Category: Healthy eating

Posted in Healthy eating, Lifestyle, Uncategorized, Women's Issues

Baby Boomers: Obsessed with Staying Young?

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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I may do a series of articles on the topic of baby boomers. I am one. I’m interested in the characteristics of all generations, but I’ll start with the boomers. Are we baby boomers obsessed with staying young? Baby boomers, in the U.S. were born between 1946 and 1964. The post World War II generation. There are many characteristics and issues I could blog about regarding we baby boomers but, in this post, I’m going to write about whether or not we have an obsession with youth. Are baby boomers obsessed with staying young?

Right away, I will tell you how I feel so you will know my particular bias. My answer is an unqualified yes. Of course, not every member of a group have the same characteristics so there are undoubtedly many boomers out there who are growing old gracefully. I just don’t happen to be one of them. I don’t think the majority of boomers are growing old gracefully. I intend to fight growing old – kicking and screaming if necessary. Yes, I know that, ultimately, it won’t help. But, I can try. I can take care of myself from a physical, mental, and emotional standpoint. I can do all I can do.

I contend that doing all you can do to take care of yourself and, yes, even fighting to stay young is not only an exercise in self-preservation but a positive outlook on life. Is it such a bad thing to want to look, think, and feel as young as possible? I don’t think so. I think many baby boomers would agree with me. Even doctors agree with me.  They say that people with a positive, young outlook and those who actively try to stay healthy, mentally and physically, tend to live longer and stay healthier

There are billions of dollars spent every year on anti-aging products and treatments. Since the baby boomers started getting older, the segment of the market offering anti-aging products and services has taken a huge jump and is expected to skyrocket by 2019. Not only do many of us not want to quit work, we also don’t want to get old, however you define old. We use treatments and potions on our faces and bodies. We get tucks here and there. We get shots of Botox and other fillers in our faces. We take our Vitamin D and stay out of the sun. We get facials, waxes, implants, dental work, and full-fledged face lifts when necessary. It isn’t your grandmother’s generation. I don’t see anything wrong with any of it.

What don’t we do? The very things that would make a difference. We don’t eat right, at least not as well as we should, and we don’t exercise as much as we should. Both can and do slow aging. There are pathways in our biology that can be used to manipulate aging. For example, the simple act of fasting can slow down the aging process. Short periods of fasting work. Intermittent fasting, or longer periods of fasting, work even better. Other techniques to slow the aging process can be learned from the people of Okinawa. They eat very lightly and only certain foods. They do practice fasting. Fasting shuts down growth and metabolism pathways.These people  live to be considerably over 100 years old and work into their 90s. The books written about their way of life are fascinating

Even for boomers who eat well, the downfall for many of us boomers is exercise. Exercise is an elixir for we who want to delay aging. We just choose not to drink it as often as we should. Exercise changes the way our genes work.

The good news is that there are ways to delay aging. When we reach late middle age, things start happening. Medical conditions happen. Some we can get under control. If we practice some of the techniques that science know work, we can delay the aging process. We can help that along, regarding physical appearance, with some of our treatments and potions. Of course, genetics plays a role. We have to start with the basics.

More to come on baby boomers and aging. Here is a link to one of the books on the people of Okinawa. It is fascinating reading. #amwriting #writing #blogging #BabyBoomers

The Okinawa Program: How the World’s Longest LIved People Achieve Everlasting Health and How You Can Too

 

Posted in Eating Disorders, Food, Healthy eating, Weight Loss

Eating Disorders: Orthorexia

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Eating disorders. This isn’t really about eating disorders but everything you read about something called “orthorexia” will make you think you are reading about an eating disorder. As I was doing some research for this article, I originally thought I really had a bone to pick with this guy by the name of Steven Bratman. OK, Dr. Steven Bratman, which doesn’t impress me all that much given that he coined the term orthorexia. I did more research, I decided that his original article had been taken completely out of context in most everything that has been written about orthorexia since so maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

After all, even though he is an American Medical Association (AMA) qualified physician, he practices some forms of alternative medicine and he lived in a commune in the 1970s. He can’t be all bad, can he?

Back to orthorexia. We have the legitimate eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia and a handful of other full-fledged eating disorders. If our society keeps putting pressure on our young women, there surely may be new varieties of eating disorders spring up. Orthorexia, as defined by Dr. Bratman, refers to a fixation on eating the proper food. (I can envision all my friends standing up, pointing their fingers at me, but they have surely forgotten about my love for tequila.) To continue, Bratman actually called it orthorexia nervosa, similar to anorexia nervous.

Anorexia and bulimia both focus on the quantity of food a person eats. Orthorexia focuses on the quality of the food. Bratman originally defined this eating disorder as one where a person may avoid all preservatives, fat, meat, and processed food. Orthorexics are vegetarians in that they do not eat dairy, eggs, or even fish. When Bratman considered himself to be orthorexic, he said he looked down on all his friends in the commune who didn’t eat exactly as he did and felt they were lesser human beings for their sins of eating foods such as meat or dairy or foods that were processed. Perhaps the most disturbing thing is this. Part of Bratman’s diet was to never fill his stomach more than half full when he ate a meal. He was never satisfied after eating.

