Just about everyone has a problem with “tinnitus” at some time. It is thought there might be over 20 million adults in this country alone dealing with this problem regularly. Tinnitus is not a disease. It is a symptom of … Continue reading
Consider carrots. It is now believed that eating carrots might lessen your risk of heart disease and many types of cancer. But there are many other nutritional benefits too. For example, carrots provide complete nutrition to the body. One hundred … Continue reading
In a significant study involving 34,000 participants over a period of six years, it was discovered that men who drank five or more glasses of water per day had up to 51% fewer fatal heart attacks than those who drank less than two glasses of water daily.
Results for women were also favorable, with women who drank five or more glasses of water daily having 35% fewer heart attacks.
One possible explanation is that water appears to dilute your blood enough to help make it less prone to a clot, which can trigger a deadly heart attack.
You should work for a health insurance provider. I have worked for several of them. Let me clue you in to a few startling facts. If you are already sick, your insurance company will probably do whatever it can to … Continue reading
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So far science has isolated and identified over 12,000 different nutrients in plant food. To most effectively enhance health and strengthen your immune system, you need a little bit of every one of them on a daily basis. They are … Continue reading
According to the latest World Cancer Report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, cases will nearly triple by the year 2030. Type 2 diabetes has been described as a new epidemic in the American pediatric population that has … Continue reading
Isn’t this beginning to sound exactly like a weight loss advertisement?
Trust me, this is not an advertisement. It is just an interesting story.
Years ago I was dating a young lady who was concerned about losing weight. She had joined Weight Watchers, and she was trying hard to follow the plan as carefully as possible. Incidentally, one of her recommended meals was liver and onions … definitely not on my “favorites” list. But she had found a restaurant that served what she felt was a fairly tasty liver and onions dinner, and she persuaded me to try it. I guess it was “alright.” I learned something … on their best day, liver and onions are alright. Let’s not talk about their worst day!
Connie explained the Weight Watcher program to me in some detail and even loaned me her Weight Watcher book. At the time, I was approaching 200 pounds … maybe not all that bad for a healthy young man 6’1” tall. Still, I considered giving her diet a try myself, until I discovered the complexity of it. When it came to eating, Connie was constantly reading, measuring, calculating, converting, contemplating, considering, discussing, planning, shopping, and preparing. And then, after all that effort, she would occasionally go out and buy a big cherry pie and sit down and eat the whole thing in one celebratory and victorious meal, followed by a brief but troubling struggle with depression.
Connie wasn’t fat. She thought she was. I didn’t think she was, and I tried to tell her so. But I didn’t help matters once when we were at the beach, and she asked me to put sun tan lotion on her back. I replied, “Well I would if I had a paint roller.” I couldn’t resist. Ya’ know, we never did get married.
One day I happened to weigh myself. God Grief! I was 205 pounds! Now I was fat! At that moment I decided to go on a Weight Watcher diet myself and get down to 175. I read the Weight Watcher book once again. I decided it the Weight Watcher plan was way too complicated. So I made up my own version of a genuine, Weight-Watcher-approved menu:
Breakfast
One soft boiled egg
10 ounces of skim milk
Two slices of dry toast (no butter, jam or margarine)
4 ounces of fruit juice
Lunch
4 ounces of tuna
2 slices of bread
4 ounces of fruit juice or 1 piece of fruit (apple, orange or peach)
1 diet soda
Dinner
4 ounces of vegetables
8 ounces of beef, chicken or fish
4 ounces of fruit juice
I could only have beef three times a week.
So called “free” foods included diet soda, French cut green beans, cucumbers, and lettuce. I could have as much of these as I wanted.
I ate this way for five weeks. On any day that I wanted to go out for a beer or two, I would skip all three meals on that day to compensate.
Week #5 I weighed myself. 175 pounds! Terrific! So I decided to give it one more week, just to give myself a little extra “wiggle room.” At the end of that week I weighed myself again. 168 pounds! Suddenly I was afraid. How could I lose seven pounds in seven days?
That night I decided to stop the dieting, and go out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. I went to my favorite spot in down town Los Angeles, and had a dinner salad, meatballs and spaghetti, a Coke, and cherry pie and ice cream. Everything tasted different. The spaghetti sauce tasted too sweet. The Coke tasted like syrup. The cherry pie was way too sweet and rich. And the ice cream was just more than just “over the top.” I could only eat about half of my meal.
Nonetheless, I felt as “victorious” as Connie, but for a different reason.
The following Monday when I arrived at work, I told my secretary, “Well, I’m off of my Weight Watcher diet.” She asked, “You were on a diet?” I said yes. “To lose weight?” she anxiously continued. “Yes!” I replied. And I walked away.
The next few minutes I noticed there were a number of phone calls and hushed conversations taking place. When I stepped out of my office, co-workers looked at me differently. There seemed to be a slightly different “energy” about the office. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Eventually I asked my secretary, “What is going on here? Why are people looking at me?” She responded, “The past few weeks you seemed to be losing a lot of weight, and we were concerned that you might have a serious illness. Everyone is so relieved to hear that you were just on a diet!”
