Eight Health Facts That Will Shock You

by Cory Chu-Keenan on September 1, 2010

You see, the title of this post illustrates the problem with journalists writing about health. The job of the journalist is to write articles that get attention, and secondly, inform. The general public is more aware about acai berries than ever before in history, but how much of an impact do these buzzed-about “superfoods” really have on your health? I argue that editors are simply asking writers, “Where’s the hook?” not, “Where’s the legit scientific study to back up these claims?”

Well, I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to sacrifice sound science for shock factor when it comes to your health. Here are eight shocking health facts with scientific studies to back them, starting with the bad news first.

1. Vegetable Oil is wrecking your heart and stiffening your arteries.

Canola oil, soybean oil, flaxseed oil, and other industrial seed oils are raising your omega-6 (linoleic acid) to unsafe levels and raising your bad cholesterol (LDL, low-density lipids). Omega-3 and omega-6, both essential fatty acids, compete for the enzymes that convert polyunsaturated fat into signaling molecules (eicosanoids) that play a major role in almost every function in your body. When too much omega-6 is present, it throws off the beneficial functions of omega-3. You can’t overdo omega-3, but you can overdo omega-6, which raises your cholesterol and increases your risk of coronary artery disease.

Whenever you see a recipe that calls for vegetable oils, use virgin coconut oil, palm oil, butter (never margarine), or even lard instead. Contrary to popular belief, consumption of saturated or animal fats will not  increase your chances of heart disease.

Rose, et al. (1965): Replacing animal fat with corn oil for two years lowered serum cholesterol by 23 mg/dL but quadrupled cardiac and total mortality. http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/77/2/521

2. Wheat is deteriorating your insides.

Gluten is a protein found most highly concentrated in wheat. About 12% of the population is diagnosed with gluten sensitivity, and we can consider these people the lucky ones, because at least their bodies are signaling to them to cut wheat out from their diets. Just because your stomach isn’t hurting after eating wheat (or barley, or rye), doesn’t mean gluten isn’t wreaking havoc on your small intestine. Wheat can be harming you without you feeling a single symptom.

Gluten sensitivity goes hand in hand with celiac disease, a degeneration of the lining of your small intestine, but gluten can also affect your brain, digestive tract, skin, and pancreas.

Gluten hanging around in the small intestine may be inhibiting the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K, vitamins that, when deficient, can lead to serious disease such as cystic fibrosis.

Continuing to eat wheat is probably something you should reconsider, but beware: studies show that wheat releases opiates as it breaks down, so it may feel like getting off an addiction.

There do exist certain hunter/gatherer societies that consume mainly grains, including wheat, but they are careful to soak or ferment the grain before consumption, which releases nutrients and renders the grains more digestible.

http://gut.bmj.com/content/56/6/889.extract

3. Sugar is preventing proper digestion.

What’s shocking is not that sugar is bad for you, but that you’re still eating it. Sugar and things that break down into simple sugar in your body are driving up insulin spikes and storing unused energy as excess belly fat.

But if that isn’t bad enough, sugar intake may also be causing gastrointestinal distress by feeding bacteria (H. pylori) that prevent stomach acid secretion. This is bad because then you have a bunch of undigested food floating around not releasing nutrients and potentially causing infection.

Be weird, rude, and impolite when it comes to sugar. Refuse it, and call it what it is:  poison.

Fructose intake at current levels in the United States may cause gastrointestinal distress in normal adults. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16183355

4. Eating at restaurants is never a safe idea.

Restaurant kitchens are heavily stocked with industrial seed oils of all kinds, sugar-based marinades and sauces, and deep-fryers. And what’s the first and last thing they bring to your table? Bread and dessert—restaurants are disease sandwiches served with a smile.

Cook at home, for God’s sake! Revolutionary idea, I know. Stockpile your kitchen with coconut oil, palm oil, butter, and ghee. Eat meats, fish, egg yolks, and vegetables. Forget the starch. No need to calculate the tip.

