It is #10 in the Top 12 Worst Things We Are Doing to Our Health

Moderation in all things is not particularly helpful when you want to stay fit, active and healthy.

Not that we should never eat anything unhealthy, skip a workout, spend a day lounging around on a beach, or on the couch, but that it should be a treat.

Moderation is not a treat, it implies a state of being.

Instead of moderation we should aim for doing more healthy things and doing less of the unhealthy things. Moderation is somewhere in between. Although subtle, it might make all the difference to our desired outcome.

When I think about moderation and the key training principles; Specificity, Overload, Progression, Reversibility and Recovery. It doesn’t fit.

For example, if we look at these principles when training for a marathon you can see how they work. Even if you haven’t trained for a marathon I am sure that you can imagine it is a goal that requires some thought and planning. It is not unlike the goal of staying fit as you age, losing weight, or even being healthy. While these goals may not have the deadline that signing up for a marathon brings, the training principles do not change.

Specificity: to improve at a skill you must do that skill, or train for that event. You can be very fit, but if you haven’t trained for that marathon it is not going to go well.

Overload: to get better, fitter or faster requires more physical stress than what you are currently used to for adaptations to occur. In the marathon example, you must gradually increase the stress on your muscles, tendons, bones, heart and lungs to adapt to the stress of running longer distances.

Progression: is the gradual and systematic increase in the training stress over time that results in fitness improvements. If you try to increase your running distances too quickly you will likely get injured and not progress.

Reversibility: Use it or lose it. A consequence of poorly executed progression, injuries or extended time away from exercise. It is critical to reduce the intensity and duration of your runs after a marathon, but take too much time off and you will lose all the benefits.

Recovery: to see the benefits of training and overloading the system, rest is required for adaptation to take place. If you were training for a marathon you would taper, or reduce your training load after hard training sessions, after hard periods of training and after the marathon to allow for recovery to occur.

These training principles are the same regardless of your fitness goal. If you want to stay fit, remain active, and be strong, then these are the basic foundations to build upon. Doing more of the healthy things and less of the unhealthy things may not seem like a big difference, but I think it makes a difference in the long run.

One of my problems with moderation is that we can push the deadline for healthy changes with moderation, we can trick ourselves into thinking we have more time, or we are doing a little, and that is better than nothing, when maybe we are simply maintaining the status quo.

Moderation doesn’t work when it comes to weight loss either as I have written about in Everything in Moderation and Moderation Never Works

Now it is your turn, what do you think about moderation in all things health and fitness?

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

You can’t hack it.

You have to earn it.

Google “hack your fitness” or “get fit fast” or any variation on that theme, and you will get millions of results.

In the latest instalment of The Top 12 Worst Thing we do to our Health hacking your fitness is a popular one.

With fitness, like many other things, you get what you put into it, but the culture of short cuts can lead to being trapped in short term thinking.

While one quick workout does result in health benefits, real fitness gains take longer than you think.

Much longer.

No, you won’t get 6 pack abs in 6 weeks, or run a 10 KM in a month unless you are already very fit.

I would love it if we had a realistic discussion about the time it takes to see a difference, but that wouldn’t sell many magazines or be an entertaining television show.

I believe that when people fail to reach their “short term” fitness goals they think they are doing the wrong exercise. Maybe, but it is possible that they have an inaccurate idea of the results they should be seeing.

You can’t hack your fitness, and if you are doing it right, you don’t want to either.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

I went to a Health & Fitness Conference recently. This year one of the conference panel discussions was “What are the worst things that we are doing to our health?”

There were 4 educated people on the panel, with a mix of backgrounds, ages and interests so the answers were unique to their perspective. Everyone was given the chance to ask questions and discuss their ideas after they presented their ideas.

Some of the answers were practical and some philosophical, but I thought they would make an interesting discussion, so for the next 12 weeks I am going to present one of the ideas and I would love to know what do you think.

Do you agree or disagree?

The first, sedentary behaviour.

We spend too much time sitting. Study after study has shown that sitting is killing us.

Even recreational runners sit too much!

A study published in 2014 in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health asked 218 marathon and half marathon runners about how they spent their time and even these people who were training sat more than 10 hours a day.

