The modern day paradigm of staying healthy and slowing down aging revolves around three dominant wellness approaches: diet, fitness, and preventive medicine. Despite these flourishing industries providing easy access to healthy lifestyle through natural foods, health clubs and preventive information, we still see chronic disease on the rise in America. Thanks to the efforts of Human Genome Project, we now know that only a small percentage of diseases are inherited from your parents and the majority are caused by your cellular environment (epigenetics) and lifestyle choices. Most chronic diseases, which affect almost half of the US population (133 million), are preventable. These include obesity, type II diabetes, arthritis, cancer and heart disease. I call these headliner diseases – they get a lot of research dollars and media attention. But there are many more modern, new, chronic health issues that did not really exit 50-100 years ago that I witness as a practitioner, like depression, anxiety, ADHD, digestive issues, chronic pain, infertility, sleep disorders, migraines, multiple sclerosis (MS) – and the list goes on!
Welcome to the 21st century dis-eased, epidemic reality, where chronic diseases that did not exist 100 years ago, or even 50 years ago are now prevalent and growing at an alarming rates without any indication of slowing down! And modern medicine, or alternative healthcare advocates have no real solutions! I will spare you all of the hard data for now, accept an important snapshot on the alarming obesity growth versus sugar consumption in the United States from 1980 to 2013. Surprisingly, obesity since 1980 is on a vertical growth rate and currently still growing, where sugar consumption linked to weight gain has declined substantially for 13 years! So, here is a classic example, where educational awareness has caused a declined in sugar consumption, but yet “something” else is resulting in an epidemic growth rate in obesity, which directly leads to all sorts of metabolic related diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart attacks!
As a health coach and a wellness practitioner, I ask myself this question: What is the root cause all of the modern diseases that did not exist 50 or 100 years ago like Autism, ADHD, depression? What is driving the rapid growth of chronic disease among all age groups? And it is not just the elderly who are affected by serious disease. All age groups are experiencing health disorders like obesity and metabolic syndrome. So, rather than supporting the current wellness paradigm and suggesting another expensive supplement, new diet, Paleo product, crossfit gym membership or detox 30 day plan, lets have a realty check and ask the question: If the modern prescription for wellness is to just follow what everybody else is doing in terms of diet, fitness, and functional medicine, then why does the statistical data show the opposite effect – diseases on the rise and quality of health declining in America? When you consider how much money we spend on health, natural foods and medicine, Americans should be the healthiest people on the face of the planet! But once again, the numbers show otherwise.
I ask again: why are so many Americans struggling to lose weight with all the healthy lifestyle resources such as health clubs, Crossfit gyms, yoga studios, Paleo foods, vegetarianism, veganism, gluten-free awareness, local farmers’ markets and organic foods accessible in over 20,000 mainstream grocery chains nationwide? In contrast, I recently returned from Bogota, Colombia. What I observed there was that while South Americans have limited access to what is considered “health products” – like the hundreds of packaged foods at Whole Foods, from paleo to gluten-free and organic, – yet obesity and weight issues are not as common there as they are here.
I have always sensed that there is more to vitality than meets the eye. What do we really need to know and be doing to live a disease-free, pain-free, vibrant life? But first, let me just provide more evidence for how the modern wellness paradigm is failing miserably, despite the billions of dollars being pumped by consumers into every wellness business sector. The USA spends more on healthcare per capita than any other country in the world, but still has the sickest population and all kinds of diseases that did not exit 50 or 100 years ago!
Annually, consumers spend over $64 billion dollars a year on diet related products. From diet centers, surgery, diet related beverages and diet type of supplements. There is no simple answer, like the food gurus and diet-supplement pushers would like you to believe, to metabolic disease, obesity or other kinds of health issues. You might hear: “Just eat Paleo!” Or raw food, gluten-free, South Beach diet, Skinny-Bitch diet, vegan, low-carb, high-fat… How about the latest diet fad – $12 cup of bone broth? If diet is the holy grail of weight loss and wellness, then why are there over new 500 diet books published every year? If all of those diet promises delivered results, then there would be no need to publish more of them every year! I promise you, we will see another 10 or more food trends come in and out of favor, but the obesity epidemic will continue to grow with no end in sight! That is absolutely certain – because it is not just a food or exercise issue.
