Food and lifestyle ideas to keep you healthy
I would guess that most of us wish to live long lives, but with the caveat that they are long, happy, HEALTHY lives. Dan Beuttner was curious enough to visit 5 areas of the world where there was a concentration of healthy centenarians. They are Okinawa, Japan, Sardinia, Loma Linda, CA, Costa Rica and Ikaria, Greece.
Heroes are often defined as legendary characters who do something phenomenal the not many others have done before. They receive recognition in the form of admiration, compensation, medals and accolades.
The heroes I want to talk about mostly remain under the radar and are not treated as special people, but they are so incredibly critical to our survival, they should all be put on pedestals.
By now if you are a foodie or dieter the term ‘Intermittent fasting” has likely crossed your path. It’s a term that describes several types of fasting, but first, a word or two about fasting.
Much as we like to think we’re quite adaptable as humans, the brain actually changes very slowly. In ancient times, humans had to forage for their food just like all members of the animal kingdom. There were times where long periods of time passed before they found their next meal. To survive and not die of starvation, their brain adapted to this unpredictabilty and would slow calorie burning or metabolism down to a crawl until the next meal was found. Hence the experience of fasting became part of our DNA.
Intermittent fasting is a way to cycle between periods of fasting and eating. The 16/8 form is currently a very popular method to lose weight and improve health. That means you fast for 16 hours per day and eat everything else within an 8 hour time frame. Water and unsweetened black coffee or an herbal tea are the only exceptions. The website Healthline states that in addition to enhancing weight loss, 16/8 intermittent fasting is also believed to improve blood sugar control, boost brain function and enhance longevity.
The 16/8 method has shown promising results in a number of studies. People report a loss of 10 pounds over 2-3 months of fasting. If you are curious about how you would do with this eating style, decide on the 8 hour time frame that works best for you. You may also opt to stay on the 8 hour time frame for a few days a week rather than every day as you adjust to a schedule.
Dr. Satchin Panda of the Salk Institute studies the effect of Intermittent Fasting on mice. A control group eats anytime and the experimental group is limited to 8 hours of eating. The experimental group repeatedly showed a 28% drop in weight and improved markers for healthy aging. It also showed an improvement in sleep as the hormone melatonin works more effectively once the hunger hormone leptin quiets down.
Various studies are ongoing on intermittent fasting and its effect on aging, disease, weight and overall energy. There are several forms of intermittent fasting you might want to explore. You’ll be hearing much more on this topic in the next decade and I will continue to track this practice in my blog posts.
While there are countless theories about weight loss that come and go, what remains the single best way to nourish yourself and maintain a healthy weight is a diet of simple whole foods. Your plate should consist of about 1/4 protein (lean meat, fish, tofu, beans, lentils), 1/4 whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, barley, farro) and 1/2 vegetables ( a mix of sweet vegetables like carrots, sweet potato, beets and bitter vegetables like greens) with a piece of fruit if you like dessert. My book Food Becomes You - Simple Steps for Lifelong Wellness available in paper and Kindle, contains many recipes and menus to make this work easily in your life.
Do you self-sabotage yourself? Get on a healthy eating regimen, have success, only to seek out friends you know will bring you back to old habits and poor quality food? The story of the eagle may inspire you to stay on course and not lose precious time due to a lack of belief in self and all you can do.
Thirty years ago I read a book called Ultraprevention. Written by Drs. Mark Hyman and Mark Liponis, I found it fascinating because they used the term inflammation as the source of much of what ails us. As I read through I realized they were right - belly ache? inflammation - headache - inflammation - back pain - inflammation - and so on. What I really liked was they did not say take a pill or get a shot or have surgery. They got to the nuts and bolts of how inflammation forms and what you can do to relieve it with lifestyle changes, primarily with food, rest and stress management.
I’m thinking a lot about inflammation now because I was invited to submit a proposal to speak at a Naturopathic Doctors Convention in Barcelona next summer. It would be a thrill for me to be selected, but in the meantime, it got me thinking a lot about this topic and how it affects our health and happiness.
Pain stinks. It crosses a spectrum from barely there to screeching and disabling. We’ve all seen those charts where a patient rates their pain from a smiley face to a miserable scowl. Whether it’s barely there or disabling, pain is something to pay attention to. It’s your body’s way of signaling you that something is out of balance. But inflammation does not only present as pain. Type II diabetes, obesity and heart disease all are diseases of inflammation.
Typically we don’t get seriously ill overnight; a serious illness builds slowly, and the time to catch it is in the early stages when it’s most correctable.
Each Spring and Fall I offer a seven day Seasonal Cleanse. We don’t starve; we don’t eat horrible food. We simply spend seven days eating the foods that are most beneficial to our bodies at that time of year. An overall goal is to help you prepare for the challenges of the season by reducing the effect of inflammatory foods like white flour, sugar and highly processed foods. They are replaced with food that are simple fresh and compatible with the season.
If you are already inflamed because of a poor diet, unmanaged stress, inadequate sleep or lack of movement, seasonal changes are more difficult without some kind of dietary and lifestyle change. What is fascinating to watch is how quickly people who do the seasonal cleanses feel better and less inflamed! Two or three days in someone will ask if it’s possible their knees aren’t aching because they changted their food. Yes ma’am! or someone will comment on their improved concentration. Yes sir!
As humans, we can be very adaptable and not even realize we are inflamed until we’re not. So I would invite you to take some time to notice how you feel in body and mind, and where you might be having a little trouble. We’ll be scheduling our annual Autumn cleanses as we return to standard time in early November.