I know that many people and most organizations think we shouldn’t make exercise recommendations to hard. That we should be encouraging people to do something, anything. That telling people to do more exercise will be too intimidating. Encourage people to be active by giving them modest guidelines.

You may agree with those thoughts. I do not. Let me explain why.

First, any time you are active, instead of being inactive, it is good. Second, anytime you take the stairs, or leave the car at home, is a positive step for your personal health. Third, doing 30 minutes of exercise is better than not exercising. If you have not been active, trying to do it all at once never turns out well. However, this is not the point.

The point is, that like nutrition recommendations that may promote “moderation” not giving people the facts does everyone a disservice. Current recommendations for exercise are 150 minutes a week, about 21. 5 minutes a day.

This is a direct quote from the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology,

To achieve health benefits, adults aged 18–64 should accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, in bouts of 10 minutes or more.

But, does this really result in health benefits?

If we look at walking, the easiest form of activity for most people, doing 150 minutes a week reduces your risk of all cause mortality from being inactive by about 7% when compared to being sedentary.

This may, or may not, seem worth it to you.

What if I told you that it is possible to reduce your risk by 24%?

All you had to do was walk one hour a day.

One hour is 4% of your day.

I don’t know about you but 24% seems significant to me. 7% is fine, but not really motivating. I think the guidelines for exercise are like nutrition recommendations encouraging people to cut down on sugar. Well-meaning but not particularly useful.

Why are we trying to protect people from the facts?

I encourage everyone to get some exercise, more if possible. I am not judging your total exercise time, but neither do I find it necessary to protect you from the facts. I believe that you should know what works and make your own choices about how much, or what type, of exercise you choose to do. I do not believe that it is in anyone’s best interest to recommend what I think you might do, as opposed to what actually makes a difference. Then you can make an informed choice.

The difference is significant.

If you choose not to do it, it is not because you aren’t given the facts. We know that exercise is good, some is better than none, more is better. You might make choices based on what is important to you right now, but I don’t want you to make choices based on incomplete information.

Think about your reaction if your accountant worked this way…

Research has consistently found that the more exercise you do the better it is for you.

A new study published last week from the Cleveland Clinic with over 122,000 adults highlighted the importance of more physical activity for better health results. They found a very clear and distinct connection between a long and healthier life and high levels of exercise.

Dr Wael Jaber, co-author of the study says,

“Being unfit on a treadmill or in an exercise stress test has a worse prognosis, as far as death, than being hypertensive, being diabetic or being a current smoker. We’ve never seen something as pronounced as this and as objective as this.”

Being sedentary is the equivalent to having a major disease .

The Cleveland Clinic study concluded with the following statement,

Cardiorespiratory fitness is a modifiable indicator of long-term mortality, and health care professionals should encourage patients to achieve and maintain high levels of fitness.

I have worked with many types of people, with all types of medical conditions and I can tell you that 20 minutes a day is not going to result in a high level of fitness.

So, yes I agree that one of the worse things we are doing for our health is being too sedentary. It also frustrates me that exercise organizations and guidelines do not give people the true facts, but a guideline based on what they think people might do. I don’t believe this is helpful.

I have more faith in people’s ability to make choices.

If you want to sit less and move more, you can start by adding 10 minutes of walking to your day. If you don’t walk now that would mean 10 minutes extra. If you walk for 30 minutes, next time go for 40 minutes. Small changes add up, you can do something significant for your health and it will make a difference.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

Maybe you have heard, or even said, this before?

“I guess this is normal at my age.”

If you, like many people, have left their own health and fitness off the to-do list. If you kept putting off going to the gym, eating better, getting enough sleep because it seemed like other people’s priorities are more important than your own. Then you know this starts to add up.

You might even be starting to think that it is simply ageing that is causing you to feel this way. Not lack of self-care, but simply a unavoidable side effect of age.

You may have been fit in your younger days, then kids, career and the demands of your day, have taken over and left you too tired to look after yourself.

Now, you think it’s too late.

I’m too old. It won’t make a difference. I don’t have time. It will be too hard. I don’t know how.

It’s not too late.

You are not too old.

You can make a difference.

You do have time.

It doesn’t have to be hard.

I know how. I also know you can do it. I know, because I have helped so many people do it too. It is easier than you think.

It doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but it does require a commitment to put yourself back on the to-do list.

Taking care of yourself means you have more to give when it comes to everything else. It means you have more energy, more resources, more capacity.

My professional advice is to start small. Don’t try to do everything at once. Pick one area that is important to you. Maybe you want to get to more sleep, start exercising regularly, eat better. It doesn’t matter where you start. What matters is that you do start and you start with one thing.

The benefits are life changing.

You can prevent the decline associated with age. You can prevent lifestyle diseases. You can be fit and full of energy. You can feel good.

All you need to do is start, but start small.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

Meditation

It has been proven over and over again how good meditation is for you. It has also been said that you can meditate in many unconventional ways, like while doing the dishes, walking or running. I believe that is true.

However, there is a catch, isn’t there always?

It has to be focused activity. Doing something like checking your phone, listening to music or talking to someone else doesn’t qualify as focused activity and meditation.

Mindful movement

Focusing on the act of exercise or movement, being aware of your surroundings, the smells, noises, your environment is a way of meditating. It can be difficult if you are used to being distracted, but it has also been one of the best ways to make connections. To yourself, to the world around you and in your brain. Connections that happen when you stop trying to figure out a problem and just let go of trying to make it happen.

Running as meditation

When I began running, and I didn’t start until I was in University, it was because it was an inexpensive and relatively easy, no equipment required, do it anywhere, kind of exercise.

It was not because I liked it. I did not.

I liked what it did for me and how I felt after a run. I did not actually enjoy the running part.

When someone asks me about starting a running program I often suggest they focus on the distractions. To run with a friend (could be the four-legged variety) or, if I am with them, I point out the beautiful surroundings or something that is not about running.

Beginners should focus on the distractions.

This lessens the discomfort.

The more you run, then the focus should be on the act of running. Your breathing, how your body feels, good or bad and relax into the activity.

The meditation of running

I remember the exact moment when I realized I actually liked running. I was on a trail in Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C. I was running toward Lumberman’s Arch, it was early, cloudy and cool. It was a regular day in Vancouver.

Suddenly I was aware that I liked what I was doing at that moment.

I was running and it was perfect.

There was no effort in continuing to run, it simply was what I was doing. I had an unexpected thought, “hey, I like this.”

Sometimes running is hard, sometimes effortless. Like meditation, you can easily get into it and other times, just get it done. It can offer a time for relaxation, contemplation, and freedom.

It can benefit our mental health, it can help us solve problems in creative ways and it can get us away from the constant barrage of everything.

Running is more than meditation

It strengthens our bones, our heart, and lungs, our muscles.

It strengthens our minds.

There are so many great reasons to use running as meditation. I would like to hear about your experience. Do you run? Do you meditate? Are they separate events? How do you feel about running? Let me know I am going on a big run soon and I will have plenty of time to meditate on your answers.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

I have helped hundreds of people lose weight, from 10 to over 100 lbs, and most importantly, keep it off. What the successful losers have confirmed for me is that weight loss isn’t the goal.

You might disagree, but let me explain.

After years of helping people change their habits and their health, there is one secret of the successful losers. By successful, I mean the people who don’t regain their weight.

First, let’s look at diets. Any diet will work. This has been reinforced in a number of recent studies including,

The DIETFITS study that resulted in no significant difference between the low fat to low carbohydrates when it comes to weight loss.

5:2 Fasting reduces body weight by 5% after two months.

A Canadian study (sponsored by Barilla) shows that eating pasta can be part of a weight loss plan.

These studies prove only one thing. Eat less and you will lose weight. All diets work. In the short term. Let me repeat that.

If weight loss is your only goal. Any diet will work. It doesn’t matter what you eat only that you eat less.

There is one problem with this strategy.

Weight Loss isn’t the Goal.

Second, this is what I experience regularly. Someone contacts me about losing weight. They have an event to prepare for and they want to lose weight. It could be a wedding, reunion, party, race, holiday, it doesn’t matter. Sporting or family event. There is an upcoming date and this is the reason they have decided to lose weight.

I also want to be clear that it doesn’t matter to me why you want to lose weight, your motivation is personal and whatever works for you is the best reason, but I also think that weight loss shouldn’t be the goal.

Weight loss isn’t the right goal if you want to keep the weight off.

