Testing is a great tool to see where we are in regards to health.
The most effective tool is a test we can do ourselves. It is called the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). The OGTT is the gold standard for checking for diabetes or pre-diabetes. Unfortunately, it not a test administered in yearly physical health screenings. When was the last time you went to a doctor and he had you take the OGTT?
By administering the test ourselves, we find our fasting blood sugar level (which in reality can misdiagnose diabetes which is the test given in a yearly physical check-up). But then check again after 2 hours of drinking 75 grams of carbohydrates. Ideally we want to be under 120 at the 1 hour mark. At the 2 hour mark, between 140-199 is pre-diabetes and over 200 is diabetes.
Testing gives us the picture of how our health is doing. By catching diabetes early, we can take measures to assure that the trend of diabetes is reversed.
How many times per day should we engage in exercise?
I figure 5 times per day. For those of you who get exhausted from watching football 10 hours on a Sunday, going from couch to refrig, and repetitively lifting arm to mouth, only four.
The first exercise comes when waking up in the morning and taking an early walk. After each meal, a 15 minute exercise helps the insulin and glucose to enter the cells. And then a longer exercise engaging in a favorite sport or a visit to the gym running a few miles and doing weights.
You might ask, how do I fit my job into all this? That's the point. It's time to quit your job. Don't allow something as trivial as making a living get in the way of a trim healthy body.
Do you think restaurants care about your health? You're smiling, right? You know restaurants don't give a shit about your health. Fact is, most people don't give a shit about their health. Or, they might think they do, but their actions speak something different.
All restaurants are unhealthy. There's not a restaurant I could walk in, and say, "I can eat anything I want here, it's all healthy". Even The Soup Plantation: The salad dressings are loaded with fat and salt. The breads are refined, loaded with salt. The soups too, excessive salt.
This is the reality of our toxic surroundings. We all think this is good for us and it's the exact opposite. Sure, we might get a little gastro reflux when we eat at these places, but we think it's generally OK. It takes years for our bodies to break down from this incessant bombardment we subject our systems to.
Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, IBD, MS, GERD, hemorrhoids, diverticulosis, gall stones, appendix problems. All of these are caused by the western diet. What's the western diet? Look at what you eat. That's the western diet. Meat, milk, eggs, cheese, bread--that kind of shit.
All of these diseases can be reversed or avoided by doing only one thing: eating only foods that contain fiber. Eat a high fiber diet, avoid all the problems you see around you. All of them.
Obesity should not even exist. It should be rare to see someone obese. But in US it's actually become abnormal to be of normal weight. What we see around us we think as normal. It's not.
So by doing that one thing, eating a high fiber diet, you're restricting other things that help lead to this crisis we're in. No meat, oil, salt, sugar, dairy.
Yeah, you virtually have to be a monk in today's age to make it happen. But instead of whining, look at the big picture and study people like T L Cleave, Hugh Trowell, Denis Burkitt, Dr McDougall et al. This shit ain't no joke. If you got problems, get your ass in gear and you take control. Learn! And start eating properly.
Follow the herd if you want. Do the Adkin's, South Beach, Paleo diets if you really think that's the way to health. Or do some research, be honest with yourself, and realize where health originates and take the steps to make it happen.
BTW, you might now have relatively good heath. Possibly only one or two symptoms, or even none. But these diseases have an incubation period of many years. Eating the western diet will cause western disease. You can't escape the biological laws of cause and effect.
In learning about nutrition oftern the conversation is about early man. I always found it a curiousity, but really I thought, who gives a shit, these guys rarely lasted beyond 20-30 years.
Now I see why it's so important to study early man. If you believe in evolution and that we evolved from millions and millions of years, it then makes sense. Man, through millenia evolved a certain diet for survival. And contrary to what many believe, it was a WFPB whole foods plant based diet.
Just as we can see the effects of smoking or alcohol, we experience daily the effects of the wrong kinds of food. We were not designed to eat the diet we eat. Just about every chronic disease we suffer is due to our diet. A diet of refined grains and restaurant foods. We eat a diet high in salt, oil and refined sugar. Daily we eat enough salt that could supply our bodies for a month. And we do this day in and day out ad nauseam. We actually believe oil is healthy for us. We do realize refined carbohydrates are bad for us, but still eat bread, cookies, cakes etc.
Chronic diseases that could be avoided: auto immune diseases such as lupus, MS. Associated heart dieseases including deep vain thrombosis, vericose veins, high blood pressure, heart attacks. The other piping system including diverticulosis, diverticulitis, crohn's disease, colitis, hemorrhoids, hiatal hernia.
