On Monday I BLOGged on How Much Exercise we Need. Exercise is very important for many reasons. If you eat a very bad diet, you can not exercise your way to a slim body. If you are already slim, you may be able to maintain it. Exercising without a good diet will not save you from diseases. Look at how many athletes get cancer or die of a heart attack. We must find a combination of exercise and diet if we want to maintain our health.
The plant kingdom evolved with us over millions of years. All the nutrients we need that are missing from our bodies is contained in plants (fruits & vegetables). Modern medicines are based on nutrients found in plants. They are synthesized not actually taken from plants. We need plants to survive in this world.
Now fast forward to current time! The SAD (Standard American Diet) is a sad diet. Most Americans are eating less and less plants and more and more meat, sugars and salt. This type of diet will kill most people eating it. If you really want to protect your family, start improving your diet and start a family exercise program. It can be as simple as walking together.
I write this BLOG on health and how the science of epigenetics affects all of us. I have written a book on epigenetics and how everyday items like diet, positive/negative thinking, beliefs, environment and attitude can affect our health and well-being. It is called Food for Thought – An Epigenetic Guide to Wellness. It appears that we are NOT hard-wired by our DNA but have a “software” like system above the hardware called epigenetics. Epigenetics “expresses” or turns ON our genes. It can also block or turn OFF certain genes. The effect of these changes can be health or sickness.
My background is Physics and Math in college. I then spent most of my career in the computer business. I have a strong scientific and computer background. I was a public speaker for Microsoft as a Regional Director in charge of New York City. This allowed me to speak to as many as 2,000 participants at a conference on the latest and greatest in computing. I see epigenetics more from a computer point of view than do most scientists. This is an advantage given the current understanding of this subject.
I have always had a healthy interest in why things happen and what influences them. Biology of the body and DNA always was an interest to me. I became fascinated by the fact that this DNA somehow made each of us and created our intelligent brains. Scientists began to determine that there just wasn’t enough DNA to do the job. I began to see it like a computer. Computers have a relatively few simple instructions that when arranged in different orders produce all the programs in the world. They range from Windows to word processors to spreadsheets to digital programs to corporate programs and on and on.
What in our bodies was like software sitting on top of the hardware instructions? This fascinated me for years. Then I read an article about epigenetics and it became clear that epigenetics sits on top of DNA like software sits on top of hardware. It was the missing link that allows simple instructions to be arranged in infinite ways to creat complex outcomes. I began to read everything I could on epigenetics and a hundred plus books later and some online doctorial courses later, I have some knowledge of this subject.
We are about to enter a new age of better understanding how our bodies work. We will also gain knowledge on what affects our bodies both in good and bad ways. The field of epigenetics coupled with nutrigenomics has promising potential to link diet to illnesses. It will be a long hard up hill road but the results will be well worth the wait.
I would love your comments, ideas and thoughts on this subject. Biologists and epigenetists please comment on the technology and science of epigenetics. Thanks for reading my BLOG!
Can you imagine if everyone ate less animal protein and more plant-based protein? America’s health would improve drastically. The downside is our economy would suffer. The medical profession (hospitals, medical centers and doctors offices) would shrink drastically, the drug companies would lose a major part of their revenue and lay off most of their staff. TV and radio stations would lose the drug commercials and not be able to survive. Unemployment would skyrocket.
America would however be healthier, live longer more productive lives and be happier. This may seem like a fantasy to most of you but if we continue on the path we are on, the exact opposite will occur. All our commercials will be about drugs to fix something. All promise and no delivery. Evey block will have a McDonald’s and a medical center to handle the sick. Government programs like medicare/Medicaid will fail (when most people are sick everyone would be paying their whole medical bills). Who will help the disabled when everyone is sick? It is not a pretty picture but it is our future reality … if we don’t do something now!
We live in a society where we watch TV and commercials and begin to believe what we hear. It becomes a fact in our minds. Other people talk about it and it supports our beliefs. So much of what we believe is based on marketing not facts. Here are some:
Protein equates to meat! Meat does have protein in it but so does every living organism including all fruits & vegetables. Everything living is made of cells. The cell walls and machinery is made of proteins.
We need to eat a lot of protein to be healthy. This is false. We definitely need protein but a relatively small amount. Extra protein is toxic to our bodies and must be handled by kidneys and liver. This is why excess meat-eating causes cancers to these organs.
Old age equates to illness. This is so false. Some countries (that eat much healthier than we do) live longer and healthier their whole lives. Illness is a failure of our basic systems nothing to do with age. We do slow down as we age and eventually will die but we can live health to the end.
We are living longer these days. This we hear on TV all the time. Drug companies say it is because of modern medicine (drugs). It is not true. Statistics show the top age we obtain has not changed in thousands of years. The average age has gone up. This is because accidents, attacks by predators, etc has significantly decreased. Drugs may keep us alive a little longer but the quality of live is poor.
The medical community and drug companies will help keep me alive longer. FALSE! if this were true why is 45% of Americans dying of disease? If you are concerned about your health … Change your diet, lower your stress, think positive and believe in yourself.
We are very complex creatures. Our systems have a delicate balance that when upset can cause diseases. This system was developed over millions of years as we evolved. What we mostly ate during that time was plant-based foods. These foods were evolving as well. They provided us with the missing nutrients we needed to exist. In our modern society, many people exist without many lang-based foods at all. This is why we are so sick as a society. If it continues no government program will work. It will simply break and millions of people will suffer with their diseases. Our current system works because fewer people are sick than healthy but that is changing rapidly.
English: Healthy Food For Life logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
According to the Yuma Sun, “Thanks to a successful pilot year of the POWer PLAY’te program, children at 19 Yuma elementary schools are increasing their healthy food intake.”
What we feed our kids will make them what they are as adults. We can make them healthy or sick, thin or fat, smart or not so. Food is a powerful fuel. It affects every cell in our body and their are more than 10 trillion of them. Our addictions for fast food, sweets, salt, etc. usually start in childhood. Wouldn’t it be great for them to have an addiction for fruits and vegetables?
English: College student studies while eating Sour Patch Kids sour candies (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dr Greger says we should be banning sweets that make our kids obese. Parents across the country were so outraged they had laws made to allow sweets in schools. Are we really so blind that we are passing laws to enable our kids to get fat and sick? Think about it. Kids do what they see their parents doing. Kids actually ate more fruits and vegetables with a few tricks mentioned on this video. If you have kids or are a teacher, WATCH THIS VIDEO!
The hazard symbol for toxic/highly toxic substances according to directive 67/548/EWG by the European Chemicals Bureau. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Edible non poisonous natural foods are always much better than processed man-made foods. There still are poisonous natural foods out there and some are closer than you think. The seeds in an apple are very toxic and if enough where ingested can be fatal (amygdalin, a cyanogenicglycoside). Tomato leaves and stems are toxic as well (solanine). Potatoes also contain a toxic (glycoalkaloids). There are many others as well. Good edible organic food will help you live a healthy life.
As I always say it is not about dying. We could be in an accident and die even though we are very healthy. But being healthy leads to an independent good life in later years. No one wants to be house bound or not able to control kidney or bowl functions. It makes us feel in human. Health is the answer and its right in front of us … the plant kingdom.
We are becoming an infected species. Drugs are not the answer. They cure NOTHING! They only affect symptoms and make us dependent for life while people get rich on their sales. Genetic modification of crops is NOT the answer. We really don’t understand all the ramifications of modified foods on our epigenetics. This can be very dangerous. What is the answer? Eating crops that are natural, edible by mankind, organic and grown the way they use to be. Nature has been at this a lot longer than man. It knows what is healthy for us and it makes no money off of it!
Eating a plant-based diet and avoiding processed foods helps avoid autoimmune disease. Vegans have known this for a long time. It’s a very powerful combination. Plant-based foods provides our bodies with the nutrients it needs to be healthy just like good gas helps keep our cars running properly. Processed foods use unhealthy techniques to prepare the food and preserve it. These foods can lead to autoimmune disease. Avoiding them and eating more plant-based foods will lower your risk of autoimmune drastically. Help your body keep you healthy! The book, “The China Study” got it right. If you haven’t read this yet, READ IT!
We talk about epigenetics on this site a lot but what is it? It’s a programming language within our cells that control our genes and DNA. It switches genes ON or OFF causing things to happen at the cellular level. Like a computer where the software turns instructions ON that form the various programs ewe run, epigenetics is the software and genes are the hardware.
Epigenetics are a chemical reaction that can enable or activate a gene or block it from being activated. These chemicals are methyl groups which comes from the environment we live in. It can be the food we eat, how we think (positive or negative), what we believe (placebo/nocebo), stress and exercise. Our body uses these chemical reactions to activate and deactivate genes or to send messages from one cell to another to do something.
There are no good/bad associated with these reactions but they can [positively or negatively affect our health and mental outlook. Early man & woman didn’t have the choices we have today. They were nomadic (got exercise), thought positive (were seekers and explorers), had low stress (except when chased by a saber-toothed tiger) and ate nutritious foods. They ate organic (it was all there was). They didn’t eat much meat (they probably got eaten more than they ate other animals). Their bodies evolved around this kind of simple life.
We have changed all this in the last 100 years. We don’t exercise, we are over stressed all the time, we eat junk food, and we all believe we will grow old and sick. And then we are shocked when it actually happens. Take control of your life and be well.
Buy The Book – Food For Thought – An Epigenetic Guide to Wellness, online at Amazon.com.
georgefebish
The Epigenetics Project Blog 