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A FREE EXTRA DECADE OF LIFE #3

KELLEY BLUE-BOOK VALUE FOR A TRADE-IN BODY

I don’t know if the airline magazines are still carrying the ad, but not too long ago we were noticing an offer for some miracle drink that you could order for something like $24.95 for one jar. And the purpose of this great elixir was quite simple: you could drop off eight or ten pounds really, really fast. The ad gimmick, by the way, was that if you’re Gidget, and you’ve got a hot date literally around the corner — say, 36 hours from now — even just one day of guzzling this flab-fighting drink would mean that you could hit the beach with Moondoggie eight pounds lighter than you are right now. Of course, that’s only if you use the airline’s SkyFone to order it, so that the drink is waiting for you when you land.

Well, friend, I don’t bring it up to make fun of those kinds of ads. Because many, many people get discouraged with health plans and diets and even a title like the one in our resource book, Live 10 Healthy Years Longer, because they don’t see instant results after 36 hours.

Chapter Three of that book is entitled “Eating to Live,” and speaking of food, some people go to Dodger Stadium and polish off three foot-long Farmer John Dodger Dogs, cotton candy, Cracker Jack, a personal pizza, TGIF frozen yogurt, popcorn, a double bag of peanuts, a Cool-a-Coo ice cream sandwich, a frozen lemonade dessert, and four cups of beer at $4.50 each. And you know what? Except for feeling a little bit bloated, there really aren’t any immediate ill effects. The results of that pigging out aren’t actually noticeable. They can’t see the cholesterol forming or the arteries narrowing. They don’t really notice the scales jumping off the charts just from that one culinary grand slam experience. And the person in the next seat over, who has half a wheat germ sandwich, carrot juice, and an apple for dessert . . . doesn’t really notice any immediate pluses either. And so when the payoff or the punishment don’t instantly happen, it’s difficult for either side to take the issue of food very seriously.

We’ve been bragging for two days now about this exceptional new book which has just been released by Word Publishing: Live 10 Healthy Years Longer. But the two authors, Jan Kuzma and Cecil Murphey, confess that a lot of people find it hard to live according to what they call the “Live-Longer Lifestyle,” because when you’re 30 or 35, it’s hard to believe that you really are going to add an extra decade so far down the road.

“One of the problems involved in teaching nutrition,” they write, “is that it doesn’t have an immediate cause-and-effect result. Our bodies can withstand a lot of mistreatment. They can endure despite all the junk food and poisons we ingest. That is, for a period of time. But eventually such mistreatment catches up with us.”

They go on to use a very clever illustration, where you buy a brand new car — and isn’t that a marvelous feeling? It smells so good, it looks so good, it runs so good. And for a while you’re motivated to do all the right things: change the oil, keep it washed and waxed, check the tire pressure, follow the manufacturer’s suggested service plan. But as the months go by, the excitement wears off, and you begin to let down your guard. Maybe you try a quick fix: an additive for the gasoline, maybe . . . not realizing that some things which help short-term are actually harmful over the life of the car. So this cheap-fix gimmick cancels out that one, and five or six years down the road, your car is making some pretty funny noises, and sagging to one side, and getting a lot fewer miles per gallon than the salesman promised.

So what do you do? We all do it: you trade in that smoking, indigestion-plagued car and get a new one, so you can start the process over. That’s all well and good, Jan and Cecil tell us, except that when it comes to our health and our bodies, we don’t have the luxury of trading in. We just get the one body for a lifetime. And whatever we add in, whatever we feed ourselves . . . we live with the results for as long as time might last. And so we think about this title: “Eating to Live.”

And the writers of this great new bestseller remind us of two obvious, up-front facts. First of all, we are what we eat!

“Food forms all the cells and tissues of our bodies,” they write. “Perception, memory, and all the intricate complexities are possible because our bodies have enzymes, hormones, genes, and thousands of other wonders produced through the food we eat. . . . Food is responsible for body structure. Even more amazing is that we don’t have a single body molecule or chemical that we had seven years ago. In just seven years, each of us has an almost total body replacement.”

Point #2 is that we get our energy from food. Food plus oxygen yields energy. And that comes from the three food types, of course: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Carbs are immediate energy, fats are “high-energy storage,” and proteins are the body’s building blocks: four calories to a gram for carbohydrates and proteins, and about nine per gram for fats. And — here’s a Dodger ballpark figure to aim at — a woman generally needs about 2,000 calories a day to maintain a normal lifestyle, a man about 2,700.

Now, before we talk about what foods to eat, which is really Thursday’s topic, Cecil and Jan give us eight tips on just eating itself. But before we get to those, I want to remind you of one of this writing team’s core Bible verses, which shines all through this great book. It’s in I Corinthians 10:31:
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

You see, friend, it’s a good thing to eat well: at Dodger Stadium or wherever you may be, as Vin Scully puts it. Eating well can add those 13 years to your life, and make you feel a lot better. We want that for you, and God does too. But it’s about more than just the 13 years. It’s about honoring the Creator who gave us this one body to care for and nurture.

So, with that in mind, here’s a quick rundown on the List of Eight. 1. Eat slowly and enjoy your food. Your digestive system will handle it better, and you’ll tend to eat less. Spread out that sandwich over three innings of the ballgame next week.

2. Chew thoroughly. As we all know, the digestive process begins where? In the mouth. Giving your food more “saliva amylase” — those are enzymes which will help the stomach do its job — works as a kind of “predigesting process.”

Jan and Cecil throw in this bonus tip, by the way.

“The closer to the natural state, the more nutritious the food,” they write, “and the more you will need to chew. Those who eat a lot of raw and unprocessed foods enjoy better health.”

Cotton candy and red vines are probably a ways down that list. But let’s continue, before the Dodgers come up to bat again.

3. Limit the variety of food you eat at each meal. And the writers add another good tip. Here it is:

“Don’t make a habit of serving food in courses. It’s easy to overeat if you don’t realize how much is yet to come.”

Now, if you’re accompanying President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to a summit meeting with Chinese president Jiang Zemin, and they serve you an 18-course banquet dinner, you better go along, for the cause of world peace. But when you’re at home, three or four nutritious dishes are plenty.

Here’s 4. Enjoy moderate exercise after meals. Here at the office, our staff tends to struggle mightily with two local establishments: the Home Town Buffet, and Acapulco’s all-you-can-eat Mexican lunch menu. I think from 1:15 that afternoon until around 3:30, the quality of work takes a nasty little dip. Radio scripts turn into gibberish, the speaker can’t read his lines, and the secretaries fall asleep at their cubicles. But if you can squeeze in just a quick walk or a few flights of stairs after a big meal, the body’s perceptive qualities rebound very quickly.

Number five is a cousin principle: Avoid eating immediately after heavy exertion. You want your body’s digestive system well rested right before you eat, so it can do its work afterward.

6. Space meals five or six hours apart. Same theory as for number five. If you’re really famished, and don’t think you can wait, have a couple of big glasses of water, which can fool your stomach into thinking you’re not that hungry quite yet.

7. Consider eating two meals a day. More about that as we continue the series, but a lot of people find that a good breakfast around 10:00 a.m. — never skip breakfast, by the way — and then supper around five, if your lifestyle can manage it, is a terrific strategy to follow.

And finally: 8. Eat meals at regular hours.

“Our bodies readily adapt to cycles and rhythms,” write Jan and Cecil, “and they function best when events such as meals come at regular, fixed times each day.”

So, friend, that’s HOW to eat. Tomorrow we’ll begin to think about the WHAT.