We need to get back to eating foods that kept our ancestors healthy for thousands and even millions of years. There's a lot we can learn from the past and those who don't learn the painful lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. So here's a little retrospective music for looking back to learn our lessons to help us cope with the future. (click the small arrow on the lower right of each video for full screen)
Live the Life.
One minute I held the key Next the walls were closed on me And I discovered that my castles stand Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand
Viva la Vida - Coldplay 2008
If you love someone, don't forget to show it.
When the future's architectured By a carnival of idiots on show You'd better lie low
Violet Hill - Coldplay 2008
Horrible History. Let's not repeat it.
If I were your appendages I'd hold open your eyes, so you would see That all of us are heaven sent And there was never meant to be only one To be only one
Megalomaniac - Incubus 2004
More questions than answers.
Why do we never get an answer When we're knocking at the door With a thousand million questions About hate and death and war
It's where we stop and look around us There is nothing that we need In a world of persecution That's burning in it's greed
Questions - Moody Blues 1970
Sometimes you don't know what you have until you lose it.
Oh no, not me We never lost control You're face to face With the man who sold the world
The Man Who Sold the World - Nirvana
To be or not to be ... selfish? Does it really matter?
Nothing really matters Love is all we need Everything I give you All comes back to me
Nothing Really Matters - Madonna 2006
And here's a little tribute to modern medicine, drugs, and poor diet.
I want you to know He's not coming back Look into my eyes I'm not coming back
Knives Out - Radiohead 2008
And running the rat race.
Find out who you are before you regret it Because life is so short, there's no time to waste it
Run Baby Run - Garbage 2005
But don't panic.
And we live in a beautiful world Yeah we do, yeah we do
Don't Panic - Coldplay 2001
Who makes up all the rules?
We follow them like fools Believe them to be true Don't care to think them through
They - Jem 2005
To our children's children's children.
With the eyes of a child You must come out and see That your world's spinning 'round And through life you will be A small part of a hope Of a love that exists In the eyes of a child you will see
Eyes of the Child - Moody Blues 1969
A celebration of femininity.
Wherever, whenever We'll learn to be together
Suerte - Shakira 2004
I view the list And take my pick I view my fate And make a choice 'Cause it's nobody else's but mine
Breathe Your Name - Sixpence None the Richer 2006
And masculinity?
Pay your surgeon very well To break the spell of aging Sicker than the rest, there is no test But this is what you're craving
Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers 1999
Who knew the other side of you Who knew what others died to prove Too true to say goodbye to you Too true, too sad sad sad
Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers 2006
And now for a lighter note or two. We need more sun and fun. Get that vitamin D!
It's not having what want It's wanting what you have
Soak Up the Sun - Sheryl Crow 2002
On an island in the sun We'll be playin' an' havin' fun
Island in the Sun - Weezer 2001
A little dancing is good exercise.
Casino - Acoustic Alchemy 1992
With a love like that, you know you should be glad!
She loves you/I want to hold your hand - The Beatles
Don't take it for granted :)
Happy Holidays !
P.S. Thanks to Wildernessgal for the inspiration for the title to this post.
Many of us are deficient in vitamin D, especially at higher latitudes in the winter. Until recently, vitamin D was thought to mainly play a role in calcium metabolism. But recent investigations have discovered that it plays many important roles in the health of our immune system as well. Chronic vitamin D deficiency leaves us more vulnerable to infectious diseases as well as cancer and perhaps even heart disease. The correlation of colds and flu to winter and rainy season around the world may be a prime example of vulnerability to infectious disease because of vitamin D deficiency. The correlation of many cancers by latitude may also be an indication of the effects of vitamin D deficiency in causing cancer (though correlation does not prove causation).
Our early human ancestors in Africa had plenty of sun to maintain optimal vitamin D levels most of the year. Today, people living in this area who get good sun exposure are generally able to achieve about 40 to 60 nanograms of vitamin D per milliliter (ng/ml) of blood and this appears to be near the optimal level. Ultraviolet (UV) light forms vitamin D from a cholesterol-derived precursor in the top layers of the skin (another reason why cholesterol is good). Sun angle, cloud cover, altitude above sea level, skin exposure area, skin color, sunscreen usage, obesity, and age are all factors that affect the body's ability to make and utilize vitamin D from sunlight. With optimal conditions, it only takes about 10 minutes of full-body high-angle direct sun exposure for the body to produce about 10,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D. Darker skin color and sunscreen both block UV light and reduce the vitamin D rate of formation. Obese and elderly people also need more sun exposure to achieve optimal blood levels of vitamin D. Above about 35 degrees latitude, the winter sun is inadequate to provide enough vitamin D to maintain optimal levels, even with full and frequent exposure.
Sunshine Dilemma
Strong sunlight on our skin is necessary to produce vitamin D but also ages our skin. Diets high in polyunsaturated fat especially make the skin more vulnerable to damage from UV rays in sunlight - another good reason to limit polyunsaturated fat to ancestral intake levels of around 4% or less. Sunburn especially damages the skin, by literally burning the skin and can cause first, second, or third degree burns. So, those with fair skin need to be very careful to avoid sunburn when getting vitamin D from sun exposure.
Supplementing Beyond Sunshine
When adequate sunshine is not available, vitamin D levels need to be maintained by diet and/or supplements for optimal health. The foods highest in vitamin D are mostly animal seafoods, as shown in the table below. The problem is, there are many confounding factors in determining how much dietary vitamin D is necessary to achieve optimal blood levels. Part of this problem is that vitamins D, A, and K2 all interact synergistically and increasing one without increasing the others is more likely to lead to toxicity problems. Getting plenty of calcium and magnesium are also important to prevent toxic effects from high intake of vitamin D. Dairy and animal seafood are excellent sources of these minerals.
Vitamin D in Food (click to enlarge)
At high latitudes in winter, getting as much as 1,000 to 4,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D by diet or supplement may be neccessary to achieve optimal blood levels. Some people may need that much from food or supplements year-round. Others may need little extra vitamin D from diet. The best way to be sure how much is needed is through blood testing.
Blood Testing for Vitamin D
The best blood test to indicate vitamin D status is the 25(OH)D (25-hydroxyvitamin D) test. Ideally, 25(OH)D levels should be at least about 30 to 40 ng/ml for optimal health. The cost for this test ranges from about $50 to $150 and is usually not covered by insurance - even though vitamin D status is probably as much or more important than most covered parameters (a sad comment on the poor state of our modern "health care" system). Ideally, testing should be done at least twice a year, once in summer and once in winter.
