Ranveig H. Elvebakk, MD

Is Cholesterol a Myth?

Dr. Elvebakk — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:14:09 +0000

Here’s the conventional wisdom on cholesterol. This is because cholesterol is the stuff we see when we look into damaged arteries. But how and why did it get there? And, people get heart disease regardless of cholesterol levels. But there is a directly linear link between heart disease and blood sugar. Which reminds us that biochemically, cholesterol is made from sugar. What’s the hook here? Heart disease is an inflammatory illness, and statins happen to be anti-inflammatory, but at a high price in terms of economy and side effects. Take a load of this. Your cholesterol is a commodity on Wall Street. As are the other inflammatory illnesses we get from bad eating. What is the best and most tolerated anti-inflammatory medication? Good nutrition. The body switches off inflammation very quickly when we start eating right. Bonus effect: Healing any other inflammatory illness you might have. Price: Priceless.

Reading Food Labels

Dr. Elvebakk — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 22:10:42 +0000

Here is a little help reading labels :

Most of the food you eat should probably not have a label, because that generally means it has been man-manipulated in some way. “Immunity” should raise flags, especially on a cereal box, being that most cereals have higher sugar intensity (Glycemic Index) than sugar itself—

CAN STRESS CAUSE ILLNESS?

Dr. Elvebakk — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 22:30:05 +0000

Did you know this? You are absolutely right Stress can kill. Several large studies have cofirmed that unhappiness/stress cause illness. Happiness is anti-inflammatory indeed. Doctors and hospitals are seeing more if it nowadays. Example: I was watching a foreclosure-report that ended with a heart attack for the evicted owner

Does McDonald’s owe us for becoming fat?

Dr. Elvebakk — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:09:33 +0000

Did you see this ? McDonald’s has become the lightening rod for “The Problem”: We are overweight, sick and cannot afford health care because we are all patients, leaving no risk pool, and because health care is a stock market commodity. The only thing accomplished here is striking out to feed into our impotence to do something about it.

IMPROVING MEDICINE – WHAT TO DO?

Dr. Elvebakk — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:10:46 +0000

Did you see this one. While I agree that we need to do this,, we are not getting to the real problem. The Center for Disease control just showed us some dismal projections about diabetes. The goal of drug manufacturers is to have everyone at least taking a measly statin every day. It’s gonna cost. In health and in money.

The real problem is that we dont understand medicine. Illness does not rain down from above. It is a reation to stressors in the environment. Until we recognize this and retool medicine to remove the stressors we will only see more of the same. See the CDC’s recent predictions for diabetes

What’s in Your Halloween Candy?

Dr. Elvebakk — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 21:18:53 +0000

It’s almost Halloween and candy time. Think about this:

The problem is not so much the food dye as it is the sugar — If you eat enough dyed candy to suffer toxic effects from the dye, you have eaten enough sugar to inflame your body. Unfortunately, there are no redeeming qualities in sugar, dye or not.

Ranveig Elvebakk, MD is a bariatric physician in the San Francisco Bay Area specializing in weight loss and metabolic lllness. Her prgram, The Food Tree is available in book form on Amazon.com. She is also the author of several columns and papers. Follow Dr. Elvebakk on Twitter & Facebook.

IS SUGAR ADDICTVE?

Dr. Elvebakk — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:38:25 +0000

What do you know, finally someone sees this.

It s about time someone broaches this issue. If you have read The Food Tree, you would know that sugar is addictive in more than one way. Physically beacuse of the sugar-insulin curve, and psycologically because of the brain connections between sugar and emotions. What to do about it? Well you can start by reading The Food Tree. It deals hoestly with this issue.Sugar does indeed fill the criteria for physical dependency (withdrawal) as well as addiction (drug seeking behavior) if one wishes to be scientific about it. (The Food Tree, Amazon Books 2008.
Avena and Rada, Journal of Nutrition 2009). We can only address this issue if we cahn get our heads around it. For more information please visit www.FoodTreeMD.com Ranveig Elvebakk, MD

SUGAR AND ITS MANY FACES

Dr. Elvebakk — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:40:40 +0000

Another version on the old theme
Yesterday it was McDonald’s, today it is soda. We are always looking for the culprit. Look no further. It is one of our main food groups, it is the most insidious of all poisons because we have been taught it is a food. It is called soda, bread, cereal, etc. It’s real name is sugar, whether it is liquid or solid, peddled in fast food outlets or high end establishments.

Fructose Revisited—-

Dr. Elvebakk — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:58:36 +0000

Fructose is still in the news! Look at this!

The whole thing is as bad as it is unscientific. Fructose was known as a sugar that operated in equilibrium with glucose and galactose in the body untill the blame-it-on-fructose wave hit. Whilst I have never encounterd a patient who was damaged by fructose, 90% of my patients are ill because they are eating glucose. The biochemsistry of fructose speaks for itself.

Is McDonald’s to blame for the obesity epidemic?

Dr. Elvebakk — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 20:20:17 +0000

Did you see this article?

Chronic illness may be triggered by small increments in insulin sugar and. fat.
In our culture, sugar is the mother of all metabolic toxins, inviting a more descriptive name Sugar Eater’s Syndrome.Our sugar-based diet is creating a culture of ill, malnourished Americans including toddlers.
Meanwhile the complex nature of inflammatory illness eludes symptomatic treatment because it will not address the cause Current evidence based approach to all chronic illness is long on cost and short on results. No one gets well. We are caught in a spiral of slow deterioration and the need for ever more medication and procedures and other treatments. The disease mechanisms are so diverse, complex and so profoundly tied to our very biochemical makeup that the idea of any curative medication is an expression of having missed that point.
Chronic illness account for some 75% of the 2.5 trillion dollars spent per year on healthcare in this country. The results of this effort are sadly disproportionate to the effort and the US is behind most industrialized countries in overall health status. We are implementing health care reform, but our current approach is not sustainable because it misses this point.
The remedy for a toxin is not “vegetarianism”, it is its removal of excess sugar and fat, which reverses inflammation and chronic disease. There is a plethora of studies confirming this,leaving us with the imperative to shift our food culture from sugar-based to food-based.

Ranveig Elvebakk, MD
www.twitter.com/TheFoodTree