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My top 3 tips to be healthier in 2019
| Don’t worry, I’m the same as you – I can’t believe Christmas is only a few weeks away. Everything always speeds up as the end of year approaches, it is far too hectic. It is a really tough time to be making changes to any routine. What I thought I would try and do, is at least plant a few seeds in your mind, to give you a bit of a running start into 2019. I got thinking about this after I was asked to present at a seminar for the Darling Downs Health Service last week. It was called ‘Please, Just Tell Me What To Eat’ and I shared the stage with a wonderful Toowoomba-based endocrinologist Dr Sheila Cook. The sold-out talk was well-received and there were plenty of questions from the audience. |
| We received great questions about losing weight, cholesterol, fats, carbohydrates, exercise, insulin resistance and medications. It really hammered home to me; that as long as I’m not pushing some supplement, drug, agenda or false-hope, or as I say, ‘doing this for good, not evil’, then patients/public and other health professionals, just want to know what to eat, on a day-to-day basis, to stay healthy. I will post a video of the talk when it is ready. Just before I was about to leave, a lovely older lady came up and asked: ‘Anthony, if you could summarise your speech into a ‘top-3’, what would they be? Now, during my 40-minute talk, I had covered a bit of health history and where I had gone wrong in the past as a practitioner. I had also ‘busted’ some common health myths surrounding fats, cholesterol and carbohydrates. I had spoken a a great deal about cooking and food as well, and what to eat on a daily basis, plus I had touched on stress and exercise. It was such a great question, and I paused and I thought to myself; what would be my answer to the same question if it was asked by my mum, wife, son, or a close friend? It should be the same answer I would give to a member of the public or a patient, right? The lady who asked me the question had these very kind, patient and intelligent eyes, and I could tell she was happy to wait whilst the gears in my brain whirred. “My top three, not in any order”? “Yes please’, she said. “Ok, my first would be:“Don’t fear fat or cholesterol, but fear excessive carbohydrates.” It really is true that If you can free yourself from this fear of dietary fat and cholesterol, it may add years to your life. Did you realise that cholesterol is made by the liver and every single cell in our body? What! But doesn’t it clog arteries and clog our heart? And if it is such poison, why does our own body make so much of it? In fact, our body makes 1200mg of this liquid gold every day. An egg contains around 300mg of cholesterol, so we make the equivalent of 4-eggs a day worth of cholesterol. It makes you think doesn’t it. Our brain is 25% cholesterol. So are we really trying to clog and damage our own body, or is there more to it? Think of cholesterol like scaffolding in our body-it lines every cell, lines every nerve, is needed to make hormones in our body and it is crucial for our digestion. It is also crucial for repair. A bit like putty, filling and fixing cracks and damage in our body. We would be dead without it the stuff-it is that important. But it is fragile and easily damaged by excessive blood sugars and insulin, (from excessive carbohydrates), too much alcohol, high blood pressure and general inflammation. |
| But what about fat? It’s got to be bad right? Wrong again. Just like eating a bowl of tomatoes doesn’t make us red, eating some cheese, eggs, meat or salmon doesn’t make us fat. It is so important to understand that it is excess carbohydrates, (especially when combined with fat) that are converted to fat in the body, and these excess fats go to the liver to be stored. For many of us, out diet is up to 70% carbohydrates. When our liver runs out of ‘storage space’ (fatty liver), these fats ‘leak’ out into the bloodstream and irritate and inflame the body. Our body tries to ‘corral’ these ‘leaking’ fats into what is called lipoproteins (what we call cholesterol) like LDL and HDL. So we end up with too many LDL (bad) cholesterol particles and too few good particles (HDL). Then your GP or cardiologist gets grumpy with you, and tries to put you on medication, and tells you to go low-fat or stop eating meat, dairy and fat. They also flippantly tell you to focus on a ‘plant-based’ or Mediterranean diet, and patronisingly tell you to ‘move more’ and ‘eat less’. Next time they say that, ask exactly what that entails? They will mumble something about ‘more olive oil and lean meat and eat more fruit and vegetables’. In other words, they haven’t a clue. They are just as confused as you, in regards to what to eat on a daily basis. Can I have a go to answer? You need to start winding back on the mountains of packet carbohydrates you consume. The culprit is all the excessive carbohydrates like cereal, biscuits, bread, fruit, snacks (popcorn, corn/rice thins, muesli bars) we are eating. We still must respect fats. I am totally against all this ‘keto’ madness like mountains of butter, coconut oil/MCT oil, bacon and cream. This is especially important if you are already carrying too much weight, have insulin resistance/diabetes or heart disease. Eating mountains of ‘extra’ fat will not miraculously ‘burn’ fat and reverse your diabetes. We must first reduce carbohydrates BEFORE we SLOWLY increase REAL fat like fish, meat, dairy, avocado, eggs and nuts/seeds. I’ll give you my second ‘life-saving’ tip next week. Just before I let you go, If you are looking for the perfect brekky that I give my patients who are trying to break away from packet cereal, just dive to my Facebook siteand you’ll find it posted on October 20th this year. Let me know what you think if you would make any changes? |
| I am a regular on ABC Radio Brisbane if you would like to have a listen to past episodes or you can watch some short videos that may explain in a simple way, complex ideas. If you would like to book an individualised appointment, simply do that on-line. Or visit my Website, Twitter or Facebook should you want to know a bit more about me. Instagram has a few more recipes as well. |
Heart failure cannot be cured though there is a range of treatment options available to manage and improve quality of life.
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