Tag Archive for: food

Blue Zones: Eat Reasonably

/in /by

As I continued to consider the four areas that make up the health habits related to living to 100, I would have thought that nutrition was going to be the key. After much reflection, it’s not. However, it doesn’t mean you should live on a diet of sweets, deep-fried foods, and a lot of ultra-processed foods.

Eat a Selective Plant-Based Diet

Do I mean you have to be a vegan? No. But as North Americans, we just don’t eat very many minimally processed vegetables. By minimally processed I mean you cut them up, season to taste, and cook. It can be stews, soups, side dishes, or whatever.

While the types of plant-based foods vary by culture, there are several foods in common:

  • Beans, lentils, and nuts of all types are an important source of fiber and protein. Soups and salads are perfect delivery systems, but so is chili—as spicy as you like it.
  • Root vegetables are important: potatoes, especially sweet potatoes and yams, carrots, and purple yams called ube.
  • Green, leafy vegetables: lettuces, cabbages, and greens of all types, such as coleslaw or collard greens with bacon. Eat some every day.
  • Lean meats for additional protein.
  • Wine, if you drink it, even though it’s a processed grape.

Make those the foundation of your diet along with healthy oils such as olive oil and some whole grains, and that’s it. Remember, this isn’t a weight loss program; it’s a way to eat for life.

Two More Important Points

Don’t overeat. Eat just enough and no more. The Okinawans eat to feel 80% full and that’s where they stop.

Get to a normal body weight, no matter what it takes or how long it takes, and stay there. It’s easier to move around if you’re leaner, and you’ll have fewer complications of degenerative disease.

The Bottom Line

What you eat is important to live well, whether to 100 or not. It’s not difficult, but it may force you to think about how you can do that until it becomes a habit. The sooner you figure that out, the more time you get to live well. Next week I’ll finish this up with the most important secret of living to 100, Blue Zones or not. It surprised me.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Watch This

/in /by

Many readers have asked me to review movies over the years such as Forks Over Knives, In Defense of Food, and Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. This time, I’m asking you to watch a series by Andrew Zimmern titled What’s Eating America, a five-part series which examines some of the country’s problems through the lens of food.

Zimmern is a chef who’s traveled the world tasting foods on a series called Bizarre Foods. This time, he’s looking at topics related to foods and food production. Just like the authors and producers of those films, it contains his opinions on his observations, and they may be as controversial as those films.

The series begins tonight on MSNBC at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Based on what I’ve seen and heard so far, it will give another perspective on our food supply, and I think that’s valuable. It’s information we all need.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Nothing Else Matters

/in /by

“Where health is at stake, nothing else should be considered.”

            Jane Austen’s Emma

Health today is a serious matter. My observation is that we spend a lot of time worrying, maybe even obsessing, about our health; this is not to be confused with disease. If we have a serious medical condition that requires treatment, we’re right to be concerned. But even our treatment and recovery can be impacted by excessive worrying. It’s our attitude toward health that can be improved. For that, we’re going to visit Jane Austen’s novels.

I recently read an article by the author of “The Jane Austen Diet.” He talked about the health nuggets in Austen novels that are often overlooked. Three things caught my attention: the Austen approach to food, exercise, and self image.

The characters and heroines in Austen’s novels seemed to enjoy their food. While the diet was heavy in meats and vegetables, the focus was to enjoy the company of others while eating and not allow one’s feelings to dictate how much one ate. Can we say that today? We worry about the carb count or the fat grams. Stress causes many people to eat more, sometimes a lot more, than they otherwise might. Enjoy a meal with others can be a rare event. How many of our meals happen in our cars as we hustle from one place to another?

The message seems to be to slow down and enjoy food. Food is not just to nourish our body; it should nourish our souls as well.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: https://wapo.st/2UeaSiZ

Why You Should Get “Cooked”

/in /by

While Paula and I were visiting our son and his wife last week, I suggested that all of us watch a series on Netflix called “Cooked”; it’s a series written by Michael Pollan from the book of the same name. I talked about him early last year and his movie “In Defense of Food.” I had read the book and watched the series earlier, and although Paula doesn’t generally like how-things-are-made programs, she watched a couple of minutes with me and ended up going to bed an hour late.

Each major chapter of the book has been made into a segment that lasts about an hour. The titles define the topic as it relates to cooking: fire, water, air, earth. Each one has been crafted to provide a little common-sense science along with interesting stories and background. I loved the book and now I love the series; the family did as well.


“Cooked” Insights

The series is full of revelations that seem obvious in hindsight, but that you’ve probably never thought about before. Like cookware: humans couldn’t effectively combine the flavors of various foods until a pot was invented that could withstand the heat of the cooking fire. No pot? No boiling. No soup, no stew, no sauces.

And did you know there’d be no chocolate without fermentation? Paula was surprised to learn that about one of her favorite foods.

A thread that ran throughout the series was this: the key role of sharing a meal in the process of human bonding. Mute the phones and leave them in your pockets; spend mealtime loving the ones you’re with. Unless you’re a doctor on call, all those messages will wait.


The Bottom Line

Watch this series on Netflix; you’ll learn more about meat and vegetables and how they’re transformed into food than any other place I can think of. You’ll have a great time learning, and I bet it will change your thinking about food. Paula insisted I warn you that a few scenes in “Fire” are tough to watch, but we’re grown-ups and we need to face the truth about where meat comes from. If you’re watching with your kids (which would be really great), you may want to pre-screen that segment.

My favorite story? The nun with a PhD in microbiology who makes cheese. You’ll begin to understand the microbiome more clearly after you see the “Earth” segment.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Energy Thieves: Food

/in /by

This week I’m focusing on potential energy thieves, and I’ve identified three areas that can hinder performance; one of those is the foods we eat. The two primary food thieves that affect me and many others are refined carbohydrates and deep-fat fried food, but the reasons are polar opposites:

  • Refined carbohydrates and some starchy foods raise blood sugar quickly, but then you suffer a rebound drop. Eating too many refined carbs can put you in a carb coma.
  • High-fat foods, especially deep-fat fried foods, can take hours to digest, redirecting blood from the rest of the body to the digestive system to digest and absorb the fatty foods. Less blood to the brain means your mental acuity drops.

All this week, I’m using the techniques I developed for Energy on Demand in the Optimal Performance Program to have all the energy I need to focus and work 14-hour days through the end of the next webinar. My goal is to eat to perform at a high level, and part of that is knowing what not to eat. If you participate, either live or by listening within the following week, you’ll get the complete story.

Spend some time thinking about how the foods you eat affect your energy levels. There may other foods and dietary factors that affect you in addition to the two I’ve listed; for example, maybe it’s not so much which foods as when you eat them. How food affects energy for the times you really need to be at your best will be one of the topics this Sunday in the Super Bowl Webinar. I hope you’ll join me.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet