Regarding exercise and weight loss, I just noticed a very relevant article in New Scientist.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21....


Exercise instantly boosts fat-busting genes

* 17:00 06 March 2012 by Jessica Hamzelou
* Magazine issue 2855. Subscribe and save

Now there is no excuse to avoid the gym: just one hour of exercise instantly changes your genes to boost the breakdown of fat.

Juleen Zierath and Romain Barrès at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues looked for epigenetic changes – the addition of a methyl group to genes – in muscle cells during strenuous exercise. To do so, the team collected biopsies from the thigh muscles of eight men who led relatively sedentary lives, both before and after an hour of exercise.

Several genes involved in fat metabolism that were methylated before the exercise lost their methyl group. Such demethylation allows genes to more easily make proteins, which suggests that more proteins involved in the breakdown of fat are being made after exercise, says Zierath.

The group was surprised to see these effects happen so quickly. They think calcium, produced in muscle cells during exercise, may be involved since subjecting the same biopsies to caffeine – which also increases calcium in muscles – caused the same demethylation.

Unfortunately, you would get caffeine intoxication before gaining the same effects from coffee as an hour-long workout, says Zierath.

Journal reference: Cell Metabolism, DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2012.01.001

I'm a Cardiologist. I completely agree with the above.

The food pyramid is garbage. I also cut out processed foods and carbs and lost 50 lbs. Healthiest I've been for years.

I tell my patient's that they need to take responsibility for their diet and health now and lose weight because there isnt money in the system to do so. Surprisingly only 1/3 have the will power to change.

"Sugar is not poison. "

That bears repeating. What on earth do people think some of the stuff IS that the body turns food into?

The best form of exercise you can have, is swimming. But don't overdo it (I did, for years I was in the pool literally hours every day, and if in the sea, it would be just about sunrise to sunset).

To me, whatever you do, you must try and ensure a regular basic supply of what the body knows it wants and needs. What it is designed to get, in other words.

If you aren't giving your body that, it will try and keep eating, because it simply isn't getting what it needs.

The best time to give your body those essential supplies, is in the first meal of the day, then you have a whole day to benefit from it, with a body fueled correctly for the day.

Years ago a friend was a nutritionist, and I did a lot of heavy work around that time. She said one of the best things I could have, was a bar of chocolate, after that good breakfast (egg, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, cooked in beef dripping, etc., you get the idea).

But always have that bar of chocolate before mid day, and never after mid day.

I am going to repeat this link, because it is worth watching (and pay attention to the problems experienced by those on the ancient fruit, nut, and vegetable diet - you would not believe the problems I had over a long period on pretty much the same diet, and I'm really*****ed off at the degree I was experimented on, which went way beyond any regards for my personal safety. And yes, I WAS experimented on, without my knowledge or consent).

"Did Cooking Make Us Human?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nq1yBKow....

Also, think about how our ancestors hunted, and the size of animals that were hunted. The American Indians for example, would drive Buffalo over a cliff, and there would be a lot of meat, offal, fats, skin, and bone to process.

It would be a big killing and processing party, and most of that food, would be preserved for future use, with some used fresh. Same when the fish ran the rivers to spawn. Same when the shoals of fish would appear close to the coasts at certain times of the year.

Dried, smoked, and salted concentrated food, was likely the bulk of our diet, with occasional gluts of fresh.

Do you know what dried, smoked, and salted concentrated food, IS?

It's processed food (but a little bit different to what we call it, today).

It's that bulk storage of processed food that created leisure time, and to me, it's that leisure time, that allowed us to create civilisation.

Otherwise all we would be doing, is eating, and there wouldn't be enough hours in the day, to venture away from a food source for long (eta: and there does seem to be a Marketing and promotional agenda that is getting people to do exactly that, then people are being scapegoated for 'eating too much').

Cvdoc: "Surprisingly only 1/3 have the will power to change."

It's an uphill struggle against the marketing machine, but it will get there in the end.

Look at the shift in public perception over Anthropogenic Global Warming, despite many years of constant bombardment by the propaganda machine. This is a good recent comment on it:

"The high priests of global warming have lost their prestige . . . ."

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/97....

"Something extraordinary is happening in the great Climate Wars. I had a taste of it just the other day on an LBC talk show. The producer had only booked me in for a ten-minute slot, in case the listeners weren't interested in my boring new book about that tediously hackneyed subject Man Made Global Warming. But the switchboards were jammed and the station ended up keeping me in for a full hour to reply to all the calls.

There was one big problem though: "We can hardly find ANYONE who disagrees with you," whispered the show's host, Julia Hartley-Brewer. This was true. By the end, things had got so desperate that I found myself accidentally picking fights with callers who were on my side. An easy mistake to make for someone on my (sceptical) side of the debate: we card-carrying Satanic "deniers" are so used to being vilified at every turn it really feels kind of weird suddenly to be in tune with the popular mood.

