to cell communication, a function that is performed by all other glyconutrients.

There are also glyconutrients that are critical in brain development such as N-acetylneuraminic acid and fucose. Several of these nutrients are known to help prevent the formation of tumors in the body such as N-acetylgalactosamine and mannose and others are crucial in warding off disease-causing substances.

In clinical studies, these sugars have been shown to help alleviate symptoms of diseases and conditions like:

-ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
-ADD or Attention Deficit Disorder
-Neurological Diseases
-Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
-Diabetes
-Depression
-Heart disease
-Flu
-Obesity
-Skin dehydration
-High Blood Pressure or hypertension
-Lupus
-Psoriasis
-Insomnia
-Cataracts
-Anxiety
-Hepatitis
-Asthma
-Allergic Reactions
-Depression
-Osteoporosis
-Osteoarthritis
-Insomnia
-Muscle pain and inflammation and
-Sexual functions

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2. The 8 Essential Glyconutrients That Should Be In Your Diet
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The symptoms of vitamin deficiency will normally present themselves when the lack of vitamins is at an advanced level.

Those who don’t get enough of vitamins A, B1, and B2 for example, will always feel tired, along with a loss of appetite. Other symptoms include mental and emotional stress, chapped lips, and other annoying or painful habits.

The most common causes of deficiency include a poor diet, alcoholism, stress, a lack of vitamins, or medicine that interferes with your ingestion of vitamins. If you are always feeling tired or feeling a lack of energy, you are probably short on the vitamins that your body needs to have on a daily basis. If you visit your doctor and tell him the problem, he will probably recommend vitamins and supplements that will give you want you need. Whatever you do, you should never overdo it and try to catch up on what you’ve been missing – as this will do you more harm than good.

Even though you may be following a healthy diet, you’ll still need to take vitamins and supplements. No matter how healthy you eat, you should still use the right vitamins and supplements to give your body what it needs. Vitamins are a great back up source, as they will provide your body with the minerals and nutrients it needs in the event of your diet failing you.

Before or after every meal that you consume, you should take vitamins or supplements. If you have a deficiency in a certain vitamin or vitamins, you should make sure that you never miss taking the vitamin you need. Even though you may not realize it, being deficient in a vitamin can greatly damper your performance as well as the overall health of your body.

When you look for supplements, you should always look for those that contain vitamins B6, B12, D, E, and folic acid. Along with being considered dietary supplements, these well known vitamins will help to fight cancer and help your heart remain healthy. The combination of these vitamins will help your body to remain healthy, boost your immune system, and keep you feeling refreshed.

To remain healthy and keep your body operating as it should, you’ll need to invest in vitamins and supplements. You can find them online or at local nutrition stores, many of which won’t cost you much money at all. No matter what your age may be, you’ll need to ensure that you are eating the right foods and taking the right foods. Keep in mind that you should never replace food with vitamins, as they are more less meant to give you additional nutrients and minerals.

Anytime you aren’t able to eat the right food, you should always turn to vitamin supplements to give your body what it needs. Supplements and vitamins are one of the best investments you can make, as everyone needs vitamins in their body. Even though the costs may add up over time, it is more than worth it when you think about. For what you spend in vitamins and supplements, you’ll be keeping your body healthy – and preventing a deficiency in vitamins. Although vitamin deficiency is very common these days, it doesn’t have to be.

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1. Insufficient B Vitamin Is Very Bad For Your Health
2. How To Choose The Right Multivitamins For You
3. The Undercover Vitamin

Don’t be fooled by his clever disguise. D is no vitamin. He’s a steroid hormone, slipping through your body under guise of a vitamin. And he doesn’t have dozens of functions, like vitamin C or vitamin E, just one vital mission – to mineralize your bones!

Mineralization is a key objective of every body. Imagine if we all had flabby bones. The world would look like a Salvador Dali nightmare. Vitamin D saves us from having flabby bones.

More importantly, vitamin D saves us from having brittle bones. He prevents us from rickets and osteomalacia by balancing the calcium and phosphorous in our blood. Ooh, that D is a clever one. Not only is he a master of disguises, but he is a master chemist, constantly monitoring, measuring and balancing the mix so it just right to ensure everybody has strong and healthy bones.

Word on the grapevine is that 30% to 40% of hip fractures in elderly people are the result of insufficient vitamin D. So we caught up with D, and managed to slip away with a rare interview transcript:

“D, some of your fans can’t get enough of you. What should they do?”

“Get plenty of sun. That is the key. Where the sun touches your skin, that’s where I will be.”

“But, D, what about people who can’t? What about people in the far north, or those who wear head-to-toe clothing or who are stuck indoors?”

“If you find yourself overdressed in a dungeon in Mongolia, get a good multi-vitamin supplement.”

“D, that’s a wonderful idea.”

“Or drink lots of milk, fortified with me, of course. Some breakfast cereals are fortified with me, too. I also hang out in a lot of saltwater fish, like tuna and sardines and herring and salmon. And I love to slip around in the ol’ cod liver oil.”

“So if we can’t get enough sun, milk and fish will do the trick.”

“That’s right, but be careful about milk products. Not all of them are made with fortified milk. I make no commitment to be there if they are not.”

“What about the supplements, D?”

“A good multivitamin supplement should do it for most people. Get a liquid supplement, cause those pills just don’t digest. You just end up flushing me down the toilet…ooh, I hate that feeling.”

“Yuck.”

“And you shouldn’t need a specific vitamin D supplement, because it is possible to overdose. And you wouldn’t want too much of a guy like me around.”

