Tag Archives: Lifestyle

Post #58 – One Stop Shop to Find Information About Optimal Nutrition

14 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by in Living to 120, Nutrition, Optimal Health, Optimal Nutrition, Reversing Chronic Diseases, Supplements, Uncategorized, wellness

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It has been a few months since I last wrote a blog post. It seemed like I ran out of material to write about.

As you know, the purpose of these posts is to share only information 1) that is based on research and is not a merely hearsay, 2) that I have personal experience with, and 3) that I feel contribute towards a goal of living the longest with optimal health.

For a while I had plenty of such information that fit the scope of this blog. And, then I hit the wall.

About a year and a half ago, I found a source that has troves of nutritional information for optimal health. This information is available in videos and text form – all for FREE.

Using this information, I have been further optimizing my own lifestyle. And, it has already showing further improvements in my bio-markers.

The source is:  www.NutritionFacts.org  

This site is a labor of love for Michael Greger M.D. FACLM.  He seems to be on a personal crusade to share this knowledge and information. He and his staff of volunteers comb through over 20,000 research papers on nutritional studies published every year. They summarize this information in few minutes long byte-sized chunks and even as annual summaries, which last about an hour.

You can even subscribe to their site and you will receive a tip every day in your email.  I actually look forward to these emails. That way I can learn over time and don’t take in more than I can digest.

I got introduced to Dr. Greger’s work by reading his book: How Not to Die.

Gregor book

Some startling things I learned from this site:

  1. How you can reverse your diabetes by changing what you eat.
  2. How you can shrink you prostrates by adding certain fruits to your diet.
  3. How you can reduce blood pressure with certain plant based foods.

And, for every claim, he gives his rationale based on specific research studies and papers that you can further read up yourself, if you wish.

MY LIFE STYLE CHANGES

Here are some things I have already incorporated in my lifestyle, as a result of the research information I learned from Dr. Greger:

  1. I am now working on replacing, whenever possible, to get as many micro-nutrients as possible using whole foods rather than supplements.
  2. I started adding one tablespoon of freshly ground Flax Seeds and a quarter teaspoon of Turmeric in my shakes every morning. As you will see from the research, flax seeds and turmeric are effective for a whole bunch of issues, e.g., blood pressure, diabetes, inflammation.
  3. I started adding one table spoon of Apple Cider Vinegar in my salads at lunch to lower my blood sugar resulting from food at lunch, which tends to be my heaviest meal.
  4. I have been eating 2 to 4 pieces of Brazil Nuts as snack every night to further lower my LDL Cholesterol.
  5. I am now more conscious of making sure that I add Cruciferous Vegetables in my salads to boost my anti-oxidants.
  6. I have started sprinkling pomegranates seeds on my oat meal for my prostrate health.

RESULTS SO FAR

I have been quite pleased with the results of these changes so far. Here are a few:

  1. My most recent blood-work on 7/7/2017 shows, an Hemoglobin A1C of 5.4%! It was 5.5% three months ago.  My A1C was stuck at or above 5.8% for the last three years, ever since I have been measuring it.  Ever since then, I have been working on getting it out of the pre-diabetes range, considered to be over 5.6%.
  2. All my inflammation markers, CRP, Homocysteine, WBC are all trending down.
  3. LDL and Triglycerides are 86 and 57 in the latest blood-work – without any meds. These are on the low end of where they ever been.
  4. My blood pressure measured on my last doctor’s visit was 108/70! As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have working on reducing my BP.

Bottom Line:

I highly recommend that you checkout www.NutrtionFacts.org.  An evidence-based nutrition advice that is labor of love of Dr. Michael Greger. You can search for a specific topic, browse the site in general for useful information and/or subscribe to the daily email.

This site has become a go-to site for me for all things nutritional for Optimal Health. I have found the information is research-based, concise, well-presented and at-times with profound implications.

Most of the time, information is very actionable.

 

What are your thoughts on this subject?

Would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input.

 

 

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Post #48 – Is cancer preventable through optimal healthy living?

10 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by in Causes of Death, Ideal Body Weight, Living to 120, Nutrition, Optimal Exercise, Optimal Health, Optimal Nutrition, Supplements, Uncategorized, Vitality, wellness

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My wife Kimberly was telling me the other day that 2015 has been quite a remarkable year in that we had several cancer episodes among our friends and families.  Even a couple of them died.

So, that got me thinking… is cancer preventable through optimal healthy living?

What is cancer anyways?

According National Institute of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI) website www.cancer.gov, cancer is the name given to a collection of related diseases. In all types of cancer, some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues.

Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Normally, human cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place.

When cancer develops, however, this orderly process breaks down. As cells become more and more abnormal, old or damaged cells survive when they should die, and new cells form when they are not needed. These extra cells can divide without stopping and may form growths called tumors.

Many cancers form solid tumors, which are masses of tissue. Cancers of the blood, such as leukemias, generally do not form solid tumors.

Cancerous tumors are malignant, which means they can spread into, or invade, nearby tissues. In addition, as these tumors grow, some cancer cells can break off and travel to distant places in the body through the blood or the lymph system and form new tumors far from the original tumor.

A cancer that has spread from the place where it first started to another place in the body is called metastatic cancer. Under a microscope, metastatic cancer cells generally look the same as cells of the original cancer.