That was the shockingly bad stuff, and now for the shockingly good!

5. Beef liver is the most nutritious food you can possibly eat.

I’ll bet you’re not eating your organ meats. Somewhere along the way, we decided that muscle should be the primary source of meat consumption, but what we don’t realize is that our prehistoric brethren threw away the muscle in times of surplus and only ate the good stuff—liver, kidney, tripe, tongue, eyes, heart, blood—are you getting hungry, yet?

Fact is, beef liver is off the charts when it comes to vitamin A and several vitamin B’s. It’s full of folic acid, iron, copper, and it supplies you with the minerals needed for good cardiovascular function.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beef-products/3470/2

You probably don’t have a good recipe for beef liver lying around, so here’s one for you that you can try tonight. Eat beef liver once every week or two and see what happens.

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/05/real-food-vi-liver.html

6. Sunshine is essential to a healthy diet.

In recent years, people have become sun-phobic due to skin cancer being on the rise. I personally wouldn’t lie out in the sun at noon for a lengthy tanning session, but nevertheless, you need sunshine for vitamin D.

Vitamin D is vital for healthy cell functioning and also preventing vitamin A toxicity. Vitamin D acts in nearly every tissue in your body and is an essential building block of health.

The best way to get quality Vitamin D is by going outside and catching some rays. Sunscreen will block vitamin D, as will glass windows, so you have to get outside and ditch the SPF.

Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets (weakening of bones and teeth), and may be linked to many other diseases including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular, autoimmune, osteoporosis—need I continue?

Be a sun worshipper, but be smart about it. Vitamin D can also be found in several whole foods, but the sun is going to be your best source.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/research.shtml

7. The gym is bad for your health.

Cancel that gym membership. Number one, that fluorescent lighting isn’t providing any Vitamin D, and number two, the sight of naked people in the locker room can really ruin your day.

Get outside where the sun is shining and do the one exercise that is going to significantly reduce your body mass:  High-Intensity Interval Training. That’s an unnecessarily fancy name for sprinting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training#cite_note-pmid8897392-1

Here’s the drill:  3-4 sets of 8-second sprints with a one-minute rest in between, twice a week. Make sure to get some active stretching beforehand, and static stretching after. That’s it. The end. Try it a few times and see what happens. I predict you’ll find a noticeable decrease in body mass after just a few weeks.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8897392

8. Inactivity does not cause obesity, but obesity does predict inactivity.

We all want to hold on to the myth that exercise is going to trim us down, but the science just doesn’t show any correlation. I believe that exercise is important to health, probably even crucial, but it definitely won’t beat a smart diet.

http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n8/abs/ijo200874a.html

At the end of the day…

You can’t make the world stop buying sugar, industrial seed oils, wheat, and other crap that’s destroying overall health, so stop waiting for that to happen.

Find out what traditional hunter/gatherer societies are eating and how they’re eating it. Find out what people ate before agriculture and before grain became our main staple. Think about the millions of years of evolution we went through before we arrived at the industrialized dietary landscape we now live in.

Figure out what real, whole foods are and eat them up. Hint:  less than 10% of your average grocery store are real, whole foods.

You don’t need to break the bank on premium organic foods to eat healthy. Mainly just avoid the stuff that’s poisoning you. What’s left is probably the good stuff.

Ask yourself…

What are your beliefs and practices surrounding the food you eat?

What signals and messages do you receive on a regular basis from corporate media and society at large?

What tactics are you going to employ to start eradicating sugar, gluten, and vegetable oils from your diet today?

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Be Cro-Magnon About Your Health

by Cory Chu-Keenan on August 24, 2010

Modern medicine is a miracle that Paleolithic humans did not have the advantage of enjoying even though they were physically superior to today’s frailer modern man. Modern man enjoys longevity, but Cro-Magnon enjoyed greater agility, strength, and density of bones that fit his hunter lifestyle.

