November 05, 2007
If Not Now, When?
Fitness-After-50 - Thomas D. Manfredi, Publisher
tom@fitness-after-50.com
www.fitness-after-50.com
Nov 5, 2007; Vol. 3, Issue 11
Published the first Monday of every month
THIS ISSUE: Death and Disease from Unhealthy Nutrition
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Table of Contents:
1) Editor's Note
2) Food for Thought
3) Feature Article: Death and Disease from Unhealthy Nutrition
4) Teleclasses
4) Question & Answer
5) Our Services
Editor's Note
Hi,
So October is over. Wow, soon the holidays will be upon us.
October is the month of my wedding anniversary, so it's a good month. This year my wife, Barbara, and I celebrated 41 years of marriage. I still can't figure out how she keeps putting up with me, but . . .
We didn't actually do anything special on the day of our anniversary, but the following weekend we drove up to Las Vegas for a long weekend and visited with some old friends who came in from Florida. We had a great time donating to the local economy via the slot machines. Fortunately, neither one of us are big gamblers, so our donations were reasonable.
The Japanese garden that I work at part time as a volunteer docent opened up in October (they are closed for the hot Phoenix summers), so I've had the opportunity to conduct a number of tours for groups of seniors as well as some school children. I enjoy walking around the garden and telling people about it's history and pointing out all the wonderful things to see.
I've been doing some more work on my web site too. I started a section some time ago where I am exploring/investigating many of the fad diets that are out there these days. I have over 30 diets I plan on looking at, and the number keeps growing. So far I've done short reviews on about 11 of them, and my plan is to finish all of them before the end of the year. If you want to check out what I've got so far, just go to the bottom of my Dietspage and you can click on the ones I've done so far. I'm just doing them in alphabetical order.
Another project I've been working on for my web site is a service for on line fitness coaching. I'm almost ready to go. I'm targeting the first of the new year for the actual kick off. You can learn a little more about it in the section below titled "About Our Services".
Good luck, keep exercising, and remember "If not now, when?".
Best Wishes,
Tom Manfredi
Send any comments you may have to tom@fitness-after-50.com
My site fitness-after-50.com
Food for Thought
To finish sooner, take your time.
Feature Article - Death and Disease from Unhealthy Nutrition
by Thomas D. Manfredi, MS
I am currently reading a book called "Superfoods Rx" by Steven G. Pratt, M.D., and Kathy Mathews. Basically this is a diet book, but there is a lot of very interesting and sometimes disturbing data included regarding how nutrition is affecting our health. Dr. Pratt seems well qualified to discuss these issues since he is both a practicing clinician and also a researcher with access to other researchers who are on the cutting edge of their fields in biochemistry, medicine, and nutrition.
I want to tell you about some of the alarming information I have been reading regarding diet, nutrition, and our current state of health, or should I say unhealth. To start with, most scientists today would agree that at least 30 percent of all cancers are directly related to nutrition, and some would put the number as high as 70 percent. And, much of the cardiovascular disease and hypertension cases today can also be traced back to nutrition.
Apparently only about 10 percent of Americans today actually eat the right amount of the foods that would keep them free from chronic disease and premature death. Not a very large percentage is it? It is estimated that 300,000 to 800,000 deaths per year in the U.S. are nutrition related. Am I painting a dire picture that you may find disturbing? I certainly hope so.
Let's look at some nutritional developments that are ruining your health and the health of most people in modern industrialized society:
What are some of the things that this translates to here in the U.S.? 125 million Americans have at least one chronic condition such as cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. Sixty million Americans have more than one condition. And what's even worse is that all these chronically ill people are not just older folks. About half of all chronically ill Americans are under 45 years of age. Currently, almost 70% of all American adults are overweight or obese whereas the percentage back in the 1960's was less that 25%.
So why do I want to give you all these dark and negative statistics? Because it seems that the only way to get many of us to wake up and realize we have to do something now is to scare the blazes out of us. Looking at these facts should help you to realize that the time is now. As I like to say, "If not now, when?". That's my battle cry. I want you to start getting uncomfortable in your complacency and try to find ways to start changing. When we look at nutrition and diet, we shouldn't be looking at them just because we want to look younger and sexier. We should be looking at them because they will mean the difference between a longer and healthier life, or a way too early death.
If you've never done so before you need to start investigating ways to improve your diet and nutrition. You might want to start by asking your doctor who you you can talk to. Don't expect your doctor to have any real solid knowledge in this area. Less than 5% of doctors receive any training in medical school about diet and nutrition. You might want to ask them for a referral to a good registered dietitian. Or you can start investigating on your own through the Internet or some good books. But let me warn you to stay away from all the fad diets and quacks out there. There are a lot of them. In fact don't start by looking at diets at all. Start out by studying up on basic nutrition. Once you have a good handle on what makes up good nutrition you will be in a much better place to evaluate diets that might appeal to you. So, good hunting.
(c)2005 - 2007 Thomas D. Manfredi, MS
Teleclasses
I will be announcing upcoming teleclasses in this section in
the future.
If you have a topic that you would be interested in hearing about
in a teleclass, send an e-mail to teleclasses@fitness-after-50.com
Questions and Answers
Question How much water should I really be drinking every day for optimum health?
Answer - Most material you read says that a person should drink at least eight - 8 ounce glasses of water every day. I think we need to take into consideration two additional factors in answering the basic question. First of all how large a person are we talking about? The eight 8 ounce glasses a water per day is a good basic guide for a 150 pound woman or man. If you're larger, I think a good guide is to increase the basic 8 glasses by an additional 16 ounces for every 25 pounds over the base of 150 pounds.. So if you are a 225 pound man, you should be drinking the basic eight 8 ounce glasses, plus 48 additional ounces each day (75/25=3x16=48). That comes out to 112 ounces of water every day. That sounds like a lot of water, but when you realize that our bodies are about 95% water it doesn't seem unreasonable that we need to replace some every day.
The other factor that I think should be taken into consideration is the amount of exercise a person does each day. Don't forget, when you exercise, you sweat. That fluid needs to be replaced too. The guideline I use for myself is to drink 8 ounces of water for every 15 minutes of exercise I do. And, yes, that's in addition to the amounts mentioned earlier.
My secret for drinking plenty of water is to keep a 32 ounce bottle of water with me where ever I go. It's in a pouch around my waist if I go for a walk, it's sitting on my desk while I work, it's on the lamp table next to me while I watch TV, it's on the seat next to me while I'm driving. And I like using a very soft, squeezable bottle so I don't have to work very hard to drink the water. Using the 32 ounce bottle also makes it pretty easy for me to keep track of how much water I'm drinking. One bottle equals four 8 ounce glasses of water.
To get more information on various fitness and health issues, please go to my site www.fitness-after-50.com
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If you have a fitness or nutrition question you would like me to
consider answering here in the newsletter, just send your question, along with your first name and city, in an e-mail to quesandansw@fitness-after-50.com
Obviously, I can't answer every question submitted. I will choose
one question each month to answer here.
About Our Services
Online fitness coach Tom Manfredi is the creator of the site
"fitness-after-50". This site is designed with the mature
adult in mind. There is a lot of information available on the
site for anyone looking to start or restart a sensible exercise
program. Learn more by going to
www.fitness-after-50.com
Benefits of Coaching Online:
Soon, I will be offering online fitness coaching to my readers. Here are some of the reasons you may want to check in with me about having me be your coach. I will only be accepting a small group of people to coach so that I can give each of them the attention I feel they deserve.
Tom Manfredi, 1218 Easy St., Ste 101, Wickenburg, AZ 85390
Other Services and Information
Identity Theft
I dont know about you, but with all the news coverage lately about identity theft and all the problems it can cause for people, my wife and I have become somewhat paranoid about shredding any mail we get with any kind of identifying info in it, and she freaks out any time I order something on the internet and give out info there.
Well, a woman I know here in Arizona recently sent me some info about a company that offers $1,ooo,ooo coverage to help take care of the problem if someone steals your identity. The company is called LifeLock. You can get to their site by clicking on the banner below if it's visble, or by copying the following code into your browser
They charge a very reasonable monthly fee and offer a number of included services (they also give discounts for paying annually). Go take a look and see what you think. I signed up. I think my peace of mind is worth that kind of money.
Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated! Write me at tom@fitness-after-50.com.
"Fitness-After-50" respects your privacy and does not give out or sell our subscribers' names and/or e-mail addresses.
Copyright (c) 2005 - 2007 Thomas D. Manfredi, MS. All rights reserved.