How does cancer arise?

Cancer is a genetic disease—that is, it is caused by changes to genes that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide. Three main types of genes may be involved—proto-oncogenes or genes involved in normal cell growth, tumor suppressor genes, and DNA repair genes. These changes are sometimes called “drivers” of cancer.

Genetic changes that cause cancer can be inherited from our parents. They can also arise during a person’s lifetime as a result of errors that occur as cells divide or because of damage to DNA caused by certain environmental exposures. Cancer-causing environmental exposures include substances, such as the chemicals in tobacco smoke, and radiation, such as ultraviolet rays from the sun. (Our Cancer Causes and Risk Factors page has more information.)

Inherited genetic mutations play a major role in about 5 to 10 percent of all cancers. Researchers have associated mutations in specific genes with more than 50 hereditary cancer syndromes, which are disorders that may predispose individuals to developing certain cancers.

How to prevent cancer?

So, now finally getting to the topic we started with – how to prevent cancer. Here are the four major ways to help prevent cancer:

  1. Avoid or control things known to cause cancer.
  2. Changes in diet and lifestyle.
  3. Finding precancerous conditions early. Precancerous conditions are conditions that may become cancer.
  4. Chemoprevention (medicines to treat a precancerous condition or to keep cancer from starting).

Let us take these items one at a time.

  1. Avoid or control things known to cause cancer.

Factors that are known to increase the risk of cancer:

  • Cigarette Smoking and Tobacco Use
  • Infections: HPV, Hepatitis B and C, Espstein-Barr virus, Helcobater pylori
  • Radiation: Ultraviolet sunlight, medical radiation, radon gas in homes
  • Immunosuppressive Medicines
  1. Changes in diet and lifestyle

Factors that may affect the risk of cancer:

  • Diet
  • Alcohol
  • Physical Activity
  • Obesity
  • Environmental Risk Factors: second hand smoke, asbestos, air pollution, pesticides, arsenic in drinking ware

Diet is anything we put in our mouths on a regular basis.

Diet is always a controversial subject. Media loves to talk about any new tidbit that comes out through research regarding diet.

Some studies show that fruits and non-starchy vegetables may protect against cancers of the mouth, esophagus, and stomach. Fruits may also protect against lung cancer.

Some studies have shown that a diet high in fat, proteins, calories, and red meat increases the risk of colorectal cancer, but other studies have not shown this.

It is not known if a diet low in fat and high in fiber, fruits, and vegetables lowers the risk of colorectal cancer.

According to American Cancer Society website www.cancer.org, here are the dietary guidelines to prevent cancer:

  • Be as lean as possible throughout life without being underweight.
  • Avoid excess weight gain at all ages. For those who are overweight or obese, losing even a small amount of weight has health benefits and is a good place to start.
  • Choose foods and drinks in amounts that help you get to and maintain a healthy weight.
  • Limit how much processed meat and red meat you eat.
  • Eat at least 2½ cups of vegetables and fruits each day.
  • Choose whole grains instead of refined grain products.
  • Avoid alcohol or drink no more than 1 drink per day for women or 2 per day for men.

T. Colin Campbell, PhD distills his 30 years of research on cancer and diet in “The China Study”. He concludes that a vegan diet minimizes the risk of all types of cancers as well as many other types of health risks.

For Physical Activity, American Cancer Society recommendation is for cancer prevention:

  • Exercise:
    • Adults: Get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity each week (or a combination of these), preferably spread throughout the week.
    • Children and teens: Get at least 1 hour of moderate or vigorous intensity activity each day, with vigorous activity on at least 3 days each week.
  • Limit sedentary behavior such as sitting, lying down, watching TV, and other forms of screen-based entertainment.

Doing some physical activity above usual activities, no matter what one’s level of activity, can have many health benefits.

  1. Finding cancer or precancerous conditions early. Precancerous conditions are conditions that may become cancer.

Then there is the matter of “early detection and early cure.”

Cancer is a group of diseases that can cause almost any sign or symptom. The signs and symptoms will depend on where the cancer is, how big it is, and how much it affects the organs or tissues. If a cancer has spread (metastasized), signs or symptoms may appear in different parts of the body.

 Treatments work best when cancer is found early – while it’s still small and is less likely to have spread to other parts of the body. This often means a better chance for a cure, especially if the cancer can be removed with surgery.

A good example of the importance of finding cancer early is melanoma skin cancer. It can be easy to remove if it has not grown deep into the skin. The 5-year survival rate (percentage of people who live at least 5 years after diagnosis) at this early stage is around 98%. Once melanoma has spread to other parts of the body, the 5-year survival rate drops to about 16%.

Some symptoms, such as tiredness or coughing, are more likely caused by something other than cancer. Symptoms can seem unimportant, especially if there’s a clear cause or the problem only lasts a short time. In the same way, a person may reason that a symptom like a breast lump is probably a cyst that will go away by itself. But no symptom should be ignored or overlooked, especially if it has lasted a long time or is getting worse.

Most likely, symptoms are not caused by cancer, but it’s important to have them checked out, just in case. If cancer is not the cause, a doctor can help figure out what the cause is and treat it, if needed.

These days it is not that difficult to get one’s genome mapped and find out any cancer syndromes that might be present and actively take the necessary preventative actions.

