Have you heard about the Paleo Diet, or the Lollipop Diet? Diets are getting
more ridiculous by the minute. Now the Paleo diet is okay if you want the life
expectancy of a cave man. And even though it’s hard to believe, the Lollipop diet
is real. Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and other celebrities have become suckers for
this latest diet craze. Fad diets are bad diets and a recipe for disaster.
A recent survey found that the average woman spends 31 years of her life
on a diet. And strikingly, by the age of 45 most people in America have tried 61
different diets. Fad diets continue to flood the internet and social media, books
and magazines. The information overload confuses Americans and creates
anxiety. To make matters worse, the incidence of obesity continues to rise.
Fad diets are nothing more than wishful shrinking. What we need to
consider before we put food in our mouth is an appetizer of good old common
sense. Enter the BLUE ZONE—five regions in the world that have the highest
concentration of individuals over 100 years old in good health. People in the
BLUE ZONES grow old with little to no health problems like heart disease,
obesity, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and all the other chronic diseases we
associate with aging. Clearly these populations are doing something right.
Common sense suggests it would be a smart idea to find out what they eat.
Dan Buettner, and his team of scientists at National Geographic did just
that. They discovered that following the diet and lifestyle of the inhabitants of the
BLUE ZONES can increase the average American’s life in good health by a
whopping 12 extra years.
The common thread running through all five of the BLUE ZONES mealtime
is their reliance on primarily a plant-based diet. The National Geographic
scientists discovered ninety-five percent of their diet consisted of beans, greens,
root vegetables, fruit, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. People in the “Blue Zones”
consume meat, but they do so sparingly. Meat is consumed as a small side dish or
a way to flavor their main dishes.
Take Home Message: If you are thinking about how much fun it would be to play
with your great grand-children, I suggest the following. Instead of endless cycles
of yo-yo dieting, losing weight and putting it back on again (and then some),
emotional stress, and wasted money, I suggest you stay in the BLUE ZONE.
See the previous articles in this series here.
Dr. Krystosik is a board-certified chiropractic physician with an
undergraduate degree in clinical nutrition and is northeast Ohio’s leading expert in
functional medicine. Dr. Krystosik is the author of 5 books on nutrition and natural
medicine and is a nationally known speaker. For an appointment with Dr.
Krystosik in his Northfield office, call 330-908-0094 or go to
https://www.healthsourcechiro.com/macedonia/#gref
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