Of course several of the ladies had to know what kind of a diet it was that was so unbelievably effective. I explained that it is amazing how little food we can get by on, if we eat the right food. I also explained that I had not changed my routine, had not tried to get more exercise, and had not cheated on my diet, with the exception of the few days that I want to go out with the guys and have a drink – so on that day I had not eaten anything at all. I also explained that I had been drinking more water than usual and was not taking any nutritional supplements at all.
I do not recommend this diet to anyone. You can do far better, and the result will be far healthier. I just didn’t know any better, and I wanted a super simple solution.
My solution to losing weight begins with education and attitude. I believe there are some basics a person should know, even before getting started. Otherwise success may be elusive or short lived. Or you might simply continue a dangerous trend towards malnutrition. In other words, to lose weight, one needs to learn how to be successful at losing weight, even before learning how to lose weight. The approach to losing weight is going to be different for each person. For example, it is essential to realize that small changes in eating habits, over time, will lead to drastic improvements in health and even a better quality of life. But what changes? Like I said, that depends on you. Each person is different. Losing weight successfully means you have lost excess body fat, strengthened your immune system, and have migrated from “survival mode” to “thriving mode.” It requires that you become focused on “achieving optimum health” rather than “losing weight.” And finally, it means relying on “nutrition” and “psychology” rather than “diet.”
Recently I bought a new pair of Levis 501′s. The size: 32/34. I have not worn that size for several decades! A year ago I could never have imagined eating the way I do today.
Let me repeat: you simply will not believe how little you need to eat, in order to achieve and maintain optimal health — to “thrive” instead of “survive” — to feel young again, to feel flexible, alert, and bursting with energy — simply by eating properly. Food is the most powerful medicine in the world!
A recent Roper Starch worldwide survey of 30,000 people between the ages of 13 and 65 in 30 different countries showed the following:
Other studies published in the past two years have revealed that greater demands in the workplace are causing many employees to work longer hours, take on more responsibility, and experience greater anxiety and stress. This is leading to depression, poor nutrition, and weight gain. The study predicted that the toll from the resulting medical problems — such as diabetes, cardiovascular and orthopedic problems, may linger into retirement.
But that is just the beginning. Here is a list of 47 potential consequences of stress:
Let’s think for a moment about “predisposition.” Often people claim that cancer, or heart disease, runs in their family, and for that reason they feel there is little they can do to prevent it.
Dr. Delia Garcia, a well known radiation oncologist, begs to differ. She explains and I quote:
“The Japanese are some of the healthiest people in the world. They have very low rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and a lot of the diseases that we see in this country.
However, when the Japanese move to the United States, their incidence of all of these chronic diseases begins to skyrocket. Now their genetic material does not change by flying over the ocean. But what does change is their diet. They start acclimating to the American diet. Food is a powerful medicine. Probably the most powerful medicine you will ever take. Food can either strengthen our immune system or it can weaken it. It is as simple as that.”
If you believe you are predisposed to certain diseases, then it is all the more essential that you rely on nutrition to fortify your immune system and substantially decrease your probability of death from any disease. This is called “prevention.”
In March of 2009, Frontline presented a documentary on PBS titled “Sick Around America.”
It was an investigation of our broken health care system and underscores the importance of prevention.
One person interviewed in this documentary summed it up in this way: “There isn’t any country in the developed world where you have to put off major surgery because you couldn’t pay for it.”
During the first few months of the recession 4.5 million people lost their jobs, and their health insurance.
In 2004 Paul Stevens was living comfortably as a manager for a Houston-based telecommunications company.
He had a large house. He had comprehensive group health coverage.
In 2005 he was laid off along with 600 hourly employees. He was permitted to continue his own health insurance for 18 months under the Federal COBRA law by paying for it himself. It was $700 a month. He elected not to pay it.
COBRA premiums are so expensive that 90% of those eligible do not use that option.
Paul tried, but he could not find another job with health benefits.
In the private, individual market, insurance companies take steps to avoid insuring anyone who is already sick. So to get insurance, you must grant the insurance company access to all medical records ever developed on you. People are turned down if they have hay fever, acne, if they are determined to be 20 pounds overweight … even if they have had an ear infection.
If your health insurance company discovers you had a prescription for Prozac to help you cope with a death in the family ten years ago, and you subsequently answered “NO” to the question, “Do you have a mental illness?” then your medical insurance can be permanently rescinded.
Health insurance companies pay bonuses to employees based on the number of policies they are able to rescind.
Paul Stevens was diabetic so he was turned down flat in the individual market. He then turned to the Texas high risk pool. He had to wait 18 months, and he had to pay $600 a month for insurance with a $10,000 deductible.
Then, unemployed and uninsured, Paul Stevens had a heart attack. His medical bills were over $200,000.
Paul sold his house and filed for bankruptcy. He was too rich for Medicaid, and to young for Medicare.
He moved to Indiana to live in his mother’s house.
A Harvard law school study estimates about 700,000 Americans go bankrupt each year, partly because of medical bills.
No other developed country’s health care system lets that happen.
According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, about 20,000 Americans die each year because they can’t get the health care they need.
How many of us in this very room could this happen to?
The rising cost of medical insurance and health care coupled with the remarkable inflexibility of insurance companies leaves us with few affordable solutions other than prevention.