Update 2010 December 5
There is controversy over the optimal blood levels of 25(OH)D and unfortunately we are a long way away from having good long-term scientific studies to help us better understand what is optimal. For an excellent review of the science to date, see this article by Chris Masterjohn. Some researchers have speculated that optimal 25(OH)D blood levels should be in the 50 to 60 ng/ml range or even higher, but so far the science does not clearly support that contention. Also, considering that our ancestors got their vitamin D from sunshine and nutrient dense foods, this ancient approach seems best for promoting optimal vitamin D status since it includes other co-factors necessary for proper vitamin D metabolism.
There are several widespread misconceptions about fat that might be hilarious if they didn't lead to the poor health of millions of people:
Eating fat will make you fat. Saturated fat is bad for health. Polyunsaturated fat is good for health. Low fat diets are good for health.
These misconceptions are partly responsible for the obesity epidemic and an important contributor to the the declining health of millions for people around the world. Here's the real truth about fat:
Eat more fat to lose weight. Excess carbohydrates (sugar and starches) will make you fat. Saturated and monounsaturated fat are good for health. Polyunsaturated fat should be restricted to about 4% of total calories. Artificial trans-fats should be avoided completely.
Eating more fat to lose weight seems like an oxymoron. But ironically, because of the satiating effect of fat, most people eat fewer calories in the long run when they eat a higher percentage of calories as fat. And eating fewer calories will lead to weight loss if your activity levels remain the same.
Eat Carbs Get Fat
When you eat more carbohydrates than you burn, your body converts the carbs to saturated fat and stores it in fatty tissue. Eating large amounts of refined carbohydrates, like sugar and white flour, causes a rapid rise in blood sugar levels. In healthy people,the pancreas then releases insulin to reduce blood sugar by storing small amounts as glycogen while large excesses are stored away as fat. Diets that are high in refined carbs often lead to a roller coaster ride with a blood sugar high followed by a blood sugar crash. With the blood sugar high, you may briefly feel happy and energetic. But when your blood sugar crashes you will likely feel tired, irritable, and hungry. If you then eat more refined carbs, you keep the roller coaster ride going. Over time, it can lead to obesity and insulin resistance and then type II diabetes.
Saturated versus Polyunsaturated Fat
Saturated fats have falsely been blamed for increasing risk to heart disease largely because they tend to raise low-density lipoprotein (LDL) "cholesterol" levels. Likewise, polyunsaturated fats are supposedly heart healthy because they reduce LDL "cholesterol" levels. But LDL levels are not a strong indicator of heart disease, and in fact oxidized LDL is a much stronger indicator. How does LDL get oxidized? Polyunsaturated fats are more prone to oxidation in processing, storage, and cooking, and when ingested, they end up in LDL. It's the oxidized polyunsaturated fats that greatly increase heart disease risk.
Saturated fats are mainly from animal foods that have been predominant in healthy human diets for hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of years. The change to more animal foods may be largely responsible for increasing human brain size and our evolution away from apes. So, it doesn't make much common sense that foods that nutured our ancestors for so long are now suddenly bad for us.
In contrast, polyunsaturated fats were low in our ancestral diets and have increased dramatically in consumption the last 100 years with the large-scale production of cheap vegetable oils like soybean oil, corn oil, safflower oil, and sunflower oil. Also, entirely new to the human diet within the last 100 years, are artificial trans-fats, mainly in the form of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Trans fats appear to be even worse than polyunsaturated fats in causing health problems.
Polyunsaturated fats suppress the immune system and are involved in immune dysfunction as well. This effect increases the risk of illness and of a variety of cancers, as well as autoimmune diseases and an increased risk of asthma. Polyunsaturated fats also inhibit enzymes and thyroid function that are vital for bodily processes. Furthermore, they cause age spots on the skin because they are easily oxidized by sunlight and the oxidized fats damage skin cells. Oxidized polyunsaturated fats also wreak havoc elsewhere in the body and are implicated in inflammation, atherosclerosis, heart disease, and cancer.
Traditional Diets
Traditional diets typically had about 4 to 10 percent of total calories from polyunsaturated fat, with a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 polyunsaturated fat of 2 to 1. The low end of the traditional range appears to be an optimal amount for a healthy diet - around 4% of total calories. It's mainly the omega-6 polyunsaturated fats that have increased greatly in modern diets, primarily from vegetable oils that are used in processed foods and cooking.
Traditional diets were also low in sugar and keeping sugar to less than 10% of calories is probably ideal for optimal health as well. In the modern diet, most sugar comes in forms that are about half fructose, such as table sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Large dietary intake of fructose is implicated in a variety of metabolic syndrome problems, including insulin resistance, elevated triglycerides, abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, inflammation, oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, microvascular disease, hyperuricemia, glomerular hypertension and renal injury, and fatty liver.
PUFA in Meat and Dairy
The following tables show the percentage of calories analyzed as polyunsaturated fat calories in a variety of meat and dairy foods for reference. The data are from the USDA nutrient data base and are more likely to be representative of typical commercial meat and dairy products. Unfortunately, the USDA does not have data for pastured animal products, but game meat may be closer in this regard. Click on the tables to enlarge them.
We are symbiotic masses of trillions of one-celled creatures, some of which happen to carry the human genome and many of which do not. It's quite amazing, maybe even miraculous, how a consciousness can arise from this mass of tiny creatures we call a body or life form. That consciousness, or mind, or spirit, or whatever you want to call it is the focus of our being. Our senses can be viewed as a portal on the universe. In this way, every conscious life form is a portal on the universe.
Primal Forces
In my view, the forces of nature identified by science are the same as the will of the universe or God or Allah or Yahweh or Brahman or the great spirit or the creator or whatever you want to call the source and enforcer of these natural forces. In this universe, we are constrained to follow these forces. Ironically, our existence is only possible with the exact balance of natural forces that we observe. If these forces were different, our universe would be different and might not be capable of generating conscious life forms as we know them - the anthropic principle.
To me, it seems intuitive that for the universe to exist, it must have always existed and will always exist. Also, each conscious portal on the universe is the same ONE consciousness, just at a different location in space and/or time. It is the form of our consciousness that changes over time.
