Devolve Your Health: What a Caveman Can Teach You About How to Live Well

STRESS!!!!!!!!!!!

2014-09-04T06:08:00.001-05:00

This has been a whirlwind couple of months. First, I got married in June. While this is an extremely happy event, the planning and execution can be extremely stressful. As if getting married was not enough pressure, I also decided it was time for a change of job and location. After some looking around and consideration, we decided on West Lafayette, IN on where to settle. Again, a decision that I am very happy about, but one that leads to a veritable storm of chaos, with selling one house, buying another, preparing to move, and making arrangements for leaving my old job and starting my new one.

OK. Enough about my life. You might be thinking "what does this have to do with a weight loss and wellness blog?" Valid question which I can answer in 1 word: stress. During the year and a half after my divorce, I ballooned from 200 lbs to almost 300. I am still working on losing the weight now. There are several reasons that I gained so much weight so quickly:

1. I overate. Many people, yours truly included, are stress eaters. I eat when I am angry, stressed, or upset. It causes trouble when I am pressed too hard, because I tend to overeat junk food (who has ever called broccoli "comfort food"). Despite the fact that I am aware of my stress eating, it still happens when I get very stressed or upset.

2. I didn't exercise. Exercise requires a fair amount of motivation and time. As I learned in my journey to fitness take one, exercise is something you have to commit to and plan for. It doesn't just happen. When your plate gets very full with other events and obligations, "optional" activities like exercise tend to go on the back burner.

3. Body chemistry. When you are under large amounts of stress, your own body chemistry works against you. Your adrenal glands release cortisol, which is the primary stress hormone. Cortisol oversees many chemical reactions in your body which were meant to deal with the difficulties of living in the ancient wilderness. One of those reactions was to prepare for a possible famine. Cortisol does this in two ways. First, it turns off most of your fat burning pathways, and shunts most new calories taken in to the formation of fat. The idea being to store up as many spare calories as possible for the famine to come. Wonderful if you are a caveman trying to survive the winter. Not so good if you live in a country with a KFC on every corner.

Clearly, based upon the above, I screwed up royally. Although I try very hard to take good care of my body most of the time, I handled this stressful year very poorly. For you all, my readers, my failure can be a good thing. I would love to share with you how I should have handled all of this.

Stress Management: The Right Way

1. Don't worry about what you can't control. I know it is difficult. I am not really good at it myself, but much of what we worry about is not controllable. Whether you choose to write down your worries and burn them, or place them on God, or the universe, or whatever you believe in, find a way to focus on what you can control, and ignore what you can't.

2. Make good dietary choices. Just because you may be a stress eater does not mean you have to gorge on junk food. If you feel the urge to eat, use my why/why method to make good food choices. Instead of gorging yourself on fried chicken and mac and cheese, gorge yourself on blueberries. Write down what you are eating and why, and you can identify problem times and foods.

3. Exercise! I don't care what you have to sacrifice in order to do it, but make at least 20-30 minutes a day to exercise. Exercise releases endorphins (to make you feel happy), lowers cortisol, and reduces stress. The more pressed for time you become, the more important it is to exercise.

4. Get plenty of sleep. Another part of our regimen that we tend to sacrifice when busy is sleep. It's hard to dedicate 6-8 hours to being unconscious. The problem is, inadequate sleep increases cortisol levels, and leads to overeating and weight gain.

Had I managed my stress this way, I might still weigh around 200 lbs, and not have to struggle my way through weight loss again. I hope you all can learn from my many mistakes, so that you don't have to repeat my unhappy situation.

M. Jacob Ott, MD

Vegan Vacation

2014-06-25T00:46:00.003-05:00

It is summer. Travel season. Now that the kids are out of school, everyone is planning their summer trips, and going to such exciting vacation destinations as Disney World, Vegas, Hawaii, and the Caribbean. My family and I have a trip planned as well. I have to say that I am quite excited about it.

One of the things I find hardest about vacations is the travel itself. As a reformed overeater and vegan, travel is quite scary at times. At home, I control my diet and exercise stringently, as that is the way that I lost all the weight in the first place. When I travel, all of those rules go out the window. That being said, there are strategies which can help you deal with the rigors of travel, and still keep to your vegan diet and exercise. I will outline these below:

The Airport: Unfortunately, the airport is a hotbed of bad food. I have been to many airports in my time, and I am sad to say that the vegan options are very limited. In smaller airports, you are usually limited to a small salad or some fruit from one of the few restaurants available. In larger airports, there will occasionally be an establishment which specializes in vegan cuisine, but at least you can usually find a sushi place or something similar, and get veggie rolls or the like. What I usually choose to do is pack my own snacks ahead of time. Dried fruits, nuts, and fruit bars, such as Larabars are wonderful vegan options.
The Airplane: Once you cross the jetway, forget it. I don't know of a single airline who still offers vegan meals. Their pathetic a la carte "menus" offer no vegan choices. Even if you request a vegan meal, the request won't be honored. This applies even if you fly first class. In 7 years of flying as a vegan, I have yet to get a single vegan meal aboard an airplane...
The destination: Once you reach your destination, your job is often the hardest. The temptation to eat bad foods "because I am on vacation, and the rules don't apply" is very high. Additionally, if you are like me, you plan lots of activities on vacation. Thus, exercising is difficult, as time is limited. I have learned a couple of strategies to deal with this:

Lose the vacation mentality: First, forget you are on vacation. You still need to eat the same as you would on the DevolveHealth eating plan at home. Remember, though, the DevolveHealth plan does allow for "occasional" animal products. If you want a bite or two of dessert, go ahead. Just don't throw the rules out completely
Wake up early. I know this is difficult on vacation, but getting up an hour early allows you to get a run in (hopefully on the beach), and still be back and ready before your vacation companions even wake up. You can run 3-4 miles every day during vacation, with only a little discipline.

Back Home: Believe it or not, I find this to be the most difficult. Because we all have that vacation mentality, once you return to your home, it is often hard to get back into your normal routine. Saying to yourself "I will start running and eating well again tomorrow, but today, I am going to let everything go" is very easy. I find the best way to deal with this is to re-establish the routine from day one. Get up. eat a breakfast of fruits and veggies, and go for a run. Get right back on the train, so that the human sense of routines kicks in. We are creatures of habit. If you reclaim your routine, it will take over, and your good eating and exercise will support themselves.

Most experts, including me agree that vacations are very hard on a fitness routine. I hope the strategies that I have shared will help you maintain healthy habits during your vacation, yet still allow quite a bit of fun. If you need more help on eating or exercise, please visit my website: www.devolvehealth.com, or contact me: drott@devolvehealth.com. Also, please feel free to post your experiences with diet and vacation on this blog, as other readers may need the inspiration.

Good luck to all and enjoy your summer!!!

M. Jacob Ott, MD

So you call yourself an environmentalist?

2014-06-07T01:31:00.000-05:00

I read a recent study that 70% of Americans consider themselves to be environmentalists. Green is very much the in color right now. People are opting for higher fuel efficiency cars, recycling their trash, putting solar panels on their roofs, and using fewer utilities to save our precious resources.

I don't know about all of you, but I love the environmental movement. It is good to know that we can help pass the earth to future generations with hopefully minimal impact. If you ask most people who are the biggest offenders to the environment are, they would say humankind. In a way, they are right.One sector of human endeavor does contribute massively to energy waste and greenhouse gases. It isn't the automobile industry, nor is it factories and other manufacturing. What is this huge drain on our resources? Meat.

