Nearly all the body's energy comes from tiny organelles within our cells called mitochondria. Mitochondria are the power-houses of the cell. Thought to have evolved from captured bacteria over a billion years ago, they made higher life forms possible. Without them, the only life on earth would still be primitive single-celled organisms.
Mitochondria turn fat, carbohydrates and protein into energy but they can only do this if they get the nutrients they need to do their job.
I've listed the key nutrients you need to keep your mitochondria healthy here.
B vitamins
B vitamins are essential for energy and weight loss, especially
vitamins B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin) and B3 (niacin).
Liver is one of the best sources of
all the B vitamins except thiamine. However liver is also extremely
high in vitamin A, which limits how much you can eat without
overdosing. So eating around 50-100 grams of liver per week is a
great way to get some of your B vitamins but you can't get all of
them from liver.
Meat and most nuts and seeds are good sources of B vitamins. Soaking
nuts and seeds in water for several hours greatly increases their
nutritional value (especially if they are alive) as it breaks down
some of the enzyme inhibitors that make them harder to digest and if
they are alive they will start to sprout and make more B vitamins.
Many of the B vitamins are destroyed by prolonged cooking so for
optimum nutrition meat should be cooked long enough to kill any
pathogens (until it's no longer red inside) but no longer than
necessary.
Research suggests that getting adequate vitamins and minerals from
food is healthier than taking supplements but in some cases, food
may not be enough.
B vitamins are rapidly depleted by stress, alcohol, sugar and
starch. If you're stressed, have a sweet tooth, or after a night out
on the town, you may benefit from a high quality B vitamin
supplement. Not all vitamin supplements are created equal - your
naturopath can assist you in choosing the best one for you.
Carnitine and vitamin C
Carnitine is an amino acid found in red meat, which is essential for
mitochondria to burn fat. However carnitine in food is not well
absorbed so we need to make most of our carnitine ourselves - and we
need vitamin C to do that.
Unlike the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, we need to get
adequate vitamin C and B vitamins every day as our bodies do not
have significant stores of these.
Vitamin C rich foods include guavas, capsicums, kiwifruit, citrus,
kale and cabbage - these need to be eaten raw as vitamin C is
rapidly destroyed by cooking. These fruits and vegetables should be
eaten as fresh as possible as they may lose most of their vitamins
and other nutrients if stored for a long time.
Vitamin C is also essential for the production of collagen, which
helps to prevent wrinkles and sagging and keep you and your skin
looking and feeling younger.
Consuming large quantities of vitamin C won't increase weight loss
compared to adequate vitamin C but inadequate vitamin C intake will
make weight loss much harder and many New Zealanders don't get
enough vitamin C.
Exercise
Exercise causes mitochondria to multiply, giving you more energy.
This is why fit people have more energy. Vigorous exercise for
around 20 minutes speeds up your metabolism for around 12 hours
afterwards, so you continue to burn more calories and fat even when
you're resting. Strength training is particularly useful for weight
loss as it increases muscle mass and muscle is highly metabolically
active.
Thyroid
The sole purpose of the thyroid gland is to produce thyroid hormone,
which regulates the rate at which mitochondria burn fuel and
generate energy. To produce thyroid hormone and convert it into its
most active form, the body needs iodine, zinc, iron, selenium and
various vitamins - all nutrients that many New Zealanders are low
in. Low thyroid hormone may cause fatigue, constipation, dry skin,
muscle aches, tenderness, stiffness and weakness, heavy periods and
depression.
Zinc is also needed for more than 200 other functions in the body,
particularly for the immune system and skin. Oysters are an
excellent source of zinc. Other good sources include red meat and
pumpkin seeds.
The richest source of iodine is kelp - only around a pinch a day is
needed. Fish can also be a good source, as can dairy products,
depending on how much iodine was in the cow's diet. Iodized salt is
supposed to provide adequate iodine, however the chloride in salt
may interfere with iodine absorption, so as little as 10% of the
iodine in iodized salt may be absorbed.
As well as being essential for activation of thyroid hormone,
selenium is one of the most important antioxidants and cancer
preventatives. Brazil nuts are easily the best source of selenium.
Two brazil nuts a day supplies all the selenium you need, while
eating more than this on a regular basis carries a risk of overdose.
Liver, fish and shellfish are also good sources of selenium.
Iron is needed by mitochondria and red blood cells as well as the
thyroid - three key components of energy production. Thus fatigue is
one of the first symptoms of iron deficiency. Liver and clams are
the best readily available sources of iron. Red meat is also a good
source. Some vegetarian foods contain high levels of iron but the
iron in these foods is very poorly absorbed so they are not good
sources of iron and vegetarian women frequently suffer from iron
deficiency anaemia.
Detoxification
Many people have heard that detoxification can assist weight loss
and some embark on a regular 'detox' purely for that purpose.
The reason why this works is that hundreds of common synthetic
chemicals, including many pesticides, mimic or interfere with
several hormones that regulate appetite, metabolism and weight,
including thyroid hormone, oestrogen, cortisol. (These toxins are
known as 'endocrine
disruptors'). The liver is the main organ of detoxification,
responsible for neutralising these toxins so that they can be
eliminated. To do this, it requires adequate nutrients, especially
sulphur and the amino acids glycine, glutamic acid and cysteine.
Meat, fish and pumpkin and sesame seeds are high in these amino
acids. Sulphur rich foods include meat, fish, eggs, onions, garlic
and brassicas (broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and
kale).
The sulphur-containing compounds in brassicas - especially broccoli
sprouts - are particularly effective in stimulating the liver to
detoxify. Many toxins are eliminated in the bile - a substance the
liver releases into the gut to assist digestion of fats. Eating
plenty of fibre helps to bind these toxins in the gut and prevent
them being reabsorbed. Low fat diets decrease bile production and
make detoxification more difficult. They also increase hunger, which
may lead to weight gain. I recommend a diet with plenty of healthy,
unprocessed natural fats as fats are essential to good health. The
topic of good versus bad fats is a controversial and important one,
which warrants an article to itself so I will cover it in detail in
a future newsletter...
I believe that prevention is easier and better than cure, however,
so rather than periodic detoxification, I think it makes more sense
to minimize intake of toxins and continually detoxify by eating a
healthy, varied diet of natural organic whole foods, including
plenty of the detoxifying foods listed above. Many of these same
toxins that cause weight gain also cause cancer, heart disease or
brain degeneration (including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases)
so are best avoided.
Conclusion
Weight loss isn't just about exercise and eating less - it's also
about eating the right kinds of foods. Eating the foods listed above
will give you more energy and better health as well as making it a
lot easier to lose weight.
Here's to your health!
David