The American Cancer Society recommends these cancer screening guidelines for early detection of cancer  for most adults. Screening tests are used to find cancer before a person has any symptoms.

  1. Chemoprevention (medicines to treat a precancerous condition or to keep cancer from starting).

Chemoprevention is the use of substances to lower the risk of cancer, or keep it from recurring. The substances may be natural or made in the laboratory. Some chemopreventive agents are tested in people who are at high risk for a certain type of cancer. The risk may be because of a precancerous condition, family history, or lifestyle factors.

Some chemoprevention studies have shown good results. For example, selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMS) such as tamoxifen or raloxifene have been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer in women at high risk. Finasteride and dutasteride have been shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

Bottomline

Cancer is a genetic disease that may be the result of either mutated inherited genes or the ones occur later due to health, lifestyle and environment issues.  Only about 5 to 10% of the risk of cancer is due to mutated inherited genes.

Yes, healthy lifestyle choices we have been discussing in other blog posts do lead to decreasing the chances of cancer.  To minimize the risk of cancer:

  1. Be of Lean weight
  2. Eat clean with lots of fruits and vegetables and only sparing amount of white meats
  3. Avoid the use of alcohol or tobacco
  4. Avoid second-hand smoke, pesticides and other environmental carcinogens
  5. Stay active and exercise
  6. Get regular checkups and screening tests
  7. In case of any signs or symptoms, get a quick check up to rule out any cancerous or precancerous condition.

 

Your thoughts on this subject?

Would love to hear, learn and share information.

If possible, please do leave comment in the blog itself, so others can share and learn.

Post #33 – What can you do to maintain optimal health of your brain? Or, How my sons got me playing video games?

18 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in Aging, Living to 120, Mental Health, Optimal Health, Vitality

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In most of my past blogs, I have talked about maintaining optimal physical health – staying physically fit, keeping all chronic diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, cardiovascular issues and such at bay. Also, I have talked about developing, building and maintaining lean mass, strength, balance and flexibility.

But, what about the brain? How to keep brain in top shape as we age, while keeping Alzheimer disease and dementia far away from ourselves? What is in our control that we can do?

After all, living to 120 (or to whatever your target is), without full cognitive faculties won’t be much fun.

Researching this topic, I found that National Institute of Health (NIH), National Institute of Aging, has a very good chapter “The Changing Brain in Healthy Aging” in their publication “Alzheimer’s Disease: Unraveling the Mystery”. The following is excerpt from that chapter.

As a person gets older, changes occur in all parts of the body, including the brain:

  • Certain parts of the brain shrink, especially, the prefrontal cortex (an area at the front of the frontal lobe) and the hippocampus. Both areas are important to learning, memory, planning, and other complex mental activities.
  • ­Changes in neurons and neurotransmitters affect communication between neurons. In certain brain regions, communication between neurons can be reduced because white matter (myelin covered axons) is degraded or lost.
  • ­Changes in the brain’s blood vessels occur. Blood flow can be reduced because arteries narrow and less growth of new capillaries occurs.
  • ­In some people, structures called plaques and tangles develop outside of and inside neurons, respectively, although in much smaller amounts than in Alzheimer Disease
  • ­Damage by free radicals increases – free radicals are a kind of molecule that reacts easily with other molecules­
  • Inflammation increases  – inflammation is the complex process that occurs when the body responds to an injury, disease, or abnormal situation.

What effects does aging have on mental function in healthy older people?

Some people may notice a modest decline in their ability to learn new things and retrieve information, such as remembering names. ­They may perform worse on complex tasks of attention, learning, and memory than would a younger person.

However, if given enough time to perform the task, the scores of healthy people in their 70s and 80s are often similar to those of young adults. In fact, as they age, adults often improve in other cognitive areas, such as vocabulary and other forms of verbal knowledge.

It also appears that additional brain regions can be activated in older adults during cognitive tasks, such as taking a memory test. Researchers do not fully understand why this happens, but one idea is that the brain engages mechanisms to compensate for difficulties that certain regions may be having.

For example, the brain may recruit alternate brain networks in order to perform a task. Th­ese findings have led many scientists to believe that major declines in mental abilities are not inevitable as people age. Growing evidence of the adaptive (what scientists call “plastic”) capabilities of the older brain provide hope that people may be able to do things to sustain good brain function as they age. A variety of interacting factors, such as lifestyle, overall health, environment, and genetics also may play a role.

Another question that scientists are asking is why some people remain cognitively healthy as they get older while others develop cognitive impairment or dementia. Th­e concept of “cognitive reserve” may provide some insights.

Cognitive reserve refers to the brain’s ability to operate effectively even when some function is disrupted. It also refers to the amount of damage that the brain can sustain before changes in cognition are evident. People vary in the cognitive reserve they have, and this variability may be because of differences in genetics, education, occupation, lifestyle, leisure activities, or other life experiences.

Th­ese factors could provide a certain amount of tolerance and ability to adapt to change and damage that occurs during aging. At some point, depending on a person’s cognitive reserve and unique mix of genetics, environment, and life experiences, the balance may tip in favor of a disease process that will ultimately lead to dementia.

For another person, with a different reserve and a different mix of genetics, environment, and life experiences, the balance may result in no apparent decline in cognitive function with age.

