The great value of a zero diet

Gentlefolk,

I have been writing on a lot of topics lately so please excuse another one which is a minor obsession with me.

I call it the zero diet and have posted a few times before in one form or another with zero or close to zero comments so I'll put it another way.

There are many diets, Paleo, Mediterranean, Okinawan are just three of the huge variety. The problem as I see it is that nearly all people only follow these diets in a very partial way.

I see people who say they follow this diet or that diet, exercise et cetera but are obviously overweight and don't look too healthy.

The problem is they additionally eat too much unhealthy food of one kind or another, drink too much alcohol and so on plus exercise too little or in inappropriate ways.

The zero diet in one sense is very simple. Eat only a very wide mix of foods and drinks that are consistently recognised as being top-class healthy and little alcohol[I have none].

No cheat days.

It certainly requires some discipline and maybe socially restrictive to an extent but I still have friends in a lot of different age groups who appear to like to see me and accept what they see as my weird habits.

When I look at something that could be eaten I ask myself is it top-class healthy? If no forget it. The closest I get to something dubious is occasional 90% dark chocolate.

I remember a lady telling me she would rather die than eat than live like that .I restrained myself from telling her she would somewhat earlier than otherwise .

America and Australia are said to have around 65% or so overweight or obese. In Oman it is over 70% and when we walked around it looked like an under estimate.

The main trick to following exercise is to train around or with people whose company or presence you enjoy or at least find pleasant. People with training loneliness tend to give up as companionship helps motivation.

I have made the following suggestion to a number of people. Divide 2 sheets of A4 paper each into three horizontally and seven vertically and write down everything which means everything you eat and drink with approximate weights.

The few that went along with that suggestion told me later they were horrified and didn't believe they ate so badly.

The members of this forum have additional health issues so care is specially necessary.

I am sure most forum members exercise some care but I'm also sure for many or most it is only partial.

Why not try the zero way?

Good luck for a healthier you

Alex

Interesting topic, Alex. You and I are about the same age so we’ve had the benefit of many years of observations and the witnessing of trials of various eating plan results from all sorts of dietary plans de jour and there have certainly been many over many decades and population generations. In addition to what you mention, my thoughts go to the legal term, res ipsa loquitor… ‘the thing speaks for itself.’

Obviously, physical appearance indicates an overabundance of caloric intake probably coupled with a lack of regular, calorie-burning exercise; typically the law of “calories in” versus “energy output or expenditure. ” However, sometimes a metabolic dysfunction runs interference such as a thyroid and/or adrenal issues or more often, the intake of the high-starch quality of modernized wheat and other grains that cause bio-incompatibilities (as discussed in the recent post “Dietary Enlightenment – Part 1” [www.afibbers.org]

The other obvious focus for the individual in question is: What’s on their list of health complaints and the number of prescriptions or OTC preparations such as NSAIDs a person requires to be functional? That’s very telling. If a dietary plan causes inflammation, then it’s obviously not compatible for that individual. Similarly, if it causes arthritic-type pain as is often the case with high-grain intake, especially modern wheat and grains and often, also dairy, there are other systemic compatibility issues manifesting via symptoms propelled by diet.

Peter D’Adiamo, MD, wrote Eat Right for Your Blood Type in 1996 and generated a lot of interest and skepticism plus outright criticism although followers wrote rave reviews about their results. No formal studies were conducted yet anecdotal testimony is abundant. I, personally, know many people who absolutely swear by the results in that they found reversals of existing conditions and were able to sustain the positive results by sticking to those guidelines. When you think about it, the biochemistry makes sense. I think that there is no one diet that fits all but rather, it has to be customized according to the individual; often, starting with the blood type as a guide and evolving into other refinements for that particular individual’s biochemical/biophysical heritage. Over time, his clinical findings and experiences have been used in various ways to solve health issues rather than just mask symptoms with drugs.