I am you as you are me and we are all together.
Duality of nature
Yin and yang
Female and male
Heads and tails Light and dark Day and night Good and bad Hot and cold Wet and dry Sweet and bitter Smooth and rough Forward and backward Selfishness and selflessness
"The relationship between yin and yang is often described in terms of sunlight playing over a mountain and in the valley. Yin (literally the 'shady place' or 'north slope') is the dark area occluded by the mountain's bulk, while yang (literally the 'sunny place' or 'south slope') is the brightly lit portion. As the sun moves across the sky, yin and yang gradually trade places with each other, revealing what was obscured and obscuring what was revealed."
Health of the Spirit
Health of the spirit or mind is an important part of our overall health. The mind has a powerful influence over our body, but our body also influences our mind. Pain or illness can be mentally debilitating. But the mind can choose how to react to stimuli from the body and can influence our health for better or for worse.
It's critical for our good health to eat a diet that will nurture our body, but our mind must chose to do so. We must learn what foods bring the best health to our bodies. We must also act on this knowledge to achieve optimal health.
It's important for good health to foster a positive attitude. Focus on the good things in your life. Don't dwell on the negative more than is necessary to deal with it. Find things that you enjoy. That can mean receiving pleasure as well as giving pleasure.
Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream. An infinite cosmic dream.
Recognizing some basic truths can make life more enjoyable for everyone.
You reap what you sow. What goes around comes around. Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Taking risks
Life is all about taking risks. With any action that we take, we have to weigh the possible benefits of success against the risk of failure or harm. Knowledge is our best tool to help in this process.
Balance
Finding the right balance between the benefits and risks in your life is probably the best goal. Don't try to do too much. You can't have it all, but you can have a lot. Cherish what you do achieve. You have to take care of yourself first, so you won't be a burden on others. But also, help others when you can.
Handling Stressful Situations
Chronic stress is linked to many health problems. Our best defense is a good offense. Recognize when you are stressed and take time to relax and rationally deal with the cause of your stress. Sometimes by planning ahead, you can avoid stressful situations. Also, confidence is a key to overcoming stress. Build your confidence by learning about the cause of your stress and finding ways to deal with it. Focus on the things in your life that you can control. There's no use in worrying about things you can't control.
Religion
Religion is the human effort to understand the forces we cannot control and to explain what happens to the spirit or soul after the body dies. Many people find comfort in following the rituals associated with religions. Religion can also help provide structure to an otherwise chaotic world for many people. The fact that there are so many religions with differing views is a sign that no human ever really knows all the answers to every question about the universe and probably never will. However, most religions do have common themes of helping others and having faith that good things will happen. The differences are in the details and unfortunately have led to considerable strife over the years. Probably the worst outcome of religions are zealots who believe that their way is the only way and anyone who seeks a different way is not worthy or is even condemned. If you choose to follow a religion, at least be considerate of those who choose not to follow that religion.
It's easy to take for granted the good things in life. Enjoy them while you can.
To infinity and beyond! May the force be with you! :)
The companies that develop and manufacture vaccines for profit and the clinics that provide the vaccines also for profit, would have us believe that vaccines will save us from disease while causing negligible harm. They point to the dramatic drop in disease as evidence of the effectiveness of vaccines and claim that risks in taking vaccines are minimal and well worth the benefit.
But a closer and independent look at the data paints a different picture. While some vaccines may confer a reduced likelihood of infection, all vaccines have significant side effects, with substanitial numbers of severe adverse reactions, sometimes resulting in death. Not surprisingly, there have been no long-term safety studies for vaccines where the health of vaccinated children is compared with an unvaccinated control group! We need to take a very careful and unbiased look at the benefits and risks of any vaccine before accepting it.
Most infectious diseases were already declining rapidly before vaccines were introduced, with little evidence that vaccines have made an improvement. Some vaccines are notoriously ineffective, such as the influenza vaccine. Many people who take the vaccine get the flu anyway. Even the most effective vaccines offer no more than about 40 to 60 percent effectiveness and some vaccines are actually suspected of causing cases of the disease they are supposed to prevent.
The above graphs show the decline in death rates from infectious disease in Australia based on the official death numbers and shown in the book Vaccination A Parent's Dilemma. Most other countries show a similar result.
Against this backdrop of uncertainty about the effectiveness of the vaccines, we have the problem of side effects caused by vaccines. In order to make a vaccine work, it must strongly stimulate the immune system into responding to the target agent given in the vaccine, usually a disabled version of the target infectious agent. But strongly stimulating the immune system has its own hazards, one of which is possible triggering of allergies to other non-infectious agents that just happen to be present when the vaccine is given or shortly thereafter. The rapid rise in asthma and allergies in recent years could be one of the consequences. Another hazard is the possible triggering of auto-immune problems like lupus and type I diabetes, and neurological problems, like autism. The pertussis vaccine has actually been used to induce auto-immune disease in laboratory animals. Another problem is that vaccines are often given several at a time to young children. This practice is likely to compound the effect on the immune system, which is not fully developed in young children. Yet another problem is that some of the adjuvants used to stimulate the immune system are poisons in their own right and can cause harmful side effects, such as aluminum hydroxide and aluminum phosphate. Finally, the production and preservation of vaccines introduces even more potentially harmful compounds directly into the blood, such as foreign animal proteins used to incubate the infectious agent, poisonous formaldehyde used to deactivate live infectious agents, and thimerosal with poisonous mercury which is still used to preserve some vaccines.
Below is a long but well worthwhile video about vaccines. It can be paused to take breaks by clicking on the start/pause button.
An excellent resource for vaccine information is the National Vaccine Information Center. They have information about individual vaccines as well as state laws and exceptions regarding vaccines.
Everyone knows what cholesterol is now - that stuff that clogs arteries and causes heart attacks, right?
Wrong!
When you get a blood test for "cholesterol", what they are measuring is not the chemical cholesterol directly, but instead is the total amount of certain lipoproteins that just happen to contain some cholesterol. It's a bit of a misnomer - sort of like calling a car an engine. Let's measure the weight of all those engines on the road by totaling the weight of all the cars on the road. What's worse, there are many other vehicles on the road that have engines but are not cars, like trucks and buses. Does it make sense to total the weight of just cars as an indication of the weight of engines on the road?
