A food memoir of weight loss, family recipes, digital cookbook and nutrition information for family and friends
Adults who stay well-hydrated appear to be healthier, develop fewer chronic conditions, such as heart and lung disease, and live longer than those who may not get sufficient fluids, according to a National Institutes of Health study published in eBioMedicine. Using health data gathered from 11,255 adults over a 30-year period, researchers analyzed links between […]
Good hydration linked to healthy aging — Health Secrets of a SuperAger
Thanks Tony.
Through extensive research I learned whisky is plant-based.
And believe it or not bread is plant-based too!
I can’t seem to get my entire head into a selfie.
This happened.
Hey Hon, there’s a bear in the backyard.
I reconnected with my inner child.
My brother commented on my height. Thank you Captain Obvious.
I have no further comment on this.
“It’s really good to be here and as I always say, it’s really good to be anywhere!”
Keith Richards
Life puts hurdles in front of you: ice cream, home baked cookies, gift packages of divine seasonal sugary treats from well-meaning friends. Even if you work from home the seasonal threats are abundant.
Remember this chart attributed to the New England Journal of Medicine from my first Holiday post Trouble in Paradise (it’s Weight Gain Season)?
Today I introduce you to another Seasonal Threat for weight gain.
Stay the Course
Being housebound is no reason to eat all of the ice cream and home baked cookies in the house.
The fancy gourmet pecans though are OK because they are nuts.
It’s a good thing there’s no beer in the house.
Pizza and other food delivery services will tempt you. Stay strong.
PS. The estimated wind chill is minus 20 degrees F.
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) is in lots of multivitamin and mineral supplements that can be bought in supermarkets, health food shops and pharmacies without a prescription. Many people are not aware that vitamin B6 can cause peripheral neuropathy, which results in tingling, burning or numbness usually in the hands and feet. Taking vitamin B6 even at low doses can cause peripheral neuropathy but people are more likely to get it if they are taking more than one supplement.
Health supplements containing vitamin B6 can cause peripheral neuropathy – https://www.tga.gov.au/news/safety-alerts/health-supplements-containing-vitamin-b6-can-cause-peripheral-neuropathy#topofpage
- Peripheral neuropathy can occur at doses of vitamin B6 less than 50 mg and when people are taking multiple products containing vitamin B6. The risk appears to vary between people – no minimum dose, length of use or underlying risk factors were identified.
Always understand too little AND too much of anything can be bad.
I did a tiny bit of research on this topic after a doctor’s comment on Med Twitter.
Interesting.
This past Holiday season was the roughest in recent memory. I ate everything in sight. I binged on bagels every day for nearly a week. The cookies, cakes, and pies found their way into my mouth. The sheer quantity of food was my downfall. I put on the pounds and topped the scale at 202 pounds. Time to get back to my normal routine. I’m getting back to my usual habit of eating only when hungry. Avoid sweets. Shrink portions.
Journal entry 10 Years Ago
I was searching my journal on a different topic and found something I wrote 10 years ago. Back then despite eating healthy foods I continued to struggle with my weight. It was the Holiday season. I binged. Then I binged some more. Thankfully I’ve learned a lot since then like how diets really work. Source: Dr. Anthony Pearson.
In my last post Trouble in Paradise (it’s Weight Gain Season) I posted this picture of our dessert board on Turkey Day. It’s how I gained three pounds in three days. The cheese and crackers didn’t help. Nor did #10 twice.
Update and Threat Assessment
The Boss came back from a cookie exchange with the neighbors with several dozen dangerous tiny bites.
Threat Level 4 Red.
“Competition puts hurdles in front of you that you have to clear.”
OKC Thunder coach Mark Daigneault
Life puts hurdles in front of you that you have to clear. Like Thanksgiving. TGTIO (Thank God Thanksgiving is Over). We were out of town for only three days. I gained three pounds. I’m not good at math but I think this equates to one pound per day. YIKES. There’s 35 days until the first day of the New Year. At this pace I’ll weigh 208 pounds…
But I am not alone. This chart is attributed to the New England Journal of Medicine but I could never find the original source article.
As the years pass I get better at understanding why I put the pounds on. This was our dessert board on Turkey Day.
I can’t get Tex-Mex in Oklahoma. So when in Texas I need Tex-Mex. At one of my favorite Tex-Mex stops I discovered a new favorite, the #10.
The numbers above are calories, fat calories, and fat in grams. 2950 mg of sodium too (the original chart has more nutrition information).
We ate Tex-Mex Wednesday and Friday, the perfect bookends to Thanksgiving.
