Diet, Exercise and Fruit juice
A new study from Israel shows us once again that dieting without exercise does not work. The participants took off only six to 10 pounds in two years. No matter what diet they were on, most regained some of the weight they lost in the early months by the end of the study (NEJM, July 17, 2008). It didn't make any difference whether the overweight person was on a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet, or the healthful Mediterranean-type diet that stresses fruits, vegetables, whole grains beans, seeds, nuts and seafood. However, their small weight loss did result in improved cholesterol and blood pressure readings.
If you really want to lose weight for good, you have to exercise. Appetite is controlled in a part of your brain called hypothalamus. If you try to lose weight just by eating less food, your hypothalamus makes you miserable when you see tasty food and know that you shouldn't eat it. If you exercise, you will eat more, but you will not increase your intake of food to equal the extra calories that you burn when you exercise. After you have been exercising for a few months, your muscles will be stronger, you will feel and sleep better and you can actually start to enjoy your new activity. Then you are set for a life-long pattern of burning up the calories you take in.
Unfortunately, the majority of older people who start exercise programs drop out in the first six weeks. People are more likely to stay in an exercise program if they have company and find a sport that is fun for them. The best success comes when a husband and wife exercise together. You can also increase you chances of sticking to an exercise program by having a personal trainer, going to regular exercise classes, or joining an exercise group that is also a social club, such as Road Runners, a bicycle club or a square dancing society.
Fruit Juice
Researchers at Tulane University showed that eating fruit helps to prevent diabetes, while drinking fruit juices increases risk (Diabetes Care, July 2008). They analyzed diets of 71,346 women enrolled in the Nurses Study. Increasing intake of whole fruit by three servings a day lowered risk for diabetes by 18 percent, while a serving of fruit juice each day increased risk by 18 percent.
The food that you eat passes into your stomach and must remain there until it is turned into a liquid soup. No solid food is allowed to pass into your intestines. This delay prevents blood sugar levels from rising too high. However, sugar in drinks can pass directly into your intestines to cause an immediate rise in blood sugar. This can cause sugar to stick to the surface of cell membranes and damage them to cause the side effects of diabetes which include blindness, deafness, heart attacks, strokes, and so forth. It makes no difference whether the sugared drink is "junk food" such as a soft drink, or a supposedly healthful fruit juice.
Saturated Fat
The Masai of Kenya and Tanzania eat the same type of
high animal-fat diet as North Americans, but they have a very low
incidence of heart attacks. In spite of the large amount of
saturated fats in their diets, they have lower body weights, waist
measurements, blood pressures and cholesterol levels (British
Journal of Sports Medicine, July 2008). This is explained by the
fact that the average Masai burns 4,000 kilocalories a day, which
is roughly equal to walking 12 miles every day.
Saturated fat is the dominant fat in meat, chicken and
whole milk dairy products. It raises cholesterol only when a
person takes in more calories than he burns. A high-meat diet
does not cause heart attacks in people who get a lot of exercise.
Saturated fats are broken down by your body into two-carbon
units. If you are getting too many calories, your liver converts
these two-carbon units into cholesterol. If you are not getting
enough calories, your body burns these units for energy.
When you take in more calories than your body needs,
you store the excess as fat. Full fat cells release cytokines into
your bloodstream, and they turn on your immunity. Your immunity
is good because it protects you from infection, but if it stays
overactive, it starts to destroy your body including your heart and
blood vessels. The bottom line: if you eat much saturated fat, be
sure to get plenty of exercise.
How to decrease your risk of prostate and other cancers
Watch your diet. Avoid a diet high in red meat, saturated fat and dairy products, all of which may increase the risk for prostate cancer. Instead, eat more tomatoes, especially tomatoes in sauces - they contain lycopene, a carotenoid linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer. Also include whole soy foods, which contain genistein, an isoflavone that helps normalize hormone levels; fish, which may lower the risk of prostate cancer; and fiber, which influences the elimination of hormones such as testosterone and estrogen.
Drink green tea. Lab studies indicate that an antioxidant compound in green tea called EGCG kills prostate cancer. Another compound in green tea blocks the actions of an enzyme that promotes prostate cancer.
Exercise. Regular aerobic exercise is associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer.
Take a multivitamin that includes vitamin D and antioxidants, especially selenium.
Have regular screenings. Rectal exams can provide early detection of problems with the prostate gland.