My Diet for a Healthy Life Over 70

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I’m going to share some of my diet notes. I welcome any questions or discussion.

My dietary objectives are:

  • Reverse obesity naturally
  • Reverse metabolic syndrome and prevent type 2 diabetes
  • Promote more vitality and mental clarity

Dietary structure:

  • 20% protein
  • 50% fat
  • 20% fiber
  • 10% carbs

Notes:

  • lot’s of olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil – good fat
  • lot’s of avocados – good fat
  • no cooking with corn, soy, safflower, cottonseed – Omega-6 and GMO
  • no conflict palm oil – don’t purchase from those who use children in slavery
  • fish is wild caught non-farm salmon, sole – high in Omega-3
  • beef is 100% grass-fed organic – no antibiotics, no GMOs, more Omega-3
  • chicken is cage-free/free range organic – no antibiotics, no GMOs
  • eggs are cage-free organic – no antibiotics, no GMOs
  • all vegetables are organic or locally-grown non-certified organic from small farmers where I have surveyed their farm
  • no fruit except occasional blackberry or blueberry treats – to much sugar
  • no dairy, no gluten, no grains, no rice or corn or soy – all are too fast to turn to sugar
  • I drink a modified “bulletproof coffee” with decaf coffee beans freshly ground and brewed as espresso with a tablespoon of XCT Oil and some grass-fed butter which foams when I brew into it. – XCT Oil is high in Omega-3 short-medium chain fats

 

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8 thoughts on “My Diet for a Healthy Life Over 70

  1. I have heard a lot of information about palm oil that is sustainable sourced. It is so sad to hear that child labor is used in the production of it. Most of the organic brands I buy say they come from a sustainable source. I thought it was something about over harvesting it as well?

  2. Hi Michael, I’m Robert. I am 42 years old but interested in nutrition and leading a healthy lifestyle. I was vegetarian for 12 years and been vegan for the last 8 months. I eat high carbs, moderate fat and minimal protein. As glucose is the natural fuel for the body I find it odd to avoid carbs. For me fruit and vegetables are the foods that will keep me young and active into old age, I know I won’t become obese. Although I know no diet fits all, research shows that the Okinawans lived the longest when they ate their traditional diet of 98% vegetables and grains with 1% fish and 1% fish. Then we all are different and enjoy different diets. I wish you the best with your goals, Michael.

  3. Shannon
    Thank you for your comment.
    Yes, there are two issues with any of these crops. One is the sustainability issue – whether they limit their harvest and allow crops to recover or just deplete the crop like what is happening with the Cacao bean in the Amazon.

    The other issue of course if the “conflict” issue on whether child labor and slave labor is employed in the product of crops.

    Here is an excellent history of the topic for coconut – http://edgeeffects.net/coconuts-conflict/

    Here is a good one for Palm Oil – http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/stop-deforestation/palm-oil-and-forests.html#.VwwPMGP_u6w

    Here is a good piece on child labor – https://campaign.worldvision.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Forced-child-and-trafficked-labour-in-the-palm-oil-industry-fact-sheet.pdf

  4. Robert
    Thank you for your well-considered and thoughtful comments.
    I think you illustrate several key points that are important to emphasize for everyone.

    1. Everyone’s metabolism is different and for the longest time we have evaluated the “healthy diet” by whether we were lean, fit, and without illness. But in fact, the real evaluation must be done later on in life when the more serious ailments take place – type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s, MS, and so on. The truth is, the human body is an extraordinary machine and it takes more than 10 years of bad habits to slow it down.

    2. Because we use lean, fit, and illness free as our criteria, we generally don’t do any blood tests of any consequence – we might skip A1C and not know that our body is creating more insulin and more inflammation than it should, or we might miss testing Triglycerides and not know our body is putting more sugar into our blood than is normal or reasonable.

    3. And perhaps one of the greatest misconceptions is that glucose is the natural fuel for the body. Everything we have written in the last 20 years and everyone who speaks about this tells us that story. But doctors who are treating patients who have been on low fat diets for many years and have gradually developed problems, know that placing patients on high-fat diets cures them. Fat, not glucose, is the fuel of the healthy body. Insulin is an immune response, not a normal function.

