Weight 259 pounds

BMI now at 38.24

Lab work done on 3/18/2010. hs-CRP now down to 1.8. Also the TG/HDL ratio is low at 1.25. VLDL Cholesterol is also low at 11. Total weight loss since April, 2009 is 86 pounds. My BMI has gone from 50.94 to 38.24.

All of these are objective evidence that the diet and lifestyle plan in effect is making a dramatic difference in my body, both externally and internally. These positive changes are consistent with my subjective symptoms i.e. pain, shortness of breath, decreased peripheral edema, diminished sleep apnea and general alertness and more positive mental mind-set. I have now returned to work and feeling most positive about my physical ability and stamina to work a full day in a normal expected capacity for a Physical Therapist.

All the credit goes to our Lord God, who has shown me the relevant aspects of good health and diet for these marvelous bodies He created for us to use while here on earth. He has also given me the understanding and focus to change my life in a way that results in good health. I am still on the long journey as I have about 80-90 pounds to lose, but what a tremendous blessing. I must develop His plan and design so it helps others. It is an absolute key to reversing the epidemic of obesity and associated health problems plaguing our contemporary world. Even though I continue to be a “work in progress” this is proof, even anecdotal in nature, that the Creator’s Design for our bodies works. It more than suggests that employing Therapeutic Nutrition and Lifestyle principles as given to me by our Lord will reverse a lifetime of adverse dietary and lifestyle problems. I pray that the rest of you can understand and follow our Lord’s call for us to nurture and love our bodies as He intended while we are here on His good earth.

Lord Luv Ya!

Hooray! Strike up the band!

We do not celebrate the occurence, but the notice and identification of the problem. Finally, someone grasped and is now reporting a basis for the understanding of the mammoth problem facing not only our babies and children, but us all. This is a true threat not only to our national health, but even to our national safety via less qualified people available to serve in the defense of our country due to obesity and the related serious disease from the same cause.

The Cause? Our imbalanced and inflammatory diet.

Let’s celebrate and look at some salient aspects of the studies reported by the Journal of Pediatrics. Good information is seen so rarely, we must focus on this, at least for a while, to set its relevance into our consciousness.

Lets quote from parts of the report from Lindsay Tanner; AP Medical Writer.

The odds of obesity appear stacked against black and Hispanic children starting even before birth, provocative new research suggests.

In a separate, equally troubling study, researchers found signs of inflammation in obese children as young as 3 years old. High levels were more common in blacks and Hispanics.

“We think that fat cells in the body cause inflammation and that inflammation causes vessel damage,” said University of North Carolina researcher Asheley Cockrell Skinner, the lead author.

These inflammatory markers have been linked with obesity in adults and are thought to increase chances for developing heart disease.

The results suggest that 3-year-olds with inflammation might already have artery changes that could make them prone to later heart problems, although that needs to be examined in future research, she said.

“You still have to get the public to say we believe this is a problem,” Washington said. “Everybody’s going to have to play a role here.”

Inflammation markers including a substance called C-reactive protein or CRP were measured. CRP levels of at least 1 milligram per deciliter of blood have been linked with heart disease risks in adults. Starting at age 3, very obese children were more likely than less heavy kids to have levels at least that high. Even higher levels were most common in black and Hispanic kids.

Dr. Reginald Washington, a Denver pediatric heart specialist who has worked with the American Academy of Pediatrics on obesity issues, called both studies important.[1]

So what does this mean?

1. Obesity and serious disease manifested later in life begin in Utero.
2. The diet of the mother and later the diet of the family and culture are a causative agent.
3. The problem is manifest by signs of inflammation. Put another way; fat, and accompanying health problems, are inflammatory disorders.
4. Notice that while minorities are higher, the problem hits all groups with profound serious effects.
5. Education of the public on the inflammatory genesis caused from diet and lifestyle is key.

What is the relevance to us today?

