Tips from gaining health

Hi,

Ive been watching a documentary video on Youtube that was produced by the BBC and stars Michael Mosley. It is called, "BBC Horizon 2012: Eat, Fast and Live Longer." It appears that Michael is one of those guys who makes a living trying out bizarre things and filming it for the BBC. What he had on his mind when he did this one was his own health.

Here is a link in case you would like to see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=Pfna7nV7WaM

There were two approaches to weight loss and improving health that he presented that I am interested in. One of them is very similar to what I am already doing which is to fast for one day a week, but Michael is fasting for two days a week (not in a row) and eating normally the rest of the time with no actual dietary restrictions. It seems that when you start fasting in this manner your body gets used to eating smaller meals and you dont actually overeat to compensate on the days in between. Also the fast day actually includes one meal of about five hundred to six hundred calories depending on whether you are male or female, so it is not actually a total abstinence of food on the fasting days. (Right now I am actually fasting for 24 hours one day a week with no food for the duration.)

The other approach involves alternating fast and feast days. With this approach, you also eat one five to six-hundred calorie meal every other day. In between you eat what you want. I suppose if you simply did not count Sunday as one of the days, you could always fast on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Feast on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday -- leaving Sunday as simply a day off which will obviously be a feasting day for the normal human being. This then works out to be three fasting days per week on alternating days. I like the idea of managing it this way because it turns into a regular schedule that is easier to remember and manage if you always do the same thing on the same day of the week.

One of the things that attracts me to the alternating day fast is that I might be able to lose weight faster and also will not have to stress about what I eat on the feasting days. I could simply eat normally for me.

Another thing that attracts me to the fasting protocols is the idea that your health actually improves because you are eating less. Blood sugar levels normalize. Fat begins to disappear. Cholesterol gets into good ranges and IGF-1 levels reduce so your chances of getting cancer and heart disease drastically drop down to much lower levels. According to more than one of the researchers in the film there really is no better or faster way to improve your health than with fasting.

I dropped off a lot of water weight a couple of weeks ago and do not seem to be putting it back on. Yet. I did notice today that I seem to be a bit swollen. I believe it may be due to what I think is a yeast infection as a result of having taken an antibiotic. It is quite uncomfortable and Ive been doubling up on probiotics to try to get past it. Im beginning to think I might call my doctor to see if she might give me some fluconazole to speed up the process and reduce the discomfort. It not only affects me in the normal female way, but in my sinuses and my eyes, too. I have one more thing Im going to try tonight and if that does not work, Ill definitely call my doctor tomorrow.

I am considering trying out the three days of fasting per week to see if I can (or will) comply with it, and if I do, wondering if it will take some more of this weight off at a faster pace. Im not in a hurry, Im just tired of wasting time. Ive been at this for going onto two years and have only lost 45 pounds. I want more and I dont want to be held back any more. I see others who lose twice and three times that much in a third of the time, so surely, I should be able to move along at a better rate than what Ive been doing. Im not interested in fad diets, I want something I can maintain for the long haul -- perhaps the rest of my life.

I suppose if I cannot do the three days per week, surely I could do the two. Perhaps I could alternate weeks and do two fast days one week and three the next, making sure to eat healthy in between. That is just me thinking. I seem to get carried away some times. Since I just completed a twenty-four hour fast, perhaps this is a good time to start. I will have to give it some more thought and preparation.

I need to iron out the details like when do the fasts start and when do they finish. I have the idea that what they are talking about is

Monday: sleep/one meal/sleep (all fasting days)
Tuesday: sleep/ eat normally / sleep (all normal days including Sunday)

Right now, with the one-day fast, I time it from the last meal on one day to the same time the next day. It seems that no matter how you calculate it you never really go an entire day without actually eating something. It is just a matter of deciding when you are going to eat your one meal on the fast day because there will be a few hours between eating and sleeping that will need to be managed consciously in order to make it work.

On the fasting days you can drink water or plain tea with no sugar or milk. I suppose for those who drink coffee they could probably do coffee without much trouble, too. Im not a coffee drinker so Ill stick to water and tea. Hot tea seems to satisfy my tummy. I also chew Xylitol gum on my fast days, too. So it boils down to water, tea, and gum for me during the hours Im not eating. Having one meal a day seems, from this perspective of not having yet tried it, to be perhaps easier than the twenty-four hours. But on second thought, perhaps it is not, because the twenty-four hours start on a day when food was eaten and end on a day that food will be eaten so doing the sleep/one meal/sleep may actually turn into more hours of not eating. It just seems more doable because you can eat that one meal -- and you can have your one meal at any time you choose.