    4. The proponents of Paleo Diet – an approach that tries to focus only on natural, organic foods and foods raised without chemicals, antibiotics, etc. – seeks to eat like our Paleolithic ancestors. These folks were hunter-gatherers who ate what they would kill or gather – and that turned out to be mostly game/meat, fish, or fowl. They could find seasonal vegetables and fruits might be an annual treat. Grains were never in the picture. The view of Paleo is that you didn’t live as long in that era but you didn’t die from what you ate but rather what ate you.

    5. Unfortunately there aren’t too many long term studies that support the efficacy of vegan and vegetarian diets. Of course you have to confirm that some people have a better metabolism for those disciplines than others. But on the whole, running studies with people eating only vegetables, vs. high-carbs, vs. whole foods generally produce better blood numbers and lower mortality rates in the whole foods groups with vegetarian falling slightly behind that. The troubling numbers are generally in the older populations where Alzheimers is running rampant and cases are increasing at an alarming rate. These folks appear to be suffering from a lack of healthy fats in their diet – some suggest that the brain requires fat (ketones) not sugar and that higher sugar diets, even the ones from vegetables and fruit, are the ones causing the damage to brain cells.

    I encourage you to read the book – http://health-over-70.siterubix.com/eat-fat-get-thin-book-review (Eat Fat Get Thin) and the massive amount of research presented in the book.

    As well I encourage you to read the book – http://health-over-70.siterubix.com/grain-brain-by-dr-david-perlmutter-a-book-review (Grain Brain).

    These books are loaded with current and extensive research as well as case studies. The case studies address illnesses and cures that most of us would not consider possible or reasonable. Once you’ve gone through the research then you decide whether you would make any changes.

    Being healthy over 70 is not something you begin at 69. If you do, it’s a recovery. But 50 or earlier is a good time to learn as much as you can about food as medicine and using the best available science and research is definitely better than using the food triangle.

    Best of luck and thank you again for your comments.

  5. Hello,

    I am originally from PA., a city boy. I ended up in rural GA, the sticks, for 15 years. Imagine my surprise the first time I saw in a pan and then ate a chicken that was cage free/ free range organic. The chicken came from the yard or pasture whichever you want to call it. It was so much smaller and I thought had a different taste.

    I assumed this was so because I was so used to the chemicals that they pump into commercial chicken. Is that why the size is smaller and the taste is different.

    Also in my little piece of South GA they had chicken houses and some of my friend had the job of going into them and pumping them full of I don’t know with needles. Do you know what they inject them with?

    I do know that after about so many weeks, I forget how long they said, these chickens were ready to market and huge.

    I guess we are at a point in society that are taste buds are so accustomed to the chemicals in our food that the food that is good for us does not taste as good.

    I ask you, where is all this headed? I could figure out for myself that it was about money at the chicken houses to get them in get them out big and get paid.

    Is that’s what is behind all the garbage in our foods—-Money and convenience?

    Thanks for the info,

    Barry

    • Barry
      Thanks for the great comment and your raise some great questions.

      What is driving all of this? Is it money?
      Well you know I’m sure that there is somebody somewhere you wanted to feed the world when they invented a way to genetically alter our seeds for soy, corn, and wheat, and so on. I’m pretty sure that someone envisioned solving world hunger. But someone else, the someone with the money who is also connected in high places at the FDA said, “Hey, we can make a lot of money if we sell corn seeds that are resistant to Roundup which is the stuff we sell to spray the corn to keep the insects off.” And the numbers guys went to work with their little calculators, and every went, “Hey – those are awfully big numbers, Jim!”

      Doesn’t take long before you see a meeting where the scientists come in to speak to the executives and the scientists say, “Well there’s a problem with GMOs – they seem to be causing problem with cattle that eat the corn and also with people.” This is where the numbers guys get out their little calculators again and start calculating the cost of lawsuits and PR and all sorts of other intangibles and then compare that to the lost profit if they discontinue, and WOW! the numbers aren’t good. “We need to keep doing what we’re doing.”

