/50s Fit2021-04-12T05:26:42+00:00»50s Fit« is a site for health, fitness, and living a fulfilling live for the middle age.50s Fitcc@50sfit.comhttp://50sfit.com/aboutJekyll/nutrition/how_sugar_affects_your_brain/How Sugar Can Affect Your Brain2016-11-04T00:00:00+00:0050s Fitcc@50sfit.comhttp://50sfit.com/aboutSugar can affect more than our weight, it can have some serious effects on our brains.<p>Excessive sugar consumption plays a major role in making us put on weight.
It can affect our behavior and cognitive functions negatively as well.</p>
<h2 id="sugar-crash">Sugar Crash</h2>
<p>Most of us have experienced this ourselves or in our children.
After a carbohydrate-heavy meal, dessert or snack, we feel a high from the rush of glucose entering our blood stream.
While this sugar high lasts, we feel euphoric and full of energy.
Then just as quickly we feel the sugar crash.
You might have experienced this crash as fatigue, headache, brain fog, lack of focus, and irritability.</p>
<p>By itself, this is a natural response.
Your pancreas produces insulin to regulate your blood sugar level when you consume sugar or carbohydrates.
Insulin lowers blood sugar by promoting its storage into our muscle, liver, and fat cells, and promoting the use of glucose for energy production.</p>
<p>The problem arises due to volume and nature of carbohydrates in our food.
Most carbohydrate we consume these days are highly refined and absorbed quickly into our bodies.</p>
<p>Sugar crash is perhaps the most immediate and obvious result of heavy sugar consumption in our mind, but it is by no means the most serious.
Studies have found that sugar can increase addiction, make us eat more, cause depression, impair cognitive functions, and cardiovascular diseases.</p>
<h2 id="sugar-can-cause-addiction">Sugar Can Cause Addiction</h2>
<p>Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a major role in our reward-motivated behavior.
Many addictive drugs like cocaine and morphine activate our reward feelings by increasing dopamine activities.</p>
<p>Sugar has been found to affect us in the same way through dopamine.<sup id="fnref:1" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote">1</a></sup> <sup id="fnref:2" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:2" class="footnote">2</a></sup></p>
<p>In another comprehensive study<sup id="fnref:3" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:3" class="footnote">3</a></sup>, sugar intake is linked to four components of addiction:</p>
<ul>
<li>bingeing: sugar intake is increased significantly over time if allowed;</li>
<li>withdrawal: anxiety and behavioral depression are experienced when sugar is withheld;</li>
<li>craving: consumption is increased after a period of abstinence; and</li>
<li>cross-sensitisation: enhanced response to other drugs and stimulants during sugar abstinence, leading to higher chances of addiction to other substances such as alcohol.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="sugar-can-cause-depression-impair-cognitive-functions">Sugar Can Cause Depression, Impair Cognitive Functions</h2>
<p>BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor) is a chemical active in areas of the brain associated with learning, memory, and higher learning.
It is important for the formation of new neurons and the survival of existing neurons.</p>
<p>Decreased levels of BDNF have been linked to many mental conditions including depression, schizophrenia, and dementia diseases including Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.</p>
<p>High blood sugar levels and fructose consumption are linked to decreased BDNF levels<sup id="fnref:4" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:4" class="footnote">4</a></sup> <sup id="fnref:5" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:5" class="footnote">5</a></sup> and with impaired cognitive functions.<sup id="fnref:6" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:6" class="footnote">6</a></sup> <sup id="fnref:7" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:7" class="footnote">7</a></sup> <sup id="fnref:8" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:8" class="footnote">8</a></sup></p>
<p>In related studies, chronic sugar consumption is found to interfere with the brain’s mechanism of signaling when we’ve eaten enough. <sup id="fnref:9" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:9" class="footnote">9</a></sup></p>
<h2 id="sugar-may-increase-cardiovascular-disease-risks">Sugar May Increase Cardiovascular Disease Risks</h2>
<p>In a wide-scale study of over eleven thousand adults in the US over a period of 14.6 years, investigators “observed a significant relationship between added sugar consumption and increased risk for CVD mortality.”<sup id="fnref:10" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:10" class="footnote">10</a></sup></p>
<p>♦ ♦ ♦</p>
<p>Sugar is added in various forms in the food we consume, especially beverages and processed food.
