As far as eating less goes, Jack La Lane who died at the age of 96, supposedly said “if man made it, don’t eat it; and if it tastes good, spit it out.” Jack just might have a clever way of remembering what to do about eating. One quick way of assessing if you weigh too much is to measure your waist from above both hip bones and around your belly button. If you’re a man and your waist measurement is greater than 40 inches you’re in trouble. If you’re female and your waist size is greater than 35 that’s not good for you either. Did you know that roughly half of the men in our country have a waist measurement greater than 40? And, 70% of women ages 50 to 79 have waist measurements greater than 35. Not too surprising that we have this tremendous health issue and climbing health care costs in our country.
Two other points about food and eating. You might want to look up the DASH diet if you’re having difficulty with these numbers. This diet is very similar to the Mediterranean diet which we know works. Also, we know that individuals need 500 mg of sodium to stay alive and if you’re ingesting more than 2300 mg a day that is too much unless you’re exercising in hot weather. By the way 2300 mg of sodium a day is equal to 1 tablespoon of salt
According to Bottom-line, February 1, 2013, reported that one study found that about 82% of heart attacks and other coronary events were not linked to high cholesterol. According to the study, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, obesity, a lack of exercise and poor diets were the culprits .Further, the ratio of small to large LDL molecules seems to be more important than the total cholesterol -200 mg/dL. The article went on to say that saturated fat in red meat, butter and eggs do not increase your risk for heart disease or stroke. However, the risk for heart attack was higher for patients who replaced their saturated fat with refined carbohydrates. Healthy carbohydrates are whole grains, legumes and vegetables. Stay away from the refined carbohydrates in white bread, white rice and desserts. Sugar is bad because it increases arterial inflammation, insulin levels and blood pressure. It also elevates triglycerides one of the main heart disease risk factors.
According to the Wall Street Journal February 7, 2013, reported good news. With an analysis of 21 fast food restaurant chains between 2006 and 2011, the following was reported: people are placing fewer orders of French fries and sugary drinks. In fact those restaurants that increased lower calorie servings experienced an average of 5.5 increases in same-store sales, as compared to 5.5% decrease among restaurants selling fewer lower calorie servings. So, be smart, check out the calorie counts and menus featuring smaller portions and continue to make good choices.
Remember, keep moving and run for your life.
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