Age Management Medicine is about prevention and
optimizing your health. Optimal health begins with
whole foods. Why eat whole foods? Because foods
that are closest to their natural form are rich in
nutrients. In contrast, processed foods are so modified
-with cooking, preservatives and other artificial
means-they get stripped of most of their nutritional
content.
It isn't just basic nutrients that get lost in processing-
processed foods are also stripped of natural enzymes
which are important to how you digest what you've
eaten. When you eat foods devoid of these enzymes,
your body has to produce them. Producing enzymes
that would naturally be present in whole foods (and
aren't available in processed foods) drains your body
of energy and causes additional stress. Food in its
natural form is always highest in nutritional value.
The concept of Nutrient Density is very important to
understand.
Doing more with less-or getting more "bang for your
buck"-is an idea commonly pursued in our culture,
yet strangely, when it comes to food choices, the
typical North American diet eschews this principal in
favor of empty calories which offer little value in terms
of nutrition. Nutrient density describes the ratio of
calories to the nutrition your body gets from
consuming them-a critical concept.
Choose foods with the highest nutritional value and
you will decrease nutritional stress. While the caloric
value of food is important, there is too much emphasis
placed on calories in versus calories out-calories are
almost irrelevant as long as your body receives the
nutrition it requires. Give your body what it really
needs and you eliminate food cravings which are
essentially your body telling you it is not getting
sufficient nutrients.
Eating nutrient dense foods reduces the stress
response and allows the body to conserve energy that
can be used as fuel and building blocks.
Nutrient density and high net-gain foods go hand in
hand. High net gain foods describe nutrient dense,
easily assimilated foods that leave the greatest
amount of energy and valuable nutrients in your body
once the food has been digested. High net-gain foods
are easiest to digest, so your body doesn't use as
much energy in the digestion process.
You need to focus on:
Whole foods;Raw or cooked at low temperature;
Naturally alkaline forming foods to balance your
body's pH levels;
Superfoods, rich in nutrients your body can easily use.
As you age, your body is exposed to free radicals
found in your environment (pollution, pesticides and
cigarette smoke are common culprits). Free radicals
are unstable molecules that bond with the cells in your
body, causing cellular damage and oxidation that can
lead to illnesses like cancer.
While you can limit your exposure to free radicals
somewhat (by not smoking, for example), even the
healthiest lifestyle can't eliminate them completely. But
not to worry-that's where antioxidants come in. You
have control over what you eat and the antioxidants that
you consume.
Antioxidants prevent free radicals from damaging your
body, which is good news; the better news is that
antioxidants are easily added to your diet through the
healthy, delicious foods that you'll love to indulge in
anyway! Naturally occurring, crucial antioxidants
include vitamins C and E, the mineral selenium and
carotenoids (the compounds responsible for color in
vegetables).
Antioxidant-rich foods you'll want to eat more of
include:
Berries (blueberries and blackberries especially!);
Pomegranates;
Colorful vegetables;
Cold-pressed oils (hemp-seed oil and flaxseed oil are
good sources);
Fresh herbs and spices (such as oregano, rosemary,
cinnamon, cayenne, turmeric, etc.).
Eating in a way to lower nutritional stress will give you
more energy. If energy were based solely on the
number of calories that we consume then people who
eat a high calorie, fast food diet would have more
energy. Clearly, they do not and they have more
lifestyle based diseases like: cancer, heart disease-
high cholesterol, high blood pressure; obesity,etc.,
I have written an e-booklet that is available in the
Member Center of my website that addresses how to
avoid Nutritional Stress by eating High Net Gain Foods.
These foods will provide your body with the nutrients that
it needs to optimize health and lower nutritional stress.
Nutrition is extremely important in an Age Management
Medicine program. If you exercise and do not take in
High Net Gain foods, then all that you are doing is tearing
your body down. Your body needs the right amount of
nutrients to build itself back up after exercise and
constantly on a daily basis.
One of the problems with eating a high calorie, low net
gain diet or a low calorie, low net gain diet is that your
cortisol level- the stress hormone increases. This leads to
accelerated aging and storage of body fat. This is the
reason that some people have a high percentage of body
fat despite exercising on a regular basis.
I encourage you to read the e-booklet on Nutritional
Stress and incorporate the method that I describe into
your program. This method is specifically designed to
optimize your health through high net gain nutrition that
provides more energy and decreases your risk for
disease.
