Healthy habits, or what was I thinking?

[tim-from-pa]

We all are bombarded with health advice, right? Supposedly "science" as so-called confirm healthy eating and exercise habits, or are they? Here's some things I listed that are in reality lame to do, or again, what was I thinking to believe this?

1) Separate the egg yolks from the albumen (whites) and only eat the whites. (BTW, high cholesterol may signify there's a heart disease problem, not the other way around. To lower your cholesterol, this life-giving substance, and then live under the delusion that your heart will be healthier is like shooting out the train's signal lights and then saying it's OK to cross because there's no train coming)
2) Lower one's salt intake because salt is bad. (Probably the 2000+ mg requirement of salt can be safely doubled or tripled---- just because some people may bloat from it does not give a blanket permission to make the shoe fit for everyone)
3) Eat a low salt and low fat diet and then exercise like swell for at least a half an hour or an hour a day. (Do that and you'll probably be dead soon).
4) On the same note, the more exercise, the better. (I'm not seeing athletes with a longer life span. If only people read their bible the same manner they worship exercise people would probably be really healthier---- 10 minutes a day of exercise will suffice)
5) In place of dangerous fat or sugar, I'll just eat the substitute no-calories stuff. (and then we wonder why we pray for people with cancer in church but they never get healed).

I'll stop here..... there's so many other lame things that maybe some others can add to this list.

 

[SecretRiches]

Hi Tim,

You sound fustrated with the whole health thing. I know it can be difficult to determine what to believe sometimes.

I don't think it's a matter of just limiting one thing, or eating one way, or doing another...
I think it's a matter of risk vs. benefit.

Eggs: They do have cholesterol in them. If someone is trying to reduce their cholesterol, they need to do more than just avoid egg yolk. They need to avoid other foods that contain saturated fats and cholesterol.
Sat and trans fats increase bad cholesterol and decrease good cholesterol
Mono and poly fats actually help establish healthy cholesterol levels.
When you say people shouldn't eat low fat diets, you are partly right.
We need fats for many things...one essential thing is for our cells. But we need the good fat, not that bad fat.

Here's how risk vs. benefit applies. Lets say you are a young adult male who is currently active, eats well balanced meals in moderation, is not obese, does not have diabetes, and CVD doesn't run in your family.
If you eat an egg, you aren't going to die, nor with you increase your cholesterol.
In fact, you'll gain more benefit from the nutritional value of the egg in comparison of the risk in cholesterol.
For someone who has some or all of the above factors, especially if they have high cholesterol...
they need to do more than just limit egg yolk because they need to bring that cholesterol down within healthy limits.

Salt: oh yes salt.
I challenge you to check the nutritional labels in your cupboard or freezer.
You'll see that it is extremely easy to double or triple the recommended daily intake of sodium and that's before you even pick up the salt shaker.
You are right, salt absolutely affects people in different ways as you've mentioned...ie bloating.
But it's not whether you bloat or not....
it's the matter of osmosis.
Water follows sodium in the body. It's actually essential in many of our daily functions (ie when ya pee)
If you consume more salt, the more salt ends up in the blood. You have water in more places that just your blood....
Water in tissues and other areas will actually follow the salt in the blood to help retrieve homeostatis. Have you ever noticed when you eat something salty that you get really thirsty afterwards?
More volume in a fixed place equals more pressure.
Will this kill you? No not instantly. If you consume double your sodium intake once here and there, it's not going to affect you.
It's when we take in that double or triple sodium content daily, leading to a daily problem of high blood pressure and therefore, leading to stressed veins/arteries and heart.
Over time...your risk for a cardiovascular event will increase. Does it guarantee you'll die from a heart attack? maybe, maybe not.
But look at the other risk factors. If someone is obese, has type 2 diabetes, eats high sat fat meals and high salt, plus account for genetics, you just might have a problem in 20-25 years.

Another thing, you don't need to cut out every bad thing. It's all about moderation. You can have that chocolate bar or bag of chips in moderation with other foods.

Substitutes, yes I think in mass amounts they definately aren’t good.
They’re chemicals. But the same goes for processed foods and their preservatives. There are many chemicals in the stuff we eat. The more processed, the more likely it has chemicals.
Eating real sugar isn’t the issue. It’s how much sugar and how often. Moderation is key in any healthy eating diet. And I hate the word diet because it has this stigma of meaning “lessâ€Â
You can actually eat more and still lose weight. It’s all about what you eat and how often you eat it.