Our palates have gotten accustomed to a high level of sweetness, and this is damaging our health.</p>
<p>Personally, I’ve cut out sugar in my drinks and food.
I drink my coffee and tea black and without milk (kopi O kosong or teh O kosong), and don’t drink any soft drinks or fruit juices.
I’ve cut food with high added sugar, including processed snacks and pastries.
Now I found my palate reverting, and such food tastes unbearably sweet to me.</p>
<p>I encourage you to take the same journey.
It might take a while to get used to the unsweetened taste, but the advantages are definitely worth-while.</p>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:1" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15987666">Daily bingeing on sugar repeatedly releases dopamine in the accumbens shell</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:2" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="https://www.conncoll.edu/news/news-archive/2013/student-faculty-research-suggests-oreos-can-be-compared-to-drugs-of-abuse-in-lab-rats.html#.WBwLEHed5TY">Student-faculty research suggests Oreos can be compared to drugs of abuse in lab rats</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:3" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235907/">Evidence for sugar addiction: Behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent, excessive sugar intake</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:4" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17151862">Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and type 2 diabetes</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:5" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12088740">A high-fat, refined sugar diet reduces hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor, neuronal plasticity, and learning</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:6" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="http://www.neurology.org/content/63/4/658.abstract">Diabetes, impaired fasting glucose, and development of cognitive impairment in older women</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:7" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/this-is-your-brain-on-sugar-ucla-233992">This is your brain on sugar: UCLA study shows high-fructose diet sabotages learning, memory</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:8" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/jphysiol.2012.230078/full">‘Metabolic syndrome’ in the brain: deficiency in omega-3 fatty acid exacerbates dysfunctions in insulin receptor signaling and cognition</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:9" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3175817/">Chronic sugar intake dampens feeding-related activity of neurons synthesizing a satiety mediator, oxytocin</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:10" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1819573">Added Sugar Intake and Cardiovascular Diseases Mortality Among US Adults</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
2016-11-04T00:00:00+00:00/exercise/strength_training_for_health_and_longevity/Strength Training for Health and Longevity2016-10-26T00:00:00+00:0050s Fitcc@50sfit.comhttp://50sfit.com/aboutPresentation by Dr. Doug McGuff, , at the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) on 29 September 2016<p>Came across this great presentation by Doug McGuff, MD, a doctor, weight lifter, gym owner, and co-author of
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071597174/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0071597174&linkCode=as2&tag=50sfit-20&linkId=cf6305c69da9b2ba4c5e2b7d9d35060a">Body by Science: A Research Based Program for Strength Training, Body building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week</a><img src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=50sfit-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0071597174" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />.</p>
<div class="flex-video widescreen vimeo" style="display: block;">
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jeFdYy815pQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</div>
<p>Its abstract reads:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The average American begins to experience a physical decline that begins as early as their mid-20’s and continues throughout the course of their life, terminating in the final decades of their life in a state of dysfunction and dependence.
While this is becoming commonplace, it is certainly not normal.
Our ancestors, as well as modern hunter-gatherers, experienced a high level of physical functioning and health, that barring injury or infection, continued into advanced age.
In this lecture Dr. McGuff will discuss the concept of the physiologic head room and discuss the notion of a quality life not just measured in years, but in “area under the curve” based on high physiologic headroom throughout a full lifespan.
He will show how a brief and infrequent regimen of high-intensity exercise can reverse the diseases of modern civilization and how the new science of myokines (hormone-like substances released by working skeletal muscle) make this possible.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the talk, Dr. McGuff explained the positive impact of strength exercise on the aging and modern civilization diseases are 100% related to muscle loss.
In particular, he went through the effects on the ten biomarkers of health as identified by the American Council on Aging:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>Muscle Mass</strong>:
Our skeletal muscle is the largest organ in our endocrine and immunogenic systems.
