From Newsgroup: comp.lang.cobol
On 23/12/2016 11:13 a.m., Charles Hottel wrote:
"pete dashwood" <dashwood@enternet.co.nz> wrote in message news:ec17maFba15U1@mid.individual.net...
On 22/12/2016 5:03 p.m., Charles Hottel wrote:
The DNA Restart by Sharon Moalem
Tailor your diet to your DNA. No expensive DNA testing required.
Chewing a
cracker can tell you how many carbohydrate are best for you. Use a
cotton
swab to extract some ear wax and learn how much alcohol is best for you. >>> Which foods are good for your DNA and which are not.. What is the best
oil
to use. What is the best way to prepare your food.
He does not just make general recommendations but gives specifics and
give
his reasons. A bonos is better tasting food.
Hi Charlie,
good to see you're still here... :-)
I saw a possibly similar volume based on eating foods that were based on
your blood type.
A friend of mine reckoned it was right on the money but I never tried it
myself.
I'm a pretty keen cook and I enjoy a wide range of foods, prepared in
different ways. I don't eat rubbish or snack between meals and I keep a
balance between fats, carbohydrates, and protein, with particular care on
fat, sugar, and salt.
My weight is stable (and 9 kilos less than it was 5 years ago...) and I
feel pretty healthy. (I swim a kilometre at least twice a week, and three
times if I can find the time.)
So I don't think tying my diet to what is actually "good" for my DNA is
going to work for me. Not to say it won't work for other people.
I have reached a time in my life when I'd rather enjoy it than worry about >> it... :-)
Pete.
--
I used to write COBOL; now I can do anything...
We are not all as lucky as you. I struggle with my weight and with hunger when I try to cut back,
You are not alone. I have friends who have exactly the same problem. And suggesting easy answers has become a billion dollar industry.
At this time of year we are surrounded by sticky treats and a tendency
to pig out on the foods we love. I'm not suggesting it has to be an
austere Xmas, but I believe we do need to balance what we eat and make
sure we EARN the Xmas pudding by exercise.... :-)
There are so many fad diets and cleansers and de-tox and pills to help
us when, really, it comes down to discipline and common sense.
There is one thing I would recommend (and I do it myself): Eat raw fruit
and blend it with a Ninja or similar so you get the fibre as well as the nutrition. I start the day with a blend of fresh apple, kiwi fruit,
avocado, grapes, frozen berries (strawberry, raspberry, blueberries,
etc.), flax seed, and the juice of a fresh coconut. Not only is it
delicious, but it stops me being hungry until well into the afternoon.
(I generally don't get up before 9:30; I'm not a morning person. I also
like to work at night when it is quiet so I don't usually go to bed
before 2:00 am. My friends know not to call me before 10:00 am because
it will go to voice... The point I'm trying to make here is that
everybody is different and we all need to find what suits us. There is
no right or wrong pattern, but the demands of going to work and making a living force us into routines that we are not really comfortable with.
Sleep is important of course, and I find I operate well on 6 or 7 hours
a night. If I get less - (occasionally I will obsessively code through
the night and suddenly become aware that daylight is trying to get
through the curtains and birds are singing) I have to make up for it by sleeping until I wake up at the weekend... Sometimes it will be 10 hours
or so.
I eat fish at least twice a week (I especially like salmon and know a
number of ways to prepare it that are all delicious...) and red meat
(steaks, chops etc.) needs to have some of the fat trimmed off it. I
have become used to low fat meats like venison (absolutely delicious and versatile), and goat (also delicious and available from Halal
butcheries). It is the barbeque season here and that is one of my
favourite ways to cook... again, the temptation to over-indulge has to
be resisted. Be moderate and diverse.
I like to steam vegetables like caulifower and broccoli and I use
chicken stock with a splash of wine in it and herbs. It infuses a better flavour and they cook faster than boiling... they need to be al dente;
few culinary things worse than vegetables that taste like soggy
cardboard. I NEVER peel potates or pumpkin, etc. (The nutrition is under
the skin and gets discarded if you peel them.)
