Nutrition Specialists, Body Composition, Hormones and Healthy Aging

Nutrition, Diet and Hormone Optimization Benefits

Nutrition and the Endocrine System. The Endocrine system is comprised of hormone producing glands throughout your body that release hormones into your bloodstream. These hormones control a range of bodily functions and processes including metabolism, glucose or body sugar synthesis, sex drive and reproductive organs, blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, immune system, energy level, fat distribution, muscle and bone strength, healing, memory, sleep patterns, and mood. Proper diet and nutrition helps support a healthy endocrine system with specific foods and nutrients playing integral roles in regulating your hormonal health and balance.

Keeping a healthy metabolism for longer. Keeping fit and youthful-looking through healthy weight management isn't about feeling deprived, restricted or following the latest fad diets. We'll show you some effective techniques and tips to help you better burn fat and keep your weight under control without taking all the fun out of life! Good nutrition is an integral part of youthful aging.

Putting together a nutritious eating plan doesn't have to be confusing or take a dietician to decipher. Learn how easy it is to nourish your body with everything it needs while letting your adventurous spirit entice you into trying out new foods

Aim for fitness...
Aim for a healthy weight.
Be physically active each day.

Build a Healthy Base...
Let the Pyramid guide your food choices.
Choose a variety of grains daily, especially whole grains.
Choose a variety of fruits and colourful vegetables daily.
Eat lean proteins and essential fatty acids like Omega-3's.
Keep portions moderate and food safe to eat.
 
Choose Sensibly...
Choose a diet that is low in saturated fat and
cholesterol and moderate in total fat.
Choose beverages and foods to moderate your intake of sugars.
Choose and prepare foods with less salt and sodium.
If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation.

How to Eat Smarter
In a world that is raining food and misleading food labels, making healthy choices about what and how to eat is not easy. Below is an excerpt from a typical American diet and following that some helpful nutritional rules to live by.

Saturday, March. 07, 2015

It's 6:45 p.m. after a bruising day at the office and a hair-raising commute on the freeway, you are standing in the kitchen about to prepare a healthy, satisfying dinner for your spouse, your two school-age children and yourself. As usual, all they want to know is "What's for dinner?" and "When do we eat?" You dump a box of thin spaghetti into a pot of boiling water, zap 3 cups of green beans in the microwave, pop a loaf of frozen garlic bread into the toaster oven and pour a medium-size jar of marinara sauce into a saucepan to simmer. While all that's bubbling, you throw some burgers on the grill, chop up half a head of iceberg lettuce and a couple of tomatoes for the salad, which you'll sprinkle with a light dressing. Dessert will be two scoops of frozen yoghurt per person and a plate of assorted low-fat cookies for the family to share. Enriched wheat buns, ketchup and mayo are on the table for the burgers. Sugar-free diet soda is the drink of choice. Sounds pretty healthy, right?

Wrong. While this meal sounds better than what most Americans eat for dinner at a fast-food restaurant, it's actually enough food for a family twice the size of yours. In addition, it contains some nutritional traps that in the best-case scenario will make you fatter and in the worst case, increase your chances of developing diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and certain types of cancer. Think you know the pitfalls? Read on. You may discover some surprises.

Here are just a few of the nutritional problems:

• Most "light" salad dressings are too heavy on sugar and salt and too light on nutrition. A better choice is a simple oil-and-vinegar dressing, which—although packed with calories—contains lots of heart-healthy mono-unsaturated fatty acids and no saturated fat. Organic olive oil is even better.

* You're serving your family too many highly processed, sugary and salty foods. The latest research shows that such foods won't keep them satisfied for very long and may make them hungrier in the long run.

* Having different kinds of cookies to choose from makes it more likely that your family will eat more cookies than they should. The fewer our choices, the less we eat. Many fat-free cookies and desserts still contain 100 to 150 calories per serving.