Third, I can help you lose weight. That is the easy part. Eating a whole food, plant-based diet is one of the easiest ways to lose weight. Vegetables are full of fibre and water, this is filling and makes eating fewer calories while still eating sufficient volume to feel satisfied easier than many diets.

The good news is that eating a whole foods, plant-based diet is also the healthiest way to eat. Not only do you look better, you feel better, your health improves, your performance improves. Another thing I experience regularly are comments like this,

“All that was required of me was a commitment. I have lost over 45 lbs and on target for another few pounds. I look better and feel great with the only downside being I have to re-outfit my wardrobe.”

“I have successfully maintained a 60lb weight loss for 6 years plus now, due to following those initial guidelines for menus and fitness. Thanks!”

“I had no idea how much of a positive impact this coaching would have on my life. Not just fitness or diet, but the bigger lifestyle picture too. Thank you Shayla!”

These sound like successful weight loss stories. They are, but there is one key difference between these people and the ones that struggle with their weight.

Weight loss wasn’t the primary goal.

Weight loss was an outcome. Weight loss was what happened while they were making changes to achieve their goals. Their goals included,

I want to be healthy for my retirement and my grandchildren.

I want to prevent lifestyle disease and improve my health.

I want to be fit, strong and able as I age.

Even Weight Watchers, the most successful weight loss company, is getting out of the weight loss business and getting into the lifestyle business. While this is mostly a re-branding exercise, they too understand that weight loss as a goal is not a sustainable business when compared to being in the business of helping people adopt healthy habits.

What I have learned about permanent, sustainable, healthy weight loss is that it is an outcome of changing your habits. I also know that everyone can change, everyone has the ability to change and will change if the goal is appealing.

If the goal is important, change becomes a process, not a quick fix, not a short-term solution.

My advice, if you want to lose weight, choose the right goal. Not a moment. Not an event. Not an outcome. The goal that requires you to live healthier. Everyday. Not a short-term restriction, but a lifetime of fulfilment. Trust me, you will lose weight. You will also keep it off.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

PS. Want to make lifestyle changes that last with a plant-based diet? Plant-Based Performance Plans are designed for your long term success. Apply today.

What about protein?

Since I recently posted about fat and sugar this one needs to be protein. If you are eating a plant-based, or vegan, diet you will be asked about protein. There are a few facts about protein that everyone should know.

1. Protein is a nutrient, not a food group.
2. If you are healthy you don’t need to worry about getting enough protein. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are almost no cases of Kwashiorkor (protein deficiency) if you are consuming enough calories. The only true cases of protein deficiency are cases of calorie deficiency. In other words, you have to be starving to be protein deficient.
3. Protein is made of amino acids. These are found in foods like beans, green peas, quinoa, whole wheat bread, oats, nuts, broccoli, bananas. Protein and the building blocks of protein are in many types of foods.

How much should I eat?

For most people 0.8 grams/kilogram of body weight is sufficient.

There are a few groups of adults that need more, pregnant women, growing children, endurance athletes. However, almost everyone eats more than they need already. If you are in one of these categories you are most likely eating more than you need.

What happens if I eat too much protein?

Eat too many calories and you will gain weight.

Too much is still too much, it doesn’t matter where those calories come from.

High protein diets also cause bad breath. Especially if you consume more protein while reducing carbohydrates. Excess protein also causes constipation, kidney damage, dehydration, heart disease, calcium depletion, increased risk of cancer. Excess protein is not harmless.

What about protein and muscle loss?

It has been suggested that to prevent the muscle loss that comes with ageing, eat more protein. A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that older men eating more than the RDA of 0.8 grams/kilogram of body weight did not increase lean body mass or muscle performance.

This is another example of more is not better.

Which is better, plant protein or animal protein?

There are vast amounts of research on the effects of animal protein on health, but the latest published in the International Journal of Epidemiology studied dietary patterns of 81,000 people found that large amounts of meat protein increased the risk of cardiovascular disease by 60%.

The people in the study who got their protein in the form of nuts and seeds reduced their risk of cardiovascular disease by 40%.

Another study that was published last week found that restricting foods that contain sulfur amino acids, animal proteins, and replacing them with beans has health and longevity benefits.

If you eat a variety of whole, plant-based foods and eat enough calories don’t worry. You are getting enough nutrients, including protein.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

Which is worse?

In the fat vs sugar wars, this is a false choice.

