Healthy Aging: Body, Mind & Spirit

Juices and arsenic levels

The big story this morning is whether the lead and arsenic levels are too high in the fruit juices we drink.

The big story should be how bad fruit juices are in general because of their unnaturally high levels of sugar.  The human body was not made to mainline concentrated sugar at that level.   Think of it as razor blades in your blood stream like Dr. Oz suggests.   Any form of high sugar content leads to obesity, and often additional problems with Candida!

I know, we were all taught that fruit juice is healthier than other sweetened drinks, but sugar is sugar, and concentrated sugar spikes your insulin levels leading to artificially increased hunger and childhood obesity.

Why do Americans keep getting fatter?

In a time of many great excuses for eating too much like “the holidays,”  I have seen a few important stories in the mainstream media recently which explain much about Americans and their ever increasing girth.

It seems we have created the perfect storm for eating out of control.   How?   First of all we must look to “The Flavorists,” a story on CBS 60 Minutes this past Sunday.

Here is CBS’s summary:  “When you chug a sports drink or chew a stick of gum, you probably don’t think of science.  But there is a precise science – and a delicate art – behind what you’re tasting.   Morley Safer reports on the multibillion dollar flavor industry, whose scientists create natural and artificial flavorings that make your mouth water and keep you coming back for more.”

Yes, food doesn’t taste the way it started out tasting 20 or 50 years ago.   There are lots of scientists whose job IS TO GET AND KEEP YOU EATING TOO MUCH, and they know exactly what your brain finds absolutely addicting! They interviewed David A Kessler, MD for this piece, because he wrote the book The End Of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, where he documents how many and how much our chain restaurants invest in getting you addicted to their food.

Then we have the American perception of ideal weight, which has been heading up, up, up especially in the past 20 years or so.   According to the latest Gallup poll, actual weight and ideal weight — have risen, although “ideal weights” have not quite kept pace with actual weight gains.  The average American male now weighs 196 pounds and the average woman is up to 160 pounds. Both figures are 20 pounds greater than self-reported weights in 1990.

Perhaps more importantly, Americans’ self-professed “ideal weights” are getting higher and higher.   Women on average said their ideal weight would be 138 pounds — up from 129 in 1991.   Men on average said their ideal weight should be 196  — up from 180 pounds in 1991.   In other words, our perceptions are shifting upwards as our health is taking a gigantic fall.

I know personally how this happens.   Before I decided enough was enough and started seriously losing weight, I could easily turn to others around me and say, “I know I’m overweight, but I’m not that bad. Just look at her.”   As those around us expand, our perceptions get distorted.

If you would like a reality check, go do an honest assessment of your own BMI. Anything over 30 is OBESE.

In addition, the traditional American diet assumes far too much fat and starch for our present lifestyle.   I have learned that my own traditional perceptions which caused me to expect starches like cereal, bread, potatoes, and pasta, not to mention cookies,  for breakfast, lunch and dinner equal dietary disaster!   No, I cannot eat bread or cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and then have a potato or pasta with dinner and expect to remain a reasonable weight.   This is the road to obesity plain and simple.   Starches are filler foods we needed when we were doing physical labor 60 hours a week.   Fill up on the highest quality proteins, fresh vegetables and fruits instead, and cut your starches in half.

What are the facts?   Fat kills us even when we don’t see ourselves as fat, and we will continue to die at an earlier age with fat induced illnesses like heart disease, diabetes and cancers of all types. Not to mention our present sky-rocketing health care costs, which will only increase as we choose to become the most obese country in the world.

Does positive thinking cure life-threatening illness?

Apparently not, although it can help the patient endure the pain, and difficult tests and treatments sometimes involved.   Only those who have survived these illnesses are here to tell us how positive thinking worked for them.

Go see this CBS News segment to see what they learned about illness and positive thinking.

Special Holiday Book Sale!

Did you know Nov 26th is the 2nd annual Small Business Saturday?  That’s the day we all support small businesses in America, and you couldn’t find a smaller business than me!

I have a limited no. of copies of How To Believe In Love Again: Opening to Forgiveness, Trust and Your Own Inner Wisdom and Midlife Magic here at my home.