* Your portion sizes are far too generous. According to the U.S. Food Guide Pyramid, you're giving each member of your family 4 servings of spaghetti, 112 servings of marinara sauce, 2 servings of frozen yoghurt and even 1 serving of low-fat cookies have 100 to 150 calories. The meal without the hamburgers, buns, ketchup and mayonnaise already contains 1,600 calories per person, or 80% of the daily requirement for a sedentary office worker. There are 360 to 400 calories in just 1 hamburger with mayonnaise and ketchup on a bun bringing this meal to almost 2,000 calories per person. Just this one meal!

* To put this one meal in perspective, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends a grown man consume 2,000 to 2,600 calories per day if they're sedentary, 2,200 to 2,800 calories if they're moderately active and 2,400 to 3,000 calories per day if they are active. This seemingly healthy meal you have prepared for your family members has already reached the daily requirement for a grown man for 3 meals in an entire day.

* Let's not even get started on whether the tomatoes should be cooked or raw, how much salt, sugar and trans fat there is in the garlic bread, ketchup, and mayonnaise, or how much sugar, sodium and calories are packed into that marinara sauce. Unless bread, pasta or spaghetti is literally 100% whole wheat or multi-grain, it is made from enriched flour where all the nutrients have been removed. Iceberg lettuce has very little nutritional vale versus green leafy lettuce like romaine lettuce that is rich in minerals and nutrients. Turkey burgers with almost half the saturated fat than beef burgers are a better alternative. Diet sodas are carbonated beverages that use artificial sweeteners like aspartame, cyclamate, saccharin, acesulfame-k or sucralose - substances that have been shown in large quantities to possibly cause cancer over time. A Harvard medical study revealed that diet drinks actually raised diabetes risk in women.

It just goes to show that it's hard to eat healthy even when we try. We've all heard that fruits and vegetables are good for us, that restaurant portions are too big, that we should exercise more. But even a casual glance at public-health statistics suggests that Americans don't know how to put that information into practice or depend on labelling that is misleading at best. Two out of three Americans are overweight or obese. The incidence of Type 2 diabetes among children is climbing. And any gains we've made against heart disease by quitting smoking may be about to disappear. Alarmed by the worsening trends, health experts have unleashed a flood of nutritional advice for consumers much of it contradictory or confusing.

One expert says red meat is bad, others exclaim it is good! Another says bacon keeps you trim. Someone says skip the potatoes they'll make you fat, and someone else says eat the skin. Some sing the praises of chocolate, alcohol, beer and caffeine. And let's face it, controversy sells. Diet books and magazine articles try to grab our attention by telling us everything we thought we knew was wrong. (It's not.)

Even the government-approved labels on our food can lead us astray. Serving sizes bear no relationship to the helpings we usually eat. Low-fat products are not necessarily low in calories. And now the Food and Drug Administration says we should be on the lookout for trans fat—a lesser-known type of fat that is every bit as bad for the heart as saturated fat—though we didn't learn which products were the worst offenders until 2006. Meanwhile, the food pyramid, which serves as the basis for all meals prepared in the federal school-lunch program was changed in 2005 and suddenly fast food chains were permitted to serve food in public school cafeterias! Sadly, a whole generation of young Americans have grown up with the impression that processed, fast food is somehow nutritional.

"People can feel like a ping-pong ball," says Dr. David Katz, head of the Yale School of Medicine Prevention Research Center and author of The Way to Eat (Sourcebooks; 2002). "They are being batted in one direction and then another." Not that we necessarily mind. Being perplexed can ease our conscience. As long as we can point to a general state of nutritional confusion, we don't have to take responsibility for our ever expanding waistlines.

The truth is that nutritionists have a fairly good idea about what constitutes a healthy diet as well as plenty of solid evidence to back that up. As a rule, they tell us, we should eat lots of fruits and vegetables, favor whole grains over highly processed cereals and make red meat an occasional treat rather than the daily centerpiece of our evening meal. And we shouldn't eat any more than our body needs.

