Thursday, January 28, 2010

Fire station work and diabetes

Thursday 1/28/10

At work at the fire station today. No walking the dog and no workout (attempted a workout with the guys but we caught a call). Today for training we watched a powerpoint/video on pediatric diabetes and as often does, the subject of diet and exercise vs. genetics came up. Now, through all of my years of self experimentation (n=1), and trial and error coupled with reading many of my favorite blogs and/or books about the effects of various diets and activity (or lack thereof) on such diseases as diabetes and others, I'd like to consider myself "somewhat" versed (by no means an expert) on such subject matter. So, the questions (and conventional wisdom) statements came and I responded, armed better than they with some of their claims which came from..., where else, yep, our friend conventional wisdom. Today however, I actually received accusations and question about where I get my information and what makes what I believe and me so knowledgeable. "I simply take what I learn and apply it. After a period of time it either works or doesn't." Does it get any simpler than that? I often quote names, books, blogs, etc. and then always try to end with a question of my own, simply asking, "Is what you are doing working or has it ever worked?" One only need to reflect on one's life, then struggle to simply get out of the recliner to go take a look in the mirror to find their answer. I am not a doctor and do not proclaim to know what is best for each individual's specific condition but I believe and continue to believe that if one is willing to self educate and then apply those self-taught principles to oneself, they may start to have the answers their looking for. I read the works of Arthur De Vany arthurdevany.com, Mark Sisson marksdailyapple.com and have read Loren Cordain's "The Paleo Diet," Gary Taubes's "Good Calories, Bad Calories, and the list goes on. The fact is that I can read all the material I want but not apply any of it and hence learn nothing. I have applied all of it at least one time or another and have kept what works for me and thrown out what hasn't. Notice I said for me, people are different (though recent research shows that 99.9% of share the same DNA, but that's for another discussion). The very people that I sometimes try to educate on the matter have never tried such things or made an attempt to make such changes in their lives or have chosen the wrong route all together and have fallen short... way short. This brings me back to the subject of diabetes. It is a disease that is becoming worse and worse and is only compounded by the problems of misleading information by conventional wisdom who use the media as their outlet, doctors who still are not properly schooled in diet and nutrition and the people not taking it upon themselves to self educate and hence continuing to choose low quality and the wrong foods and live sedentary lifestyles. I'm here to do my part to teach, show and demonstrate how people can take back control of their lives and stave off the major diseases that dominate our Western civilization by making strong, solid and sound choices when it comes to nutrition and activity. I love to talk and listen, especially to those who are open to learning how to lead a healthier lifestyle and live a long life without having to battle any disease.

1 comment:

David Brown said...

Hi Stephen,

One aspect of nutrition that doesn't get enough attention is the omega-6 problem. It's one of the two major health hazards in the food supply. The other, of course, is added sugars, especially fructose.

At your earliest convenience I would urge you to watch a 37 minute presentation by Dr. Bill Lands entitled Why Omega-6 Fats Matter For Your Health. http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=8108 Dr. Lands begins speaking around minute 12. Just drag the timer button to the right to minute 12.

For a thumbnail sketch outlining the technological events leading up to the insertion of omega-6 fats into the food supply Google: Omega-6: the fat that ruins your health.