(Archeologists recently dropped the moniker, Cro-Magnon, in place of Early Modern Human or Anatomically Modern Human. In other words, Cro-Magnon Man was anatomically homo-sapien.)

We humans have always been avid hunters from the very beginning. The entirety of our waking lives were dedicated to it. If we weren’t taking down a Cave Bear, we were looking for one to take down. In those periods between kills we foraged on leafy greens, berries, tree nuts, grubs, and perhaps smaller animals. But we were mostly thinking big.

We were going for the big game like Caribou and Mastodons because we craved protein and saturated fat.

Though early agricultural man lived longer due to lowered levels of physical risk to attain food, Cro-Magnon lived healthier, but died earlier due to broken bones, harsh conditions, and other fatalities associated with the hunt.

Technological progress eventually led to antiseptic, penicillin, refrigeration, and the miracle tools we have today that saved my dad’s life. But somewhere along the way we lost a vital dietary element.

Why was the diet and lifestyle of Cro-Magnon superior to modern humans?

Some argue that early humans died so young because of all the saturated fat they consumed from the mega-beasts they ate, but the archeological record doesn’t support this theory. Cro-Magnon was trim and lean, and as mentioned before, he died from causes not considered life-threatening by today’s standards.

Below are five guidelines for a healthier body that is stronger, trimmer, and less prone to diseases associated with obesity.

1. There’s no such thing as an essential carbohydrate.

  • There are such things, however, as essential fats, specifically omega-3 and omega-6 found in almost all meats and fish and leafy greens.
  • Protein is Latin for “of first importance.”
  • All starches eventually turn into simple sugar in your body, even complex carbs and “resistant” starches.

2. Saturated fat will not make you fat.

  • Excess fat is created when an insulin spike is produced in your body in response to sugar. Insulin is a protein that carries glucose (byproduct of the sugar) to parts of the body where it can be used like the brain, nervous system, and muscles. Glucose is essential, but only in tiny amounts, and all you need can be produced from proteins. When excess glucose is present, insulin stores it as energy in the form of fat. In fewer words, insulin, especially insulin spikes, lead to excess fat.
  • Saturated fat does not trigger insulin production in the body, and it does not get stored as energy—it gets burned as the primary, immediate source of energy.
  • Saturated fats help you feel fuller helping you eat less throughout the day. Feeling full after a meal is the whole point of eating, and is the greatest predictor of how much you’ll snack in between meals.
  • Trans-fat is the most dangerous form of fat, and will cause rigidity of your arteries. Found in deep fried foods, cookies, crackers, and even bread, trans-fat is the true villain of the fat family, not saturated fats.

3. Eating a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet with moderate exercise will help you lose excess weight.

  • Eat meats, egg yolks, butter, coconut oil, tree nuts, and other sources of saturated fats (not trans-fat!)
  • Eat moderate amounts of bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, and other sources of potassium for the healthy functioning of your cells.
  • Drink more water. Protein and fat require more water for digestion than simple  sugars.
  • Exercise not to the point of exhaustion, but just enough to make you feel good. A moderately challenging hike is a great example of an activity that boosts the excretion of serotonin.
  • Avoid all simple sugars, which are the main culprits of insulin spikes, and limit complex carbs, which also produce a slow release of insulin. Even whole grain should be consumed in moderation. Remember: there is no such thing as an essential carb.
  • Easy on too much sweet fruit consumption. Fill up on leafy greens, broccoli, and other stems of vegetables. Emphasis on leafy greens.
  • Fill up on water. It will make you feel full when you get the munchies–trust me. Veggies and fruits are full of water, so they’re a win-win.

4. You will cheat.

  • If you’re going to cheat and eat some sweets (and at some point you probably will), make sure you’ve eaten them after a high-fat meal to ease the insulin spike.
  • You’re only human and you live in an expansive minefield of sugary explosives. Just get back to the cave as soon as possible!

