Source: “Sweetening of the Global Diet, Particularly Beverages: Patterns, Trends, and Policy Responses” by Barry M. Popkin and Corinna Hawkes​

Dr. Popkin warns us that fruit juice concentrates is a common way to slip sugar into foods. Before the concentrate is added to foods, the fruit is stripped of most of its nutrients as well as its fiber. The fiber is what curtails the glucose spiking. Sugar is what’s left. Juice concentrate is pure sugar. (One of my first nutrition mentors, Bernard Jensen—whose advice I credit with saving my mother’s life from terminal cancer—always warned us away from fruit juices: too much concentrated sugar, he explained over 40 years ago.)

No Sugars ‘Juice Concentrates’
(that really just means ’Added Sugar’)

Source: “Sweetening of the Global Diet, Particularly Beverages: Patterns, Trends, and Policy Responses” by Barry M. Popkin and Corinna Hawkes

I am going to address Agave (it’s the first and second product on the list of No-Sugars Sugar). I am talking about Agave specifically because so many health food advocates feel that it is a natural, and beneficial (or, at least not harmful) product. It is widely accepted that Agave has a low Glycemic Index (GI). Indeed, when compared to regular sugar, this is true. But the GI is not all that matters in assessing health benefits, or health challenges.

The Agave plant grows natively in the southern U.S. and South America. Like many foods, if it were used in its natural state, it would be fine, though all sugars—natural or not—need to be consumed with caution. The most common use of Agave is to ferment it to make tequila.

If we were still consuming a product that was made the original way tequila is made, it would be less of a health issue for us. But, the syrupy viscous liquid we call Agave today has little in common with the traditional sweetener made by the Mexicans. The beginning process of both the Mexican product and the popularly consumed Agave is the same: the plant is cut; fluid is extracted and pressed. This fluid is high in sugar, but it also contains fructans, which actually do have health benefits on both metabolism and insulin production. However, when the manufacturing proceeds to processing the fluid into a syrup, as is what happens when making the commercial Agave sold today, the fructans are further broken down into fructose.

Fructose and glucose are both sugars; but they are vastly different. We need glucose, and we produce it in our bodies. Every cell is able to metabolize glucose. Glucose is found in all living tissue, even animal and plant cells. As well as producing it internally, we also get it from various natural foods. Life does not and cannot exist without glucose.

Fructose, on the other hand, can be metabolized in the human body only by the liver. Agave has an astonishing high amount of fructose. Various estimates place it at between 66% and 85%. Wherever the number falls within that range, it is way too high for our livers. When we eat foods that contain these high levels of fructose, we overwhelm our liver, and in a desperate attempt to make a biological correction (in the innate brilliance of the human body, with its massive amount of checks and balances—better than that of the US government in most cases), the liver then converts the fructose to fat.

As the fructose gets metabolized, uric acid and free radicals form. These can trigger inflammation and damage cells. One of the most dangerous final products of fructose metabolism is triglycerides, which can contribute to the fatty arterial plaques responsible for cardiovascular disease. High triglycerides are particularly dangerous for women, whose risk for cardiovascular disease with this imbalance becomes significantly greater.

Take a look at your belly for a quick (and cheap, it’s free) diagnostic test. If it protrudes, the likely cause is that:
1) You are eating too much sugar in the form of fructose,
2) Your liver is converting the fructose to fat, and storing it for a rainy day.
Sorry for being the deliverer of bad news, but it will never rain that much to wash away your internal fat.

Parenthetically, after long touting Agave as a natural and healthy sweetener, TV icon Dr. Oz has reversed his position:

"Over the past few months, I’ve become increasingly concerned about a sweetener that I’ve recommended on my show in the past. After careful consideration of the available research, today I’m asking you to eliminate agave from your kitchen and your diet. Here’s why.

We used to think that because agave has a low-glycemic index and doesn’t spike your blood sugar like regular sugar does, it would be a good alternative for diabetics. But it turns out that although agave doesn’t contain a lot of glucose, it contains more fructose than any other common sweetener, including high-fructose corn syrup. Initially, we thought moderate amounts of fructose weren’t unhealthy, but now we know better.