The meat industry, in particular factory farms, is a leech on the environment. The meat farmers claim to produce quality products at a cheap price. I'll give them one thing: the price tag on the grocery store packages is relatively low. What they don't tell you about is the cost to society and the planet. Since they won't, I will.

The raising of billions of animals for slaughter takes a lot of grain and water. It takes approximately 12 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce just ONE POUND of beef. Due to the fossil fuels required to produce the grain, that equals 1 gallon of gas. Since the average beef cow weighs in around 1000 lbs, it takes 1000 gallons of gas to raise one cow. All in all, factory farming accounts for 18% of the fossil fuel used in America today. That is more than all the cars on the road, even before you take into account the gas required to ship the dead cows around the country to get to your local grocery store.
The concentration of thousands of animals in a small enclosure leads to humongous amounts of waste (urine and feces). The waste is pumped into giant lagoons, some of which is used as drinking water for the animals themselves, but the rest of which seeps into the ground water, ruining the quality of the water we all drink every day. Some even seeps into the air, causing asthma and other respiratory ailments. People who live near or work on factory farms have 3 times the rate of asthma of the general population.
The cheap corn and soybeans that are used for feeding this mass of animals can come from South America and other places, contributing to deforestation of the precious rain forests.
The massive amounts of Methane and Sulfur dioxide produced by the animals (farts) contributes more to greenhouse gases than all vehicles on the roads combined.

The reason I find this interesting is the statistic I quoted at the beginning: 70% of Americans consider themselves environmentalists. Yet 95% of Americans eat meat, and 99% of Americans eat dairy, eggs, or other animal products. Given the facts presented above, you simply CANNOT be an environmentalist if you choose to eat animal products. Unless you farm the animals yourself (in a non factory manner), you are enabling that system. Eating organic doesn't help. Organic operations are just as factory as the next guy.

If you care about the environment like I do, I hope that you use these newly learned facts to opt out of the factory farming system. Your health and our planet will be all the better for it.

Feel free to share any experiences or thoughts you have on your journey to true environmentalism and a truly sustainable lifestyle. Good luck!

M Jacob Ott, MD

Fat Pride. Why it Isn't Good for Us

2014-06-03T01:25:00.000-05:00

Let me begin by saying that this post may not be completely politically correct. I don't really like political correctness very much. Being super careful not to offend anyone is not really a great way to motivate. I will also say that I am sensitive to the issues I am about to present. As a fat, then skinny, and now fat again person, I more than most understand the issues that overweight people face. I have been made fun of, and felt insecurity and depression about my body image.

With all of that said, I HATE the current "fat pride" movement. In this era of equality and social progressiveness, we are taught that however a person chooses to live is totally OK, and that we should celebrate their life choices. Now, I am in no way racist or sexist. I am really glad that women have achieved equal rights, and that people of non-white ethnicities have made huge strides in social, economic, and academic circles. I am also very glad that gay marriage has become acceptable. Regardless of your beliefs about the sinfulness or lack thereof of homosexuality, I think most people can agree that gay marriage is a political, not a religious issue. I truly believe that everyone deserves equal protection under the law, regardless of what the dominant religion has to say about it. (I am Christian, but in America, religion and law are two separate issues).

The fat pride movement is quite different. There are plusses and minuses to it. I'll start with the positive. It is a good thing that people are happy with who they are, and don't have to suffer major self-esteem issues because they don't fit society's standard of beauty. Here in America, beauty seems to be the most important objective. Most people want to lose weight because they need to fit into a bikini, or look good in their little black dress.

Which leads us to the big minus: beauty is a secondary concern. As a doctor, I am primarily concerned about people's health. Unlike being a woman, being African American, or being gay, obesity leads to scads of health problems, including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, depression, chronic pain, and most likely early death. This is my big problem with fat pride. People use it as an excuse to forgive themselves for what is usually a deep emotional issue, or a major addiction. It would be similar to having a movement for alcoholic pride, or meth abuser pride. Just because someone chooses a certain lifestyle doesn't mean that it needs to be celebrated.

I am pissed off at myself because I gave up and got fat again. I don't want to accept my body. I am not depressed or unhappy, but I am not satisfied with how I currently am. My goal is to reach 175 lbs (about 100 from where I am now). After reflecting for a long time about the fat pride movement, I have decided to selectively accept a few things, and reject others. I accept that overweight people should not be ridiculed or disrespected just because they don't fit our narrow view of beauty. I reject that we should stay how we are out of some misguided sense of pride or arrogance. Thankfully, no one need ever be obese. All it takes to find health and a normal weight is a few lifestyle changes.

The DevolveHealth eating plan is simple, easy to understand, and works every single time. All you have to do is follow 3 guidelines:

1. Eat foods like they grow in nature. (No processed sugars, oils, or "food products."
2. Eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and grain, and very little if any meat, dairy, or eggs.
3. Choose food for nutrition, not flavor.

Easy to implement, sometimes hard to follow. As I always tell myself in a weak moment, nothing worth having is easy. So refuse to be insulted because you are overweight, but also refuse to accept that obesity is the only possible outcome for you. Join me in reclaiming your health and fitness, and post your comments on here, or on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/devolvehealth). Or go to my web page, and send me an email (www.devolvehealth.com). I would be thrilled to share in your journey, or hear about your successes and hardships.

M. Jacob Ott, MD

Do you love your pets?

2014-05-22T00:08:00.003-05:00

I must admit, I love pets. We currently have 3 dogs and a cat. They cause unlimited amounts of trouble, and I try to convince them that I am mad at them by telling them that I don't like them and that I am upset by what they did.

Fact of the matter is: I like having them around when I am alone. They lay next to me when I sleep, and they are very happy to see me when I get home. Next to my wife and my kids, they are the beings I love most in the world.

I know what you are thinking. How do pets have a place in a health and wellness blog. We'll get there, and you'll likely be horrified, as I was. My job is not to keep you happy, but to expose you to issues that you might not experience in the mainstream media, when it is pertinent to your health and well being. Since I have been a vegan for 4 years, with a year hiatus, and have extensively studied animal execution, factory farming, and animal welfare, I was surprised I had never learned about this. I'm glad I have now. Big Meat might be mad at me for sharing this, but I wouldn't feel right unless I talked about this with you, my followers who have chosen the path of health and wellness.

First, we have to start with the food chains of Asia. In many cultures in Asia, the dog is considered a valid part of the food chain. They kill, butcher, and eat dogs, as we do to cows, pigs, and chicken. Most Americans consider dog eating to be abhorrent, mainly because we choose to keep those animals as pets, name them, and care for them, rather than choosing them as food.

I have two points here. First, why are dogs not considered food in the west? They are just as nutritious as pigs, cows, and chicken. They are no smarter than pigs, in fact, they may be much less intelligent. They are no better as guard animals. A pig will give its life to defend its master against a physical threat, even to the point of death. I love dogs, but how can we justify the way we treat pigs, when they are more intelligent and just as loyal as dogs? If you are unfamiliar with how we currently treat pigs in America, they are contained in crates barely bigger than their bodies. They have their tails cut off without pain control because they go insane under such conditions. After about 6 weeks of force feeding, they are brought to the processing plant, where nearly 1/3 of them are still awake while they are skinned, put through a boiling water bath, and dissected alive, before being bled out and finally dying. I don't know about you, but that isn't how I'd like my dog to be treated. BTW, that is how almost all animals destined for your dinner plate are treated. If you don't believe me, google "slaughterhouse practices." You will see more than you ever want to.