5. Be a Caveman about your diet!

  • Be uncivilized—refuse sugar even in the face of impoliteness.
  • Be rude—call refined sugar what it is: poison to your lifestyle.
  • Be weird—stand by your knowledge even in the face of cultural pressure to fit in.
  • Be Cro-Magnon—because that is exactly what you are.

Resources:

Good Calories, Bad Calories—Gary Taubes

Life Without Bread—Christian B. Allan & Wolfgang Lutz

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/saturated-fat/rapid-health-improvements-with-a-paleolithic-diet/

http://michaelpollan.com/interviews/michael-pollan-debunks-food-myths/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/29/drew-careys-massive-weigh_n_663467.html

http://archaeology.about.com/od/earlymansites/a/cro_magnon.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22116724/

Maybe this is what we’re all supposed to be able to do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x98jCBnWO8w

If it’s good enough for Paul Graham…

http://paulgraham.com/addiction.html

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Who’s Afraid of a Little Brain Tumor?

by Cory Chu-Keenan on August 20, 2010

Wednesday morning, my father had a tumor removed from the frontal lobe of his brain via a procedure called an awake craniotomy wherein surgeons cut open a flap of his skull to reveal the portion of the brain the one-inch diameter tumor lay wedged, and then kept him awake and interactive for four hours as they poked around his exposed brain trying to figure out which parts they could tamper with and which parts they couldn’t in the removal of the mass.

The surgery has a 99% success rate, and my father is doing fine and in recovery right now. No signs of any brain damage. Still doing tests on the mass to determine what it is.

Had my father been living in any other age in the history of man, this story would have had a very different outcome. If my father was a Cro-Magnon man living in the Paleolithic Era, the tumor would have doubled in size in a few months making him lose all of his short-term memory, his status would fall in the tribe, and he would become lame in the hunts. He would be dead within a year.

Even 30 years ago MRI was a technology in its infancy and not readily available as it is today.

We live in an amazing time.

Feeling much gratitude for modern medicine and the good people who perform these miracles in the surgery room.

Go, Dad!

Up next…

How to Be Cro-Magnon About Your Health

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What is Your Sacred Sheath?

by Cory Chu-Keenan on July 28, 2010

Your sacred sheath is the house of your power and is ornamented with symbols of what you stand for.

You started to build this protective layer from the time you were first hurt from this world.

  • From the first time your skin felt the cold air of the delivery room.
  • The shock of the first loud and startling noise.
  • The first time you fell and bloodied your knee.

As you grew older and into adolescence, pain and suffering moved from outer layer to deeper in your core. You started to build emotional defenses against:

  • Heartbreak.
  • Letdown.
  • Shattered dreams.

The more pain and suffering you experienced, the more ornate your sheath became. From all the nicks and scrapes to the deep wounds and ravaged illusions—these became the building blocks of your defenses.

When you initially encounter a negative experience, you wish that it wasn’t happening. You ask:

“Why is this happening to ME???”

What we don’t realize until after the pain is gone and the injury healed is that the experience made us better.

This process of confronting pain, living through it, and emerging better, is how your sacred sheath is created.

Some people say that nothing is sacred anymore.

The rest of us know better.

Who you are at your core—your values, your beliefs, your soul—is worth guarding and worth fighting for.

Much like a gunslinger entering a crowded saloon, when you step into a room, sacred sheath brandished, the conversations continue as normal on the surface, but there will be a subtle shift—a silent recognition that death has entered the room.

The sheath is your message to the world that says:

“Respect me, and peace shall be maintained.”

Your sheath is an indicator of:

  • Your values.
  • Your self-worth.
  • Your boundaries.

People unflinchingly judge you by the way you appear. Make sure it is a representation of who you really are, the fight you are fighting, and the code by which you live.

When You Become Unsheathed

In certain situations, when the price of peace becomes too costly, your inner powers must be unleashed. You must confront a demon, or slay a trespasser.  And you must show no remorse.

The sheath wasn’t meant to protect you as much as it was meant to protect others. To serve as a proper warning.

