Thank you for the link. I was just talking with hubby last night about finding a recipe for cheesecake that had no wheat/gluten and would be good for us for special treats/occasions (like an upcoming family birthday). Yay.

I never use Truvia. The best stavia hands down is SweetLeaf, either the liquid or the powder. BUT Stevia acts like insulin, in fact, Asia has been using it as an insulin substitute and comes with a warning to diabetics about using it with one’s daily  insulin shots.   I stopped using it as I don’t need to rev up by insulin production.  I’m diabetic. I still go with local honey and get the benefits of having local pollen in my body.

Both DH and I noticed the aftertaste. I figured out how to use half stevia/half sugar for a few days, then 1/4 each, then all stevia, which solved the aftertaste problem for me. I then tried one teaspoon of sugar to a quart of stevia-sweetened tea with DH - he didn't notice any weird taste. So hopefully just adding a tiny bit of sugar for 1-2 weeks will get your taste buds used to stevia.

Why do people feel the need to eat desserts?  Doesn't adherence to a consistent low carb diet eventually curb most of the craving for sweets?  One teaspoon of fruit jam should be able to quell any overweening desire.  Or is the socio-cultural programming for eating confections so deeply ingrained that people just can't live without?

I agree.  In our house (LC for years), the same logic applies to low carb "treats" that applies to low carb Frankenfoods.  Don't eat foods that are trying to be foods that you know you can no longer have.  

There is a real danger in continuing to eat really sweet foods, even artificially sweetened.  "Low carb" needs to be "low sweet".  If you hang in there, you do eventually lose your taste for it.  

As for Splenda, you can find the liquid if  you try.  And the mini tablets are minimally carby.

Both cancer & systemic fungi make energy by means of glycolysis and create demands for large amounts of sugars.  People with continuing carb cravings that won't resolve may have one or the other condition.  Otherwise I'm with you, people hanging onto sweets are still living to eat rather than eating to live.

Hi Dr. Davis,
Server blocked me elsewhere, so writing this here.
Amazake data when made from white rice (brown, short & long may each differ) =
30 - 70 % complex carbohydrate saccharides
20 - 45 % maltose (not amylose)
3 - 5 % glucose
5 - 9 % protein
3 - 5% fat
1 - 7 % fiber
0.3 - 0.4 % mineral ash
iron, niacin & thiamine

Sample 1 liter (1 quart) sauce pan Amazake home kitchen batch:
200 ml ( 7 ounce volume, +/- 200 grams) short grain brown rice rinsed and drained
bring to boil  in 2.5 times the volume water
reduce heat to low and, covered,  cook 50 - 60 minutes (until not wet)
transfer cooked rice to an incubation vessel & let cool
when cooled to  60* Celcius (140 * F) mix with 400 ml (14 ounce volume) of Koji innoculant
cover with aluminum foil (or somehow) and put where can keep warm
incubation ideal temperature is 57 - 60 * C  (with leeway)
ferment for  desired time , 12 hours sweeter and I use 22 hours
when time up pan boil the Amazake (stir) 3- 5 minutes to inactivate Koji fungi
refrigerated covered keeps weeks

Dosages mentioned previously (for 165 pound adult, and Amazake was eaten with protein and fat):
(a) " low" dose with 2 hour blood glucose ending up being same as pre-prandial blood glucose was 1/8th (by volume) of the above Amazake (rough calculation would thus be ingesting 1/8th  of  +/- 600 grams  total of original dry rice and Koji rice)
(b) "high" dose with 2 hour blood glucose rebound (suggested for athletes carbs) was 1/4 (by volume) of the above Amazake recipe (rough calculation  would in this case be ingesting 1/4 of +/- 600 grams total of original dry rice and Koji rice)

Koji innoculant ( steamed white glutinous rice infused with Aspergillus oryzae and then dessicated) used was wholesale direct from L.A. producer Miyako Oriental Foods 626-962-9633; call for your local retailer of their Koji under the "Cold Mountain" brand. They recommend double their Koji for any volume of rice substrate. Other makers of Koji proportions may be less if the Koji is less dehydrated; family business G.E.M. Cultures in Wash. mail orders their Koji and it may (?) be suitable for using less (GEM also sells spores with instructions to make your own Koji).

Dr. Davis,
Orientation for those athletes interested in experimenting with Amazake:
Innoculant of rice is Aspergillus oryzae fungal infused rice grains, called Koji; Koji has alpha-amylase, glyco-amylase, acid protease, lipase, amylo-glucosidase , acid carboxy-peptidase , chitosinase and citric acid.
Incubation lets fungal penetrate new rice substrate and fungal hyphal tip performs hydrolytic enzyme secretion.

Cooking the rice first gelatinizes the starch held in granules inside of organelles with lipoprotein membranes (amyloplasts) into 16 - 30% amylose and 65 - 85 % amylopectin which are ammenable to hyphal hydrolytic action. Koji's amylo-glucosidase enzyme digests the gel &  Koji's alpha amylase enzyme reduces molecular size of amylose, which makes it less viscous and more fluidly mobile. It is glyco-amylase enzyme that turns amylose and some of the amylo-pectin chains  into glucose.
Incubation lets the fungi grow and their mycellial cell wall builds up with the amino mono-saccharide glucosamine (a.k.a. chitosan); fungi generally have 67 - 126 mg mycelial glucosamine per 1 gram dry weight mycellium. Amazake is well tolerated by most since glucosamine is useful in colitis. Glucosamine (chitosan) is a poly-cationic bio-polymer formed when chitosanase I enzyme de-acetylates chitin (in fiber); with optimal enzymatic pH being 5.5 - 6.5. Chitosan is more acid pH soluble than chitin and under chitosanase II enzyme (working from pH 3.8 -8.5) some chitin is de-acetylated to form more oligo-saccharides.

Amazake may have biologically active high molecular weight immunological poly-anionic polysaccharide
derivatives like the poly-acetyl carboxylic acid  COAM (chlorite oxidase oxy-amylose). COAM comes about when a saccharide chain is oxidatively cleaved between 2 carbon atoms resulting in oxy-amylose, a polymer of 2 aldehyde functions;  when these aldehydes gets further oxidized they produce functional carboxyls.  Rice has aldehydes like the volatile aldehyde hexanal we smell as stored rice &/or from rice bran.

Rice, like most bean & grain carbohydrate polysaccharides, include the following in both the soluble and insoluble form: arabinoxylan, beta-glucan, cellulose, mannose, galactose, xylose and uronic acid. For us these non-starch  polysaccharides are not digestible;  as neither is fiber (made up of cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin and lignan ) since 90% of our dietary fiber is linked together by beta-glycosides that our digestive enzymes can't cleave. Arabinoxylan, mannan, galacto-mannan and xylan are considered anti-nutritional since can lower intestinal uptake of nutrients; while mannose reacts with amino groups in dietary protein to reduce the amount of certain aminos properly digested.

Koji's fungal hyphal hydrolytic enzymes include mannosidase enzymes; beta mannanase catalyses the mannosidic links in insoluble mannan polysacharides where there are galactosyl residual features.  The  so-called endo-mannanase (a manno -hydrolase) cleaves mannan and galactomannan to free up molecules like manno-triose, manno-biose and manno-tetraose that human gut Bifidobacteria can then feed on. This may be part of why a substantial dose of Amazake seems to yield more delivery of  sustained energy beyond what one would get from the usual amount of short chain fatty acids put out by gut bacteria.

Amazake incubation is a solid state fermentation, since want the minimal free fluid when culturing;  too much water and the substrate porosity is diminished and resultant depressed oxygen transport in substrate  causes fungal cell numbers to decline. A  submerged fungal ferment, when cooked rice with koji substrate is set out  too soupy can result in 3.5 times less enzymatic activity. Using  too much rice substrate mixed with too sparse koji innoculant and the fermentation won't proceed promptly due to low oxygen. Also do not stir the blend while incubating to avoid damaging mature fungal hyphae or breaking new growth.