The question we should all be asking is this: if it’s just about eating organic, non-GMO foods and exercising, then why do we see so many well-intended individuals battling not only with weight loss, but with so many other modern diseases? The food gurus, supplement companies, Crossfit trainers and other self-proclaimed health experts keep preaching their dogmatic diet and exercise plans without delivering longterm health solutions. Don’t get me wrong: eating quality, real organic and local food and exercising regularly are an important part of the equation, but it is not the panacea for today’s crippling diseases that are slowly stealing humanity’s life force! Unfortunately, even individuals who are sincerely looking for answers are vulnerable to these “half-truth, quick fixes” that are being sold by businesses like food, medical, fitness and media industries.
Lets take a look at all the false food gurus’ claims and government recommendations over past decades. Dr. Dean Ornish’s low-fat diet was the mantra back in the 90’s and 2000’s and it had a devastating effect on health! People replaced fat in their diet with quick, sugary carbs that ended up on their waistline, and all of that excessive sugar led to pre-diabetes and cardio-vascular disease. The billion-dollar low-fat foods industry is still promoting false facts about saturated fats causing heart disease. So, if fat and cholesterol are considered the devil, then cholesterol-lowering drugs, like statins, are the savior? The food and medical industry are making hundreds of billions promoting F.E.A.R. of cholesterol and endorsing low-fat diets. The common belief is that cholesterol causes arterial plaque, but study after study show that’s not the case. What causes arterial plaque is not cholesterol, but ubiquitous inflammation throughout the body. Cardiovascular disease are really caused by chronic inflammation, but cholesterol is getting the blame. In fact, the common thread in most diseases is inflammation, which manifests in various organs and tissues in the body. So then the billion-dollar question is: What is causing so much inflammation?
Another classic example of the food industries and medical priesthood promoting F.E.A.R is blaming some of nature’s most perfect nutritious foods – eggs, which contain the essential fatty acids, like DHA, and cholesterol. DHA is a critical fatty acid abundant in the brain and vital for cognitive function. DHA is difficult to obtain from vegetarian foods, but it is present in high amounts in eggs and seafood. Cholesterol is another essential molecule found in these foods required by our bodies for anything from maintaining cell membrane fluidity to hormone and vitamin D synthesis. So, once again the food gurus and modern medicine are recommending cutting out this most critical natural steroid from our diet. It is down right stupid beyond belief! The synthesis of building blocks of life (sex hormones – testosterone and estrogens) begins with cholesterol. So what happens when you dramatically lower your cholesterol? Men who are on prescription for statin drugs end up with a host of adverse effects. For one, low cholesterol kills your mojo (sexual drive!). The end result is more F.E.A.R. and a prescription for erectile dysfunction drugs, like Viagra. It never ends: once you go down the pharma approach you’re a lifer!
Consume, consume and consume – the next food, supplement or exercise fad! Next time you hear “Just go Paleo and do your daily WODs”, be skeptical: just because it’s nicely packaged in a 30-second sound bite, does not mean it will give you what you want!
Consumerism is what Americans do best. But when it comes to being the master of your own vitality (body and mind) the stats speak otherwise! There are more and more organic products and dietary supplements being pumped out every day from the natural products industry, but public health keeps getting worse! Does the term “health industry” imply that you need to buy something to be healthy? In addition, keep in mind that purchasing anything means you are exchanging your vitality for goods or services. Every time we buy something to be healthy, we are exchanging our energy for that product because we have to work for it! Every day the unauthentic, mainstream advertising industry is selling us some illusive idea about health. Being healthy should be a lot simpler than purchasing your way to health.
So, did the Universe in its infinite wisdom create a reality where we have to keep buying the latest food products; and take the latest pharmaceutical drug to stay healthy? If that was true, then what did the past cultures do to stay healthy for thousands years, before the fitness and natural products industries were born? What did the Spartans, Romans, Native Americans do to stay so fit and healthy? Is there more to this wellness story besides supplements, gluten-free, and cross-fit gym memberships? Perhaps the dominant paradigm about health and wellness through food consumption is only a half truth? What if I told you that there is plenty of research and science supporting the premise that nature is humanity’s best, well-known natural pharmacy that can restore one’s health.
Weather your health goal is losing weight, or being pain-free, drug-free or being at your ideal weight, or feeling 10 years younger! My goal as a health educator is to empower you on how to live healthy, slow down aging and save you hundreds, thousands of dollars, where you do not need to chase every latest product trend to feel vibrant again! As a Quantum Health Coach, my practice focuses upon optimizing your critical regeneration hormones like HGH, testosterone, melatonin, leptin & neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin). Through educational best practices and biological marker testing (blood & hormones), I can show you how to reset your metabolism and optimize hunger (weight loss), and mood! To learn more checkout UberVitality.com/about
Quantum Health Coach Consultations mauricio@ubervitality.com
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