SOME CONCLUSIONS AND SOLUTIONS TO BUILD UPON
The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.
Thomas A. Edison. 1903
PRINCIPLES WHICH HAVE MADE THE DIFFERENCE FOR ME, AND WHICH CAN DO THE SAME FOR YOU:
If you have read my introductory remarks then you know what was the impetus for my lifestyle transformation, and for the intensity and scope of my studies.
And transform I did !!
Around the time of my diagnoses in 2000 - 2001 my physical examination and blood lab results consisted of:
- Weight: 236 pounds
- Height: 6 feet 1 inch
- Total cholesterol : 247
- LDL cholesterol: 156
- Triglycerides: 187
- HDL cholesterol: 39
As I write this, today's date is October 19, 2018. I just returned from my annual physical exam, and these are the latest results:
- Weight: 188 pounds
- Height: 6 feet 0 inches ( ha ha... a bit of gravity at work over the 17 years ! ? )
- Total cholesterol: 175
- LDL cholesterol: 56
- Triglycerides: 52
- HDL cholesterol: 109
Quite an incredibly positive difference ? You betcha !
But... the latest, great results you see above did NOT require seventeen years to occur. These scores have been fairly typically moving in this positive direction resulting from about 2002 ... only a few months after I recovered from my treatments, and then began my new regimen of personal health interventions.
SO ... WHAT DID I DO ?
The various career(s) I have worked at in my life have all involved lots of physical exercise ... often intense exercise. I always thought that exercise was the key to everything, and therefore, I felt confident that I was going to be perfectly fine health-wise and weight-wise. While that may have seemed true in my teens and 20's, it did not ( nor does it ) hold true beyond that. The truth is that, while exercise is extremely important for especially cardiovascular, muscular, skeletal and general health, it is only about 5 - 10 percent of the equation ... and for weight loss and control it is only about 5 percent. Yes ... our bodieswere evolved to move, and to move puposefully. Otherwise we would never have developed the 206 bones and 600+ muscles we possess, along with their inter-related joints ligaments and tendons.
Certainly, to neglect exercise is a prescription for disaster. But ... more important for health is nutrition ... the very fuel required by our bodies, not only for survival, but also for optimal health and freedom from disease and disorder. Nutrition ! Nutrition in the form of REAL FOOD.
FAT DOES NOT MAKE US FAT
The headline on my homepage includes the words "SCIENCE-BASED" ... for good reason. For 50 years our dietary guidelines have espoused nutrition dogma that has no basis in science, whatsoever. Political, corporate and ego-driven motivation and contrived "studies" initiated and continue to spew erroneous and health-damaging nutritional advice to Americans. As a result, we have become fatter and sicker than ever in our history.
Yes, for a half-century fhe ridiculous "Dietary Guidelines for Americans" (DGA) advised trusting Americans to avoid fat and to gorge upon the "plant-based" foods, carbohydrate foods ... especially grain and other, starchy and low-fiber carbs. Grains,(wheat, corn, rice, rye, oats barley, etc.), even the so-called healthy "whole" grains, quickly transform to sugar when ingested, as do other high-starch carbs like potatoes. Rememberthat sugar, itself, is a carbohydrate, and all carbohydrates are sugar molecles, either single as a monosaccharide, or more sugar molecules joined togaether by atomic bonds as in di-saccharides and polysaccharides. Our bodies very easily break those chemical bonds during digestion, and our blood is flooded with sugar. That influx of sugar causes our pancreas to secrete insulin into our bloodstream to normalize blood glucose levels. Some of the glucose is used by our muscles and brain, and some is stored in the liver as glycogen. But the vast majority of that sugar is shunted to our fat cells for storage.
At one time in our evolution this storage process was very useful for survival, as homo sapiens lived for millions of years a "hunter-gatherer" / "feast or famine" existence. ( See my PHILOSOPHY section )
The ability to store fat prevented starvation. And our genes, developed during those millions of years HAVE NOT CHANGED ! Now ... in today's modern, "civilized" world we don't need to hunt or gather . We get hungry and we "hunt and gather" from stores, restaurants, refrigerators and cupboards. There no longer is "famine" in developed countries like the USA, and with the "feasting" being done predominantly on DGA - advised grain and other starchy carbohydrate sources (at the expense and vilification of healthy fat), the sugar-derived fat storage goes on ... and on ...
In 1900 Americans consumed, from ALL sources, around 80 pounds of sugar annually. Today that number is over 160 pounds, 80 percent of which is NOT contained in the usual subjects like candy, cookies, cupcakes, etc, but rather, hidden in the ingredients of processed foods. Out of the 600,000 "food" items available in a typical grocery store, 80 percent or 480,000 of those items contain added sugars.
Folks, the human body has NEVER evolved to be able to use. in a healthy manner, that amount of sugar. It is a disastrous act, being re-enacted day after day, year after year to the demise of millions of victims who have innocently, and for the most part, diligently followed the misguided, flawed dictums of the USDA and DGA.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/5-studies-on-saturated-fat
MY DIET
After many years of study and experimentation, my diet has evolved into an effective combination of mostly evolutionary nutritional principles and also low-carbohydrate / increased -healthy-fat.
With this formula and regular, moderate exercise I have been successful at bringing my weight down to the same 188 pounds I weighed when I got out of the Navy in 1968. Aside from some aches and pains from the craziness of the exercise of my youth, I have never felt better!
I CAN HELP YOU, TOO !
Most people without the training and study I have undertaken find the prospect of this degree of lifestyle change very daunting ... and rightly so.
That is why I'm here. I can help you to be successful, also. Just contact me by email: buonasaluta@yahoo.com, or, if you prefer, text or call: 508 237 9542 You will NEVER find a more affordable, effective message and method anywhere else.
Please view my "TESTIMONIALS" page to see comments from physicians, clients and their success, and others regarding my life, my work and my qualifications.
Some of my former students and myself. 2014.