Mannanase enzyme development in 1st day is less than 50 units/gram and this goes to a maximum of 100 units/gram after 2 days; a peak mannanase content seems to be +/- 250 units/gram on days 3-5. I incubate short grain brown rice Amazake for 22 hours; while most commercial Amazake products and home producers probably do not incubate more than 12 hours. The longer incubation is allowed to go on for the more llikely bitter flavors develop from oxidation of the bran's oil content;  yet the bran is desired for it affords better beta- mannanase and beta-mannosidase enzymatic formation.

Amazake has exceptional anti-oxidant properties; with longer incubation time this activity increases. Amazake also raises the bodies ability to inhibit lipid peroxidation; so concern over any of rice bran's oil oxidation is probably moot.
END

You don't mention liquid surcralose (Splenda)  -- which has all the 'benefits' of sucralose without the maltodextrin.  I use it and nothing else.

Wow, Might. You are a walking Wikipedia!

Thanks for the incredible insights.

I have never been able to find liquid Splenda in stores in the U.S.  If it's there, what brand name is it sold under?

I use Sweet Leaf as well. It is in the powder from. the box states no chemicals,no alcohols, no erythritol, no ethanol or menthol,, no aspartame, no sucralose, no maltodextrin, no dextrose or additivees. Seems clean to me. Any thoughts as to problems with this product.

Doc, also notice the removal of all of Might's comments from Guyenet's site. This speaks for itself, as to where the truth lies. Might is truly a wonder and knows what he's talking about.

What does that mean, that the comments from Guyenet's site are removed? Stephan removed them, or Might removed them? I've traded comments with Might over there dozens of times.

I just use pure Stevia powder, which is gauranteed to be at least 95% pure stevia crystals (like the liquid stevia, on in teh form of powder. The brand I use is Stevita. A tiny little 0.7 ounce conainer lasts FOREVER! You only need a tiny pinhc of it for coffee. It doesn't exchange well versus sugar as a substitute, but adding a little to whatever you might be baking or making can help with using less of whatever other sweetener you may need to use.

Dear Dr. Davis,
It’s a great pleasure to read your blog. I find your post very informative. Thank you for sharing.
As a reader, I consider your writing to be a great example of a quality and globally competitive output.
As a moderator for Physician Nexus (a community for physicians) I would like to share your genuine ideas and knowledge. With this you can gain 1000 physician readers on Nexus.
We would love for you to visit our community. It's free, takes seconds, and is designed for physicians only - completely free of industry bias and commercial interests.
Best,
Janmar Delicana
On behalf of the Physician Nexus Team
www.PhysicianNexus.com

Stephan who hosts the WholeHealth blog is smarter than me &  the removal of my comments there came from someone using my computer. These days I do not have the time to follow Stephan's blog, which has nothing to do with validity of his approach.

Marlene,
I buy it at SuperSupplements or at Whole Foods. Any nutritional supplements &vitamins stores should carry it. If you live in a place whch doesn't havenay -> use Amazon. It's simple .

Whoops - I thought you meant Stevia. Liquid Splenda is at amazon as well

Dr. Davis--

I'd like to recommend ZSweet.  It's a stevia/erythritol blend but isn't a Big Ag product like Cargill/Coca-Cola's Truvia or Pepsico/Monsanto-er-Merisant's PureVia.

It's funny how Stevia was banned by the FDA in the 80s, only to be given the GRAS label in 2008, which just happened to be the same year that Truvia was launched.  Coincidence?

Hi, Serge-

I have no doubt that the clout of Cargill pushed Truvia through. I wasn't aware of ZSweet--thanks!

I am absolutely thrilled to have found this blog.  I've been extremely cautious of sugar and sweets since my mother was diagnosed with diabetes when I was a child.  Unfortunately I did fall into the "healthy whole grains" trap for a while, but have kept my daily carbs between 50-100 for many years now.  I like Stevia products, but unfortunately they leave me with a slight headache.  I've been (sparingly) using Volcanic Agave Nectar for years, mostly in tea and for the occasional baked good.  I understand that due to the rich soil in which it's grown, and minimal processing, volcanic blue agave has a lower glycemic index-load than other traditional agave nectars, at 27.  

Am I doing myself harm by using it?  I'd like to try the liquid Splenda, that contains no maltodextrin.  Thank you Elenor and Stefan for mentioning it, but should I be concerned about its processing?

I'm not big on Truvia.  

From what I've heard from other diabetics erthyritol doesn't have the GI side effects of most sugar alcohols and has a lesser effect on bg, but even so... I prefer a plain stevia powder.

I don't think erthyritol has been around long enough to know what it's side effects may be, that it doesn't raise bg much and doesn't cause GI distress isn't good enough. There's any number of other bad side effects that exist in the world besides those two.

Stevia is food.  Granted, the plain white stuff is relatively refined, but I still feel better about it than erthryitol.  

Susan, agave nectar has almost no GI effect because it is fructose, not glucose.  It has MUCH more fructose than HFCS.  Search this blog for a long list of the bad stuff that fructose causes.  I'm a diabetic, and I'd seriously rather eat sugar than agave.

I have engaged in more discussion about fish oil than any other supplement. Just remember we could care less about the fish oil, what we are after is the EPA+DHA Omega 3 in the oil. The rule of thumb is, "the higher the price, the more Omega 3." You can save money and get the 30% in the Kirkland or Sam's Club brand or spend a lot more money and get the 50% to 70% brands.

I have engaged in more discussion about fish oil than any other supplement. Just remember we could care less about the fish oil, what we are after is the EPA+DHA Omega 3 in the oil. The rule of thumb is, "the higher the price, the more Omega 3." You can save money and get the 30% in the Kirkland or Sam's Club brand or spend a lot more money and get the 50% to 70% brands.

Often I have wondered about the benefits, if any, of krill oil versus regular fish oil.    
It seems that the Phospholipids in the Krill oil play a role in HDL quality.

I have not yet found a good paper explaining this, but Neptune Technologies is doing some research on this.  I prefer whole foods, rather than drugs, but the research on this topic looks interesting.

From their website on a research on concentrated phospholipids form krill oil:
Neptune Technologies & Bioressources Inc. Reports Completion of Acasti Pharma Comparative Benchmarking Program versus Lovaza®



Laval, Québec, CANADA – November 25, 2010 – Neptune Technologies & Bioressources Inc. (“Neptune”) (NASDAQ: NEPT - TSX.V: NTB) subsidiary, Acasti Pharma Inc. (“Acasti”), reports the completion of its  preclinical program designed to compare the lipid management effects of Acasti’s drug candidate CaPreâ„¢ versus prescription drug Lovaza®.  Blood lipids were monitored in two animal models in order to assess and compare the efficacy of CaPreâ„¢ and Lovaza® over a 12-week treatment period.

    * A low daily human equivalent dose of 1g CaPreâ„¢ reduced LDL-C (bad cholesterol) levels by 40% and increased HDL-C (good cholesterol) by 180% in a normal rat model (“SD”) while 4gr of Lovaza® did not show any significant effect.
    * An even lower daily human equivalent dose of 0.5g CaPreâ„¢ was shown to be as efficient as 4g of Lovaza® in reducing triglycerides levels by 40-50% in obese rats with severe diabetes and high triglycerides (“ZDF”)


“These results suggest that a low (0.5g to 1g) daily dosing of CaPreâ„¢ is more effective than 4g Lovaza® in elevating HDL-C and lowering LDL-C and triglycerides.  These effects become even more striking considering that a 1g daily dose of CaPreâ„¢ contains 8.9 times less EPA and 11.1 times less DHA than the recommended 4g daily dose of Lovaza®. It is also important to note that the triglycerides reduction was observed only after 4 weeks and was maintained throughout the study suggesting a significant metabolic impact of CaPreâ„¢,” said Dr. Bruno Battistini, Senior Director, Pharmaceutical R&D of Acasti.

If one brand showed slight excess of PCB's, does that mean all the rest also contained PCB's only just the right amount?

