Category Archives: health

Movie: Genetic Roulette

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I have to confession to make. While I suspected that there were Bad Things about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), especially the food we eat, I never looked into the issue in any real detail. So when I cam across the website for the movie Genetic Roulette the other day, it caught my attention.

So imagine my surprise to find that the full length movie was available on-line!

We watched it the other night and were treated to a well assembled movie showcasing the basic information about GMOs, how government regulation (at least in this country) is non-existent, and the apparent effects of high-GMO diets on both lab animals and real read-blooded humans.

Let’s just say it’s not a pretty story. But it definitely makes you think harder about the rise of inflammatory related chronic diseases, food “allergies” and immune disorders.

Unsurprisingly, the advice that you walk away with is:

  1. don’t trust the government to keep our food supply healthy
  2. don’t trust big companies to keep our food supply healthy
  3. eat organic, whole, unprocessed and unmodified foods as much as possible

There are some pretty interesting parallels between the behavior changes humans (especially children) and animals when they’re on high-GMO diets (as many unknowingly are nowadays, thanks to a lack of regulation and labeling laws).

A few places in the film felt highly speculative (lacking good scientific basis), but the speakers did not use language which tried to trick us. I’m sure some of this is due to lack of information, funding, and research. But there’s clearly an element of wishful thinking (wanting to draw connections between various observations that haven’t really been tested yet). Thankfully, the majority of the film was on pretty solid ground and was definitely informative.

I definitely recommend watching it if you’re curious about GMOs and our country’s apparent resistance to regulate them in the least.  It may also be worth buying the full DVD to support the movie and get the other bits of bonus material that come with it. It looks like it contains more of the hard science and references.

After watching this film, you’ll come away with a new-found “respect” (and by respect, I mean disgust) for Monsanto and their influence on our government policy.

Homemade vs. Store Bought

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We make the vast majority of our own food these days. I guess that makes us bad “consumers” but we’re generally trying to avoid store bought “processed” foods. When some people hear the term “processed foods” they wonder what that really means? Does it mean you can’t use machines to sort your apples and peaches? No, not really. Processed food is food that is made in a factory and includes a lot of ingredients that you’d never use in your own kitchen.

To get an easy comparison between homemade foods and their store-bought processed counterparts, check out Ingredient Overload: Store-Bought vs. Homemade. What you’ll see is that the factory-made “food” typically contains twice as many ingredients (often more). And, if you spend a few minutes and try to actually read the labels and identify the additives, you’ll realize that you don’t know what most of them are–let alone why they’re there.

Most of them are there to increase shelf-life and make food easier to transport. Some of them are there to artificially enhance the food’s flavor (either so you’ll eat more or to cover up the lack of flavor present without the additives).

Which would you prefer? Which is going to be healthier for you in the long run?

Opportunities to Learn for FREE!

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An imporant healthy habit, as discussed in the Longevity Project, is lifelong learning.  Today there are several opportunities to pick up new skills and learn new subjects online.  Over the past year, Jeremy and I have found several resources to learn and actually receive a completion certificate from top universities for free.  Subjects include (but are not limited to) business, finance, nutrition, the sciences, engineering, programming, history, math and philosophy.

Check out the links below and see if there may be something worth your time. :-)

Coursera:  https://www.coursera.org/courses

MIT Open Courseware:  http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

My Latest Bood Test Results

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After more than a year of eating a lower-carb, high fat and protein diet, I got a regular blood panel as part of my annual physical. And while I’m probably not going to post the report PDF that I got via email, I will quote the summary that came in the email.

- Your blood glucose (sugar) and electrolytes are normal, and your kidney function tests are all perfect.

- Your screening test for diabetes shows that your hemoglobin A1c (a measure of average blood sugar) is in a healthy range.

- Your lipid panel (a.k.a. cholesterol) results are good. In particular, your triglyceride level is excellent; your HDL (“good cholesterol”) is superb (the higher this number, the better); and your LDL (“bad cholesterol”) is in safe territory. (Considering your low risk for coronary heart disease and stroke, we’re happy with any LDL under 160.) Based on these results, you can wait until your next physical exam before getting rechecked.

I guess there’s something to this way of eating, huh? :-)

And what is “this way of eating” about? Well, I’m not as strict as many people, but I do avoid processed foods as much as possible (including most wheat products) and try to eat locally grown/raised whole foods as much as possible. I skip the sugar and sweet stuff as much as possible (the only exception being fresh fruits).

Of course, feel free to poke around our site and read more about it.

And, in case you forgot, Kathleen had good news on her blood tests too.