The problem is that no matter how much we think we know about what goes into a healthy meal, we often misjudge the results. Some vegetable dishes, it turns out, are healthier than others, some grain products are less processed than others, some fish are safer than others. You may think you are eating right, but by making subtle changes in what you eat and how you eat it, you could start eating considerably healthier.

The rewards are worth the effort. Studies show that as much as 80% of heart disease and 90% of diabetes can be tied to unhealthy eating and lifestyle habits. Doctors have proved that a diet emphasizing fruits and vegetables as well as small amounts of nuts and dairy products can lower blood pressure and "bad" cholesterol as effectively as many medications. And evidence is growing that adding fiber to your diet and avoiding highly refined foods can help prevent or delay the onset of Type 2 diabetes.

You don't have to sacrifice flavor. You don't have to go hungry. "It doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing thing," says Dr. Donald Hensrud of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "That attitude can actually make it harder." You do need to put in some effort—much of it in the kitchen—and accept that there really is no free lunch. But with a little planning and a better understanding of some of the basic food traps, we can all eat a whole lot better and smarter.

You need Less Food Than You Think
"Everything in moderation" is a great motto until you realize that moderate means different things to different people. Better to nail down some specifics and measure them using a tough-to-fudge yardstick—the much dreaded but ultimately very helpful concept of the calorie. Stop, don't turn the page just yet. We're not going to get tediously obsessive about this. But whether you, like most Americans, need to lose weight or you just want to maintain the figure you already have, you've got to know a little something about calories.

At its heart, the rule for losing weight is simple: eat fewer calories than you burn. As anyone who has ever tried to shed a couple of pounds knows all too well, that's often harder than it sounds. Eat too little, and your body ratchets down its metabolism so that it doesn't need as much energy and you regain weight more easily. One way to counteract that is to boost your level of physical activity to increase the number of calories you burn.

But when it comes to weight control, exercise—though necessary—can take you only so far. Think about it, and you'll understand why. Food is so plentiful and so readily available that you're always going to be able to eat more than you can sweat off. The average American consumes 530 calories more per day now than he or she did in 1970. That's roughly what you'd get from eating 21/2 cups of cooked pasta. You would have to walk an extra two hours a day to burn that off. That doesn't mean you should forget about exercising—the benefits to your heart, bones and peace of mind are just too great. It does mean you have to pay more attention to the "calories in" side of the equation.

Few of us really get this message. "People don't understand the most basic things about calories," says Marion Nestle, chair of the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. "Larger portions have more calories. Eating more often means that you eat more calories. Having food in front of you means you eat more calories."

Even if you're happy when you step on the scales, you can't eat the way you did when you were a teenager—or even just a decade ago. As you grow older, your body needs fewer calories to keep going. Certain exercises—like yoga or weight training—help counteract the trend because they build muscle, which burns more calories than fat. But at some point, to avoid gaining weight, you will have to eat less.

The Secrets of Portion Control
So, what are some smart ways of cutting back? Start by fooling both your eyes and your stomach. As you reduce the amount of food you eat, use smaller plates to keep your meals from looking skimpy. Begin a couple of meals each week with an apple or a cup of soup. Either will help curb your appetite. The apple, besides being nutritious and only 80 calories, is full of soluble fiber, which keeps the stomach from emptying too quickly. And there is something about the texture and consistency of soup (broth-, not cream-based, low in sodium and not more than 150 calories) that is particularly satisfying to the stomach. Several intriguing studies have found that other liquids, like fruit juices or sodas—which are often high in calories—do nothing to suppress the appetite.

Watch out for the portion-size trap. For reasons known only to bureaucrats, the portion sizes provided in the U.S. government's food pyramid can differ dramatically from those indicated on a product's food label. (One set of figures is regulated by the Department of Agriculture, and the other, which appears on product labels, is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.) A single serving of pasta is 12 cup (cooked) according to the usda, 1 cup according to the FDA and at least 2 cups according to most families.

Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, but limit your choices of everything else, particularly snacks. Giving folks a wide choice of foods in a single meal, scientists have shown, encourages them to eat more. "It works for every species ever tested—humans, rats, fish, cats," says Susan Roberts, professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston. If there are two types of cookies on a plate, the temptation is to eat one of each.

Eventually, you will have to become familiar with the calorie count of your foods. Just a couple of days of measuring or weighing what you eat and calculating the calories you consume can be a real eye-opener. You don't have to do this for the rest of your life, just long enough to get a feel for it. Many nutritionists recommend eating healthy frozen dinners, whose calorie counts are printed on the package, as a good way to make the transition to smaller portion sizes. How many calories you should eat in a day depends on whether you want to lose or maintain weight. The American Heart Association's rule of thumb is to multiply your weight in pounds by 13 (15 if you're active). If you want to lose weight, subtract 250 calories.

All Fats Are Not Created Equal
for more than 30 years, most researchers agreed that the healthiest diets were those low in percentage of calories attributable to fat. Now they realize that just as there are good and bad types of cholesterol, there are good and bad types of fat. The good fats—found in foods like fish, olive oil, avocados and walnuts—actually improve cholesterol levels in the blood and significantly reduce the risk that the heart will suddenly stop. As for the bad fats, there are now two villains instead of just one. Saturated fats—typically found in red meat, butter and ice cream—are still champion artery cloggers. But trans fats—found primarily in processed foods, such as margarines and many commercially baked or fried foods but also in whole milk—may be even worse.

Good Cholesterol vs Bad Cholesterol
Cholesterol is produced naturally in the liver by the body and found in foods we eat. As with dietary fats that can be healthy vs unhealthy, there are good and bad types of cholesterol. HDL cholesterol is the good cholesterol found in your blood. LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol in your blood. A healthy diet keeps bad LDL levels low while keeping good HDL high. High levels of good HDL cholesterol helps protect against cardiovascular disease, heart disease and stroke. High levels of bad LDL cholesterol causes plaque that clogs arteries increasing cardiovascular, coronary disease and risk of stroke. Your blood cholesterol levels contain a ratio of good to bad cholesterol and the types of fats you eat directly impact your health. Monounsaturated fats lower bad (LDL) cholesterol levels while increasing good cholesterol levels (HDL). Polyunsaturated fats lower triglycerides (unhealthy fatty acids) while fighting inflammation. Saturated fats increase bad (LDL) cholesterol and Trans fats, the worst type of fat, raises bad LDL cholesterol levels while lowering the good HDL cholesterol levels.

Omega-3 Nutritional Benefits
For heart health, The American Heart Association recommends consuming 1-3 grams per day of both EPA and DHA. Omega-3 fatty acids help alleviate inflammation and pain. EPA is involved in the body's inflammation response. Essential fatty acids help support heart health, brain and memory function, joint pain and inflammation, immune system, mood enhancer, lower bad LDL cholesterol and increase good HDL cholesterol. Omega three fatty acids are found in fish like salmon, tuna, and halibut, dark green leafy vegetables and in nuts and oils like walnuts, soybeans, flaxseed, canola oil. It is considered an essential fatty acids because it is not produced naturally by the body and needs to be gotten from food. Omega-3's are polyunsaturated fatty acids and include eicosapentaenic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA) found in fish, and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) found in green leafy plants. Try to buy high quality pharmaceutical grade Omega-3 supplements that are mercury-free, contain both DHA and EPA, and is molecularly distilled.

Foods contain various kinds of fat, some are healthy fats and others are unhealthy. Trans fats (trans fatty acids) and saturated fats are bad for your health because they increase your bad cholesterol levels (LDL) increasing cardiovascular disease and risk for heart disease. Unsaturated or monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats are healthy for you, increasing good cholesterol levels (HDL) while lowering bad cholesterol levels (LDL) reducing your risk of heart disease. Trans fats are known as hydrogenated, unsaturated fats which are artificially manufactured fats.

