How Are You Fixed for Axungia Hominis?

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When the title of any article is written in Latin, you might think that what follows is probably complicated. How about if you knew that Axungia hominis simply means “human fat”? What follows isn’t complicated but it sure is surprising—at least it was to me. I read an excerpt from a forthcoming book I’m adding to my reading list; it’s titled Fat: A Cultural History of the Stuff of Life by Christopher Forth PhD. It explores human fatness over the ages.

For the Memos this week, I’m going to focus on human fat from a different perspective: medicinal qualities. Medicinal qualities? Yes. That was the belief from the 16th century through the middle of the 19th century according to Forth.

The first question has to be: how did they collect human fat to use as medicine? From corpses, of course. An entire industry was developed to collect human fat, and getting it from the recently deceased was a logical source. Battlefields also provided many recently deceased corpses from which to collect fat. What surprised me was the entrepreneurial spirit of the executioners during those times; they were compensated for the hangings or beheadings and then sold the fat that was harvested from the bodies.

That’s enough gross stuff for today. What exactly made the fat so valuable? What was it supposed to be able to do? I’ll cover that on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Christopher Forth PhD. 2019. Fat: A Cultural History of the Stuff of Life.

Looking for Single-Nutrient Solutions

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As you might expect, I get asked a lot of questions about health, especially diet and exercise. One of the similarities between questions is whether a specific nutrient is special or unique. When I do the research to learn about the nutrient, I’ve never found one that’s the be-all and end-all—not turmeric or echinacea or omega-3 fatty acids or anything else. Can they be beneficial? Absolutely. But they’re a finishing touch, not a foundation.

The foundation of health begins with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, quality protein, and the best oils. The foundation also includes basic supplementation such as a multivitamin-multimineral and probiotics, among others. If you don’t begin with the best diet, then specific nutritional gaps, whether due to food preferences or genetic issues, can’t be bridged effectively because the body isn’t built on a strong foundation. Once you build your foundation, some of the specific nutrients can fill in gaps and act as insurance for the days you can’t eat as well as you know you should.

Eat better. Eat less. Move more. Build a foundation and you might find miracle nutrients aren’t really necessary.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

P.S. Paula and I wish all of you a happy Memorial Day weekend! Travel and celebrate safely, and we’ll see you back here on Tuesday.

What Counts: Exercise or Movement?

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This week is planting week around the house, so Paula and I will be working around the yard each day. What we won’t do is go to the gym to work out. In thinking about it, that raises the issue of the myth of physical activity: does yardwork count or do you have to get your heart rate to a certain amount?

The answer is it all counts. In fact, if your lifestyle forces you to move a couple of times an hour, all day long, that’s associated with living longer. We’ve lost the equivalent of 700 calories of daily activity due to technological advances in the past century; those are calories that contribute to the weight gain that’s been creeping up on us. We could cut 700 calories from our daily diet or we can find ways to use another 700 calories every day. Anything and everything you can do to use calories throughout the day counts. Gardening and yardwork definitely count in that process, and as the image shows, it’s movement you can pass on to future generations.

We’ll look at a food myth on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Fast Isn’t Just His Speed

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There’s one more lesson we learned about how the staff helps keep the birds of prey from getting fat: one day a week, the birds fast. They simply don’t feed them anything other than what may make a mistake and crawl into their cages—which are the size of a living room.

Fasting. What a concept! It’s a gimmick that’s being taught a variety of ways in weight loss programs and books. Maybe to trick the metabolism. Maybe to stay in ketosis. Baloney.

Fasting reflects what happens to the birds of prey when they live in the wild. There are days when they don’t catch anything, or they don’t find carrion. On those days, they don’t eat.

That used to happen to us as well when we didn’t catch animals or the crops failed. When all you have to do is drive to the supermarket or the drive-thru and buy whatever you want to eat, forced hunger doesn’t happen any more. We have to decide to do it. It’s no gimmick; it mimics real life.

I hope this look at what we learned at the Center for Birds of Prey was informative. There’s a lot more I covered in this month’s Conference Call; you can still listen by becoming an Insider. Check it out.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Do Birds of Prey Count Calories?

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One of the things about bird of prey that surprised me was how light birds such as eagles and vultures really are; that’s a turkey vulture above. While the weight can vary depending on the origin of the eagles, they weigh 6–10 pounds. With a wingspan of 6–7 feet, they seem imposing, but in reality they’re mostly feathers and feathers really don’t weigh all that much.

The birds are weighed regularly, and their diet is adjusted to prevent weight gain. The staff portions how much they eat by the number of calories the food contains. In other words, the staff counts calories for the birds. Let me repeat that: they control the birds’ weight by counting calories.

Calorie counting works for birds of prey and it works for humans as well. In The Weight Loss Cycle CD of the Optimal Performance Program, I cover all the research that proves why that’s true. I know what you read and hear elsewhere, but I’m here to tell you that counting calories keeps these magnificent creatures at their target weight. It will work for you, too.

