We all want to become rich, but my meaning of rich is different here, rich, of course, financially, but rich also in time, energy, peace, power, and joy.
The only way to achieve this means we must be healthy.
One of the most fundamental things in life is our basic day to day lifestyle which has a profound impact on our quality of life, our healthspan, and our lifespan.
Our choices, especially, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and mindset are keys to optimize our health.
These lifestyle choices are entirely in our hands, it’s all up to us what and how to perform.
For example, moderate exercise can halve our risk of dying from heart disease.
Research indicates that careful dietary decisions can reduce our risk of death from any cause by 36% while poor diets can increase our risk of death by 67%.
Another finding from research is that simply walking 20 to 30 minutes everyday can avoid the risk of dying from a heart attack in half because exercise increases the blood flow to our brain, and improves our cognitive function as well.
One of the major lifestyle changes is dietary and nutrition habits.
Dietary decisions are most neglected and difficult to adopt in daily practice but are essential for our disease free life.
Dr. Dean Ornish, author of “UnDo It” and a clinical professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco says, “Think about it: Heart disease and diabetes, which account for more deaths in the U.S. and worldwide than everything else combined, are completely preventable by making comprehensive lifestyle changes. Without drugs or surgery.”
Cancer beating foods
Very few people know the secrets of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and brussels sprouts.
There are many factors but one most important is that they contain sulforaphane, a compound that reduces inflammation and can even slow the growth of tumors in our body.
Sulforaphane is cancer protective because it reuses antioxidants and detoxification enzymes that guard against the disease.
Sulforaphane not only inhibits tumor growth but also regulates hundreds of genes.
The broccoli sprout is a superfood that contains high levels of glucoraphanin, a precursor to the cancer busting phytochemical sulforaphane, one of the most powerful food derived molecules.
In fact, broccoli sprouts are up to fifty times more potent than broccoli alone.
Research on sulforaphane shows that 80% of the phytochemical we take goes into our body’s cells.
Here are some foods that are so good for our body that they influence more than one defense system.
Zucchini flowers contain a natural bioactive called spinasterol that protects DNA against mutations, aids immunity, and kills breast and ovarian cancer cells.
They also contain a good amount of vitamins A , C, E and K and provide important minerals like magnesium, zinc, and calcium.
Another food is persimmon leaves that could effectively inhibit liver tumor growth via enhancement of the immune function, and it displayed the potential to be a safe and effective anticancer and functional immune-enhancing agent.
Persimmons also have carotenoids, flavonoids, and vitamin E, all of which are potent antioxidants and anti inflammation in the body.
Flavonoids extracts from persimmons kill colon and prostate cancer cells.
Wasabi is widely used as a food spice in Asian countries and it has effects on detoxification, anti-inflammation, and the induction of cancer cell apoptosis.
It has anticancer activities and extracts prepared from fresh wasabi rhizomes kill liver cancer cells.
Extracts from fresh wasabi also kill breast and colon cancer cells.
Bitter melon is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae and has promising anticancer effects on breast, ovarian, and cervical cancer cells.
Bioactives from bitter melon kill colon and breast cancer cells, lower cholesterol, and improve blood sugar levels in diabetes.
Bottarga is best eaten as a condiment food and has cancer-fighting properties.
It is rich in anti-angiogenic omega-3 fatty acids, specifically EPA and DHA, which are preserved even after long-term storage.
Extracts from it also kill colon cancer cells.
Squid ink is a type of seafood.
It has anticancer and strong antioxidant properties.
Studies have found that squid ink proteins and polysaccharides may suppress the growth of breast, lung, and prostate cancer cells
It has antioxidants, antiangiogenic, stem cell protecting, and immune enhancing effects.
It protects the gut microbiome against the side effects of cancer chemotherapy.
Beer is no more only a big dose of carbohydrates, it also contains xanthohumol and isoxanthohumol, which have anti cancer effects, are antiangiogenic, and can retard the growth of fat cells.
It also reduces the risk of kidney cancer.
Research indicates that a high-calorie diet with purple potatoes leads to a reduction in levels of interleukin-6, a pro-inflammatory protein linked to promote colon cancer.
Purple potatoes are antiangiogenic and they can kill cancer stem cells.
There was a time when spicy food was considered a health hazard.
But research made us rethink about spicy food.
Eating spicy food periodically is associated with a reduced risk from cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, respiratory disease, and infections.
Chille-fed microbiomes prevent inflammation and obesity.
Dr. William Li, author of “Eat to Beat Disease” says, “Eating to beat disease empowers you to help yourself and the people you care about. You can love your food to love your health.”
His TED Talk “Can we eat to starve cancer?” tells the story of what to eat to kill cancer.
Our food, inflammation and diabetes
More than 34 million Americans have diabetes, about one in ten, and approximately 90-95 percent of them have type 2 diabetes.
When we eat too much refined carbs like pizza, pasta, sodas, white bread, pastries, fruit juice with high fructose corn syrup, processed meat like hot dogs and sausage, french fries and fried food in general, we are adding sugar and it goes straight into our bloodstream and blood sugar spikes.
Our pancreas makes insulin to bring our blood sugar down, which is good.
But insulin also accelerates the conversion of those calories into fat.
It causes chronic inflammation and many of these mechanisms lead to chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart diseases.
Healthy fats actually stabilize our blood sugar.
The fastest way to lower insulin levels is to substitute fat for processed carbohydrates.
Some good fat-containing foods are olive oil, avocados, nuts, fatty fish, and unsweetened yogurt.
There are certain foods that fight for inflammation.
Olive oil, green leafy vegetables, brightly colored vegetables, fatty fish like wild salmon and mackerel, most fruits, nuts and seeds, and green tea are some of them.
Olive oil is high in polyphenols.
Specially nuts like almonds, cashews, chestnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, and walnuts are very healthy.
Walnut reduces the risk of colon cancer.
Dr. David Ludwig, an endocrinologist, researcher, and professor at Harvard Medical School says, “Highly processed carbohydrates are among the lowest quality components of the food supply, accounting for the majority of diet related diseases in the United States today.”
His book “Always Hungry” is a must read for those who want to break apart every myth about weight loss, and explains why we get fat and why we are always hungry.
This book also tells a story about why we become sick and how we can heal.
Dr. Robert H. Lustig, an American pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) says, “Sugar is the elephant in the kitchen.”
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Dr. Peter Diamandis, an American marketer, engineer, physician, and entrepreneur says, “Sugar is a poison.”
Plenity is a diet related pill to aid in weight management in adults who are overweight or obese and have a body mass index (BMI) of 25-40 when combined with diet and exercise.
Gelesis is a biotech company to empower people to improve and change their diet, lifestyle and health.
FDA approved plenity for obese people having BMI 25-40.
The higher the BMI, the greater the risk of developing diabetes.
A simple blood test that measures our average blood sugar level over the past two to three months is HbA1c.
HbA1c is glycated hemoglobin and it is made when the sugar in our body sticks to our red blood cells.
Our body can’t use the sugar properly and it sticks to our blood cells and builds up in our blood. Red blood cells are generally active for around 2-3 months so that the reading is generally taken quarterly.
If you have diabetes, your HbA1c level is 6.5 or above. A cutoff of HbA1c of 6.5 percent is an indication of diabetes.
Conclusion
Please remember this, one of the best investments in life is staying in good health by adopting healthy dietary habits. There is immense value for this investment and the truth is most of us came to know the value late in life once we pass and cannot regain it.
I’m sure in the future, we will have personalized nutrition based on gut microbiome, genetics, metabolic profile, and our environment to prioritize our health on an individual level.
Yam Timsina, PhD, writes primarily on health basics, scientific progress, social upliftment, and value creation.