Fructose Damages!

A magical drink which is once called carbonated drinks, or simply put, soft drinks, has been introduced years ago, and was or is still being regarded as one of the biggest milestone achievement as far as beverages industry is concerned.

Let's talk about the main ingredient in soft drinks. Besides the additives and stimulants, the biggest myth which we always tend to think of is how much sugar it contains? We normally do not seek the exact amount of sugar in soft drinks, all we know about soft drinks is that it contains a huge amount of sugar, and that's the end of the story.

We will do the same thing today, we are not interested in digging out the exact amount of sugar, but look more specifically about how the sugar in it affects our system in the body. The sugar being utilized in making soft drinks currently, has been highly replaced by high fructose corn syrup, largely because of the latter is not price-controlled, and it is relatively sweeter, thus it is being used widely as the sweeteners in many soft drinks.

Thus, many people love and crave for soft drinks, because they contain the magical taste, with high fructose corn syrup in it. But please beware, if you are one of them, you may have just encouraging the chances of getting diabetes, obesity and other complications!

A study implemented by Dr. Peter Havel, a researcher from the Department of Nutrition in University of California, has shown that fructose, but not glucose-sweetened beverages increased insulin resistance and belly fat in overweight and obese people.

For the study, Havel & Co gathered 32 obese individuals, where all were in the age ranges around 50. There were two phases in the study where 15 of them were ordered to c0nsume beverages sweetened with glucose, while the other 17 individuals were to consume beverages sweetened with fructose, these beverages omprising 25% of their daily calorie intake.

10 weeks later, participants in both groups show distinct differences. And the differences were as follow:

• The belly fat in participants who consumed fructose-sweetened beverages increased.
• Only participants who consumed fructose-sweetened beverages appear to be less sentive toward insulin hormone, and they also developed a higher level of LDL cholesterol, namely bad cholesterol.

Hence, the conclusion is fairly clear that by consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages would certainly increases visceral adiposity and lipids, and also decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans.

For further specific and scientific information, you might find useful information by studying this abstract.

Heatwave

The temperature in Malaysia has been unpredictable recently. By the time you thought that the scorching sun is appearing in the midst of the gloomy cloud, heavy downpour will be observed next within minutes; when you thought that the rain drops are going to fall, the unbearable heat transmitted from the magnificent sun seems to overpower every individual who dwells under it. But one thing for sure, is that we cannot deny that the bad consequences of global warming are on the rise.

Outside Malaysia, experts are forecasting a further increment of temperature in many other countries. Diabetes UK recently discovered that this inclination is a bad omen especially for individuals with diabetes.

According to Cathy Moulton , a care advisor from Diabetes UK, heatwave generated from the sun would raise the blood glucose level in human body, especially when you are idle for a long period under the huge fireball.

Hence, particularly for diabetes sufferers, it is important for you to do these things when you are exposed to the sun out there:

• Apply sun screen to your exposed area 15 to 30 minutes before you are ready to go out to the field.
• If you are suffering from neuropathy, you are advised to apply sun screen and wear flip-flops as you might not beware that you feet are burning on the hot ground.
• Next up, this could be quite difficult for Malaysians to do, which is, wearing long sleeves, loose trousers, a pair of sun glasses with UV 400 labelled on it, and wear an additional hat to protect your exposed area.
• ... and don't forget to consume GT&F Products for keepig you healthy always!

OPP - Nutrition Care For High Uric Acid

Many people know very well about how GT&F Products function as glucose regulators in human body, but how many people really investigate and understand how it works for other common diseases, such as individuals with high uric acid content in their bodies?

There was a golden chance for all the audiences who attended the OPP last night to understand further about the functions of our very own products.

The important message was delivered by Ms. Lim Li Yi, who had just graduated in the medicine field, and in case you do not know about it, Ms. Lim is the daughter of our dear managing director, Mr. Lim Hua San.

Ms. Lim had taught the audiences about the possible consequences which could potentially cause fatal effects to the high uric acid sufferers, including the formation of kidney stones, gout and many more.

As a doctor herself, she pointed out some useful information about what types of medicines which doctors normally advised their patients to take, namely allopurinol, oxypurinol and probenecid; where the previous two have the abilities to inhibit uric acid formation in the body, while the third one plays its role in the stimulation of uric acid excretion. But as we all know, these medicines are just for temporary purposes, in other words, in the end of the day, it does not eradicate the root of the problem.

But fortunately, GT&F Products which are invented by Prof. Frank Mao seem to have the best contents in eliminating problems caused by high uric acid.

Next up, Mr. Wong took on the stage with a motivation course which literally means "Expanding GTF Business with Your Mind". That catchy phrase certainly caught the attention of the audiences.

Mr. Wong revealed that a course which he joined changed his perspective on many things, he learned that the shift of paradigms and mindsets are the key to anything which is achievable in this world.

Throughout his speech, Mr. Wong emphasized on the importance of a peace of mind. With a tranquilizing mind and soul, nothing will be impossible. In addition, he selflessly shared a few tips which he learned from the expensive course he participated.

Mind-shifting lessons are essential, but apart from that, according to Mr. Wong, appreciation is also a significant factor to success in life. A music video which is literally translated as "A Heart of Thanksgiving" in English, was shown on the white screen, that appeared to be a pleasant moment when the audiences stood up, sang the song along, hand in hand.

Audiences appeared to be very attentive to the wonderfully written song with melodious rhythms. The song then marked the end of the OPP of the night.

Smoking Provokes Migraine Attacks

There are many testimonies which we witnessed currently as well as in the past, that GT&F Products could indeed effectively improve migraine attacks. But it is equally essential for us to understand a thing or two about this racking disease. Migraine attacks indeed are really tormenting experiences which you do not want to deal with in your entire life. Without proper handling of the problem, migraine could cause you to go mad virtually without paying attention to anything which revolves around you.

