Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is the NUMBER 1 KILLER of men and women in North American. Since 1984, more women than man die from CVD every year. Here are the top 6 killers of women and men in order:
Top 6 Killers of Women
1) Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)
2) Cancer (lung, breast, colon...)
3) Respiratory/Lung Disease
4) Alzheimer's Disease
5) Diabetes
6) Pneumonia/Flu
Top 6 Killers of Men
1) Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)
2) Cancer (lung, prostate, colon...)
3) Accidents (car,...)
4) Respiratory/Lung Disease
5) Diabetes
6) Pneumonia/Flu
Women live on average 8 years longer than men (sorry, life's not fair) which is why Alzheimer's shows up on the list for women and not men and since there is a higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s as you age. This also means that most men will be dead before they will lose their minds (although some women would disagree!!)
All joking aside, the main point here is that taking care of your heart needs to be your top priority. I can remember my aunt, who has a strong gag reflex, asking her dentist if she really needed to floss ALL her teeth. His response was "No, only the ones you want to keep." So when people ask me if they really need to exercise and eat healthy, can you guess my answer? These things are not optional if you want to live a long and healthy life.
The good news is if you take good care of your heart, the rest of your body will follow. First, it is a good idea to know your Cholesterol levels and check your Blood Pressure on a regular basis just so you know your risk factors.
One of the best ways to lower Cholesterol is to increase your fiber since fiber binds with fats, such as Cholesterol, and is excreted. The easiest way to do this is to add 2 Tbsps of ground Flax Seeds to your diet every day. Flax is easy to digest, it is loaded with Omega 3 Fatty Acids, it binds to fats and toxins, it promotes good bacterial growth in the intestines and it makes the stool slippery so bowel movements are easier. Psyllium is often recommended, but I don't like it as much because it has no Omega 3's and it absorbs 40 times it's weight in water, so if you don't drink enough water you can actually become constipated.
Of course the best fiber comes from fresh fruits and vegetables. You absolutely must consume these daily. I know you have heard that a gazillion times and there's a reason for that - IT'S TRUE. The fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients (phyto = plant) are absolutely vital to your health. The more nutrients you get into your body from natural sources, the less likely you are to crave junk food. Many North Americans, despite eating vast quantities of food, are literally "starving to death" because they are not getting nutrients into their bodies from eating highly processed foods that are devoid of all nutrients. When the body is starving, triglyceride levels become elevated and insulin resistance develops which can lead to Type 2 Diabetes (watch for another blog posting to come)
Fish oil has natural anti-inflammatory properties and studies on patients with CVD have found that inflammation is a major cause of the CVD so taking fish oil helps reduce the risk. Cold water fish such as salmon, herring, trout and mackerel are an excellent choice.
Eating Oatmeal, that is traditional oats - not the quick oats, is a great way to lower Cholesterol. They are a rich source of Tocotrienols - these are "relatives" to the vitamin E family and prevent oxidation of LDL Cholesterol.
Almonds and walnuts are a great source of monounsaturated fatty acids. Studies have shown that walnuts significantly increase the elasticity of the arteries.
Reduce simple sugars and eat foods with a Glycemic Index rating of less that 55 (http://www.glycemicindex.ca/glycemicindexfoods.pdf). This is great strategy for reducing all disease. Low Glycemic foods do not spike blood sugar levels and start the insulin roller coaster that leads to nothing but trouble.
Now for the dreaded "E" word - EXERCISE. No one is expecting you to become a marathon runner, but everyone can at least go for a 20 minute fast-paced walk every day. I get up 30 minutes early every morning (and I am NOT a morning person) to go for a bike ride. I always feel amazing afterward. Load your IPod or MP3 with some great tunes, or better yet, a motivational CD, and the time will fly. Your heart is a muscle and you absolutely have to exercise it.
Remember, keeping your Heart Healthy means keeping you Healthy.
Showing posts with label Cholesterol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cholesterol. Show all posts
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Frequently Asked Diet Questions
What's the number one dietary myth?
The biggest dietary fallacy is the notion of a "healthy, balanced diet." There is no such thing. The only "healthy" diet for you is one that is compatible with your metabolic type.
Why do diets fail? In other words, why do so many people find it impossible to lose weight and keep it off?
Most weight loss approaches only address the symptoms of obesity, not the underlying cause of obesity. The underlying cause of obesity is metabolic imbalance caused by peoples' failure to meet their individualized, genetically-based nutritional requirements.
Why is obesity a runaway epidemic in the United States? Why are people in Europe and other regions of the world far more fit and trim?
The robust health and fitness often seen in people in other cultures has a great deal to do with the fact that they adhere to "native" or "ancestral" diets, i.e., they eat specific foods and food combinations that their systems are genetically designed to handle.
What's wrong with high protein diets? Or high carbohydrate diets? I know people who have succeeded with both these approaches.
There's nothing wrong with these dietary approaches. They can and do work for some people. The problem is, standardized or "one-size-fits-all" diets only work by chance -- for those people who happen to have metabolisms well suited to these approaches.
I tried a high protein diet and it worked great for a while; I lost weight and felt energized. But now it's not working anymore. I feel fatigued and the weight is coming back.
Peoples' dietary needs are not only infinitely variable; they can also shift, for any number of reasons. Metabolic typing is revolutionary because it allows people to tailor a diet to their own highly specific needs, and to modify their diets if their metabolism shifts.
Why do I feel tired all the time, even though I eat a very healthy, balanced diet, exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep?
You can be eating all the highest quality foods and taking good care of yourself, but if you're not eating according to your metabolic type, you won't be able to efficiently convert food into energy; you will store it as fat instead.
Why have Americans gotten so much fatter in recent years, even though we're consuming much less fat?
