Tag: Frank Lipman MD

The Myth of Buying Organic Food

Christina BruniLeave a comment

In the Frank Lipman, M.D. book How to Be Well he exposes the following as unhealthful fats to avoid consuming:

corn oil

canola oil

soybean oil

vegetable oil

sunflower oil

safflower oil

and of course palm oil that is not ethically sourced.

The dilemma is that these fats are cheap. They are used in organic food “products” that come in boxes or bags.

This is not real food in its natural state.

Skinny Pop popcorn uses sunflower oil.

The other dilemma is that most organic products use “natural flavor” which is a chemical additive.

I steer clear of consuming any food or drink with natural flavor.

Ginger ale has natural flavor. These chemical additives are everywhere.

Food manufacturers use these fats and chemicals because they’re cheap ingredients. The cheaper the product is to produce the cheaper it can be sold. Which is not how to choose what you eat and drink: by whether it costs only $2 dollars as opposed to $8 dollars.

Those of us who live in poverty should not be forced to subsist on unhealthy food either.

Greenmarket season is in full swing in New York City. People who use SNAP can use their “food stamps” to buy produce at Grow NYC markets. They can get health bucks to use to purchase more food.

You can even use EBT benefits to buy food online at markets to deliver to your home in New York City.

I urge readers not to buy food “products” as a rule.

You’ll pay for it down the road in higher medical costs.

Coming up I will see about posting new recipes I’ve created.

In the next blog entry I will talk about setting long-term goals.

As I near retirement I’ve been thinking long and hard about my life and how I want to live in my Golden Years.

These years should be golden not tarnished with ill health.

Eat Move Sleep

Christina BruniLeave a comment

The Tom Rath book Eat Move Sleep has to be the best health book I’ve ever read.

The other 2 books I recommend are How to Be Well and The New Rules of Aging Well by Frank Lipman, M.D.

In Eat Move Sleep Rath asserts that sitting in a chair without getting up to move frequently is thought to be as unhealthy as smoking.

Not only is “sitting the new smoking” the reality is that loneliness is as harmful as smoking too.

Not getting enough sleep is often the root of modern-day ailments as well.

I would say if you read only one health book make it Eat Move Sleep. It’s a short book that can be read in two or three days depending on how long you read it for each day.

According to Rath most common diseases can be prevented with lifestyle changes like the ones recommended in the book.

No one should be popping Xanax as a rule or taking Ambien to fall asleep.

That said fitness should not be a “blame game” played against people who don’t exercise and eat right.

If you ask me what happens to a lot of people is “the luck of the draw.”

We cannot hold others responsible for their ill health. Not when they have a genetic mutation for cancer. Or develop leukemia when they’re 65 like a friend of mine.

Yes I firmly believe that lifestyle choices are under our control. Only so much of what happens is not within our reach to prevent.

Lastly I will say that it’s my contention that a person should take The Long View.

Not exercising for a week or two doesn’t matter. Getting back into exercising is what counts.

Hitting a plateau or having a fallow period in your life with your goals or with any kind of mental physical or emotional setback is to be expected.

I will remind readers that I might have talked in this blog about my “little bites” philosophy of not biting off more than you can chew. Of being consistent.

The beauty of following the Eat Move Sleep plan is that small changes can make a big difference.

Expecting or wanting quick-and-easy dramatic results is foolish and dangerous.

We all of us have our whole lives to live.

Giving up hope is a mistake. Having a concrete plan with clear specific SMART goals is the solution.

Come to think of it as I’m typing this I think it’s time to devote a blog entry to setting long-term goals.

So this will be coming up after I talk about The Myth of Buying Organic Food.

Organic Food Benefits

Christina BruniLeave a comment

How to Be Well has opened my eyes to how it’s non-negotiable to eat mostly organic food.

Not only is eating meat not-so-great for our waistlines it’s obviously not good at all for the earth. CAFOs–that is slaughterhouses–wreck the environment.

I haven’t eaten meat in over a decade. Today I’m not keen to eat chicken and turkey either unless I buy or order the organic version.

According to Frank Lipman, MD the author of How to Be Well chicken is given a chemical bath.

Chemical bath? Those words alone alarm me.

I say: opt for buying and eating organic chicken and turkey. Just Say No to Beef of any kind.

In the coming blog entries I want to thrown down another Fitness Challenge. I’ll record my own progress to motivate readers to embark on your own goal-setting routine.

Meet me in the next blog entry as I start out with Step 1: Psych.

The Truth About GMOs

Christina BruniLeave a comment

Roundup–the Monsanto pesticide–was proven to cause cancer in a legal trial.

Farming communities have high rates of cancer. Pesticides cause all sorts of health issues.

Eating produce that’s locally grown is better if you’re able to do this.

The cost of shopping at a Greenmarket offsets the catastrophic cost of becoming ill from disease. You either pay more for healthful food or you pay more for medical costs.

After skimming pages in How to Be Well I’m committed to changing my behavior in terms of consuming food.

My goal is to persuade blog readers to buy mostly organic food.

As I see it, to eat healthfully 80 percent of the time is a great goal. I’ve talked about this 80 percent rule before in the blog.

Monsanto and the other biotech firms will stop at nothing to keep advertising GMO crops as safe and nutritious. Only GMO food isn’t better for you than organic food.

Luckily, I can buy organic food and shop at Greenmarkets where I live in New York City.

In the coming blog entry I’ll talk more about the benefits of eating mostly organic food.