I had #10 twice.
Take Home Lesson
Salt, sugar, fat and excess calories. Taking and/or keeping the weight off is simple when you reduce intake of these four items.
Restaurant meals will kill you. Literally.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with every now and then so long as it’s every now and then.
My skinny jeans fit fine. I’ll get back to my usual routine and diet and the three pounds should come off and I’m good until the next hurdle. Until then I’ll wear my black t-shirts because dark colors make you look thinner.
People have been working with the Hadza for decades now, so we have these long-term records, papers published from 30 or 40 years ago up through to today. We can understand from those data how variable diet can be: We’ve seen how the amount of meat changes with the seasons. It’s more skewed toward plants during wet seasons, for example. We’ve seen how different plant species, such as berries and tubers, contribute to diet in different ways over the course of a year. We’ve also learned that honey is a really big part of their diet…
Humans evolved to be adaptable. We are very much dependent on learning and developing these complex hoarding strategies to survive. And different people follow different paths. I think this adaptability is part of this whole package of how we live as a species. We’re built to be flexible. And flexibility means diversity…
I think the one thing that they never have in a hunter-gatherer diet is the heavily processed foods that we are surrounded with. In processed foods, you get these combinations of sugars, salts and fats that never occur in nature. You take out a lot of things like fiber and protein that make you feel full, and put in a lot of things that make your brain’s reward systems light up, like flavoring. Processed foods seem to be a big driver of obesity.
Our Ancestors Ate a Paleo Diet, With Carbs – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/our-ancestors-ate-a-paleo-diet-with-carbs-180980901/
Remember, You Are What Your Ancestors Ate.
Be an Omnivore.
Alongside nutrition and sleep, exercise is one of the three pillars of our health. Before coming up with a realistic and sustainable plan, let’s see what types of exercise are most recommended and how much we should try to do each day or each week. Walking – is there anything to the 10,000 steps recommendation? […]
If you want to lose weight, please remember that nutrition, and not exercise, is the best way to do this. The type, amount, and timing of when you eat and drink are more important for how much weight and fat you lose than how active you are.
Exercise is Not Essential for Weight Loss. It is Vital for Your Health — Damon Ashworth Psychology
Building new habits takes time. My typical morning routine is bathroom, shower, dry off (don’t forget this step), coffee and either read or write before starting my work day. Today I’m starting a new routine which hopefully becomes habit. Coffee AND resistance training (shower later).
Another morning habit I didn’t realize existed until today was my morning dopamine hit from likes and page views. What? Someone from Down Under liked my Resistance is Not Futile post. And followed me! Naturally I had to follow back and reblog which is not cheating or stealing someone else’s hard work.
Thank you Dr. Ashworth. But more importantly THANK YOU for Josh Giddey. https://www.nba.com/player/1630581/josh-giddey
Humans also vary in their ability to extract sugars from starchy foods as they chew them, depending on how many copies of a certain gene they inherit. Populations that traditionally ate more starchy foods, such as the Hadza, have more copies of the gene than the Yakut meat-eaters of Siberia, and their saliva helps break down starches before the food reaches their stomachs.
These examples suggest a twist on “You are what you eat.” More accurately, you are what your ancestors ate. There is tremendous variation in what foods humans can thrive on, depending on genetic inheritance. Traditional diets today include the vegetarian regimen of India’s Jains, the meat-intensive fare of Inuit, and the fish-heavy diet of Malaysia’s Bajau people. The Nochmani of the Nicobar Islands off the coast of India get by on protein from insects. “What makes us human is our ability to find a meal in virtually any environment,” says the Tsimane study co-leader Leonard…
In other words, there is no one ideal human diet. Aiello and Leonard say the real hallmark of being human isn’t our taste for meat but our ability to adapt to many habitats—and to be able to combine many different foods to create many healthy diets. Unfortunately the modern Western diet does not appear to be one of them.
The Evolution of Diet — https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/evolution-of-diet/
Food for thought (pun intended).
This article is worth reading even if you remember just one concept.
There is no one ideal human diet.
As promised, the skeptical cardiologist has reviewed, refurbished, republished and revised his first ever post (first published 12/27/2012) which challenged the advice presented by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the American Heart Association, and every mainstream nutritional guideline published since 1985. I’ve added some links to subsequent posts which support my statements, improved the formatting,…
Does Eating High-Fat Dairy Cause Heart Disease or Obesity? Has the Science Changed In The Last Decade? — The Skeptical Cardiologist
Thank you Dr. Pearson.
garyskitchen.net 