Amazing how many mistakes one makes in a single day. Most people just ignore minor mistakes and move on, but if you register and keep track of all of them, they add up big time. Of course, there are those people who are much more meticulous and deliberate in their actions, and so make far fewer mistakes, but I think this is a tiny minority. Most of us makes dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of mistakes every day. I think therefore that humanity is actually very mistake prone — perhaps much more mistake prone then is commonly realized.
Useful Question
Why are you eating what you eat?
Antidepressant
I’ve been on an antidepressant now for 15 years, but there was a mix-up in renewing the prescription recently, and I had to be off it for 3 days while my providers sent an emergency supply to me. I was very concerned with harsh withdrawal symptoms. Yet what really annoyed me was being so dependent on others for this drug to get to me in a regular way. I didn’t like that dependency at all.
I was bracing for the withdrawal symptoms, but by the end of the 3rd day, I had felt nothing — nada. So when the pills arrived in the mail, I had a decision to make. Do I go back on the medication or do I quite the antidepressant?
It has now been a month without the antidepressant, and all those terrible withdrawal symptoms that they talk about and warn about — none of them happened.
Makes me wonder whether I’ve been taking this antidepressant for the last few years unnecessarily?
Binders and Toxins
Something new for me — binders. These are substances that can bind with toxins in the body in order to remove them. Chlorella, clay, charcoal, etc. are standard binders. You can get a pill/supplement that has a combination of all the common binders.
Prevailing sentiment these days is that we are all subject to a vast number of toxins in our environment, so that it may be wise to take one of these supplements now and then in order to detox more efficiently.
The one thing you have to watch out for with binders is constipation, which is counterproductive for removing toxins, as bowel movements are a major vehicle for removing toxins. So if you are experiencing constipation, that is a signal that you need to back off your use of binders or lower the dosage.
Health
What gives you health? Nutrition. Sleep. Exercise. Stress management. Pills and surgery don’t.
Food Addiction
Much more common than people realize. Perhaps 75% of the population. Think those particular foods, like donuts, that you know are unhealthy, but you eat them regularly anyway. That’s food addiction.
Not only do you eat unhealthy food, but it creates craving and hunger with insulin spikes.
Conversely, when you become fat adapted, hunger is uncommon, and you seldom feel cravings for food.
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.
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
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
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.
Henry's Views 