1. The misplaced emphasis being generated by highly publicized efforts from First Lady Obama, President Clinton and others like Governor Huckabee are wasting focus and resources from the fundamental problem of diet.
2. Even when diet is looked at, it is not focusing on the true cause, i.e. the inflammatory nature of the contemporary diet and lifestyle.
3. While it’s noteworthy to point out the increased incidence in minorities; that is not the real story. The real story is; fat and so many related serious diseases are caused from a diet that generates inflammation into the body. One of the accompanying tragedies is the higher incidence in these minority groups.
4. This begins even before birth with the mother’s diet and lifestyle. It continues over the full span of life. It goes from generation to generation like a scourge on our species.
5. The cure is simple and achievable. Eat the correct diet!

This last one really bothers me. It’s our children and it’s wrong! Read on and check out the URL to see what I am upset about.

For Mrs. Obama

Fight against Childhood obesity

Check out URL for background story:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/716736?sssdmh=dm1.588982&src=nldne&uac=141008HY

This is what is in store for our children. Such glowing reports with only two year follow-up. Tragic and misleading at the least. All short term data with adults look good at two years. They all fail in every group and with every procedure at 10 years. It will be the same or worse with our children. They will continue to eat the same imbalanced diet of as much as 20 to 1 ratio of Omega 6 fatty acids to Omega 3 fatty acid. Even though they eat less, the diet is wrong and leads to inflammation and many health problems Also way too much mortality and morbidity with these radical surgeries to be inflicted on our children.

Imperative we succeed with our children’s obesity through physiologically sound diet and lifestyle. Stop this insanity.

Joseph B. Gentzel PT

The Senior Physical Therapist

Jefferson, GA

This is good news, not bad news 

The information that was referenced was titled: “Consumption Of Whole Grain Falls Short Of Guidelines”. The report went on to say that few adolescents and young adults ate the USDA recommended three daily servings.

Dr. Eades is absolutely right. Grains, all of them, are inflammatory agents in our diet. They contribute to the huge imbalance in Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acid ratio that is causing so much disease and suffering in our western diets. The USDA is so far off base they are actually promoting eating that produces major epidemics of disease like obesity, coronary artery disease, diabetes, etc. Their recommendations are actually causing and contributing to the problems they say they are trying to prevent by their recommendations.

Shame on the USDA and all the rest. The data and accurate information is not even equivocal on this subject, but the insanity continues. This continues to be one of the great Information Cascades that infects this area that kills and injures many people every year.

An editorial in this month’s Journal of the American Medical Association describes the four phases of the “epidemiological transition” that brought us into the modern medical age–and adds a depressing coda.

Here’s the topline:

Phase 1: Pestilence and Famine.  Average life expectancy was 30 years during this phase, which stretched from the beginning of human history to late 19th century.

Phase 2: Receding Pandemics.  Industrialization in the U.S. and Western Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century led to better nutrition and sanitation, reducing infant mortality and increasing life expectancy.

Phase 3: Man-Made Disease:  In the middle of the century, smoking, reduced activity and changes in diet led to a peak in deaths from cancer and heart disease.

Phase 4: Delayed Degeneration:  Toward the end of the 20th century, preventive medicine and improved medical technology reduced early deaths from cardiovascular disease, effectively delaying illness and death to later years.

And now, the authors see a fifth phase emerging: The Age of Obesity, in which current and future generations face declining life expectancy due to complications of lifelong obesity. Obesity now causes more health problems than smoking or problem drinking. Yet, the authors write, “Unlike cigarette smoking, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, there is little consensus on the ideal approach to weight management…Failure rates are exceedingly high.”

The statistics are depressing, for sure.  But the dire predictions are all based on things continuing according to current trends.  I’d like to think there could be another turning point in our near future. A Phase Six.    But what will drive it? Medical technology? Individual initiative? Public policy? Economic pressure?

What has the greatest power to turn the tide? What’s most likely, given political and financial realities? I’d like to hear your ideas.

My response in part to her excellent blog was:

But what will drive it?

Only God has the power to drive it by our understanding of His basic truths of creation of our bodies. If we can understand how He created us i.e. the physiology of that design, we will have success. In the bargain, so many other related problems will diminish and maybe vanish. The clues are all around us, but this is not the place for that treatise.

What has the greatest power to turn the tide?