When you eat fructose-rich agave, your body does not release nearly as much insulin as it does when you eat regular sugar. This can affect how your body releases a hormone called leptin, which helps to control appetite. At the same time, experts believe that fructose is converted into fat more rapidly than glucose is. This can lead to several alarming consequences. The first is that people who eat a lot of agave are at risk for weight gain, especially belly fat. The second is that agave may actually increase insulin resistance for both diabetics and non-diabetics.

In addition, fructose poses a danger to your cardiovascular system and could increase your risk for metabolic syndrome and heart disease. Unlike glucose, fructose can only be broken down in the liver. As it gets metabolized, uric acid and free radicals form, which can trigger inflammation and damage cells. Plus, one of the most dangerous final products of fructose metabolism is triglycerides, which can contribute to the fatty arterial plaques responsible for cardiovascular disease. High triglycerides are particularly dangerous for women, whose risk for cardiovascular disease rises three times as much for every single unit increase in triglycerides compared to men."
                                                               The Oz Blog
                                                                02/27/2014

The good news is that last year the FDA passed new labeling laws. The new label law will be implemented in 2018. The law requires “added sugars” to be listed, just under the line for “total sugars.” This change allows consumers to understand the difference between naturally occurring sugars (as in milk sugars in your yogurt, or fruit sugars in your pineapple fruit salad, for instance) and the sugars that are added specifically for flavor, but are not necessarily health-inducing.

Fashion Maniac recently interviewed Jane about her eighth, and latest, book, My Mother, My Daughter, My Self.  

The article is reprinted in full below:

Jane G. Goldberg, Ph.D. releases her eighth book:

My Mother, My Daughter, My Self

Owner of La Casa Spa and Holistic Wellness Center releases her 8th Book – www.lacasaspa.com

“Dr. Goldberg has written a memoir that has answers that resonate and make you think twice about your own family connections. It is a stunning work of achievement, filled with both profundity and humor.”

Jane G. Goldberg, PhD. has been a shining light on the most exciting and inspiring mind/body services for the hyper-discerning health seekers. Her eighth book, My Mother, My Daughter, My Self (Free Association Books), is the culmination of Dr. Goldberg’s life-long search to discover and unravel the complexities of what it means to have a mother, and what it means to be a mother. From psychoanalytic clinician to an innovative founder of three holistic health centers in Manhattan and Puerto Rico, including Manhattan’s first mind/body facility, La Casa Spa & Wellness Center, Goldberg remains one of the most insightful/innovative thinkers around. She delivers psychological truths that are thoughtful and profound as well as useful and practical. In using her own search for self-discovery, Goldberg pays close attention to her two most important personal relationships—with her mother and daughter; and, too, she presents richly told narratives of her patients. The book is a beautifully rendered account—lyrical, revelatory, poignant, even poignantly searing at times, celebratory and vulnerable.

The book asks a core question for all mothers and adult children: How is the SELF created? How do we perform the perplexing, sometimes terrifying act of separation between mother and child while simultaneously marching toward the unknown terrain of individuality? In this, Goldberg explores what we all know to be true: our relationships with our mothers affect our other significant love relationships, our values, our self-esteem, and our essential sense of satisfaction, often throughout the whole of our lives. If we ourselves become parents, this absorption of our mothers’ legacy in our lives is reawakened and passed on, as if by blood, to our own children.

Throughout the book is the thread of Goldberg’s interest in holistic health. She tells the story of the remarkable healing of her mother from terminal cancer, as she moved from a wheelchair to playing tennis again. It is here, in this part of Goldberg’s story, that her interest is first piqued in mind/body health, and the convergence of the two, an interest that became her specialty in her psychoanalytic practice.

Dr. Goldberg says, “I came to understand that home is where the mother, is. I understood that notion first as a daughter, and then as a mother. I always returned home to New Orleans, even after I had fled to New York to get away from Mom’s worried hovering over me after my rape. When I became a mother, I saw that my toddler daughter was constantly positioning herself—either to be close to me or to be away from me. I saw that her very sense of self was being created, as she experimented with moving away and coming back ‘home’ to me. I searched all kinds of literature to find someone smart talking about this phenomenon—and all I could find was psychoanalytic literature, steeped in academic jargon.