      So is it mainly the money? Yeah, I think it’s mainly the money.

      But there is a happy ending to the story. Of course there’s always the short range strategies and the long range strategies.

      Short Range
      – get the FDA to relax rules on how you get certified organic
      – but at the same time get them to make it harder and more expensive for smaller farms to get certified
      – relax the rules on things like pastured or grass-fed beef – that’s cows that never ate GMOs – so that we can feed them some corn for a while and still call them “grass-fed”

      Long Range
      – counteract the movement to small, local farms
      – take over and integrate or close small local farms
      – label everything organic and sell it through the supermarkets to really kill the local food movement
      – get GMOs classified as “organic”
      – etc.

      The good news on the horizon is small local farming. They may not be able to get FDA certified organic but you can walk over and take a look at how they grow – if they’re not spraying insecticides or using fertilizer with the wrong stuff, then they’re probably as good or better than the FDA Certified guys.

      And you can also find 100% grass-fed beef ranches, and ranches that grow chickens cage-free and these are usually small – 15 acres sometimes but they don’t use antibiotics on the animals, and they treat the animals humanely which leads to a completely different taste and something you might have to get used to but these ranches can also produce grass-fed butter, one of the healthiest fats on the planet (I know we’ve all been taught that’s not true) and cage-free eggs – all of these are completely GMO free and GMO may be one of the sources of inflammation which is generally what ages us the most.

      I know – getting involved in your food chain takes a lot of time. Most of the time by the time you work all day, drive home, have a little dinner, and watch a little TV, who’s got time to worry about food chain.

  6. Hey Michael, I’d be keen to hear how you’re going and a progress report on your journey. I personally have been on my own journey of understanding the role of nutrition and learning about inflammation, the role of gut health etc after suddenly becoming intolerant to a lot of foods that previously gave me no dramas at all. I find it all really fascinating and a whole new world to read and learn about. I really like your approach of eating real foods. So yeah very keen to hear how things are going for you!

    • Amanda
      Thanks for your comment. I’ve been attending all of the health and wellness online seminars I can find lately, listening to speakers, and primarily focusing on – IFM (institute for functional medicine) – that’s where I believe the real “front line” is located – thousands of patients with symptoms that have traditionally been diagnosed and treated with drugs are finally getting a ‘root cause analysis’ of what might be causing their symptoms and the results are truly amazing.

      And of course your description is classic for how we slowly develop our symptoms – first one food then another – and symptoms that at first are so mild that we pass the symptoms of inflammation off as ‘aging’ but we don’t get that our bodies where designed to last almost forever – in a perfect world of course. It’s a leaky gut that lets one molecule of some food we consume often escape into the blood stream and that in turn lead to a mild to moderate sensitivity – again sometimes so subtle we don’t notice – and then comes another molecule of something else we eat often and pretty soon our gut is no longer protecting us as it should – could be the GMOs, or even the Glyphosate building up to kill our good gut bacteria, or just the growing effect of a diet with too many carbs and sugar, coupled with a childhood with too much exposure to antibiotics – never one cause for any of this.

      And there you are with all these general symptoms, sensitivities to foods, and sometimes full-on allergies that disrupt every bodily system until someone properly tests us and determines what’s really going on and that’s the role of functional medicine practitioners.

      Because my weight loss slowed and yet I was on a diet of no grains, no sugar, lots of greens, healthy fats, etc. We determined that I have a toxic buildup that is holding me back – 71 years of collecting toxins from my environment and food, so I’ve been steadily increasing my activities around detoxification including daily green drinks, lemons juice and activated charcoal, Methyl CPG, milk thistle, and more. All of this takes time of course but I note that my inflammation is steadily decreasing and I am gaining some energy which I will use to step up my exercise.

      It’s a journey and for me not just about losing weight but about regaining my total health without excuse or limitation. I no longer believe that aging and related chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, dementia, Alzheimers, and all the other things society is experience is natural, normal, or incurable. It is this belief which is necessary to fuel the research and education you must do to take charge of your health away from traditional medicine.

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