And I'm not the only one to have noticed. A climate sceptical blogger called Pointman has written a superb post on the subject(which is well worth reading in full). The enemy - that's the alarmists who've been making most of the running in the last two decades - is in serious disarray. As Pointman puts it: "All reason has fled. There’s a real feeling of April 1945, Berlin, der Fuhrerbunker and its mad occupants, barking unrealistic orders down phones and moving long ago destroyed units around on maps, as if it really meant something."

{more at the link}

It's worth reading Pointman's comment {referenced in the article above} at his blog too:

http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2012/03....

when you couple increased food costs (what you buy in the store) and ****ty food quality (what you buy in the store) it amazes me why more TF'ers (more logic based in my opinion) aren't producing their own food.

A tomato produced from a properly cultivated garden (ie good soil fed with proper nutrients via non-petroleum methods) will yeild you 10x the health and flavor vs your store bought red moisture sack aka Fresh Tomato. Why would you choose something else?

Found a local source for non-nitrite bacon and sausage. Nice ham steaks and chops. Bought 50 pounds. Pigs looked really healthy. No GMO based feeds.

Got a dozen eggs while I was there. The guy went into the coop and came out with the box.

These people know the other gal who supplies my grass fed beef and is bringing back 35 pounds for me today from the Williamsburg farmers market.

Get your meats local and visit the farms. Taste and quality is radically different.

I think Gen has hit a nerve here. Lots of common diet sense among the Tickerers too. I was going the same way: middle aged spreading.

Got married, had a fine son who demands much of me, cut the processed crap (I treat myself occasionally) and got an insanely energetic border collie from the animal rescue charity. 3 stone gone.

Then got a market garden, am now increasingly supplying us with veg, and a local restaurant with local grown, chemical free salads for £s. Next step: I have a kayak and this summer the family will be eating mackerel, 30 minutes out of the sea. And, if the fishing gods are kind, the occasional cod.

I( dislike the government mucking about with me, especially my and my kids' food.

Dwedeking, I did a lot of comparison testing between 'organic' and hydroponic growing (running water culture and straw bale). Eta: For clarity. I didn't find any difference, and will cheerfully use both. Usually seaweed fertiliser and crushed seashells, to get a bit of everything, along with NPK (and a 50 kg bag of 17-17-17 in the shed, goes a long way in the garden).

Plant food is plant food, and as long as what a plant needs is there it will take it and grow ok. Flavour is related to variety grown (agribusiness being more influenced by convenient cropping varieties for harvest time, shape, and colour, than flavour), and 'goodness' (and flavour) is more determined by the time taken between harvest and arrival on the plate.

The Chinese did good work establishing what plants need for growing in proper balance, and if you do as they ended up doing, dusting seeds with Molybdenum, your plants will be growing properly balanced.

This was work the Chinese did, getting to the bottom of throat cancer hotspots (this with crops grown organically, remember - organics are no 'magic bullet', and there is probably no ground in the World, that isn't deficient in something - my own ground, for example, has a pretty serious copper deficiency, to the extent that sheep locally can get swayback).

Quote:

What should I replace the diet soda with

Tomato juice made with real garden tomatoes. Or in a pinch - tomato paste, diluted 4:1 and spiced with a dash of pepper/tobasco.

Quote:

Tomato juice made with real garden tomatoes.

I have a Breville juicer and make tomato juice all the time. I could probably drink a gallon of tomato juice per day; but I love tomatoes. It tastes nothing like V8 or pasteurized juice though, so it may seem strange to someone at first.

Please forgive me if this is posted elsewhere, I've looked and can't find it.

Where is the thread about the diet that Karl used?

Thanks;

Flap

Quote:

I don't see how High Fructose Corn Syrup is tied to the government

FDA has known for a long time that fructose (when separated from corn fiber in the case of HFCS) is a poison linked to most of the rise in chronic disease afflicting the developed world since the late 70s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1EgW1ZFc....

Quote:

I have a Breville juicer and make tomato juice all the time

Have you seen Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead - I'm sure its been mentioned (maybe even on this post), but its worth while. I wish I didn't HATE tomatoes, but I can juice carrots, spinach, celery and a little ginger and its not to bad. Fresh orange juice is off the charts good with one of those juicers (throw in a little pineapple and apple - wow)

Jones, yes. If you search, you'll see a thread about it.

I got down to 175 from 235 and stayed there for over a year, until I quit smoking cigarettes. Now I'm at it again, losing weight. What helped me before, and is helping during this current, and hopefully final round, is to separate my reducing diet from my maintenance diet.