Contrary to popular wisdom, fat is not what makes people fat. What makes people fat is their inability to eat the right proteins, carbohydrates and fat in a ratio that is appropriate to their metabolic type.
The high protein, high fat diets are all the rage now, but they seem dangerous to me.
In some places in the world, there are people who have thrived for centuries on diets very high in proteins and fat. Their metabolisms have evolved in accordance with their habitats. For instance, in traditional Eskimo cultures, there is virtually no heart disease or cancer, even though these people consume extraordinarily large amounts of meat and fat.
Don't I have to be very careful about how much cholesterol I consume?
No. Unlike what you've been taught to believe, the build-up of unhealthy cholesterol is not a function of how much cholesterol-rich food you consume. Rather, it's the result of disordered cholesterol metabolism, which is caused by eating a diet inappropriate for your metabolic type.
Is it true that "one man's meat is another's poison?"
Yes, it's literally true. The very same diet that can cause chronic illness in some people can actually prevent and reverse the identical health disorders in other people. For example, people who come from cold, harsh, northern climates tend to need high-protein, high-fat diets in order to sustain themselves. On the other hand, people from tropical or equatorial regions tend to thrive on much lighter foods, i.e., diets much lower in protein and fat, and higher in carbohydrates.
Why is there so much variation in peoples' dietary needs?
People have different metabolic and dietary needs as a result of evolution and adaptation. Over a period of many years, our ancestors developed specific dietary needs in response to specific aspects of their environment -- climate, vegetation, food supply, etc.
Why do we need metabolic typing to identify what our needs are?
One reason is that our society has become a "genetic melting pot." Before the modern age of mass transportation, when societies were far more isolated and homogenous, people just automatically followed their "ancestral diets." The food they had available was the very food that was healthiest for them. But today, due to industrialization, our food choices are endless. And due to so much intermarriage and intermingling of people from so many different cultures, many of us have genetic influences from many directions, and no clear cut or readily identifiable "ancestral diet."
visit www.myhealthybalance.com to learn more
The biggest dietary fallacy is the notion of a "healthy, balanced diet." There is no such thing. The only "healthy" diet for you is one that is compatible with your metabolic type.
Why do diets fail? In other words, why do so many people find it impossible to lose weight and keep it off?
Most weight loss approaches only address the symptoms of obesity, not the underlying cause of obesity. The underlying cause of obesity is metabolic imbalance caused by peoples' failure to meet their individualized, genetically-based nutritional requirements.
Why is obesity a runaway epidemic in the United States? Why are people in Europe and other regions of the world far more fit and trim?
The robust health and fitness often seen in people in other cultures has a great deal to do with the fact that they adhere to "native" or "ancestral" diets, i.e., they eat specific foods and food combinations that their systems are genetically designed to handle.
What's wrong with high protein diets? Or high carbohydrate diets? I know people who have succeeded with both these approaches.
There's nothing wrong with these dietary approaches. They can and do work for some people. The problem is, standardized or "one-size-fits-all" diets only work by chance -- for those people who happen to have metabolisms well suited to these approaches.
I tried a high protein diet and it worked great for a while; I lost weight and felt energized. But now it's not working anymore. I feel fatigued and the weight is coming back.
Peoples' dietary needs are not only infinitely variable; they can also shift, for any number of reasons. Metabolic typing is revolutionary because it allows people to tailor a diet to their own highly specific needs, and to modify their diets if their metabolism shifts.
Why do I feel tired all the time, even though I eat a very healthy, balanced diet, exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep?
You can be eating all the highest quality foods and taking good care of yourself, but if you're not eating according to your metabolic type, you won't be able to efficiently convert food into energy; you will store it as fat instead.
Why have Americans gotten so much fatter in recent years, even though we're consuming much less fat?
Contrary to popular wisdom, fat is not what makes people fat. What makes people fat is their inability to eat the right proteins, carbohydrates and fat in a ratio that is appropriate to their metabolic type.
The high protein, high fat diets are all the rage now, but they seem dangerous to me.
In some places in the world, there are people who have thrived for centuries on diets very high in proteins and fat. Their metabolisms have evolved in accordance with their habitats. For instance, in traditional Eskimo cultures, there is virtually no heart disease or cancer, even though these people consume extraordinarily large amounts of meat and fat.
Don't I have to be very careful about how much cholesterol I consume?
No. Unlike what you've been taught to believe, the build-up of unhealthy cholesterol is not a function of how much cholesterol-rich food you consume. Rather, it's the result of disordered cholesterol metabolism, which is caused by eating a diet inappropriate for your metabolic type.
Is it true that "one man's meat is another's poison?"
Yes, it's literally true. The very same diet that can cause chronic illness in some people can actually prevent and reverse the identical health disorders in other people. For example, people who come from cold, harsh, northern climates tend to need high-protein, high-fat diets in order to sustain themselves. On the other hand, people from tropical or equatorial regions tend to thrive on much lighter foods, i.e., diets much lower in protein and fat, and higher in carbohydrates.
Why is there so much variation in peoples' dietary needs?
People have different metabolic and dietary needs as a result of evolution and adaptation. Over a period of many years, our ancestors developed specific dietary needs in response to specific aspects of their environment -- climate, vegetation, food supply, etc.
Why do we need metabolic typing to identify what our needs are?
One reason is that our society has become a "genetic melting pot." Before the modern age of mass transportation, when societies were far more isolated and homogenous, people just automatically followed their "ancestral diets." The food they had available was the very food that was healthiest for them. But today, due to industrialization, our food choices are endless. And due to so much intermarriage and intermingling of people from so many different cultures, many of us have genetic influences from many directions, and no clear cut or readily identifiable "ancestral diet."
visit www.myhealthybalance.com to learn more
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
