2 people eat same breakfast. One dies & one lives.
Welcome to our health & self help blog.
Focus on Your Health:
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective. We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.
Today's post: Friday, 6-15-2007
2 people eat same breakfast. One dies & one lives ….
It really can happen. Here’s why & how to be the one that lives & stays healthy.
(My original title was 2 men eat the same breakfast. And, I do write it that way. But it’s now beginning to be known that women are as at risk of heart attack & related diseases as men are. In fact, their risk may be higher in some ways once they pass menopause.
Whole Foods Market has an excellent free handout on Women & Heart Disease that I recommend you read if you are a woman or have women in you life you care about.)
The common breakfast foods in this post are steak & eggs.
Let’s say each person eats a six ounce steak & two fried eggs for breakfast or brunch.
Here’s why the results can be so different.:
1. Their health status is different.
2. The quality of their food is different.
3. They eat different things with their food.
1. Their health status is different.:
The man who dies could be someone who smokes & believes that he will succeed in not getting lung cancer from it. He even could be right. Many people who smoke don’t get lung cancer. But what he doesn’t know is that everyone who smokes damages their cardiovascular system & disables their natural defenses against heart attack, stroke, & more. So, he hasn’t quit. And, his homocysteine is over 16.0 & his blood vessels are so choked with plaque that a small clot will cause a heart attack or stroke. He doesn't know what it is & has never had it tested. Smoking has also given him high blood pressure he doesn’t know he has because he has never had it checked. It’s 178 over 105.
He also eats too much fatty meat from animals penned up & fed grains, including his steak today. So he’s eaten too much omega 6 oils, too little omega 3 oils. His HDL cholesterol is quite low, 36, as he’s also not gotten that tested; he doesn’t take any supplements that raise it; & he never exercises. His LDL cholesterol is over 180; he also doesn’t know that as he has never had it tested; & he takes no supplements to lower it.
Even worse, because he eats so many refined grains & no vegetables to speak of & never exercises, his HBA1C reading is 9.3; he has type II diabetes; & he doesn’t know it as he’s never had his blood glucose or HBA1C tested -- & he hasn’t yet had symptoms that he saw a doctor about. He also doesn’t know that this increases his risk of heart attack by more than double or that it’s one of the causes of his high blood pressure.
The man who lives got lucky & never started smoking or he did & found out what its real risks are to his cardiovascular system & quit.
He knows he has desirable blood pressure because he has it measured every so often. It tends to average about 116 over 65. When it’s taken at his doctor’s appointments, he always asks what the reading was. He exercises regularly, eats a lot of vegetables every day & some whole fruit or real fruit juice every day; & he has found & uses a way to physically relieve stress & uses it almost every day. He also takes several supplements that keep blood pressure down, notably including 200 mg a day of CoQ10.
He knows his homocysteine level as he has that tested every so often. And, because he doesn’t smoke & takes several supplements that lower it, it’s tended to be about 8.0.
He has high LDL readings of over 70 as he exercises regularly, including strength training; takes supplements that increase it; & drinks one or two glasses of red wine most days. His LDL is around 100 as he takes sterol supplements & eats many foods with sterols or soluble fiber every day. And, he gets both tested every time he gets his homocysteine level tested.
But there’s more:
2. The quality of their food is different.
The man who dies eats meat several times a day. So, to be able to afford it, he buys his meat from stores & restaurants that serve only meat from animals penned up & fed grains. That’s the cheapest kind to get. But eating it often harms your health.
And, that’s the kind of steak he has today. It’s loaded with omega 6 oils from the grain; it’s quite fatty from the cow that it’s from getting stuffed with grain while it was penned up; & it’s also high in saturated fats.
The man who lives eats beans & nuts & nonfat dairy & wild caught fish & seafood for most of his protein intake. He only has beef a few times a month. So he only eats beef that is grass fed only & never penned up to be fattened.
That’s the kind of steak he is eating today as he’s found & patronizes an upscale restaurant that serves it. It isn’t cheap. But he only eats it a few times a month so he finds it affordable. It’s a bit chewier & more strongly flavored than the grain fed beef. It’s more like wild game. But it has some omega 3 oils & very little omega 6 oils. It’s quite lean. And the fat it does have is low in saturated fats.
3. They eat different things with their food.
That also makes a surprising difference.
The man who dies has his steak & eggs with French fries that were fried in an oil high in omega 6 oils. He has his eggs fried in butter. And, he has a piece of white bread, refined grain, toast with jam that has high fructose corn syrup as its sweetener. Then he has a large caffeinated soft drink with it.
The man who lives has onions sautéed in extra virgin olive oil on his steak. And he has his eggs fried in extra virgin olive oil also.
He has a small bowl of strawberries & one of peeled & sliced kiwifruit. And, this being a brunch, he has a glass of a sparkling red wine.
The result is the man who dies has extra saturated fat that acts like sludge in his blood vessels which aren’t up to the job & dies of a massive heart attack within hours of eating his brunch.
The man who lives has very little sludging in his blood vessels. But they can handle it. And his body disposes of it efficiently. And he lives several decades more in good health.
Ask yourself:
What kind of message are your food & health practices sending your heart?
Focus on Your Health:
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective. We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.
Today's post: Friday, 6-15-2007
2 people eat same breakfast. One dies & one lives ….
It really can happen. Here’s why & how to be the one that lives & stays healthy.
(My original title was 2 men eat the same breakfast. And, I do write it that way. But it’s now beginning to be known that women are as at risk of heart attack & related diseases as men are. In fact, their risk may be higher in some ways once they pass menopause.
Whole Foods Market has an excellent free handout on Women & Heart Disease that I recommend you read if you are a woman or have women in you life you care about.)
The common breakfast foods in this post are steak & eggs.
Let’s say each person eats a six ounce steak & two fried eggs for breakfast or brunch.
Here’s why the results can be so different.:
1. Their health status is different.
2. The quality of their food is different.
3. They eat different things with their food.
1. Their health status is different.:
The man who dies could be someone who smokes & believes that he will succeed in not getting lung cancer from it. He even could be right. Many people who smoke don’t get lung cancer. But what he doesn’t know is that everyone who smokes damages their cardiovascular system & disables their natural defenses against heart attack, stroke, & more. So, he hasn’t quit. And, his homocysteine is over 16.0 & his blood vessels are so choked with plaque that a small clot will cause a heart attack or stroke. He doesn't know what it is & has never had it tested. Smoking has also given him high blood pressure he doesn’t know he has because he has never had it checked. It’s 178 over 105.
He also eats too much fatty meat from animals penned up & fed grains, including his steak today. So he’s eaten too much omega 6 oils, too little omega 3 oils. His HDL cholesterol is quite low, 36, as he’s also not gotten that tested; he doesn’t take any supplements that raise it; & he never exercises. His LDL cholesterol is over 180; he also doesn’t know that as he has never had it tested; & he takes no supplements to lower it.
Even worse, because he eats so many refined grains & no vegetables to speak of & never exercises, his HBA1C reading is 9.3; he has type II diabetes; & he doesn’t know it as he’s never had his blood glucose or HBA1C tested -- & he hasn’t yet had symptoms that he saw a doctor about. He also doesn’t know that this increases his risk of heart attack by more than double or that it’s one of the causes of his high blood pressure.
The man who lives got lucky & never started smoking or he did & found out what its real risks are to his cardiovascular system & quit.
He knows he has desirable blood pressure because he has it measured every so often. It tends to average about 116 over 65. When it’s taken at his doctor’s appointments, he always asks what the reading was. He exercises regularly, eats a lot of vegetables every day & some whole fruit or real fruit juice every day; & he has found & uses a way to physically relieve stress & uses it almost every day. He also takes several supplements that keep blood pressure down, notably including 200 mg a day of CoQ10.
He knows his homocysteine level as he has that tested every so often. And, because he doesn’t smoke & takes several supplements that lower it, it’s tended to be about 8.0.
He has high LDL readings of over 70 as he exercises regularly, including strength training; takes supplements that increase it; & drinks one or two glasses of red wine most days. His LDL is around 100 as he takes sterol supplements & eats many foods with sterols or soluble fiber every day. And, he gets both tested every time he gets his homocysteine level tested.
But there’s more:
2. The quality of their food is different.
The man who dies eats meat several times a day. So, to be able to afford it, he buys his meat from stores & restaurants that serve only meat from animals penned up & fed grains. That’s the cheapest kind to get. But eating it often harms your health.
And, that’s the kind of steak he has today. It’s loaded with omega 6 oils from the grain; it’s quite fatty from the cow that it’s from getting stuffed with grain while it was penned up; & it’s also high in saturated fats.
The man who lives eats beans & nuts & nonfat dairy & wild caught fish & seafood for most of his protein intake. He only has beef a few times a month. So he only eats beef that is grass fed only & never penned up to be fattened.
That’s the kind of steak he is eating today as he’s found & patronizes an upscale restaurant that serves it. It isn’t cheap. But he only eats it a few times a month so he finds it affordable. It’s a bit chewier & more strongly flavored than the grain fed beef. It’s more like wild game. But it has some omega 3 oils & very little omega 6 oils. It’s quite lean. And the fat it does have is low in saturated fats.
3. They eat different things with their food.
That also makes a surprising difference.
The man who dies has his steak & eggs with French fries that were fried in an oil high in omega 6 oils. He has his eggs fried in butter. And, he has a piece of white bread, refined grain, toast with jam that has high fructose corn syrup as its sweetener. Then he has a large caffeinated soft drink with it.
The man who lives has onions sautéed in extra virgin olive oil on his steak. And he has his eggs fried in extra virgin olive oil also.
He has a small bowl of strawberries & one of peeled & sliced kiwifruit. And, this being a brunch, he has a glass of a sparkling red wine.
The result is the man who dies has extra saturated fat that acts like sludge in his blood vessels which aren’t up to the job & dies of a massive heart attack within hours of eating his brunch.
The man who lives has very little sludging in his blood vessels. But they can handle it. And his body disposes of it efficiently. And he lives several decades more in good health.
Ask yourself:
What kind of message are your food & health practices sending your heart?
Labels: cholesterol, health, heart attack, heart disease, high blood pressure, nutrition
posted by David at 1:08 PM
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