Point two has to do with dogs and cats that are unwanted. Many sources estimate that 6-8 million dogs and cats are euthanized every year. Most of these animals are born because of irresponsible spaying and neutering practices. I feel sad about the number of unwanted pets, but even worse about what I found out considering what happens to them. Let's say a clinic euthanizes a large number of dogs and cats. What do they do with the bodies? They cremate some that their owners want. The rest are sold to rendering plants. The bodies are ground into meat, brain tissue, and bone meal. This meal makes very cheap feed, which is given to chicken, cows, and pigs. Those of you who were happy that you didn't live in Asia because you didn't eat dog or cat, surprise! You eat the flesh of virtually every dog and cat who is killed in this country, only second hand through what you call chicken, pork, and beef.

Why do the meat farmers feed the ground up bodies of cats and dogs to the animals we eat? Simple answer: Money. Rendered dog and cat corpses are rather cheap. That lowers their cost of operation, which lowers the cost of the meat. If they then sell at the same price, they get to pocket the difference as profit. They also grind up the bodies of lame cows, cattle, and chicken, and feed them to the live animals for the same reason. Although the practice has been banned in Europe for decades, it is considered "standard industry practice" and is exempted by federal law. These laws are largely written by Congressmen and Senators who are given scads of money by lobbyists for factory farmers.

There are a couple of reasons I give you this information: first, I want you to know what exactly goes into the food that you eat. The big meat companies could come down on me hard for what I am telling you, but I think you deserve to know the truth. Second, I want you to be healthy. Do you think that chickens, pigs, and cows, whose normal diet is based on grazing should be fed the ground up tissue of their own species (also known as cannibalism) and those of other animals? Is eating the byproducts of those sick animals good for your health? As a doctor, I can tell you the answer is no. Salmonella, E Coli: 0157:H7, Shigella, and prion diseases, such as Mad Cow Disease (known in humans as Crutchfeld-Jacob Disease) are the result of feeding animals to animals.

Fortunately, if you want to avoid adding to this system and contributing to both disease and the cruelty that these animals suffer, all you have to do is adopt a plant based diet. Plants harbor no such diseases, and do not suffer merely because we like to eat a steak now and again. Eating plants, fruits, legumes, and nuts is not only nutritionally sound, and conducive to weight loss, but is also free of killing poor cats and dogs, and eating animals which likely contain deadly disease.

If you want to opt out of factory farming, and the lies told by the meat industry, feel free to comment, email me at drott@devolvehealth.com, or visit my website at www.devolvehealth.com

M Jacob Ott, MD

So You Want to be a Vegan?

2014-05-15T02:04:00.004-05:00

I've been looking back on the history of DevolveHealth lately. I started this company in 2010. The reason that I started DevolveHealth was because I saw the results that a plant based diet and good exercise habits had in my life. I went from 350 lbs to 200 lbs, and discovered levels of energy that I never knew were possible.

In 2012, I had a little hiccough in my life. If you define hiccough as your wife has an affair and leaves you, and you go through over a year of depression. Needless to say, this whole episode left me rather devastated. I didn't really care about anything, and that included my own health. I forgot all the hard work I had put into reforming my mind and body, and went back to my old habits of overeating and being sedentary. Not surprisingly, I gained a significant portion of my weight back, topping out near 300 lbs again.

Even despite this, I never forgot the way I was from 2010 to 2012. I longed to get back to the way I looked and felt at that time. I tried multiple diets- I won't mention their names, but they all have very popular books that make a lot of money. For some reason, I didn't consider going back to the vegan diet which had gotten me to my goal in the first place.

Not surprisingly, none of those diets really work. In fact, one of the guiding principles of DevolveHealth is that diets don't work. It is rather amusing, but I didn't take my own advice at all. Finally a few weeks ago, I came back to my senses, and got back to my roots, so to speak.

Returning to veganism made me think about going through the process of eliminating animal products from my diet in the first place. Hopefully, some of you have read some of my other blog posts, and see the wisdom and health value of avoiding animal products. If not, please go back and read some of them. This post is dedicated to those of you who would like to go vegan, but feel like it might be too hard, or just plain don't know how.

For those of you who think it will be hard, I won't lie to you. Avoiding animal products is not easy. Both times I went vegan, I suffered meat cravings for about a week to two weeks. That being said, finding foods to eat is not that hard. Even in your local grocery store, there is a tremendous variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts. You just have to be willing to experiment, and have an open mind. When I was just a fledgling vegan, the thing I had the most trouble with was figuring out what to cook. There are loads of vegan cookbooks out there (my personal favorite is the Veganomicon, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero), and plenty of websites which offer free vegan recipes. My favorites:

www.vegweb.com: offers over 10,000 vegan recipes of all kinds.
www.allrecipes.com: not specifically vegan, but has a large vegan section

I promise you, it isn't nearly as hard as you think it may be. I was a staunch omnivore. In high school, if anyone would have been voted "most likely to die while eating a steak" it was me. The term "meat and potatoes man" found its literal meaning in me. If I can do it, so can you. No excuses.

If you fall into the "I want to go vegan, but I don't know how" group, then here is some advice I learned the hard way, through trial and error:

Eat a variety of foods. Vegan diets are nutritionally sound, and superior to diets with meat in virtually every way, with one proviso. You have to eat a variety of foods. Rice, beans, green leafy veggies, nuts, legumes, and soy, tempeh, seitan. Use the websites above for ideas and be adventurous.
Avoid processed foods. Oreo's are technically vegan. They aren't good for you. With all the processed vegan products out there today, it is easy to become a "junk food vegan." Make sure the foods you eat are in the form they grew in nature. Avoid processed sugars and refined oils as much as possible. It is fine to indulge once in a while, but refined sugars are just as bad for vegans as they are for meat eaters.
Get ready to poop a lot. One byproduct of eating lots of vegetables and beans is that you will probably get 50-80 grams of fiber daily. While this is good for preventing colon cancer, It also means several trips to the restroom per day. On the upside, you'll never be constipated...
Get a B12 and a Vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D intake is too low in vegans and meat eaters alike. B12, which vegans would normally get from the bacteria in the dirt on the plants they ate, is gone in our toxic soil, and needs to be supplemented. I recommend 5000 IU of D per day, and 1000 mcg of B12 once weekly. The best B12 is the type of tablet that dissolves under the tongue.
If you feel craving for meat, get a meat replacement product. Although these aren't the best for you, as they are heavily processed, they are OK in a pinch, and vastly better than going back to meat. There is a wide array of soy burgers, hot dogs, sausages, and other meat like products at your local grocery store.
PLAN AHEAD. This is really important. Although restaurants and cafeterias are getting better about offering vegan options, not every place has them. Some places say they have vegan entrees, but they are cooked in butter or the like. Family gatherings, weddings, and parties can be especially bad, as they usually lack vegan food choices. Be sure to bring a snack with you (some nuts or carrots, an apple, banana, or peach) so that you have something to eat in a real pinch. If I am going to a party or wedding, I like to eat a vegan meal ahead of time, just in case. The same is true of air travel. Airplanes never feed you anymore, and airports have very limited choices. Pack some good vegan snacks in your carry-on.
Be prepared for people to think you are odd. Meat eating is very ingrained into our culture. People think all vegans are tree hugging hippies. If you tell someone you are vegan, they will pepper you with questions. Read my post entitled "What are you Eating?" for more info on the questions. Even if they think you are odd, most people are intrigued, and those questions can be a good jumping off point to discuss a better lifestyle with them (as long as you don't sound pompous and preachy)
Get ready to feel good. Now that your body no longer wastes half of its energy trying to digest meat, you will feel younger, with tons of energy. Funnel that into exercise, family, and fun!