It secretes hormones and other products into the bloodstream that affect other organs such as our fat cells, liver, pancreas, bones, and brains.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Strength</strong>:
Elderly falls have become the top case in emergency rooms.
We need strength to maintain our balance and functional abilities.
I would add that strength is essential for living an active lifestyle.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Bone Density</strong>:
Studies have found that strengthening muscles send chemical signals to the bones resulting in improvements in bone mineral density, making them stronger and less fragile.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Body Composition</strong>:
Strength training channels nutrients towards lean muscles, away from the fat tissues.
It also converts white fat to brown fat, which promotes fat burning.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Blood Lipids</strong>:
Strength training is found to raise HDL and lower LDL, control insulin and other inflammatory chemicals in our bodies.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Hemodynamics</strong>, or blood flow:
Strength training enhances the return of venous blood to the heart and blood flow into the heart muscles.
It stimulates the formation of new blood vessels to supply nutrients to muscles, which in turn decreases blood pressure.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Glucose Control</strong>:
Skeletal muscles are the biggest glucose / glycogen storage in the body.
Strength training enhances the metabolism of glucose and improves insulin sensitivity.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Aerobic Capacity</strong>:
Strength training builds up aerobic capacity through providing the inputs to the mitochondria’s aerobic energy production.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Gene Expression</strong>:
In a study, strength training was found to revert 179 age-related genes to youthful levels after 26 weeks of modest strength training.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Brain Factors</strong>:
Strength training generates Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in muscles.
BDNF levels are known to decrease as we age, studies have shown possible links between low levels of BDNF to conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Rett syndrome, and dementia.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>In my personal experience, I’ve found strength training to be more effective than long distance running, not just for weight loss, but for overall health and fitness.
I feel much better after exercising.
Most of the aches in my shoulders, neck and ankles are gone once these areas are strengthened.</p>
<p>If you have not already, introduce some strength training into your exercise program.
Start light and slow.
Over time, you will get stronger and do more.
Your body will thank you for it.</p>
2016-10-26T00:00:00+00:00/nutrition/why_and_how_to_eat_fats/Why and How to Eat Fats2016-10-21T00:00:00+00:0050s Fitcc@50sfit.comhttp://50sfit.com/aboutLike proteins, fats are essential to our bodies.<p>Fat has been demonized by the authorities for contributing to obesity and rise in chronic heart and vascular diseases.
This seems intuitive since fat deposit causes obesity and cardiovascular diseases.
<!--more--></p>
<p>The truth is more complex.
Like proteins, fats are essential to our bodies.
Our brains are mostly fats and cholesterol and saturated fatty acids constitute the majority of the fats found there.
Saturated fats constitute the other important structures like the surfactant lining in our lungs and the majority of our cell membranes.
Saturated fats protect our livers against alcohol and toxin from medication, and play a key role in the functioning of our white blood cells.
To effectively get calcium into our bones, we need at least 50% of fats in our diets to be saturated fats.
Fat consumption is a key source of fat-soluble vitamins, like A, D, E, and K, and other essential nutrients.
Saturated fats lower blood levels of lipoprotein, a substance strongly linked to heart disease risk.<sup id="fnref:fat-more" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:fat-more" class="footnote">1</a></sup></p>
<p>The benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids is common knowledge, and tissues rich in saturated fats are found to have better retention of long chain Omega 3 fatty acids.
Given the right conditions, fat is an effective long-lasting source of energy.<sup id="fnref:sugar-fat" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:sugar-fat" class="footnote">2</a></sup>
Medium chain fatty acids, such as Caprylic acid and Capric acids from coconut oil, are easily converted into ketone bodies and can increase the amount of fat based metabolism.</p>
<p>But this does not mean we can now eat fats in abundance.
Fats are still a rich source of calories, a gram of fat gives 9 kcal of energy compared to 4 kcal from carbohydrates.
Taken with the right food, fat can be very satiating compared to the same amount of carbohydrates, and this compensates slightly for the higher caloric density.<sup id="fnref:satiety" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:satiety" class="footnote">3</a></sup></p>
<p>Some fats are either harmful to our bodies or can carry harmful substances into our bodies.</p>
<p>Most of the fat we consume today come from vegetable oils dominated by polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), often advertised as “heart healthy”.
