7. Forever Young Journey Trilogy
“Sometimes The So-Called “SCIENCE” Is B#LL*CKS!”
Article seven is the first in our Forever Young Journey Trilogy with articles eight and nine coming your way shortly.
While doing some recent reading, two issues jumped out at me which demonstrate why we feel the Forever Young Club is such an important initiative. The first was in an article written by a newly qualified doctor in Sweden and the second a chapter in a best selling book written by a celebrated professor in Ireland.
1. Newly Qualified Doctor
Sebastian Rushworth graduated from medical school in January 2020 and is now practising in Stockholm, Sweden. He recently started a blog about health and medicine to try to get the truth out there as much as possible. As this is music to our ears, here’s the link to his blog, for those of you who are interested.
In his article, he says doctors in medical school receive lots of training in dealing with medical emergencies but are taught very little about how to avoid chronic disease and optimise long term health. Furthermore, he says much of what they are taught is wrong!
He had three lectures about nutrition; that’s three hours in over five years learning how to avoid chronic disease, which is often caused by poor nutrition. One of those lectures, in the last months before graduating, struck a very strong chord with Sebastian. The lecturer showed a PowerPoint slide, and said, “This is your bible; this is what you’re going to tell people.”
Here’s what was on that slide:
- Eat more fruit and vegetables.
- Eat more fish.
- Eat more whole grain cereals.
- Eat less sugar.
- Eat less saturated fat.
- Eat less salt.
- Eat low fat dairy.
- Eat less meat.
Sebastian has a strong interest in nutrition and has spent much personal time studying the science. He reckons at least half of the advice on the list was complete nonsense, not supported by the scientific evidence. Yet he was told that this is your “bible”; he feels choosing this word suggests it’s not science he was taught; it was religion!
Can You Answer This Question? Do you know which of the 8 items Sebastian thinks are “complete nonsense”?
Let us know in the comments section below which ones you think are nonsense and we’ll discuss the topic further in our first podcast and Q&A on Thursday.
2. Celebrated Professor
Luke O’Neill is a celebrated professor in Ireland and his new book “Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here’s the Science” is a best seller. As I often do, I went straight to Chapter 4 on nutrition titled “Why do you believe in diets?” To be honest, what I found didn’t really surprise me! First to be clear, I agree with the sentiments of the chapter title that diets don’t work. I’m sure we’ll return to this topic often.
Luke places considerable emphasis on genetics and new drugs as the solution to overweight and obesity and these may have an important role to play. However, it’s the final phrase of the last sentence, highlighted in bold text, that really sums up the problem we’ve with the so called science and thus the real challenge we face:
“But the bottom line is unrelentingly clear: the vast majority of diets don’t work in the long term, so try to eat less and exercise more.”
Advising his readers that the “bottom line” is to eat less and exercise more is, shall we say politely, way too simplistic and you deserve much better than that. We agree diets don’t work but simply saying “eat less” doesn’t work either! I wrote a best selling book about exercise and I can tell you that simply telling people to exercise more is is b#ll*cks!
That is why we chose Nutrition and Physical Activity as two of our 5 core topics; the others are Physical Health, Mental Health and Mindset.
Let us know what you think of the professor’s “bottom line” in the comments section below and we’ll also discuss this further in our first podcast and Q&A on Thursday.
Key Message: I hope this article demonstrates just how important it is for you to make sure you have access to accurate, reliable, science based information you can trust. This will enable you to make good decisions about your health so you can develop an active, healthy, sustainable lifestyle and achieve your goals and dreams.
Key Actions: Continue your Forever Young Journey with us and look out for the second article/video in our Forever Young Journey Trilogy coming your way tomorrow. It will show you “How to Decrease your Risk if you Get C***d!”.
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Hi Jim
Thanks for this! Believe it or not I thought these 8 were the key to a good diet! It’s so confusing and the silence keeps changing! For example some years ago it was all low fat everything now it’s all low sugar! Certainly interested in hearing more
Hi Mairead thanks for your comment and yes it is confusing. One of the reasons we created the Forever Young Club!!
Good points well made @jimkirwan 👍🏻😃🙌🏻
Thanks Cliona!
Hi All, I was lazy and watched Jim’s video instead of reading the article. In regard to the list I believe the key in moderation of all foods, not easy to do at times. The word diet should be deleted from the dictionary, a starting with a few small changes to suit your lifestyle is always a good start. Building from small steps is easier than taking giant leaps. I totally believe in the theory eat less move more, for years I done the opposite. I am looking forward to hearing and learning more.
Hi Anna thank you for your comments! Moderation is important though some foods are better than others [e.g. vegetables v sugar]. Step by step, day by day is the way to go and our 30 Day Moving Challenge will encourage that approach!
Hi Pat, as I mentioned I am doing Keto Diet so the above is interesting!
Not all fruits are good because of sugars.
Try to eat no refined sugar.
Eat your fats.
You need to add salt.
Eat full fat dairy.
Eat your meat. I personally don’t eat any red meat from a cow.
For Keto to work the idea is you eat more but less often to lose weight. Ideally twice a day with no snacks in between. (The suggestion is that over 50s should only eat once a day)
To date I have lost 10lbs and have no sugar cravings and I only eat when I am hungry which is usually at 11am and 5pm. I take regular daily exercise and nothing too strenuous.
So many people are taking Statins for their cholesterol levels because the Doctors are prescribing them without the science!! The side effects cause more damage so they take more tablets. It’s infuriating!
Hi Eileen, this is Jim here and clearly you have some very interesting experience there. Maybe we could lean on you at some stage?
Absolutely! I am only on day 35 of Keto so I am still learning but I can see and feel the results already.
Great will be thinking about how to do this. Keep me posted on how it goes for you. How long are you planning to keep this up for?
It’s definitely a lifestyle change. The guys I have been following are doing it for years. It’s not difficult.
The last 4 on Sebastians list are nonsense.
Hi Ken, this is Jim here and thanks for your input. I’m not going to reveal Sebastian’s answers here as we’ll do that in our first podcast. But I will say you are close!!
I was always lead to believe to eat everything in moderation. (While keeping an eye on salt intake).
See above answer!
On Sebastian’s list , I would think eat no refined sugar, Sugar occurs naturally in fruits and veg,
Full fat dairy as opposed to low fat
No saturated fats , if that’s possible
Thanks Kathleen, listen in to our first podcast when we’ll review this!
Eat less of what????
No point in telling someone to eat less they’re eating the wrong foods…
Couldn’t agree more Mary!
I was always lead to believe to eat everything in moderation but watch the salt intake.
Hi Aidan, probably good advice in general though there may be some changes that would improve the overall situation; e.g. more of X and less of Y could be better. As for salt, both too much and too little is bad so moderation is definitely good!