Blood Pressure: Optimum level is 115/76. Blood pressure readings can be variable, so have your BP taken in the morning, during the day, and at night, as part of your normal activities (except for thirty minutes after exercise, when it will naturally be higher). Take the average of three readings to come up with your base number. After that, take readings every month to help you monitor your progress. (If BP is high, then you can track it daily.)
Lipid Profile Blood Test: Have one now to establish your baseline measurement, then have your blood analyzed every other year so that you and your doctor can watch changes and make appropriate adjustments to your eating and/or drug plan.
HDL (healthy) cholesterol: You’re at a low risk if your HDL is greater than 40 mg/dl. But like basketball players, the higher the better. In fact, if your HDL is over 100 mg/dl, the chances of heaving a heart attack or stroke related to lack of blood flow are smaller than the chance that a Hollywood celeb could walk through Boise unnoticed. (Except in some extremely rare cases where HDL malfunctions inside the body, there has never been a heart attack or stroke due to lack of blood flow reported in the entire medical literature in a person with a functional HDL over 100).
LDL (lousy) cholesterol: You’re at a low risk if your LDL is less than 100 mg/dl. By the way, research shows that for all women, and for men over sixty-five years old, the LDL number isn’t nearly as important as the HDL. So women and men over sixty-five don’t need to obsess too much over LDL levels unless their HDL levels are too low.
Fasting blood sugar: Below 100 mg/dl.
C-reactive protein: Below 1 mg/dl.
Get a Lift. Muscle isn’t just for football players, bouncers, and souped-up cars. Everyone benefits from adding some muscle to his or her body; in fact, adding some muscle will help lower your levels of blood sugar. The more muscle you have, the more you increase insulin receptivity—that is, the process by which insulin transports glucose into your cells. If you gain muscle and lose weight you change the chemistry of your cell membranes so that you absorb more glucose throughout your body rather than having it stay in your blood. You add muscle by doing strength exercises (more coming up in the YOU Workout).
Stop Freebasing Sugar. One thing that causes blood sugar to spike is, uh, sugar. That is, straight pure sugar-not eaten with any other substances like fat or protein around it. Though we recommend eating as few simple sugars as possible, if you do eat them, you should always be sure not to eat that candy bar or cookie dough by itself. Have a handful of nuts or some olive oil with bread first; that slows your stomach from emptying and will keep sugar levels from creating a pyrotechnical effect in your blood.
Go Chrome. Chromium, a mineral found in a variety of foods (especially mushrooms), seems to help control blood sugar. Taking 200 micrograms a day of the supplement chromium picolinate can help aid the uptake of insulin, to help your cells use blood sugar for fuel. Though the studies aren’t definitive at this point we recommend the supplement for waist-and blood sugar-control. Chromium increases your cells’ sensitivity to insulin and is depleted by refined sugars, white flour, and lack of exercise. One study showed users lost four pounds over ten weeks compared with no pounds in a control group. You should take it with magnesium, which reduces low-grade inflammation that can be associated with insulin resistance. A dose of 600 micrograms of chromium has been shown to be effective for those with type 2 diabetes, but for others, stick to the recommended dose of 200 micrograms. Just because a little is good doesn’t mean that taking a lot more is better. Taking too much chromium can hurt your kidneys.
Become Sensitive. Here’s a tantalizing observation: Cinnamon (with an m, not a b)seems to have an insulinlike effect, enhancing the satiety center in your brain while also reducing blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Just a half teaspoon a day can have some effect. Sprinkle it in cereal or on toast or add it to a smoothie.
Get in the Zone. Studies show that meditation has a statistically significant reduction of risk factors for coronary heart disease, such as blood pressure and insulin resistance. Find a quiet room, take a few minutes, close your eyes, and focus on one healthy word or phrase, like “om” (or “omega-3 fatty acids”).
YOU Test
Hey There, Good Looking, Can I Get Your Number?
In most cases, like a bike fall or a noodle-size hangnail, seeing your blood is not a good thing. But for our purposes, you need to look deep inside your blood to get an assessment of the effect of the extra weight you’re carrying. That’s where you’ll find all the numbers that indicate the risks that may be associated with carrying extra weight. If you don’t know these numbers, see your doctor for your latest blood results or request a blood test from your primary-care physician.
Blood Pressure: _______(Measures the force of blood being pumped through your arteries. Ideal is 115/76)
HDL Cholesterol: _______(Measures the amount of good clog-clearing cholesterol in your blood. Greater than 40 mg/dl is acceptable. And you’ve hit the lottery if you’re above 60 mg/dl.)
LDL Cholesterol: _______(Measures the amount of bad clog-forming cholesterol in your blood. Ideal is less than 100 mg/dl if you have any risk factors of heart disease, or 130 gm/dl if you are otherwise healthy as a horse and your ancestors never suffered heart disease.)
C-Reactive Protein: _______(Measures levels of inflammation in blood vessels, a marker for many types of diseases. Ideal in most labs is less than 1 mg/dl.)
Chapter 6
Metabolic Motors
Your Body’s Hormonal Fat Burners
Diet Myths
It’s your habits that are entirely to blame for fatness.
Your body burns most of its calories through activity.
You can’t adjust your “slow metabolism.”
Bad genes aren’t something that you wore in high school. They’re what can make you have a propensity for heart disease, baldness, mental problems, and putting on weight. Though diet and physical activity play the lead roles in losing fat and maintaining a healthy weight, your genes are part of the supporting cast. It is possible to eat like a guppy but grow bigger than a beluga. Simply, some people can have a bad genetic response to a good diet (that is, they put on weight), while other people (the scoundrels!) can have a good genetic response to a bad diet.
How do we know there’s a genetic component to obesity? For one, studies of twins raised apart from each other show it. Two people with the same genes raised in different lifestyles and on different diets show about 30 percent of the same propensities for gaining weight. But genes don’t just dictate how you metabolize fat—that is, whether you come from a “big-boned” family or one that could fit through slats in air vents. Genes help dictate many things regarding why you put on fat—like cravings for certain foods or the way you cope when you’re stressed. And family ties also govern whether or not the homemade sauce has butter or olive oil.
Nevertheless, what we’re trying to do is shrink the size of your jeans by shrinking the effect of your genes. While you have genetic influences that steer you toward a particular body type and behaviors, those dispositions and unhealthy decisions can be neutralized and minimized by eating the right foods, rebooting your body, and, in effect, changing which of your genes are turned on and which are turned off. That’s right; your choices turn on or turn off specific genes you have. For example, the flavonoids (antioxidants) in grape skins turn off the gene that makes an inflammatory protein that ages your arteries.
Now