Neither is a health food.

However we do need a little, and I mean very little, fat in our diet. The exception to this is very young children (under the age of 4) who need more fat for normal development. Saturated fat, fat from animal sources, dairy products, palm or coconut oil, is not recommended for anyone. We can live with very little fat, but this is exceptionally hard to do. You can be healthy by eating as little as 10% of your calories from unsaturated fats. Those found in olives, vegetable oil, avocados, nuts and seeds. Any other type of fat is not necessary, or healthy, no matter what anyone tries to sell you.

The latest diet craze, ketogenic, is almost all fat and protein. Animal protein is high fat too, so it really is a high-fat diet. It is popular, but not healthy.

Sugar isn’t a health food either. Sugar is a source of empty calories, no nutritional value and it is everywhere, but in the battle of sugar and fat what happens when we eat fat or sugar?

High-fat meals change your red blood cells.

Within hours of eating a high-fat meal, your red blood cells have been changed. This is probably temporary. It is also cumulative.

Four hours after eating high-fat foods your red blood cells change their shape and release poison into your blood vessels. Normally, red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body and they are incredibly flexible. They flow through blood vessels easily. After a high-fat meal, they grow spikes and lose their flexibility.

Research recently published in Laboratory Investigation looked at the changes in red blood cells in healthy, young men after a single high fat meal and after a high sugar meal. They found that one high-fat meal produced unexpected changes.

The good news, for your blood vessel health, the high sugar meal did not change their red blood cells or affect their blood vessels. If you want to know more about sugar read, The Sweet Taste of Sugar.

The high-fat meal produced rapid changes in the environmentally sensitive red blood cells.

The changes that were seen in the blood and red blood cells included the presence of an enzyme called myeloperoxidase (MPO) which is linked to stiffer blood vessels, oxidative stress and heart attacks.

MPO impairs blood vessel dilation and oxidation of HDL cholesterol. It takes this good cholesterol (HDL) and turns it into a contributor to heart disease that increases the chances of a heart attack or stroke. Dr Neal L. Weintraub, cardiologist and one of the researcher’s states,

“Myeloperoxidase levels in the blood are directly implicated in heart attack. This is a really powerful finding.”

The changes weren’t limited to only red blood cells, white blood cells and plasma also changed. White blood cells got fatter by trying to remove the fat in the blood vessels, this, in turn, promoted inflammation and resulted in artherosclerotic plaque formation. Plasma became thicker and there was a visible presence of lipids, or fat, in the blood samples.

Researchers found that blood vessels were returning to normal after 8 hours in mice, but when they continued to feed them high-fat meals these changes were permanent. They did not continue to feed the healthy adults high-fat meals saying this would be too risky.

Eating one high-fat meal after another changes your blood vessels.

People do this to themselves regularly. Consume high-fat meals regularly and the damage is probably too much. Eating processed foods, the ketogenic diet, a diet high in protein, these are high-fat foods will produce permanent blood vessel damage.

Dr Weintraub also says that prevention is critical. Choose to eat a diet that includes healthy, low-fat, whole foods, exercise regularly, know your cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Even people with a genetic risk of cardiovascular disease can prevent cardiovascular disease with a healthy lifestyle.

If you are going to eat a high-fat meal, make sure the next meal is a healthy one.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

Sugar is not a health food.

It is not pure evil either. Sugar is the new villain in the obesity wars, but is it really? When various governments advised people to cut down on fat food manufacturers exchanged fat in foods for sugar, no one ate less and everyone proclaimed “low-fat diets don’t work”. I am sure that you can see the problem with this type of logic.

Three scientists in the 1960s were paid by the sugar industry to hide research that proclaimed sugar as bad for your health. This is still happening today in numerous ways in the food industry. For example, if you are still on Facebook you have probably seen the ads from Keeping Canadians Healthy urging you to sign the petition to have the Canadian government rethink it’s new guidelines because they are proposing to cut out dairy as a food group. For the record, KeepingCanadiansHealthy.ca is the dairy industry.

This type of pass the blame and create confusion has been happening in the food industry for years. It is about creating confusion.

Sugar has no nutritional value.

There are no nutrients in sugar. It is is a simple carbohydrate that is easily absorbed and doesn’t require any processing to be absorbed.

This can be very important.