No wonder he decided this was an eating disorder. The way Bratman handled so-called “healthy eating” wasn’t very healthy.

To say Bratman went overboard with his so-called healthy eating is an understatement. It was definitely not healthy mentally for him and it probably was not healthy physically. There was no mention of Bratman’s weight in his article so we don’t know if his eating habits caused him to lose an excessive amount of weight.

Bratman believed in using food as medicine when he started out on his health food journey. Unfortunately, he took it too far. In the years since he wrote his article in 1997, the medical community has learned that there are illnesses that do respond to changes in the diet. The term “health food” is not really used anymore. It has probably been replaced by organic food along with just the knowledge that items like processed food and too much red meat are not particularly good for us.

AMA-qualified doctors seldom address nutrition with their patients unless it is in the context of illnesses like lowering cholesterol. Then, they might tell you to lower your consumption of red meat. If you have high triglycerides, they will tell you to lower your consumption of sweets or carbohydrates. For a disease like diabetes, diet is definitely addressed. For a normal, healthy adult, however, nutrition is not something you usually are lucky enough to discuss with your family doctor. You have to seek out a dietician or even a doctor who specializes in alternative medicine, perhaps a nutritionist.

I have read other articles that mention orthorexia. The examples they give of individuals that have this particular eating disorder are usually also suffering from some form of obsessive-compulsive behavior or other Risk factors. There is nothing wrong with healthy eating. But, there is something wrong with anything you do if you do it in excess. A wise saying that all of us has heard. Everything in moderation.

Bratman, Steven. Health Food Junkie. Yoga Journal 1997; September/October:42-50.

 

 

 

Posted in Food, Healthy eating, Low Carb, Uncategorized, Weight Loss

Healthy Eating…..Eating to Live

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Eating to live, not living to eat. That’s a tough one for the American people. We have access to so much good-tasting food. Good-tasting food that, for some, may be killing us. Before I start this article, let me say that I live in a glass house. I am as guilty of enjoying all that good tasting, but unhealthy, food as the next person. So I am not throwing stones. For health reasons, I have had to try to mend my ways. I have been partially, only partially, successful. But, I am learning a lot on this journey toward improved health that I would like to share with you.

I am what is called a flexitarian. Never heard of it? Neither had I. I eat vegetables, and lots of them, and fish. Mostly seafood but some fresh water fish. I occasionally eat a chicken breast and I am done with red meat entirely. I do eat eggs. This all apparently makes me…..well…..a flexitarian which is similar to a lacto-ovo-vegetarian. But who cares about the designation?

I eat to live and wish I could take a pill instead of eating food. It would be a whole lot easier. In order to remain healthy and see those good blood work results, I eat virtually no bread products. You know how whole grain is supposed to be so good for you? Ha! Not for me. Now, as for you, your mileage may vary. Remember that bread products include potato chips (how I love salt and vinegar chips, but I have to forget them!), crackers, croissants, and so many wonderful goodies. But, we aren’t hunter-gathers anymore, people. We don’t need all the bread.

Staying with the carbohydrate theme, I eat no potato products except a baked sweet potato about every three weeks. It is really GOOD when I eat one, but it is a rare treat. I think you see what I am getting at. No white carbs. None. That includes pasta. I don’t even eat whole grain pasta and, like the rest of the world, I think a good pasta salad is to die for.

All of my carbs come in the form of vegetables, mostly salad vegetables. I do eat fruit occasionally but only low-glycemic fruit — an apple, blueberries, melon, kiwi. That is pretty much the complete list. Beans are good for you with black beans being at the top of the list. They have too many carbs for me so they aren’t on my list.

As far as my very limited meat consumption is concerned, I eat lots of fish. Salmon, tuna, shrimp, just about all seafood. A chicken breast. Small servings. I try to eat meat full of Omega-3’s.

That pretty much sums up my diet. I feel very well, better than I have felt in years. I have lost weight. I’m starting to look like “me” again and feel like me. One thing I have learned is that heavy carbohydrates in my diet, white carbs, weigh me down and make me sluggish. They also make my doctor crazy as they make my blood tests crazy. You can keep some fat in your diet if you cut the carbs.

One thing I do is take vitamins and a whole host of supplements. But, that is fodder for another blog post. I have a friend who calls all the strange little supplements her “dirt” vitamins. They work.

Your mileage may vary depending on your health challenges. Check with your doctor before starting any diet. My doctor is extremely supportive and believes that we all eat far too many carbs, herself included.

This is a weight-loss diet. Extremely low carbohydrate and 1200 calories per day. When I reach my goal weight, I will add back in some foods but I will never be able to eat a diet high in carbohydrates again. On a maintenance diet, I can increase my calories a bit. I can’t wait until I can eat a bowl of spaghetti!

Is eating this type of diet boring? You bet it is. But maybe I will live long and prosper!