There is good news! What I have experienced in my own life is now documented by scientific studies. Woohoo! This article was sent to me from Eating Lab published in the Washington Post October 18, 2022. (Excerpt from https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/10/18/healthy-eating-aging/ )
I quote:
“No matter how old you are, or how much junk food you consume, it’s never too late to start undoing the damage caused by a poor diet.
That’s the message from scientists who study how our food choices affect our life spans and our risk of developing diseases. They have found that people can gain sizable health benefits at any age by cutting back on highly processed foods loaded with salt, sugar and other additives and replacing them with more nutritious foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, lentils, seafood and whole grains.
The earlier you start, the better. Following a healthy diet from a young age leads to the greatest gains in life expectancy. But even people who wait until middle age or later to improve their eating habits still can add years to their lives.”
Like many others, I messed up a lot on the Standard American Diet (yes, the SAD diet) all through childhood, teenage years up until my fifties when I got the Very High Triglycerides diagnosis. My saving grace was that I lived overseas for two decades and ate mostly fresh foods which is really the well-known secret of achieving longevity. The drawback was that I was a coca-cola and fanta fanatic for ten years in India.
It’s not safe to drink the local water and we either had to boil the water at home or drink tea and soda while out of the house. By the way, in plus 100 degree heat, it is very hard to keep water boiled using kerosene pump stoves. So the sugar addiction was the price paid for doing my best to avoid microbial problems.
Post VHT diagnosis, I worked very hard to right the wrongs of my nutritional life. I learned about intermittent fasting. I learned about autophagy. Periodically, I will undergo a 3 day water fast for cleansing and resting my hard working organs.
The body wants to heal.
I’ve needed some healing these past two months. I got Covid in September followed by a bad cold in October. I hadn’t had much illness in the past 15 years. As a health coach, I wanted to be a walking poster for practicing wellness and I was, until I wasn’t!
For example, even after thirty years of smoking, if you quit, you can add 10 years to your life expectancy. If you over consumed sugar for decades, by eating clean you reduce your mortality risk by years. Once the metabolism switches over and you get homeostasis on your side, it’s smooth sledding because the body has thousands of built- in programs to engage in healing.
I quote again:
“The reductions in mortality among people who improved their eating habits largely stemmed from a decreased incidence of cardiovascular disease, which is strongly influenced by diet. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.”
This is why our Optimal Health Bridge Supplement company exists. The goal here is to prevent one million heart attacks!
Healthy food will boost your vitality at any age! Super healthy foods will dramatically improve the odds!
You have heard of some super foods like Omega-3! These are what we call healthy fats. We find them in most seafood, in avocados, in walnuts, etc. Just think if you had a handful of walnuts a day, you would be changing your health outcomes dramatically. I have been on a daily regimen of Omega-3 for 17 years!
Harold, one of our long time customers called in to reorder his True Omega-3s. He said, “I turned 88 last month so I know these Omega-3s are working. Three more bottles please.”
Awful or Average or Amazing!
It appears to me to be three stages of life.
No two lives are alike. Some people have amazing adventures, others have terrible experiences, and most people fall somewhere in between. Common to all of us is we get to experience life as it is.
Life is what you make of it. If you’re the type of person who looks for the positive in every situation, then you’re likely to have an amazing life. Usually, these folks have a base point of gratitude. On the other hand, if you focus on the negative, life can be pretty awful. There are many things to complain about. The key is to find a balance. Appreciate the good moments and learn from the bad ones. Don’t take anything for granted. Life is an incredible journey, and it’s up to you to make it as amazing as possible.
Permission to use a metaphor
Life is like a long walk. Life can be amazing. Life can be awful. And life can be a bit boring or average. Let’s look at it this way. I’ve done a fair bit of hiking. I love to walk. I average between three and four miles daily with some days getting in seven miles and some days less than two. When I get the chance to hike, even better.
There isn’t much that rivals being embedded in nature whether hiking in the canyons of Arizona or taking a trail up a mountain in upstate New York. In all 50 states you can find hiking trails within county, state and national parks. Even a small city park will have some places to walk to enjoy fresh air, sunlight and air purified by the trees and plants.
Life can be amazing. When we are on the ascent up a mountain trail it’s easy to get the feeling of achievement with a big open sky above us. The scent of trees and the fragrance of the forest dispenses energy that empowers us to reach new heights.
In West Virginia, as a kid, I’d climb up the foothills with my great grandfather to the top pastures. I was amazed at how my 80 year old great grand dad could climb the trails without stopping to rest. Something my dad and I could not do. I was seven years old, my dad a smoker. So we stopped to rest and catch our breath. Grandpa? “I’ll see you at the top.”
Now the top pastures are flat, not much of a challenge or problem. Not many struggles on level ground. If you have traveled through the midwest, the plains states can get a little boring and so it is with many times in life we may think life is boring when things are not really bad or good, just average. It’s easy to take the easy path for granted and not notice the miracles around us.
If you ever had the chance to traipse through jungle geography, you’ll find life can be very, very hard. You may need a machete to clear a path. You may encounter fallen trees and dangerous insects and reptiles. After all, you are invading their territory. There is less light in the jungle valley and life can be tough and at times, awful.
When you are young and fit and feeling energetic, this is life in all its glory in its ascension. In our middle years we may take good health for granted and not pay attention to how we live, how we eat or drink or what we do with our bodies. Life may seem boring. I promise you, it is not!
Then alas, we will at times find ourselves “in the valley of the shadow of death.” Take my recent nine days of Covid. It doesn’t look good, nor does it feel good. But if we prepared our immune system with the proper mind state, have been following a regimen of joyful movement (yes I mean exercise), have been nourishing our bodies with good nutrients and good relationships, have been attending to proper sleep habits, then it’s only a matter of time before we’ve traversed our way through the darkness of the jungle and the tough times and are on the ascent again.
So, I ask you, is life Awful, Average or Amazing? The correct answer is… “all of the above.”
Why Do Viruses Exist?
My attitude towards viruses is changing. We know light because of darkness. We appreciate good health after a bout with an illness. I recently have learned there is a reason that viruses are part of our planet’s environment. Viruses are packets of information.
Nothing more, nothing less. If we are in a compromised state of health, the new information can cause severe reactions. It could overwhelm a weakened immune system. If we are enjoying good health, the virus dispenses the information and our adaptive immune system gets the upgrade with a mild or even undetectable reaction.
“If all viruses suddenly disappeared, the world would be a wonderful place for about a day and a half, and then we’d all die – that’s the bottom line,” says Tony Goldberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “All the essential things they do in the world far outweigh the bad things.” https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200617-what-if-all-viruses-disappeared
Do what you need to do to feel the energy of life, feel the joy of life.
Be well in all you do,
Garey Simmons
PS If you want to study a new superfood, start searching for himalayan tartary buckwheat. I am experimenting with this potent, full of phytonutrients, product. Making pancakes!