I don't usually Ninja vegetables but I was interested in your comment
about raw kale (which is often presented as being the super nutritious
answer to all our dietary problems). The apple juice from rotten apples
has no relevance for me because I would NEVER buy processed apple juice
(or any other juice) in the first place UNLESS I was absolutely sure it
was just juice and nothing else. I realize it is easy when you live in paradise (I can pick oranges and mandarins by reaching out of my kitchen window :-)) but even those of us who live in apartments and urban areas
can exercise discretion in what we eat and drink... read the labels at
the supermarket, watch for fat, salt, and sugar. If you can't get
something that hasn't been adulterated, drink water - the non-flavour
grows on you :-)
I have cut down on alcohol but I still have wine with dinner (usually,
not inevitably) and I managed to get coffee consumption down from 14
cups a day to around 4 (that was REALLY hard for me...). If I join the
boys for a beer, it is two beers...very aware about driving, especially
as we get older, when we need to take even more care.
In addition to the above I take Krill, garlic and anti-oxidants daily
and if I feel a cold or flu coming on, large doses of vitamin C and home
made fresh chicken soup... I haven't had a cold (or any other kind of
ailment) for over 10 years, and the last serious illness I had was 58
years ago. (I nearly died and it changed my whole outlook on life...)
So, all of the above is just one man's view and it is a highly
controversial subject. It works for me; YMMV...
It ISN'T easy but a lot of it is about breaking bad habit patterns laid
down over years.
Based on this book I cut out artificial sweetners
and I feel much better, and can eat more normally.
Yes, these are evil and toxic. I used to take sugar in coffee and tea
(given the amount of these I used to drink daily, it is no wonder I
become overweight)... then as enlightenment slowly dawned I realized I
had to do something about the sugar. I decided to move to using honey
(Hey! it's natural isn't it?)... and as I didn't lose any weight, I
suddenly realized that the sugars in honey are pretty much the same as
the sucrose we buy in the shop... Had to bite the bullet and stop
spooning honey (or sugar) into the coffee. Hard for about a week. Then I realized that the coffee actually tasted better, and today, I can't
drink coffee with sugar in it. I was tempted during this time by
artificial sweeteners like Sweet n Low but I didn't like the after taste
so stopped. Later, as the truth about these sweeteners emerged, I was
very glad I did.
Sometimes, changing your mind about something can help you deal with it.
(Who wants the sugar? Who controls what you want?...)
I found lots of
interesting facts in this book. Raw kale can be bad for you. Apple juice
is often made from rotting apples and can be bad for you. Celery has a chemical that can be bad for some people. Parsnips have a chemical that is bad for you, etc.
Human Beings are complex and diverse creatures so I'm sure that's true.
I read somewhere that celery can help with arthritis. (I take Krill for
that and, so far, I have only the occasional twinge; I don't want to
lose my guitar so I play regularly and I think that might help too.)
I used to think organic food was a waste of money, but he
explains that plants grown under conditions of greater stress produce more phytonutrients to protect themselves, and this makes them better for us.
If you needed convincing, you only need to taste fresh fruit and
vegetables out of the garden, as opposed to the supermarket. I had a
friend from Germany staying here and she commented on how different the tomatoes, radishes and even the potatoes tasted, compared to what she
would get back home. (These were bought from a local supermarket here).
Then my neighbour gave us some tomatoes from her garden and it was quite noticeable how much more flavoursome they were. I am a crap gardener so
I gave up on it; but this year there will be black grapes all along the
fence with my neighbour (deliberately planted so we can share them) and
this is the first (possibly, only) time that something I actually
planted myself has grown. Fortunately, my fruit trees produce abundantly
and all they ever get from me is an encouraging word and thanks... :-)
The amount of phytonutrients in food can vary greatly, so it is best to eat
a wide variety and not just a lot of the same thing.
Absolutely!
I believe this book explains why different people react differently to different foods, and why so many experiments regarding food often result in contradictory results. I also found the many genes and chemical pathways that are discussed to be very interesting. The author has a couple of other books that look interesting to me.
Having found something that is working for you, Charlie, I'd say: "Stick
to it..."
Good Luck!
Pete.
--
I used to write COBOL; now I can do anything...
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