The Unhealthy Vegan
The Unhealthy Vegan
Billie Eilish, Woody Harrelson and Mayim Bialik are dedicated vegans—and look like they’re thriving. But according to a study published in the journal Nutrients[1], (Nutrients | Free Full-Text | The Association between Vegan Dietary Patterns and Physical Activity—A Cross-Sectional Online Survey (mdpi.com)) 53 percent of vegans do not eat a healthy diet and even more not do the minimum physical activity for maximum longevity. Seems they dine on processed fish and meat alternatives, savory vegan snacks, sauces, cakes and other sweets, convenience foods, fruit juices and refined grains. Vegans in the study who ate a healthy diet (47 per cent) enjoyed far more vegetables, fruit, protein alternatives, 100 percent whole grains, and healthy vegetable oils and fats.
Vegans who primarily chose unhealthy foods have a 29 per cent higher risk of overall mortality in any ten year period, up to 51 per cent higher risk of being overweight or obesity, a 29 per cent higher risk of cardiovascular disease and 74 per cent higher risk of type 2 diabetes than vegans who ate that healthy diet and even higher risks compared to those who ate a healthy vegan diet and who did physical activity.
A healthful vegan diet also needs vitamin B12, calcium, iodine and iron, so supplements like we have mentioned many times and below such as half a daily multi morning and night, and phosphocreatine, may be needed.[2] (https://www.news-medical.net/news/20190502/Vegans-are-often-deficient-in-these-four-nutrients.aspx#:~:text=Vegan%20diets%20can%20even%20help,%2C%20calcium%2C%20iodine%20and%20iron)And that diet could contain plants with lots of ALA (an omega-3 fatty acid); it’s in flax, chia , avocados, and walnuts,. That’s because the body can convert albeit poorly ALA to EPA and DHA. Those two are essential to fight inflammation and boost immune and heart health. Salmon, sea trout, sardines and herring deliver them directly—that’s why I’m plant-based, not vegan.
So if you’re vegan, pay attention to your food sources; and …join me in a plant-based, salmon (grilled burger and fillet) lovin’ diet.
How to keep your brain young—there are now 40 choices in the slide that have been shown in at least two studies in humans to help preserve brain functioning…see below…
1-8. Get to “6 Normals +2” ®: BP;ApoB/LDL; FBS/HgBA1C; Waist/Height; Cotenine; Stress
9. Manage Stress—friends & purpose
10-13. Do four components of physical activity
14. Do “speed of processing” games, like Double Decision and Freeze Frame
15,16. Eat salmon or ocean trout or 900mg DHA and ½ Tbspoon of EVOO daily
17,18 Eat only when the sun is up and do 5 days a month of Fasting Mimicking Diet
19. Avoid ssssnake oil foods
20-21. Give sleep respect, take power naps twice a week, and take your vacations
22. Avoid toxins (tobacco, vapes, BPA, texting, wallet-biopsy supplements)
23. Drink coffee if you’re a fast metabolizer—no additives
24. Enjoy nuts
25. Enjoy blueberries
26. Take the Fab 15+--supplements and small molecules including a Multi(homocysteine),
DHA, Vit D3/K2,Phospho-creatine, Bumetamide and 11+ others
27. Stay up to date on Rx’s for aging
28. Do preventive procedures
29. Enjoy an infrared sauna for 20 minutes, four times each week
30-31. Decrease inflammation. Floss and see dental pro
32. Keep immunizations up to date
33-35. Smell the roses (olfactory) and keep hearing (music stimulation) and eyesight
36-40. Enjoy Leafy greens, lycopene, and consider HT with ASA and Bovine Colostrum and multi’s just had their third study showing such (it was a randomized controlled trial-- -- Multivitamin Supplementation Improves Memory in Older Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial). That study, called COSMOS-Web, reveals that overall people who take a multivitamin daily for three years have a brain age that is more than three years younger than those who take a placebo—and if the folks taking the supplement have cardiovascular disease, as around 75% of Americans from 60 to 79 do, it’s even more beneficial. That may be because it reduces vascular inflammation or plaque or slows its accumulation.