There is a chemical called cholesterol and it's an essential part of every cell membrane. It's a precursor to several important hormones and to vitamin D. It's considered both a sterol and a lipid, but not a fat. All fats are lipids, but not all lipids are fats. Cholesterol and fats are not soluble in water, but are needed by our cells. In order to transport cholesterol and fats through our blood, which is largely water, our body bundles them into packages of protein, fat,and cholesterol that can be carried in the blood. These packages are lipoproteins.
There are several kinds of lipoproteins the body uses for different purposes. They are classified by their density, which also roughly corresponds to their size. The largest and least dense are chylomicrons, followed by very low density lipoprotein (VLDL). Both of these contain cholesterol but are not included in total "cholesterol" blood tests. Next are low density lipoproteins (LDL), intermediate density lipoproteins (IDL), and high density lipoproteins (HDL).
In blood tests, the VLDL is called "triglycerides", even though all lipoproteins contain triglycerides (more confusion?) and "total cholesterol" is the total of LDL, some IDL, and HDL.
So how do cholesterol and lipoproteins relate to heart disease?
True cholesterol does not really appear to be a player in heart disease. It is actually very important for good health. However, glycated proteins and fats as well as oxidized fats, all of which can be incorporated into lipoproteins, do appear to play a role. Glycation occurs when a sugar molecule, such as fructose or glucose, binds to a protein or fat and oxidized fats are generally polyunsaturated fats that have been oxidized into peroxides. Some types of glycated proteins and all fat peroxides can cause a variety of problems and are implicated in both heart disease and cancer.
For optimal health, and thus avoidance of heart disease and cancer, we should be striving to reduce our load of glycated proteins and oxidized fats. Elevated blood sugar and triglyceride levels are correlated with elevated blood levels of glycated protein. So, obviously, keeping blood sugar and triglyceride levels normalized is ideal. Eat starches with fat and protein to minimize blood sugar spikes after meals or snacks. Don't eat foods with added refined sugar and don't eat too much fruit. Low-carb diets and/or excercise tend to normalize blood sugar and triglycerides.
The fats most prone to oxidation are polyunsaturated fats. Large amounts of dietary polyunsaturated fat are new to the human diet. Up until the last couple hundred years, the typical amount of dietary polyunsaturated fat was around five percent of dietary calories or less. Only recently has the amount of polyunsaturated fat been increasing dramatically in the human diet as cheap vegetable oils have displaced healthier animal fats in commercial food products. Keeping dietary polyunsaturated fats under four percent of total calories is ideal. That means avoiding most processed foods like sauces, dressings, baked goods, and most cooking oils, and eating only small amounts of nuts. Most commercial sauces and dressings are loaded with soybean oil or other oils high in polyunsaturated fat. Most commercial cooking oils are also high in polyunsaturated fat and sometimes trans-fat (made from hydrogenated polyunsaturated fat). That means avoid most commercial fried and baked foods.
Hopefully you are now less confused about cholesterol :)
Land of Confusion by Genesis (thanks to Yahoo Music)
It's really a philosophy for healthy eating that's been around for thousands of years and was put into perspective about 70 years ago by the work of Weston A. Price (WAP). The idea is to eat foods that kept our ancestors healthy and to avoid highly processed and refined foods that are low in nutrients and high in harmful additives. Actually, many people do lose weight using this approach to eating, but the main goal is getting good nutrition for optimal health. Normalizing weight is a fringe benefit :)
Not all of the foods that our ancestors ate were equally healthy. Some foods confer greater health than others. That's what Weston Price studied in the 1920's and 1930's when he traveled around the world to document the native foods that people ate and their health. His conclusion was that the healthiest native diets included animal seafoods, organ meats, and/or dairy in their diet. These are the foods that have provided optimal nutrition for thousands of years. He found that when people abandoned the healthy diet of their ancestors for a more modern diet of refined flour and sugar and highly processed foods, their health suffered greatly.
Today we see a massive shift to highly processed foods in much of the world and a corresponding rise in poor health. Rates of obesity are increasing rapidly as people follow sadly misguided conventional dietary and health advice and are confused and misled by advertising for manufactured fake foods. When they get sick, they are given expensive drugs that often cause more health problems than they solve. It's time to get back to the foods that kept people healthy for thousands of years and shun the modern manufactured fake foods.
The Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) has been teaching the about the WAP approach to eating for about 10 years now and is a good source for health and diet information. My experience is that each of us has to discover which ancestral foods are best for us by trial and error. Not all traditional foods are best for everyone. Try them out and find the ones that work best for your health. Here's a WAPF video that discusses Price's teachings:
Some people have food sensitivities to even some traditional foods that others are able to tolerate. Read here for more information about food sensitivities. That's why it's important to find the traditional foods that work best for your own health.
Well, maybe not quite the elixir of life, but my favorite daily drink is very nutritious and delicious :)
To make this tasty treat, I gently blend about a cup of raw milk, 1 or 2 ounces of raw cream, 3 or 4 raw egg yolks, and a heaping tablespoon of raw organic unsweetened cocoa powder. I use raw milk and cream from grass-fed Jersey cows. Their natural diet of grass provides the most nutritious milk and cream. Since it's not pasteurized or homogenized, the raw milk still has it's enzymes to help in proper digestion and absorption of the nutrients, as well as a compliment of probiotics - beneficial microbes that also assist in digestion and help to boost the immune system. The lactose in the milk provides plenty of sweetness, so there's no need to add any sweetener. I get the raw eggs from pastured chickens that also provide better nutrition than than factory farmed eggs. I leave out the egg whites because they contain enzyme inhibitors and avidin, a protein that binds to the biotin in the yolk to make it unavailable for digestion. Most of the nutrients are in the egg yolks anyway. I add the cocoa powder mainly for flavor, but it also adds additional minerals like copper, iron, manganese, and magnesium. Adjust the amounts to your own taste and appetite. You can also use fresh or frozen fruit for flavoring instead of the cocoa powder.
The tables below provide an estimate of the nutrients with one cup of milk, 2 ounces of cream, 3 egg yolks, and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. As you can see, it's a powerhouse of nutrition and what you won't see in these tables is the added bonus of enzymes that help to provide greater absorption of the nutrients, as well as probiotics which also assist in digestion and support immune function.