To reduce you have to induce a state of autolysis, in which to maintain life and activity, the body has to consume itself rather than maintaining itself solely through food intake. (And it does so by consuming its fat stores first, because "lean times" are what those stores were designed for.)

To induce autolysis, one way or another, has to entail eating fewer calories than maintenance requires. But gladly, a separate maintenance diet that you "graduate" to whenever your weight loss goal is reached (plus five pounds; or anyway, that's what I always gain back during the transition, after which my weight stabilizes) doesn't have to be nearly so strict.

Which fact, during the reducing phase gives hope whenever the thought comes up, "Will I have to eat like this forever?" Because the answer is "no."

Of course a maintenance diet has to be separated from the "normal" American diet that I grew up following. Whose rule of thumb is to eat for fun and comfort whenever you feel like it. Which is what I reverted back to when I quit cigs.

Just like nicotine and other drugs, foods act on the human endocrine system to produce a brain state of well-being. Where exercise benefits in the main, in addition to its overall health benefits, is in its release of endorphins and the like, which can make up for the good feelings lost when overeating and drugs are eliminated.

On a maintenance diet, my philosophy is "eat to live, don't live to eat." It may sound trite, but it worked for me for over a year. And, finally off cigarettes after smoking since I was 14, I'm confident it will work again.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/a....

It doesn't even take an hour of exercise. Just 3 minutes a week can improve your insulin sensitivity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-1717725....

CvDoc:

I'm a Cardiologist. I completely agree with the above.

The food pyramid is garbage. I also cut out processed foods and carbs and lost 50 lbs. Healthiest I've been for years.

I tell my patient's that they need to take responsibility for their diet and health now and lose weight because there isnt money in the system to do so. Surprisingly only 1/3 have the will power to change. "
.........................

Here is a good one!

1/3 will make changes?
WHY wouldn't you make "friends" with your Docs?
Pay attention and come back a year later BETTER?

Many of the ones I know and use are really great guys and do care about you and all of this.
We are of the same ages usually, face the same issues of aging, recreate in similar ways....running, cycling, high altitude skiing and hiking, what food to eat, how much to drink, body parts wearing out.
They love "motivated" patients!
Why not?

My CV Doc and I had a discussion last Fall.
"So you lost another 18 lbs in a year, numbers are simply right on...what do you think/attribute all this to?"
"Well, I want to live and age without a walker!"

He laughed----"...some people simply do not want to live forever! But really?"

I offered..."Real food, not too much, supplements, exercise...you tell me Doc?"

His final offering was:
"10 Cardio Docs will all have an opinion on food but it is mainly eat less, mostly vegs and fresh and real."

AND...when you are dead it doesn't matter---it is HOW you live while Alive!

When you look around these days and see what people look like...whew.
(I live in the State with the lowest BMI in USA)
Sadly when the results of bad food etc. hit-----man, where did your Life go??

Breton

We have been using real butter and olive oil for years in our cooking.
Here's one we do, fresh cabbage sliced up and fried in water, butter, and
olive oil. Pitch some onions in there too...and if want it even better some
fresh mushrooms.
We raise our own chickens and have free range eggs.
We get fresh buttermilk (goat milk) and butter from a friend.
With a handicapped husband, work is cut out in keeping him healthy, and
for awhile it wasn't looking too good. He is beginning to listen! :)

Been using olive oil only for the last 9 months or a year, just started using real butter but will continue using both from now on.

I don't care if the butter costs 3x's what the vegetable oil crap costs, we're still getting butter.

For those who are not using Olive oil yet keep in mind that olive oil is like wine in that their are so many types and varieties.

I use about 5 different ones depending on what they are being used for.

The price range is considerable.

Harley - all sugar is sugar, is not necessarily true. There is a difference in how the body processes fructose, sucrose and glucose which is the root cause of the problems with processed food.

The tongue may detect sweetness but it's similaries stops after there.

Is butter really 3x the cost of the vegetable oil crap? I think they are about the same in price here. I could be wrong though.

Ram: It's double here, I was just saying I'd pay triple. Hell, maybe even 4x.

I would sooner go without any butter like product rather than eat margarine. Cost is not the issue ... I see no reason to eat poison at any price.

Maybe the most important thread ever since, unlike you know what, it is about something over which we have some control and can do something about. Very valuable and helpful info.

Nobody mentioned the C-reactive protein test for inflammation. Wonder if anyone has experience with it and it's predictive ability? The VA wouldn't let me take it even though I offered to pay. They said the results might be "misleading". Instead they focus on forcing all vets to take whatever dosage of statins is needed to get LDL down to 100. I took 10mg per day for a couple of months just to shut them up then refused when I noticed they also lowered my HDL's enough to make my ratios even worse. Agree with poster who tracks triglycerides/HDL as hopefully the best marker for inflammation.