I recently picked up a copy of Diabetic Living magazine at the grocery store checkout to see what advice they’re offering to diabetics today. In addition to offering nutrition and exercise advice, Diabetic Living features articles on diabetes-related illnesses and complications.
While I found a great deal to like in this attractive, lavishly illustrated magazine, I was also alarmed at much of the advice offered.
I was interviewed by Tom Naughton recently and saw this comment, posted by one of his readers:
“On my path to enlightenment, Gary Taubes, Tom Naughton, William Davis, Jimmy Moore, and Rocky Angelucci have been instrumental in giving me truth and hope for a healthier life. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I now have the power to keep my family healthy. Don’t Die Early was just what I was looking for. The final piece of the puzzle.”
–Vir-Gena Fowlkes
Thank you, Vir-Gena. You made my day!
I wrote Don’t Die Early to tie it all together and show that heart disease, diabetes, and inflammation are not the separate diseases that we sometimes think them to be. I also wanted to help the reader create a plan of action that paves the way to a healthier future.
I’m thrilled that the response is so positive.
In a move that will certainly please most nutritional experts and USDA policy makers, we have decided that we will no longer be a wheat-free household.
Yes, despite all of my rhetoric about wheat’s role in promoting atherosclerotic lipid particles, causing acid reflux, and causing celiac and non-celiac disease states, I’ve decided that the experts are right and there is a role for wheat in my home.
No, this isn’t a joke.
You see, our latest purchase in the never ending search for a cat litter that doesn’t suck is wheat.
I’ll be happy if the claims about less dust and firm clumping are true, just as long as the cats don’t accidentally eat any of it.
I hate veggies.
Well, not all veggies, but most of them. Especially overcooked ones. Raw veggies I can tolerate but something evil happens to vegetables when heat is applied. Spinach, once firm and crisp, becomes slimy, foul smelling ooze to me. And don’t even get me started on broccoli.
I was interviewed last week by Tom Naughton, the creator of the documentary Fat Head. Tom’s interview questions were excellent and we covered so much ground that he’s posting the interview in two parts.
As careful as we are with our diets here in the Don’t Die Early household, there are still times when ya gotta say, WTF (or WTH for the g-rated among you).
Halloween is obviously one of those days:
Fortunately, our daughter will only eat a few pieces a day of this Halloween bounty and then lose interest in less than a week, at which time we’ll give the remainder away to the farmers who are feeding stale candy to their cattle.
A common response to the suggestion that wheat may be causing digestive or other problems is “I don’t need to worry about wheat because my doctor checked me and I don’t have celiac disease.”
Two days after I posted a link on the variability of cause and effect, I learned of this documentary on genetically modified foods and their possible effects on our health (thank you Tom Naughton for posting a link to this documentary).
This documentary is viewable free for one week from the date of this posting, so enjoy it free while you can.
Whether or not this documentary convinces you that GMOs are harmful to humans, my question from an earlier post remains:
Do you want to be part of the experiment or do you want to be in the control group?
Our nation keeps getting unhealthier.
According to a recent study out of Australia, the rate of obesity among baby boomers is more than double the rate of their parents at the same age and the number of baby boomers with three or more chronic conditions is 700 percent greater than the previous generation.
I don’t think that anyone can claim with a straight face that human genetics has changed so dramatically in a single generation as to be responsible for this sharp decline in our nation’s health.
I wrote Don’t Die Early as a guide that anyone, of any age or gender, can use to better sort through the maze of soundbites and misinformation that permeate the airwaves today. By understanding the critical health issues that plague us, we can better chart a course towards optimum health, focusing on what’s timeless and important, not on what happens to be on the news today.
That said, this blog post is geared towards those you who are specifically concerned about preventing, or addressing heart disease. Perhaps you have a strong family history of heart disease and have vowed not to suffer the fate that took Granddad or Uncle Fred. Perhaps a close friend has suffered a heart attack at the gym, mere weeks after passing a stress test with flying colors. Maybe, like so many of us, you’ve simply turned the corner into the second half of your life and want to pay more attention to preventing heart disease. And don’t think that because you’re female that you can tune out the discussion at this point: heart disease kills more women than men in this country. [1]