Experiment

A couple of blogs ago, I talked of a woman who quickly realized what would work for her, and it wasn't by following our ‘dietary' template perfectly.

Now, after listening to two more podcasts, one of the people interviewed has a degree in nutrition and public health, and the other is a vegan who took "holistic” nutrition. Both separately agreed that a lot of what we are taught in nutrition doesn't necessarily work, or worse, isn't even correct.

The nutritionist was taught to reduce a diabetic person's carbohydrate intake from 60 percent to 50 percent. Even then, he challenged his professor to question that ‘if carbohydrates should be reduced, why shouldn't they be reduced to 10 percent or zero?” He is right of course!

The second person, the vegan, realized she was tired all the time; in point of fact her husband took pictures of her sleeping everywhere. More research showed her that the human gut does not assimilate nutrients from vegetables as easily as the intestine of a real herbivore. One paleo diet later, then a ketogenic plan, resulted in a ton of energy. Further, she had had very irregular periods and found that by increasing her fat intake to get her cholesterol levels higher, her hormones returned to normal and periods regulated. Cholesterol is the building block of all our hormones.

What I am trying to say is that we need to find what works for us. Some will do much better on very low carbohydrate plans (diabetics, people with increased visceral fat, menopausal women, and likely the older patient). Some may do better simply limiting carbohydrate intake to below 100 grams.

Fasting, to induce the process of autophagy, is an important tool to optimize health. Whether it's 12 or 18 or 24 hours or longer is up to the person to decide.

Our goal is to optimize your health. Nutrition is only one part. Sleep, stress and exercise are the other 3 pillars of health and each one needs work; and we can't compromise on any of them.

Moving away from nutrition, I feel that each of you must look hard and be self-aware about the amount and quality of your sleep; are you working on techniques for stress reduction? Lastly, exercise, so important for health (both mental and emotional); make all of these a priority.

Remember that what works for you, may not work for another. Don't be swayed by the opinions of others. Find out what works for you. Not next week. Tomorrow! Or even better, today. If food choices aren't perfect, then do a little exercise, some stress reduction and make sure you aren't going to bed with your Ipad or Iphone or whatever type of device you prefer to use. They are disrupting our lives; and especially our sleep.

You can do it. 4 pillars of health. Do a little of each, each day.

Dr. Doug