What are the benefits to cardiovascular health of taking plant/algae sourced DHA vs fish sourced EPA/DHA?

What do you think of the conclusions in this blog post?
http://thehealthyskeptic.org/when-it-comes-to-fish-oil-more-is-not-better

For a "healthy" person are your recommendations the same- as in make sure to get a high quality fish oil?

I really appreciate you taking the time to write on this blog.  Thank you!
Char

or you could just eat natural food sources of omega-3, like wild salmon, tuna, sardines, grass fed butter, eggs from pastured chickens, fermented cod liver oil. then you wont need supplements.

cheers
jack k

What if you can't stand the taste of fish like salmon and sardines or fermented cod liver oil?

I'm hoping Carlsson's is good, that's what I've been taking for the past few months and I love how it tastes like lemon oil, not fishy at all.

While there is debate on the reduction in cardiovascular events with omega-3 fatty acids, I use them to achieve correction of a number of physiologic parameters:

1) Reduction of triglycerides
2) Acceleration of clearance of postprandial lipoproteins, such as chylomicrons, chylomicron remnants, and VLDL
3) Reduction of lipoprotein(a)

The data on the likelihood of cardiovascular mortality correlates inversely with RBC omega-3 EPA + DHA; the relationship is quite strong. While we lack prospective trials outside of GISSI Prevenzione on the reduction of cardiovascular death with higher levels, given the overall improved surrogate measures of risk, I believe that the data overall are sufficiently compelling.

Funny, I've been reading up about this lately. I like the fact that if we can - there is the possibility of actualy getting the appropriate amount of EPA+DHA Omega 3's by eating fish. I recently started buying sardines just for this purpose and I'm going to try real hard to incorporate oily fishes. I like it when people help others minimize the amounts of supplements they use.

dr. davis

i can't smell anything rancid in my distilled fish oil with orange flavour but its so weird its too heavy barely digests and stays as if stuck in the chest. feels horrible.

not sure what to make of it.

There are a few benefits of a plant based diet: avoiding acid load, toxin accumulation in the food chain, and another one, high lipid peroxidation level of the longer chain EFA.
So I just heard that "Reduction of triglycerides" using fish oil, is an effect of liver damage.

Just search for this book:
"Fatty acids in foods and their health implications" - Ching Kuang Chow
I just quote from the chapter V. MEMBRANE UNSATURATION AND LONGEVITY
_______________________________
In summary, the above mentioned studies provide a correlation between the maximum longevity of animals and the degree of unsaturation of membrane fatty acids. That correlation joins the previously stated one between the rate of mitochondrial oxygen radical generation and the maximum
longevity of animals. In long-lived homeothermic vertebrates, both free-radical production and the
membrane fatty acid unsaturation are lower, offering an explanation for some of the main causes of
the low aging rate peculiar to these animals. No studies have been carried out on these aspects in
relation to dietary fat and, as it will be stated below, this is another notable aspect of fatty acids and
aging.
_______________________________

Is there an over-the-counter brand of fish oil that closely matches prescription Lovaza?

westonaprice.org has very informative articles on this. Type "cod liver oil" in the search box to find their articles.  There is great info on how the better brands are manufactured.

A product similar in principal to krill oil is Vectomega.  It is a phospholipid bound salmon oil made from salmon heads.  The heads used to be discarded and this is a resource that doesn't deplete the food of whales etc.  According to the companies data, one tablet is the equivalent of eight standard capsules (probably 2.4gm of EPA+DHA).  It is a little pricey, but you will never burp it and it is very portable when you travel.  I suggest to my patients that if they regularly take much more than 2.5gm, that they get AA/EPA ratio available thru many labs.  yourfuturehealth.com,    LEF.org

Supposedly DHA converts in the body to EPA pretty easily.  Anyone know any data about taking DHA alone vs with EPA?