Only God and our subsequent understanding that God did not create anything that was not perfect. That certainly includes our bodies. When we follow how He planned us in combination with how He intended us to fuel these bodies for good health and longevity, we can live normal, relatively healthy lives which includes not being obese. We need to look and listen to these marvelous bodies in much the same way you must have when you analyzed and established the IF rating system. We will then understand how God wanted us to eat and live.

What’s most likely, given political and financial realities?

Political and financial will have nothing to do with success. When we are successful it will be because we understood one of the most basic elements of our existence and followed the Creator’s design.

 The response may have been a bit obtuse for many, but it simply means that the present problem with The Fifth Stage: Decline; that JAMA references is because we do not note and follow how God created our bodies. The physiological principles of our body and its dietary needs are clear. They follow the science that God set up so we could use our excellent brains and figure it out.  There are dietary rules for the body that He Created. To insure good health we must follow them. When looked at in that perspective, it’s not so difficult to identify them and then to follow them. Good health and increased longevity will follow. Break the rules and the body falls into poor health. Done long enough and in numbers of people enough, the result is what the JAMA terms “The Fifth Stage: Decline”

If we can prevent cancer and I for one think we can, at least to some significant degree, we must change the diet of our dogs. There is a lot of excellent research to more than suggest that many cancers in people and animals are contributed to from dietary imbalance of the optimal Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acid ratio. The diet in the wild and at early domestication of dogs is reported to have been 1 to 1 ratio for humans and dogs. The ratio for humans in our western diet is 20 to 1 and who knows what it is in dogs, but probably that high or worse.
Some dog food companies say they have the ratio down to 10 to 1 or even 5 to 1, but I don’t believe that as that may be what they put in the food, but that ratio never makes it to the dog bowl to eat. It also appears they simply do not put enough in to be effective. If the amount present is insufficient it will never make any difference what are the ratios. We simply do not know what the ratios are even when it’s available from the dog food company as Omega 3 oxidizes rapidly under temperature, pressure and time. These are all hallmarks of the formulation of a dry dehydrated kibble that we take out of the bag. It is pretty safe to assume that the ratio is too high at best.
The easiest goal is to increase the Omega 3 and decrease the omega 6. Omega 6 is necessary, but in ratio to Omega 3.
There is a lot more to all this, but this is huge and would by itself make a great difference. So what to do?
1. Supplement with marine sources of pure fish oil. Stay away from the vegetable sources for reasons that are a bit too much for one short post. They can be unreliable is the short answer and a lot of dogs cannot convert them to the long chain fatty acids needed. The reliability and power of Omega 3 supplementation are marine sources i.e. fish oil. The high EPA preparation in gel caps is the best. Give 1000 mg daily for prevention with food or however the dog will take it. Most of my dogs eat them like treats.
2. Feed the best food you can afford. How do you know? Hard question, but a good web site that is not 100 percent right, but the best I have come across is http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/.
3. Give some canned fish daily. Salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines. It should all be wild caught as farm raised many times looses the Omega 3 values because of the poor diet they are fed. Basically the same thing has happened to our dogs happened to the farm raised fish that lost the excellent properties of the food they represent. In our dogs and people too long term ingestion of this poor diet leads to many diseases that includes cancers as one of the most prevalent to this dietary problem.
For an adult dog I would feed not more than 2 cups of dry dog food, Supplement with canned fish or cook a high Omega 3 diet to add about another 2 cups of food daily. Why only 2 cups dry kibble? Actually I would prefer one cup as the dry kibble is most likely way too high in Omega 6, so you want to balance it with high Omega 3 sources to get the ratio down.
I could recommend Vitamin D as it’s the forgotten vitamin until just recently and the scientific literature is filled with its new discoveries and that includes helping the body fight off disease. It’s a natural adjunct to the normal balance of omega ratio. It looks like you need about 5000 IU daily of D3 (not D2) in an oil base. Again gel caps are the preparation that seems to work best.
I am doing a book now on dietary aspects of feeding our dogs for just everyday people who do not want to get into the weeds too much in this stuff, but want to feed a diet to their dogs that will be healthful and prevent disease. I will have some recipes in the book for those that want to do some cooking for their pets as well.

