TOPIC:

Hi guys was hoping you could clear something up for me. I was over on articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/03/cherie-calbom-on-juicing-part-2.aspx
And it says the following>Organic carrots (avoid conventionally grown carrots as they tend to be highly contaminated with pesticides). Use carrots sparingly, however, as they're very high in sugar. Avoid them if you have candida, hypoglycemia, insulin resistance, diabetes, or cancer.
I thought that carrot and red beet juice were good to go against cancer? Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. TIA(thanks in advance)

gord2u wrote:

I thought that carrot and red beet juice were good to go against cancer? Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. TIA(thanks in advance)

It is true that drinking carrot juice has been a popular "alternative" treatment for cancer. The protocol involves drinking the freshly squeezed juice from 5 pounds of carrots each day, which renders about 1 quart of juice. Apparently some people have used this method with successful results, but how many used this method and died is unknown.

Normal cells can be fueled by either glucose (blood sugar) or fats. Cancer cells are different, in that they can only use glucose for fuel. Carbohydrates are converted into glucose, and the more glucose you feed them - the more the cancer cells thrive. Eliminate carbohydrates from the diet, and the cancer cells literally starve to death. This is called a Ketogenic Diet, which is useful in treating cancer, epilepsy, and many other ailments.

Carrots contain glucose and fructose in the juice, and lots more carbohydrate locked up in the cellulose fiber of the root. The juicing process does not break down the cell walls of the cellulose fiber where most of the carbohydrate (starch) is trapped, so the only sugars in a raw carrot is the glucose and fructose in the juice. Cooking a carrot causes the cellulose fiber to break down, releasing the starchy carbohydrate for conversion into glucose by the liver. So a cooked carrot, when eaten has way more calories (carbohydrate/sugars) than a raw carrot. Carrot juice actually has very little sugar, because it hasn't been cooked. Secondly, about half of the sugar in carrot juice is glucose and half is fructose. The liver immediately converts the fructose into fatty acids (triglycerides) which can be used as energy for normal cells - but not cancer cells, which can only burn glucose.

In summary, that woman expressing the opinion in the Dr. Mercola article is apparently not fully educated about the relationship between carrot juice and cancer. A raw carrot actually has about the same amount of glucose as a cucumber or a stalk of broccoli - nothing to worry about in regard to feeding cancer cells. Now, if you cook the carrot and eat the whole thing - then yes, it will have more carbohydrate than many other vegetables.

It is thought to be the beta carotene in carrots that has the anti-cancer affect, but nobody knows for sure. Kale has even more beta carotene than carrots - but moreover, Kale has more and better anti-cancer components than carrots such as sulforaphane. If I was making a vegetable juice for a cancer diet, I would make it at least half Kale juice, add 1 big carrot, 5 ribs of celery, 1 colored bell pepper. Celery is rich in a chemical called apigenin, which has powerful anti-cancer properties and the colored bell pepper is very high in Vitamin C (so is the Kale).

The juicing process does not break down the cell walls of the cellulose fiber where most of the carbohydrate (starch) is trapped, so the only sugars in a raw carrot is the glucose and fructose in the juice.

There are different types of juicers, Reamers, Centrifugal juicers, Masticating juicers, Triturating juicers or Twin Gear Juicers, Juicing Press and Steam Juice Extractors.

Do any of those juicers

break down the cell walls of the cellulose fiber

? My understanding is that a Vitamix "juicer" will break down cell walls.

Thanks.

CLO2 wrote:

Do any of those juicers break down the cell walls of the cellulose fiber? My understanding is that a Vitamix "juicer" will break down cell walls.

That's a good question. Not being an expert on all different types of juicers, I can't say for sure. I think the Vitamix juicer probably can break down the cell walls of cellulose fiber because it can produce heat. Simply chewing plant foods with our teeth does not break down the cell walls and release the carbohydrate - and a press type juicer or the masticating type more or less duplicates the chewing action of our teeth.

As you mentioned before, different animals have different types of digestion systems. Ruminant animals such as cows have 4 stomachs, and they also have enzymes and bacteria in their gut we humans don't have - and all of that is necessary to break down the cell walls of cellulose fiber to release the carbohydrate in grass. Strange as it may seem, all mammals were designed to burn fats and not carbohydrates for energy. Even herbivores, such as cows which eat only grass, burn fats for energy. They have specialized bacteria which converts the carbohydrate in their gut into fatty acids, so that carbohydrate (glucose) never reaches their blood stream.