Dr. Oz Discusses Functional Medicine

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Recently, I saw an episode on Dr. Oz that surprised me.  It discussed doctors who work in the area of functional medicine.

This episode surprised me since the show usually discusses unusual foods and treatments to alleviate specific aliments.  Instead of providing a clear picture of how to obtain and maintain good health (in general), it makes good health appear complicated and confusing.  In addition, it doesn’t help that the show’s sponsors sell sugar-laden cereals and other very unhealthy processed foods!  OK- enough of my griping about Dr. Oz.

Functional medicine has many similarities to holism philosophy and it is very different from conventional medicine.  Rather than treating the symptoms of disease, it seeks to find and treat the root causes.  The experts of functional medicine featured on the show cite malnutrition and toxicity as the two main culprits causing disease. In addition, the doctors iterated that “food is medicine”.  This is similar to Hippocrates famous quote: “Let thy food be thy medicine”.  They work with patients to optimize their diets to eliminate processed foods, sugar and carbohydrates and to integrate healthy fats and proteins.  The doctors work with patients to solve digestive problems that can inhibit the absorption of nutrients and expelling of toxins (also known as leaky gut).

Another significant distinction between these two types of medicine is that conventional medicine identifies patients as either sick or healthy.  Functional medicine treat health as a wider spectrum extending from optimal health to various levels of degraded health and then to sickness.

Finally, functional medicine views the body as one integrated system.  Conventional medicine treats organs seperately and are divided by medical specialties.

The following links from the Dr. Oz website provide additional information about this field:

 

Fermented Salsa Recipe

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Recently, we have been picking several pounds of heirloom tomatoes from our garden.  Many have accumulated in the kitchen.  In an effort to use them before they spoil, we decided to make fermented salsa.  Inspired from a Nourishing Traditions recipe and The Art of Fermentation, I made several jars worth or about 6 cups.

To start with, have several clean jars and lids on hand (they should all be washed with hot water prior to using them).  Next gather all you ingredients.

Ingredients include:

  • 6 ripe large tomatoes that have been skinned, seeded and diced
  • 1 medium diced onion
  • 5 to 6 diced jalapeno peppers
  • the juice of 2 lemons
  • 1 bunch of cilantro diced (stems removed)
  • 1 teaspoon of sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon of minced oregano
  • 6 tablespoons of whey
  • 6 to 8 minced garlic cloves

A note on making whey:  Leave a cup of raw milk at room temperature for 1 to 4 days until milk solids separate from the semi-clear liquid (aka. whey).  Separate the whey from the milk solid by pouring the mixture through a cheese cloth.

I started by preparing the tomatoes.  To skin them, place one at a time in filtered boiling water for 5 seconds or so.  You’ll see that the skin is bunching up.  Then remove and peel the skin off the rest of the way.  After skinning the tomatoes, I cut each perpendicular to the core and scoop out the seeds with my finger.  After removing seeds, I then diced them.  I used a combination of Yellow Boy and Purple Cherokee tomatoes.  I suggest using your favorite ones. I added the tomatoes  to a large bowl.

Next, I cut the lemons in half and squeezed their juice into the bowl.  Be careful not to get lemon seeds into your mix.

I then added the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and folded the mixture with my hands.  You may want gloves for this process since the jalapeno can sting.  Also, you may not want to use all the jalapeno seeds if you want a milder salsa.  We like it hot, so we added the seeds of 4 of the 6 jalapenos.

We put the mixture into the jars and closed the lids tight.  We put them on our window sill for five days so that the fermentation process could start.  This morning, I open the jars to see how they looked.  Mold was on the surface of the salsa for 3 of the 4 jars.  This is normal since the oxygen present at the top of the mix and the warmth of the room promotes mold to grow.  I scooped this off with a spoon and put them in the refrigerator.

I did taste the salsa from one of the jars.  It may be the best salsa I have ever had!  It is spicy hot and has a great tomato flavor.  The other ingredients are more subtle but blend well to give the classic fresh salsa taste.

Give this recipe a try and let us know what you think.

Most Claimed Research Findings Are False

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In a recent article in STANFORD magazine, I came across the work of J.A. Ioannidis who caused a metaphoric earthquake in the medical field.  J.A. Ioannidis is a specialist in meta-research or the study of studies.  He along with a team of researchers re-analyzed data from previous published medical studies and found that “it can be proven that most claimed research findings are false”.  His pivotal work was published in 2005 in the Public Library of Science.  You can download the paper from this link:

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0020124

This is a significant problem since research findings are used to:

  • market treatments for the chronically and critically ill
  • dictate the diets we should feed our families to ensure good health
  • provide guidance to medical experts on how they should treat patients.