to come from other side, I have started to read Ray Peat's articles and he is big on the dangers and overhype of non saturated fatty acids , in particular omega 3. It makes sense that humans having developed in hot climate require primarily saturated fat to protect from heat, light and oxygen. There is a reason why fish oils smell and why vegetable oils must be deodorized, it's basically our body telling us that non saturated oils are bad for us. Ray Peat says these oils make our membranes "floppy" and our skin prone to photo dammage by the sun. Basically we need all the saturated fat we can get primarily from coconut oil and butter but polyunsaturated fats should be minimum and certainly no supplement. Read up here
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fishoil.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/membranes.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/unsaturatedfats.shtml

I take at least 900 EPA + 600 DHA fish oil daily. I usually take 1-2 softgels with each meal. I continue to experiment with higher doses, but so far, I can't tell the difference between 5 softgels daily vs 10 softgels daily except 10 softgels means 50 extra calories. Sometimes I actually need extra calories, so I've taken as much as 40 softgels in one day.

I guess I'm the only one who actually LIKES chewing my fishoil capsules. To me they are like a treat! This has the added advantage of knowing for sure if they are rancid. I've been getting Sundown Naturals for over a year - never had a bad one yet. The taste is very mild and I they never make me burp.

dr. davis i d like to know your take on this

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fishoil.shtml

I've found that Barlean's cod liver oil is least offensive taste-wise, followed by Spectrum. Both are molecularly distilled. I have trouble finding Barlean's, however.

In declaring EPA and DHA to be safe, the FDA neglected to evaluate their antithyroid, immunosuppressive, lipid peroxidative (Song et al., 2000), light sensitizing, and antimitochondrial effects, their depression of glucose oxidation (Delarue et al., 2003), and their contribution to metastatic cancer (Klieveri, et al., 2000), lipofuscinosis and liver damage, among other problems.

Dr. Davis,

Should Vitamin D gelcaps have an odor? I've been taking a generic drugstore brand and they always have an unpleasant smell, but I assumed they were supposed to.

Thanks!

@arnoud - phospholipid-bound Omega-3 appear to get incorporated into membranes 1.5 to 2X more than triglyceride or ethyl ester Omega-3. But Neptune researchers have not explained why krill oil reduces LDL more than Lovaza.

@Geoffrey Levens - just about every food product has small amounts of PCBs. Yes, fish oil too. Cod and Shark liver oils typically have much higher levels. More on fish oil and PCBs here.

Retroconversion of DHA to EPA is not very efficient. Roughly 10% of DHA gets converted to EPA. EPA to DHA far less efficient. Several metabolic factors affect these conversions. Bruce Holub at Univ Guelph has done great work on this. Check out PMID: 9507234 and 9076673.

@John - Several brands have 700 - 900 mg Omega-3 per pill, like Lovaza.

A few have 20-30% more Omega-3 than Lovaza:
Minami Nutrition CardiO3
OmegaVia
Ocean Blue Professional
RenewLife come to mind.

These all have over 1000 mg Omega-3 per pill.

Next-gen fish oil (pipeline) drugs like Epanova and AMR101 are mostly EPA - so worth looking into high EPA OTC formulas for a fraction of the price.

$2000 per month doesn't seem so bad.  For the three of us, two adults and one 18yr old, we pay $2600 per month.  But my wife had cancer twice:  Hodgkins Lymphoma 24 years ago and breast cancer six years ago.  Before doing anything that might be dangerous, I remind myself of the $1500 deductable.  

kevin

dr. davis

i did some research and to answer my own question on fish oil...
for those without heart disease (like me) 1 gram of fish oil is sufficient and should be taken with 4 grams of saturated fat otherwise fish oil slips through the intestines undigested. 4 grams of saturated fat is used for making the liver start bile production.


-----------------------------------
original question

dr. davis

i can't smell anything rancid in my distilled fish oil with orange flavour but its so weird its too heavy barely digests and stays as if stuck in the chest. feels horrible.

not sure what to make of it.

It is good; however the oil came from the liver. It can contain too much Vitamin A and it could be dangerous if u overdose. I suggest sticking with eating a variety of fish.

ah great info.......i live in the UK and I usually take different supplements, plz cud u tell me what should i look for while buying the fish oil....tnx in advance