As a point of observational interest, in my role as clinical dental hygienist, I was responsible for updating every patient’s health history as part of the routine appointment. This recorded health changes and medications. Over a span of 21 years in the same practice with a high majority as long-time established patients spanning that time frame as well, I witnessed patients gaining more weight, becoming ill, worsening of existing conditions and adding more to their list of Rx and OTC drugs. This coincided with the lessening of eating mostly quality fresh foods and more of the readily-available convenience foods as was the prevalent trend in the late 1960’s right into the present time. Initially, it was rare to see an obese child 3 – 4 years old and then, it became more the norm than not. Allergies grew from almost non-existent to commonplace…and that continues today.

A most obvious example of case in point and proven time and again is when healthy and fit people from other parts of the world come to the US and with time, after acclimating to the SAD… Standard American Diet…and our nation of commercialized convenience foods and fast foods, become overweight and ill --compared to family who remained in the homeland culture. A post by Erling several years ago offered that: AF is a disease of civilization. Get uncivilized!! October 02, 2011 [www.afibbers.org] and certainly, the observations we can make here in the US along with yours as well, serve to emphasize the validity of that statement…. in many ways and not just the obesity factor; ie, civilization plus harkening back to heritage factors which would be genetic expression and again, the potential for the influence of blood type, at the very least.

Fortunately, now we have easy access to relatively inexpensive genetic testing such as 23andme to alert us to heritage defects such as MTHFR methylation defect or the APOE genotyping so we can take steps to halt genetic expressions before they begin. (www.23andme.com) Ancestry DNA testing. If done early enough, one can reverse the trend and as the saying goes: “No longer be held hostage to our genes meaning that genes and DNA do not control our biology” (Professor of Medicine, Cell Biologist, Epigeneticist Bruce H. Lipton PhD, The Biology of Belief - 2007)

I certainly agree with you that being highly selective about what one puts into their body and asking the question...is it healthy? is an easy way to eliminate the eventual health problems that result as a consequence of long-standing poor choices. What is puzzling to me is the mindset of many otherwise intelligent people who refuse to acknowledge that they are making poor choices because they are hooked on taste or habit etc.

Thanks for posting. I hope afibbers on the other side of the forum manage to do some reading on the General Health side of the forum and read your observations.

Be well,
Jackie

A few weeks ago I would have agreed, and I still think this is sound advice and a huge step forward for most of the population! However, in doing research on a family member and reading the book, "What Makes Us Fat", I'm becoming convinced that there is something beyond "calories in, calories out" at work. The idea that we (in the US) are getting fat due to the high glycemic index of the foods we are eating seems well supported by the biochemistry that high blood sugar begets high insulin begets fat storage - and this also seems to be supported by a tremendous amount of research from the late 1800's on. And it appears that we crave simple carbohydrates because we are wired to put on weight as a survival mechanism - and if they're available all the time, well, guess what happens?

But I also think (as Jackie says) there are variations on this theme. My son can eat simple carbohydrates day and night and not create an ounce of fat. My daughter on the other hand, cannot. She's built like me, and when I removed wheat (and all grains) from my diet for a period of time several years ago, 10 pounds dropped off me in a few weeks, and I'm not heavy by any stretch. She has a sweet tooth, and actually feels at this point that she may have a sugar addiction. My son could care less about sweets. So as in all things, your mileage may vary - I would guess that genetics and other issues influence the mechanisms.

All of this has led me to take the Paleo idea more seriously. Initially I dismissed it because there seemed to be a bunch of grey areas and I thought, "how can this be effective if no one can agree on what it is?", but now I see it as a framework for the high fat/low carb approach, and in that perspective it makes more sense to me. We've been around for 2.5 million years eating animals, plants, fruits and nuts in varying degrees depending on what was available where you were. Farming came in about 12,000 years ago, so about 0.5% of the time we've existed. You could argue that "junk food" started after the war in 1945, so maybe 70 years? So over a very brief amount of time in our evolution we've made a pretty significant change to our environment by creating the simple carbs that we crave and making them very available, allowing us to satisfy our survival mechanism and prepare for the "winter"....that doesn't come anymore.....ooops!

So that's my current explanation, subject to the next book/article/blog I read! Who knows? But fascinating.