So how do you plan the exercise? I usually exercise on the days Ive listed as fasting days, so I suppose I would want to eat my one meal after I exercise. From the reading Ive been doing I find that most experts advise that it is best to exercise during a fast and then eat right after the exercise. I guess I wont know how it will go until I try it.

Another thing. There were no discussions of what kind of food to eat, except for one man who suggested moving to more of a plant based diet, but not advocating vegetarianism or veganism. Eating meat is OK -- just a little less of it, and a few more plants. I have some of my own ideas about that, as you may well know, so I will continue to eat what I believe is healthy for me.

I know what my body reacts to: starchy carbs, wheat and grains, fruit, dairy, and mixed nuts, basically, so I will continue to limit those things. This still leaves an entire array of things I can eat from salad veggies to beef, pork and eggs. I can have fish, but I dont like fish, so "fish" means tuna to me. Occasionally I have some sardines. Chicken is good. I like to make chicken/vegetable soup.

I wanted to buy some more curry powder from Sams and discovered that they dont carry it anymore. I guess Ill have to search for the Tones brand on the internet and get it shipped to my house.

Anyway. As you can see Im still open for new diet adventures and always have the weight loss goal in mind. My next target is 299. I want to be under 300.

My blood pressure seems to be settling down at a lower level than I had been experiencing and Im happy with that.

Check out that video. I thought it was really interesting. (see link above)

Love you,

Be back soon,

Marcia

I eat a handful or so of salt-free nuts (a little less than 1/2 peanuts - which are also apparently good for me) 6 days a week - I will try to eat some on Sundays as well after reading this:

Nut consumption = reduced death rate

In a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers looked at the association of nut consumption with total and cause-specific mortality among 76,464 women in the Nurses Health Study and 42,498 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Consumption of nuts, including tree nuts (such as almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts), was inversely associated with total mortality in both men and women, independent of other predictors for death. In addition, there were significant inverse associations for deaths due to cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease.

"Compared with those who did not eat nuts, individuals who consumed nuts (serving size of one ounce) seven or more times per week had a 20% lower death rate and this association was dose-dependent," Nuts contain important nutrients such as unsaturated fats, high quality protein, vitamins (i.e., vitamin E, folate and niacin) minerals (i.e., magnesium, calcium and potassium) and phytochemicals—all of which may offer cardioprotective, anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

I dont drink any sugar-sweetened beverages but probably need to cut back on desserts a little more:

Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption increases endometrial cancer risk

Postmenopausal women who reported the highest intake of sugar-sweetened beverages had a 78 percent increased risk for estrogen-dependent type I endometrial cancer (the most common type of this disease). This association was found in a dose-dependent manner: the more sugar-sweetened beverages a woman drank, the higher her risk.

A diet high in sugar and saturated fats increases the risk of premature death from any cause

Chronic inflammation appears to play a key role in the development of cancer, along with heart disease and diabetes. Now a new study presented today suggests that eating a diet high in sugar, saturated fats and others foods that promote inflammation increases the risk of premature death from any cause, including cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.

Im doing better with coffee consumption:

Coffee may help perk up your blood vessels

The caffeine in a cup of coffee might help your small blood vessels work better, according to research presented at the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2013.A study of 27 healthy adults showed – for the first time – that drinking a cup of caffeinated coffee significantly improved blood flow in a finger, which is a measure of how well the inner lining of the bodys smaller blood vessels work. Specifically, participants who drank a cup of caffeinated coffee had a 30 percent increase in blood flow over a 75-minute period compared to those who drank decaffeinated coffee.

This is good news:

Statin Use Not Linked to a Decline in Cognitive Function

Aerobic exercise improves memory, brain function and physical fitness

A new study conducted by researchers at the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas published online in the open-access journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience found that engaging in a physical exercise regimen helps healthy aging adults improve their memory, brain health and physical fitness.

I already take aspirin on non-soccer days at bedtime for its positive effect on blood pressure:

Bedtime aspirin may reduce risk of morning heart attack


Im down to Co-Enzyme Q-10, Vitamins D-3 and B-12 and fish/fax seed oil:


Vitamins Benefits: Experts Unconvinced

Even though millions of Americans pop a vitamin, mineral or multivitamin supplement every day, an influential government-appointed panel of experts says the jury is still out on whether they help boost health or not.