All of this interests me because it explains, in part, why human beings become obese but wild animals do not. Every aspect of an animal's eating behavior is controlled by hormones. Hormones tell their brain when to start eating, different hormones tell their brain when their belly is full, and yet other hormones tell them when to stop eating. It all happens automatically, subconsciously, perfectly regulated by hormones so that body fat is always maintained at the ideal level.

Now surprise, surprise! Humans are exactly the same! We have 16 different hormones which regulate every aspect of our eating behavior - so like animals, we shouldn't be able to get fat even if we wanted to. So what goes wrong? Why do we humans become obese? The answer has 3 aspects, all connected in a vicious circle.

The first aspect in human obesity is hormone disruptors, chief among them being refined sugar and grain. Both sugar and foods made from grain disrupt and disable the hormones which tell the brain that the stomach is full. Consequently, many or most people have the desire to keep on eating even though their stomach is completely full. The second aspect of obesity is the fact that both refined sugar and grain are addictive, narcotic drugs - no different than cocaine or heroin. They stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain, releasing the "feel good" chemicals like dopamine, endorphins, seratonin. People eat sugar and foods made from grain, not because of the way they taste - but because of the way it makes them feel. Because sugar and grain are addictive, the more you eat the more you want. And because they have disrupted the hormones that would normally prevent over-eating, the drug addiction wins out over will power.

The third aspect in obesity is cooked food. It is the excess consumption of carbohydrates that causes obesity. Meat and animal foods have no carbohydrate at all, so all carbohydrates must come from plant foods. Plants have almost all of their carbohydrate locked up in the cell walls of the cellulose fiber, and the carbohydrate can be released only by cooking. Vegetables and fruits which are eaten raw (by humans) have only about 10% of the carbohydrate and calories of the same things which are cooked. That is the main reason we cook our food - to release the carbohydrate. And in so doing we release somewhere between 5 and 10 times more glucose (blood sugar) into our blood than our bodies can use or were ever designed to handle.

Apparently humans are the only creatures which can use either glucose or fatty acids for fuel. If glucose is fed to an animal in anything near the quantities we consume it - it would kill them right away. It kills us too - it just takes a little longer.

As stated earlier, the human body was designed to burn fat for energy - not carbohydrate. We have no physical need for even 1 gram of carbohydrate. The tiny quantity of glucose which is needed to produce glycogen can be easily converted by the liver from protein. Glycogen is stored in the liver and muscle cells, and produces about 20% more energy than burning fat. Glycogen is like "racing fuel," and intended to provide a 10 minute burst of energy under maximum exertion - to escape from charging grizzly bears and such. Now, we know what happens when nitro-methane racing fuel is put into a top-fuel dragster. It produces way more horsepower than regular gasoline, but after 5 or 6 trips down the dragstrip the engine is burned up. That's what happens to the human body when we constantly burn glucose for energy instead of fat - it basically cuts our lifespan in half, not to mention making us the most sickly creatures on planet Earth.

So there we have it: sugar, grain, and cooked food - translates into hormone disruption, drug addiction, excess carbohydrate consumption. This is why humans have an obesity problem, and wild animals don't. The animals eat what their Creator intended, and we do not. Jim Humble says 95% of all ailments can be reversed by MMS, and I don't doubt that. By the same token, I believe 95% of all ailments can be prevented by eliminating sugar, grain, and cooked food from the diet - not to mention adding 50 or more good years onto the normal lifespan.

All very interesting, except I don't think I fit the description of the addict hooked on sugar and grains.

I eat lots of grains, all organic, or course, and for as long as I can remember, my weight has not changed from the 135# I now weigh. I do eat some sugar, but not much. I like sweet tastes, but grains don't interest me the way sugar does. I never think of eating meat - it never comes to mind. I do eat eggs (from our chickens) and milk yogurt, so I get some animal fats.

The sensor that we are full and should stop eating is negated by high fructose corn syrup that is in most processed foods. You may be familiar with Dr. Robert Lustig who discovered this idea.

It seems we must have read the same Book when you talk about a Creator. In that Book many grains are mentioned and not in the context of animals eating them. And when meats were eaten, I did not get the impression that they were eaten uncooked.

From my reading of the Book I suspect that before the flood, humans did not eat animals. The earth seems to have changed significantly after the flood.

I was hoping others would join in this discussion like what used to happen on this forum in the past.

I like the meat all day every day / weekends for vegetables.