Table 1 Macronutrients
Table 2 Vitamins and Minerals (click on table to enlarge)
Table 3 Fats, Amino Acids, and Other Nutrients (click on table to enlarge)
Since fresh milk is the perfect food for growing young mammals, it makes sense that milk should be good for adults as well. For many thousands of years humans have been drinking fresh milk from cows and other mammals as part of a healthy diet. Fresh, clean, raw milk from animals eating their natural diet is nature's perfect drink. If it wasn't good for us, people would have quit drinking it a long time ago.
Pasteurized and homogenized factory farm milk is a whole different story. When this milk is fed to calves, they don't thrive and many will die. Not a good sign for our health either.
Stick with natural foods that have been keeping people healthy for ages.
OK, sorry, I'm not the most photogenic guy in the world and my daughter says I should dye my hair :)
But I'm almost 56 years old now and I'm working on losing some weight. I've managed to lose 8 pounds the last 5 weeks and I'd like to lose another 15 to 20 pounds. I'm trying the 16/8 approach where you fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8-hour period. Effectively, I'm cutting out my lightest meal of the day for reduction of about 500 to 800 calories each day. It may actually be healthier to eat during a shorter period with a longer fast because it forces the body to burn fat towards the end of the fasting period and should help to stabilize blood sugar levels for a longer time. Most people eat during a 12 to 16 hour period and fast for only 8 to 12 hours, mainly while sleeping.
I eat a fairly low carbohydrate diet, with about 50-60 percent of calories from fat and only about 20-30 percent from carbs. I try to minimize sugar and polyunsaturated fat - among the worst additives in the modern diet. The fat in my diet is mostly saturated and monounsaturated fat from pastured and wild animal foods. These are the healthiest fats that our ancestors have eaten for many thousands of years. The extra fat in my diet helps to curb hunger so I don't get very hungry during the 16 hour fasting period.
With my new routine, on workdays, I start breakfast at about 6:15 am and finish lunch at about 12:30 pm, which is actually a 6.25 hour eating period. On weekends and holidays, I push breakfast to around Noon to 1:00 pm and then finish dinner by 7:00 pm for about a 6 to 7 hour eating period. So, I'm really doing closer to a 17/7 or even an 18/6 regime. I've been very pleased with the results so far and highly recommend this approach to those of you who want to lose some weight.
To lose weight, you have to establish a calorie deficit - where your body is burning more calories than it receives from the food you eat. If your metabolism is in a steady state, that means increasing your exercise and/or reducing the number of calories you ingest. About three and a half years ago my weight had reached nearly 245 pounds while trying to do a low fat diet, where I had been gaining weight instead of losing weight. I switched to a low carb diet and decided to increase my exercise by walking 2 miles every day to try and lose weight. Most people burn about 70 to 100 calories per mile, whether you walk or jog that mile. That comes out to no more than 200 calories per day for a 2 mile walk. It takes net deficit of about 3,500 calories to lose a pound of weight. That means I should have lost about 2 pounds per month and I did actually lose about 10 pounds in about 6 months - but I gained most of it back that fall and winter by cheating too much and indulging in too many sweets over the holidays. It wasn't until I broke my sugar addiction and maintained a consistent low carb diet early the next year that my weight dropped significantly. I lost about 20 pounds in about 3 months doing a rigorous low carb diet with no cheating, thanks to dropping sugar as well as aspartame and sucralose. My weight loss then slowed and over the next 6 months I only lost about 10 additional pounds. My weight loss ended at that point and I started gaining weight very slowly. I gained almost 10 pounds over the next year and a half. I guess I like to eat too much. I did manage to lose about 2 pounds during the month prior to starting the 16/8 regime. My weight today is back down to 213 pounds, which is the lowest that I reached a little less than two years ago. My goal is to drop to at least 200 pounds, and I might keep going to 195 pounds, which is what I weighed at age 40. I will update this post when I reach my goal.
For those of you who want to lose weight - try the 16/8 along with a low carb, low sugar, and low polyunsaturated fat diet. Good luck!
Update November 11, 2008 After about four months now, I've lost 18 pounds and I'm down to 203 pounds! I plan to keep going for at least another 10 pounds.
Have you ever heard the expression "mad as a hatter"? In the past, mercury was used in curing felt, which in turn was used in making hats. The hat maker's exposure to mercury caused a variety of nasty symptoms, including confused speech, distorted vision, and premature death. Mercury has been known to be toxic since antiquity, but only recently has evidence accumulated to implicate mercury in a variety of health problems, even at relatively small concentrations. Today, some of the greatest mercury hazards in our environment are very close to home for many people - in the form of amalgam fillings and vaccines. Why this kind of mercury exposure is allowed for millions of people is a modern mistake of monumental proportions. And sadly, this unnecessary exposure continues today.
What Is Mercury ?
Elemental mercury is a shiny silverish liquid metal at room temperature and is considered one of the most toxic of chemicals. The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATDSR) ranks mercury as the third most toxic substance, behind arsenic and lead. Metallic mercury emits gaseous mercury vapor that can be inhaled and absorbed by the lungs. About 80% of inhaled gaseous mercury is absorbed into the body and most of it quickly enters the the bloodstream via the lungs. It is also readily absorbed by the skin on contact. Metallic mercury is used in fluorescent light bulbs, in some thermometers, and in some electrical switches. Elemental mercury is also a major component of amalgam fillings and typically constitutes about 50 percent by weight. Mercury often combines with other chemicals such as chlorine, sulfur, or oxygen, to form inorganic mercury compounds or salts, which are usually powders or crystals. Mercury salts are used in antiseptic creams and ointments and as preservatives. Mercury also can combine with carbon to form organic compounds, including methylmercury and ethylmercury. Methylmercury is produced mainly by microscopic organisms in contaminated water and soil and accumulates in fish, shellfish, and animals that eat fish. The highest concentrations are in large fish highest on the food chain, such as tuna and swordfish. Smaller fish generally have much lower concentrations. Ethylmercury is a metabolite of the mercury compound thimerosal, which is still used as a preservative in some vaccines.
Exposure
The most common exposure to mercury is from contaminated fish or shellfish (methylmercury), from amalgam fillings (elemental mercury), and some vaccines (ethylmercury). It can also occur from breakage and cleanup of fluorescent light bulbs or mercury thermometers (elemental mercury). Less common exposure can occur in the workplace - in dental offices, or health services or industries that use mercury.
