I'm a medical student in Arizona, currently serving on the Committee of Scientific Issues of the AMA Medical Student Section. Previously I earned a Master of Science doing research on the protein structure of some of the most crucial components involved in human DNA repair, with implications in learning about how we get cancer or on the other end of the spectrum, why our cells eventually fail and we age. It doesn't make me an expert on health in general, but I do have some ideas, based on the education I've had the privilege to obtain and the literature review of biomedical sciences that I needed to do throughout my scientific studies.
Recently I just had my annual physical exam, and I'm not ashamed to say...good job me. I forgot to fast for it so my lipids and sugar might be falsely elevated, but my doctor says "you're here, might as well take your blood and we'll take it into account". Well long story short, turns out I (almost) can't be any healthier (woohoo). My results attached at the end. Bask in the glory of my perfect scores on blood tests.
And now, for my economical, efficient, low-stress life & diet choices:
- Don't stress about what you're eating. Seriously, the stress of checking the ingredient, the calorie puts constant pressure on you (and the labelled value is not even accurate, not to mention there is NO UNIVERSAL DAILY CALORIC NEED number that is true, everyone is different). This puts your body into a conservation mode, and the habit also makes you obsessed about food (not only about checking food, but food in general), so now food is on your mind all the time. And that's...going to make you hungry, and makes it harder control. This is partly why research shows counting calories don't do you any good, and it makes you prone to low self-esteem because sometimes you'll fail to hit that arbitrary mark.
- Don't be picky. Maybe when your parents told you to eat your vegetables (when you are being a little carnivore), that was the best advice there is. Personally, I prefer having food tendencies rather than restrictions. I have practically no food that I don't eat, and whenever available I always go for a more "foreign", different type of food or cuisine. This allows me to maximize my diet diversity without actually doing much work (just pick that restaurant you've never been to before instead of the same one over and over). I have a tendency to eat less meat these days, especially beef/steak and those bigger animals, mostly because of the carbon footprint is quite high, and I get the same amount of joy from eating if the meat is fish or chicken, so it's an easier decision for me. But if a plate of free food is in front of me, you bet I'll happily dig in regardless of the content.
- But...avoid high sugar, high salt, or pure fat. I eat very little cheese, it's not really in my vicinity other than pizza. I don't add cheese in my burger (if they cost extra...heh). I seldom drink soft drinks, juices pretty rare too since the commercial ones are basically sugar. I do eat fast food, but fairly occasional. Most of the time I eat at home via rice cooker. Not as fancy as these, just vegetables sprinkles with some meat (fish or sausage type stuff mostly) with little to no seasoning. I know that monk-style food is probably not for everyone, I do use packed japanese or Mexican style curry.
- Most frozen food and, save for the sodium content, canned food are actually quite healthy. Due to the way frozen & canned food is preserved without additives, they are often much healthier than the "poor people" or "apocalypse" food choice they appear to be. Actually, the fact that they can store for a long time and be nutritious enough for people to survive during apocalypse is probably a point in their favour?
- Don't snack. Or at least not that often. Personally I just don't think about eating all that much. I eat 3 meals a day, and rarely would I chew on an energy bar late in the morning or afternoon before regular meals. Not eating snacking really takes off the calorie intake.
- Do eat at regular times. 3 meals a day, or break it up into 4 meal (not adding a whole meal, just spread out the portion size), always eat at regular interval so that your body doesn't experience hunger/starving phases all the time. Again, if your body experience stress it will shift into storage mode when food finally comes around. Your muscles atrophy, and fat storage increase - meaning you get weaker (harder to exercise), and more obese. The compounding effect of the two will put you into a vicious cycle so eat regularly.
- Do eat until you don't feel hungry anymore. In Chinese there's a general rule of "if you're trying to lose weight, eat till you're 70% full". There is quite some truth in that. Your body starts producing CCK and other neuro signals that give you satiety, especially after fat has entered your small intestine. That's what makes you feel full (and satisfied) for the next 4 hours or so, even if you stop eating right there before you finish the portion. So you should not feel obliged to finish your food all the time. Instead save the leftovers to finish at the start of the next meal or something. I guess you also save some money this way?
- Do exercise. And I say this with slight hypocrisy (let me go do 50 pushups before I continue)... Ok so currently, being a med student, I'm among the lazy type, just sitting around memorizing stuff. But before this, I was always on a competitive sports team - table tennis in primary schools, basketball/football (soccer for our American friends), then floorball (won 1st place in-school competition, fun) & badminton in high school (won a city champion during grade 11, that was cool); fencing epeé during undergrad, then a sabre fencer during grad school. I have always done well in sports, and it was a way to force me to keep fit (seriously, the pressure from the coach during body-conditioning...) and now without any competitive sport, I just try to do pushups, situps, pull-ups and stretch once a day. Nevertheless, being physically fit is an essential component. Most people at this point know that muscle burns more energy than fat, and offers better blood sugar control (muscle stores sugar as glycogen, fat cells turn them...well into fat), and a healthier body will improve your psychological well-being, too. So do weight training (also great for preventing osteoporosis), run around a bit, and keep that in your habit/routine.
That's about the intro to me. I might later update a post with all the more detailed choices that I make. Stay happy and healthy!
Will you look at this shit:
