Author: Henry Barnard

I am a voracious reader and also enjoy writing. I often have a very different point of view than the popular one. I do see value in debate, and thought it might add to the public debate on controversial issues if I were to express my contrarian opinions. I also started keeping my poems recently (I've written little pieces my whole adult life but never kept any); and I've been a photographer now for over 25 years. So I will be adding an occasional poem and hopefully interesting photograph to the blog along the way, just to spice things up.

Inflexible Diet Regimens

What I find is that people who follow a particular diet too fanatically often rationalize and therefore attempt to dismiss the weaknesses in their diet.

For instance, the followers of the carnivore diet take issue with the idea that saturated fat can produce heart problems or that eating all that much fiber is necessary. Problem is saturated fat has been proven to cause a spike in blood cholesterol, which you don’t want, and everyone now knows that getting plenty of fiber is critical for supporting a healthy microbiome. So instead of being typical deniers of these facts, those who follow a carnivore diet should instead figure out a way to minimize, to the extent possible, their saturated fat intake as well as a way to boost fiber consumption.

Another example would be followers of the vegan diet. Here the problem isn’t what most people think — getting enough protein — but instead getting enough Omega 3 fats DHA and EPA. Everyone knows that the body can be very inefficient in converting ALA to both of these other Omega 3 fats, so that eating a large amount of, say, flax meal isn’t going to correct this deficiency. Yesterday, I listened to an ethical vegan who tried to make the argument that science hadn’t actually proven that getting substantial amounts of DHA and EPA was all that critical — I say, baloney! Here again, what vegans should do instead is admit this shortcoming and perhaps introduce a small amount of wild-caught salmon to their diets to address this serious deficiency.

I think a lot of the confusion about food stems from this inclination of fanatics committed to a certain way of eating who attempt to rationalize and dismiss the shortcomings in their diet. The unfounded assertions they make lead to a lot of confusion, particularly when they say — and they frequently do — that science supports their point of view when in fact it clearly doesn’t.

Vegan Deficiencies

Different Sugars and Their Fructose Load

Fructose is not metabolized by the body but is turned directly into fat by the liver. That’s not a good thing — both for the accumulation of fat but also for the hard-press liver. So the best choice for sweeteners is one with a relatively low percentage of fructose in the blend of its different sugars.

Worst case scenario is agave nectar with 90% fructose. You should avoid agave nectar for this reason. HFCS comes in at 56% and related corn syrup at 55% — both very high. Cane sugar comes in at 50%, while honey is a bit lower at only 40% and has some anti-bacterial benefits as well.

One potential winner in this race to lower fructose levels is rice syrup with no fructose at all, but the caveat here is that its glycemic index score is a whopping 98, which is terrible, and means that this one will really spike your insulin levels and quickly. So another no go.

But that there is a clear winner. That would be maple syrup with a mere 4% for its fructose load. So if you want to sweeten with a real sugar, the best choice is an obvious one.

Vegan Deficiencies

Vegan Deficiencies

While veganism with a whole food, plant-based diet has huge health benefits, there are unmistakable nutritional deficiencies in pure veganism, but they are not what is commonly assumed, i.e., protein deficiency

The most obvious one is B12, and most vegans know that they must take a B12 supplement to correct this. But other less obvious common deficiencies include: Omega 3 fats DHA and EPA, iodine, zinc, calcium, choline, vitamin d3, and the essential amino acid lysine.

Therefore, while the vegan diet, of all the diets, may be the healthiest, it needs to be tweaked quite a bit for one to avoid these very specific deficiencies on a pure vegan diet, which all can have seriously negative impacts on one’s health.

Calorie-Deficit Diet

Calorie-Deficit Diet

Joel Fuhrman, my nutritionist guru, maintains that the best diet for longevity is one with a slight calorie deficit.

I use cronometer to record everything I eat, and it gives me a very precise picture in terms of calories. I know that if I eat 2100 calories, my weight remains extremely stable, so in order to attempt this slight calorie deficit routine, I’m shooting for between 1800 and 1950 calories.

So far, I’ve found that it is easy to do, as it only takes taking out one or two foods that I normally eat to meet the requirement, and I can alternate which of those foods I’m going to remove, so that the nutritional profile remains very consistent.

For weight loss purposes, I think a slight calorie-deficit approach is much better than severe dieting with large calorie deficits, because with severe dieting, one typically ends up binging and regaining whatever weight was lost in the first place. But with a slight calorie-deficit, one is getting plenty of regular nutrition, and so there is much less risk of uncontrolled binging for regaining weight that was lost very gradually.

Fructose

Sugar Addicts

A fairly high percentage of Americans are now sugar addicts. “Addicts” is not hyperbole as the mechanism of their addiction is the same for more classic addictions — the pleasant release of dopamine. A major culprit in this widespread addiction is the food industry turning out process foods with incredible amounts of added sugar. This is an industry providing the “hit” to their addicts.

What is the fallout to this sugar addiction? One significant ramification is that the palate of these sugar addicts becomes extremely narrow. What they seek out, generally speaking, from their food are sugar, fat, and salt — the calling cards of process foods. Those are the acceptable tastes, and what doesn’t fit into that scheme, like sour or bitter tastes, is avoided. Unfortunately, sour and bitter foods are some of the most healthy and nutritious, and for a palate with a healthier range of acceptable tastes, even some of the most delicious.

But a more sinister implication is that cancer loves sugar. Massive and regular injections of pure sugar into one’s system is a breeding ground for tumor growth. And they wonder why there is so much cancer. Look no further than the now common sugar addiction.

Premeal “Cocktail”

Oil Issues

There are a lot of issues with having much oil in one’s diet.

First and foremost is that oils, even the so called “better” oils, don’t have the nutritional punch to justify the calorie impact. So it is much better to eat actual olives than to use olive oil because the olives have all the nutritional profile of the olive, including significant fiber. Much of that nutritional profile gets stripped away when they create the oil.

It has been discovered that all oils have a deleterious effect on the body’s production of nitric oxide, which is key in protecting the elasticity and health of one’s arteries and blood vessels. So oils may undermine one’s heart health.

Consumption of oil makes the blood flow in one’s body much more viscous. The higher the viscosity of one’s blood, the weaker the flow. Why is that important? It is important because blood flow is the key mechanism for delivering oxygen and nutrients to the cells. Therefore, oils can undermine the health of your cells.

For these and perhaps many other reasons, don’t believe the hype that there are specific good oils that promote your health. They don’t — none of them do. You should minimize and/or eliminate oils in your diet, including cooking with oil.

Challenge

Premeal “Cocktail”

I put 2 tablespoons of chia seeds into a 12-ounce, cold-pressed greens juice that I get from Whole Foods, and let the chia seeds expand and soak in the liquid. I add a large dollop of Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar, which is fermented. I grate fresh ginger and add a tablespoon. I add 2 tablespoons of Psyllium Husk fiber. I shake the bottle frequently so that all the ingredients meld together.

I take 3 or 4 large gulps of this solution 20 minutes before my main meal of the day. The expanded Chia seeds as well as the fiber slow down the absorption of any carbohydrates in the main meal, so that you get a much reduced insulin spike. The vinegar in Braggs as well as the fresh ginger improve digestion and so your actual absorption of the food that you subsequently eat. It’s not what you eat, but what you actually absorb from your food that matters.

Fructose

Fructose

Evolution has played you relative to fructose.

Primordial man –this is, the human condition for much of the million years we have been around — was faced with frequent periods of starvation. So the body learned to store fat as a natural defense against this likely occurrence. Fructose was a major piece of this mechanism, as it is not metabolized by the body but instead is turned into fat by the liver. For much of human history, that mechanism with fructose in fruit was a good thing — as it protected us from the frequent periods of starvation, i.e., the body would have a reserve of stored fat in order to survive those periods.

Fast forward to today, when in the developed world food is so abundant and easily available, and the obesity rate is through the roof. Now, the fact that fructose isn’t metabolized but turned into fat becomes a significant liability. Here evolution has been stood on its head — what was once a benefit with fructose has become a serious shortcoming.

Sarcopenia