Scientists are increasingly interested in the influence of all these factors on brain health, and studies are revealing some clues about actions people can take that may help preserve healthy brain aging. Fortunately, these actions also benefit a person’s overall health. Th­ey include:

  1. ­Controlling risk factors for chronic disease, such as heart disease and diabetes (for example, keeping blood cholesterol and blood pressure at healthy levels and maintaining a healthy weight) ­
  2. Enjoying regular exercise and physical activity ­
  3. Eating a healthy diet that includes plenty of vegetables and fruits
  4. ­Engaging in intellectually stimulating activities, and
  5. Maintaining close social ties with family, friends, and community

So, actions 1, 2 and 3 suggested by NIH NIA are the same as for keeping physical body fit and in good order. That is a good news!

But there are also additional actions 4 and 5 one can take, that are good to keep brain fit and in good order.

Piano Lessons at 60:

To increase my intellectually stimulating activities, as I was turning 60, I decided to start taking piano lessons. I have been very left brain focused on my intellectual pursuits – STEM or Science Technology, Engineering and Math education. So, I figured, it is high time I did something to develop my underused right brain. And, there is a lot of evidence in research of the benefits of learning music on the brain.

For the last six months, I have been finding piano lessons very pleasurable and at the same time very intellectually and physically demanding. One half-hour lesson a week and daily practice of half hour to an hour, is what it takes for me learn and get comfortable with a piano piece my teacher introduces in the lesson. Initially it was just one piece from the “techniques book”, for the last few weeks, there is an additional piece from a popular “songs book”. All this piano playing got be doing something good for my brain, since week after week, it seems that I am learning with my brain and in my muscles new stuff.

How my sons got me playing video games:

Until now, I have completely resisted playing video games.

For Christmas, our twin sons, Daniel and Justin, gave us a present of family membership to Lumosity. Lumosity exploits research to-date in neuroplasticity. Research has found that certain types of activities may impact the brain more than others. It’s believed that as an activity is repeated, the brain tends to fall back on the same set of existing neural pathways. To continue changing, the brain must be exposed to novel, adaptive experiences that challenge it to work in new ways.

Drawing on this idea, Lumosity is designed to give each person a set of exercises that challenge their cognitive abilities.

Lumosity “games” are based on a combination of common neuropsychological and cognitive tasks, many of which have been used in research for decades, and new tasks designed by an in-house science team. Working with experienced game designers, Lumosity neuroscientists have transformed these tasks into over 40 challenging, adaptive games.

Lumosity’s game-based training program is designed to expose your brain to gradually increasing levels of challenges, adapting game difficulty to your individual ability level. As your scores increase, you may encounter new or more difficult games. Modeled from the concept of a physical personal trainer, Lumosity pushes you to operate at the limits of your abilities and stay challenged.

They also report measures of your performance, so you can see how you are improving in speed, memory, attention, flexibility and problem solving and how you compare with others in your age bracket. A metric called LPI is a consolidated metric of these five factors. Also, you can use a test called Baseline Test to see how the scores translate to other situations you don’t play in the games.

I have been playing these games for two weeks now. It is definitely fascinating, how various skills of speed, memory, attention, flexibility and problem solving improving. With this rate of progress, who knows, I may get good enough to play some video games against Justin and Daniel!

What are your thoughts on this subject of keeping brain fit and in optimal shape?

What strategies or techniques do you use to keep you brain fit?

Please leave a comment in the blog; I would love to hear from you.

Post #27 – Eating for Optimal Health Part VI – Incorporate sufficient protein in your diet

02 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by in Ideal Body Weight, Lean Mass, Living to 120, Nutrition, Optimal Health, Optimal Nutrition

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In blog post of 9/29/2014: So, what should you eat for optimal health?, I listed the seven basic principles I have extracted from the many diet books and resources I have studied. These principles are:

  1. What you eat, how much you eat and when you eat, all matter
  2. Eat clean
  3. Eat lots of vegetables and fruits
  4. Use only healthy fats and fat sources
  5. Incorporate sufficient proteins in your diet
  6. Best beverage to drink is pure water
  7. Add or subtract specific foods based on your personal needs

In the last posts, we discussed the first four of these principles. Today, let’s focus on the fifth principle: Incorporate sufficient protein in your diet. And, as usual without any fluff stuff, let’s get to it.

First, what are proteins and what is the big deal?

Proteins are the main building blocks of the body. They’re used to make muscles, tendons, organs and skin. Proteins are also used to make enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters and various tiny molecules that serve important functions.

Without protein, life as we know it would not be possible.

Proteins are made out of smaller molecules called amino acids, which are linked together like beads on a string. The linked amino acids form long protein chains, which are then folded into complex shapes.

Some of these amino acids can be produced by the body, while we must get others from the diet. The ones we cannot produce and must get from our foods are called the “indispensable” (sometimes also called “essential”) amino acids.

Protein from animal sources such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, and yogurt provide all nine indispensable amino acids, and for this reason are referred to as “complete proteins.”

Proteins from plants, legumes, grains, nuts, seeds, and vegetables tend to be deficient in one or more of the indispensable amino acids and are called “incomplete proteins.”

So, how much protein do we need?

There are different opinions on how much protein we actually need.