Michelle Obama

Our prayers and concerns for our First Lady’s success need to be on our lips and in our hearts. She’s focused and committed to helping the children. What a great aspiration! What a challenge, in an area so filled with erroneous failed strategies and approaches that it seems now, most of the time, hopeless. I believe many have given up long ago. Some are simply regurgitating the same old misery in a perfunctory manner.

Mrs. Obama’s mission into this minefield of failure and disaster is courageous and maybe an answer to prayers for our future. One has to wonder if the recent announcement by the CDC professing the following; ““Right now we’ve halted the progress of the obesity epidemic,” and “The data are(sic) really promising.”[1], was coordinated with this noble initiative by Mrs. Obama?

If I could be so bold as to give Mrs. Obama some suggestions, I would offer the following:

• Don’t take the most recent pronouncement by the CDC as more than some wishful thinking. It’s discouraging to see them announce they maybe have even stemmed the tide in the epidemic of obesity. This would most certainly apply with our children. This is especially true when you look closely at their approach and understanding of the basic problem. From my deepest sincerity and honest opinion; the best one can say about the direction and path that CDC appears to continue is that it will fail and continue to fail. Why? It is at variance with how God created us and the basic physiology of our bodies.
• Examine and challenge the myriad of Information Cascades that affect this area of knowledge and study. They have failed. They will continue to fail over, over, over and over again as long as they continue to espouse the same ole tired theories and approaches. This will occur no matter how many times they are repeated. Shake the standard preconceived notions as they are, at their foundations, wrong.  If the purported experts understood anything very relevant to this knowledge base, we would have, somewhere in this mess, some real hope. Right now all I can see are some idle announcements of some level of success amidst a complete disaster. The identifiable policies and approaches are so very sad. A glimmer of truth did prevail in the statement by CDC: “That said, I don’t think we have in place the kind of policy or environmental changes needed to reverse this epidemic just yet.”[2]
• Understand how we were made. Obesity has its physiological beginnings in Utero. There is some excellent evidence that the nutrition the mother ingests begins a sequence of development for the baby that will affect its body for a lifetime. This is both pre and post delivery. To briefly jump into the weeds a bit here, we must decrease the ratio of Omega 6 fatty acids (O6) to Omega 3 fatty acids (O3) down to at least 4 to 1, instead of the 20 to 1 it is now. There is much more, but that simple step would start to stem the tide noticeably. A lot of pregnant women get little of the essential fatty acids in the first place. Their developing fetuses suffer as a consequence. These important nutritional building blocks are classified as “essential” for good reason.
• Campaign on women breast-feeding. Human breast milk has required nutrients for our species, including the essential fatty acids missing or weakly present in formula. The mother has to eat right during this time. For those women who cannot or choose not to breast feed we need to spend a lot of education time and resources on how they can compensate for this initial critical step in the future health of our children. This would be right on point for the goal of decreasing childhood obesity.
• How about a lifetime of the mother and family eating right i.e. the way God made our bodies?  After weaning, the children and the rest of us need to eat a diet that is 4 to 1 (or less) in the O6 to O3 ratio. There is much more, but this would be a huge early right step.
• Avoid the traps of the current debates over non-essential or wrong strategies. If they were relevant there would be some true hope. A good example is the useless debate between low carbs VS high carb diets. There are good carbs and bad carbs and there are good fats and proteins as well as bad fats and proteins. Our body tells us which. We just need to listen, test and measure. The raw data on these foods exist already. Look at it! Simple calorie restriction diets are also not very relevant. The notion that energy in to energy out is too simplistic to our very complex body’s physiology. This calories theory, in all its many forms, has failed so many times it’s amazing it persists. It demonstrates just how lost the diet and nutrition world is in this area. Exercise is needed but is not a big component for the solution. Don’t get the priorities and resources in the wrong place as the NFL is doing. I don’t want to criticize this because our children do need to get up and move more, but it will not solve much unless the diet is better. Exercise needs to be a very healthy adjunct with a healthy diet.
• Don’t waste time and resources blaming the fast food industry. They are a business and thus without any soul or sense of right or wrong past what helps or hurts their profits. They will sell and serve us whatever we will buy. That’s the easiest solution. Our lunch rooms and government agencies are a different problem. They will continue the Information Cascades forever if we allow them.
• Our poor and minorities are affected the worst. That is not news but so important it must always be repeated and stressed. Not only do we need to teach them what the body needs, but develop strategies for them to afford and buy food that will fuel the needs of the body. The First Lady’s White House garden was not a bad concept at all. This has to go way past throwing money at the problem. If that worked the food stamps program would have made a difference in this disparity already. A disparity that exists even with the best results being pretty disastrous. So what do you call a disastrous result of a disaster?   