Health Effects
From ToxFAQS: "The nervous system is very sensitive to all forms of mercury. Methylmercury and metallic mercury vapors are more harmful than other forms, because more mercury in these forms reaches the brain. Exposure to high levels of metallic, inorganic, or organic mercury can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and developing fetus. Effects on brain functioning may result in irritability, shyness, tremors, changes in vision or hearing, and memory problems."
The primary health effect of methylmercury on fetuses, infants, and children is impaired neurological development that can result in impaired cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills. The mother's consumption of fish and shellfish that contain methylmercury, can expose the fetus and any nursing children.
Hazardous Limits
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set a limit for mercury of 2 parts per billion (ppb) in drinking water. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set a maximum permissible level for methylmercury in seafood at 1 part per million (ppm). The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) set limits of 0.1 milligram of organic mercury per cubic meter of workplace air (0.1 mg/m3) and 0.05 mg/m3 of metallic mercury vapor for 8-hour shifts and 40-hour work weeks.
What Can We Do to Limit Our Exposure?
Don't get amalgam fillings! There are plenty of alternatives that have minimal effects. If you already have amalgam fillings, consider removing them. The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) has developed recommendations for safe removal of amalgam fillings. If you take vaccines, insist on vaccines that do not have thimerosal. Most influenza vaccines and DTwP and tetanus vaccines still have thimerosal. Vaccines have many other potential problems, so be sure to research any vaccine you are considering for yourself or your family. If you accidentally break a fluorescent light bulb or mercury thermometer, follow the recommended cleanup and disposal procedures to minimize your exposure to mercury. Limit your intake of large fish like tuna, king mackeral, and swordfish. If you eat tuna, get the "light tuna", which is usually from smaller varieties that have less methylmercury. Pregnant women should especially be careful about mercury exposure, because mercury is much more harmful to the fetus than to the mother.
Most of us were taught that fluoride is our friend and helps to prevent cavities and strengthen bones. But toxicologists rate fluoride as more poisonous than lead and almost as poisonous as arsenic. So how can it be our friend?
The supporting argument is that fluoride in small amounts is beneficial and only in large amounts is it harmful. Well, this is true of many beneficial minerals, but what does science show us about the benefits and toxicity of fluoride? The evidence suggests that fluoride has little if any beneficial effects and even at relatively low concentrations has a variety of serious harmful effects. Yes, topical application of fluoride at high concentration will kill bacteria in your mouth and that may possibly confer some benefit against tooth decay. But at what cost to your health?
Because of it's poisonous effects, fluoride is a common ingredient in many pesticides. That should tell us something. Too much fluoride can cause obvious bad symptoms, the most common of which is dental fluorosis. The rates of dental fluorosis have increased dramatically in the U.S. over the last several decades. According to the Centers for Disease Control, dental fluorosis now impacts 32% of American children, whereas in the 1940s, dental fluorosis rates in fluoridated areas averaged 10%. But that's not the only potential problem caused by too much fluoride. Fluoride apparently interferes with proper thyroid function and iodine metabolism in the body. It may be a factor in the recent epidemic of hypothyroidism, since low thyroid function is related to problems with iodine metabolism. Also, studies of fluoride levels in drinking water show a clear inverse relationship with intelligence in children. Apparently, higher levels of fluoride reduce the intelligence of children by negatively affecting brain development.
So many people were sold on the idea that fluoride is beneficial in preventing tooth decay that it has been added to public water supplies in much of the U.S.A. for many years, typically at concentrations of around one part per million (ppm). But is this really beneficial? In Europe, fluoride has been banned from water supplies in most areas, and yet levels of tooth decay are not higher as a result. There is little evidence to show that adding fluoride to drinking water prevents tooth decay. Unfortunately, adding fluoride to drinking water increases our exposure not only directly by drinking the water, but indirectly by consuming food and beverages that were processed with fluoridated water. Considering that we also get fluoride from pesticides in our food, from toothpaste, from non-stick cookware, household pesticide sprays, and from some pharmaceutical drugs, that can add up to quite a bit of fluoride intake. This increased fluoride exposure may be enough to explain the large increase in dental fluorosis and to raise suspicion in the large increase in hypothyroidism.
We were also taught that fluoride helps to strengthen our bones. This may possibly be true in very small amounts, but even this possibility is controversial. Animal studies show either no effect or a negative effect of fluoride on bone strength. But at the typical exposures today, fluoride may contribute significantly to bone brittleness and easier bone breakage.
If you drink fluoridated water, it typically has about one ppm or one milligram per liter (mg/l) of fluoride. That means if you drink two liters per day (about two quarts per day) you get two milligrams (mg) of fluoride per day just from your water alone.
The U.S. Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board, has set the Adequate Intake (AI) per day for fluoride at 4 mg for men and 3 mg for women (ages 14 and over). They list the "Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL)" at 10 mg per day. Unfortunately, it appears that this recommendation was heavily influenced by pro-fluoridation proponents and is much too high. The UL should probably be more like 2 to 4 mg per day and ideally we should try to keep total fluoride intake to less than one mg per day to minimize risk of harmful effects.
There are a few foods that have higher amounts of fluoride and should be consumed in modest amounts, including tea, wine, and raisins. Natural ground water can also be high in fluoride in some areas and may need to be tested before use as a drinking water supply.
Here's what the USDA reports for the concentration of fluoride (ppm): 1.15 Tea, green, brewed (23 samples) 2.72 Tea, green, decaffeinated, brewed (10 samples) 3.73 Tea, black, brewed, regular, all (63 samples) 1.05 Wine, red (14 samples) 2.02 Wine, white (17 samples) 2.13 Grape juice, white (12 samples) 2.34 Raisins (1 sample)
Note that 1 ppm = 1 mg/l = 0.24 mg per 8 ounce cup
The Linus Pauling Institute reports the following measurements of fluoride in brewed tea (ppm): 0.6-1.0 Oolong 1.2-1.7 Green 1.0-1.9 Black 2.2-7.3 Brick tea
The amount of fluoride varies by the age of the tea leaf. The newest buds have the least and the oldest leaves have the most. That means white teas made from the buds have the lowest fluoride and high quality teas made from younger leaves will have less than low quality teas and brick teas made from older leaves.
Organic teas may also tend to have less fluoride. The Weston A Price Foundation reported the following concentrations of fluoride (ppm): 0.86 Tap water 0.62 Filtered water 0.94 Organic black tea (made with filtered water) 0.90 Kombucha (made with organic black tea)
Regarding prevention of tooth decay, Weston Price found that people eating healthy native diets had little tooth decay. But when these same people began eating refined flour and sugar, tooth decay became rampant. The moral is that proper diet and hygiene will prevent tooth decay. Added fluoride is just another poison that we don't need in our water and diet.
Most restaurants down the street are going to serve you food with lots of added sugar, polyunsaturated fat, trans fat, MSG, and lots of other nasty additives, so beware
Try to figure out what all this is for
Try to see the world beyond your front door
Did you see what you just ate
Wake up before it's too late :)
Thanks to Barenaked Ladies for writing and performing the song and to Yahoo Music for providing free access to the video.
Most of us in the U.S. grew up on food from grocery stores and most food is still sold there. But the plant foods offered at these stores are typically sprayed with pesticides and herbicides and harvested green and the meats are from caged and penned animals fed unnatural diets that make them sick and require antibiotics. These foods are then shipped hundreds or thousands of miles to reach the store. Much of the food has preservatives added, or is pasteurized, or irradiated to keep it from spoiling. Much of it is heavily processed and packaged in plastic. Is that good for our health? Is it good for our environment and natural resources?
With rising fuel prices and increasing health problems, many people are beginning to recognize the value of local healthy foods, whether grown at home or at local farms. As a result, farmer's markets are booming in the U.S. They offer foods that are locally produced. The vegetables are usually organic, harvested when ripe, and very fresh. The meats and dairy are often from pastured animals fed a natural diet. An effective and appealing alternative to industrial foods.
Here's some additional photos I took at a local farmers market. The photos can be viewed individually, by clicking on the photo miniatures, or as a slideshow, by clicking on the "Slideshow" link on the upper right side of the page.
Another local option for good food is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), where you periodically receive a variety of farm produce and in some groups you can actually participate in the farming. Here's a description of one of the largest community supported farms in Texas, Home Sweet Farm.
Several readers have asked me for more information about myself. Blogspot doesn't have much room in the profile, so I decided to make a post about my perspective on health and happiness. The photo above is me with my 10-year old daughter before the daddy-daughter girl scout dance last March. As you can see, my daughter doesn't take me too seriously :)
First, I am not selling or endorsing any products or services nor do I receive any money for what I do with this blog. The views presented here are those that I feel are most likely to be correct based on careful consideration of the evidence. However, I have found that the more I read about health, the more extremely complicated it is to fully understand - especially the science behind it all. It's so complicated that I'm skeptical anyone really has all the right answers. I certainly don't. For any health question, the best we can do is to learn as much as we can about differing views and make judgments based on the preponderance of the evidence. But be careful about the source of the information. There are many groups that offer health advice who are heavily funded by large commercial interests that have a vested interest in the recommendations. In other words, beware of those pedaling advice that will increase their profits. They may be more interested in your money than your health.
The internet and search engines are a wonderful tool for accessing health information. That's why I set up this blog, to help serve as a guide to some of the good health information that I have found. The trouble is, there are so many conflicting opinions, how do you sort out what is right and what is wrong? My gut feeling (pun intended :) is that historic and prehistoric evidence of diet and related health are a good context to use in making hypotheses about diet and health. Studies of traditional diets and the health of people eating these diets can tell us volumes about the types of foods necessary for adequate health and even optimal health.
Science is all about testing these hypotheses. Ideally science should be conducted in an unbiased manner with carefully developed studies that clearly support or refute various hypotheses. Unfortunately, health science has become more about finding ways to make money, as in selling drugs or other products, rather than to find out how diet can best provide optimal health. Many scientific studies are poorly conceived and end up providing meaningless results. Others are statistically manipulated to favor pet hypotheses that are not well supported by the evidence. And a few are downright frauds. Interpreting the results of scientific studies can also be very difficult because you have to consider the details of how the study was conducted and analyzed in order to determine what the results mean. You also have to wade through all the sciencese and baffling terminology, which is almost as bad as legalese.
Financial investments tend to follow avenues that yield the most profit, and unfortunately drugs are where the money is. Even government funds are often channeled toward studies favored by large commercial interests with strong political influence through lobbying efforts and direct political support. I am not totally against drugs. I believe they do have a place, mainly in traumatic situations where quick fixes are needed. However, for long term health I suspect that most drugs cause more problems from side effects than they solve. And they are usually targeted at symptoms rather than treating the cause of the problem. If you don't treat the cause of the problem, it won't go away. The drugs will only mask the symptoms and cause further problems through their side effects.
Of course, I recognize that finding the cause for many health problems is no easy task. There may be as many causes as there are problems. But diet and lifestyle are likely to be major players for most chronic illnesses and most health problems today are the chronic type - like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Some health problems may be genetically mediated, but even many of these may respond to dietary and lifestyle choices.
As you can tell, I have come to believe that diet and lifestyle are the main factors that shape our health. Please read some of my other posts for more details and also visit the links on the sidebar for a lot more information.
And now, if I haven't thoroughly bored you to death already :) I'll tell you a little about myself. I have not had to deal with any major health problems thankfully - just the usual metabolic syndrome tendencies that most people over 40 seem to have these days. I was born in 1952 and did receive some dubious vaccines and sulfa drugs as a child in the late 1950's. My tonsils were removed when I was about 5 years old and I can still remember the awful smell of the ether gauze they placed on my face to put me out. And a dentist with dollars in his eyes gave me lots of amalgam fillings in the early and mid 1960's. I was skinny and shy while growing up near the border in South Texas. I worked on my grandfather's conventional farm during the summers in high school and early college years.
I had enough interest in health to take a college course on nutrition on my way to getting a master's degree in engineering. I also briefly became a vegetarian for about 6 months to join a meditation group, but quit when I ended up joining a different group. I started eating whole wheat bread and joined a local food coop when I was in college. I majored in meteorology and minored in environmental health engineering. I wanted to be a weather forecaster, but ended up getting into the environmental field where I now work as an air quality forecaster and I'm also involved in air quality data validation and analyses. I have lived in the Austin, Texas area since 1970. I met my wife here in 1992. We got married in 1994 and our daughter was born in 1997.