I will sell them for just $12 each, including packaging and full postage in the U.S.  I’ll even add your personal message, sign it, with gift wrap, if you wish for me to mail a copy to someone special for you.

Just send me an e-mail at: MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com and I’ll personally hook you up fast!

Canned goods and cancer

If it isn’t one thing it’s another!   Cut down on canned soups, etc. to avoid too much BPA in your diet!

Learn more here.

Have a few cups of coffee for your health!

Edward Giovannucci, M.D., Sc.D., professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, said coffee is emerging as a protective agent in cancers that are linked to obesity, estrogen and insulin.

“Coffee has already been shown to be protective against diabetes due to its effect on insulin,” said Giovannucci, “So we hypothesized that we’d see a reduction in some cancers as well.”

Giovannucci observed cumulative coffee intake in relation to endometrial cancer in 67,470 women who enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study.   During the course of 26 years of follow-up, researchers documented 672 cases of endometrial cancer.

Drinking more than four cups of coffee per day was linked with a 25 percent reduced risk for endometrial cancer.   Drinking between two and three cups per day was linked with a 7 percent reduced risk.

A similar link was seen in decaffeinated coffee, where drinking more than two cups per day was linked with a 22 percent reduced risk for endometrial cancer.

Giovannucci said he hopes this study will lead to further inquiries about the effect of coffee on cancer because in this and similar studies, coffee intake is self-selected and not randomized.

Gratitude and your health

There’s always something to be thankful for…

Since I realized how good it feels to be grateful for what I have instead of resentful for what I don’t have, and what an important place this is to start from, I have been on a mission to understand what this simple daily act does for my health and perspective.

Scientists are finally catching on to what many religions worldwide have known for centuries, gratitude is good for your body and your mind.   People who practice gratitude are in better health, are more optimistic, and make more progress towards their personal goals, according to Robert Emmons, a professor of psychology at UC-Davis.

Here’s how they came to this conclusion: Over 10  weeks the subjects were required to write down five things they were grateful for every week.   These subjects found they were 25% happier than those who only wrote down their frustrations.   They also found grateful people sleep longer, exercise more, naturally reduce their blood pressure, eat less dietary fat, and live up to seven years longer because of their decision to choose positive emotions.

Think you have nothing to be thankful for?   Then go watch this five minute video from Gratefulness.org

Cool new book!

Have you heard of the book:  What I Eat: Around the World In 80 Diets?

It’s a great idea, a stunning photographic collection featuring portraits of 80 people from 30 different countries and the food they eat in one day.

They summarize how many calories they each consume in a day…sounds like a LOT more than me at around 1,100 per day!   The average American consumes somewhere past 2,000.

Avastin no longer approved for breast cancer treatment

US drug regulators have rescinded approval of a breast cancer drug, saying it is not effective enough to justify the risks of taking it. The drug, Avastin, was approved for US use in 2008, but UK officials have also rejected claims that it prolongs life.

Learn more here.

Do you hope to live past 90?

When I first started writing my Midlife Crisis Queen blog four years ago, at age 52, it seemed like everyone asked me, “What is midlife?” Now it’s beginning to seem like I may be right in the MIDDLE of my life!

According to new census research, more Americans than ever are living past age 90. Nearly 2 million are over 90 today!   And by the year 2050, the year I would turn 95, that number is projected to be 9 million!

The number of us over 90 has tripled since the year 1980, but the real question is: How will we provide quality health care for so many elderly Americans? At the rate we’re going now, this goal is absolutely unsustainable, and there no use extending the quantity of life without quality of life.

At present only 1 in 5,000 Americans live past 100, but it’s still the fastest growing demographic in the U.S.  How do they do this?   Here are some lifestyle patterns that the Blue Zones Study found promote longevity worldwide:

• Build exercise into your daily lifestyle
• Slow down, relax more, and try to minimize your “inflammatory response”
• Find your unique sense of purpose
• Eat wisely
• Find your right tribe

This story from last night’s CBS Evening News finds that the most important factor in living long and well is maintaining a sense of caring and community.  Arlene Richmond who runs a senior living center says,

“Being part of a community changes their world.  They have people who share their passions.  They have a reason to get up in the morning.  They continue to be the movers and shakers that they once were.”