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More from Mike

7/28/2013

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PictureMike setting a world marathon record, age 90
After reading Power Foods for the Brain, I now understand how Mike Fremont's mind can be so alive as he grows into his 90s. No sign of memory failure. Alert, fully cognitive, and strikingly aware of world events and current research, his mental condition defies the common perception of old age.
I now also understand why Americans eat the way they do. Dr. Barnard explained it well in his book. Dopamine, released in the brain, yields a powerful influence on how we approach food. Since this is so important, I will save my commentary on it for a future blog. In the meantime, enjoy this week's message by world marathon record-holder Mike Fremont. And remember, he did not set his records until he changed his eating habits.
Mike’s exercise for the week of July 21: 
Tues. Run 3, walk 5
 Wed. Canoe race 3 
Thurs. Run 5 
Fri. Canoe race 3 
Sat. Push friend in a wheel chair 1 mile 
Sun. Run 10          
                                        DIETS!

… are a bore! I'm not on one! I just avoid poisonous foods: milk, meat, eggs, poultry, fish, seafood. Minimize fat (oils), sugar and salt. No Monsters, no Cokes. No oil-soaked pizzas, donuts, pastries. All these are appetizing to the point of addiction, my gourmet friends! Want wine or beer? Get some NA (non-alcoholic).It’s a game to avoid cheese in restaurants. Try it!
Since beans sometimes generate embarrassing gas, get Beano. I once asked a deli clerk if she had any free-range, organic Beano. And when she announced a special on 9-whole grain bread, I told her I preferred 13-grain, but okay, I'll buy one.
Almost all diets are to lose weight. Almost all also promise to increase sexuality although I've never seen an ad get very specific about this result.
I never measure my food inputs or their timing or frequency. I eat all I want and do not gain weight.

There are all kinds of diets based on what it is thought we evolved to eat. Curious. In those days we ate what grew there or what we could catch. Our foods didn't come 1500 miles to us. We caught it in rivers and lakes, drove it over a cliff or speared it somewhere if it was there … or we ate shoots and leaves as the book by this name says, "Eats Shoots and Leaves". Some say we could not have developed such a large, fertile brain if we had not had the high-calorie input of meat, which gave us the leisure to think and plan instead of having to forage all day like deer and rabbits – with no time to think. But as we eat more and more meat, we don't seem to get smarter.
We're killing 55 billion animals a year to eat and taking down the world's great rain forests to feed them. Growing meat is a brutally inefficient way to nourish ourselves but quite good at increasing global warming. We're proving it now!

PS Mike shared a website with me that illustrates the potential damage
of global warming. You might be interested:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/07/24


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Brain Power

7/22/2013

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Picture
This morning I chatted with a repairman who was fixing our lawn
irrigation system. Overweight and on the verge of being obese, this young man complained about having to work long days and being exhausted when he got home – too tired to work out. That gave me the perfect opportunity to do some preaching.

I explained that his job gave him plenty of exercise since he was in
constant motion, walking, bending over, stretching, and lifting. It was his eating that was the culprit. I commented on a book I am currently reading, which I know would significantly impact his life. Dr. Neal Barnard’s latest book, Power Foods for the Brain, has once again opened my eyes. Published in 2013 and available on Amazon and elsewhere, this book truthfully documents the relationship between brain degeneration (memory loss, cognitive shortcomings, Alzheimer’s disease) and food and exercise. Although I’m only halfway through it, I must say that it’s one of the most important books on longevity I’ve read.

Dr. Barnard is a physician-researcher who not only conducts clinical trials on diet and health but also is up to date on all relevant research in this field. He is a professor of medicine at George Washington University and is president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

No one wants to succumb to the depths of becoming a vegetable in old age nor do we want to subject our relatives to seeing us in this terrible condition. Yet so many Americans fall needlessly into this sad state, making their old age a burden not only for themselves but for those close to them. The good news is
that you can dramatically lessen your chances of having your brain deteriorate, even if you have a family history of a risk of Alzheimer’s. No one, including me, thinks of these things since we never dream of growing old. Yet, the time for action is when you are young (under 70). Being proactive is the way to avoid disease and it’s much better than starting a new lifestyle after disease strikes.

So I recommended this to the serviceman and even wrote the name of the book down for him. And when he mentioned his sisters running for breast cancer awareness, I strongly recommended it for them, too. I explained that it could save their lives. Yours, too.

Mike’s taking a break from his blog this week. Stay tuned for more from him.


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More Advice from Mike on a Happy Old Age

7/15/2013

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Picture
When I go on my weekly walk in Sharon Woods with Mike Fremont, I'm always amazed at how his intellect shows no signs of deterioration. There's no doubt that his mental acuity reflects his aerobic fitness, his vegan eating, and his strong ikigai, the Japanese term for purpose in life. So many older Americans who reach their 80s or 90s seem obsessed with their visits to doctors and hospitals, their medications, and their diseases. Doesn't sound like fun to me. So pay attention to Mike's advice and hopefully you won't fall into the typical scenario of American old age. Yes, the man in the photo is wearing an oxygen delivery nose piece. Nice.

Sojourn with Nature:  Week of July 7, 2013

Sun. ran 5 mi.
Mon. race canoe 3
Tue. ran 10
Wed. race Canoe 3
Thu. out of town
Fri. race canoe 3
Sat. ran 10

This coming week of Bastille Day:

Mon.,Wed. & Fri. race canoe 3 mi.
Tue., Thur., Sat. & Sun., run 5, 10 or 15 to total 30 or 35 mi. per week

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT…

Say, fish. Theoretically they’re good for us. Health reasons to avoid fish are mercury and PCB in fish tissue. Mercury comes from burning coal and falls to the earth in rainfall which runs off surfaces into rivers, lakes and the oceans, then into fish and shellfish and thus to people. Small (young) fish are better. Vegetarian (non-predatory) fish are better. Wild fish are better than farmed. Freshwater fish are better than saltwater fish. We have no idea if genetically modified fish are safe for us, for other fish populations or for the food chain. It will be at least 2 generations of us before we can actually know that any GMO fish is safe, and each modification is different from the rest.

Farmed fish are fed to grow fast, are given antibiotics (which become part of us if we eat them) to keep them healthy while crowded in their pens and swim in much of their own waste. They are fed the cheapest food for maximum profit, including GMO corn and soy. That then becomes part of us. 

Other considerations: fish are sentient. They suffer from nets, hooks, being out of water, being confined in pens. To some people they are pets. Fish are animal protein, which weakens our immune system as does shellfish. Mangrove swamps are being replaced by shrimp farms. That is a major loss of carbon sequestration capacity, hastening global warming.

Are we overfishing to the point that we are threatening extinction of certain species? In the case of wild fish, definitely. Do farmed fish threaten diminution or extinction of wild fish? Yes! Escapees can seriously contaminate wild fish: think disease, interbreeding, antibiotic resistance.

By the way, we don’t need fish for protein to help us run marathons fast. Ask Scott Jurek, the world record record-holder of ultra-marathons.

Note: check out Scott's book - Eat and Run.

 

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We've challenged the cities!

7/7/2013

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Last week I sent the LifeNuts challenge to several suburbs of Indianapolis and Cincinnati as well as to their running stores to see who could bring the most participants to challenge Mike in the Indianapolis Monumental half-marathon on November 2. I can't wait until they begin to recruit.
Here's Mike's message for this week.

Sojourn with nature week of July 7, 2013

Sun. Run 10 if it doesn't rain too hard
Mon. Race canoe 3 mi.
Tue.   Run 5 or 10
Wed. Race canoe 3
Thu.   Walk 5
Fri.     Race Canoe 3
Sat.    Run 5, 10 or 15

Previous week:
Sun. Ran  5
Mon. Rest
Tue.  Ran 15
Wed. Race 3
Thur. Off
Fri.    Race 3
Sat.   Ran 5

Doctors and Nutrition

In their medical education, American doctors get effectively no training in nutrition.
Therefore they typically fail to use nutrition as a preventive, palliative or a cure for disease. See what hospitals feed their patients, some desperately ill, where the wrong fuel could set them back. Note the junk-food shops some hospitals have for the public. Total ignorance about diet. For some years now PCRM, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, has put out Nutrition Guide For Clinicians. This 745-page handbook covers about 100 diseases, symptoms, treatments, outlooks, what to feed the patients, what to tell the families. It is written in medical language and for about six years sent to all second-year medical students in the U.S. Many MDs and scientists have contributed their expertise to this valuable work.

Dr. John McDougall (one of my health gurus, look him up!) tells us in his June 2013 
newsletter that California passed SB-380 requiring CA physicians to learn about human nutrition. Over the years, I think since about 1988, we've heard that over 75% of health care expenditures are for treatment for heart disease, stroke, some cancers and diabetes. Our health spending hit 2.7 trillion in 2011, or 17.3% of GDP. The World Health Organization's latest report concludes that diet is a major factor in the cause of disease.

T. Colin Campbell of The China Study fame (get that book!) in his new book WHOLE (get this book!) says "profit is the goal at the center of the health care system." He details this in respect to the medical industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the supplement and nutriceutical industry.

So...if public health improved, as with a whole-food plant-based diet, these enormous industries would face huge losses and shrink to insignificance. As a country, that's why we haven't given
diet a chance - yet! As a fat, sickly, short-lived people we are extremely profitable to these suppliers.
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