In its draft guidelines, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said that in some cases, certain supplements, such as beta carotene or vitamin E, may actually do more harm than good. Instead of focusing on supplements, they recommend that people focus on the health benefits of a well-balanced diet instead.

"In general, the Task Force found that there is not enough evidence to determine whether you can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease or cancer by taking single or paired nutrients, or a multivitamin," Task Force Co-Chair Dr. Michael LeFevre said in a news release. "However, there were two major exceptions: beta carotene and vitamin E, both of which clearly do not help prevent these diseases."

I dont use them at home - I always wonder what my outside sources use:

Corn and safflower oil may actually increase risk of heart disease

I usually saute broccoli - probably no better than boiling:

Steaming Broccoli Preserves Potential Power to Fight Cancer

The way you prepare broccoli and related vegetables can alter their potentially cancer-fighting powers, new research shows.

Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables are a good source of sulforaphane, a phytochemical (naturally occurring plant compound) that has shown strong anti-cancer properties in lab studies.However, the enzyme myrosinase in broccoli is needed for sulforaphane to form. If the myrosinase is destroyed, sulforaphane cannot form.

Researchers compared boiled, microwaved and steamed broccoli, and found that steaming broccoli for up to five minutes was the best way to retain its myrosinase. Boiling and microwaving broccoli for one minute or less destroyed the majority of the enzyme.

Regular aspirin use appears to be associated with an increased risk of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is a leading cause of blindness in older people, and it appears to be independent of a history of cardiovascular disease and smoking, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Aspirin is one of the most widely used medications in the world and is commonly used in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, such as myocardial infarction (heart attack) and ischemic stroke. While a recent study suggested that regular aspirin use was associated with AMD, particularly the more visually devastating neovascular (wet) form, other studies have reported inconsistent findings. Smoking is also a preventable risk factor for AMD, the authors write in the study background.

Gerald Liew, Ph.D., of the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues examined whether regular aspirin use (defined as once or more per week in the past year) was associated with a higher risk of developing AMD by conducting a prospective analysis of data from an Australian study that included four examinations during a 15-year period. Of 2,389 participants, 257 individuals (10.8 percent) were regular aspirin users.

After the 15-year follow-up, 63 individuals (24.5 percent) developed incident neovascular AMD, according to the results.

"The cumulative incidence of neovascular AMD among nonregular aspirin users was 0.8 percent at five years, 1.6 percent at 10 years, and 3.7 percent at 15 years; among regular aspirin users, the cumulative incidence was 1.9 percent at five years, 7 percent at 10 years and 9.3 percent at 15 years, respectively," the authors note. "Regular aspirin use was significantly associated with an increased incidence of neovascular AMD."

The authors note that any decision concerning whether to stop aspirin therapy is "complex and needs to be individualized."

"Currently, there is insufficient evidence to recommend changing clinical practice, except perhaps in patients with strong risk factors for neovascular AMD (e.g., existing late AMD in the fellow eye) in whom it may be appropriate to raise the potentially small risk of incident neovascular AMD with long-term aspirin therapy," the authors conclude.

Commentary: Relationship of Aspirin Use with Age-Related Macular Degeneration

In an invited commentary, Sanjay Kaul, M.D., and George A. Diamond, M.D., of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, write: "This study has important strengths and limitations. It provides evidence from the largest prospective cohort with more than five years of longitudinal evaluation reported to date using objective and standardized ascertainment of AMD."

"The key limitation is the nonrandomized design of the study with its potential for residual (unmeasured or unobserved) confounding that cannot be mitigated by multivariate logistic regression or propensity score analysis," the authors continue.

"From a purely science-of-medicine perspective, the strength of evidence is not sufficiently robust to be clinically directive. These findings are, at best, hypothesis-generating that should await validation in prospective randomized studies before guiding clinical practice or patient behavior," the authors conclude. "However, from an art-of-medicine perspective, based on the limited amount of available evidence, there are some courses of action available to the thoughtful clinician. In the absence of definitive evidence regarding whether limiting aspirin exposure mitigates AMD risk, one obvious course of action is to maintain the status quo."