“I decided to write a story that was instructive, illustrative, and most importantly, easily accessible to all, no matter their educational background. I wrote about my experiences, thoughts, and feelings as a self-exploration, following in the tradition of Freud, who through his Interpretation of Dreams, conducted a self-analysis.”

Goldberg has written a book that is revelatory as well as instructive and will find a ready audience not only in parents and adult children, but also in teachers, educators, and all students of the psyche as well as those interested in the intersection of the mind/body and health.

For a complete archive of all previous issues of Musings From 20th Street, simply click HERE!

Tune into Talk

with Sara Mare. . .
Thurs, March 23rd, 2017 at 4 PM Pacific

Sara Mare talks with Psychoanalyst and memoirist Dr. Jane G. Goldberg about her recently published book, "My Mother, My Daughter, My Self." Listen as Sara Mare explores how Dr. Golberg approached writing so candidly about her personal life through the lens of her professional, psychoanalytic perspective, to create this compelling, thought provoking, and educational memoir. Guided meditation by Ms. Mare during final segment of episode designed to put the psyche in touch with its many faces: parent, child, self.

Questions? Comments? Call In Live!
Toll Free: 1-866-472-5795

After reading about Jane's rape and subsequent abortion in My Mother, My Daughter, My Self, Conde Nast's The Scene contacted her for an interview.

She was proud to share her experience alongside these other brave women. Jane's story is only one of so many/too many of those days when abortion was illegal, and women lost their lives and their fertility.  

To watch the video (which has already been watched more than 5 million times on Facebook), click

HERE.

Thank You For The 

Great Review,

FashionReverie.com

La Casa was recently included in a list compiled by Fashion Reverie, of their "New York Fashion Week Editors’ Essentials". 

Here's what the website had to say about us:

New York Fashion Week can be really stressful and even though most of the shows are spread out all over Manhattan, fashion industry professionals will have some downtime. Why not spend those breaks at a great rejuvenation spa?

La Casa Spa and Wellness Center, founded in 1993, enjoys the status of being the oldest spa in the city. La Casa represents the vision of its Founder and Director, Dr. Jane G. Goldberg.

La Casa Spa was born out of Jane’s understanding of a paramount need for a healing center in NYC in which holistic therapies would be offered. Jane has authored several highly acclaimed books on both psychological and physical health.

"Our treatments and products begin with the idea that the skin is the door to inner health. Your skin is the largest organ in your body and serves as a link to all the other organs. Our approach is, then, to renew the body through the skin. We use various methods of tactile stimulation through ancient as well as modern massage techniques. We use methods of detoxification to cleanse and refine the skin; we then nourish the skin through careful application of our nutrient-rich formulas, selected especially to meet the unique needs of your skin."

La Casa Spa & Wellness Center offers colonics, floatation, cleansing and body massages, body wraps, facials, oxygen therapies and pedi-detox. The services are very affordable and they work. Fashion Reverie tried it out!

To see the full article,

click HERE

More Info on the 

Lumina Nocturna
 

We’ve had an outstanding response to our last Musings reporting on the healthful effects of the Lumina Nocturna.

We've had a number of new visitors to La Casa eager to try it out, but one of our regulars came in just one day after breaking her wrist while ice-skating. 

She found the first session with the Lumina Nocturna greatly effective in reducing her pain. She told us the second treatment worked even better. And then, just last week, we got an exciting email:
 

"Hi Jane!
Went to Orthopedic surgeon today and they took new X-rays. Good news is they can't believe how fast it's healing!!! They said that whatever I am doing is quite impressive and I should keep doing it.

90% of people with this kind of fracture need surgery and they think I can just have a splint. Bad news is I don't get the removable splint until next Wednesday because they are afraid to move anything because it's going so well.

                          -Katherine"

If you're interested in finding out more about this amazing device, please take a look at a video in which Veronica MacKay, MS, HHP, talks about the health assets of the Hemo-Sonic Lymph & Tissue Light, which was the first generation Lumina Nocturna. 

You can see the video by clicking HERE.

Are Mammograms Bad For You?

Five years ago, I wrote about some alarming statistics regarding mammography. Notably, at that time, women in their 40s were being advised to avoid mammograms altogether.

In that edition of Musings - titled Cancer Stats, Cancer Screening, Cancer Chemo - I noted that:

"...while mammograms find cancer in 138,000 women each year, as many as 120,000 to 134,000 of those women either have cancers that are already lethal (and thus the detection has come too late for effective allopathic treatment).

Last month, Mercola weighed in on the subject with an article about the efficacy and dangers of mammograms, prompted by "a 17-year-long study" that "again concluded that mammograms have no impact on advanced breast cancer incidence."

The article also concludes that:
"...one-fifth to one-third of all breast cancer tumors detected by mammograms were overdiagnosed, leading to biopsies, surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy — all of which can cause serious harm."

To read the full article,

click HERE

More on the Safety of Cancer Screenings...

Also relating to my Cancer Stats, Cancer Screening, Cancer Chemo article, is one published last month by Sayer Ji for Green Med Info. 

Titled Cancer Screening Has Never Saved Lives - BMJ Study Concludes, this fascinating piece uses a study published by the British Medical Journal that concludes that "in some cases overall mortality actually increased because of screening."

Do You Want to

Make It To 120?

More and more seniors are setting their sights on living comfortably into three digits. Are you one of them? 

Send your views on healthy aging and longevity to: [email protected] for a chance to be featured on our website, Make It To 120.

In case you haven't heard of it,

Galentine's Day (Feb 13th) is a phenomenon. Competing this year, in importance and glorious celebratory activities with its ancestral grandmother, Valentine's Day.

Celebrating Galentine’s Day
(because it’s even more fun, precisely because it

de-emphasizes the “V’ part of your anatomy)

I know some lucky women who say that their boyfriend/ husband is their best friend. It may be true that these blessed women are really close to their partner. It may also be true that they count on him, depend on him, love being with him, and enjoy all kinds of other things that they have together, do together, feel together. But, it is unlikely that their boyfriend/husband really is their best friend.

Romance can be exquisitely blissful. But it can also be dreadfully painful. Boyfriends, fiancés, even husbands—they can (and often do) come and go. They may float away peacefully like a hot air balloon, or they may explode like the second coming of Fukushima. Even for the ones that endure—it is rare that romances don’t go through various and myriad upheavals during the course of a life of long-lasting love. (Anyway, your “V” part sometimes just needs a rest. And I mean not just that you don’t want to use it; I mean that you don’t want to even think about it—which is hard to do whenever there’s a man around—even the man you call your best friend).

But girlfriends are a different matter altogether. They are a steady state, which, by the way, is defined as “an unvarying condition in a physical process, especially as in the theory that the universe is eternal and maintained by constant creation of matter.” Get the point? They don’t disappear. They go on forever. My BFF has been with me through multiple boyfriends, a fiancé, and a husband (now ex). Most of the married women I know still have the same close girlfriends they had before their marriage.

You can’t fight the power of gal-pal. It’s in our DNA. We ladies are natural-born connectors. From day one, girl babies will search out the faces and eyes of a human; boy babies are perfectly happy steeling their gaze on a mobile (according to research by Simon Baron-Cohen at Cambridge University—he happens to be Sasha’s uncle). We women think, hope and pray that our guys will evolve into preferring sensual, suggestive eye contact over their mechanical toys, and some really do make the grade (for sexy moments in time). But the truth is, it’s not as natural as it is for girls. So it’s always an up-hill battle for the guys. They’d be well-served to wear a string around their finger as a gentle reminder.

What’s the best connecting we woman like to do with each other? Dissing our men! We laugh, cry, squeal in gleeful delight and writhe in throbbing pain as we complain to each other—plotting all manner of revenge: fantasies of pouring soup over his head the next time he forgets to take out the trash; or worse, imagining calling his ex to beseech her to take him back.

The other reason why celebrating G-Day is more fun than V-Day is because it is social, not dyad-al. We share with gorillas, dolphins, orcas, and wolves that we like to hang out with our own kind. All social animals like their own species, and women intuitively understand that the species of human females is different than the species of human males. In the wild, social animals get to the point where they have a recognizable and distinct society. Surely that sounds like what we girls do when we get together for gal-pal night, or for closet-cleaning day: we are a culture unto ourselves.

Girls, ladies, women: untie: it’s time to celebrate the joy of gal-pals.

Some thoughts on Galentine's Day by Jane's daughter, Molly:

Ah, Galentine’s Day. A big thank you to Leslie Knope for finally creating a day to celebrate the wonderful girlfriends you have. Who’s there for you when you go through a rough break up? Who’s there for you when your period cramps are insatiable? Who’s there for you when you want to watch a rom-com and paint your nails? Your girlfriends are. Truth be told, they stick around for all the feelings, all the pains, and all the good times as well. Your girlfriends deserve a day to be appreciated for putting up with your sh*t! Kidding. Hopefully, if they really love you, they enjoy being there for you through all the good and bad times... Unless you’re flying off the handle bars on a regular basis—in which case, we'll have to write another article to help you with that issue!

Galentine’s Day can be celebrated in many different ways. Some suggestions I have, as a 23-year-old gal in New York would be a girl’s night on the town, paintin’ it red! Which actually brings me to my next suggestion, going to a Paint n’ Sip. Or perhaps instead of doing a typical Wednesday night activity, you could try something new together. Go on a bike ride, followed by wine and chocolate, or try out rock climbing... also followed by wine and chocolate! (I mean, let’s stay truthful, it’s not girl time without wine and chocolate).

I know, Valentine’s Day is what we all hope to celebrate with that special someone, but if you are not in a relationship at the moment, use this time to celebrate what you do have. Be thankful that even though you might not be getting steamy cuddles, you have your girls who support you through all the dry spells and nasty relationships.

A year ago I lost the person who I thought was the love of my life. I was absolutely crushed. I felt so alone. I came home and my roommate was in school. However, she left me little notes around the house saying “I’m your number one fan”, “I love you”, and more adorable things like that. THAT is dedication and love, if I do say so myself. That girl deserves an award of some kind. She helped me through the toughest time in my life. SHE will be celebrated on Galentine’s Day. I do have another boyfriend now, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room in my life to celebrate my appreciation and love for that girl. Plus, why not? Now you have TWO holidays where it’s perfectly acceptable, even encouraged, to down a bottle of wine, eat your weight in chocolate and be near the people/person you care the most about. Seems like a win, win, win to me!

To see more about La Casa's Galentine's and Valentine's Day Specials, click HERE.

Jane's latest book is out now through Free Association Books, and available through AMAZON!

"Do yourself a favor and get this book. It will touch you, it will reach you, it will teach you. If I had my way, this would be required reading for all parents and adult children."

       -A.J. (Amazon Reviewer)

For a complete archive of all previous issues of Musings From 20th Street, simply click HERE!

I was interviewed by Betty.com for an article about how kids can cope when their parents get new partners.

In a special twist, my daughter Molly - currently in grad school studying to become a psychoanalyst - also contributed to the piece with some advice for her peers!

You can see the full article
HERE.

The origins of Valentine's Day date all the way back to the ancient Romans. According to a fascinating 2011 NPR article, the original day of romance included dog and goat sacrifice and the hitting of women with animal skins - a ritual meant to aid fertility!

Galentine's Day has become a worldwide phenomenon ever since a 2010 episode of Parks and Recreation featured fastidious feminist (and enthusiastic government worker), Leslie Knope, taking her favorite gal-pals out for lunch in a special celebration of bonding and womanhood. Today, Galentine's Day is a celebration of love between friends and, in the words of Leslie Knope herself, "It's only the best day of the year!”

To keep up with all the latest news about my books and writing projects, please “Like” my new page on Facebook,
HERE.