PUFAs are unstable and easily transformed into harmful trans oils, turned rancid or oxidized when subjected to heat, moisture, and oxygen.
These compounds are highly reactive and damaging to our bodies.
Rancid and oxidized oils contain free radicals which attack a wide range of tissues, including our cell membranes, red blood cells, and our DNA and RDA.
Damages in our blood vessels by such free radicals is thought to be a major cause of fat deposit and clogging of these blood vessels.</p>
<p>Polyunsaturated oils are often hydrogenated into solids as replacements for butter and cream.
Hydrogenated oils contain high amounts of trans fats that are toxic to our bodies.
Trans fat can be mistaken by our bodies and used in place of naturally occurring variants, and in doing so, they disrupt the cell metabolism.
Hydrogenated oils such as margarine or shortening (still commonly used in pastries) are linked to a wide range of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, low birth weight, immune system dysfunction, etc.</p>
<p>Some PUFAs, such omega 3 and omega 6, are building blocks of our mitochondria, and are essential to our bodies.
However, high ratio omega 6 to omega 3 has been linked to systemic inflammation and various diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
Studies have found that ratios of 2:1 to 5:1 or below to be beneficial to diseases ranging from colorectal cancer, breast cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.
Our modern diets have an omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of between 15 to 50:1 in some estimates, this is driven by the widespread use of omega 6 rich vegetable oils, and the increase in omega 6 and decrease in omega 3 in the meats and eggs from feedlot grain-fed livestock.</p>
<p>Besides saturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, there are also monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). MUFAs tend to be stable, and does not oxidized or go rancid. They tend to be relatively neutral for our health.</p>
<p>Some recommendations:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Saturated fats are stable and required, and should be consumed.<sup id="fnref:overconsumtpion" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:overconsumtpion" class="footnote">4</a></sup> Saturated fats are most commonly found in animal fats such as butter, ghee, lard, tallow, duck fat, or with eggs and fatty meats. <sup id="fnref:animal-fats" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:animal-fats" class="footnote">5</a></sup> Tropical oils like coconuts and palm oils are good to plant based sources of saturated fats.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Meats can be fried in their own fats. For instance, grass fed rib eye and strip loin, pork belly and pork collar, fatty fish like salmon, lamb chop, and duck thighs.<sup id="fnref:iberico" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:iberico" class="footnote">6</a></sup> Ghee (clarified butter so it does not contain burnable protein), duck fat, and lard are also good for cooking other things and makes vegetables taste especially good. You can also use coconut oil and palm oil for cooking though not everyone like the strong taste from these oils. For deep frying, use duck fat if you can get it, or peanut oil, which though it contains about 34% of omega 6, and negligible omega 3, is often not processed as heavily as other vegetable oils. Needless to say, peanut oil should be used very sparingly.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Be wary of oils with the large proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids, in particular, those which are hydrogenated, highly processes, or poorly stored. This includes omega 3 oils and oils in nuts, so it pays to get a good source.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Avoid foods with high level of omega 6. Even if it is not subjected to mishandling, we already have a surplus of omega 6 from our diet and should be actively reducing it. Consider replacing the high omega 6 grain fed beef with the more omega 3 rich grass-fed beef. The same reason and advice apply to chicken and chick eggs. Some farm animals like mutton, lamb, pork and ducks, seems less susceptible to this imbalance though there are still some differences depending on the livestock’ diet.</p>
<p>Common vegetable oils, especially corn, safflower, sunflower, and cottonseed oils, contain more than 50% omega 6 and are often badly damaged by the extraction, processing, and storage. These should not be used.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Canola oil is frequently recommended as the most “heart healthy” oil based on its low saturated fatty acids (5%), high monounsaturated oleic acid (57%), and polyunsaturated fatty acids like omega 6 (23%) and omega 3 (10-15%). Unfortunately, there are some problems associated with canola oil.</p>
<p>Canola oil comes from LEAR (Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed), a variant of rapeseed that’s being bred to eliminate most of the toxic erucic acid. The extraction, deodorization, and processing of canola oil require high heat and pressure, causing most of the polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially the omega 3 fats to become rancid and oxidized. The extraction and processing of canola oil also involve toxic industrial solvent like hexane. Trace amounts of these would be left behind despite subsequent steps to get rid of them.</p>
<p>For these reasons, canola oil should be avoided.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Other great sources of plant-based MUFA and PUFA acids are olive oil, sesame oil, avocado oil, and flax seed oil, and nut oils like macadamia, walnut, and almond oils. These oils are also easily damaged by excessive heat and pressure or improper storage. Except for sesame oil which contains unique antioxidants that are not destroyed by heat, these oils should not be used be cooking. Flax seed oil, in particular, contains a high percentage of omega 3, but it should be noted that most of these are ALA (A-Linolenic Acid). Our bodies need long chain omega 3 fatty acids such as DHA and EPA, and only about 1% of ALA is converted into these.</p>
<p>Seafood is still the best source of DHA and EPA. One caveat, though, fishes tend to pick up pollutants from their environment. Large high-on-the-food-chain fishes like tuna and swordfish tend to accumulate high amounts of heavy metal, especially mercury.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:fat-more" role="doc-endnote">
<p>There are many more benefits of fatty acids, but those, and the details of the benefits already cited require more articles. I also left out the discussion on cholesterol in this post, but the general takeaway is that cholesterol is necessary for our bodies and that dietary cholesterol is not something to be concern about. <a href="#fnref:fat-more" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:sugar-fat" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Insulin which is secreted in response to elevated blood sugar, increases the storage of the excess sugar into muscles as glycogen, and into fat cells as triglyceride. It also shuts down the use of fat as an energy source by inhibiting the release of fats as fatty acids from the fat cells and shutting down fatty acid based metabolism in favor of glucose based energy production. It is very difficult for your body to reduce excess fat as long as your blood sugar is elevated. I believe this is why low carb diets work for quick weight loss, and why high fat and high carb foods like pastry (cakes, donuts, fritters) the worst combination for weight management. <a href="#fnref:sugar-fat" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:satiety" role="doc-endnote">
<p>I find high-fat foods (such as butter, lard, and cheese), fat as part of fatty meats, and fats in thick sauces to be satiating, and fats in desserts, snacks, processed foods, and used in stir frying or deep frying, are not. In fact, these foods are often formulated to be ultra-palatable, with combinations of oil, salt, sugar, and artificial flavorings. Making things worse, satiating fats tend to be highly visible, and these are the ones we commonly avoid while being not as careful with the non-satiating sources. <a href="#fnref:satiety" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:overconsumtpion" role="doc-endnote">
<p>With the usual advice against over consumption. <a href="#fnref:overconsumtpion" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:animal-fats" role="doc-endnote">
<p>While the saturated fatty acids in animal fats is seldom an issue, there are 2 other main considerations: 1) the ratio and amount of the accompanying omega 6 and 3, which can be good in grass-fed and pasture raised animal, but unhealthy in feedlot, grain-fed ones; and 2) contaminants such as antibiotics, heavy metals (in fish more than in land based animals), pesticides could accumulate in animal fats. <a href="#fnref:animal-fats" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:iberico" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Some meats such as pork from Iberico are especially prized for their omega 3 rich fats, in the form of Jarmon Iberico. One of my favorite breakfast is fried Iberico pork collar, with eggs fried in the fat from it. <a href="#fnref:iberico" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
2016-10-21T00:00:00+00:00/nutrition/starting_with_food/Starting With Food2016-10-18T00:00:00+00:0050s Fitcc@50sfit.comhttp://50sfit.com/aboutBetween 80% to 95% of dieters regain their lost weights within a year.<p>Diet is undoubtedly important whether you are looking to lose weight, gain weight, or improve your overall health.<sup id="fnref:health" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:health" class="footnote">1</a></sup></p>
<p>To most people, the word “diet” means short term partial starvation or meal replacements as a drastic measure to lose body fat.
This is not the type of diet we’re after. <sup id="fnref:fasting-exception" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:fasting-exception" class="footnote">2</a></sup>
An effective diet is one that can be maintained over the long term and one that enhances and maintains our health.</p>
<p>Such a diet must firstly contain and provide the nutrients that enable the proper building, repair, and functioning of our bodies.
It must provide macro and micro nutrients which support the many complex chemical processes that enable us to live.<sup id="fnref:biome" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:biome" class="footnote">3</a></sup></p>
<p>Secondly, a maintainable diet must be a satiating one.
It should leave us feeling full not just when we eat, but also sustain us until the next meal time.
We should depend not on our limited willpower<sup id="fnref:ego-depletion" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:ego-depletion" class="footnote">4</a></sup> to keep us from over consumption.<sup id="fnref:countingcalories" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:countingcalories" class="footnote">5</a></sup></p>
<p>Food also affects our moods and how we feel.
Through our own experiences or those of our children, most of us are familiar with the elation and hyperactivity from the sugar rush, and the fatigue, irritation, and lack of concentration from the sugar crash afterward.
Foods can affect how our brain perceive our fullness and our appetite.<sup id="fnref:leptin" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:leptin" class="footnote">6</a></sup></p>
<p>Finally, a maintainable diet must not harm our bodies.
It must not impede us from functioning as we should, and it must not cause us to be more prone to diseases and aging.</p>
<p>So instead of some strict calories counting or dietary restriction, let us start with replacing bad food with good, nutritious, satiating ones.
What are these good and bad foods?
My summarized recommendations are:<sup id="fnref:details" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:details" class="footnote">7</a></sup></p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>If you can only do one thing, reduce your sugar intake.
Reduce sugar and all products with excessive sugar, whether natural or otherwise.
This includes fruit juice, Milo / Horlicks / Ovaltine, low-fat milk / yogurt, breakfast cereal, and energy drinks.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Eliminate processed food and food-like substances, replace them with real food, i.e. where you can still see the individual meat, vegetables, and whatever ingredients that go into them.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Eat lots of vegetables, especially leafy ones.
Food or food like products derived from corn, potatoes, flour, or soybean should not be counted as vegetables, and if these are the only “vegetables” you take, you need to expand the range.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fats are satiating and mostly not as harmful as most of us believe.
However, good and bad fats affect us very differently, and it pays to distinguish them.</p>
<p>As a general rule, stay away from oils that could have gone rancid or became trans-fats from excessive heating and processing, and avoid those high on Omega 6 or linoleic fatty acid.<sup id="fnref:linoleic" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:linoleic" class="footnote">8</a></sup>
Eliminate or reduce deep fried food, margarine, hydrogenated oils, and vegetable seed oils such as those from canola, rapeseed, corn, cottonseed, sunflower, soybean, safflower, though these are frequently mistaken for healthy oils.</p>
<p>Don’t be afraid to replace these with food rich in saturated and monounsaturated fats such as from ghee and full cream milk from grass-fed cows, coconut, avocado, macadamia, olive or those occurring naturally in eggs, nuts, oily fish, cheese, butter, grass-fed beef, lamb, pork, etc.
Most of these are highly satiating so you would probably not overeat, but do be careful of some like nuts where it is possible to eat too much of.</p>
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<p>Meat, especially red meat, and organ meats, had been demonized with saturated fats and cholesterol rich foods.
Like fats, the quality of meat can vary greatly, the good ones are hugely satiating and beneficial to our health when taken appropriately.
It is very important to be selective with the animal protein you consume.
Chicken and beef are especially affected by modern feedlot techniques, such as antibiotics, confined living spaces, and inappropriate food.
For instance, grain fed cows are more susceptible to diseases and have a much higher ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acid.</p>
<p>Choose meats and products (eggs, milk) from pastured animals as much as possible.
Also eat fresh meats, and not processed ones like in hot dogs, sausages, ham, unless you know how it’s made.</p>
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<p>You do not need to avoid food that is high in cholesterol.
Our blood cholesterol levels are controlled by production in our livers and are not linked to the cholesterol levels in our food.</p>
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<p>Eat more shellfish and fish, which are high in Omega 3 and other nutrients.
Take note that large high-on-the-food-chain fishes like tuna and swordfish accumulate a large amount of mercury from their diets,
Compared to wild fish, farmed fish are also more likely to be less healthy and likely to carry more pollutants from their environments.</p>
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<p>Our Asian diets are often dominated by carbohydrate, and for most people, I recommend reducing carbohydrates.
Our digestive system turns carbohydrates into monosaccharides, or simply, sugar, and carbohydrate can affect us the same way sugar do.</p>
<p>If you need to eat carbohydrates, consider those with high fiber and nutrient contents like legumes, or starchy and bulky vegetables such as sweet potatoes, tapioca, carrots, turnips, pumpkins, squashes, etc.</p>
<p>You might also consider getting more healthy fats into your diet.
A high fat diet reduces blood sugar variation and can keep you feeling full longer. <sup id="fnref:carbofat" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:carbofat" class="footnote">9</a></sup></p>
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<p>Eat fermented food.
Fermenting food makes them more digestible, less harmful and can provide some additional nutrients not easily found elsewhere.
Active fermented food can also introduce beneficial bacteria to our gut microbiome.</p>
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<p>As risk management, reduce or eliminate products from wheat and most grain, such as bread, pasta, noodles.
Besides being high in carbohydrate, wheat contains gluten-related proteins that can potentially damage our intestine wall and cause inflammation and autoimmune responses.
It is still unclear how many people are really affected, though some have estimated that most are gluten sensitive even if we are not celiac patients. <sup id="fnref:beer" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:beer" class="footnote">10</a></sup></p>
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</ul>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:health" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Weight loss or reduced body fat is just part of our health goal. In fact, extremely low body fat can be as unhealthy as high body fat. <a href="#fnref:health" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
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<li id="fn:fasting-exception" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Not all short-term caloric restriction are bad if they are used for a specific purpose as part of long-term strategies. For example, intermittent fasting is sometimes used to activate autophagy and encourage usage of fat for energy. <a href="#fnref:fasting-exception" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
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<li id="fn:biome" role="doc-endnote">
<p>It must also provide sustenance for the trillions of bacteria residing in our guts and living symbiotically with us. More on that in other posts. <a href="#fnref:biome" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
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<li id="fn:ego-depletion" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Our willpower is limited and should be conserved for more important decision making. <a href="https://youarenotsosmart.com/2012/04/17/ego-depletion/">Ego Depletion, You Are Not So Smart</a> <a href="#fnref:ego-depletion" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
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<li id="fn:countingcalories" role="doc-endnote">
<p>In these five plus years of improving my health, I have not counted my caloric intake even once. I just make sure I’m sufficiently and not overly full. <a href="#fnref:countingcalories" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
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<li id="fn:leptin" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Leptin receptors in the hippocampus “tells” our bodies when we’re full and to stop eating. Elevated insulin has been found to affect leptin sensitivity. <a href="#fnref:leptin" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
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<li id="fn:details" role="doc-endnote">
<p>My original intention was to include discussion of all the recommendations into this article, but it is too much material that deserves more attention. I’ve moved the details into subsequent posts. <a href="#fnref:details" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
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<li id="fn:linoleic" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Although Omega-6 is required and an essential component of cell walls, most of us have too much Omega-6 compared to Omega-3. Modern western diets typically have about 16:1 omega 6 to omega 3 ratio, studies have shown health improvements in many diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases when the ratio are lowered to 4:1 and below. <a href="#fnref:linoleic" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
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<li id="fn:carbofat" role="doc-endnote">
<p>I’m frequently getting by with 2 meals a day when I consume enough fat. <a href="#fnref:carbofat" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
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<li id="fn:beer" role="doc-endnote">
<p>This can be a controversial one so take it how you will. Given the high cost of autoimmune diseases, it is probably wise to keep free of gluten. I went from making my own bread to not eating bread, pizza, pasta, noodles or anything containing wheat. I do not suffer from any outward symptom of gluten sensitivity but bread actually leaves me feeling bloated and hungrier. I still take beer occasionally, though… <a href="#fnref:beer" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
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</ol>
</div>
2016-10-18T00:00:00+00:00