Most official nutrition organizations recommend a fairly modest protein intake. Food and Nutrition Board of Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in their Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) reference manual recommends 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, or 0.36 grams per pound. This amounts to:

  • 56 grams per day for the average sedentary man.
  • 46 grams per day for the average sedentary woman.

These are clearly amounts below which nutritional deficiency will result. Interestingly, DRI reference manual does not specify any upper limit at which protein might be harmful, although there is quite a bit of discussion about adverse effects of taking too much of a specific amino acid.

Most experts agrees that protein needs depends upon a number of factors that include activity level, age, muscle (or lean) mass and current state of health. 

But still, how much?

The range seems to be from 0.5 gram to 1.0 grams per pound of body weight. In case one is overweight, it is recommended to use lean mass weight to calculate the protein need.

Most optimal health experts, such as Joe Dillon (The Joe Dillon Difference), Dr. Life (Life Plan), Bill Phillips (Body for Life) whose focus is on building optimal muscle mass, recommend amounts on the higher end of the range. That is, 1.0 or 1.2 grams per pound of body weight per day.

What are the best sources of protein?

The factors often discussed in terms of quality of protein are efficiency of absorption, and how “complete” the protein is, i.e., does it contain all indispensable  amino acids. Another important factor I believe is whether eating enough protein will bust your carbs, fats or calories budget.

Eating lots of breads may give you sufficient proteins but it will probably bust the carbs and calories budgets.  Also, eating lots of rich or fatty meats for sufficient protein will most likely bust your fats budget.

Joe Dillon offers the following hierarchy for selecting optimal sources of lean, quality protein (from highest to lowest):

  • 100% Whey protein isolate powder
  • Egg whites
  • Wild Game (venison, buffalo, elk, moose, etc.)
  • Salmon, Ahi Tuna
  • Turkey (white meat, dark meat, no skin)
  • Fish (all kinds)
  • Chicken (white meat only, no skin)
  • Shellfish (oysters, mussels, clams, lobster, shrimp, crab)
  • Nonfat Dairy (nonfat milk, nonfat cheese, nonfat cottage cheese, nonfat plain yogurt)

But how much of these foods should I eat?

Here is a quick guide:

  • 3 ounces of lean meat or poultry contain about 25 g of protein,
  • 3 ounces of fish contain about 20 g of protein
  • 1 cup of soybeans supplies about 20 g of protein.
  • 1 cup of yogurt is approximately 8 g,
  • 1 cup of milk is 8 g
  • 1 egg or 1 ounce of cheese contains about 6 g
  • One cup of legumes has approximately 15 g of protein
  • Cereals, grains, nuts, and vegetables contain about 2 g of protein per serving.

Bottom Line:

Still confused? May be this will help. Looking for optimal nutrition, this is what I am doing:

  1. Since I am interested in continuing to build my lean mass reserves, I decided to budget protein in the upper end of the range, about 1 gram per pound of my body weight. I weigh 161 plus minus 2 pounds these days, so 160 grams of protein per day is my target.
  2. I am a vegetarian, I assume I get about 10 to 20 grams from vegetables, legumes and eggs and egg whites.
  3. I supplement the remaining using shakes of whey isolates or whey concentrates and isolates mixed. That makes for shakes 4 to 5 times a day: breakfast, lunch, while going home from work, post-exercise and sometime before going to bed. If I ate meat, I will do just one or two shakes a day.

What do you think of this approach?

Do you feel that this simplifies the confusion about proteins?

Do you see a hole in this approach? What would you do differently?

Post #26 – Eating for Optimal Health Part V – Eat Only Healthy Fats and Fat Sources

27 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by in Living to 120, Nutrition, Optimal Health, Optimal Nutrition, wellness

≈ 1 Comment

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In blog post of 9/29/2014: So, what should you eat for optimal health?, I listed the seven basic principles I have extracted from the many diet books and resources I have studied. These principles are:

  1. What you eat, how much you eat and when you eat, all matter
  2. Eat clean
  3. Eat lots of vegetables and fruits
  4. Use only healthy fats and fat sources
  5. Incorporate sufficient proteins in your diet
  6. Best beverage to drink is pure water
  7. Add or subtract specific foods based on your personal needs

In the last two posts, we discussed the first three of these principles. Today, let’s focus on the fourth principle: Eat only healthy fats and fat sources. And, as usual without any fluff stuff, let’s get to it.

How much and what types of fats one should for optimal health is definitely a very controversial topic. Let’s see if I can put this controversy in proper perspective and reach some workable conclusions in this post.

To make sure that we can intelligently talk about this topics without having to get a graduate degree in biochemistry, first some basic terminology. Lipids, triglycerides, fatty acids, essential fatty acids, fats, saturated fats, monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, trans fats, and oils are some common terms we need to understand to really talk about fats. Here are a layman’s definitions of these terms.

Lipids are group of molecules that are used by the body for storing energy, signaling, and acting as structural components of cell membranes. Lipids include waxes, triglycerides, and fat-soluble vitamins.

Triglycerides are lipids derived from glycerol and three fatty acids.

Fatty acids are made up of long chain of carbon hydrogen atoms and are important source of fuel for the body when metabolized. Based on the bond structures, fatty acids can be Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated, Trans or Saturated.