In long endurance events having easy access to fuel for your muscles is critical. These events require glycogen replenishment and simple sugars are the most effective. After a long endurance event, you need to quickly replace depleted muscle glycogen and simple sugars are once again the most effective.

For the record, long endurance events are more than 90 minutes of continuous effort. Sitting does not count.

Naturally occurring sugar is not the same as added sugar.

I can’t count the number of times people who are trying to lose weight tell me, “I can’t eat fruit or rice or…it’s sugar”

Stop that right now. Please. Naturally occurring sugars, you know the sugar in foods that don’t have labels. On foods with one ingredient. Whole foods. Plant foods. These are not the same as added sugars. These whole foods contain fibre, nutrients, vitamins and simple carbohydrates. They do not cause diabetes. They are not the problem.

There are many names for added sugar in foods. The simplest sugars are ingredients that end in “ose”, glucose, fructose, galactose etc. Maple syrup, brown sugar, agave, they are all sugar. These are the easiest to spot in foods. There are at least 61 different names for sugar listed in ingredients on labels.

Sugar is everywhere.

Eat wisely. Choose foods that don’t need labels. Whole food, real food, plant food. If you do want to treat yourself to something sweet. Eat real sugar. Don’t eat artificial sweeteners.

Even though sugar is everywhere. It is a better choice than artificial sweeteners. Yes, eating less sugar is better for you, but substituting it with artificial sweeteners comes with its own consequences.

Research presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrinology Society in March 2018 has proven how artificial sweeteners change gene expression to promote inflammation and reduce fat metabolism.

Dr Sabyasachi Sen, Associate Professor of Medicine at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. states,

“Our stem cell-based studies indicate that low-calorie sweeteners promote additional fat accumulation within cells compared with cells not exposed to these substances.”

Yes, sugar contributes to “empty” calories and yes, sugar is in all processed foods. However, eating foods that don’t require a label, foods with natural sugars is not the same as eating sugar. And, perhaps more importantly, sugar doesn’t interfere with your fat metabolism or change your genes.

Eat more fruit. Eat less sugar and eat real food.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla

Western diet and your immune system

Every time you eat a high fat, high sugar, high calorie and low fiber meal your immune system is stimulated to fight infection. Your immune system reacts to these foods as if you have a bacterial infection.There is a very strong inflammatory response to this type of diet.

This diet may sound vaguely familiar.

High fat, high sugar, high calorie, low fiber foods are the Standard American Diet (SAD). Regularly eating these types of foods makes the bodies defences more aggressive. Fast food recruits an army in your immune system, one that has a memory and may contribute to type 2 diabetes and arteriosclerosis.

Your immune system has a memory

We know that our immune system has a memory and now we know it remembers our food too. Our immune system has “fast food sensors!”

Researcher and Professor Dr Eicke Latz, Director of the Institute for Innate Immunity of the University of Bonn and scientist at the DZNE says,

“After an infection, the body’s defenses remain in a kind of alarm state, so that they can respond more quickly to a new attack.”

This is what is called “innate immune training.” Dr Latz and his colleagues have proven that this can be triggered by an unhealthy diet.

Diet changes your DNA

Eating this type of diet causes your DNA to unravel. This unravelling means that it can react to even small dietary lapses with an intense inflammatory response.

Dr Latz, who is considered a leader in immune function, puts this into perspective by showing how children will now have a shorter life expectancy because of this immune system response.

“These findings therefore have important societal relevance. The foundations of a healthy diet need to become a much more prominent part of education than they are at present. Only in this way can we immunize children at an early stage against the temptations of the food industry. Children have a choice of what they eat every day. We should enable them to make conscious decisions regarding their dietary habits.”

Fight back with food.

Regardless of your age you can improve your gut bacteria and counteract some of the effects of a highly processed diet, one that is high in fat, sugar and calories. By eating a diet high in fiber, low in sugar, fat and calories you can turn off the acute inflammation. The DNA changes last, however, making eating a healthy diet even more important to reduce inflammation long term.

Eating a plant-based diet is an anti-inflammatory diet. It is naturally low in calories, processed sugar and fat. A whole foods, plant-based diet is high in fiber and has been proven to treat and prevent type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Nutritionfacts.org has a short video about How Not to Die, from the Standard American Diet.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla