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

Suntan Lotion

Not a big fan of suntan lotion for 2 reasons. The first is that you want to have UV light impact your skin to convert the cholesterol in the skin cells to vitamin D3. A large percentage of population is deficient in Vitamin D, which means, overall, weaker support for your immune system (Vitamin D is critical for the immune system) as well as poor absorption of calcium and therefore weaker bones.

The second reason is that whatever you put on your skin gets absorbed through the skin. Your skin is basically highly porous. In effect, whatever you lather on your skin, you will ultimately be ingesting through the skin. And this happens without the protection provided by the intestines with regard to the food that you actually eat, i.e., the protective barrier incasing the small intestines because when you lather a substance on the skin, it penetrates right into the blood vessels — no protective barrier. All those crazy chemicals in the suntan lotion — no doubt many of them toxic — are going right into your blood vessels, through the porous skin.

So the issue with sunshine is how much is the right amount, and how much turns into a risk for skin cancer? There’s a healthy amount and an unhealthy amount. Figure that out, and skip the toxic suntan lotion.

Edible

Sarcopenia

Muscle loss in your 60s and 70s can really accelerate. The appropriate response to that appears to be upping one’s protein intake somewhat (because your digestion of protein in old age is not as efficient), and increasing strength training so that you keep restoring muscle as a counterbalance.

But doing nothing about it leads inevitably to frailty in old age.

Deficiencies

Sulforaphane

Sulforaphane.  Pharmaceutical companies have studied it for years because of its very positive effects on cancer.  You get it when you chew raw broccoli because then two compounds in the broccoli come together and create this new compound.  Even better if you chew the raw broccoli with mustard.  Broccoli sprouts have 10x the amount of sulforaphane as the mature plant.  Grind up a small amount of the sprouts as the first ingredient in your smoothie, but not too much because the taste is terrible.

Best Vegan Protein Sources

Cinnamon Sweet Potato Recipe

I take Tahini and vegetable broth and blend in a blender. Then put the solution in a large bowl with a little nutmeg and allspice, cut up the sweet potato into bite-sized pieces with the skin left on (the skin has a lot of the potato’s nutrition), and tumble all the sweet potato pieces so that they are coated with the solution. Then I put in a large amount of cinnamon so that the sweet potato pieces are heavily coated with the cinnamon.

Roast for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.

The best sweet potato for doing cinnamon sweet potato is the purple sweet potato. I swear it is like eating cake, not potato. Only issue is that this is SO delicious you can’t stop eating the cinnamon sweet potato — the dopamine rush is so intense.

Nuts