If Polyunsaturated, based on where the double bonds are located on the chain, fatty acids can be omega-3, omega-6, omega-7 or omenga-9.

Essential fatty acids are those fatty acids that body cannot make. These are of two types: alpha-linolenic acid (an Omega-3 fatty acid) and linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid)

Fats are a wide group of compounds whose basis is a fatty acid. Fats are called Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated, Trans fats, or Saturated fats based on the structure of their corresponding fatty acid.

Oils are fats that are liquids at normal room temperature.   As you can see below, most oils and fats contain all three types of fats: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated.

Oils and fat content

What most researchers seem to agree on?

  1. Trans Fats are bad – So, Crisco (or Dalda in India) is out. It is definitely bad for your health. Most people have already learned that and taken it out of their kitchens. But it is still quite prevalent for frying at home, baking pies and cookies and in processed food. In the US, since FDA has taken Trans Fats off of the Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) list, it is starting to disappear from processed and restaurant foods.
  2. Adding Essential Fats to your diet is good: While most people get sufficient Omega-6 in their diets they do not get enough Omega-3. So, adding alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is good. Good sources of Omega-3 are fish, flax seeds and oil, safflor oil and Hemp. USDA recommends that at least 10% of the fat budget be Omega-3 fats.
  3. Small amount of saturated fats in diet is good: Saturated fats are needed for cell walls, hormone balance, cellular signaling and increasing HDL (the so called good cholesterol).

What is controversial?

  1. What percent of calories should come from fats: There are researchers who have demonstrated that by reducing the fat intake to 10%, you can dramatically change the lipid profile in the body, cholesterol, triglycerides issues can be totally eliminated, while significantly improving the health of cardio-vascular system (For example, see Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldewell Esselystyn, Jr. MD., The Perfect 10 diet by Michael Aziz, MD). However, to get to these levels for fat intakes, it means adopting vegan or almost-vegan lifestyle and that of course leads to the controversy.
  2. Whether to totally eliminate saturated fats from the diet: It is well-known that too much saturated fat leads to poor cardio-vascular health. However, very small amount of saturated fats are needed and found beneficial for cellular health, hormone balance and cellular signaling and increasing HDL. Controversy therefore comes when people arguing all or nothing approach to saturated fats.
  3. Fats vs. Carbs: When government and media started touting benefits of low fat diets starting in 1960’s and 70’s, people in the US started to replace their high (saturated) fat diets with low-fat high-sugar diet. If you look at any package in the grocery store, if it says, low fat, it usually means high carbs or sugars, or vice versa. This led to obesity and other issues. So, all this means sugars are bad, which means fats must be good, right?
  4. Trans Fats vs. saturated fats: Unfortunately, this controversy was created on purpose. Proctor and Gamble deployed a sales strategy to displace lards as saturated fats by Crisco vegetable shortening. This plot thickens, since P&G was the original funding source for American Heart Association. With 100 years of marketing behind it, there is got to be sufficient confusion prevalent.

Bottom line: So, what is one to do? Here is what I have decided to do, in pursuit of optimal health, based on the best current information I have:

  1. Keep fat intake to less than 15% of daily calories. So, for a 2000 calorie diet, 300 calories or 33 grams from fat in a day.
  2. Take four grams of fish oil and 2 grams of flax seed oil every day. One capsule with each meal or snack.
  3. Limit saturated fats to under  5% of daily calories. Most sources of fats, as we saw in the table above contain some saturate fats, so I don’t really need to add saturated fats, even if we do all the cooking with olive oil. Occasional egg yoke or dab of butter is okay. Since I am a vegetarian,  limiting saturated fats to under 5%is not a big issue. But if I were eating meat, I will have to eat very lean cuts of meat to be able to stay within this constraint.
  4. No Trans Fats.
  5. Manage all macronutrients, fats, carbs and proteins to make sure they all are in the optimal range.

What do you think of this approach?

Do you feel that this simplifies the confusion about fats and good/bad fats?

Do you see a hole in this approach? What would you do differently?

Post #23 – Eating for Optimal Health Part II – What you eat, how much you eat and when you eat, all matter.

06 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by in Ideal Body Weight, Lean Mass, Living to 120, Nutrition, Optimal Health, Percent Body Fat, wellness

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Eating for Optimal Health Part II – What you eat, how much you eat and when you eat, all matter.

In last week’s blog post: So, what should you eat for optimal health? – Part I, I listed the seven basic principles I have extracted from the many diet books and resources I have studied. These principles are:

  1. What you eat, how much you eat and when you eat, all matter
  2. Eat clean
  3. Eat lots of vegetables and fruits
  4. Use only healthy fats and fat sources
  5. Incorporate sufficient proteins in your diet
  6. Best beverage to drink is pure water
  7. Add or subtract specific foods based on your personal needs

Today, let’s focus on the very first principle: What you eat, how much you eat and when you eat, all matter. And, without any fluff, let’s get to it.

What you eat: Our physical bodies need:

  • Oxygen
  • Water
  • Macro nutrients: carbs, proteins and fats
  • Micro nutrients: vitamins and minerals
  • Enzymes
  • Bacteria
  • Certain molecules

For optimal health, what we eat needs to provide all these items in optimal quantities. If any of these are taken in insufficient quantities, suboptimal health will result.

