Sugar & Vitamin C, Glutathione, Selenium

In This Issue: 

• • How Sugar Depletes Vitamin C
  • Why We Need Glutathione
  • Selenium for Cancer Prevention

You’ll Find More Fascinating Health Posts on my HealItAll Facebook Page and great recipes in my Whole Foods Plant-Based, Gluten Free Recipes group

Message from Bernadette Wulf

Greetings!
Happy Lughnasadh – an ancient Gaelic harvest holiday celebrating the bounty of Earth here in the Northern Hemisphere. I’ve been picking lots of peaches, plums, assorted berries, tomatoes, basil, and collard greens. Grapes and apples are starting to ripen for miles around. I really do feel like I live in Paradise!

How about you? Have you been enjoying the harvest in your own life? Even if you don’t grow your food, you do plant seeds of a sort. What dreams and ideas have you brought to fruition? Where do you find bounty in your life? What sort of abundance can you appreciate right now? Do you have a home, food on your table, clothes to wear, clean water? Is there love in your life – friends, family, pets? Can you find something beautiful to enjoy?

A New Beginning

Today is a new beginning and a cause to celebrate for so many reasons. Aside from being Lughnasadh (AKA Lammas), it’s a new moon – always good for a fresh start. Mercury goes direct – things should feel a little easier in the next few weeks. Delicious food is literally falling on the ground. There is a quiet undercurrent of joy rising – you may not have noticed it yet, but if you pay attention you will soon.

We have problems to face, for sure. However, we can only solve them when we fortify ourselves with health, inner peace, and appreciation. Media news to the contrary, there really are a lot more wonderful things happening in the world than negative. We just don’t hear about them unless we seek them out. When we appreciate them, they grow in our awareness – and that creates a positive energy that spreads through the collective consciousness. Together we can heal the world.

This month we have three interesting articles about how refined sugar “crowds out vitamin C,” how selenium helps prevent cancer (crack out the Brazil nuts – but no more than four a day), and how glutathione can help us live longer, healthier lives. And they are all related in some mysterious way.

I would love to hear what you want to read about. Feel free to send your requests, suggestions, questions, or any sort of feedback. I always appreciate hearing from my readers – Please do not reply to this email – use this link Email Bernadette to contact me.

To your health and happiness!

Bernadette Wulf

HealItAll.com & Plant Based for Life

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Sugar Depletes Vitamin C

We have all heard that sugar is “bad for us,” right? But few people knew why, until now.

Of course, all sugars are NOT created equal. Refined white sugar and corn syrup are concentrated sugars, devoid of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. While whole fruits and complex carbohydrates have a completely different effect on the body when consumed – especially when fats are limited.

And of course, fruits are one of the few natural sources of vitamin C, which makes them especially important for diabetics or anyone with a degenerative disease.

Unfortunately, the combination of high fat foods with high sugar foods, even fruits, is a recipe for disaster (even though the taste can be delicious). Fats prevent sugars from being properly utilized by the cells, leading to insulin resistance and high blood sugar, which in turn appears to “crowd out vitamin C.” That doesn’t mean we should stop eating sweet fruits. Just don’t eat them within several hours of eating fats – and keep your fats low in general (around 15% of your calories).

What the Science Reveals

From naturalhealth365.com:

According to the late Dr. Pauling, “Even minimally elevated blood sugar crowds out vitamin C from entering cells … more vitamin C must be taken by diabetics in order to for absorption to be achieved.”

And, excessive sugar harms vitamin C levels of diabetics and non-diabetics alike.

Many experts now believe that the inconclusive results of earlier research into the benefits of ascorbic acid can be attributed to the high levels of sugary foods and drinks ingested by the patients.

In other words, too much sugar in the diet can torpedo high-dose vitamin C therapies, including the Pauling Therapy.  According to Dr. Howenstine, patients using a sugary drink to wash down vitamin C may “fail to show any benefit” from vitamin C therapy.

Note: other threats to vitamin C levels include cigarette smoking, alcohol use, antidepressants, NSAIDs, oral contraceptives, anticoagulants and sulfa drugs.

Bottom line, keep your vitamin C levels high with lots of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables. Try to limit your fat intake to 15% of your total calories (mostly in the form of Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids – the only fats we really need), and stick to a whole foods diet.

If you already have diabetes, viruses, bacterial infections, or heart disease, you may want to take a supplemental form of vitamin C. The forms recommended by the Medical Medium are EsterC (calcium ascorbate) or liposomal C.

Read more about how sugar lowers vitamin C absorption – https://www.naturalhealth365.com/immune-system-sugar-3040.html

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Why We Need Glutathione

Glutathione is created from three amino acids (glycine, glutamine and cysteine). It is found in every cell in the body, particularly in the liver, and it neutralizes harmful free radicals.

Glutathione also detoxifies pollutants and carcinogens and helps to remove them from the body, while also supporting the immune system and assisting in DNA repair. It also helps to remove mercury from the brain. It’s a really important nutrient, right?

How to boost your glutathione, from naturalhealth365.com:

Foods high in sulphur – including cruciferous vegetables like kale, Brussels sprouts and broccoli – are important for the production of cysteine, a vital glutathione precursor.  Vegetables in the allium family, such as onions, garlic, leeks and chives, can also help you ramp up your cysteine levels and spur the production of glutathione.

[ ] Experts also advise eating foods high in vitamin C – found in citrus fruits, strawberries, red peppers and kiwifruit – vitamin E, found in almonds, spinach and sunflower seeds, and folate – found in chickpeas, pinto beans and lentils. All of these nutrients help to recycle and utilize glutathione in the body.

[ ] Dr. Mark Hyman, the Medical Director at Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Functional Medicine, makes a particularly eye-opening claim, reporting that “virtually all patients suffering from chronic degenerative disease” (including those with cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, autoimmune disease and Alzheimer’s disease) are “deficient in glutathione.”

Where to Get Your Glutathione

Foods that are naturally rich in glutathione include melons, grapefruit, peaches, spinach, asparagus, avocados, squash, okra, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, nuts, garlic and fresh ripe tomatoes. Glutathione is best absorbed when found in fresh, whole foods.

Excellent sources of the three amino acids that make up glutathione are:

• Cysteine: seeds, nuts, oats, legumes (beans, lentils), and quinoa
• Glutamine: spirulina, cabbage, asparagus, broccoli, legumes, parsley, beets, sauerkraut
• Glycine: beans, lentils, spinach, kale, cauliflower, cabbage, pumpkin, banana, kiwi

Note: The article recommends whey protein as a source of cysteine (an amino acid needed to create glutathione). Whey is a byproduct of cheese making and the dairy industry has put a lot of money into promoting it as a “health food.” However, whey is not a whole food and it can actually be dangerous to your health: Dangers of whey protein.

Read more about Why We Need Glutathione – https://www.naturalhealth365.com/degenerative-disease-glutathione-3049.html

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Selenium for Cancer Prevention

Speaking of glutathione, apparently selenium is essential for keeping it active in the body. Good thing it is so easy to get enough selenium (at least if you are not allergic to nuts). One Brazil nut a day will supply more than enough. Be careful though – more than four Brazil nuts a day can give you a selenium overdose! Don’t go hog wild on them.

From naturalhealth365.com:

One of selenium’s most vital functions is to help create antioxidant enzymes, or selenoproteins, that recycle glutathione, the body’s “master antioxidant” and detoxifier.  In this way, selenium strikes a blow against the disease-causing oxidative stress – which contributes to chronic degenerative disease.

But selenium also has many more “tricks up its sleeve” when it comes to fighting cancer.

Unlike therapies that address only one specific stage or type of cancer, selenium is pleiotropic. This means that it combats cancer through multiple pathways and mechanisms, allowing it to target the disease in various forms and stages.

[ ] …with a whopping 607 micrograms of selenium per cup, Brazil nuts are the single best source of this essential mineral.

If you can’t eat nuts, the next best sources of selenium are: some mushrooms (crimini & shiitake), whole grains, seeds (especially chia, sunflower, sesame & flax), asparagus, brown rice, and mustard seeds.

Read more about Selenium for Cancer Prevention – https://www.naturalhealth365.com/selenium-bladder-3052.html

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