When Mrs. Obama suceeds at these things she will improve much more than obesity. That list is too long for this blog and maybe a blog for another day. She will be noted by historians as one of the most important people in the history of the world. She and her family will be blessed by God. Her success will bless every family and group in the world.

These are our children. They are our most precious and valuable resources.

I will pray for success every day and do anything I can to help Mrs. Obama to succeed.

God bless the children! God save the children!!

[2]  Pam Belluck, Obesity Rates Hit Plateau in U.S., Data Suggest NY Times, January 13, 2010: ONLINE-http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/health/14obese.html?partner=rss&emc=rss.

Lets see, It’s well over 200 million people fat and/or obese. Minorities and the poor are higher numbers and percentages. (Higher than 68%?-God help us!) Largest percentage increases are in children and infants. Each group increases its “obesity” i.e. they get fatter over the years. Associated health problems are increasing. 

The same diet that left this mess is also leaving an associated mess with cancer, heart disease, arthritis and many other problems. Some of these problems are not accompanied by  fat/obese. They somehow developed these serious health problems without the occurance of obesity. Same cause in many cases, a bit different symptomatology.

Sorry CDC and NY Times, we just don’t buy this mumbo jumbo. BTW, CDC said  10 years ago it would be 15%, not 34% obese by 2010. Their strategy may be to just say it’s “promising.”  Just like we can add 34 million people to health care and decrease the cost. There are not too many turnip trucks left here in the south now adays, so not many of us on them to fall off.

They are lost and simply do not know what is causing the problem and certainly how to address it. They are using failed strategies that have failed over and over so many times you would think it would be embarrassing.

Quote from the article:“That said, I don’t think we have in place the kind of policy or environmental changes needed to reverse this epidemic just yet.” You think?

And the experts? God help us again. Quote: “Experts like Steven Gortmaker, a Harvard public health professor, said obesity would decline only with new policies, like penalties and incentives to promote healthier foods and exercise.” Poor guy, would  he know a “healthier food” and does he know the often documented fact that exercise essentially plays very little, to no role, in weight reduction or maintainance? That’s one of those often failed strategies and one of the greatest Information Cascades in the history of mankind.

Dr Samadi, if he could shake out of the information cascade and look at the research taking place around the world, might be able to make the connection. Until he does and many like him, we will continue to be in trouble. The problem will continue to worsen. Poor guy, he thinks the problem is as simple as eating too much fatty foods and not getting enough exercise. While these factors may play a small role, the real problem is what the fatty foods are (some fats are very good for us). Exercise is beneficial for the heart, muscles, and our psychological state, but is, by itself, not very useful in weight reduction and very marginal in weight control at normal weight levels. Exercise also does not speak very much to the reaction the body goes through with ingesting foods that create adverse reactions in the body, like inflammation, and many other aspects of weight control related to what and sometimes how we eat.

See the video to see what will not work. Fox News needs to find experts who are experts. To present Dr. Samadi, maybe an expert in medical robotics, espousing such ill informed views on national TV is also part of the problem. His “studies after studies have shown” statement is misleading and a gross oversimplification that continues to take us in the wrong direction to get the basis of the epidemic we face.