After college, I became a soda junky, drinking 3 or 4 every day and regularly ate sweets for dessert. That's a lot of sugar and caffeine. I also ate a fair amount of fried commercial foods, though not every day. Otherwise, I had a fairly good diet, with whole grains, vegetables, fruit, meat, and conventional dairy. My sweet tooth led me to gradually gain weight. I'm about 6 feet 1 inch tall and I weighed about 170 pounds at age 20, about 185 pounds at 30, and was up to about 195 pounds when I met my wife at age 40. After college, I started jogging about 2 miles several times a week. Then a girl friend talked me into doing a one-hour aerobics class several times a week in my mid 30's and I kept it up even after we broke up several years later. Not long after I got married, I moved and quit the aerobics class because the location wasn't convenient any more. My only remaining exercise was yard work and walking the dog a few times a week.
My wife encouraged me to take advantage of the free annual physical offered by the health plan I had from work, so I went for my first full physical in 1995. The doctor sent me to the dermatologist to check out a pink irregular patch on the side of my face by the ear and the biopsy tested positive for basal cell carcinoma. That's the least dangerous kind, so I didn't worry about it after it was removed. Although, I did begin avoiding the sun as much as possible and using sunscreen when I had to be in the sun, based on conventional skin cancer avoidance advice.
I was still eating too much, especially sweets, though I can't blame my wife for that :) and my weight went up to around 215 pounds, my total cholesterol was 218, HDL 36, triglycerides 402, and LDL wasn't calculated because the triglycerides were too high. Unfortunately, my doctor suggested that I go on a low-fat diet to try and lower the cholesterol. I switched to low-fat everything. But many of these foods were high in sugar to make up for the lost flavor of the fat. I switched to skim milk even though I didn't like the flavor. I even switched from butter to margarine because it was supposed to be "more healthy" (yuck!). By the next annual checkup in 1996, my cholesterol was 230, HDL 32, triglycerides 438, LDL not calculated.
Low-fat obviously didn't work for me. Too bad the doctor didn't put me on a low-carb diet back then. Instead, he put me on a statin to lower my cholesterol and told me to stick with the low-fat diet. Well, I figured the doctor should know what's best, so I kept it up. The statin did lower my cholesterol to 163, HDL was up to 39, triglycerides down to 252, and LDL was 74 in 1997. My risk ratio was now in the good range, so I thought I was doing well. However, I was hungry all the time and continued over-eating and gaining weight. I was up to around 225 pounds by then. I switched to diet sodas in vain. My weight kept going up. By the time I turned 50 in 2002, I was around 235 pounds. My blood pressure was borderline high at about 140/80 and sometimes higher. But my cholesterol was down to 134 after I switched to Lipitor because of a medical plan coverage change. My triglycerides dropped to 167, with HDL 37 and LDL 64, giving a good risk ratio, so I thought I was still doing well. After all, the adds on TV were saying to "ask your doctor if lower is better" for cholesterol and heart disease.
My weight continued going up and was around 245 pounds in 2005 when I started seeing a new doctor. My cholesterol was 127, triglycerides 178, HDL 35, and LDL 56, which still gave a good risk ratio. But she recommended that I try exercising more to lose weight. She said I needed to exercise at least 30 minutes every day to lose weight. I started walking 2 miles every day, which takes me about 35 minutes. A friend of mine at work had lost 30 pounds on a low-carb diet, so I also decided to drop the low-fat diet and try lowering the carbs. I started buying all the foods that said "low-carb". But I was still drinking diet soda full of aspartame and now eating foods loaded with sucralose. And I was still addicted to sugar. I cheated every weekend with big desserts. I still managed to lose some weight for the first time. I lost about 10 pounds in 6 months from spring to fall. But I promptly gained most of it back over the holidays by cheating too much on sweets.
Then, over the holidays in December 2005, I decided to look on the internet for information about how diet might affect floaters in the eyes, which had gotten worse in recent years. I read that high blood pressure may aggravate floaters and since my BP was borderline high, I started searching for dietary ways to lower blood pressure because I didn't want to take drugs for it. I found links that led to many alternative health web sites, including Dr Mercola, Weston A Price Foundation, and Life Extension Foundation. Initially, I was impressed by the scientific information provided by LEF and began taking a lot of supplements. However, I did not like their heavy emphasis on supplements since they were selling lots of supplements - too much of a conflict of interest. And I have always felt that diet must greatly influence health. I still had trouble believing that much of what I thought I knew about health and diet was wrong. But after a week or two of carefully reading and re-reading the abundant information from WAPF and Dr Mercola, I was convinced they are likely to be right and much of what I had learned from conventional sources was wrong. Trans-fats and polyunsaturated fats are bad. Saturated fats are good. Dietary cholesterol is good. Raw dairy is good (for most people). Conventional dairy is bad. Sugar, as well as aspartame and sucralose are bad. Getting sun is good. After a couple of weeks I finally decided to make some major changes in my diet.
In mid-January 2006, I dropped the Lipitor, broke my sugar addiction, switched from diet soda to coffee for my caffeine habit, started using coconut oil, and switched to organic foods and pastured meats. I continued keeping carbs low and my weight started dropping by about a pound a week. I lost about 20 pounds from January to March of 2006. In March 2006, my cholesterol was back up to 162, which is in the "normal" range (it was below normal with Lipitor, which is not good), triglycerides 131, HDL 38, LDL 98, and fasting insulin 13 (I had to pay extra for the insulin check that's ironically not covered by my health insurance). In March 2006 I found a local raw dairy source for milk and cream and I broke my caffeine habit as well. I started making my own kefir from the raw milk in July 2006. I switched to raw milk and cream from an all Jersey herd in August 2006 and increased my daily walk to 2.5 to 3 miles a day. In May 2007, I started jogging some of my daily walk. I haven't done any more blood work.
Today, I feel much better than I did three years ago. My weight is still around 220 pounds, but I have added a lot more muscle mass from the walking and jogging. My goal is to get my weight back down to at least 200 pounds, so I still have 20 pounds of fat loss to go. My blood pressure is down to around 125/70 and my resting heart rate has dropped from 80 to 90 beats/minute to around 60. I am drug-free, except for an occasional beer :) and I have to look in the mirror to remind myself that I'm 55 and not 35.
So now that I've totally bored you to death, I do have a music reward that some of you may like. It's a romantic New Mexico guitar instrumental that I found a few months ago by Ottmar Liebert. Enjoy!
