High Performance Living

DHA Improves Newborn Visual Acuity

A study just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition once again throws a spotlight on the importance of long chain omega-3 fats like those found in cold water fish.  In this study, mothers with preterm infants who consumed higher amounts of DHA had babies with higher visual acuity.  Fish consumption or fish oil supplementation is absolutely essential for optimum health, particularly among pregnant and nursing women.  The abstract is available at http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/88/4/1049?etoc.  

Clean water

There's a lot of misinformation about water out there.  Penn and Teller, on their show Bullshit!, will tell you you're wrong for drinking bottled water, that it hurts the environment and is just overpriced tap water.

Well... maybe.  There is certainly bottled water that is simply bottled tap water.  Is that so bad?

According to an ongoing AP investigation, U.S. hospitals annually flush millions of pounds of unused pharmaceutical down the drain.  An estimated 250 million pounds.  Thus, it is common place for there to be traces of birth control drugs, antidepressants, blood pressure medication, and more, in your drinking water.

And of course, chlorine is added to all water, in order to disinfect it as flows through the pipes to your house. 

The cleanest water is distilled, followed by reverse osmosis filtration. 

Exercise Reduces Brain Shrinkage

The body is a whole, and nothing you do or eat or take affects only one part.  One false dualism that many people have is brain/body. 

What affects the body does affect the brain as well, including exercise.  A new study found that people with early Alzheimer's had significantly less brain shrinkage the more they exercised.  There's a lot to be learned still, but their are indications that exercise helps reduce production of beta-amaloid, the protein that aggregates in the brains of those with Alzheimer's.  Many scientists also believe that exercise causes the release of nerve growth factors in the protein, contributing to the growth of healthy brain cells. 

So its really pretty simple.  The core building blocks of the High Performance Living program for optimum health and functioning of the body and brain are:

    1.  Eat a Paleo diet.  See www.ThePaleoDiet.com.

    2.  Exercise

There's of course much more, but these two items, in the order above, are the most critical.

 

The Perfect Amount of Chocolate?

A study just came out in the Journal of Nutrition.  This time they measured a marker of inflammation, and related it to chocolate consumption.  Those who ate 6.7 grams of dark chocolate a day had measurements 17% lower than those who did not eat chocolate.

The authors claim that this 17% reduction amount could mean a 33% reduced risk of cardiovascular disease in women, and a 1/4 decreased risk in men.

Here is the key - eat the darkest chocolate you can find.  Eat just a little.  Don't eat milk chocolate.

Rice and Arsenic

Rice bran, a so-called "superfood", may be high in arsenic.  This carcinogen occurs naturally in groundwater as a result of minerals leaching into rocks.  Though rice bran is often discarded since most people prefer white rice, many consumers are now taking nutritional supplements with rice bran in them.  Andrew Meharg, of the University of Aberdeen, UK, purchased nine of these products online and found high levels of arsenic in all of them. 

Arsenic is highly toxic, and increases risk of skin, lung, bladder, and kidney cancer.  Rice isn't really a food meant for humans anyway.  More about that later...

Oh, and if you want to support this blog, check out our sponsor, HSA for America. 

Still think Tofu's "healthy"?

A study in the July issue of Demential and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders found that elderly subjects who ate the most tofu fared worse on memory tests.  The researchers suggested that the phytoestrogens in soy may be the culprit. 

Soy beans, like all legumes, are toxic if they are not cooked or processed.  The cooking process does detoxify them to a large degree, but this is definitely not food you should be eating on a regular basis if you are interested in optimum health.  I'll talk about this more in the future.

B12 prevents brain shrinkage

As you age, your brain shrinks.  And brain shrinkage is linked to loss of cognitive function.  That's a bummer.

A study that just came out in Neurology showed that in elderly subjects, those with the highest B12 status had the least brain shrinkage.  In fact, they were six times less likely to experience loss of brain mass.

The only natural sources of b12 are meat, fish, eggs, and milk.  Vegans must supplement, or eat foods that are supplemented with b12 (such as breakfast cereals).  Eat your meat!

Take your fish oil

Once again another study has come out showing the incredible health benefits of fish, and the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids found in them.  In this study, published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, breast-feeding mothers who ate the most fish has babies with better cognitive and motor skills.  At 18 months, the toddlers of mothers who ate the most fish were better at skills such as climbing stairs, removing their socks, drawing, putting words together, and walking unassisted. 

The fatty acids found in fish cannot be made by the body.  If you don't eat them, your body will try to substitute other fats, but the results won't be so good.  A lot of these long-chain omega-3 fatty acids end up in the brain, which of course helps explain the connection between fish consumption and cognitive functioning. 

Unless you regularly eat cold-water fish, a quality fish oil supplement is the most important nutritional supplement you can take. 

Cocoa increases cerebral blood flow

A lot of research is being done on the various chemicals found in plants, and their effect on human health.  Cocoa has unique flavanols that affect arterial functioning.  A study published in the April issue of Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, showed that subjects aged 59 to 83 who drank a cocoa-rich beverage experienced an 8 percent increase in brain blood flow after just one week, and a 10 percent increase after two weeks.

The cocoa affects the endothelial cells - the thin layer of cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels.  Studies show improvement in endothelial function in diabetics, in smokers, and in otherwise normal subjects after consumption of cocoa or cocoa extract.  Study subjects have been found to have improved circulation in their hands and feet after just two days of taking cocoa. 

One way that cocoa improves endothelial functioning is by increasing the body's production of nitric oxide.  Nitric oxide causes blood vessels to relax, thus increasing blood flow throughout the body.  In fact, Viagra is a drug that inhibits the breakdown of nitric oxide.

Kuna Indians, who live on remote islands off the coast of Panama, drink at least 5 cups of cocoa a day.  And unlike virtually all other human groups (other than hunter-gatherers), they do not experience increased blood pressure as they age. 

You won't get much in the way of cocoa flavanols in your typical chocolate bar, though you will get a lot of sugar.  Instead, look for dark chocolate (never milk chocolate) bars with the highest cocoa percentage you can find - look for at least 70%.  I use a concentrated cocoa extract that I add to my coffee - look for it at Beyond-A-Century.com.  Therapeutic doses seem to be around 200 mg per day.

Food is the most important thing

If you are interested in optimum health and longevity, nothing is more important than the food you eat on a regular basis.  Exercise, take supplements, meditate, and drink lots of water - you'll still likely end up fat and in lousy health if you don't eat the right foods.
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Briefly, the right foods are fruits, vegetables, sea food, fresh lean meat, and perhaps some nuts.  These are the foods that our hunter-gather ancestors evolved to eat over a 5 million year period.  We are simply not genetically adapted to eat grains, dairy, vegetable oils, and processed sugar. 

The agricultural revolution, which brought wheat and barley, and eventually dairy and all the other modern "foods" we eat today, occured only about 300 generations ago, at the most.  For a few, it has happened in the past single generation.  Evolution occurs at a much slower pace than the change in our diet.

As editor at www.ThePaleoDiet.com, I am regularly receiving emails from people who have experienced dramatic health improvement upon eating this way.  And the list of diseases and health problems this diet helps is staggering.  We get emails about weight loss, blood pressure normalizing, acne disappearing, digestive problems disappearing, improved energy and mental focus, and numerous other health improvements. 

I'll explain more as we go, but it you want to get started now - go for it.  And pay attention to everything that changes...