Unknown to many, most people enjoy only average to mediocre health. Usually only top athletes achieve superior health, when they hire expensive sports medicine doctors and trainers, but during the last thirty years, specialized sports-medicine technology has evolved and ordinary folks without a lot of money may now access and enjoy it. America’s leading research journals support sports medicine, but unfortunately the popular news media often ignores it.
For example, the fad of eating a high sugar diet has proven to be dangerous to our health and lifespan. Gorging on a high fructose diet, namely ‘high fructose corn syrup,’ disrupts our metabolism and sends us on an overweight and eventually diabetic pathway. High fructose is typically found in fancy sweet drinks from coffee houses and in an ordinary glass of orange juice, which contains about 35 grams of fructose. Fruit juice has recently been implicated in gout.¹ These two sources alone have significantly added to America’s obesity epidemic. Today, only approximately 20% of Americans seem to stay thin and escape many common health problems related to being overweight.
Another unfortunate consequence of high fructose consumption is that fructose does not quell our appetite. We continue to eat without the proper brain signals from our stomach that should be telling our brains, ‘Enough is enough.’ We do not feel satiated, and therefore we gain weight, especially belly fat. Indeed there is a direct correlation between belly fat and fructose intake. Since fructose does not signal our hunger hormones, ‘leptin’ and ‘ghrelin,’ our hunger pains remain, and we continue to overindulge with ever increasing waist lines!
Where does it all end? Unfortunately, it usually ends with a visit to the bariatric surgeon’s office.
This awful trend has led to the current American obesity epidemic, in which 60% of Americans are obese, an additional 20% are overweight, and only 20% of our fellow countrymen remain unaffected. Believe it.
Obesity leads to cognitive impairment
One of the worst effects of obesity is that it eventually leads to cognitive impairment. Half of all Americans over the age of fifty show signs of cognitive decline, thus the current obesity epidemic (ignored by many) will become only worse in coming decades when obese people fall victim to a second epidemic, cognitive impairment. This second epidemic will descend upon us like an avalanche leaving some Americans feeling like befuddled zombies.
Identified by a high amount of belly fat, high-fructose diets will result in yet a third epidemic, namely inflammation. Increased belly fat and leptin resistance result in multiple inflammatory cytokines which are responsible for many of the effects of aging, especially between the ages of fifty and eighty. Indeed, inflammation is the limiting barrier for living past the age of eighty. If you doubt this statement, consider how few overweight seniors over eighty years of age you see walking the streets of your community.
Inflammation-caused-aging is sometimes called ‘inflamaging.’ You can see examples of inflamaging in its two poster children, Mickey Rourke and Sylvester Stallone. Both of these well-known actors still retain their masculine physiques at approximately sixty years of age. However, despite their muscular and vein-popping bodies, both appear ‘puffy’ (called ‘edema’ medically) due to their less than desirable inflammatory diets. Correcting these diets would eliminate inflammation and edema, and would probably allow Rourke and Stallone to live into and beyond their nineties while still in good health, much like the 96-year-old body builder, Jack Lalanne or other lean and hormonally balanced people who lived nearly into their nineties such as Jimmy Stewart and Katharine Hepburn.
Another unhealthy barrier to optimal health is ‘glycation.’ Glycation refers to the cross-linking of sugars with amino acids. An example is the eventual hardening of the lens of the eyes, leading to cataracts. Anti-glycators such as Can-C™ eye drops can reverse these oxidative and free-radical chemical reactions, and eyesight is restored without cataract surgery.² Consuming a low sugar diet also helps since fructose glycates approximately ten times faster than glucose.
Still another big problem for some professional athletes is eating. Many eat large amounts of junk food such as soda, sports drinks, candy bars, and even energy bars in the hope of burning it off while exercising. This junk food diet is what I call the ‘road-kill diet.’* Indeed, competitive athletes actually comprise one of the fastest growing segments of the malnourished population. In other words, even star athletes and their elite trainers are seduced by the ubiquitous presence of the road-kill diet in America.
*The road-kill diet includes doughnuts; French fries and nearly all deep-fried foods, including anything made with hydrogenated oils or heated vegetable oils; junk burgers; sausages and hot dogs; corn products; alcoholic beverages; soft drinks, conventional coffee, sports drinks, and fruit juices; sugar (sugar cane and sugar beets) and artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, etc.); peanut butter; and non-organic pasteurized dairy.
One of the more blatant and egregious examples of the road-kill diet involves our government’s U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA, through its marketing agencies, actively promotes an ever-increasing consumption of cheese. Thus, in recent years, national pizza chain-restaurants have been stampeded into adding extra portions of cheese on their pizzas. Furthermore, during the last thirty years, while skimmed milk consumption has declined, U.S. cheese consumption has tripled!
Yet another consequence of a high fructose and road-kill diet is dyspepsia, or poor digestion. Half of all Americans at the age of sixty suffer from dyspepsia, which leads to inadequate absorption of nutrients and an accumulation of intestinal yeast, protozoa, and other pathogens. To resolve this situation, one ought to sterilize the gut with the natural remedy, Digestif®. Digestif contains ‘mastic’ that is extracted from the gum of special Mediterranean trees. About 2,400 years ago, Greek physicians used it to kill common intestinal pathogens such as H. pylori.