All these diseases are caused by the western diet. If we started to eat a WFPB diet, these problems would likely disappear. But to eat a WFPB diet after being addicted to our Western Diet is herculean. I believe it's one of the most difficult achievments one can do in life.
Well, I haven't posted in a long time, so I thought I'd drop an article.
Though I'm almost 60, I've come to the conclusion I'm an atheist. I've come to this conclusion this week.
I don't want to get into the whole believer, agnostic, athiest argument. Either one believes in a god, or one doesn't. I might be wrong, but I do think with a measure of certainty, that I'm more right than people who believe in god. Especially a personal god.
It's funny, I've made this decision this week and I feel like a "rush to judgment", but I want to be firm in what I believe.
It's actually exciting because I know common sense and science aligns with my belief. And since I'm only 5% of the population, it'll be
I'm more likely to take an active interest in a retirement account if I know all the money made will not be taxed.
Therefore, let's say I have $100K in ROTH account. If account were to grow to $2million (add $1.9M), every cent is tax free.
If I made $1.9 million now outside of ROTH, almost 50% would go to taxes. Not only would I be left with only $1 million, I'd forever lose the chance to make money from the money paid in taxes. And of course any future monies made would be taxed.
It's a fact that we're living longer. With a ROTH IRA instead of a traditional IRA, I can let my money keep growing instead of taking forced withdrawals at 70.5 years.
If I die, spouse would be in higher tax bracket. With ROTH, it doesn't matter.
Social Security can be taxed up to 85%. With a ROTH withdrawal, it's not counted as income.
If taxes go higher, both Federal and State, which looks like they will, I'm protected.
These are the reasons I like a ROTH IRA. How exciting if I was 16, starting out, and maximizing my ROTH. And what must be understood for young people is that you are always able to withdraw what you put into a ROTH with no tax liabilities.
Of course who knows what the future portends. It's still one hell of a safety net. Though I can live like a king on $10K/year in today's monies, a $2 million ROTH account would be the same as $2 billion--more than I'd ever need.
In describing my blog, three of the main topics are Western Civilization/Politics, Personal Finance/Economy and Nutrition/Health.
Looking back at my posts, not only is there anything I wish to change, but everything I wrote I stand by today. No regrets.
As I'm getting older, nearing 60, I'm getting the chance to look back over my life and decisions made.
For instance, in the beginning, my seach for great health was to live near a reputable hospital. IOW, my health was not in my hands, or my responsibility, but the doctors'.
Now for some reason, I find I'm in a very extreme small minority when it comes to health/nutrition. I was always concerned with health. I gravitated towards a vegan diet and the writings of doctors such as Dr McDougall.
In the beginning of my journey, I didn't think I would ever be able to gain the health that I wanted. People who I read about, one was a mentor of mine, spent time at Dr McDougall's health retreats to gain back his health. I thought I would never have the chance for the same health because I was too poor to attend Dr McDougall's seminars.
But what I've learned is there is no magic in attending Dr M's classes. What needs to be learned can be gleaned from his books and videos from Youtube.
To gain health is actually quite simple. And inexpensive. What's difficult is going against everything learned and culture.
As I've said earlier, I'm older and as time's gone by, I've gained wisdom. And some of that wisdom is regarding nutrition. In general, with our ideas, customs, etc, we all regress to the center of the Bell Curve. If we stray out to the fringes, we realize our mistakes and are brought back in the fold. The center is usually right.
But on the fringes I will stay. Eating meat, meat byproducts, processed foods is the norm in America. Overweight is the norm. Taking pills is the norm. I choose to eat a diet free of animals, and its by-product, animal suffering. I want to eat foods grown from the earth in as minimally processed fashion as possible.
It doesn't seem to do that would put me on the outer fringes, but it does. Certainly times are changing, and I do believe the Bell Curve will slide over to where I'll eventually be in the center, but that time is still far away.
A few months ago, I received a flyer in the mail. It was a special offer, $50 to advertise with Google.
I checked my Visa statement yesterday. A $200 charge from Google!
I called Google and asked what it was about. They said it was for advertising with them. I said I never wanted to advertise with them beyond their $50 offer. They said they make it clear when I sign up that there will be additional charges that will be debtited from my Visa automaticly every month.
So not only do I not get a refund from Google, they are charging a $113 to close the account. Classy Google.
What I've now learned with Google if they offer anything where they want my Visa card number, stay away. Google's offered a lot of free stuff that I use daily, but now I hate Google.
PS. If you're wondering if the advertising did any good, the answer is no. I do appliance repair and I did not get one lead from Google.