How much you eat: One aspect of how much to eat is based on how much energy we need every day. The other aspect is to eat so as to receive optimal quantities for our bodies’ needs a) through g) above.

The first aspect about energy, in-turn depends upon two factors. How many Kcals (or Calories) do we need for the basic metabolic activities (beating heart, circulation of blood, breathing, maintaining body temperature etc.). And, for other physical activities which can depend upon our lifestyle, taking elevators vs. taking stairs, number of steps walked in a day, exercise or no exercise, driving to work or biking to work, doing the work manually or letting machines do the work, etc.

And, there is yet another factor that dictates how much to eat question, i.e., how efficiently is your body able to convert food to energy. Basic metabolic cycle, called Krebs Cycle or the Citric Acid Cycle involves myriads of elements to convert carbs, protein and water into energy.

When to eat: While there are many theories as to when to eat, there is one major principle that is well understood and is critical to optimal health: Sugar Management. Body converts carbohydrates into glucose (sugars) before they can be converted to energy using the Krebs cycle. Rate at which carbs convert to sugars depends on the glycemic index of the specific food. And, how much sugar is generated, also called glycemic load, in this process is based on glycemic index and the quantity of food.

Body either uses up all the glucose it generates or it stores away what it cannot use in the form of body fat. For optimal health, one must eat just enough, so that all of it can be converted into stored energy rather than stored fat. This means eating meals more often, if necessary, to not generate excess that will have to be stored away as fat.

Bottom line and My Personal Plan: Given all these factors, you can easily imagine why there is much room for controversy about what to eat, how much to eat and when to eat.

When one expert says, “Just figure out  how many calories you need and then simply eat that many calories.”

Next expert might say, “Not true, because you still need all of the elements 1 through 7 that body needs. That is why, 2500 calories from sodas is not the same as 2500 calories from fruits and vegetables.”

Yet, third expert may argue that if you are missing just a few key ingredients, your energy cycle may be all messed up and nothing else will matter.

So, what is one to do? The best answer, I have synthesized from all those book and resources I mentioned in part I, is as follows. I am here using my personal example to illustrate. These days, my weight is 161 (plus minus 2 lbs.)

  1. Decide how many calories you need to consume in a day, based on your build and life style (usually 2300 calories to 2800 calories):

In my case, I decided about 2500 calories meet my daily need.

  1. If you are not at optimal percent body fat, reduce the calorie in-take by 20%

So in my case, since I am still working on losing body fat, I budgeted 2500 x 80% = 2000 calories

  1. 15% should come from fat

For me, 2000 x 15% = 300 calories. 300/9 = 33 grams of fat

  1. Budget 1 gram per pound of body weight for protein.

For me: 160 grams of proteins. 160gms x 4 cals/ gm = 640 calories

  1. What remains is budget for carbs. Thus, Calories from carbs = Total Calorie budget – fat cals – protein calories. Divide by 4 for number of grams of carbs.

So my daily intake budgets are:

  • Total 2000 calories
  • 300 cals from fat, i.e., 33 gms
  • 640 cals from protein, i.e., 160 gms
  • 1060 cals from carbs, i.e., 265 gms.
  1. Use fruits and vegetables as the basis for carbs that will not only meet carb requirements but also most of the micro nutrients. It is really easy to blow carbs budget with breads and pasta, and most of those also have very high glycemic load.
  2. Use your choice of protein sources for the budgeted amount of protein requirement. Again, be careful in selecting protein sources, since it is very easy to blow the fat budget with poor choice of protein sources.
  3. Break up intake into at least six meals and mix proteins with carbs for each meal to keep sugar level throughout out the day and also prevent spikes after each meal.

For one day, I did a complete journal of what I ate and also using resources on the Internet figured calories for carbs, proteins and fats. This was a particular intense day during my 21-day Muscle Mania challenge. I don’t always do strength training workout with my trainer and Bikram yoga the same day.

Below here is the result. Remember, I am a vegetarian and I have been using Whey Protein as my major source of protein.

You can Click on the picture to enlarge it, if it is not readable.

Meal Planner and Journal for Ashok

What do you think of this approach?

Do you feel that this simplifies the mumbo jumbo of what to eat, how much to eat and when to eat for optimal health?

Do you see a hole in this approach? What would you do differently?

Post #8 – So, did I tell you the story about my allergies?

21 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in Living to 120, Reversing Chronic Diseases, Vigor

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Or, my first lesson that chronic “diseases” can be reversed.

One day in the fall of 1985, at the University of Maryland, I was walking around my office rubbing my itchy eyes to get some relief. My secretary Janice said that my eyes looked bloodshot and suggested that I should go get them checked out with my doctor. When I told her that I did not have a doctor, she promptly made an appointment with her own doctor.

The doctor took a quick look at my eyes and told me that it was “just seasonal allergies.” I had arrived from India eight year earlier and can honestly say that I had never heard of the word “allergies” before coming to the US. So naturally, I asked the doc what seasonal allergies were. He said not to worry too much about it. It is probably Ragweed that I was allergic to. I should just go buy a bottle of non-prescription one milligram Chlorpheniramine, a generic anti-histamine, to take it for a few weeks until the season passed. When I asked him how I would know when to stop taking it, he said to take it for just a few weeks, I would know when season changes and not to worry too much about it since it was not a big deal.

