Is There A Diet For Writers?

Can eating better help you perform better? Can getting enough rest help you function better? Can good breathing techniques do what coke or coffee does to help you stay awake when you want to write late at night? Yes. I'm learning all that and more at TrueNorth Health Clinic.

My First Day at TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, 8-25-11

Please scroll to bottom to see what I ate for the day.

Heard Dr. Klaper speak on salt, sugar, and fat. Below are my notes.

I enjoyed what he said about sugar. He explained why eating sugar AGES the skin and body.

How Sugar Ages the Body: Plants such as sugar cane are ground. Water is added to make a sweet syrup. The syrup is dehydrated and made into a white powder. This refined sugar LEAPS into the blood, as opposed to a carrot which is mixed with fiber so that it takes time to make it's way through the body.

When sugar is high (high glycemic) in the bloodstream, it damages the tissues. For instance, if you spill sugar on the table it gets sticky. Similarly, sugar gets the blood sticky--sugar goes through the entire body making everything sticky.

Sugar coats proteins with a sticky, heavy coating that causes them to break and crack. This ages the body and skin. Fibers that should be elastic turn sticky and break and crack (it's like the sun drying out and cracking skin). The lining of blood vessels get sticky and cracked; the lens of the eye gets sticky=cataracks.

Henry Maillard explains why bread browns in the oven. Sugar + protein + heat=The Maillard Reaction
WE DON'T WANT THE MAILLARD REACTION IN OUR BODIES!
Sugar eaten clings to protein. The body is an oven. =Aging.
Advanced Glycatin End=A.G.E.S.

1/2 tsp okay=Okay to use sugar as a FLAVORING
Problem is people eat sugar as a FOOD.
cookies, donuts, pastry=baking sugar
coffee cake, snickers, malt=sugar in your hand
ice cream is just adding milk to your sugar
1 tsp=5 grams sugar
8 oz coke=65 grams 13 tsp sugar
fruit juice=sugar water=36 grams=7 tsp sugar
1 gallon-25 TBSB 1/2 pound a day
hamburger and a shake=sugar in bun, meat, catsup, shake=fat diseases
High Fructose Corn Syrup=the worst (coke, candy)
1976--national obesity 8%
2011--national obesity 30%
Candia, leaky gut, ugly tooth decay

EAT FRUIT if you want sweets
use fruit for snacks, dessert, cooking, cereals
raisin in oatmeal
chew food slowly/taste it
------NEVER EAT IN FRONT OF TV=unconscious eating=eat a bag of something instead of 5 bites
5 is enough. Don't shovel.
soak fruit overnight/soak almonds
stevia, zilo okay if you like the aftertaste
guavia nectar--use as a FLAVORING not as a FOOD
same with honey

SALT
+NA -CL
Cl is easy to get rid of/the NA sodium is hard to get rid of
Salt is in every natural food. You don't need more.
We are electrical beings-salt water in body-salt lets it happen
salt is in the tomato, carrot etc.
TOO MUCH SALT
Too much salt will pickle the inside of your body just like a pickle
salt pulls water out of cucumber
salt pulls water out of your body
add water to blood to dilute blood
1-drink water to wash out salt
2-brain sends messaage to kidney to hold water
more water in the pipes = higher blood pressure
heart is a pump
highest blood out=1st systolic
drops=2nd dystolic 120/80
damages arteries
Lots of salt in blood stiffens the arteries--lose ability to relax
crack in artery wall means it will be plugged up with cholesterol plaque
you're as old as your arteries
starts with the retina of eye-hemmorhage, burst, blood leaks out
Vegan diet will relax arteries after a few months
Kidney-dialysis-25% blood goes to kidney--DOES NOT COME BACK through good eating
Arteries in vein=blood leak=stroke
face droops, arm droops, speech (say Mary had a little lamb)
time--can reverse if get to hospital within 24 hours
HOW MUCH SALT DO WE NEED?
With natural foods we can't overdose
REMEMBER: Corn chips do not look like corn
potato chips do not look like potatoes
eat foods that resemble themselves
1500-2000 milligrams a day (1 1/2-2 grams)
a penny weighs 3 grams
1/4 tsp

Packaged Food-1500-2000 Calories a day is what most people need
in packaged food match 1 milligram sodium for every calorie
if a food has 90 calories on the label, then only eat it if the sodium content is 90 calories

Campbells soup-1 serving=1/2 cup, 90 calories, sodium should be 90, but it's 710--overkill
Entertain your taste buds with NON-SALTY FLAVORINGS
Squeeze lemon on everything to bring out flavor of food
use flavored vinegars
internet: Bensen's Table Tasty--just a few drops--it's his favorite kind of vinegar

FAT

Long chains of carbon connected to each other=saturated, stiff, will stack, solid=will stick to you!

Chains with gaps=unsaturated=don't stack right, won't solidfy=an oil-liquid oil sticks to you-
make you fat
Fats are essential-RIGHT AMOUNT, RIGHT KIND

Omega 3 VS Omega 6
first double bond is at 3=omega 3
first double bond is at 6=omega 6

omega 3 are anti-inflammatory Flax, hemp
omega 6 turn on inflammatory reaction corn, saff oil, sunflower oil

find omega 3's dark green leafy, 1x a day in big bowl--all green veggies, steam, lemon juice
need 1.2-2 grams a day
1 cup broccoli=1/10th of what you need--can't eat 10 cups of broccoli
flax seeds/nuts
1 TBSP flax=1.6 grams --gives you all the fat you need each day
3oz walnuts --gives you all the fat you need each day
chain lengthening steps
1) body has enzymes 18+2= 20 5 double bonds Oil EPA
2) body wants 22 carbon long
20 +2=22 w 6 double bonds DHA DOCOSAHEXAENOIC ACID (HEX=6 AE=double bonds)
Stop reaction=saff oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil==NO NO NO
300 mg of DHA need--
made by algae in ocean--fish don't make it, they eat it, fish polluted
DHA good for dry skin, depression, etc
1 a day
handful of walnuts and flax seeds
Hydrogenated veg oil--stiff, damages cells, stiffened arteries
Chia seeds good/ EAT GREENS
CAN Package Box BAD
using wrong fuel--like putting deisel in car instead of gasoline


DAY ONE--8/25/11-Wednesday

breakfast at home-- banana
at airport: Naked Red Juice, Fiber Plus granola bar
on plane: 1/2 Coke (big cheat!--I didn't sleep all night)

**My sister's limo picked me up from the airport and I felt like a movie star : ) ***

Car ride: cubes of watermelon

Wed Lunch:
greens, cabbage (red and green), jicama, shredded zucchini, cucumber, shredded carrots, tomato, baked mushrooms, beets (yellow and red), corn (can't remember what else) dressing=honey mustard (good)
barley
lentil soup
banana, orange slices

snack: fig, 1/2 apple

Wed Dinner:
Very large slice of acorn squash with vinegar and spices
1/2 baked yam with cinnamon
steamed broccoli, zucchini, shredded carrots, with squeezed lemon
brown rice with vinegar, spices
salad of greens, sprouts, yellow beats, cooked mushrooms, corn --honey apple dressing (very good)
dessert: banana, orange slices
(cheated: ate a Fiber Plus granola bar)