Tag: diet

Weight Loss and Insulin Resistance: Random notes

There’s nothing new here, only new to me. in time we will learn all we need to learn. In the meantime, keep a stiff upper lip and carry on..

Weight Loss

To Diet and Lose Weight: Not As Easy As Reduced Intake

Flippant, I was, when I was younger, when I said the way to reduce your weight is to simply eat less. In a way I was right, but in my naivety I did not know the complexity of the problem. Age has a way of providing more wisdom to the problem. It turns out that I am not alone, as the percentage of obese people in the Western world is now alarming and rising. This is a big problem that needs to be solved.

Exercise Addiction: Getting your Daily Dopamine Fix

People who exercise consistently and hard are thought to be devoted and doing good for their bodies. Commitment is required to be hard core. An alternative view is that they are addicted to the spurt of dopamine that they receive during each workout, very similar to all other addictions. In an age where most people don’t get enough exercise, this cannot be bad, right? Can you have a diet addiction? Apparently so.

Exercise as the Savior to Chronic Health Problems?

CEO Greg Glassman, CrossFit, started in 2000

CEO Greg Glassman, CrossFit, started in 2000

Sometimes you need to recognize that a system is broken and not as helpful as our expectations. The Western medical system is one such system. Yes, we are living longer, with viruses and bacteria largely at bay. As we progress to better health, chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, heart failure, diabetes and obesity have become much more prevalent. These chronic diseases show little abatement with current guidelines. “Lose weight, reduce salt intake, exercise more” may be medically valid advice, but the words are much easier to say and harder to implement.

Skipping Breakfast, or the Fasting 16-8 Weight Loss Diet

The standard practice is to eat breakfast every day. The saying “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” has been drilled into my tiny brain since birth. For me it just was not so important. Over the years I have deviated from this breakfast practice on many occasions, mostly without issue. I say mostly because I often inadvertently delay until well past lunch. This is the 16/8 fast, don’t eat for 16 hrs a day, but eat for only 8. It is not as radical as you might think, as most of the time you are asleep.

Live Long and Prosper


It is with not a small amount of irony that “60 Minutes”, the show that airs at 19:00 every Sunday, presented a drug that is reported to prolong human life. It is remarkable that this fancy marvel of scientific achievement, Resveratrol, can nearly double the lifespan of all forms of life. This chemical, present in the skin of grapes, and therefore found in red wine, mimics the effects of a caloric restricted diet.

A what restricted diet? Yes, you got it right, “caloric restricted diet”. You eat much less, feel a little hungry and you live twice as long. Even more surprising is that scientists have known about this for a couple of decades.