That was all we could slip through the lines. But I think we learned a lot about what it is like to live the life of a secret vitamin. To our hero, vitamin D, we offer our best wishes. May everybody get plenty of vitamin D to keep their bones strong and healthy for many years to come.

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1. Insufficient B Vitamin Is Very Bad For Your Health
2. The Danger Of Not Investing In Vitamins and Supplements
3. How To Choose The Right Multivitamins For You

The foods of today often do not contain enough of the nutrients that your body needs to be in your best physical shape. While a diet that is full of nutrient rich food should not be replaced, it may sometimes need additional supplementation to take it to the best level it can be at.

What do you take? First of all, find a good quality multivitamin and take that as directed. Multivitamins are a good starting point
because they provide a decent dose of essential supplements that just about everyone needs. Multivitamins give you what your food doesn’t and they are affordable solutions to your needs.

In addition to this, find out what type of supplements you can take for your individual needs and problems.

For example, if you have a need to lose weight, look for supplements that can offer weight loss benefits.

If you have heart problems, problems with gaining weight or other conditions, you can probably find a supplement or several that can
address those problems for you as well.

How do you know how much to take? That’s a trickier question. There are two routes to take. First, you must realize that doctors
don’t always use supplementation in their practices and they may not be educated in prescribing this type of help to you.

Start by finding a health food store or a vitamin supplier. Quality is very important if you want to see benefits from supplementation.
Therefore, it is just as important to make sure that you have a reliable source. These individuals can also help provide you with the
information you need regarding improving your conditions.

Another source for information is the web. Finding a reputable website that offers help for supplementation will help you to increase your overall well being through tackling individualized problems. Again, quality is essential to success here. Don’t assume that any information that you find is reliable. Get another opinion!

Supplements can help to improve your body’s function because you are giving your body exactly what it needs to do the work right. It’s like always giving your car premium gas and oil to do its job even better!

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1. The Danger Of Not Investing In Vitamins and Supplements
2. Insufficient B Vitamin Is Very Bad For Your Health
3. Glycemic Control and Health

B Vitamin , which was discovered by mixing several chemicals together is so diverse. B vitamins were once thought to be a single vitamin, but Scientist divided it into eight different variations when they found out how complex the B vitamins are. These variations include B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, and B12. These are generally referred to as a vitamin B complex.

Deficiency of B Vitamin Can Result to:

• weight loss
• weakness
• stress
• diarrhea
• dementia
• anemia
• and other things.

Health Benefits of B Vitamins

• healthier skin and muscle tone
• promote cell growth and division
• faster metabolism
• overall better immune system.

B vitamins can also help in fighting back against depression and stress as well.

The B vitamins are among the most important vitamins although other vitamins are essential too.  All vitamins must be part of the daily diet of the individuals. These will greatly improve your body’s overall health.

Even though you may be taking a healthy diet, you may not be getting what the required amount of the B vitamin family.  Take vitamin supplements to give you  the doses of the B vitamins you need.  You may not be realizing it but insufficient B vitamins can be very bad on your body and your health. Make the smart choice now and get yourself some B vitamin supplements.

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1. The Danger Of Not Investing In Vitamins and Supplements
2. The Undercover Vitamin
3. How To Choose The Right Multivitamins For You

1. According to a study,  heart attack usually happens on Monday. Another reason to hate Mondays!  Scottish researchers in their 10 year study  found that 20% more people die of heart attacks on Mondays than any other day of the week.  The theory behind is that it’s a combination of too much fun over the weekend with the stress of going back to work  the following day that causes the increase of heart attack.
2. Humans can  live longer without food than sleep. As long as there is water, the average human can survive up to two months without food depending on their body fat and other factors. Sleep deprived people will experience radical changes on personality and psychological after only a few sleepless days.  11 days is the longest recorded time anyone has ever gone without sleep. At the end of the experiment, the subject was awake, but messing up with words, hallucinated and most of the time forgot what he was doing.
3. A simple, moderately severe sunburn damages the blood vessels extensively. How extensively? Studies have shown that a burn like this can take 4 to 15 months for them to return to their normal condition.
4. Stress can caused or complicated 0ver 90% of diseases. It could also be the reason in increase of  your chances of having a array of serious medical conditions like depression, high blood pressure and heart disease.
5. A human head remains conscious for about 15 to 20 seconds after it is been decapitated. Ouch!  But how it can remain conscious? The reason is that,  the head has still adequate blood to keep it alive and conscious for a few seconds right after the head has been decapitated. Reports as to the accuracy of this are widely varying and there’s no scientific evidence ever reported.

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• analyze your nutritional needs?
• optimize your diet and supplement regimen?
• realize your full-helath potential?

USANA’s new Health Assessment and Advisor is now available to provide you all the answers to these questions. The easy to fill-up questionnaire is divided into these sections:

• Biometrics
• Lifestyle
• Health Priorities

Remember that nutritional needs vary from person to person depending on age, gender, lifestyle, level of physical activities, personal health priorities and more.  So when it comes to optimizing your nutrional regime which product is right for you? USANA’s Health Assessment and Advisor is here to help you answer the question.

Just fill-out simple three-part questionaire characterizing your biometrics, lifestyle and health priorities. This will take only 5-10 minutes, then the Advisors expert software system incorporating the latest nutritional  science will generate an optimal product recommendation is customized to meet your unique nutrinal needs.

You also gain an advice on steps you can take to fine tune your diet, exercise patterns and other lifestyle habits.

Start your journey of true health with the highest quality, science based nutritional products available in just the right combination for you.

Here’s the direct link to USANA Health Assessment and Advisor.

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