Dr. Mercola’s cholesterol report and Dr. Mirkin’s views on fruit juice

On Thursday morning, I did about 15 minutes of the anaerobic exercise from the RealAge advanced exercise video; unfortunately the video isn’t available online anymore so I did exercise by memory.  In the early evening I did four 30-second swim prints also.  Each session created an “exercise high”.

On Friday morning, I wanted to do an easy anaerobic session since I did 2 sessions on Thursday.  It took me about 4 minutes to do 1 set each of arm curls, hammer curls, and reverse curls.  Then I jogged 2 miles; I don’t jog much, but I would like to maintain my ability to run 2 miles so I have been doing a 2 mile jog about once a week.  Aerobic exercise releases growth hormone, although some research has shown that anaerobic exercise releases more growth hormone.

After completing my jog in a humid 75 degrees, I was sweating profusely.  I had a 9 am appointment so I had to cool down quickly which I did in a couple minutes of lukewarm water and 7 minutes in a cold shower with a water temperature of 61 degrees.  I was not sweating anymore after coming out of the shower.  And I felt great.  By the way, I was listening to some music from a boombox while in the cold shower and it sounded really, really great!

Dr. Mercola has a new pdf report on cholesterol which disputes some commonly-held beliefs about cholesterol, but which make my cholesterol readings look pretty good.  His cholesterol report can be seen at http://mercola.fileburst.com/PDF/Cholesterol_SpecialReport.pdf

Rob left a comment a couple days ago asking if orange juice was good during a fast to which I replied OJ is not good during a fast or at anytime.  Dr. Mirkin has some opinions on fruit juice that are supported by research.  Dr. Mirkin’s website is http://www.drmirkin.com/

Dear Dr. Mirkin: Why do you tell people not to drink fruit juice?
Researchers at Tulane University showed that eating fruit helps to prevent diabetes, while drinking fruit juices increases risk (Diabetes Care, July 2008).   They analyzed diets of 71,346 women enrolled in the Nurses Study.   Increasing intake of whole fruit by three servings a day lowered risk for diabetes by 18 percent, while a serving of fruit juice each day increased risk by 18 percent.

The food that you eat passes into your stomach and must remain there until it is turned into a liquid soup.  No solid food is allowed to pass into your intestines.  This delay prevents blood
sugar levels from rising too high. However, sugar in drinks can pass directly into your intestines to cause an immediate rise in blood sugar. This can cause sugar to stick to the surface of cell
membranes and damage them to cause the side effects of diabetes which include blindness, deafness, heart attacks, strokes, and so forth.  It makes no difference whether the sugared drink is “junk food” such as a soft drink, or a supposedly healthful fruit juice.

Dear Dr. Mirkin: Are fruit juices a better choice for children and teens than soft drinks?                                                                                                             Researchers at the University of Houston reviewed scientific studies to explain why sugared drinks make people fat. (Nutrition Review, April 2006) and concluded that sugared drinks do not fill people up as much as solid food does. So calories in drinks do not suppress appetite as effectively as calories in food. Soft drinks average seven teaspoons of sugar per 12-ounce serving, so for each soft drink a child takes in, he gets 140 calories that do not suppress appetite as much as the same number of calories in solid food.

Since fruit juices contain as much sugar and calories as soft drinks, it makes no sense to substitute juices for soft drinks. It’s far better to learn to drink water to quench thirst, and get calories, vitamins and other nutrients from solid foods. One way to get overweight children to take in fewer calories is to serve them sparkling mineral water or soda water, which has carbon dioxide bubbles and no calories. To many people, this bubbly water is more refreshing and tasty than ordinary water.

Gabe Mirkin, M.D.