In the meantime, we understand that smoking could also causes fatal consequences to the smokers. Besides polluting the environment, it also pollutes your internal organs. Various hazardous afflictions such as stenosis, lung cancer, heart attacks, pulmonary diseases probably are coming underway, particularly in the body of heavy smokers.

Now, there is a link between smoking with a relatively less deadly, but clearly comparatively torturing disease, namely migraine. A recent study which has been published in the Journal of Headaches and Pain early this year, has been suggesting that smoking more than 5 cigarettes a day triggers this type of headache.

Previously, before conducting this study, there were limited sources which postulated that somehow, smoking could improve migraine attacks by lessen the anxiety in the smokers. This postulation clearly is contradictory with the recent study.

Referring back to the latest study, a total of 361 students were filled in the questionnaire. These medical students were fully aware what a migraine was. Experts with sufficient knowledge on how to distinguish the absence or presence of migraine (as well as its characteristics), and whether or not the individuals are smokers or not, were appointed to guarantee the results obtained throughout the process of this study.

The results show that 16% of students fulfilled migraine criteria, while 20% smoked. The percentage of smokers was higher (29%) in those who were also migraine sufferers and migraine frequency in those students who were migraine sufferers and smokers was clearly higher than in those who were non-smokers and migraine sufferers.

Apart from that, the researchers also stressed on the importance of the number of dosage, and the critical number seems to be "5". In other words, the individuals who participate in this study somehow controlled their cigarette dosage a day to less than 5, because 5 cigarettes per day seems to be the limiting factor which could trigger migraine attacks.

Furthermore, migraine has now been postulated that this kind of attacks might come with heredity factors, as migraine sufferers are born with ion channels in te membrane of the neuron which seems to be more excitable and permeable.

Watch Out on Your Weight

Frequent consumption of foods as shown in the figure above, could lead to obesity. As we all know, obesity does associated with a string of complicated diseases, particularly heart diseases, type II diabetes and breathing difficulties while sleeping.

In a recent study, an article which is published in the Journal of the America Medical Association on 24th June 2009, links between obesity and pancreatic cancer very closely. The study suggests that the risk of pancreatic cancer occurrence seems to be higher in those who are obese.

Particularly in the United States, the number of obese individuals have been increasing by leaps and bounds nowadays. Evidences accumulated in the last 2 decades appear to be inclined to a fact that having excess body weight influenced an individual's lifespan greatly, as well as increasing the risk of pancreatic cancer occurrence.

Dong Li Hui, PhD form University of Texas, together with a number of colleagues, found in their study that individuals who were overweight (a BMI of 25-29.9) from the ages of 14 to 39 years or obese (a BMI of 30 or greater) from the ages of 20 to 49 years had an associated increased risk of pancreatic cancer, independent of diabetes status. The result is based on 841 patients with pancreatic cancer and 754 healthy individuals matched by age, race and gender.

Apart from that, the study also reveal that individuals who are overweight or obese from the ages of 20 to 49 years had an earlier onset of pancreatic cancer by 2 to 6 years.

The abstract can be found here.

Learn More About H1N1

The spread of H1N1 virus has caused some sort of turmoil worldwide. As for cases which occurred locally, as at 2.20pm, on 24th June 2009; the number of H1N1 cases had been mounted up to 80. Where 69 of it were transmitted from foreign countries while 11 cases were claimed to be locally transmitted.

We must always beware and make sure we are cautious about the transmitting factors.

The United Nation (UN), which is well-known as an international organization, had published a booklet about H1N1 virus in an interactive and easily understandable way. You might still be confused about the deadly virus. This booklet expressed very clearly about the differences between flu and cold, the symptoms, factors and many more.

Feel free to click on this link to download the booklet.

Milk Does Reduce Weight

Many people would have been scratching their heads while seeing the topic of this article. By drinking milk, our weights can be reduced? That sounds quite absurd since common sense always tell us that as long as we are consuming dairy products, weight-gaining is simply inevitable. True enough, but when you shift your paradigm and look into this matter in a different perspective, you will definitely see the difference.

Frequently, people who gained unwanted weight after drinking milk are usually those who drink whole milk, a type of milk the fat content in it appears to be very high. In the meantime, milk which has low fat content, that is, ranging from less than 0.5% to 2% (the fat content in GT&F Milk Powder is 2%) is considered as low fat milk or skimmed (semi-skimmed) milk. But they still do contain fat, how do they reduce weight?

Researchers in Australia found that by drinking low fat milk in the morning helped increase satiety, in other words, it caused a feeling of fullness. This phenomenon directly renders the person to consume lesser for lunch.

In the study, 34 overweight but otherwise healthy men and women participated in two testing sessions. One in which they were served about 20 ounce of virtually fat-free milk in the morning, while in the other session, they were served with fruit drinks, where the milk and fruit drinks served in both sessions respectively contain 250 kcal (an amount where it is considered as equivalent with a breakfast meal).

After an interval of 4 hours, those who were served with milk consume about 9% less in lunch. The researchers suspect that the lactose (natural sugar in milk) or simply the thickness of the milk may play an important role in the satiety benefits.

GT&F Milk Powder proves to be effective in weight management. Since the essential substances in the product stimulate body metabolism, it directly eliminates the unwanted or excess fats which eventually resulting in reducing your body weight. The content itself already has such marvelous benefits, imagine how the effectiveness would be enhanced if you develop a habit as mentioned in the article?

Therefore, for those who really determined to lose more weight, this could be a good way to start off your very own weight-loss program. No pills-swallowing, no meals-skipping, all you need to do is just remember to drink a glass of GT&F Milk each day in the morning before activating your biological engine to start off the day!