Your inner power is so immense, so unimaginably infinite, that even you, at times, have come to fear its carnage.

You are capable of destruction the likes of the Fourth Horseman.

You say you want peace, but you weren’t built for that.

Take a look at yourself—-you were designed to fight.

What Is Your Destiny?

The question is: what will you choose to battle?

Are you going to join the ongoing war against Mother Nature with the same archaic colonial mindset we have been wielding for millennia?

Or are you going to seek out the real monsters deserving of your thrashing?

Whether it’s politics, or psychology, or technology, or art, or justice, or transcendence, you have to step into the arena and go head to head with your enemies.

What is the fight you were meant to fight?

Go there.

Face them.

What keeps you up at night is your destiny calling you.

The Real Meaning of “Apocalypse”

The apocalypse is not a reference to the end of the world. It’s a reference to an unveiling. The literal meaning of the word apocalypse is a leather covering. Think of the implication—a hide that sheathes a great power.

The end of one world brings about the emergence of a new. Death of your old ways, your immaturity, your innocence—these serve to nourish the fertile soil of your new life as a warrior.

Death is alive inside of you, but it’s not for bringing unto others. Death is a date reserved for only you.  This darkest secret is what motivates you and keeps you hungry—that life is impermanent.

By their works, ye shall know them

You’ll never know what you’re made of until you start to build your house of power.

You were not born with title—it is something you must earn. And confrontation of pain is the only way to get it.

What is your legacy? How will you be remembered? What emotions do you want to feel at the end of your life?

Build toward the ends you envision for yourself.

You’re not going to get where you want to be with:

  • Niceties.
  • Politeness.
  • Tameness.

You need to embrace the dark forces of:

  • Meanness.
  • Brutality.
  • Swift corrections.

Not to bring negativity upon others, but to keep yourself in check with honest self-reflection and never letting anything slide.

Be the best business partner you can be to yourself, and you will naturally emerge a leader.

What Challenge Means

Challenge is not a strong enough word for what you’re going for. Challenge is for kids.

As an adult, you need to be willing to break yourself in order to move to the next level. To push yourself to your limits and cause trauma. This is the warrior’s path to lasting change.

When you work out your muscles by lifting weights or performing floor exercises, the muscle tissue is actually being broken down as you work out. Trauma is taking place within your muscles that, through a proper recovery process, makes way for stronger muscle tissue that creates more force for the next time you work out.

When you break yourself, what you’re really doing is making way for a stronger you. Have faith that the difficult things in life won’t kill you—that they’ll only make you better.

Your Sacred Sheath is built from the following:

  • A  life of pain.
  • Your innate power to destroy and your will to triumph over assholes and the sleepwalking dead.
  • Faith that life’s difficulties are truly blessings.

Wear your Sacred Sheath like a badge of honor. It is your coat of arms in a world that’s lost its valor. Live with courage and dominion and truth.

Your Life is Your Truth

We are constantly seeking new ways to shield ourselves from the haunting reality of personal frailty with defense mechanisms and cries for peace. We hide our insecurities beneath linguistic puzzles and comforting illusions.

But building walls only box you in and serve no defense against the ghosts of your human weakness.

Your sacred sheath is not a wall, it’s a statement, a declaration, an idea, and it cannot be destroyed.

It is yours and yours alone, and it is sacred to you.

Live your truth by fighting for your truth, and let nature do the rest.

This quest is your own. Dare to follow it.

Godspeed and good luck.

Be sure to visit the blood brother of this post, 3 Things Your Self-Help Guru Won’t Tell You, at Mindful Construct.

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Where Do You Go With Your Hurt?

by Cory Chu-Keenan on July 19, 2010

Your husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, sibling, best friend or significant other have the unique ability to hurt you that only someone close to you can.

When you are injured by someone close to you, your instinct is to either fight or flee. It’s not under your control in the moment whether you lash back or run out the front door. But no matter which one you choose, the hurt remains, and there it will stay if you choose to do nothing about it after the fact.