One more lesson from the birds of prey, and I think it will surprise you. That’s coming on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

What Can We Learn from Birds of Prey?

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When Paula and I spent last week visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Summerville, South Carolina, one of the things we did was visit the Center for Birds of Prey, and it was a tremendous experience. We saw bald eagles, turkey vultures, horned owls, storks, and many more, including a truly amazing flying demo with a hawk, an owl, a kite, and a vulture. The birds on permanent display have been injured and wouldn’t survive if returned to the wild. I could spend all week on a single bird and still not cover all we learned. To find out more, check out their website www.thecenterforbirdsofprey.org, and if you’re near Charleston, plan to visit. They do wonderful work rescuing birds of prey and nursing them back to health as well as breeding birds for other educational programs or to help save a species.

Paula asked a great question during the flight demonstration: do the birds in captivity get fat? The answer forms the basis for this week’s Memos. The answer is yes, of course. When a bird must fly for hours to find and catch food, it uses a lot of calories. If the birds can’t fly, they die in the wild. When the birds are in captivity, they can’t burn enough calories so if they eat as much as they want, they get fat.

Lesson? If you’re not moving regularly and every day, it’s really hard to control your weight. More on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

I’m Alive V2.50

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When I opened my eyes yesterday, I said the same thing I’ve said for the past 26 years: I’m alive! When I wake on May 10th every year, it means I have at least one more year of life. It makes no sense in the real world, especially for a guy who talks about science so much, but I can’t change the way I think about this one thing.

I can’t believe it’s been 50 years since my Dad died on May 10th, 1969. But ever since I opened my eyes on May 10th when I was 41, the age my dad died, I believed I would live another year. It makes no sense, but it’s what I believe.

This year is going to be a special year, and not just because I have a special little guy who’s counting on me. I have three specific goals. Physical. Financial. Professional. I’ll give you some insight into part of one: I want to triple the number of Memo subscribers. To do that, I’m going to need your help. If you benefit from what I write by learning something new, getting the real story behind health headlines and research, and improving your health—tell people about it. Encourage them to subscribe to the Memo today. It’s free and I’ll never sell or share my list info, so there’s no risk in giving it a try.

I’ll keep you posted as this year continues. I’m excited and glad you’re a part of this journey. We have a nation that needs to get healthy. Let’s get about doing it right now.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Move Up to Interval Training

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Recently I watched an interview with the cast and production staff of the third John Wick movie, which will be released soon. What struck me was the physical preparation to do the action and fight scenes. When the third installment of the movie was announced, Keanu Reeves shouted to himself. “All right. It’s time for John Wick Training!” He worked more than six months for six to eight hours per day on physical training specific to the fights and action scenes that were going to be in the movie, and he uses stunt doubles very rarely—it’s all up on the screen. Halle Berry, who’s new to the series, jumped at the chance to do that training as well. I can’t wait.

You and I don’t have the hours in the day to do that type of training, but we can do better than we are right now. Interval training seems to have become a mainstay of fitness recommendations. I’ve used it for years to increase my fitness level. It’s stressful because the effort is so hard, but you can adjust the effort to where you are today.

Check out the Health Info titled Interval Training. It explains the concept and how to construct your own interval program. If you want to take it one step up in intensity, check out the Spartan Workout that combines strength with endurance interval training.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

How to Bust a Plateau

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It happens to everyone when we lose weight: the scale stops moving downward even though we’re doing everything the same as we’ve been doing. How do we start losing again?

Patience. While the scale may not move, there’s a lot going on. Hundreds of changes are happening in just about every cell of your body as it adapts to your new eating and exercise regime. Those changes take time to happen, and you just have to ride it out. Don’t reduce your calories any more than you have. Reach for patience; remind yourself that great changes are happening even if you can’t see them on the scale.

However there are a couple of ways that exercise may help you start losing weight again. The keys are: do you have the additional time? And are you fit enough to do them? You probably need to talk to your doctor to know. To learn more, check out the Health Info paper titled Busting Weight Loss Plateaus.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

What’s Your Body Mass Index?

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You may be tempted to measure how you’re doing on the way to your health goals with body composition read-outs on scales and other outputs related to body fat analytics, but how accurate are they? If the device used is one that has you stand on a scale or hang on to handles of some sort, the accuracy of those numbers is very limited.

Those devices are based on impedance technology—the resistance of a very small current passed through your body. It actually can be very accurate when it comes to total body water, something very important for people with congestive heart failure. Everything else is based on algorithms that assume specific characteristics of the body. Those may be valid assumptions, but the variability is too great person to person. How do I know that? I worked on the impedance device as a grad student, so I know it well.

If you really want to track how you’re doing related to fatness, use the Body Mass Index. Every health insurance company uses that as a metric to assess your fatness.

“But I have bigger bones!” you say. Or maybe the weight recommended for you seems too high. In fact you may have a larger or smaller frame than average, and I explain how to know for sure with an easy measurement in the Health Info section titled Body Mass Index. Check it out today for an in-depth look at BMI.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet