Posts Tagged ‘processed foods’

Calories count on the path to longevity. Most of us know the phase you are what you eat. This says you are also what you don’t eat.

Calorie Restriction

Calorie restriction is more than a way of cutting calories. People who practice this also eat a nutrient dense diet. It has been found that in less complex organisms restricting calories can double or even triple lifespan. With the human population there are indications that this has a profound effect. These are not formal studies, but from interviews of people who have remained healthy and reached 100 years plus.

In a review article in Science, Nutrition, and Longevity researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, University College in London and the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California, reports that calorie restriction influences the same handful of molecular pathways related to aging in all the animals studied.

The first author Luigi Fontana MD, PhD is interested in the ability of calorie restriction as a way to promote good health. “The focus of my research is not really to extend lifespan to 120 or 130 years,” said Fontana.

Calorie Counter

Instead of being up for the count, use a calorie counter. This isn’t about where is the beef; this is about where are the calories. The currency of health is in the amount and type of calories consumed.

Just putting the data out there such as in calorie counters isn’t going to save lives. People have been counting calories for a long time and look where they are. The strategic priority is to audit the type of foods that are consumed on a daily basis. Your body can’t run on 3 pieces of toast, only one candy bar, and a frozen low fat dinner.

A low calorie diet is not meant for those that keep eating the same poor diet. To see change the guiding principal should be the source of the calories. 

Calorie Poisoning

Calorie poisoning is a relatively new phase that is being used to describe the current health landscape. The growing rates of obesity, cancer, premature ageing, cardiovascular disease and cognitive problems are examples of this in action.

What happens is the desire becomes so strong for a fix that the option of both health and longevity are shoved to the sideline.

The first step in this new world of abundance is to be wary of processed foods.They are the ones that set up the cravings that lead to overeating.

Solution

The growing rates of obesity are a reason some scientist think calorie restriction is a mute cause. But, Fontana said if researches who study nutrition and aging can understand how calorie restriction lengthens life and makes people healthier, it may be possible to develop less drastic interventions of medicines that influence pathways affected by calorie restriction, and help keep people healthy

Real Solution      

The common sense solution is to eat more whole foods with lots of  fruits and vegetables. The idea is not to concentrate on calories, but nutrition. There are very few cultures that have a healthy population that counts calories. This is a phenomenon of Industrial nations. It isn’t about an abundant food supply; it is about a poor food supply.

Cholesterol is not an accurate predictor of heart attacks. That unhappy outcome is from a poor lifestyle, and related to the amount of processed food. Just because you have a presumably higher overall reading doesn’t mean you should go on a low-fat kick.

HEART DISEASE

Your heart is a workhorse, when given the proper nutrition. While the doctors are on patrol to see if your cholesterol is too high, they ignore the true cause of heart disease, nutritional deficiencies. It is heartbreaking in the literal, as well as figural, the miscalculations made on the part of the medical community.

The cholesterol lowing drugs cause nutrient deficiencies. The common assumption is that high cholesterol will cause clogged arteries.

INJURY NOT CHOLESTEROL

The studies to pay attention to are the ones that show atherosclerosis is the response to injury. The body uses cholesterol to respond to injury of the cells lining the inside of the arteries. It is injury to the lining of the blood vessel, not cholesterol that is the cause of heart disease.

Cholesterol is the innocent bystander who happens to be arround when there is a heart blockage. Fireman are around when there is a fire, and they don’t usually get blamed for the destruction. Vascular injury can occur from mechanical stress, tobacco fumes, metabolic consequences of diabetes, deficiencies of vitamins A and D, consumption of trans fatty acids, and microorganisms.

Sounds to me like a lifestyle problem. Omega 6s in our diet causes inflammation. Since this is in most processed food we know the solution, and it isn’t in a pill.

DIET AND EXERCISE

When diet and exercise doesn’t help who do we call, the doctor of course. What is wrong with this picture is that there isn’t a single culture that eats their natural diet that doesn’t find diet and exercise enough.

From the early Eskimos who ate a diet of whale blubber and other good fats to the native America’s who hunted on the Great Plains cholesterol wasn’t problematic.

Now, when they followed the path of civilization they now have to call the doctor.

HOW LOW

Physicians are so engaged in driving cholesterol to new lows, they never look at is the primary goal of health, which is to have individuals function at the best level possible.

As a result of cholesterol lowing medicine the persons has a higher risk of harm. The irony is that the hypothesis that cholesterol is harmful at a certain number is not only unproven, but false.

MYTH

One reason for the high cholesterol myth was the observation; mortality rates for heart attacks dropped in areas with a low food supply in World War ll. This phenomenon was noticed by Dr. Ansel Keys in the 1950”s.

Dr. Keys’ findings were eagerly endorsed by “cholesterol is harmful” advocates, but he himself did not state that cholesterol was the direct cause of heart disease or atherosclerosis. He pointed out that just because cholesterol is present in arterial plaque does not mean that cholesterol is the cause of arterial plaque.

What is wrong with the conclusions, most of the people were following an American diet that had sugar, and refined flour. They were on an inflammatory diet, which produces inflammation. Calorie restrictive diets are known to be anti-inflammatory.

Again wrong assumptions based on the wrong hypothesis. That is the Achilles heel of modern medicine.

DANGEROUS SCIENCE

The fist drug approved for the lowering of cholesterol appeared in 1967 called Atromid-S and was withdrawn from the market in 2000. The drug didn’t prove to lower mortality. However, it was found to increase the incidence of gallstones, cancer, liver disease, and inflammation of the pancreas producing pancreatitis.

The side effects included nausea, diarrhea, loss of sexual performance, weakness, abdominal pain, muscle pain and other discomforts. The newer drugs available for this bring some of the same risks and side effects. This is dangerous science.

CONSIDERATIONS

The biggest consideration is that most cardiovascular disease is seen in people over 60. Fact, higher cholesterol in the elderly is protective. Seniors with higher cholesterol levels tend to live longer than their peers with low cholesterol.

The two reasons for this, first cholesterol is protective, and second those with lower levels are on the dangerous medications. 

First and foremost take the prudent path with a healthy and active lifestyle.