1) Soda & fruit juices
2) Breakfast cereal (including instant oatmeal)
3) Supermarket bread
It is my humble opinion that these three foods are the contemporary health equivalent of cigarettes.
Would eliminating them solve 80% of the juvenile obesity problem? Probably. These are staples of children's diets. Getting kids off the insulin roller coaster would have knock-on effects through the rest of their day.
Of course, they need to be replaced with real food. Frozen waffles, frozen pizza, fat-free yogurt, granola bars and chocolate skim-milk are largely the same sugar sold in a different packaging.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Waist-Hip Ratio
Here's a 20% measurement that will get you 80% of the diagnostic results on offer at the MD's office.
The absolute largest chronic disease risk factor is also the easiest one to measure, and costs nothing to measure. It is visceral (belly) fat.
Measuring it is as simple as taking your waist and hips circumferences and dividing to get the ratio. No arguments over BMI. No "big boned" excuses.
Women should be less than 0.78; men less than 0.88.
Simple as that. If you're not there, you need to get there.
For completeness, albeit quickly moving up the Pareto curve, which is to say increasing costs at marginal gains in efficacy, are the following diagnostics:
As for Total Cholesterol… this is me rolling my eyes.
~~~
Update: Upon further reflection, I think that may read a bit more glib than I intended. Those other diagnostics are good ones. Each person needs to take their personal health into account and decide whether they are warranted. If an optimal waist-hip ratio is clearly a long way off, HOMA-IR is a great next measurement to take, as are TC/HDL and CAC. They are certainly more qualitative measurements which may help to motivate someone or maybe put one's mind at ease. At the same time, for 80% of the people out there, a pass/fail on the waist-hip ratio tells you what you really need to know, and it's at no cost.
Oh, as for Total Cholesterol, I'm still rolling my eyes.
The absolute largest chronic disease risk factor is also the easiest one to measure, and costs nothing to measure. It is visceral (belly) fat.
Measuring it is as simple as taking your waist and hips circumferences and dividing to get the ratio. No arguments over BMI. No "big boned" excuses.
Women should be less than 0.78; men less than 0.88.
Simple as that. If you're not there, you need to get there.
For completeness, albeit quickly moving up the Pareto curve, which is to say increasing costs at marginal gains in efficacy, are the following diagnostics:
- Fasting blood-glucose to insulin ratio (HOMA-IR)
- Total Cholesterol to HDL ratio
- Coronary Artery Calcium score (CAC)
As for Total Cholesterol… this is me rolling my eyes.
~~~
Update: Upon further reflection, I think that may read a bit more glib than I intended. Those other diagnostics are good ones. Each person needs to take their personal health into account and decide whether they are warranted. If an optimal waist-hip ratio is clearly a long way off, HOMA-IR is a great next measurement to take, as are TC/HDL and CAC. They are certainly more qualitative measurements which may help to motivate someone or maybe put one's mind at ease. At the same time, for 80% of the people out there, a pass/fail on the waist-hip ratio tells you what you really need to know, and it's at no cost.
Oh, as for Total Cholesterol, I'm still rolling my eyes.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Mercedes-Benz 1984
Still 2016, is it not... serendipity of us starting new blogs on the same day.
No joke, true fact: I used to own a 1985 Mercedes 500SEL, a very different style, but I always wanted one of these.
With Apologies to P.D. Mangan...
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
I'll be cherry-picking the sweetest, lowest-hanging fruit from Dennis' blog.
I might not live to 150, but 120 is nothing to sneeze at. Paraphrasing Andrew Dice Clay, sure I may die 30 years earlier than Dennis, but it's the last 30.
I'll be cherry-picking the sweetest, lowest-hanging fruit from Dennis' blog.
I might not live to 150, but 120 is nothing to sneeze at. Paraphrasing Andrew Dice Clay, sure I may die 30 years earlier than Dennis, but it's the last 30.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)