I'm not kidding about any of this. Try going vegan for a month, and if you don't feel a world of difference, I will refund the $0 you paid to read this blog. (Seriously, you will notice a large difference)

If you need more info on how to make the change and opt out of the Standard American Diet, feel free to comment, visit my website www.devolvehealth.com, or email me at drott@devolvehealth.com

(Not so) Evil Fat

2014-05-09T00:07:00.003-05:00

Weight: 272
Running: 3 miles today. Felt AWESOME!!

Fat. It is a word we have all been trained to fear over the last generation or so. It has almost become dogma among doctors and nutritionists that fat makes you fat. If you ask virtually any doctor what you should eat to be healthy, especially if you have a history of heart disease, you will be told to eat a "low sodium, low fat, heart healthy diet."

Why has fat been so stigmatized? To answer that question, we are going to take a step back in time. The beginning of the anti-fat movement has its roots in the 50's. It began not scientifically, but with common sense. If the problem is that you are carrying too much fat, then eating fat will only make things worse. To back this up, they began to design (rather poorly) studies in the 60's which confirmed that increased intake of fat, especially saturated fat, increased risk of heart disease and death. The birth of the low fat diet had happened. From there, citing these poor studies, the American College of Cardiology recommended a low fat diet in the prevention of coronary artery disease (CAD). What the doctors of the time (and even today) failed to realize is that human metabolism is far more complex than fat being turned into fat.

I apologize, but I have to go into a little chemistry here. There are many types of fats:

Saturated fat: a fat in which all of the carbon molecules (the c's) are occupied by hydrogens. Saturated fats occur in most animal products, and some plant products like avocado, nuts, and coconut. They are solid at room temperature.

Monounsaturated fat: Notice that one of the carbons in this molecule has a double bond to the one next to it. Thus, it is not "saturated" with Hydrogen. These fats occur in mostly plant oils, like olive oil.

Polyunsaturated fat: More than one of the carbon atoms has a double bond. There are 3 main varieties:

Omega 3- The first double bond is in the 3rd carbon atom
Omega 6- The first double bond is in the 6th
Omega 9- The first double bond is in the 9th

Trans fat: A type of monounsaturated fat where the Hydrogens in the double bond are on opposite sides of the molecule. These have the advantage of being super stable and having a long shelf life, making them ideal for selling. They have the disadvantage of causing horrible amounts of blood vessel inflammation in humans. These do not occur in nature and only are made by food companies for use in fried foods. Many types of chips and microwave popcorn have vast amounts of trans fat. This is the big baddie.

Cholesterol: A complex molecule used in the cell membrane of virtually every cell in your body, as well as in steroid molecules, testosterone, estrogen, and many other hormones. The USDA has a daily recommended intake of cholesterol, but the human body is perfectly capable of making cholesterol without any help. You don't have to take in any, and a high cholesterol level is well linked to heart disease.

So on to the myth about fats. They are not all bad. In fact, there are essential fats. Our bodies can't make two fatty acids we really need: alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) and linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid). They should be consumed in the ratio of about 2:1 with the 2 being omega 3. Flax, walnuts, and some other nuts are great sources of omega 3.

The truth is even broader than that, however. Fats from plant products are quite beneficial for you. Whereas animal fats (particularly from factory farmed animals who are fattened on corn) cause CAD, systemic inflammation, and create the small LDL's (the bad ones that cause artery disease), plant fats actually decrease information, slow artery plaque formation, and contribute to satiation, causing you to eat less.

You'll notice if you read my DevolveHealth eating rules at www.devolvehealth.com, they say nothing about fat intake. If you eat a varied diet including nuts, seeds, healthy oils such as flax and olive, chia seeds, avocado, and coconut oil in mild to moderate amounts, you will get plenty of the essential fats that you need, and avoid the evil trans fats and animal saturated fats. The foods to avoid are animal products and processed (especially fried) foods.

I know what you are thinking: "what about salmon? They say salmon has lots of omega 3's." While this is true, you can easily get the same omega 3's from plant sources, and avoid the antibiotics fed to farmed fish. Also, you can avoid the Mercury load that you get from predator fish such as salmon.

Bottom line: if you want to be healthy, ignore the guidelines about fat, stop counting calories, and follow the DevolveHealth eating rule #1:

Eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and legumes, and very little if any meat, dairy, or eggs.

If you do this, you will not only notice weight loss (if that's what you're looking for), but also increased energy, and lower risk of chronic disease.

Happy eating! Feel free to comment and let me know your results!

Vegan Children

2014-05-06T15:06:00.002-05:00

Weight: 273
Running: 2 miles today.

I recently had a conversation with my daughter. She is a wonderful girl, almost nine years old, and she wants to be a vet. She loves animals almost more than people, and has a huge heart.

Totally unprompted, she came up to me and ask why people hurt animals. She had overheard a conversation about someone hurting their dog. I told her that some people are just mean, and that they feel strong when they hurt the helpless.

Never one to take a simple explanation at face value, my girl then wanted to talk about hunting and killing animals for food. She said that she understood that we need to eat animals for food, and that people hunt and raise animals for that purpose. She wanted to know why we had to kill animals for food.

I'm not one to hide things from my daughter. She is way too smart for that. I explained to her that in the distant past, humans had to eat whatever they could find, since they didn't have the variety of food readily available that we do today, and this would include whatever animals they could catch or kill. I also explained to her how things had changed. How factory farms now saw these animals immobilized. How beaks and pigs' tails were cut off for the convenience of the farmers. How more than 10 billion chickens were killed annually to feed only 300 million people. And finally, how the animals often get ill or go crazy from the confinement and unnatural conditions.

The funny thing is that none of this needs to happen. All of these animals die for a personal preference. People like to eat meat. It tastes good (not something that I disagree with). People don't HAVE to eat meat. Even the American Dietetic Association, who promoted the absolute necessity of meat for optimal health has acknowledged:

"Many people make the switch to a vegetarian diet because of the potential health benefits. According to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, vegetarian eating patterns have been associated with improved health outcomes including lower levels of obesity, a reduced risk of heart disease and lower blood pressure. Also, vegetarians tend to consume a lower proportion of calories from fat and fewer overall calories, and more fiber, potassium and vitamin C than non-vegetarians. These characteristics, plus lifestyle factors, may contribute to the health benefits among vegetarians."

Completely true. No one needs to eat meat at all. Not even children. Not only are plant based diets better for health, but they are 100% complete in terms of the nutrients that human beings need. Even B12, which meat farmers (read: animal torturers) tout as only coming from meat, can easily be obtained from nutritional yeast. The ADA has this to say on the subject of vegetarian children:

"Balanced vegetarian diets are healthy for children and
may help them maintain a healthy body weight."

This brings up an interesting question: how does something as unimportant as taste justify the slaughter of billions of animals yearly? Taste is just a sensation. Would we feel the same about killing animals if we enjoyed it visually? Of course not. Why does our taste get a pass?

My 8 year old daughter reached the same conclusion. In her innocent child like ways, she asked "but daddy, if we don't have to eat animals for food any more, why do we still hurt them?" I don't really have a good answer for that question, but it is a valid one. Why do we continue to kill cows, so that we can have fast food hamburgers? Why do we kill pigs so that we can have ham for New Year's or Christmas? Why do we kill turkeys or chickens so that we can have Thanksgiving dinner, or eat fried chickens and potatoes?

I gave her the best answer I could. I told her that lots of companies made an awful lot of money off of the system, and that the system wouldn't change easily. When she asked me what she could do to fix it, I told her she could opt out. Opting out is a powerful thing. Each of us who refuses to consume animal products takes money out of the hands of the animal farmers. If enough of us do so, we will force them to choose a different income stream.

