"Eat Closer to the Way Food Grows"

Yesterday I went to the dental convention in Salt Lake.  I went to a seminar called "32 Teeth and 100 Birthdays" taught by a guy named David Meinz.  It was AWESOME.  The class was all day and I could have sat and listened to him much longer.  If you ever get a chance to see him speak, do it, or if you see a book he has written, get it:).
So the gist of the seminar was how we change our habits now so that we can extend our lives.  It was funny at the first he asked who would like to live till they are 100..... not one hand.  The rest of seminar was on how to live longer but still be capable and enjoying life at that age.  I still don't know if I would like to live till I am 100, but I will say that I would like to follow what he was saying so that all my years that I do have are healthy and happy ones:).
I thought I would just share with you the things that I took notes on for all those who love learning about nutrition stuff like me:).
So he talked about the seven steps to longevity:
1. Optimism: Positive response to what happens to us
2. Engagement: He talked about having a reason to get up in the morning.  He was talking about how it is so important to have hobbies and things beyond work that you enjoy doing because one day we won't have work or kids at home to get up for.  He was saying that these hobbies only have to be important to us, what everybody else thinks does not matter.
3. Activity and Mobility: This one is a no brainier, but the guidelines he gave on this were: 150 min/week of moderate exercise or 75 min/week of intense activity.  Some stats he gave were: 1 out of 4 women who break a hip is dead within 12 months and 1 out of 3 men are dead after breaking a hip.  Scary and NO THANKS!  I would rather be healthy, active, and do weight bearing exercise so that does not happen.
4. Adaption to Loss: Obviously if you are one of the few who takes care of yourself then you are definitely going to have to deal with loss in your life.
5. Social Connectedness: So something interesting that he said was: "not having a close friend poses the same risk to your health as smoking".  He just said the people who have people closer weather a spouse or friends live longer.
6. Healthy Habits, weight loss, or just maintain a healthy weight.
7. Taking measures to prevent Cardiovascular Disease.

His big push was: "Eat Closer to the Way Things Grow".  So basically eat the potato instead of fries or potato chips.  So he gave the top 3 veggies in the U.S.: 1. Iceberg Lettuce (sick), 2. Tomatoes (sad part is that 80% are in the form of ketchup and pasta sauce), and 3. French fries...... why in the world are Americans so fat.... hmmmmm.

Ok, so you know how when you look at a label on food and you see how sugar is listed in grams.  What the heck is a gram.  Honestly I always knew that if it had 32 grams it had a lot, but I just had really never thought about what that really means.  So he told us to remember that:

1tsp. of sugar = 4 Grams

Ok so knowing that I went home last night and started looking at how much sugar was in the foods I eat.... ummmm sick.  No wonder why I crave sugar even when I feel like I am not hardly eating any.  He said he is a big proponent of the "sugar bowl".  What he means by this is, get the plain cereals, and then put a bowl of sugar next to yourself and your kids and say help yourself.  He said that they will not get nearly the sugar that they would have gotten with the same cereal but the sugar version of it, and they feel like they are getting so much more.  He also said that most of the sugar sicks to the bottom anyway, so really they are not getting even as much as they scoop in.  Interesting!

Next point that I loved: eat chocolate.... well sorta:)

I don't know how many people tell there husband "I need this chocolate, it is a super food".... I do.... all the time:)  Alec always laughs at me and is like right.  Well, I was right..... to a degree.  Chocolate is a good source of antioxidants, but it has to be a certain kind of chocolate (which I new) and you really don't need a ton to get the benefits from the cocoa bean.  So first off: it has to has a 70% or higher cocoa content in it to count.... no problem.  I love, love, love dark chocolate.  I used to hate it, but then my sister in law Eryn had me try this dark chocolate with raspberries in it and now I can't really eat milk chocolate.  So basically it is the cocoa powder that is good for you.  I don't know how many of you have heard of Crio Bru, but is is delicious.  It is 100% cocoa beans that you brew like coffee beans.  So basically you get all the health benefits of chocolate without any of the bad things too.  I figure I can add my spoonful of sugar to it and still be doing a heck of a lot better than I would be with a chocolate bar.

