The Secret to Dying Young
Mankind is truly amazing. We have managed to progress on an almost continual basis for thousands of years. We’ve vanquished many terrible diseases that have plagued us for years totally eliminating polio, for example. We’ve sent a man to the moon and back and each generation has a higher standard of living than the one that came before it.
But there is one huge blind spot in our knowledge the arena of nutrition. Much of what is considered to be correct in nutrition, both by the mainstream and current scientific thinking is not only wrong but actually backwards.
Evidence of that is the fact that despite billions of dollars spent in research and studies in nutrition, this generation is the first that can expect a DECLINE in both it’s health and longevity compared to the generation before it. If any other science be it aerospace, chemistry or physics started producing results that were worse than they produced in the past, people would immediately begin to question everything in an attempt to figure out where they had gone wrong.
But in nutritional “science” that doesn’t happen. Instead, nutritionists and researchers involved in the nutrition field continue to promote a diet that clearly has a lot of holes in it namely that we should be eating a diet that is mostly made up of whole grains, fruits and vegetables while minimizing our consumption of proteins and fats.
The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published in March of 2005 that due to the increase in childhood obesity, this current generation could expect to live as much as 5 years less than their parents and with poorer health to boot. Some researchers feel that even this number is too conservative and that the impact on health and longevity will be much worse. You can read more about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/obese.html
In any case, all one has to do it go to any mall in America or just about anywhere else and take a look around. It’s clear that the only way obesity can be growing at the rate that it has is because the recommended food pyramid isn’t just a little bit off the mark it’s totally upside down.
While there are as many opinions as to why people are getting fatter as there are people, I think we can make some very good guesses as to which path will lead us away from obesity and disease and towards health, longevity and enhanced mental and physical performance.
Although not everyone will agree, I personally think it’s very clear that the two of the big three killers: Heart Disease and Diabetes both have some common roots obesity and insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is when our body requires the secretion of higher and higher amounts of insulin in order to clear our bloodstream of carbohydrate. The only thing that has been consistently found among Centenarians (those who live to be over 100 years old) is the fact that they all tend to have excellent insulin sensitivity.
Keeping our bodies sensitive to insulin is very important and one of the best ways to do that is to get and or stay lean. The best way to get and or stay lean is to minimize our carbohydrate intake. That’s really not up for debate. All one has to do is look at bodybuilders the only group of people on the planet that have consistently managed to achieve SUPREMELY low levels of body fat time and time again. They all reduce carbohydrates in order to strip body fat to very low levels and they have done so since the very beginning of the sport. They’ve tried every type of approach (including some very impractical and complex ones) and reduction of carbohydrates is the thing that always produces the best results.
But in today’s world, carbs are everywhere the average American eats 50-60% of their calories from carbohydrates. They taste great and can only be avoided if someone makes a concerted effort to keep them out of their diet. The results that come from eating low carbohydrate foods are truly amazing, however, and worth the effort.