The main reason I adopted a vegan diet was for health concerns. That being said, I don't like cruelty, and I'm sure most of you feel the same. If you don't like the tortured death of billions of animals for something that we don't even need, choose to opt out too. I'm proud of my eight year old for wanting to do the right thing. She is young and healthy. What she cares about is the animals. If you do decide to opt out for whatever reason, please comment and let me know. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Gluten Hell

2014-05-03T01:14:00.000-05:00

Wheat. It seems pretty innocuous. A tall grass, indigenous to most of North and South America. Humans have been consuming wheat and wheat related products for centuries if not millennia. Records from the earliest settled societies, such as the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Aztecs, show evidence of the consumption of wheat and other grains. In fact, they are possibly the first plants which were grown by mankind in order to eat, a clear fork in the road from the hunting and gathering that our ancestors used to do.

The main difference between grains like wheat and other plants that our ancestors might have been able to find is the need of processing. Most of the wheat grass is indigestible. The seeds of the plant are all that we can eat, but that requires a great deal of processing. Since processing requires technology, most processed foods are not what we are designed to eat.

This seems to go for wheat as well. The main problem with wheat is a protein called gluten. It is from a class of proteins called leptins. They are present in all grains including rice and corn, but the gluten from wheat is by far the worst.

When I was in medical school, they taught us about celiac disease. It was characterized as a very rare disease. I became much more interested in gluten in the past year or so. My new wife, and most likely my son, are gluten intolerant. Just a bit of wheat in bread, cookies, or many other products, gives them abdominal cramping, and in the case of my son, diarrhea.

Given my close connection to gluten intolerance, I did a bit of research. The gluten in wheat is rather toxic to the human body. It causes damage to the intestinal cells, allowing bacteria and other nasties to enter the system. It also interferes with the absorption of other nutrients, leading to the ironic phenomenon of being malnourished while still having plenty to eat. Gluten intolerance is a spectrum, and the degree of symptoms is determined by just how sensitive you are. Symptoms of gluten intolerance include: vomiting, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, weight loss, headaches, and weakness. Additionally, gluten intolerance has been linked to such auto-immune diseases such as Crohn's disease, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and certain forms of cancer, such as leukemia and lymphoma.

When I became aware of these findings, I decided to use myself as a guinea pig (I kind of like to do that). I cut gluten out of my own diet. I have occasionally had bouts of cramping abdominal pain, diarrhea, and fatigue, for which I didn't know the cause. Within a month of switching to a gluten free diet, those symptoms went completely away. I had more energy than ever. It even helped with my workouts, since I had more energy.

The interesting thing is how little I learned about this very dangerous nutrient in medical school. As such, if you have been to your doctor with chronic versions of the symptoms mentioned above, it is highly likely that your doctor will not recognize the diagnosis since they are not aware of all of this current research.

If you do suffer from any of these chronic ailments, I would encourage you to cut gluten from your diet (in addition to eating mostly fruits, vegetables, and seeds and nuts) for at least a month. I know it is hard, since wheat is in so many products. If you give it a try, I think you will feel much better and many of your symptoms will disappear, as mine did.

If this works (or even if it doesn't) please comment and share your experience with me. As always, if you want or need nutrition or exercise advice, feel free to contact me: drott@devolvehealth.com. Also, if you respond to this post, look at www.devolvehealth.com, or my facebook page, www.facebook.com/devolvehealth, I will be happy to offer any help I can.

M. Jacob Ott, MD

The "Wonders" of Modern Medicine

2014-04-30T12:10:00.000-05:00

Doctors are excellent salespeople. I know, because I am one. When I see a patient, I have a lot of selling to do. First, I have to sell myself to the patient, in the sense that I have to get them to trust me. Without the patient's trust, they are very unlikely to do anything I say. Next, I need to sell my chosen course of therapy to the patient. It is well known that the placebo effect constitutes about 30% of any treatment. The practical meaning of this is that if the patient does not believe the medicine I am giving them will work, it is highly unlikely to do so. Finally, if I am to admit the patient to the hospital, I have to "sell" the admission to the physician who will be taking care of them on the floor. If I do a poor job of this, and the admitting doctor doesn't believe there is enough cause to justify the admission, they will not admit the patient, and the patient's life could potentially be jeopardized.

The profession of medicine has sold our usefulness to the general public. We have done so out of necessity. Most of us, while getting into medicine in order to help people, also need to make a living. I am one of the lucky few who are employed by a hospital, and am paid hourly for my work. In private practice, a doctor's earnings come solely from the number of patients they see, and what exams, studies, and procedures they can bill for.

With this comes a sort of hypocrisy. Doctors have to make themselves indispensable to patients, in order to get them to come to the office. Also, they have to have reasons for patients to keep coming in. Hence the yearly physical your doctor insists that you get, and for the older population, the monthly or weekly visits for blood pressure checks and the like.

The problem is, somewhere along the line, we as a profession oversold ourselves. We made the general public believe that if they had ANY symptom, no matter how mild, they needed to have it checked out by a doctor. As a consequence, during the months of October thru February, my ER is flooded with people who have nothing more than an upper respiratory infection (the common cold). They come to the ED with runny nose, cough, aches, chills, and fever.

The fact of the matter is, no matter what I do, they will be better somewhere between 3 and 7 days, depending on their individual immune system. Barring very high risk groups (infants under 3 months, and people over 90, as well as cancer patients on chemo), these symptoms don't require any tests, treatment, or the monitoring of a medical professional. 99% + of people with URI symptoms don't need to come to the ED. They don't even need to see their family doctor. They just need to drink a cup of tea and rest for a few days, and they will be just fine.

That brings up the natural question of why do these people come see me? People in general are not stupid. They won't do something unless they think they will get something out of it. The only possible answer is that they believe I have something to offer them. Aside from some medicines I can give for symptom relief (many of which can be purchased over the counter), I don't.

What is interesting is when you generalize this principle to all of medicine. In reality, very few things we do in medicine make much difference. There are obviously some exceptions:

Surgery for emergent conditions such as appendicitis, bowel obstruction, and the like
Vaccines (no, they don't cause autism, and yes, the absolutely work. When is the last time you saw someone with smallpox)
Antibiotics for truly life threatening infections (pneumonia, skin infections, sepsis (blood infection), diverticulitis (an intestinal infection), and others)
Heart catheterization for people having an acute heart attack
Aspirin for heart attack (although this is a bit of a cheat, given that the ancient Egyptians used willow bark for pain relief and multiple other purposes over 300 years ago. Aspirin is made from willow bark).

This isn't a comprehensive list, but the treatments above are the best of the best.

Other than that, much of what we do, even in the very ill patient, is merely optimizing conditions and waiting for the body to either heal itself, or succumb to disease. Here is a list of medical treatments that have marginal if any benefit:

Surgery and chemotherapy for most type of cancers (increase survival across the board by 1-2%)
Heart catheterization for chronic chest pain (no evidence of increased lifespan)
Coronary bypass surgery (no evidence of either long term symptom reduction or increased lifespan)
Statins for heart disease prevention (they make your lab numbers look better, but they don't prolong life or prevent heart attacks)
Opiate pain medicines for chronic pain (they just lead to a cycle of addiction. Your body increases its opiate receptors ironically making ALL pain worse)
TPA "clotbuster" for acute stroke (the jury is still out on this one, although more studies than not have shown no benefit)
Insulin and oral medicines for Type II diabetes. (Type I, or childhood diabetes, absolutely benefits from tight glucose control with insulin, but that is a totally different disease process)

So, you might be asking, what is the point of all this? Well, in the midst of all of our advances in technology and multitudes of new drugs hitting pharmacy shelves daily, we have forgotten the forest for the trees. Doctors on average have about 3 hours of nutrition education during school. During the average patient visit (about 10 minutes, just so a doctor can make a little bit of profit with a completely full schedule), virtually no time is devoted to educating patients on the benefits of the correct diet and exercise in preventing disease.

Doctors want to help people. If we had the time and knowledge, we'd talk much more about eating right and exercise than drugs and procedures. Big pharmacy doesn't really care about helping you. Unfortunately, there is no money in healthy people. They don't take very many medicines. If, on the other hand, you have several chronic diseases for which you need to take medicine daily for life, jackpot!

So, if you want to achieve better health, the answer is not in a pill. Now, don't get me wrong. Life threatening emergencies like heart attacks, strokes, and such are still dangerous, and emergent treatment is often quite helpful, so definitely don't avoid medical care if you think you have something serious. Just keep in mind the things that clearly don't work.

Now, compare the list of things that don't work to a vegan diet and exercise. Below are the benefits of a vegan diet:

50% lower risk of heart disease as compared to meat eaters
50-66% lower cholesterol
Less than half the likelihood of high blood pressure
40-60% lower rate of stroke
40% lower rate of depression
66% lower rate of obesity
Lifespan between 4 and 8 years longer than people who eat animal products
70% lower risk of cancer (especially the big 3- colon, breast, and prostate)

Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine said over 2500 years ago "let food be thy medicine." I find it ironic that more than two millennia later, despite all of our formidable technology and giant grab bag of drugs, his advice is still the most sound and effective.

Omnivore Rage

2014-04-28T12:26:00.000-05:00

Omnivore Rage

Weight: 275

Exercise: Ran 2 mi yesterday, 3 mi today.

Having been a vegan for about 4 years (with a 1 year lapse in between), I am well used to all the usual questions that omnivores ask:

"Where do you get your protein?"

"Doesn't eating only plants get boring?"

"How can you be a runner and not eat meat?"

"How can you possibly live without milk and cheese? I could never do that."

"What are you eating?!?"

"Quinoa? Never heard of it. Sounds gross."

The list goes on and on. Not that I'm complaining. The massive amounts of energy I get from eating vegan more than make up for it. I knew from the moment 4 years ago that I decided to stop eating meat, eggs, and dairy that I would be viewed as odd by most mainstream people. (Any of you who know me personally, already know that I am a bit odd, and totally comfortable with it). Thus, I thought I was very well prepared for anything that could be thrown my way about the subject of veganism and fitness.

The other day, I was totally caught by surprise. I was speaking with a very good friend of mine (who shall remain nameless), and happened to mention the fact that I was vegan again. As most people do, he peppered me with several questions about a vegan diet, and why I choose it. I apparently mistook his questions for genuine interest and politely suggested that he check out the facts, and perhaps consider adopting a vegan diet himself. I was totally unprepared for what happened next.

This friend of mine, normally a quite rational person, became angry. He raised his voice and said that he "would never do that." Further, he asserted that "people have to eat meat," and that anyone who doesn't is not only "dumb" but also a "scrawny weakling."

Ignoring the obvious insults, I asked him why we have to eat meat. He said "what else are you going to eat at Thanksgiving, Easter, or Christmas?" and also that he was a "meat and potatoes" kind of guy, because that's what he had always eaten.

His response to my questions got me thinking. I am definitely not a militant vegan who insists that no one eat animals, ever. I also don't go around throwing buckets of red paint on people who wear fur coats. I don't picket fast food restaurants. I merely advocate eating a plant based diet because it is the surest way to promote health, avoid or cure disease, and maintain vitality as long as possible. My third DevolveHealth eating rule says:

"Eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and legumes and VERY LITTLE if any meat, dairy, and eggs."

This is based on the simple logic (which has been backed up by a lot of research) that our primal ancestors would have eaten mostly plants (vegetables and legumes), fruit (which was only available certain times of the year), and seeds and nuts (also available only seasonally), and very little meat. It's not that they would try and avoid meat, but meat (also known as an animal) is pretty hard to come by. It turns out most animals, prior to domestication, didn't want to just lie down and be eaten. They were either much faster than we are, or had adequate weapons or size to fight us off.

It was only after the development of weapons and then the domestication of animals that mankind had ready access to meat. It was only in the past 50 years or so that mankind (at least people living in industrialized countries) had access to as much meat as they wanted on the cheap, due to factory farming practices and cheap government subsidized corn.

As my friend was unintentionally pointing out, what we eat is a very emotional and cultural matter. Some of my own best childhood memories are of Sunday afternoons spent eating homemade spaghetti and London Broil with my mother's spaghetti sauce (if I ever gave that recipe away, she would drive up from Florida to kill me).

The problem is, culture has changed with time, as have our waistlines and rates of disease. The typical diet about a hundred years ago (garnered from various sources) consisted of a small portion of meat, about 2-3 oz, fresh vegetables and grains, and seasonal fruits. Meat and grain made up about 20-30% of the food eaten, whereas the other 70-80% consisted of vegetables and fruits when available. There was no corner grocery store, and people had to live off of what they could farm, hunt, and fish. Thus, the diet would vary based upon what time of year it was, and how lucky or unlucky the family hunter/trapper was.

Compare to today. The average diet today consists of 50-60% refined grains or oils. These come in the form of processed sweets, pre-packaged foods, sodas, bread, and the like. 30-35% of our diet comes from meat, mostly in the form of chicken, pork, or beef, all of which has been factory farmed and is full of toxins, artificial hormones, and antibiotics used to keep the animals alive long enough to reach slaughter weight. That only leaves a measly 5-10% for fruits and vegetables. The most commonly eaten vegetable? The potato. There is nothing wrong with potatoes. They have many vitamins and minerals, and are quite healthy, when combined with other vegetables. The downside is that they are rather starchy, with a high glycemic index. Combine that with an overload of sugars, raising our post meal blood glucose, and the high protein and saturated fat load of the meat, and you have a perfect recipe for insulin resistance (read: diabetes).

Sadly, my friend was misled. I can't really blame him though. So was I for many years, and I am a doctor, for God's sake. Since just after World War II, we have been very gradually conditioned to accept processed foods as staples, and encouraged to eat ever more meat and dairy. There are two main groups who are conditioning us this way. Offender #1 is the USDA. The US Department of Agriculture is a farm advocacy group. They are also the people who write our nutritional guidelines, and determine the "% daily value" which goes on the side or back of every food package sold in the US. Their primary interest is to make sure that the people they represent (namely the dairy farmers, meat farmers, and vegetable farmers, 99% of whom grow only corn and soybeans) make as much profit as possible. Is it at all surprising that the nutrition pyramid for at least 30 years has recommended grains, meats, and dairy products as the 3 most consumed nutrients?

Offender #2 is the National Dairy Farmers' Association. As the name implies, they work for dairy farmers. What they also do on the side is provide educational materials to schools on nutrition. I'm sure I don't even have to tell you what they are telling our children to eat. "Milk. It does a body good." speaks for itself. For more on just how bad milk is for you, read my previous post on milk.

We all eat what we eat for a variety of reasons. Two of the most important are taste and history. We like food that tastes good, and we like to eat what we ate when we were children, because of the memories the food evokes. The same is true of holidays. We don't eat a turkey at Thanksgiving because it is an intrinsic part of the holiday (there is absolutely no evidence that turkey was eaten at the first Thanksgiving. It was probably added sometime in the 1800's). We eat it because it reminds us of our childhood, and happy times with family. In a way, it brings us closer to our distant and deceased family members, if only in our minds. Sadly, those "traditional" meals have been perverted over the years, by ever increasing levels of processing, and the agendas of groups who have placed profits over our health.

Now that makes me mad!

What are You Eating?

2014-04-26T02:39:00.002-05:00

What are You Eating?

Weight: 276.6
Running: Getting better. 2-3 miles per day

As a consequence of my job as an emergency physician, I eat lunch and dinner (and even breakfast, depending on which shift I am working) at my desk. Since I get the opportunity to work on the sickest of patients, who are often unstable and can deteriorate quickly, I have to be close to the action at all times. This means eating at my desk most days. Years ago, I never realized the consequence of eating in public. Since I have been a vegan and back, and vegan again, I have become acutely attuned to an interesting phenomenon: people are always quite interested to what other people eat. While sitting at my desk checking labs, looking at past medical histories, and making medical decisions, many techs, nurses, and other physicians pass me without a second glance. Add an open food container sitting innocently next to me, and suddenly every single person who passes me asks the same question: "what are you eating?"

The interesting thing about the question is how it changes when I am sticking to a vegan diet. It isn't the words. They remain the same. It is the tone that changes. When I have a "balanced" plate in front of me, with meat, veggies, and grains, I get the normal "what are you eating?" No tone, no curiosity, no agenda. Similar to when someone asks "how are you today?" They don't really want to know. All they want to hear is "good," or something similar. It is mainly a rhetorical question.

Oddly, when I have a vegan entree in front of me which is non-traditional, the tone of the encounter changes. Take as an example two days ago. I had for lunch red kidney beans, quinoa, and avocado. Besides being delicious, this dish is full of protein, fiber, good fats, vitamins, and minerals. In short, it is the perfect lunch. Despite its obvious health value, when people looked at my food, they took on an incredulous tone when asking about it. Based on the tone, you would think that I was eating fried tarantula or something equally crazy.

Thinking about the responses of these well meaning people merely confirmed how screwed up our American diet actually is. The reason for the unusual responses is that quinoa and beans is unexpected. It was out of the range of what people who eat the standard american diet expect. These days, we consider a plate of 10 oz meat, a small spoonful of veggies, and a cup of potatoes normal. The diet we were designed to eat was quite different than that.

Our ancestors, before agriculture, were only able to eat what they could find or kill with their bare hands. If you think logically about what their diet might be composed of, we can make some conclusions about what we should be eating. Our ancestors would eat mostly vegetables, as those are plentiful and available year round. Next most likely would be fruit. Fruit is seasonal, but stays still and is easy to collect. Finally, and in the most limited of quantities, would be animal products. Although there are a great many animals in nature, they are rather fast and hard to catch. The ones who aren't fast outweigh us by hundreds of pounds, and have teeth, claws, and tusks to kill us.

Thus, since we are essentially unchanged from our primeval ancestors from a genetic standpoint, the proper diet for modern man should be as follows: 70% vegetables, grains, and legumes. 25% fruit. 5% (or less) meat, eggs, or dairy. Completely off the menu are processed sugars, oils, and flours, as those don't exist in nature in any form. Our bodies are simply not made to process them, and they are the cause of many chronic diseases that we suffer from.

A couple of years ago, when I wasn't quite as mature, I was quite annoyed by the "what are you eating" question. I have since revised my view of the situation. The best way to lead is by example, so when I am eating an extremely healthy meal, and someone asks with suspicion what I am eating, I choose to use it as a teaching moment. Hopefully, if I expose enough people to exciting new vegetables, grains, and fruits, and teach them to avoid animal products such as dairy, meat, and eggs, I can improve not only my health, but also the health of those around me. Not only is that my duty as a physician, but also my goal as a health educator.

The next time someone asks you "what are you eating," consider what you are eating, and if that food is the right kind of food to fuel your body. If so, please share your knowledge with others. For more info on what to eat, please visit www.devolvehealth.com, and learn to eat like our ancestors, and like our bodies were designed to eat.

Quinoa and Red Beans With Avocado
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 can red beans
1 avocado
1/4 tsp salt

Cook quinoa according to package directions. Drain red beans. Once quinoa is finished, mix both together. Peel and pit avocado, and dice. Mix in with quinoa and beans. Add salt and mix well. Serves one. Goes well with salad or other green veggies.

Relapse

2014-04-16T09:25:00.000-05:00

Relapse

Hi all. I know it has been a LONG time since I have written. An awful lot has happened to me in the past year and a half or so.

Those of you who have followed my blog the previous couple of years know that through a rigorous vegan diet and daily exercise, I had gone from a horribly obese 350 lbs to a svelte 200. I had reclaimed my health, lost my hypertension and borderline diabetes, and discovered more energy then I knew was possible. My depression, which had plagued me for years, had even gone away. Without a doubt, I knew my avoidance of processed foods and animal foods, as well as daily exercise had been responsible for my weight loss. Overall, I had never felt better in my life. I felt as if I was invincible.

Life, however, is never without its share of tragedy. Just when I thought I had reached my highest point, the universe decided to take me down a peg or two. First, my wife demanded a marital separataion. Not terribly long after, I found out she was having an affair. Finally, three days before our 11th anniversary, she filed for divorce. The marriage I had hoped to save for the months of our separation was over.

I was completely devastated. I went from living in a nice house to a one bedroom apartment. I only got to see my kids 8-10 days a month. The illusion I had of a "good life" was completely shattered. Financially, I was shackled by huge child support and alimony payments, which amounted to approximately 60% of my monthly salary. I was forced to work extra shifts every month in order to make ends meet.

As I have mentioned many times in the past, I am an emotional eater. When I get upset or anxious, I tend to resort to food as my comfort drug. As unhappy as I became, I simply quit. I stopped eating my unprocessed plant-based diet. I stopped exercising. Instead, I took to sitting and watching television to take my mind off of my circumstances. And I ate. A lot. I ate fried chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, pizza, and all of the "comfort foods" that I used to rely on.

It is surprising how simple it is to slip back into old patterns. I vowed that I would never eat animal products again, but under pressure, that vow was easily broken. Not surprisingly, given the research I have shown in previous blog posts (feel free to read them all), bringing back the animal foods meant the return of the weight, and the return of my chronic diseases. Depression, obesity, and high blood pressure quickly returned. I ballooned from 200 pounds to 280. I was afraid to write blog posts advocating health, because I felt like a hypocrite, and I was ashamed to tell my story, as it had taken a huge turn for the worse.

Not too long ago, however, I realized something. This part of my story is worth telling. Relapse is part of the process of change. The question to ask is not "will I mess up," but "when will I mess up?" Clearly, resorting to those comfort foods was a huge mistake, and It cost me dearly.

Thankfully, I regained control of my life. I deepened my connection with God, filling a lot of the void in my life. As much as I hate dating, I also met a wonderful woman who is as fully committed to me as I am to her, and we were wed in January.

The waters having calmed a little in my personal life, I took a look at my health. At first, I thought going vegan again would be too hard, given that I had strayed from it for so long, so I tried to eat Paleo. That just didn't work for me. One good thing I discovered trying that eating plan was how bad gluten is for us. I will elaborate on that in a future post.

Finally, since no other eating plan has ever worked for me, I decided to return to a vegan diet. Specifically, I decided to follow my own eating advice, the DevolveHealth Eating Rules:

1. Eat foods as they occur in nature

2. Eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts, and very little if any meat, eggs, or dairy

3. Choose foods for nutrition, not flavor

Within a week of committing to eat plants again, my energy returned, and I began to feel better. I have lost about 10 lbs so far, and will not stop until I reach my goal weight of 185.