Heres another reason why a healthy diet during pregnancy is critical to the future health of your children: New research published in the March 2013 issue of The FASEB Journal, suggests that pregnant mothers who consume junk food actually cause changes in the development of the opioid signaling pathway in the brains of their unborn children. This change results in the babies being less sensitive to opioids, which are released upon consumption of foods that are high in fat and sugar. In turn, these children, born with a higher "tolerance" to junk food need to eat more of it to achieve a "feel good" response.

"The results of this research will ultimately allow us to better inform pregnant women about the lasting effect their diet has on the development of their childs lifelong good perences and risk of metabolic disease," said Beverly Muhlhausler, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the FOODplus Research Centre at the School of Agriculture Food and Wine at The University of Adelaide in Adelaide, Australia. "Hopefully, this will encourage mothers to make healthier diet choices which will lead to healthier children."

To make this discovery, Muhlausler and colleagues studied the pups of two groups of rats, one of which had been fed a normal rat food and the other which had been fed a range of human "junk foods" during pregnancy and lactation. After weaning, the pups were given daily injections of an opioid receptor blocker, which blocks opioid signaling. Blocking opioid signaling lowers the intake of fat and sugar by preventing the release of dopamine. Results showed that the opioid receptor blocker was less effective at reducing fat and sugar intake in the pups of the junk food fed mothers, suggesting that the opioid signaling pathway in these offspring is less sensitive than for pups whose mothers are eating a standard rat feed.

"This study shows that addiction to junk food is true addiction." said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Junk food engages the same body chemistry as opium, morphine or heroin. Sad to say, junk food during pregnancy turns the kids into junk food junkies."

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.

Last week, I came across an article in Slate, Ignore Expiration Dates, which claims that product dating is arbitrary and can largely be ignored. Since there are no food industry standards for “sell by,” “best by,” and “use by” dates, and because storage conditions will vary wildly, consumers are wise to use their judgment when deciding what to eat and what to toss.

Ignoring the “best by” date is something I do regularly. I tend to trust my nose and taste buds when deciding when food is past its prime, particularly with leftovers. It may seem reckless, but I seldom buy perishable food with such labels: never meat, occasionally dairy, and rarely eggs. Vegetables are pretty clear about letting you know when they’re done with you.

But what about the pantry? I have a bag of jasmine rice that’s been in my cupboard for at least a year. Is it time for us to part ways? How about that ancient package of texturized vegetable protein (TVP) nuggets? I can’t remember when I bought it or the last time I used it.

I mean, after a taste test of 28-year-old rolled oats, Brigham Young researchers determined that, if stored properly (sealed container, cool, dry place), dry goods and canned goods can last for years and years, taste be damned. Good news for emergency stockpilers and promising for my rice situation.

So what’s the skinny on pantry shelf life and storage? I jumped into my InterWebShip to see what I could find.

I was initially shocked at what I didn’t find: the FDA website has no recommendations for dry goods—at least not that I could find. Meat, eggs and dairy, and fruit and vegetables are covered, but grains, nuts, legumes, and spices are sadly neglected.

Fortunately, the usual culinary suspects (and one newbie) are chock full of great information:

• Shelf Life of Pantry Items from Slashfood provides a handy chart of basic dry goods and their life spans.
• The Kitchn deftly handles Condiments and Expiration Dates and Vinegar: Does It Have a Shelf Life?
• The grand dame herself, Martha Stewart, gives up a Kitchen Chart of baking staples.
• StillTasty kicks it with a comprehensive shelf life database. Just enter the food item that concerns you and get the life span and storage suggestions.

In a nutshell (4 months; longer if rigerated), dry good shelf life is less about spoilage that will make you ill and more about maintaining nutritional density and flavor. Following these storage basics will extend the life of your pantry goods and save you money:

• Cool, dry location: vital. Pantry items should be kept between 60° and 70° F
• Air-tight containers: important. Storing food in jars and canisters with tight-fitting lids increase the mileage of your goods.
• Refrigeration/freezing: helpful. The oils in nuts and flours can turn rancid over time. Refrigeration stabilizes the oils and slows the aging process.

So what about my rice and TVP? Well, according to StillTasty, because I’ve kept my rice sealed and away from heat, it will last indefinitely. TVP lasts about a year in a sealed container, but I’m pretty sure it would sustain the roaches through the nuclear winter. If I don’t use it in a month, it’s getting the heave-ho. There is no room in my pantry for emergency insect food.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr member Maksis.)

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