Did you know that by just increasing the fiber in your diet you can reduce your chances of getting colon cancer? According to the American Institute of Cancer Research increasing the daily intake of fruits and vegetables to 5 servings per day could reduce cancer rates by as much as 20%. Cruciferous vegetables in the cabbage family, such as broccoli and cauliflower, have compounds that have been shown to block the progression of cancer in experimental animals and in humans.

Menus that include a variety of colorful vegetables and legumes provide a delicious way to stay healthy and fight cancer. A soup like Italian minestrone is a simple one-dish meal that can incorporate many different vegetables. Of course, besides eating healthy meals with a lot of fiber, it is necessary to make other life style changes to maintain the integrity of your body. One of the best things that you can do to avoid becoming a cancer victim is to stop smoking cigarettes.

Human protein requirements vary significantly

A recent study showed that lower protein diets extended the life of fruit flies.[1] Proponents of low protein diets feel that this study provides justification for lower protein in human diets. Unfortunately, this is not a valid conclusion because different species have different nutritional requirements. Nutrition is not an ideology. Nutrition is a science and any conclusions about what is good and what is bad should be based on scientific evidence.

The study on fruit flies, conducted at the University of Sydney, showed that the highest longevity was achieved by a protein-to-carbohydrate (P:C) ratio of 1:16, whereas the egg-laying rate was maximized at a P:C ratio of 1:2. The maximum lifetime egg production, which corresponds to the optimum nutrition for fruit flies, was attained with a P:C ratio of 1:4.

Human protein requirements depend on many factors, including the degree of physical activity. The chart above shows this variability. The Institute of Medicine, the scientific body which establishes national nutritional policies, recommends a minimum of 0.8 grams of protein per day per kilogram of body weight.[2] This corresponds to 54 grams of protein for a person weighing 150 pounds (68 kg). So how does this compare with the fruit fly diet?

The Zone diet promoted by Dr. Sears has a a proportion of 30% Protein, 40% carbohydrate, and 30% fat. The Zone diet P:C ratio is 1:1.3 which is considerably higher in protein than any of the fruit fly diets. However, the standard USDA diet recommends a proportion of 15% Protein, 55% Carbohydrate, and 30% fat. The P:C ratio of the USDA diet is 1:3.7 which is very close to the optimal 1:4 ratio for the fruit fly. Maybe we are not that different from fruit flies after all.

[1] Lee KP, Simpson SJ, Clissold FJ, Brooks R, Ballard JW, Taylor PW, Soran N, Raubenheimer D., Lifespan and reproduction in Drosophila: New insights from nutritional geometry. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2008 Feb 11; PMID: 18268352

[2] Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (Macronutrients).

Every few weeks, new research seems to contradict something that we thought was already well established in medical science. Questions keep being raised about carbohydrates, probiotics, hormone replacement therapy, vitamin supplementation, cholesterol-lowering drugs, and a variety of medical interventions that we assumed were safe and would help to lengthen our life. In addition to ambiguous research results, we frequently hear about the benefits of alternative medicines, herbs, and natural products whose claims have not been scientifically examined but which are absolutely guaranteed to clean your arteries, improve prostate health, or help you burn belly fat. What can you believe?

The more knowledge that we have, the better decisions that we are able to make in every aspect of our life. We are much better off today by knowing that malaria is a disease caused by protozoa transmitted by mosquito bites rather than just by “bad air”. When we have information based on verifiable truth, we are able to make decisions that can help us to solve a problem. The same is not possible when our beliefs are based on wrong or false information. Modern life is so confusing that we still are not really sure what is the source of the increased rates of autism, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, and many other maladies of our time.

In the end, we are responsible for our own well-being. The best way to take care of ourselves is to eat, drink, and exercise like the people who have lived in good health to a ripe old age. We have to avoid unproven fads. The most important thing that we can learn is to know how to tell the difference between what is true and what is false. This is called Critical Thinking and it is part of the Scientific Method.

Calorie restriction has been shown to extend the maximum life span of many species, but you have to start cautiously. Many people start calorie restriction with such zeal that they worsen their health instead of increasing their longevity. People who start with high degrees of calorie restriction and don’t monitor their nutrition sometimes find out that they have lost bone mass, resulting in osteoporosis. My specific recommendations about how to start on Calorie Restriction are these:

1. Read Dr. Roy Walford’s book Beyond the 120 Year Diet: How to Double Your Vital Years. This book describes the science which we hope will help us live longer, although this has not been conclusively proved for humans.
2. Download CRON-o-Meter (http://spaz.ca/cronometer/). This is a free nutrition-tracking program that will help you to analyze your food so that you can learn to optimize what you eat. You don’t have to start a diet, but you have to start measuring and weighing what you eat. In this way, you will learn how many calories you are now consuming on a daily basis, and you will also get a summary of your macronutrient ratios. The program will also point out any nutritional deficiencies.
3. Get some lab tests to establish a medical baseline including lipid panel, CBC, blood pressure, bone density, etc.
4. Join the Calorie Restriction Society. This will give you access to support from many members who can answer your specific questions.
5. Concentrate on Optimum Nutrition. Try to devise daily menus that meet 100% of the RDA of all vitamins and minerals. You may find some recipes in Dr. Sears’ Zone Diet books. Try to get your nutrition from foods rather than supplements.
6. Exercise 30 minutes per day with emphasis on strength-building exercises, but don’t overdo it to avoid getting injured.
7. Use the Calorie Restriction Calculator to determine the number of calories required to achieve 5% Calorie Restriction. Start with a 5% CR diet, but make sure that you still achieve Optimum Nutrition on the lower calorie diet.
8. Once you are familiar with measuring your food and optimum nutrition, you can gradually reduce your calories, but I would not recommend going below 16% CR.

It takes a long time to fine tune your nutrition. It is a way of life.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a report saying that the use of tobacco is killing 5.4 million people per year worldwide — an average of one person every six seconds. Tobacco is responsible for about one in 10 adult deaths. The main diseases caused by tobacco are lung cancer, oral cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and emphysema which is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Although tobacco use is decreasing in high-income countries, the use of tobacco products is increasing globally, particularly in developing countries. In the 20th century, tobacco caused 100 million deaths. If current trends continue, there will be up to one billion deaths in the 21st century.

Michael R. Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, has committed to donate $125 million Dollars for initiatives to end the global tobacco epidemic. The WHO will coordinate tobacco control efforts in developing countries where the health burden from tobacco use is highest.

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