• monounsaturated fat - good fat: Olive oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, avocados, olives, Nuts - almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews, natural peanut butter
• polyunsaturated fat - good fat: Soybean oil, corn oils, safflower oil, walnuts, sunflower, sesame, pumpkin seeds, flaxseed, fish oils, fatty fish, salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, trout, sardines, soymilk, tofu
• trans fat - bad fats: vegetable shortening, hydrogenated oils, margarines, fried foods, candy bars, commercially baked snacks and baked goods
• saturated fat - bad fat: meat, beef, lamb, pork, dairy products, butter, ice cream, cheese, lard, palm oil, coconut oil, cottonseed oil

Good fats do more than help protect the heart. They also seem to delay hunger pangs. "People on these high-starch, low-fat diets are often hungry soon after they eat. They would be more satisfied eating nuts or a salad with a full-fat dressing," says Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and author of Eat, Drink and Be Healthy (Fireside; 2001). "And longer-term studies are showing that people tend to be able to control their weight better over the long run on a moderate or higher-fat diet than on a low-fat diet."

Fats have more flavor—a fact that was not lost on the editors of Cooking Light magazine. Since the mid-1990s, they have slipped a modicum of butter into their recipes. "You have to make food enjoyable," says Jill G. Melton, senior editor of Cooking Light (which, like TIME, is owned by AOL Time Warner). "If something tastes bad, you're not going to want it again."

Just remember that there's a smart way to include fat in your diet and lots of unhealthy ones. Good fats contain double the calories (9 calories per gram) of either proteins or carbohydrates (4 calories per gram). So there's little room for error. If you eat nuts, you're going to have to eat less of something else.

What about the Mediterranean diet? you ask. Researchers have long been fascinated by the traditional Greek and Italian diets of the 1960s, which contained as much as 40% fat but didn't trigger a lot of heart attacks. Don't assume that what worked for Greeks and Italians 40 years ago will work for you. After all, they typically ate a pound of fruit a day (equal to four medium apples) and little red meat, and many of them got lots of exercise tilling fields and tending livestock.

"The Mediterranean diet works well in the Mediterranean," says Yale's Katz. "My concern about it in the U.S. is that people will continue to go to Burger King but just dump olive oil over their French fries."

You can go overboard trying to avoid trans fat. Yes, there is a small amount of trans fat in whole milk, but whole milk is what most pediatricians recommend for children from the age of 1 to 2. Their brains need all kinds of fats to develop properly. After they reach age 2, you've got to be on the lookout for saturated fats as well. "You don't want people to think trans fats are the only bad guys," says Alice Lichtenstein, a nutrition professor at Tufts University in Boston and a frequent spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. "If a cracker has 2% trans and 2% saturated fat, it's better than 7% saturated and 0% trans." Finally, no matter how low McDonald's reduces the amount of trans fat in its French fries, they are never going to be a health food. Which brings us to ...The Potato Factor
It's not that potato spuds are so bad; it's that they're misunderstood—not to mention deep-fried and drowned in sour cream and cheese. America's much beloved tuber definitely has a dual personality. A good source of potassium (particularly if you eat the skin) and a great thickener for soups, the potato still doesn't have all the benefits bestowed by more colorful produce like broccoli, Brussels sprouts and green beans. v This problem of mistaken identity extends to quite a few of the foods we commonly call carbohydrates. First, a tiny rant about the word carbohydrate. When nutritionists first advised us to replace some of the fats in our diets with complex carbohydrates, what they had in mind was beans, fruits, leafy green vegetables and whole grains. What we loaded up on was pasta, white rice and French fries. Technically, we were following the rules, but by focusing on these highly processed or refined foods, we were missing out on a lot of antioxidants and other important nutrients. And we found out, much to the detriment of our waistlines, that it's a whole lot easier to overeat pasta, rice and potatoes than apples and broccoli.

