I have been thinking a lot lately about some of the newsworthy nutrition and health headlines that have been seen recently in the airwaves. So I thought I would share some with you along with my thoughts.
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Creatine has been all the buzz lately. Many studies and data being shared from health practitioners and doctors about the benefits of taking creatine for brain health and for women in perimenopause/menopause.
Creatine is a molecule that helps us to store energy in the form of phosphate bonds which are then used when we need ATP (energy) quickly. ATP is adenosine triphosphate. It's often referred to as the "energy currency" of the cell and is used by our muscles to contract and is in all of our cells for protection and repair of genetic material. Creatine provides us with quick energy. It is a molecule that is shown to increase intelligence, memory, reaction time and strength. We only produce a small amount in our bodies but not enough for optimal health so we must get it from external food sources, mostly animal food sources (red meat and fish have the highest source of bioavailable source of creatine).
BUT..what some of these news bites may not be telling us is what are the participants eating on the daily. Are they consuming red meat and fish that have the highest creatine content? Are they non meat eaters? Do they eat a standard American diet which is really void of many nutrients?
This study focuses on vegetarian and creatine supplementation -Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves brain performance: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial - PubMed
So yes, if you start supplementing with creatine of course you will see positive improvements. Maybe the fact that a meat free diet being recommended as healthy is actually putting people in a creatine deficit. What if people actually just added more animal food sources to their diets (red meat and fish), will they see the same positive results? HMMM.
I proposed this question the other day to my followers on NOTES. People are cheering the changes that MAHA has been making in combination with Big Food companies removing artificial dyes, seed oils, high fructose corn syrup. But I just help but wonder what the trade off is. Yes, these are little steps to making better choices in ingredients of some of these ultraprocessed foods.
I have had some interesting comments ranging from money to being controlled by the Chinese Government. All I know is that they are not doing it out of the kindness of their hearts. Because if that were the case, do you think these chemicals would have been added in the first place?
Now let’s talk about hormones.. Most specifically estrogen.
A women’s health initiative study in the 1990’s assessed the risk of HRT in post menopausal women given a combo of synthetic estrogen and progestin. The study found an increase risk of breast cancer as well as stroke, blood clots. And this was when doctors started peeling back the prescriptions for this hormone therapy. But lately there are been lots of talk about the misinterpretations of this study (which I agree) and that HRT, estrogen specifically is beneficial.
Now my spidey senses start to tingle when doctors now want to prescribe estrogen for all the ails women in perimenopause and post menopause. I will not debate that in fact that estrogen and progesterone is in fact a benefit to women. But is it the magic pill, everyone is looking for? Let’s look at cholesterol…
Cholesterol is the key component to cortisol and all our sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone). Lets think about all those who now suffer from hormone imbalances and the need for synthetic hormone therapies. If you want more reading on cholesterol and why we need it, here is a link to a previous post - The Truth About Cholesterol - by Danni Macfarland
Our liver makes cholesterol from the nutrients from the food we eat and that includes fat. So liver health is an important focus. BUT the narrative is that fats and cholesterol are bad, so we test and monitor cholesterol levels and if they are high (whatever that really means), we are prescribed medications, specifically statins to reduce this number. So if our bodies do not have sufficient cholesterol levels, well then how do we make hormones our bodies need. This creates a depleted hormone bucket and well, that is where the synthetic hormones come into play. (Personally I am not a fan of synthetic hormones and prefer to research more natural ways to balance and help my hormone health.)
Don’t even get me started on the perimenopause wellness influencers who are now making midlife women believe that they need to get their fat stores down to a certain level so see their 6-pack. (Women’s fat percentage is healthy at around 20%, BTW and this is because we store estrogen in fat) So they promote the GLP1, ‘peptides’, wellness powders to help. But then turn around and say they are on HRT because their hormones are in the tank. It just doesn’t make sense to me. But what does make sense is the usage and purchasing of these pharmaceuticals and the money that is and can be made from it. Do I think these interventions can help some women..sure. But do I think that we all need it to feel good..no. But that is something you have to determine for yourself through informed consent.
What if we just added more animal fat and protein to our lifestyle that we have been missing for so long, so that our bodies can work they way it is meant to and manufacture these hormones on their own. What if we moved our bodies and pushed some weight around to help regulate, metabolize and respond to estrogen.
Sometimes we get so bogged down with the studies and noise that we fail to just listen to our bodies and give it the basics it requires.
Anyhow, this is just food for thought.
What is something that you have read or heard lately about food, nutrition, health and wellness that make you go , Hmm??
Danni
Protein levels sourced by red meat, fish and chicken have creatine that the body can uptake. If you are working out exercising on a regular basis, I would suggest taking creatine as a supplement as well as eating, healthy fats, such as beef tallow, fish, and chicken. I’m 68 years old. Creatine definitely helps with my focus and my attention and my recall because of its ability to be proactive with what your brain needs to be sharp. I take 5 to 10 g of creatine per day in a smoothie for breakfast every day. It makes a world of difference for your memory and to be engaged in maintaining a level of consciousness that you used to have when you were much younger.
I know you’ve talked about it before, but the fiber thing that’s been circulating lately. I’ve had gallstones this year (my first time experiencing that and knowing what it was) and everything I’ve read is fiber, fiber, fiber. I don’t know that fiber is the end all be all that everybody wants us to think it is.