A sterilized gut free from pathogens should be reinstated with good bacterial flora and the ultimate super-food, ‘Living Fuel’. It’s also wise to reinstate healthy intestinal bacteria by drinking additional refrigerated probiotics such as acidophilus, three times a day. This regimen will encourage better digestion and a stronger immune system. Trust me.
Interestingly, one may counter the craze in unhealthy foods by numerous remedies such as consuming a high fiber diet filled with free-radical ‘mopping up’ antioxidants. The general public does not appreciate free radicals which are, in fact, the most toxic substances on the planet.³ Believe me! They destroy DNA by bombarding it daily with approximately 7,000 hits caused by the virulent hydroxy free-radical. They also clog our arteries with oxidized cholesterol, causing us to experience advanced cardiovascular disease as we age. Unfortunately, modern medicine lacks a preventive approach to limiting free radicals, and we are left holding the bag with high blood pressure, atherosclerotic plaques, and expensive statin drugs with serious side effects. The government and most health providers do not have any plans for ‘“preventive health.’ They are too busy pimping the latest expensive patented medication instead of applying tried-and-true preventive remedies.
Due to government and industry neglect, people with excessive fat tissue are walking ‘oxidant factories,’ whose bodies must cope with enormous loads of these violently destructive molecules. I, personally, have done extensive research on antioxidants since my first scientific paper in 1978, and I am convinced that free radicals play a significant role in disease and aging. Flavonoids and catechins, especially, play a significant role in reducing the deleterious effects of disease and aging. However, one must be extremely careful with consuming these essential antioxidants since Professor Denham Harman and I determined in the 80’s that megadosing with antioxidants does not extend life span nor prevent the diseases of aging. Megadosing turns antioxidants into pro-oxidants and disrupts the finely tuned chemical machinery in our cells. As in the case of hormones, moderate, PHYSIOLOGICAL quantities of antioxidants –not megadosing- should be supplemented for optimal health and longevity. I have confirmed these conclusions with thousands of clinical experiments with my specially invented, non-invasive, near-infrared spectrometer that monitors free radicals, antioxidants, and lipid peroxides in human volunteers. I strongly recommend patented and clinically tested ACF 228® and liposomal glutathione.
Another type of dietary imbalance involves dietary fats, the worst of which are trans-fats. The preferred fat above all others is (incredibly to Americans) ordinary butter. Please note that even when heated and used for grilling, only butter does not change chemically into toxins! The French and their thousand-year culinary tradition know and understand that butter is superior to all other cooking oils. Sixty million Frenchmen can’t all be wrong.
Second to butter, another source of healthy oils derived from fish and lamb are called ‘omega-3 they increase the fluidity of our cell membranes, and thus, allow nutrients to pass easily through cell membranes. Fish oil capsules are often touted as the best form of omega 3s, but actually, fresh, raw (think sashimi) fish contains over forty essential oils and minerals (selenium) that are far superior to oil-filled capsules that only contain DHA and EPA and are advertised ad naseum in advertising. Thousands of years of successful cuisine by the Japanese, Koreans, French, Swedes, Italians, and Greeks attest to the fact that eating fresh, non-polluted, raw fish and vegetables for at least one meal a day will significantly improve our health and longevity and starve off the ill effects of the American road-kill diet.
This millennium-old diet is called the ‘Paleolithic’ or ‘cave man’ diet. On a practical level, the Paleolithic diet can be implemented by consuming a diet heavy in vegetables and half-raw foods.
We all need to minimize sugars and high glycemic foods (grains, syrups, pasta, potatoes, white rice, oatmeal, and breads), and optimize God-given treats to good health such as organic eggs. Especially in seniors, organic eggs, turkey, and whey protein help to prevent some of the signs of aging such as muscle wasting (sarcopenia) and organ shrinkage which ultimately lead to premature ill health and death. Even more important for a senior is to supplement with testosterone, growth hormone, IGF-1 hormone, Armour® thyroid, and exercise⁴.
In summary, I am raising the alarm about the declining health of all Americans, and only through our personal efforts and prayer can we hope to stem the coming tide of ill health. The government is not going to hand us preventive health care on a silver platter. Through the grace of God, we need to empower ourselves with a better understanding of optimal superfoods. Superfoods allow us to slip the surly bonds of ill health and touch the face of God.
References
(1) Hyron, K. et al. JAMA, 2010, 304; p. 2314.
(2) Research about N-acetyl carnosine and cataracts, available online at www.antiaging-systems.com.
(3) Lippman, R., Stay 40, Outskirts Press Inc., Denver (CO); 2009. Available on Amazon.com.
(4) Lippman, R. and Laudon, R., ‘New Method of Improved BHRT (bioidentical hormone replacement therapy).’ British Longevity Society. February 2010.
