Happy birthday to me! Today I celebrate 56 trips around the sun. As I’ve done now for several years, I’m posting my annual birthday blog. With the recent death of my dad, this one is intentionally direct, honest, and raw. It’s also important. Please read.
Fitness and good health are largely determined by lifestyle. It’s true, people have genetic dispositions towards certain diseases. However, gene expression is mostly a result of external environmental factors. For privileged people, many of these factors, particularly what we eat and don’t eat, are in our control. Fitness and good health are a choice for aware, educated, financially secure people.
It’s important to acknowledge the factors that contribute to people accessing healthy nutrition such as awareness, education, economic situation, and food availability. Some people aren’t able to choose what they eat, and many don’t know the right choices to make. These are a result of larger systematic problems at work beyond the scope of this article. For those with relative food privilege, my target audience here, we are most certainly able to choose. If you’re fortunate enough to choose what you eat, this article is directed at you.
The top killers of modern humans are a direct result of food choices. We can draw a direct line from metabolic syndrome to: type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cognitive disorders including dementia and Alzheimer’s, certain forms of cancer, and a higher risk of neurologic disorders such as Parkinson’s. Metabolic syndrome typically starts with insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is caused by eating refined carbohydrates, mainly sugar, refined flour and starches.
In short, most modern humans die of self-inflicted disease. My dad is a perfect example. He died of COVID-19, December 5, 2020. He contracted the coronavirus in a nursing home. He had to go to a nursing home because he had Alzheimer’s. He developed Alzheimer’s because most of the calories he fueled himself with over the course of his life were refined carbohydrates. My dad never met a carb he didn’t like. He would single handedly finish the bread basket before the main course came when out to eat. He loved pasta, root vegetables, and had a sweet tooth for cookies, cake, candy, pie, ice cream, or any other sugar loaded desert.
Had my dad not been a refined carb junkie he wouldn’t have developed dementia, he wouldn’t have ended up in a nursing home, he wouldn’t have contracted the virus, and he would be alive today. Again, gene expression is a function of environmental factors including food choices. In fact, for a while I was able to get my dad to cease his high-carb consumption and his cognition improved, until he fell back into his old eating habits and the decline accelerated. I’m certain his death was a direct result of what he ate.
I’ve chosen another path. I don’t eat sugar or any other refined carbohydrate. Sugar, flour, and the like are not food. Sugar is poison. These non-foods are inflammatory, cause metabolic disorders, and will ultimately kill you. I choose to eat real whole foods that are anti-inflammatory. Since 2014, when my dad was diagnosed with dementia, I’ve followed a low carb/high fat keto nutrition plan. It’s very simple. I eat whole eggs, fatty cuts of dead animals, green veggies grown above ground, nuts and seeds, and a little bit of fruit. Being super lean walking around with a great physique is a nice byproduct but my primary motivation is long term health.
Ironically, the working title of my transformation guide published in 2014, Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job, was initially It’s Your Choice. We changed the title in the eleventh hour as we thought GFL was catchier and more descriptive. I then thought of “choice” in the context of a successful transformation. I now think of it in the broader and more important context of long-term health.
You can choose to swap long term health for short term satisfaction by continuing to poison yourself with sugar and refined carbs. You’ll most likely die of one of the top 10 self-inflicted diseases. Or, you can follow a low carb high fat keto nutrition plan and maintain long term health. It’s your choice.
Yours in Fitness and Health,
JD Griffin
Certified Nutrition Coach
Author; Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job
Fitness and good health are largely determined by lifestyle. It’s true, people have genetic dispositions towards certain diseases. However, gene expression is mostly a result of external environmental factors. For privileged people, many of these factors, particularly what we eat and don’t eat, are in our control. Fitness and good health are a choice for aware, educated, financially secure people.
It’s important to acknowledge the factors that contribute to people accessing healthy nutrition such as awareness, education, economic situation, and food availability. Some people aren’t able to choose what they eat, and many don’t know the right choices to make. These are a result of larger systematic problems at work beyond the scope of this article. For those with relative food privilege, my target audience here, we are most certainly able to choose. If you’re fortunate enough to choose what you eat, this article is directed at you.
The top killers of modern humans are a direct result of food choices. We can draw a direct line from metabolic syndrome to: type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cognitive disorders including dementia and Alzheimer’s, certain forms of cancer, and a higher risk of neurologic disorders such as Parkinson’s. Metabolic syndrome typically starts with insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is caused by eating refined carbohydrates, mainly sugar, refined flour and starches.
In short, most modern humans die of self-inflicted disease. My dad is a perfect example. He died of COVID-19, December 5, 2020. He contracted the coronavirus in a nursing home. He had to go to a nursing home because he had Alzheimer’s. He developed Alzheimer’s because most of the calories he fueled himself with over the course of his life were refined carbohydrates. My dad never met a carb he didn’t like. He would single handedly finish the bread basket before the main course came when out to eat. He loved pasta, root vegetables, and had a sweet tooth for cookies, cake, candy, pie, ice cream, or any other sugar loaded desert.
Had my dad not been a refined carb junkie he wouldn’t have developed dementia, he wouldn’t have ended up in a nursing home, he wouldn’t have contracted the virus, and he would be alive today. Again, gene expression is a function of environmental factors including food choices. In fact, for a while I was able to get my dad to cease his high-carb consumption and his cognition improved, until he fell back into his old eating habits and the decline accelerated. I’m certain his death was a direct result of what he ate.
I’ve chosen another path. I don’t eat sugar or any other refined carbohydrate. Sugar, flour, and the like are not food. Sugar is poison. These non-foods are inflammatory, cause metabolic disorders, and will ultimately kill you. I choose to eat real whole foods that are anti-inflammatory. Since 2014, when my dad was diagnosed with dementia, I’ve followed a low carb/high fat keto nutrition plan. It’s very simple. I eat whole eggs, fatty cuts of dead animals, green veggies grown above ground, nuts and seeds, and a little bit of fruit. Being super lean walking around with a great physique is a nice byproduct but my primary motivation is long term health.
Ironically, the working title of my transformation guide published in 2014, Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job, was initially It’s Your Choice. We changed the title in the eleventh hour as we thought GFL was catchier and more descriptive. I then thought of “choice” in the context of a successful transformation. I now think of it in the broader and more important context of long-term health.
You can choose to swap long term health for short term satisfaction by continuing to poison yourself with sugar and refined carbs. You’ll most likely die of one of the top 10 self-inflicted diseases. Or, you can follow a low carb high fat keto nutrition plan and maintain long term health. It’s your choice.
Yours in Fitness and Health,
JD Griffin
Certified Nutrition Coach
Author; Get Fit, Lean and Keep Your Day Job
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