The
people who will have the most money in their HSA are those
who fully fund it, put the money in well-performing mutual
funds, and stay healthy so they can avoid making premature
withdrawals. Diet is the foundation of good health,
and the healthiest diet you can eat is the one we evolved
to eat, commonly known as The Paleo Diet.
Choose
Not To Get Sick
One
thing that most HSA owners have in common is a belief in personal responsibility.
They know that if they depend on the government to pay their medical bills in
their old age, they'll be at the mercy of a government bureaucrat, and their
choices will be limited. So instead they choose to put money aside each
year to cover future expenses. As a thank you, the government provides
a nice tax write-off, tax-deferred growth, and tax-free medical spending.
The
other area where most people can take more personal responsibility is with their
health. People tend to have the attitude that "stuff happens",
and there's not much you can do to prevent the degenerative diseases that come
with aging. This is hogwash.
Longevity
has advanced dramatically in the past century. Some of this is due to
new drugs and advances in surgical techniques. But most of it is simply
lifestyle - people are bathing more frequently, they are working under less
dangerous conditions, they are smoking less, and some are eating better food.
(Fresh fruits and vegetables were rare and expensive during winter months when
my grandfather was a child).
Other
than not smoking cigarettes, the most powerful thing you can do to ensure good
health is to eat the right foods. Most people get it wrong, but if you
follow this advice you will lower your risk of almost all the diseases and disorders
that disrupt the lifestyle and drain the bank accounts of so many people when
they reach their 50's, 60's, and 70's.
Why
Is Nutrition So Confusing?
In
1988, Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop announced that high-fat foods in the
American diet had a health risk that was comparable to cigarette smoking.
So people began eating no-fat and low-fat foods like bagels and Snackwell cookies.
Despite this change, the rate of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity continued
to grow.
Then
the pendulum swung the other direction, with people adopting the Atkins diet
and eating nothing but meat, cheese, and eggs. And then Atkins himself
had a heart attack.
Part
of the problem is that food is big money. So the Food Pyramid put out
by the USDA is the product of very heavy lobbying efforts. Another part
of the problem is that until now there has been no overriding paradigm about
what good nutrition really is.
And
so the low-fat vegetarian proponents eat their whole grains and soy burgers,
thinking they are eating the right way, while others avoid carbs like the plaque.
Who is right? Is the answer "moderation?" And what is
that?
Eating
the Foods We Evolved To Eat
Imagine
that you were a zoo keeper, and it was your job to keep the animals healthy.
In one cage you've got a giraffe, in another you've got a lion, and in the third
you have an anteater. What do you feed them?
Most
people would answer that you try to feed them what they would eat in the wild.
If you do so, you're most likely to have healthy animals. If you get things
mixed up and feed the lion leaves, the giraffe ants, and the anteater meat,
you'll have some sick animals very quickly.
So
using the same thinking, what do you feed a human in order to keep him or her
optimally healthy? The foods that they evolved to eat, of course.
For
2.5 million years humans lived as hunter gatherers. We ate whatever we
could pick, find, or catch. So our diet consisted of fruits, vegetables,
tubers, meat, and seafood. (And the occasional bug).
It
was only 10,000 years ago (500 generations) that humans began eating grains
(wheat, rice, corn, etc.) as a regular part of their diet. Dairy consumption
(other than mother's milk) first began approximately 6000 years ago. The
regular use of vegetable oils, refined sugar, and salt is even more recent.
As I mentioned last month, two-thirds of the foods we now eat are foods that
are new to our system, for which we are not genetically adapted.
Evolution
moves quite slowly, and the simple fact is that we are not adapted to eating
these foods, and they are making us sick.
The
Problems With Grains
Grains
are the seeds of grasses. The grass seed itself doesn't want to be eaten,
because its purpose is to grow a new blade of grass. So it has various
"anti-nutrients" to protect it from pests and predators.
Protease
inhibitors in wheat bind trypsin, preventing this digestive enzyme from digesting
protein. A protein called wheat germ agglutin (WGA) happens to bind to
a hormone receptor in the gut, entering circulation and causing an immediate
immune reaction every time you eat a piece of bread.
WGA
also increases gut permeability, increasing the likelihood that other undigested
dietary components may enter circulation.
Another
component found in cereals such as rye, oats, barley, and corn are "alkylresorcinols."
These are thought to provide the seed resistance from pathogenic organisms,
but they are also toxic to humans, and have been shown to cause red blood cell
destruction and DNA damage.
Grains
also raise blood sugar very rapidly, causing a high secretion of insulin from
the pancreas. High circulating insulin is characteristic of "metabolic
syndrome", which a vast number of Americans currently suffer from.
What
About Milk?
Cow
milk contains a hormone called betacellulin, which binds to a receptor in the
gut called the EGF receptor. Just one glass of milk has the capacity to
stimulate the receptor 10 times as much would normally occur in 24 hours from
EGF in the saliva.
When
the EGF receptor is stimulated it causes the body to "upregulate"
EGF receptors, basically causing more of them to appear. This in turn
let's even more betacellulin enter the body the next time you have some dairy.
Upregulation of the EGF receptor is characteristic of many cancers, including
breast, prostate, lung, ovarian, and bladder.
No
animals other than humans consume milk past the age of weaning.
Prevent
Autoimmune Disease
The
incidence of autoimmune diseases increases as people age. It occurs when
the body loses the ability to distinguish its own proteins from foreign proteins,
and starts attacking itself.
Grains
and beans contain substances called "lectins", which are known to
increase gut permeability, possibly allowing in gut bacteria substances that
can trigger an autoimmune reaction.
Cereal
grains and beans also contain proteins with amino acid sequences that are very
similar to those found in human collagen and other tissues of the body.
If the immune system gets confused, it can start attacking itself (such as with
rheumatoid arthritis when joints become swollen and painful).
Get
Rid Of Acne
Yes,
even something as seemingly minor as acne can be prevented by eating a Paleo
diet. Saving just $2000 in doctor visits over the next couple years could
result in an extra $25,000 in your HSA by the time you finally decide to take
the money out.