I believe that rationally we all should be half a multivitamin-mineral supplement twice a day with a little extra DHA. That offers the most complete protection for deficiencies in your diet and for protection of your brain, immune system, organ systems and skin. (You take half a pill in the morning and half in the evening to maintain steady levels of nutrients.) While this is my belief, the Continuing Medical Education patrollers may not recognize the quality of the studies that show that a multi-multi decreases heart attack and CV event risk by 25% over 20 years, decreases cancer risk by 18% over 20 years, and makes your brain function three years younger after three years of taking it in the recent study. But those are the data and you don’t need a prescription—but do inform your practitioner of your choice. And to further emphasize the benefits of supplements and small molecules help you and yours stay younger another article this week (another epidemiolgic study ) presented in this past months Oncology meetings showed a 33% decrease in early colorectal cancer high grade adenomas and 15% in all adenomas in the NursesHealthStudy II if the nurse regularly and often took aspirin (so another choices is supported in another study- the latest USPSTF guideline gave no credit to cancer prevention to aspirin in their evaluation—and even baby aspirin use has substantial data that it decreases 9 cancers including breast cancer. But more of that when the study gets peer reviewed.
So to add to last week, make sure you get a Multi-Multi daily, do 10K a day in step equivalents (all activity counts from washing dishes and gardening (83 step equivalents a minute for each), to pickleball or ping pong (120 step equivalents a minute for those two), avoid unforced errors and don’t text and drive, or drive after even one drink, do talk to your practitioner about a multi (it has about 200 mg of magnesium or half your daily requirement), 4000 mg of bovine colostrum, a probiotic (or alternate between two as I do, vitamin D, EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), and 7 to 8 hours a night of sleep for your wellbeing. They are what we can all aim for, and reach, no excuses, in ourselves and for our patients. Get a buddy or phone one as your walk and you’ll have the two most important choices for stress management, a posse and a passion, and you are making the four of the five most important choices for brain health:
stress management,
physical activity,
sleep duration and quality,
food choices, portion size and timing;
floss regularly, avoid unforced errors, get sleep, add a few supplements (see some above), and measure outcomes (and get your inflammation numbers measured and normalize them).
Doing the four components of physical activity –starting with walking--is one of the basic six pillars that keep you physiologically younger longer (Goal 1 of the Great Age Reboot book and LongevityPlaybookApp) and help you get to the “6 Normals Plus 2” of the Program. and to avoid unforced errors.
· Stress management, including posse, passion, play, living below your means, and locus of control
· Making Healthy Food Choices, portion sizing and timing
· Doing Four components of Physical Activity—any; resistance; cardio; jumping;
· Avoiding Unforced Errors—here avoid drinking more than 1 drink a night (women) or 2 drinks a night (men); only drink with food and with other individuals; never drive after drinking; avoid smoking and vaping, and wear an N95 mask or mask designed to block exposure to the inhalant if around any of those inhalants at home or work or play, or chose a job without one of those inhalants. Maybe we need to broaden that set to include more unforced error chemicals (like BPA, and other endocrine disruptors) than just cotinine, and some monitor of how much we keep our food healthy
· Getting 6.5 to 8 .5 hours of sleep nightly and making healthy brain choices
· Taking the supplements and small molecules shown to increase healthy longevity (like a multi is-see the Library in the app)
And our job (IMHO) as members of the Great Age Reboot (LongevityPlaybook.com) community is to motivate those choices!!!
Here is the last paragraph from the comment on an earlier newsletter:
“Get to the point where you feel your health is much better than those of your high school classmates by doing physical activity anytime (but afternoon may offer an advantage as does mixed time), adding a walk after dinner and less TV time when not exercising in addition to smelling regularly, and avoiding midlife obesity, midlife hypertension, smoking, low education, diabetes, and hearing loss – add vitamin D, omega-3 (you get both from 4 ounces of salmon a day), half a multivit-multimineral twice a day, and a few resistance exercises a day… add normal LDL , fasting BS, a few more exercises, and you’ll radically reduce your risk for dementia, CV disease, and cancer We’re building a healthy lifestyle program every week in these Newsletters and in the LongevityPlaybookApp. Hope you choose to live younger, longer and enjoy the journey—remember your health is a relationship—only make choices you love and that love your body and brain back.
Thanks for reading. Mike Roizen
[1] https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/985938
and
Nutrients | Free Full-Text | The Association between Vegan Dietary Patterns and Physical Activity—A Cross-Sectional Online Survey (mdpi.com)
[2] https://www.news-medical.net/news/20190502/Vegans-are-often-deficient-in-these-four-nutrients.aspx#:~:text=Vegan%20diets%20can%20even%20help,%2C%20calcium%2C%20iodine%20and%20iron.