Ioannidis’ team analysis found that published studies often lacked reproducible results.  They also found that the studies themselves used ill-founded strategies for claiming positive research findings.

Bias is one of the key culprits for this problem.  Biased findings occur in industry- sponsored studies.  However, they also occur with funding from most other sources.  The reasoning is that medical professionals feel pressure to publish in high impact journals to promote their career and secure future funding.  To do this, they need to report high impact findings in their research.  Negative or null research findings do not receive the same attention.  The team estimates that 99% of the studies they reviewed yielded null results.

Due to the existing health and health care crisis in the U.S., Ioannidis’ work is recieving attention in the medical community.  We hope this will lead to greater scrutiny of ongoing medical research and the claims that researchers make.

The Things Happy People Do

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Recently, I was reading an article from Oprah’s site entitled “5 Things Happy People Do”.  The list includes:

  • Strive towards excellence based on your talents.  This means taking on challenges and fulfill your sense of purpose in life.
  • Design your life to bring in joy.  Stated another way, spend time doing things you enjoy.  Minimize time doing things you hate.
  • Avoid the “if only” fantasies.  In reality fulfilling these fantasies won’t be enough to make you happy.
  • Put high quality relationships first.
  • Allow yourself to be happy.

Based on several books I have read over this year, I would modify this list to include:

  • First and foremost, strive for optimum health.  Consult with a nutritionist and learn to eat healthy.  Meditate, exercise and aviod toxins.  The Longevity Project found that those who are healthy are also happy (not the other way around!).
  • Be an active participant in your life.  Be willing to try new things and be willing to fail.  In the spirit of this, I have included a picture of me flying my glider in Minden, NV.  It was scary flying this the first time but I had a great experience and look forward to flying it again this weekend.

Several other sources agree that establishing a sense of purpose and having positive relationships are beneficial to happiness and also longevity.

Who Lives the Shortest Lives?

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According to the eight decade long study presented in The Longevity Project those from the study who lived the shortest lives included:

  • Those who experienced combat in war.  Returning soldiers from World War 2 who fought in the Pacific tended to fair the worse of all who returned from the Great World War.  Upon returning, they tended be depressed and drink heavily.
  • Children that started school early.  They get a head start in school by starting kindergarten at a younger age than what is normal.  As these children progress through school, they tended to be isolated and feel social out of place.
  • Children of divorced parents.  For children who experience the divorce of their parents, they tended to drink excessive alcohol or smoke as adults.  They tended to engage in riskier behavior.  They were also more likely to experience divorce themselves later in life.
  • Drink alcohol excessively or smoked.   Some in the study were characterized as very sociable but they did not live to an old age.  People in this group tended to drink excessively and smoke.
  • Loaners.  People without a social network suffered from not having someone to look out for them and help them through hard times.
  • Drifted from job to job.  This group had a lack of purpose.  They tended to follow an unhealthy life path.
  • Catastrophize.  Typically, these people view their lives as a total mess.  They were most likely to die from suicide or a violent death.

Typically, those who lived the shortest lives had a combination of these traits.  In addition, there were people in the study who had some of these traits or behaviors and went on to live past sixty years old.  The key for these people was to get onto a healthy life path.

Who Lives the Longest?

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The Longevity Project concludes that those who lived the longest lived healthy throughout their lives.  According to this study, healthy behaviors or characteristics include:

  • Have a sense of purpose.  These people had a career in which they were able to make steady progress towards goals.
  • Have a social network.  This would often include a spouse (especially for men), a church group, the broader community or a close group of friends.  The social network looks out for each other protecting them from ill health or accidents.  However, don’t let this group influence you to excessive drinking or smoking.
  • Do not smoke or drink alcohol excessively.
  • Stay active.  There was no secret exercise such as jogging for those who have lived the longest.  Instead, each person would stay active with activities they enjoyed such as gardening or walking.  The key was to do something they enjoyed so they’d keep on doing it.
  • Be persistent.  Interestingly, those living lives with low stress did not live the longest.  It was rather those who aggressively pursued a career with persistence that lived the longest.
  • Be prudent.  These people tended to go to the doctor when they were concerned with their health.  They tended not to engage in risky hobbies or activities.  (Remember the SNL skit of George H.W. Bush saying “that wouldn’t be prudent”?  He is in his eighties.)
  • Don’t retire. Those who stayed active in their careers from their seventies to their nineties ended up living the longest.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that some of these conclusions challenge common wisdom.  The list makes more sense to me when looking at the collection of traits and behaviors and not looking at them in isolation.