A Brief Top 10 to Abiding Well

A Brief Top 10 to Abiding Well

1. Control carbs, and strictly limit or avoid refined flours and sugars. Atkins was right: Not all calories are equal.  These cause inflammation in the body.  Inflammation can be found at the root of all disease. Facts:  Eat sugar →  Glucose rises →  Dopamine released →  Insulin spikes to regulate blood sugar and pushes the sugar into cells that haven’t become resistant to insulin → Then insulin triggers the body to store fat and what hasn’t been used as fuel. 
   
   You’ll get a real boost to your metabolism by keeping your total carb intake below 50-100 g (not counting insoluble fiber) per day. And the kind of carbs matter! Once you’re a better fatburner, and if you’re a serious athlete, you can increase your carbs to 100-150. But if you have ever been overweight, eating more than 100-150 gm of carbs per day (depending on your size) will put the weight back on again, slowly but surely. So your best bet is to learn low carb and make it a new way of life. We will work on this together.

2. Avoid the Hateful 8 toxic fats. Most metabolic disease comes from a lifetime of eating high-PUFA (polyunsaturated fats) seed oils. Over years, these unstable fats build up in your body fat and start to impact all 4 metabolic energy-producing systems, making you chronically tired. Toxic fats promote inflammation everywhere they go, including gut inflammation. They are the main reason fat starts to build up in your arteries and around your intestines. To avoid the Hateful 8, you must read the ingredients for all foods you buy (salad dressing, cereal, crackers, food bars, sauces, spreads) and avoid all of these oils:

   • Canola

   • Corn

   • Cottonseed

   • Soy

   • Sunflower

   • Safflower

   • Rice Bran (restaurants use this)

   • Grapeseed (restaurants use this, too)

3. Do not buy low fat, low cholesterol, or fat free food alternatives such as egg-beaters, low-cholesterol spreads, skim milk, and low-fat ice creams. Inadequate fat consumption over decades can train your body to rely on sugar for energy and impair your ability to burn fat. Facts:
   
   PUFA’s and sugar do. “‘Scientific evidence clearly shows that dietary intake of saturated fat compared to serum (blood) levels of saturated fat show little if any correlation.’ They go on to say that some research is showing that dietary carbohydrates are linked with higher levels of saturated fat in the blood.” The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living (Phiney and Volek) and Simply Keto (Suzanne Ryan).
   

4. Eat butter, eggs, cheese, and whole-milk. Studies show eating these foods improves HDL (good) cholesterol, bone health, brain health, and energy levels. Make sure these products come from pastured (grass-fed) animals. If that’s not possible, choose organic. If that’s not possible, do your best when you can.
   

5. Eat vegetables with fat, salt, and an acid. This combination optimizes your body’s ability to absorb the antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals in greens.
   

6. Eat more vegetables than fruits. Fruits are better for you than candy for a treat, but they are a treat and you should eat 2- 3 servings of vegetables before you treat yourself to more fruit. Juice does not count as fruit. One (8 ounce) glass can have 24 PLUS grams of sugar.
   

7. Buy bone broth (or learn to make it). The number one miracle food for your joints, gut, brain and connective tissue (including bone) is bone broth because it contains compounds that act like growth hormones in these tissues. NOTE: The magic in bone broth comes not from bone marrow, but rather from the collagenous joint materials and skin. Whenever possible, use pastured and organic ingredients.
   

8. Eat probiotic-rich foods. If your digestive system is crampy, gassy, bloaty, or otherwise making you not want to eat, when you do feel better you’ll be very tempted to treat yourself to something overly starchy or sweet. To keep your digestive system working smoothly, include probiotic-rich foods in your diet on a regular basis. The most popular probiotic-rich food in the US is (no sugar added) yoghurt, kefir, and real pickles and sauerkraut are also great sources of digestive-boosting organisms. We have all heard how important it is to have good gut health.
   
   Low fiber diets cause lower microbial diversity, which impacts the immune system, brain, and GI health. Females should take in 30 g of fiber per day and 40 g for males.  Beans, fruits, and veggies survive breakdown in the small intestines and are able to make it to the large intestine microbiota.  The average American intake of fiber is less than 15 g per day.  Most western diets are high in refined carbs and starches which are broken down and absorbed BEFORE reaching the microbiota.
   

9. Exercise! Cross train by doing as many different types of activities as you can: Walk, Dance, Ski, Bike, Shovel your neighbor’s walk. The best exercise is the exercise that you do. No program will succeed for long if it's not fun. (This applies to eating, too!) Did you know your glucose levels dramatically drop after dinner if you just go for a 20 minute walk?
   

10. Sleep. Your body will be exposed to excessive cortisol and pro-inflammatory hormones if you do not get enough sleep, and most people will do better with 8 hours than with the more-common 6-7 we sometimes have to deal with.  Imagine how much sleep humans got before the invention of the lightbulb and computers that allow us to stay up MUCH later. Your body is not signaled to make melatonin until your eyes are not exposed to light.

    *I am not a doctor or a registered dietician. Please consult with your doctor before making dietary changes.