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Homemade Strawberry Lemonade Recipe (Naturally Sweetened)

AHA Publisher — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 07:00:07 +0000

Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CN – There isn’t much better on a hot summer day than a fresh glass of lemonade. Unfortunately, many store-bought lemonades contain lots of added sugar and undesirable ingredients. That’s where my homemade strawberry lemonade recipe comes in. Made from local, fresh strawberries, it’s a healthy take on the classic beverage. Sit in the shade with this homemade concoction to help cool off on a hot day. Oh, and the best part? This strawberry lemonade recipe is a sugar-free and refreshing drink — perfect for the summer. Plus, it’s easy to make and requires only four ingredients. That’s right: four! Key Ingredients What is strawberry lemonade made of? As mentioned above, this strawberry lemonade recipe calls for just four simple ingredients: Strawberries: Strawberry nutrition is chock-full of antioxidants like vitamin C, manganese and folate, among several other vitamins and minerals. That’s why strawberries are beneficial for immunity and combating chronic diseases, such as cancer and heart disease. They also aid brain, skin and digestive health. Lemon juice: Made from nutrition lemons, lemon juice also supplies a decent amount of vitamin C and benefits the heart, kidneys and skin. Stevia: Instead of refined sugar or unhealthy sugar substitutes, stevia provides the sweetness to this strawberry lemonade without the adverse effects. In fact, high-quality stevia can actually support weight loss, along with healthy cholesterol and blood pressure levels. You can also use other healthy, natural sweeteners if stevia isn’t your preferred option. Water: When you really need to quench your thirst and stay hydrated, nothing quite beats a cold class of water, and the benefits of drinking water, especially during summertime, are vast — including helping with detoxification, digestion, calorie intake and more. How to Make Strawberry Lemonade How do you make strawberry lemonade from scratch? It couldn’t be easier! Take your ingredients, beginning with the three cups of water and ending with the stevia, dump them into your blender and — you guessed it — blend until your lemonade is smooth and liquified. That’s it — your blended strawberry lemonade is ready to drink and enjoy on those hot summer days and a recipe you can whip up anytime in a matter of minutes. Homemade Strawberry Lemonade Recipe (Naturally Sweetened) DESCRIPTION This strawberry lemonade recipe is a sugar-free and refreshing drink — perfect for summer! It’s easy to make and requires only 4 ingredients! INGREDIENTS 3 cups of spring or filtered water ½ cup organic lemon juice 2 cups organic strawberries, fresh or frozen stevia, to taste INSTRUCTIONS Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Axe click here.

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Less Sugar, Please! New Studies Show Low Glucose Levels Might Assist Muscle Repair

AHA Publisher — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 07:00:40 +0000

Tokyo Metropolitan University via EurekAlert – Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have shown that skeletal muscle satellite cells, key players in muscle repair, proliferate better in low glucose environments. This is contrary to conventional wisdom that says mammalian cells fare better when there is more sugar to fuel their activities. Because ultra-low glucose environments do not allow other cell types to proliferate, the team could produce pure cultures of satellite cells, potentially a significant boost for biomedical research. Healthy muscles are an important part of a healthy life. With the wear and tear of everyday use, our muscles continuously repair themselves to keep them in top condition. In recent years, scientists have begun to understand how muscle repair works at the cellular level. Skeletal muscle satellite cells have been found to be particularly important, a special type of stem cell that resides between the two layers of sheathing, the sarcolemma and basal lamina, that envelopes myofiber cells in individual muscle fibers. When myofiber cells get damaged, the satellite cells go into overdrive, multiplying and finally fusing with myofiber cells. This not only helps repair damage, but also maintains muscle mass. To understand how we lose muscles due to illness, inactivity, or age, getting to grips with the specific mechanisms involved is a key challenge for medical science. A team of scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University led by Assistant Professor Yasuro Furuichi, Associate Professor Yasuko Manabe and Professor Nobuharu L Fujii have been studying how skeletal muscle satellite cells multiply outside the body. Looking at cells multiplying in petri dishes in a growth medium, they noticed that higher levels of glucose had an adverse effect on the rate at which they grew. This is counterintuitive; glucose is considered to be essential for cellular growth. It is converted into ATP, the fuel that drives a lot of cellular activity. Yet, the team confirmed that lower glucose media led to a larger number of cells, with all the biochemical markers expected for greater degrees of cell proliferation. They also confirmed that this doesn’t apply to all cells, something they successfully managed to use to their advantage. In experiments in high glucose media, cultures of satellite cells always ended up as a mixture, simply due to other cell types in the original sample also multiplying. By keeping the glucose levels low, they were able to create a situation where satellite cells could proliferate, but other cell types could not, giving a very pure culture of skeletal muscle satellite cells. This is a key prerequisite for studying these cells in a variety of settings, including regenerative medicine. So, was the amount of glucose in their original experiment somehow “just right”? The team added glucose oxidase, a glucose digesting enzyme, to get to even lower levels of glucose, and grew the satellite cells in this glucose-depleted medium. Shockingly, the cells seemed to fare just fine, and proliferated normally. The conclusion is that these particular stem cells seem to derive their energy from a completely different source. Work is ongoing to try to pin down what this is. The team notes that the sugar levels used in previous experiments matched those found in diabetics. This might explain why loss of muscle mass is seen in diabetic patients, and may have significant implications for how we might keep our muscles healthier for longer. To read the original article click here.

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54 Grams of Sugar in Your Favorite Holiday Drink? Try This Keto Recipe Instead

AHA Publisher — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 08:00:04 +0000

Dr. Don Colbert – Back away from the drive-through. Turn your car around and head home. The Peppermint Mocha on the other side of that drive-up window may cost you much more than the $7 price tag. It may cost you over 1/4 cup of straight, liquid, killer sugar. Instead, break out your blender and try our delicious keto recipe instead! Most consumers have little idea of the amount of sugar packed into lattes and gourmet coffee drinks. Unfortunately, the mixture of quick, liquid sugar and caffeine can have destructive consequences on health. Here’s a much better option, and why you should avoid the sugar-caffeine trap. Delish Keto Peppermint Mocha Ingredients 1 tablespoon organic/free-range butter 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar-free (stevia-based) chocolate chips 1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (very warm but not boiling) 1/3 cup espresso or strongly brewed coffee (or ~2 shots of espresso) 1 tablespoon Keto Zone Chocolate Collagen 1 teaspoon Keto Zone Vanilla MCT Oil Powder 1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract (approximately 4-5 drops) dash salt Optional: keto-friendly sweetener, to taste Optional: whipped cream or coconut cream Optional: shaved sugar-free chocolate or sugar-free candy cane pieces Instructions Place butter and chocolate chips in a blender. Add hot coffee and milk. Add collagen, MCT Oil Powder, extract, and salt. Carefully blend on medium speed until fully combined and frothy. Take care to hold the lid in place and allow steam to escape as needed. Pour into a mug. Add sweetener if desired. Top with whipped cream and shaved sugar-free chocolate or sugar-free candy if desired. Enjoy! Nutrition Info: 214 calories, 20 grams fat, 3 grams net carbs (7 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams fiber), 0 grams sugar, 2 grams protein Keto Peppermint Mocha vs. Starbucks Why go through the trouble of making your own Keto Peppermint Mocha instead of just grabbing Starbucks? First, there’s the sugar. One 16-ounce serving of Starbucks Peppermint Mocha packs in an astonishing 54 grams of sugar. What are the sources of these sugar grams? A look at the ingredients list tells us it’s sugar, peppermint syrup with sugar in it, vanilla syrup with sugar in it, and dark chocolate curls with sugar. Pretty much, it’s sugar. Then, there are flavorings and preservatives, and a lot of chemical ingredients you simply don’t need. In fact, Starbucks Peppermint Mocha is made of: Milk, Mocha Sauce [Water, Sugar, Cocoa Processed With Alkali, Natural Flavor], Brewed Espresso, Peppermint Syrup [Sugar, Water, Natural Flavor, Sodium Benzoate, Citric Acid], Whipped Cream [Cream (Cream, Mono And Diglycerides, Carageenan), Vanilla Syrup (Sugar, Water, Natural Flavors, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid)], Dark Chocolate Curls [Sugar, Chocolate Mass (Processed With Alkali), Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Vanilla Extract] And, it has this nutrition info per 16 ounces: 440 calories, 15 grams fat, 63 grams carbs, 54 grams sugars, 4 grams fiber, 13 grams protein The Danger of Sugar and Caffeine What’s the harm? Of course, this much sugar is simply harmful to your body. It can spike blood glucose, increase resistance to insulin, promote fat storage and inflammation, and more. Specifically, the mixture of caffeine and sugar can be even worse. When you consume sugar, your body digests and absorbs it quickly. In the case of liquid sugar, this process is even faster. Once absorbed in the digestive tract, sugar makes its way to your liver, and then into your bloodstream. At this point, it’s crucial that your body sends out a bolus of insulin to deal with the sugar and store it. This is not a healthy process, but it is the lesser of 2 evils. Without insulin opening up the cells for glucose storage, the glucose would stay in your bloodstream, harden arteries, and deteriorate health. When insulin is sent out, it’s also vital that your cells respond by opening up. If they are not as sensitive to the insulin as they should be, and ignore it rather than opening and allowing the glucose to enter for storage, there will be problems. Caffeine, when mixed with sugar, can exacerbate these problems. The Lethal Caffeine and Sugar Combo Just how bad is the caffeine and sugar combo? Caffeine can disrupt the sensitivity of insulin in cells, even in otherwise healthy people, when consumed with sugar. This means the glucose has nowhere to go, and blood sugars may begin rising. In fact, studies have found that when caffeine and liquid sugar are consumed, the caffeine impairs sensitivity to insulin, which impairs the body’s ability to deal with the sugar (1). Meta-analysis has shown this is consistently an issue, for both healthy subjects and those with impaired blood sugars to start (2). Bottom Line If you’re fond of delicious holiday peppermint mochas, it’s time to get choosey. Don’t impair your sensitivity to insulin. Instead, choose a delicious homemade keto peppermint mocha! Skip the 54 grams of sugar and choose health this Holiday Season. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Colbert click here.

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