O.K., so maybe the experts were a little naive about human nature. But no one anticipated the enthusiasm with which the food industry would jump on the low-fat bandwagon. Alas, it mostly just replaced the fat with refined foods and sugars and left consumers with the impression that they could eat as much of this stuff as they wanted. As if that weren't bad enough, it is becoming increasingly clear that some folks respond to highly refined foods differently than the rest of the population. All carbohydrates get broken down in the body into a simple sugar called glucose. This is a good thing, since glucose is the principal fuel that powers our bodies and brains. But about a quarter of American adults—some 50 million men and women—have trouble regulating their glucose levels. The hallmarks of this condition, which nutritionists now call metabolic syndrome, include a big waist (40 in. or more for men; 35 in. or more for women), high blood pressure (more than 130/85 mm Hg), a predisposition toward diabetes and troubling cholesterol levels in the blood.

Doctors aren't quite sure exactly why the body sometimes reacts this way, though they know that metabolic syndrome is exacerbated by a sedentary lifestyle. Hence their No. 1 recommendation for patients with metabolic syndrome is to get more exercise and build muscle mass. But they also now advise them to replace at least some of the refined carbohydrates in their diets with healthy fats, like those in nuts, fish and olive oil. In 2000 the American Heart Association, which has long touted the advantages of a low-fat lifestyle, added an exception to its guidelines for folks with this condition.

None of this means you should avoid eating fruits and vegetables. (In their natural form, they are not highly refined.) Just make sure that they are as colorful as possible—in order to get a wide variety of nutrients and those ever important antioxidants. Using spinach instead of iceberg lettuce in a salad, for example, will double the dietary fiber consumed, more than quadruple the calcium and potassium, more than triple the folate and provide seven times as much vitamin C. If you don't like spinach, try a more nutritious lettuce like romaine or Boston.
Your goal should be to eat at least five 12-cup servings of fruits and vegetables a day—and preferably more. (Nine is divine, according to the latest nutritional research.) Don't assume that fresh is the only game in town. "Frozen can be just as good and occasionally better," says Lichtenstein at Tufts. Because frozen fruits and vegetables are chilled immediately after being picked, they often contain more nutrients than produce that has been sitting on the shelf.

Sirloin, Salmon or Beans?
Protein from any number of sources can be part of a healthy diet. But figuring out just how much or how little of each to include can be tricky. We've known for some time that most Americans need to cut back on their consumption of red meat because of its high saturated-fat content. But now some health experts are raising the possibility that eating too much fish—long a staple of heart-healthy diets—may expose folks to dangerous levels of mercury and other poisons. That's still being debated. A study published in August suggests that most of the mercury found in fish is of a form that is not particularly toxic to humans. So if your choice is between the third helping of swordfish that week and a Big Mac, go for the swordfish.

Overall, how much protein do you need? Given the popularity of high-protein diets, you may be surprised to learn that there hasn't been much research on the long-term health benefits and risks of eating lots of protein, though there is concern that too much protein can lead to kidney and liver problems. Scientists have calculated the minimum amount needed to keep your muscles from breaking down—just under 70 grams, or about 212 oz., a day for someone who weighs 150 lbs. (Food is so plentiful that Americans rarely develop protein deficiencies.) Whether high levels of protein are linked to an increased risk of developing cancer or heart disease remains unclear. What is known is that too much protein of any kind can leach calcium out of your body and that eating lots of animal protein usually means you're increasing your intake of saturated fat as well. "I don't believe any nutritionist would argue that 30% protein isn't a reasonable upper limit for long-term safety," says Roberts at Tufts. But what is safe and what is ideal are two different matters. Current federal guidelines suggest that adults get 10% to 15% of their daily calories from protein.

If you're like most people, what interests you about high-protein diets is the possibility that they might make it easier to slim down. Preliminary evidence suggests this may be the case over the short run, but in many ways, that is almost beside the point. "People forget they should be eating a nutritious, healthy diet for other reasons," says Barbara Rolls, professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University. "They go on these kooky weight-management fad diets, and they lose all sight of bone and cardiovascular health." So remember, a little protein goes a long way. Your muscles will not fall apart if you don't eat protein at every meal. Stick with leaner cuts of meat and give preference to beans, fish, chicken or pork over red meat.

The basic rules for eating smarter couldn't be simpler. Watch your total calorie intake. Burn off as many calories as you take in. And be choosy about the foods you eat—not just for a couple of weeks or months but for the rest of your life. "It takes work," says Dr. John Swartzberg, who chairs the editorial board of the U.C. Berkeley Wellness Letter. "We live in a fast-food world." The sooner we accept that that is not the healthiest of environments for us, the better off we'll be.

Hormone Healthy Foods

Foods that boost Testosterone. Studies have shown that men with higher levels of Vitamin D, magnesium and zinc in their bodies have more testosterone circulating in their blood as well. Red meat and shellfish and other fish high in Vitamin D help naturally increase men's testosterone levels. Foods rich in natural vitamin D are salmon, tuna, shrimp, cod liver oil, herring, sardines, mackerel, free-range eggs. Pineapple and beans also help raise T levels. Some foods rich in zinc and magnesium are steak, chicken, turkey, oysters, crab, wheat germ, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, cashews, almonds, whole grains, oat bran, peanut butter, lentils and beans. Herbs that help boost testosterone include DHEA, Korean Red Ginseng or Panax ginseng and Ginseng or Eurycoma longifolia, Tribulus terrestris, Ashwagandha or Withania somnifera, Yohimbe, Mucuna Pruriens, Chrysin or Passiflora incarnate, Saw Palmetto or Serenoa repens, Pine bark extract, and garlic. D-aspartic acid or D-aspartate, is an amino acid made naturally in the body that helps with testosterone productions. It’s also found in meat, fish, shrimp, salmon, eggs, dairy products, lentils, legumes, nuts, and beans. The amino acid Arginine (L-arginine) found in meat, poultry and dairy products helps increase nitric oxide helping with more blood flow to the penis. Learn more about Testosterone and Testosterone Hormone Replacement Treatment (TRT) - Testosterone and TRT - Testosterone Replacement Therapy

Foods that boost Human Growth Hormone. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology shows certain foods increases Human Growth Hormone levels. Foods that help release L-Dopa (dopamine), melatonin and serotonin during the night stimulate natural HGH production. Pineapples, fava beans, goji berries, coconut oil, apples, pears and beets. Minerals and herbs include amino acid glutamine, arginine, mucuna pruriens, ginseng, ginkgo biloba and tribulus terrestris. Learn more about HGH and Human Growth Hormone Treatment - HGH and Human Growth Hormone Treatment

Common Nutritional Terms

ATP Adenosine Triphosphate is a molecule that serves as the fundamental energy source for organic life including animal and plant life. In your body, ATP breaks down into adenosine diphosphate and other phosphates releasing the energy used to power your body's cells. The ATP molecule is continuously being recycled by your body through chemical action so that during periods of inactivity, the reverse chemical action takes place and the phosphate groups are reattached to the molecule using energy obtained from food to perform the action.

Amino Acids. Amino acids are biologically important organic compounds composed of amine (-NH2) and carboxylic acid (-COOH) functional groups. 20 percent of the human body is comprised of amino acids. Amino Acids are essential to carrying out important bodily functions, maintenance, repair, cell structure and regeneration. They also play a role in the transport and the storage of nutrients for energy obtained form the food we eat. Amino acids have a direct impact on the tissues, organs, glands, muscles, bones, metabolism, excretory and circulatory system.

Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are one of the three main types of macronutrient also comprised of protein and fats. They are one of the most important sources of energy and fuel for your body with glucose or simple sugar or monosaccharides as one of the key carbohydrates. Your digestive system converts carbohydrates into glucose (blood sugar). The body uses blood sugar converted from carbohydrates for energy for your cells, tissues and organs. Carbohydrates also consist of complex sugars as is found in starches, rice, bread and potatoes. The glycemic index is used as a predictor of a carbohydrate's potential effect on blood glucose with nutritional reports showing many complex carbohydrates having glycemic indices higher than simple carbohydrates.

