5.24.2010

Kava Kava Root and Kava Kava Side Effects - Buy Kava Tea?

0 comments
Yogi's Kava Special Formula Tea 16TbagsKava kava supplements got a bad reputation a few years ago because there were some reports that using it chronically might cause liver damage. Of course, no one was able to prove conclusively that it was the kava kava and not another additive in the supplements that caused the kava kava side effects. With the low quality control in the supplement industry, especially some places overseas (like Asia), it's quite probable the kava kava supplements that sent a handful of people to the hospital didn't even contain kava kava at all.

Regardless, the scare was enough for a lot of kava kava manufacturers to discontinue selling it to the public. As such, it is a little harder to come by kava kava supplements these days (but still not very hard...the general public tends not to think of herbs as being potentially dangerous, to their detriment).

However, the marketing of kava kava tea does not seem much impacted by the hype. I guess most people consider tea to be a more benevolent medium for administering herbs, and there may be some truth to that.

Kava kava tea is essentially a kava kava extract in which the solvent is water.

As such, any lipid soluble components of kava kava are unlikely to be consumed in high quantities in the tea.

If it is lipid soluble chemicals in kava that are responsible for the toxic effects of kava on the liver, drinking tea might be a way around the putative adverse kava effects from taking whole herb supplements.

On the other hand, the beneficial kava kava effects may also be concentrated in the lipid soluble fraction, which would mean the tea is less effective in generating kava kava's beneficial physiological effects - Kava kava is a Polynesian herb (technically, kava ROOT is where the active ingredients of kava are found) that has been used for centuries as a nerve tonic, to calm the mind, relieve stress, and aid in sleep.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Polynesian islanders consume their kava kava as a tea and show no signs of adverse kava effects.

Kava kava is known to inhibit the liver's ability to detoxify the blood of some toxins. It may be that the rare toxic kava effects are an indirect result of the liver not being able to detoxify other toxins in the person's body, if they are already prone to an unhealthy lifestyle. If this is the case, then kava kava supplementation with tea or whole herbs ought to pose little risk for people who already lead an otherwise healthy lifestyle - exercise, not smoking, lots of whole food fruits and vegetables, etc.

More research is needed on whole herb kava root, but used cautiously and infrequently, kava tea's benefits for lessening anxiety and calming nerves outweigh the low risk of toxic kava root side effects.

ADVERTISEMENT
Kava Kava Extract 250 mg 120 Caps

Kava Kava Extract 250 mg 120 Caps

Can't sleep? Need to relax? Stressed out? And you haven't tried Kava Kave Root yet? Since its introduction, users have raved over this 100% organic sedative herb, and its ability to encourage a natural state of relaxation. It gets its power from high concentrations of kavalactones present in the plant's thick roots. Kavalactones have been shown in many studies to promote a calming effect on the body's limbic system - a region of the brain that regulates emotion. And while it's always wise to consult a physician before use, Kava Kava Root appears to be safe when taken as recommended. NOW Kava contains 100% root extract.









REFERENCES

1. Many Supplements Said to Contain Toxins, Make False Health Claims

5.18.2010

Healing With Whole Foods: Meat, Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Diet

0 comments
Hi Everyone!

A study just came out in the journal Circulation that shows a pretty strong correlation between eating PROCESSED meats and the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Not terribly surprising, except that this study was rare in showing that eating unprocessed (whole) meats had no effect on disease risk.

Take it or leave it. The meat industry (specifically, the American Meat Institute, an industry funded research organization) is up in arms. Even though this is great news for livestock and poultry farmers, because it should increase sales of chicken, beef, and pork whole muscle meats by consumers vs. processed meat like hotdogs, this is not good for meat profiteers (industry suits).

The study is BAD NEWS for meat industry profits overall, because in the meat industry, like most other corporate food groups, the money is mostly in processing and "value-adding" (code for conversion to "junk food") to foods for consumers. More additives plus less real whole food = larger profit margins in agribusiness (REFERENCE). They can make the same amount of meat go a lot farther by processing it, literally, to death.

That's why the meat industry is screaming bloody murder. Basically, this news eliminates the "middle men" between the farm and the consumer's table. Each one of the middle men takes a cut of the (meat) pie. So if people eat less processed meat and more unprocessed meat, there's less money for the middle men who staff the management positions in meat processing plants and agribusiness HQs. These middle men don't care about the farmers. In fact, they try to exploit the farmer's as much as they can to LOWER the cost of the raw, unprocessed meat so that when they process it into beef jerky and ballpark franks, they can get higher profit margins selling consumers chemically laden meat by products.

There's some bias to this study, granted. The meat sources for a lot of processed meats are the rendered parts of the animal that wouldn't generally be consumed in their whole natural form (organ meats, gristle, etc.). So it is hard to say if eating these parts of the animal in their unprocessed form would affect disease risk. Even so, the fact that whole muscle meats were NOT shown to increase disease risk is telling in the face of years of messages to the contrary from nutrition researchers. Past research has been very mixed on the health risks of eating meat, in large part because few studies have compared processed and unprocessed meat consumption, as this study does.

From the stand point of the paleolithic dietary hypothesis, the study itself makes common sense. Human beings evolved for millions of years eating a diet scavenged from nature. It consisted mainly of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and whole, lean, unprocessed game meats. It was low in salt and fat. The fat it contained was rich in healthy omega-3 fatty acids. It is no wonder that the healthiest foods (the ones that DON'T cause chronic diseases) are the very same foods we are biologically designed (adapted) to eat (REFERENCE).

Of course, our hormone-fed, genetically modified livestock today produce meat with a very different nutritional profile than the game meats eaten by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Most importantly, they are fed on grain, which produces a meat high in omega-6 fatty acids and low in omega-3 fatty acids. This fatty acid profile has been shown to be out of sync with our ancestral diet fat profile (REFERENCE). Agricultural meats are also proportionately higher in fat overall than wild game meats (they are fattened with high-calorie diets, a form of "value adding" to the food). Thus, it is even more interesting that our agriculturally generated meats don't seem to significantly increase chronic disease risk, at least with respect to heart disease and diabetes.

The bottom line is, if you load your meat up with chemicals and salt, it's going to hurt you. Duh!

I know that when I eat brats or hot dogs, I don't feel 100% afterwards. This is the body's way of saying, "Hey, you are forcing me to deal with some foreign stuff I don't know what to do with!" The body has to work extra hard to metabolize chemicals, generating inflammatory free radicals in the process that damage cells and organs. Over time, this leads to chronic diseases that are largely irreversible. Heart disease and type 2 diabetes are two of these diseases.

Meat industry whiners aside, at least now you don't have to worry as much when you eat that steak or 100% Angus ground beef burger. You probably still want to avoid the fries and the sugar-laden soda. But when it comes to eating whole food meats like your ancestors did, go crazy!

Just not too crazy, because this is only one study and more research needs to be done (code for "we scientists aren't as smart as people think, and we've been wrong before...").

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

1. Eating Processed Meats, but Not Unprocessed Red Meats, May Raise Risk of Heart Disease and Diabetes, Study Finds (SCIENCE DAILY)

2. A Guilt-Free Hamburger (WALL STREET JOURNAL)

3. Red and Processed Meat Consumption and Risk of Incident Coronary Heart Disease, Stroke, and Diabetes Mellitus. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (CIRCULATION: Research Study Abstract)

REQUIRED READING

Cardiovascular Disease Resulting From a Diet and Lifestyle at Odds With Our Paleolithic Genome: How to Become a 21st-Century Hunter-Gatherer (FREE FULL TEXT)