Well, the following year, my allergies were a little worse. I started sniffling in addition to having itchy eyes. So, I started taking 2 milligrams. Even bigger dose the next year and so on. A few years later, my allergies would now kick-in even in spring season with pollen from blooming trees. In DC area, we have a lot of those. By 1995, I was suffering from allergies for about six months in a year, two months of spring season and four months of the fall season. Allergies had gotten so bad that I would feel like a zombie for half of the year, sneezing, sniffling with fever-like symptoms.

In 1993, I started learning how to fly. I could not afford to take drowsy antihistamine while flying. So, the doctor started to give me cocktails – non-drowsy stuff during the day and drowsy meds for the evenings. I was taking equivalent of 12mg antihistamine during the day and another 12 mg at night. Some of these meds had side-effects, like increased heart palpitations. So, I needed to go the doctor regularly to get checked out. My immune system was getting worse. I would get viral infection two three times a year, each episode started to last longer and longer

During all this time I would ask my physician about what was going on with my body and he would say, “Well, it’s the immune system. We don’t know much about the immune system.”

While this was going on, I had also gotten my cholesterol checked. My first blood test, in July 1990, showed my total cholesterol as 275, LDL of 205, HDL 39 and Triglycerides 155. Doctor gave me some pamphlets about lowering cholesterol through change in diet. Following that diet guidance, my cholesterol came down by as much as 52 points; this was still much higher than the then standard of 180 for the total cholesterol and 130 for LDL. My doc told me that I probably had genetic issues and had to get on some cholesterol lowering drug. A couple I tried had serious side effects like itchy skin and rash, so I discontinued those.

In September of 1995, I attended a 10 day program, Life Mastery, my first of Tony Robbins’s three Mastery University programs. At that program, on the first day, as part of creating our health baseline, we got our blood work done. My total cholesterol that day was 265. Seven days into the program, everybody who had excessive cholesterol got tested again. This time my total cholesterol was 183, an 82 points drop in 7 days! I was pleasantly shocked. That is big a change in one week. I had never been able to achieve such results, nor had my doctor ever shared even a possibility that such a change was possible with any change in lifestyle.

Armed with that experience and more knowledge about some methods for cleansing, when I returned I started to aggressively explore the possibility of curing my allergies. In my search, I ran into an organization called Washington University of Integrative Medicine. Starting October 1996, I worked with them to undertake a number of different lifestyle changes and therapies. I changed my eating habits. I quit dairy, meat, alcohol, coffee, and chocolate. They did colonics for me every other week to cleanse my colon, coffee colonics to stimulate my liver, and I would take various supplements to support my liver and immune system.

When the spring of 1997 rolled around, results became very clear. I suffered allergies only for just a few days at the beginning of that spring season and on a few very bad pollen days. In the fall of 1997 also, my experience was similar. Every season that followed, my allergies got better as opposed to getting worse as I had been experiencing since 1985.

A couple of years after my experiment with the alternative methods of curing my allergies, I went back to my physician. I needed to have him sign some papers so that I could use my health savings funds for alternative therapies. I told him my story of how I had cured my allergies. He thumped the table and got visibly angry and yelled, “These things don’t work!” I had always known him as a very mild mannered gentleman. Then I told him the other reason I had pursued this therapy was to manage my cholesterol. Regaining his composure, he said that cholesterol he could measure objectively. He challenged me to get blood work done and then return to see him.

Well, in March 1998, I got the blood work done. Total cholesterol came out to be 192 with LDL at 131. See the chart below of my cholesterol history for the last 25 years. Back paddling a little, he said, “The reason we don’t push lifestyle changes is because 95% people cannot make those changes. Whatever you are doing you should keep doing since it is working for you.” As for the allergies he wrote on my chart, SPONTANEOUS REMISSION. I left doctor’s office shaking my head in disbelief and decided to change doctor.

Cholestrol History

Nineteen years later now, I am totally free of allergies and my immune is system is strong enough that I don’t much get sick from common colds and flus. If I do catch a cold I bounce back in a day or two. Cholesterol is a whole another story. Few years later, the new standard for cholesterol became 150 for total and less than 100 for LDL. In 2007, I finally gave in and started taking Lipitor to bring my cholesterol within that range.

More recently, I have learned some more about impact of nutrition and lifestyle on coronary diseases and as a result made further changes. About a year ago, I discontinued Lipitor and have done three blood works since then, each a little bit better than the one before. The most recent blood work shows total cholesterol of 146 and LDL of 90. Moreover, my HDL is a fairly healthy 46, while triglycerides at 48, the lowest ever in 25 years!

So, that is my story about curing my allergies and managing cholesterol through nutrition. Motivated by this experience, I have accumulated a few other personal stories about preventing or curing certain other issues and have also collected further knowledge that many of the “chronic conditions” I discussed in earlier posts measured through vitality biomarkers are preventable and curable.

And that’s where I get this passion for collecting and disseminating evidence and research based information about preventing and curing chronic conditions through lifestyle changes.

Do you have a similar story?

Have you been able to reverse certain chronic conditions through lifestyle changes?

I would love to hear of such stories, both as a means for gathering inspiration and for collecting accurate experiential knowledge that we can pass along to others.