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Being healthy at 90: a guest blog from 90-year-old Mike Fremont.

12/30/2012

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One of the reasons why the Japanese merit the longest lifespan in the world is because they respect and learn from their elders. Having known Mike Fremont since 2007, I cheerfully admit that he has taught me a lot about life, longevity, and happiness. And, since his lifestyle inspired the LifeNuts program, I thought his words might be interesting to those who read these blogs.

            Since Dr. Kroeger asked me to comment on being active at 90, I offer some thoughts. First, one has to be alive. Secondly, in good physical and mental condition. And it’s understood that we haven’t poisoned ourselves with tobacco, alcohol, mental distress or depression, or are not depleted by a serious disease.
    One has to eat right long in advance to be able (at 90) to race a canoe in the national canoe championships [As Mike has], requiring high output for 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 hours – or the General Clinton canoe race of 70 miles, taking maybe 12+ hours – depending on the current and whether paddling solo or tandem. It’s necessary to be reasonably fit, shall we say, to complete even a slow marathon (26.2 miles) at 90.  And certainly we are not going to jeopardize our health by taking frowned-upon supplements! Besides, there’s no money in these still-honest sports!
            Eat right. I started a plant-based diet 21 years ago because I was under a death sentence from cancer. By changing my diet I beat the cancer and, since then, I’ve had no fears of a recurrence or of contracting any disease whatsoever. Maybe it’s a fool’s paradise but for me it’s a wonderful, superb life, carefree as a child. I run the occasional marathon or half or 15K or 10K and do five or six canoe races a season and practice for them all year long in scenic places, with friends.
            The plant-based diet is responsible. I began finding my gurus in 1991. You can locate them on the web:  Cornell professor T. Colin Campbell, co-author of The China Study and Forks Over Knives (DVD), Dr. John McDougall (DVDs and various books), Dr. Neal Barnard, president, Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine and author of several books on food addiction and diabetes, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, Rip Esselstyn, author of The Engine 2 Diet, and Mike Anderson, author of The RAVE Diet, a book explaining diet recommendations and Eating (DVD). Many of these publications include recipes.

            Other experts such as Joel Fuhrman, Jeff Novick, and Dean Ornish agree, absolutely, on the importance of the plant-based, aka vegan, diet. Uniquely, they cooperate with each other on their books, programs, DVDs and advocacy.

            Does this diet make me faster at running or canoe racing? Does it give me the endurance I need? I say yes. So does Scott Jurek, our greatest ultramarathon runner and author of Eat and Run, a book explaining how he could win 100+ mile races while not eating meat or dairy. Could a Paleo diet be better? Could a high-protein meat, milk and egg diet be better? If these diets didn’t kill me, maybe I could last a year on them. But when I ate those foods, in my not so humble opinion, they bestowed upon me the great gifts of cancer, arthritis, asthma, colds, coughs, stomach trouble, flu and headaches. Since I switched to a plant-based diet, I’ve not had one day of any of these diseases in over 20 years.

            People are animals and animals have a daily exercise quotient. They evolved to swim, to hunt, to escape from predators, to find food, to find mates, and even to fly across oceans (birds and butterflies). How much do I exercise each week? My exercise quotient is racing a canoe three miles three times a week in good weather – Monday, Wednesday and Friday (if the weather is inclement, I’ll work out on a machine).  On the other days, I’ll run a total of 30 miles. I’ll vary the running before major races, something runners call “training”. It’s really just play.

            Isn’t it wonderful that we can play every day, hard, like children! At 90, what excitement! No worries about our heart, a fall, broken bones or distressed joints. Sure, things happen – injuries like hamstring or piriformis pain, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis – temporary – just part of the price of exercising. They disappear with the magic elixir of rest.

            So, let me name a few vegan athletes – Carl Lewis, Billie Jean King, Venus Williams, Scott Jurek, Martina Navratilova, Edwin Moses, Tony Gonzalez….and a recent convert, Bill Clinton (you name the sport). So, if you want to be born again physically, consider changing to a plant-based diet. It works! My life has dramatically changed because of it. Yours can, too.


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The Pot Belly Syndrome: To Have It or Lose It, That is the Question.