Thanks Dr Samadi for trying. As the Carny said, “close but no cigar.” Try again, please; especially if you want to tell the rest of us what to do. But please try again we need for you and the rest of your friends to get it right when you tell us what to do. Be bold and shake the cob webs from the excellent brain God gave you. Think for yourself and look at the information that is out there in bundles. That’s what it will take to break the chains of this huge information cascade that has a death grip on us all (pun intended).

http://video.foxnews.com/v/3958964/resolutions-for-a-good-life?category_id=86912#/v/3959000/2010-health-goals/?playlist_id=87249

You can get plenty of wholesome grains and natural dairy in daily amounts. If you want to avoid refined sugar, you can substitute raw sugar or honey, etc. You can eat many times per day and begin the day with a good breakfast soon after getting up. You can avoid eating late or lightly at the evening meal if you wish.

As one nutritionist said recently; ”it’s better than eating a bag of cheese puffs.” It also may be  better than eating Twinkies and coffee with double cream; no sugar. You can eat plenty of pasta and rice. Carry some food with you so you always have food to eat and eat between meals some ”healthy food” that consists of maybe bananas, apples, pears, etc. A power bar would be good after the workout you will do 3 to 4 times per week with your personal trainer yelling at you to do one more rep. What do you pay these guys and gals? Couple hundred dollars is more than fair as they help you wade through the exercise.

You can always have an egg with Swiss cheese on a rye bagel after they “kicked your butt” in a workout. That’s the stuff; 343 calories, 16 grams fat (7 saturated), 403 mg sodium and inflammation factor rating of -166.  BTW -166 (that’s minus 166) which is classified as “moderately inflammatory”. Those wind sprints at the end of the workout did not help the inflammation either, not to mention the micro trauma on the knees and hips. Since you wanted to exercise to lose weight, assuming you did one hour session of exercise and assuming it matters that calories eaten will determine if you lose or gain weight, that’s about 300 calories burned. Not bad, the bagel sandwich only added about a net 43 calories that will go to fat under this theory. Gosh, that was just one little sandwich at before 7:00 AM! What about the rest of my day? This whole theory depends on the relationship between calories ingested and exercise and how that plays out in the body and that nothing else matters in this exchange i.e. calories eaten Vs calories burned.  It’s all pretty neatly laid out and there are calculators that tell us how many calories burned and ingested.

This diet is the one that most of us follow when we “eat healthy.” How does it work? You judge and decide if you want to go on my diet. In this diet 66% of population is either overweight or obese. That’s just some 205 million of us. The incidence of the higher level of obesity i.e. morbid obesity and super obesity is up markedly in the past 10 years and children are falling into that category. The NFL wants our kids to get out and play more between their Sugar Smacks cereal, cheese burger with fries, pizza, cookies, candy snacks, juices in the little boxes, etc.  

Diabetes (& metabolic syndrome), asthma, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, immune disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and many other diseases are increasing also at alarming rates for people on my diet. BTW, that runner who just dropped over dead recently is said to have had underlying heart disease no one had diagnosed. Too bad, it certainly did not come from his diet as he was Vegan and always did his “carb loading” prior to every marathon or half marathon he ran. He was very fit and really ate healthy. His father died suddenly as well and the fear of dying like his dad was what started him running and why he became Vegan. He was very careful to go to his doctor regularly. Seems there is a lot of that (dropping over dead) going on though.

Does this diet sound pretty good? Is it what you want and what you want your family to follow? Is it what you want to teach your children and grandchildren so they can live long and healthy lives?,

USDA Food Pyramid- old and new

Someone said it does not work, but if it does not work why are so many doctors, dietitians, nutritionists, exercise professionals and just plain old health nuts following or recommending parts or all this diet? Why would parts of this diet be in every diet de jour we have seen for the past 50 years? Surely the USDA knows what is good for us to eat; Right? They would not put up a diet pyramid that was not good for us, would they? It’s good that the new Surgeon General looks like the majority of us?

The one thing I have noticed though when I took the time to look at parts of my diet is the good scientific studies don’t seem to support many of the concepts in my diet, but surely all these very educated, successful, beautiful professionals have looked at this as well? All those books that have sold millions of copies must be right? We do understand what it means to “eat healthy,” don’t we?

Who knows what is good for our bodies? Hmmm; I’ll bet the Creator, God knows!

Lord luv Ya!