“Nourish” is a very appropriate topic for the first week of 7 Daily Beats and the daily discussions support a nice transition to a relatively drastic change from the dietary routines of most people. Dr. Lipman specifically wants to provide daily hints on how to make the lifestyle changes of removing bad or toxic foods each week and adding the more wholesome and nourishing food groups to a daily routine. I fully agree that removing sugars, artificial sweeteners, and highly processed food substances can be very challenging. When you start to read food labels as a habit, it is amazing to see how frequently sugar is listed as a top ingredient. I like the recommendation to add smoothies as a nutritious meal and to eat fruits as snacks instead of cookies or chips. For me, giving up coffee and bread products was the biggest hurdle in the first week.
Dr. Lipman’s reference to the National Cancer Institute study highlights the magnitude of the Spent-related illness in the US: 87% of American families do not follow the recommended intake of fruits and vegetables of 5 to 9 servings per day. He clearly points out that the traditional American diet has already taken a major health toll on most individuals and families. A recent study showed that between 2002 and the end of 2005, the percentage of US kids (tweens and teens) taking medications for diabetes doubled.
The increase was mostly in girls and was not completely explained by obesity alone because the boys had higher obesity rates. We are now also seeing many children taking adult medications for conditions like high cholesterol.
I agree with Dr. Lipman that there is much more research now on the adverse effects of refined sugars. There was a study a few years ago that found the blood sugar level in your body one hour after a meal to be the highest predictor of future diabetes. The higher the levels, the higher the risk; as we learn in Spent, the smaller sugars raise our blood levels faster.
As the book suggests, adequate sleep is very important. Your melatonin levels respond to the daylight and darkness, so it is important to maintain good sleep hygiene and habits. Our bodies have been designed to live in a natural environment and even a person who is blind can sense night and day because of special receptors in the back of the eye that communicate messages of lightness and darkness directly to the brain. Pediatricians will also tell you that children who do not get sufficient sleep will have a tendency toward obesity due to the hormonal imbalance described in this chapter.
We should all seek greater balance in our life and exercise, relaxation/meditation, and restful sleep should be a basic discipline. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine indicated that the number of adults using deep breathing exercises, Yoga, meditation or massage therapy has increased from 2002 to 2007. These are lifestyle changes that are encouraged in the Nourish chapter as you begin to feel more comfortable with your own natural rhythm.
Enjoy your smoothies, do some deep breathing and keep nourishing yourself until we get to the next chapter of Spent – next week, we will be reviewing Week 2 – Move.
Dr. Tony Linares