12/17/2012

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I remember it well – that moment when I first noticed the protruding bulge near the belt in an adult male –  affectionately named the pot belly. When did I make this alarming discovery? About ten years ago.
            I was practicing putting on the practice green of Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida, site of the 2002 USGA Senior Amateur Championship golf tournament. It was pleasantly warm in late September as several of us practiced our strokes on the little green in front of the clubhouse. For some still unknown reason I happened to look around at my fellow competitors, arguably the best senior (55+) amateur golfers in the country, all of whom had to basically beat the best players in their region to qualify for this national championship. As anyone at this level knows, qualifying for a USGA tournament is not easy.

            Since this was my first time playing in such a championship, I didn’t know what to expect from my opponents. But, as I looked around, noticing the huge pot bellies of nearly everyone, I couldn’t help but wonder if golf and fitness should ever be mentioned in the same sentence. Yet I knew that these guys could play like professionals. I still looked at their tummies with disbelief and, right there and then, decided I would never let myself deteriorate into that shape.
            Of course, the road to hell is paved with noble intentions and over the next few years my waistline expanded effortlessly. Thankfully, in early 2005 when my lifestyle changed for the better, the pounds came off. But there’s no question that I was headed in the direction of obesity – a destination that many Americans have sadly arrived at.
            As most of you know, obesity, the American pot-belly syndrome, has skyrocketed each year. In 2008 it cost the US an estimated $147 billion in weight-related medical bills. Proudly, the US leads the way down the yellow brick road, being the fattest nation among 33 countries with advanced economies. We’re off to see the wizard in hopes he has a secret cure. If pills worked, there wouldn’t be any overweight physicians. Think I’m kidding? Walk into your local hospital and look at the waistlines of the healers.
            And even though poor and uneducated people are generally more overweight than those with college degrees, obesity finds its way into all income levels. Look at our leaders. Visit the websites of most small or mid-sized towns and check out the photos of the mayors and city council folks. Mostly obese or overweight. Some are severely obese. These are the people we put in office. Our children look up to them. Hey there, our children are fat, too. Childhood obesity sadly increases each year.
            The medical community constantly searches for ways to combat the weight issue: new drugs, new surgeries. Well, this approach is failing.
            In the October issue of Weight Watchers magazine, CEO David Kirchhoff told an interesting story about his trip to a town near London for a series of WW meetings. The British hosts, wanting to keep everybody happy, placed large bowls filled with treats (snack bars, bags of chips, etc.) in front of everyone. No need to be hungry during these long meetings, they reasoned.
            But Kirchhoff assessed the situation correctly: temptation comes in many forms. Could he resist? Having lost weight and desiring to keep it off, he initially resisted. “I sat there and would stare at the bowls about every five minutes, pondering whether to give in and have a bar … Eventually, I started giving in …”
            Counting calories and following Weight Watchers menus have helped many to lose weight. But diets don’t work. Lifestyles do. This is where LifeNuts differs from the average diet. LifeNuts are committed to a specific set of habits, some of which include food consumption, which guarantee happiness and health in the golden years. Having a low BMI is part of the LifeNuts picture.
            But David is correct: people do succumb to temptation. We are human and imperfect by definition. So, if you don’t buy saturated fatty foods, they won’t magically appear in your refrigerator to tempt you. They won’t just happen to plop onto your dinner table. When you go out to eat, you can choose healthy foods. Most chefs can whip up something not even listed on the menu. In fact, good chefs enjoy such a challenge. Kirchhoff summarizes this concept well: “Worry less about having immense willpower and worry more about the food environment around us.” LifeNuts go one step further – they don’t worry (it just causes a rise in blood levels of cortisol), they have changed their lifestyle and live within the new boundaries ... happily.


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An 86-year-old LifeNut … with passion!

12/8/2012

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Even though 90-year-old Mike Fremont set a new American age record last month at the Marshall University marathon, you don’t have to run marathons to be healthy as you approach 90. Rachel Lewis proves just that.

I had the pleasure of meeting Rachel a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed a delicious home-cooked lunch which she prepared – free of meat and dairy. But what interested me more about this lively 86-year-old lady was her passion for living, her loquaciousness, and her trim figure. She’s as sharp intellectually as anyone I’ve met and her words flow effortlessly.

The Office of Minority Health, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that African American women are the most overweight of all groups of Americans: about 80% are overweight or obese. Almost twice as many African American children are obese when compared to their Caucasian counterparts (Source, CDC, 2012). So why is Rachel so unique? How does she stay trim? What are her secrets?

Rachel was born in Cincinnati in 1926 and lived through the Great Depression. Eventually she became a nurse and, in her early 30s, she switched to a vegetarian diet – after joining the Seventh Day Adventist church. However her adherence to this diet fluctuated and she eventually left this church. At 70, with her husband sick, she became more interested in the connection between diet and disease and learned that certain foods are better than others. Gradually she returned to her vegetarian ways.

Finally in 2007, at the young age of 81, she decided she was going to take better care of herself and switched completely to a plant-based diet, avoiding all meat and dairy. The results were impressive. At an age when most people are taking more and more medications for their many medical issues and spending much of their time in nursing homes, Rachel lost 15 pounds and was able to gradually get off her high blood pressure meds.

Now, let’s think about that situation. Can losing 15 pounds lower blood pressure enough to eliminate the need for medication? Fifteen pounds isn’t a lot of weight unless you’re awfully short. Rachel has average height. So what did the trick? Was it her diet? Could there have been a trigger in the meat and dairy products that caused her blood pressure to run high? Although it’s hard to prove, my guess is that her switching away from meat and dairy had a significant impact on her blood pressure. From personal experience, going vegan helped a friend of mine to lower his cholesterol by 90 points in six weeks.

Rachel readily admits that her success does not rely entirely on what she eats. She sticks to an exercise program of walking and stretching for 90 minutes four to five times a week. Her physical fitness keeps her out of a nursing home and allows her to survive quite well on her own. And she doesn’t run marathons to maintain this level of fitness. Diets don’t work but lifestyles do.

Rachel walks the walk. Her ikigai, her purpose in life, is to spread the gospel of good health to as many as will listen. In 2010 she and others formed a group to take the message of a plant-based diet and regular exercise to area churches – in hopes of motivating churchgoers to change their lifestyle … before that first heart attack hits. Her group and their efforts can be found at http://clergyhealthcouncil.org/About%20Us.html.

When Rachel was a vegetarian, she ate eggs, milk, and butter and, after realizing the connection between dairy and disease, she commented, “I might as well have been eating steak.” Obviously she hasn’t lost her sense of humor.

Now, seeing so many obese Americans isn’t a laughing matter. And though many continue to struggle with their weight and succumb to disease, 86-year-old Rachel knows that her positive example will help others to change to a healthier lifestyle. Furthermore, she won’t stop trying, which is great because she’s got plenty of years left in that skinny body and that agile mind. What a great example of a LifeNut!

Listen to Rachel as she explains her lifestyle on this YouTube video and please share her message with your friends and relatives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv5UVa-fJ4Y&feature=youtu.be


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Teenage Vegetarians? You’re kidding, right?

12/3/2012

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Being over 50, I can join AARP for five bucks a year. For that I get discounts at hotels, a bulletin, and a magazine. I use the first deal once in a while but I find more value in the latter two benefits – articles that are well researched and well written. But recently the AARP bulletin made a glaring error.
            In this year’s November issue, on page 21 there was an extremely inaccurate estimate of life expectancy for Americans. The article stated in bold letters that the average 65-year-old will live 20 more years. That is dead wrong. Instead of 20, the correct number is 13! American’s average life expectancy is 78.2, four and a half years shorter than that of the Japanese (82.7). Nearly 70 percent of the AARP readers are overweight or obese and contribute to a huge drain on our national economy. Worse, the USA leads the world in health care cost per capita and yet our fine country places a woeful 37th in rankings of all nations, according to research done by the United Nations. Instead of promulgating the issues of drugs and Medicare proposals, AARP should be emphasizing the many aspects of a healthful lifestyle. I emailed them with this enlightenment, should they decide to publish it in their “letters to the editor” section. Chances of it being published are equivalent to a snowball’s chance of remaining cold in hell.

            Still, many of the older, WWII folks (referred to as the greatest generation), are projected to outlive the younger generations. Remember, these old geezers learned how to survive in the Great Depression (without smartphones or the Internet) and many of them either served in the military during the war or worked in a defense-related job at home. My father was one of those. He beat the average life expectancy by nearly ten years, despite a less than ideal lifestyle.

            Very few Americans are fit enough to run five miles in less than one hour: a 12-minute per mile pace is not fast. Fortunately our military defense is the mightiest in the world, protecting us from an invasion, making me wonder what would happen to us if we were invaded. But, if you’ve been interested in LifeNuts, you know that we want to change American health and longevity.

            Recently there was a glimmer of hope and it happened in one of the most unlikely of places – the financial pages of Barrons. In the Nov. 26 issue, Bill Alpert wrote an article about the Hain Celestial Group (HAIN, ticker), a publicly-traded small-stock company that specializes in natural food. They offer brands such as Celestial Seasonings, Garden of Eatin', Arrowhead Mills, and Spectrum Essentials and are finding shelf space in Whole Foods Markets, Costco, and Wal-Mart stores. OK, it’s a small company and employs less than 4,000 workers. But its founder and chief executive, Irwin Simon, after trying to build this company for two decades, seems to be a man of vision. And visionaries sometimes spot trends before they become mainstream. That quality helped Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and a host of others to build their empires.

            One phrase that Mr. Simon said caught my attention. “We are in the early stages of health and wellness. Teen vegetarians will grow into the next generation of parents who choose baby foods and kids’ snacks . … The biggest prevention and biggest cure is what you eat.” Teen vegetarians, huh?

            So I did a little electronic surfing to find out how many teenagers are vegetarian. Not many – only about three percent, which matches the percentage of adult vegetarians. However, the teenage percentage has grown faster than that of adults, moving from one percent in 1997 to the current three percent. Trendy stuff.

            So what does Mr. Simon know about this trend that I don’t know? Probably a lot. Such companies hire marketing experts to spot trends, which the companies use to plan for future sales. He believes that this trend will continue and is positioning his company accordingly.

            Of course this kind of diet for children makes the registered dietitians howl with fury, claiming that children won’t get enough protein. Despite their protests, there are no studies to support their stance. Cultures where people live well into their 90s and 100s typically have a plant-based diet, which extends from children into old age. Scott Jurek, the famous ultramarathon champion runner (distances often in the 50-100 mile range), recently wrote a book, Eat and Run, explaining why he switched to a vegan diet to improve his endurance and performance. Shocking, huh? Scott proved he could win a 100-mile race through 14,000-foot mountain ranges without any meat in his diet. Time and time again. Read the book if you don’t believe me.

            About a year ago I called the development director of Albert Lea, Minnesota (the town where the Blue Zones vitality project was so effective) and found out that they no longer implemented the program (Teach a child to fish principle). But, he told me that he had noticed a big difference in high school students, who were now much slimmer than before the project. So maybe the trend will continue. Let’s face it: teens like to buck trends and set trends.

            One part of this may be the fact that about 75% of teenagers (compared to about 46% of adults) are concerned about environmental issues like global warming and pollution. Perhaps this contributes to a teenager’s decision not to eat meat or dairy. A recent study confirmed this. If this trend continues, food manufacturers will adapt. You’ll see McDonalds offering a veggie burger (like Burger King does) and a baked potato (like Wendy does). The big boys don’t like to lose market share, even if it’s only a small percentage. Now, even though Burger King’s offering is a healthier choice than its Whopper sandwich (The traditional BK Whopper (w/o cheese) has 670 calories and 40 grams of fat while the BK Veggie Burger only has 420 calories and 16 grams of fat.), it’s not perfectly vegan.

            Recently the polls show that the youngest generations have been predicted to have shorter lifespans than those of the oldest Americans. You don’t need to have perfect eyesight to see all the overweight and obese children, teenagers, and 20-somethings. But maybe, just maybe, if this trend of teenaged vegetarianism continues, there will be hope for future generations.


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    Dr. Bob Kroeger is the founder of LifeNuts. He's also proud to be a LifeNut.

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