Exercise, for sure too much is bad for you. I’ve met young girls who work out at that gym for 3 hours a day.
That is unhealthy and unsustainable. Eventually they will crash and burn, unfortunately.
But exercise has many benefits. It not only decreases your risk for some cancers and CVD, but it also increases energy, helps aid in a more restful sleep, aids in stress reduction...not to mention all the endorphins. We live in a high stress, highly depressed society. I think a little exercise could go a long way.
Does this mean you have to run flat out for those 30 mins? No way.
You can walk, run, bike, or clean the house. Walk to the store instead of driving (within reason), park further away from the mall or grocery store etc etc.
Also, muscle mass is so important. And females often find this concept hard to grasp because they think if they lift weights they'll bulk up. Unless a female has a very unbalanced hormonal condition where they have more androgens that normal, they might gain muscle quicker. But the average female cannot bulk up without adding these hormones to the body in large amounts.
Also, those bodybuilders, male or female, spend HOURS a day in the gym and they often inject or consume chemicals and drugs that they don't even know are safe OR they know they aren't safe and use them anyway.
For both men and women, the more muscle you have, the higher a metabolism you will have. Muscle is your metabolism. It’s living tissue that MUST have energy.
The more you have, the more energy it needs...the more you burn.
So weight lifting (not bodylifting) can have a huge and positive outcome when combined with cardio exercise AND healthy eating (ie moderation).

So you aren't completely wrong in saying what you've said. It just matters in what context you are using it.
Fitness and Health can be a very grey area. If something ends up on the news, this can cause cancer, if you do this you can decrease cancer risk by 50%, etc etc.
I never believe all of that. If you want to know the truth, then you have to dig up the original studies. Not all studies are great. Many are flawed, and many hold biases depending to whos funding them. But if the media says, one study proved.....
I'd take it with a grain of salt and do my own research.

Anyway sorry for the essay.

But I hope it helps sort out some of the things you are hearing and seeing.

God bless.

 

[tim-from-pa]

Thanks for being helpful, but no thanks. I am not frustrated with what to believe. I know what I believe. I am frustrated when the medical and health establishment tries to push their filthy doctrine down my throat. Here's two examples that even you stated (although I am not picking on you personally, but your statements do sound like the typical junk I hear often):

Eggs: They do have cholesterol in them. If someone is trying to reduce their cholesterol, they need to do more than just avoid egg yolk.

That's false doctrine. BTW, I get my eggs from my sister-in-law. Raises her own chickens, so I will admit it's better than the chemicals they add to chicken feed elsewhere. Egg yolks are loaded with minerals and important vitamins like biotin. Anyone out there ever hear of biotin? That's what I thought. They will tell you what to avoid, but not what to take in. I want my cholesterol between 200-300 for optimal health.

Salt: oh yes salt.
I challenge you to check the nutritional labels in your cupboard or freezer.
You'll see that it is extremely easy to double or triple the recommended daily intake of sodium and that's before you even pick up the salt shaker.

The recommended intake of something like 2000 mg is too low. I think one can go safely in the higher 4 digits and even 5-digits of salt consumption a day. Sea salt is better because they do not have the other minerals stripped away like regular table salt. Cutting salt for me has never proven to me to lower my blood pressure, on the contrary, quite the opposite when reducing salt consumption if anything raised it as less salt made me feel more tired, and then the heart beats harder to compensate (as it usually does when I am sick or tired). Case in point: People with the highest salt consumption live the longest, and the orientals have the lowest blood pressure and higher salt consumption.

An one thing about nutritional labels. They stink. Years ago they used to list the vitamins and minerals, even some obscure ones. Now, the big over inflated government only cares about the caloric portions in the labels (e.g. protein, fat and carbohydrates) and cholesterol and sodium. Let's face it, they see most of these vital nutrients as BAD when the real issue is that the body is not taking in enough of the good because of processed foods. The whole nutritional philosophy needs a major overhaul, and when something good like salt that the bible declares kosher is demonized, then one has to wake up to the realization that man has become an arrogant demigod who wants to control creation.