After we’ve been hurt by someone close to us, we often find we have no one besides them to run to. In situations like this we usually don’t want to get third party people involved because it would cause embarrassment or get people entangled in our business that we don’t want.

When we find ourselves with no one to go to with our hurts, we’re commonly tempted to turn to escapist activities such as TV or digital media of any kind. Worse than this is alcohol or drugs. Food may be Americans’ most common way of stuffing hurt. And let’s not forget shopping.

When you find yourself hurt with no one to turn to, there are two places to go.

  1. Go to God.
  2. Go to grieve.

I’m not religious, and I don’t mean “God” in an orthodox way. Specifically, I mean go to nature. Nature has a quiet power that helps you put life experiences into perspective.

And it’s the perfect place to grieve.

Grieving is an essential process after the loss of a loved one, but we often overlook it in situations of lost pride, or lost respect, or lost love.

Also when there is a loss of an expectation such as believing that parenthood will bring you joy (5% of the time it actually does) or that the perfect relationship will bring all the magic into your life that’s been missing (it won’t).

The Kubler-Ross model of the stages of grieving have recently come under dispute. Most people know these as:

    • Denial
    • Anger
    • Bargaining
    • Depression
    • Acceptance

      Let’s just say that this model is an oversimplification at best and an idealization at worst.

      The way you grieve is truly up to you and it has more to do with your emotional resilience than anything else. Crying isn’t a necessity if that just isn’t your style. A dramatic expression doesn’t have to take place unless that’s what works for you. Sometimes what helps is a more counterintuitive approach like laughing or smiling through the hurt.

      It’s a mistake to go straight to the hurtful offender as a way of healing your hurt. You’re probably just going to try to retaliate, or worse yet, unconsciously seek more injury.

      The real goal of confronting the offender after the fact is to get a reasonable explanation, and this isn’t going to be possible unless you enter the confrontation with a level head. If the offender cannot deliver a satisfactory reason for hurting you, then you know that the relationship is no longer operating on a level, two-way street. They believe they have the right to hurt you because they are a) trying to control you, or b) too insecure to play fairly in relationships. Either way is bad for you.

      Hurt can turn into a pointless game of “a tit for a tat” very quickly. The only way to break the cycle of hurt is by going to God and going to grieve. Then seek answers from the hurter. What you choose to do about the relationship after that is up to you.

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      How Your Empathy Can Save You

      by Cory Chu-Keenan

      In my last post, I talked about ways that your empathy can work against you by giving in to the demands of people who wish to manipulate your empathy for their own ends. Your time on this Earth is much too precious to cede to the whims of : victims trying to prompt a rescue [...]

      Read it! →

      3 Ways Your Empathy Can Hurt You

      by Cory Chu-Keenan

      I looked down at my four-minute old son and watched his bleary eyes staring back at me.  He was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen or held in my arms.  I was in a state of awe. But, while I was being overwhelmed by the shockingly instant connection to my newborn son, [...]

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      The 3 Keys to Professionalism

      by Cory Chu-Keenan

      The Where the Wild Things Are movie received mixed reviews because what was blatantly advertised as a high-energy roller-coaster ride for kids wound up being a reflective film about emotions and complex familial relationships. Our expectations were that Max was going to go on a wild adventure through the forest with the Good vs. Evil [...]

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      How to Win at Life and Scrabble

      by Cory Chu-Keenan

      Scrabble is not only the most awesomest word game in the entire world.  It’s also a metaphor for success.  How to win at Scrabble is a perfect blueprint for how to win at life.  Here’s how. 1. Play With All Your Strength At Any Given Turn Place your highest tiles first.  Don’t hold back high-ranking [...]

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      Mother Ship Landing

      by Cory Chu-Keenan

      You can profit more from knowing that you don’t know anything than thinking that you know everything and wind up being wrong. If you are on your path, and I hope you are, and you have a lofty goal that you have your heart set on, and I hope you do, then you are going [...]

      Read it! →

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