The Latest Dietary Guidelines

Every five years a blue panel committee of dietary experts meet to write a report  summarizing the scientific evidence used to formulate  the official government dietary guidelines. There are a number of interesting changes in the new guidelines.

The most significant finding of the report is that dietary patterns are more important than specific foods.This means that people should not think about individual foods as much as putting together a healthy dietary pattern. Do not think of this as a punitive diet but as a healthy pattern of eating that should taste good.

This new pattern of eating will be higher in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, seafood, legumes and nuts. It will be moderate in alcohol and nonfat dairy and lower in red and processed meats, sugar, sweetened drinks and foods. It will also be lower in refined grains.

Another change will be to no longer focus on the amount of fat in your diet but rather on the type of fat. You should limit foods high in saturated fat such as meats and whole dairy while choosing foods high in polyunsaturated fats. The reason is that cholesterol in foods is not responsible for elevated blood cholesterol. Saturated fat is responsible. See our blog on healthy eating for more information on the role of fats in your diet.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

Lower Your Blood Pressure With Beet Juice

We have advocated exercise and meditation as ways to lower blood pressure without resorting to medications. A recent article in the Journal of Hypertension reported a study that piqued our interest. It seems that a daily cup of beet juice lowered systolic and diastolic pressures in patients with hypertension. Improvements in blood vessel function and arterial stiffness were also observed.

Researchers attributed the benefit to nitrates in beets that caused blood vessels to dilate. The blood pressure reduction was of clinical significance and came close to that of taking a single anti-hypertension drug. We are excited by this study. The implications are important and may be life saving for many with high blood pressure. In fact it might be necessary to create a new folk saying that goes "A cup of beet juice a day keeps the doctor away."

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

Who Should Take The AREDS Vitamin Formulation?

The AREDS vitamin formulation was designed to reduce the possibility of developing macular degeneration. This formula was developed as the result of several large studies designed to determine whether supplying certain nutrients  would decrease the risk of developing macular degeneration in patients who had early signs of the disease.

It was found that the AREDS formulation was moderately effective in this select group of patients. It has no value as a general eye health vitamin in patients who are not at risk and should not be used for this purpose. There are other multi purpose vitamins that would serve you better.

The Danger Of Added Sugar

The health scare of the week is of course about sugar. Drinking just one sugary soda a day increases the risk for type 2 diabetes by about 13% whether or not you are obese when you begin drinking the sodas. Researchers estimate that if Americans broke their daily sugary drink habit two million new cases of diabetes could be prevented over the next five years.

Health officials advise that daily calories from added sugar should not exceed 10% of your total caloric intake.Think of this. One 20 ounce soda contains about 66 grams of sugar. This  corresponds to 264 calories. If you are consuming 3,000 calories a day, for example, this one soda drink would represent 8.8% of your total caloric intake for the day.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

How To Live Longer And Age Less

In our books TriEnergetics and Live Longer Live Healthier we have emphasized  the fact that you have two ages at the same time. One is your chronological age and the other is your biological age. You can look older or younger for your years. You can also act and feel younger or older for your years. The choice is yours. It is not complicated. In fact it is quite simple. It depends on the lifestyle choices that you make.

We were excited to read a new study proving that someone who looks and feels older that their years may actually be aging faster. The opposite may be true for those who seem youthful for their age.

In this study researchers tracked 954 adults in New Zealand. Participants were enrolled at age 26 and were followed for twelve years. The investigators measured a range of factors including the condition of the subjects vital organs and immune system, their fitness level, IQ, height and weight. This information was entered as the subjects biological age.

 At the end of the twelve year study the biological age of the participants ranged from 28 to 61!

Some of the subjects did not age physiologically at all. At the other extreme some aged two or three times as much. These subjects  looked older, had problems with strength, balance and coordination. They also showed signs of a decline in cognitive function.

The authors emphasized that genetics account for only about 20% of the rate that people age. Exercise, diet, stress and smoking play a much larger role.


The conclusion of the authors of the study was that lifestyle choices account for about 80% of the speed with which you age. Do you want to stay youthful and vital or do you want to age prematurely? As we say in our books the choice is yours.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

Another Health Scare Lack of Sleep TV and Alzheimer's

We warned you about the health risks from chronic use of over the counter pain killers. Now here is a new health scare that should concern many of you.

It has been reported by reliable sources that adults who average less than seven hours of sleep at night have a higher risk of mental impairment, and cardiovascular disease. New research also suggests that sleep deprivation may contribute to the development of Alzheimer's.

Co-author Matthew Walker of the University of California at Berkeley stated that sleep deprivation is an under appreciated factor in the development of Alzheimer's.

Incidentally it also seems that young adults who spend long periods watching TV performed worse on cognitive testing as they approached middle age. It is not clear whether the real problem was watching TV or the fact that they were more sedentary than those who did not watch as much TV. Either way watching too much TV is a problem.

On a prior blog we discussed the fact that physical exercise is more effective than mind games in improving memory. Now we are looking at the other side of the coin, watching too much TV can actually impair your memory. We have emphasized the value of exercise in our book and in our courses. Now is a good time for you to embark on a new lifestyle path if you are not feeling good about the path that you are on.

If you have questions about a healthier lifestyle we are there for you at trienergetics.net and with our book Live  Younger Live Healthier.

FDA Proposes Adding Sugar Guidelines To Food Labels

We have been cautioning our readers about the danger to health posed by sugar. Now we see that the Food and Drug Administration has finally proposed that nutrition labels list the amount of added sugar and recommended consumption levels.

We hope that you are not surprised to learn that this proposed rule is opposed  by many food and beverage companies. They are part of a multi billion dollar industry that is based upon making money by making the consumer fat and sick from eating unhealthy foods. These companies care more about the bottom line than about  your health.

The proposed rule would set the recommended intake of added sugar for packaged food and beverages at no more than 200 calories a day. This translates to about 13 teaspoons of added sugar. Keep in mind that a bottle of Coke or Pepsi has about 10 teaspoons of added sugar.

Sugar currently is one of the few major food components that does not have a recommended consumption level on the U.S. approved food labels. This lack of essential and necessary information is the result of pressure from the same food companies that have spent millions on advertising to convince us that all of this sugar is tasty and good.

The FDA rule still needs to go through a public comment period before the rule can be adopted.



                                     

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net