Fat. Fat is one of the three main macronutrients: fat, carbohydrate, and protein. Fats are a wide group of compounds whose basis is in long-chain organic acids, called fatty acids. Fat is a component in food we eat. Some foods like fruits and vegetables have little to no fat. Other foods are rich in fat content including meats, dairy products, nuts and oils. But fat is an important part of a healthy diet and some fats are good for your health while others are not healthy. Unsaturated fats like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are considered good fats while saturated and trans fats (hydrogenated) are considered bad fats.

Melatonin. Melatonin helps control your internal clock helping you fall asleep and wake up also known as the internal circadian rhythm. Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain. Melatonin can be found in foods such as meats, grains, fruits, lentil beans and other vegetables. Vitamins B-5 and B-6 support melatonin production. Melatonin levels naturally begin to rise in the late evening helping you fall asleep and remain high for most of the night, and then declines in the early morning hours prompting you to awake as the sun rises. Sunlight has a direct affect how much melatonin you produce and as adults age they make lower than normal melatonin and may need hormone supplementation. some natural ways to boost melatonin come from pineapples, bananas, oranges, oats, sweet corn, rice, tomatoes and barley.

Phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are plant-derived xenoestrogens or natural plant derived estrogens not endogenously secreted within the human endocrine system but consumed by eating phytoestrogenic plants. Examples of foods containing high levels of phytoestrogens are soy products, broccoli, beans and legumes.

Protein Protein is one on the three macronutrients. Proteins are the basic components of food that makes all life possible. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Proteins are large biological molecules, or macromolecules, consisting of one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins are made up of a collection of 20 amino acids. 8 Amino Acids are classified as essential and need to be sourced from the foods you eat, while the other 12 are classified as non-essential amino acids and can be produced naturally by your own body. Meat, pork and eggs offer muscle-building types of amino acids. Milk, yoghurt and other dairy are full of protein and contain bone-building and strengthening calcium. Fish and other seafood are good sources of protein and are typically low in fat and high in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Nuts and soya are also good sources of protein and can also contain healthy fats and nutrients. Poultry, chicken turkey are considered white lean meats. Soy is a protein that helps elevate estrogen levels, while red meat, vitamin D, egg yolks, oysters, shellfish and tuna help elevate testosterone hormone levels in men.

Thyroid. The thyroid is the largest endocrine gland in your body and secretes the essential thyroid hormones T3 and T4 into your bloodstream. The thyroid gland controls your metabolic rate and an over or underactive thyroid increases or adversely impacts your metabolism. An underactive thyroid or hypothyroidism causes symptoms including weight gain, lethargy, fatigue, depression, constipation, and other health problems. The thyroid produces hormones that regulate metabolic rate, mood, energy levels, body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. Along with taking thyroid hormone supplementation, certain foods, vitamins and nutrients can help support your thyroid. Vitamins A and D, iodine and the mineral selenium are essential to healthy thyroid gland function. An iodine deficiency prevent proper thyroid hormone production. Dairy products typically contain fortified vitamin A and D, carrots and carrot juice are good sources of vitamin a and betacarotene, Brazil nuts are a good source of selenium; cod, shellfish, shrimp and iodized salt provide good sources of iodine.

At Advance Therapy Hormone Centers, we have successfully treated over 20,000 patients with testosterone hormone deficiency or hormonal imbalance. We offer the best prices and service on hormone replacement therapy including Testosterone, HCG Injections, Sermorelin and Injectable Human Growth Hormone. Our Board Certified physicians specialize in Anti-Aging Medicine and are Cleveland Clinic®, Mayo Clinic® and Cenegenics® trained. For the best pricing, treatment options or more therapy information, fill out the Quick Info Form or contact us at (866) 342-5444

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