You should check out there website at www.criobru.com and read all the benefits.  So basically you need 30 cal per day of chocolate, so basically it is only one square of lets say a Ghirardelli chocolate bar.... bummer, but ok:)

Another thing interesting he said was that it takes 6 months to change your taste buds.  So overtime we can still be eating what we like, but it is because we have changed what we like.  Case and point my new found obsession with dark chocolate where I use to HATE it and only like the milk.  Now I don't like the milk really at all.... with the exception of an occassional Reese PB cup:).  Something interesting that he said was that when babies are born they have a inborn taste for sugar, but not for salt.  But the baby food companies put salt in the baby food even though the babies don't like it and the reason is, is because mom's will taste there baby food and if they don't like it they won't feed it to there kids, so that kind of starts the process of us liking things with salt in them.

So he said the rules for the game are this:
1. We should only be eating 50 grams or less of fat per day and that should come from mostly plant based foods
2.  Limit our intake of salt to 1500 mg/ day or less.  In one tsp of salt: 2000mg of salt.  Average American diet: 4000mg/ day.  Scary!  He said that when you go out to eat you can't limit you salt intake but you can at home.  He said that he also likes to give people salt shakers and say go for it.  He said if you put less salt when you are cooking and allow yourself more at the table you will eat less.
3.  Aim for 30g or fiber per day.  He said increase gradually:).
4.  Sugar: no recc intake:)
5.  Cholesterol- 300mg or less/ day.  So saturated fat makes your blood cholesterol go up even more than cholesterol itself.  Crazy.

It takes going 1 mile to burn 100 calories... Yikes.  And 2 cups of water = 1 pound.

Something else I thought was interesting: So whole milk is milk with 2 pats of butter per cup in it, so 32 pats of butter in 1 gallon.... up sick, and heart attack!  It goes down from there, but I have always liked skim milk, but since I married Alec he would only drink 1% so that is what I have started to drink.... no more.  I am going back to skim.  I would like to save those extra calories for something else.

Goal: 41/2 cups of fruits and veggies per day!

He then talked about vitamin supplements.  He reccommend that everybody take a basic multi vitamin esp if they are not concerned about what they are eating.
The vitamins that he said he would for sure supplement are:
1. Calcium: Teenagers should be getting 1300mg/day, to age of 50 you should be getting 1000mg/day, and 50+ should be getting 1200mg/day.  Something interesting is that your body can only absorb 500mg at a time, so you should supplement twice per day so your body can absorb it and use it.
2. Vit. D: He was a huge proponent of Vit D.  He said that currently they are saying we need 200-600IU/day.  He said he would for sure go for 1000+/day, and some studies are showing we really need 4000 to 8000 IU/day, which is what he does.  He said by getting enough Vit D we lower the risk of breaking bones and increase our muscle stability so we don't fall, we decrease colon cancer risk and reduce our risk of diabetes by 60%. Also for us dental professionals: we lower the risk of tooth loss by 60% and helps keep gums and tissues healthier.  He said when looking for a Vit D supplement look for one that says Vit D3 and get that one.  He said we are just not getting what we need for Vit D.  A cup of milk only has 100 IU.
3. Omega 3: It decreases blood clotting, prevents abnormal heart rhythms, decreases inflammation (heart attacks are cause by inflammation), may help with Crohn's disease and systemic lupus, decrease blood triglycerides, improves immunity, and has a role in fighting alzhiemers.  He said we need DHA and EPA Omega 3 which are from seafood.  ALA are plant based and our bodies can actaully only absorb 10% of them.  So basically we need 1000mg of EPA and DHA per day.  We need to eat more fish:).

Well that is the gist of what he said.  I thought it was so intersting!