Avoid processed foods entirely. 65% in carbohydrates with high fiber and whole foods. Choose your fat in your low-fat diet carefully with high amounts of monounsaturated and Omega 3 fats, particularly EPD and DHA. Boost your protein to 20% minimum, as protein digestion is not as good in old age, and there is significant muscle loss.
Category: Diet
Sugar and Salt
I’ve been reading John McDougall’s book The Starch Solution. He’s definitely in the low-fat camp of vegans, and does point out that starchy vegetables, by and large, are very low in fat, which is one reason one can eat a lot of such foods because they tend to be low in calories with such low-fat content.
He surprised me with his comments about sugar and salt. Most of these nutrition gurus condemn both. Sugar because of the empty calories and salt because of its impact on blood pressure — not McDougall. He says go ahead and add a little sugar or salt to the starchy foods if that makes them more palatable for you. He doesn’t see the harm in doing that at all.
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.
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.
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
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.
Deficiencies
80% of the people are deficient in magnesium; 90% in vitamin D. How’s your GABA?
Small Changes Make a Millionaire
Make a small change for better health outcomes in your diet each day. Can be even a very tiny change, but is nevertheless a clear improvement health-wise. But do it every single day without fail. Use some kind of reminder in the morning in order to decide from the get-go what the small change will be for that day. If you miss a day, make 2 small changes the next day to catch up.
In 12 months, your overall diet will be transformed almost completely for vastly better health.
Like the age-old saying goes, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. So it is with diet, also.
What Is Healthy Cooking?
No-oil and no-salt cooking. Minimize saturated fat and cholesterol. Zero refined sugar. No rationalizations and no excuses.
Old Age and Digestion
If you are into your 60s and 70s, it would be a good idea to take a digestive enzyme pill with your primary meal, as these enzymes decrease with old age, so that without a supplement, you are getting much less value from the food that you eat because it doesn’t get thoroughly digested for lack of digestive enzymes.
Yet another problem with old age and digestion is that the hydrochloric acid produced by the stomach to breakdown food decreases with old age, so that food — and proteins in particular, which are more complex compounds — don’t get broken down as efficiently by digestion in the stomach for lack of this acid, which is another reason why the old should increase the amount of protein in their diet somewhat to compensate for this inefficient digestion. A sprinkle of lemon juice on your salad would help here with digestion in the stomach.
Henry's Views 