Exercising the Options

[Guest guest]

I became vegetarian for health reasons, and I've had both cancer and a

heart attack. I am currently also diabetic. The torture never stops, as

Zappa observed.

 

Best diet I've found is Vegan, but you'll balk at that, so try lacto-ovo

vegetarian and use soy rather than real cheese in sandwiches and so forth,

to avoid cholesterol.

 

Plenty of anti-oxidants are important, too, both from natural sources and

in supplements.

 

Best guard against diabetes is first to arrange not to have it in your

family history, then to keep your weight down. Slender folks get it too

but not nearly as often as fat ones.

 

Same with high blood pressure.

 

The single most important factor is exercise, which no one likes to hear.

You need regular exercise, at least five times a week at 45 minutes to an

hour a shot, with at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise in that. This

means keeping your heart rate up for a sustained 30 minutes. Brisk

walking helps, but the more you can do the more you should do. Swimming's

good, for instance, if you don't just stand there splashing but actually

do laps. Tennis is okay, but has too much rest built into it. Running's

fine if you do it right, and if you're healthy enough, but as I say, even

walking is good.

 

Don't smoke and you cut lung cancer risks greatly. Avoid heavily polluted

areas, too, and make sure your home has a radon check. High radon levels

promote lung cancer like crazy, and they're more common than one wants to

think.

 

Eat less, exercise more. Keep moving.

 

It helps to write down the amount, calories, and carbohydrates of

everything you eat too. Again, most balk at keeping food logs, but it

really makes you aware of how much U.S. Americans eat, and how bad much of

it is for us. Also, don't be tempted to cut calories and skip exercise.

The exercise is the most important single item.

 

I " m a lacto-ovo vegetarian who uses very minimal dairy, by the way, and I'

ve a son who's Vegan, so I understand both these diets well. I admit I'm

remiss with exercise, too. Although I do it regularly what I do isn't

enough. Yet. I'm incrementally increasing things.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, December 29, 2002, at 05:05 AM, (AT) (DOT)

com wrote:

 

> diet and exercise program,

> which I hope will reverse the plaque and

> atherosclerosis that I have built up in my coronary

> and peripheral arteries over the past 59 years. I'm

> looking for a diet and exercise program that will

> protect me from diabetes, lung cancer, gout,

> hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and the chronic,

> degenerative diseases pandemic in the USA.

>

> Is anyone out there interested in these things?

>

Primum non nocere.

--Hippocrates

[Guest guest]

 

The Stewarts [stews9]

Sunday, December 29, 2002 7:58 AM

 

Exercising the Options

 

>>I became vegetarian for health reasons, and I've had both cancer and a

heart attack. I am currently also diabetic. The torture never stops, as

Zappa observed.<<

 

For those interested in dealing with diabetics, I have a couple of books to

suggest. They each avoid the fluff that most diet books offer and present

instead the actual medical literature as supporting evidence that their

approach is on target.

 

By the way, I've been veggie for 21 yrs, just turned 57, and happily have

the same excellent health I had at 20. Since reading these books and

applying the info, I've dropped 39 lbs, found my physical endurance

improving greatly, and am seeing a noticable return of muscle mass. Also,

my current weight is only 6 lbs above what it was when I was released from

the U.S Marines 35 years ago.

 

The books are by Barry Sears, PhD. The first one is " The Soy Zone. " It

posits a theory of diet about the three macronutrients and their affect on

body metabolism that I found easy to understand, credible, and very

workable. The one change I made was to give up his " block " counting method

for directly counting calories. If anyone's interested, I'll explain this

part later.

 

The other book is " The Age-Free Zone. " It's full of medical terminology,

processes, and procedures that caused me to reel. Suffering thru it added

greatly to my understanding of my own body and how closely diet is connected

to the top 20 causes of death in the world. This book is not for everybody,

but it brings a lot of data to the table that I'd have never located in the

medical literature on my own.

 

Dave