As with many things in life, buried in tragedy is hope, and opportunity. I had thought my rough patch was just a punishment, but now I realize that I can make some good from it. The last time I reached out to you readers about nutrition and exercise, I did it as someone "on the other side" if you will. I had already achieved my goal. The mountain always looks smaller when you are at the top. This time, I will take you along with me on the journey, and we can help each other climb.

I encourage each of you to set a goal to reach with me, be it a weight goal or a fitness goal. On my end, I promise to post frequently on my progress and the lessons I learn. I hope you will commit to following me to fitness and a better life. Feel free to post your story, or your commitment in the comments. Mine is far from the only story worth telling.

Either way, this should be an adventure!

Jacob Ott, MD

The Freedom to Not Choose

2012-05-28T10:43:00.003-05:00

Today is Memorial Day. We dedicate today to remembering those who have served and given their lives for the freedom that we all enjoy. The fact that we live in a country with a constitutional republic, in which we are free to express our views and opinions without fear of censorship, oppression, or even death is due to the actions of countless brave men and women over the course of two centuries and counting.

Freedom is something that must be constantly defended, because it is not a natural state. Ever since man has existed, we have tried to exert power over our fellows, and force them to work toward our ends. Sadly, most of the ancient wonders of the world were built with forced labor, and up until very recently, slavery was not only acceptable, but common practice. We are very fortunate to live in a country in which we are free to choose the course of our lives.

By now, you might be wondering how this all ties in to a health and wellness blog. Good question. There is one crucial point that most of us never think of with regard to freedom. Just because we can do something, does not mean that we should, or that it is best for us. Besides having unprecedented legal and social freedoms, Americans (and residents of other industrialized countries) also have culinary freedom which has never been experienced on the planet before.

To realize this point, you need to look no further than the cookout you will likely attend this afternoon. Represented at your Memorial Day cookout will likely be hamburgers, hotdogs, fried chicken, potato salad, potato chips, corn, fruit salad, watermelon, cantaloupe, beer, soft drinks, green beans, deviled eggs, cupcakes, cookies, and countless other foods. Before eating today, let's think for just a minute on what foods will be represented in the average American backyard today:

Beef     Chicken                            Pork
Potatoes    Eggs    Corn
Mayonnaise    Bananas Grapes
Watermelon                           Cantaloupe Sugar
Beans    Milk    Wheat
Rice Soybeans    Pineapple

This list is far from inclusive, but it gives you the basic idea. As important as how many foods we have access to is how easily we can obtain them. Unlike our caveman ancestors, we don't have to forage and hunt in order to obtain the foods we eat. All we have to do is go to the grocery store, and we see all of the foods above and more sitting on the shelves. Cavemen would never have been able to match either the quantity or variety of food that we have at our fingertips. The foods above come from all over the world, from Europe to America to tropical islands in the middle of the pacific ocean.

It is wonderful that we have access to all of these foods, in quantities that ensure most people don't have to worry about where their next meal is going to come from. It is also somewhat ironic that this freedom is slowly killing us. In the past fifty years, we have been getting larger and larger and larger. Two-thirds of all Americans are now either overweight or obese. Infectious diseases like pneumonia, which used to be the biggest killers of people, have been supplanted with diseases of lifestyle like heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes. Mounting evidence in the past 20 years has shown that some foods, particularly meat, milk, and eggs, are directly related to the diseases which now kill us in epidemic proportions.

I, like all of you, dear readers, am extremely grateful for the men and women who died to allow us to live free of oppression and slavery, and to pursue our dreams. I shudder to consider what those men and women would think if they were to see how we are slowly killing ourselves. I have never served in the military. The fight I participate in is not for our freedom, but for our health. This Memorial Day, I would like to humbly suggest that we try to honor the memory of those who served by trying to take care of our bodies, and using some of our freedom to not choose some of the foods which cause us so much harm.

Happy Memorial Day,

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.

Supplemental Danger

2012-05-25T11:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I read a fairly disturbing study about calcium intake. The study, which was a retrospective study which took into account various factors, including supplement intake, showed that taking calcium supplements significantly increased the risk of heart attack. The exact findings are as follows:

Participants who took supplements that included calcium were 86 percent more likely to have a heart attack, compared to people who didn’t take any supplements.
Participants who only took calcium pills were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack.

This is fairly disturbing, but not the first time a supplement has been indicated in a problem. A 2004 study showed that taking mega-doses of Vitamin E as supplements increased risk of death. Just like calcium, Vitamin E was previously shown to be helpful. Several other studies have shown single supplements, and even the ubiquitous multivitamin to be harmful.

What is the common link between all of these studies? The fact that it is a supplement. When we isolate a chemical from food, and put it in a pill, something happens. At best, it loses its effectiveness. At worst, it becomes harmful. The supplement study is only part of the story. In fact, rarely has a supplement ever been shown to be helpful in pill form. I have previously spoken about fiber, which is not effective in the myriad of powders and pills that are sold, and is only beneficial when taken as part of the food.

Why is it that our pills do not help us? I believe it is because we have an incomplete understanding of how food works. While we do our chemistry and isolate these chemicals, and then take them, we are unaware of the thousands of other compounds in the food which contribute to the action of the "vitamin" that we have isolated.

But Jake, you ask, what about calcium? I know I have to take a supplement of at least 1500 mg of calcium a day for bone health? My doctor told me so. All parts of the above statement are wrong. I will spend the rest of this post debunking the calcium myth:

1. Calcium intake is required to prevent osteoporosis: Point one is a partial truth. Bones are comprised of a matrix of calcium phosphate. In order to build or maintain bone, you must have some calcium. Where this truth gets distorted is in the advertising. People in this country have spent billions of dollars associating two items in our brain: milk and calcium. I wrote a previous post about this, but the short version is that milk does nothing to prevent osteoporosis. If it did, then the countries with the most milk intake would have the lowest rates of osteoporosis. In fact, the opposite is true. The more milk a country consumes, the HIGHER rate of osteoporosis it has.

2. Calcium supplements (or mega-doses of milk) are needed, because dietary sources are inadequate: The milk people, and the people who sell the pills would have you believe that people cannot get enough calcium from their diets, and thus some form of supplementation is necessary. Though good for the old bottom line, this "fact" is simply not true. Here is a list of foods which are rich dietary sources of calcium:

Spinach
Turnip greens
Mustard greens
Collard greens
Blackstrap molasses
Swiss chard
Kale
Basil, thyme, dill seed, cinnamon, and peppermint leaves
Romaine lettuce
Rhubarb
Broccoli
Sesame seeds
Fennel
Cabbage
Summer squash
Green beans
Garlic
Tofu
Brussel sprouts
Oranges
Asparagus
Crimini mushrooms

Many of these foods have as much or more calcium as milk, and are rich in untold other nutrients as well.

So, in summary, there is no need to take a calcium supplement, especially given the results of the study that came out yesterday. The formula for bone health is simple:

1. Eat a wide variety of plant foods, which are rich in all the nutrients you need.
2. Avoid excess protein intake. The acid load that proteins provide actually dissolve bone.
3. Perform load bearing exercise (running, jumping, etc...) the impact stimulates bone formation.

Good Eating,

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.

...You'd Better Be Running

2012-05-06T07:55:00.002-05:00

Sir Roger Bannister was once credited with the following quote:

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are a lion or a gazelle-- when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

Sir Roger Bannister, is a personal hero of mine. He is a runner and a physician. In addition to becoming a renowned neurologist, he is also the first person to break the four minute mile. Prior to Sir Roger, the four minute mile was thought to be an unbreakable barrier. It was generally thought to be the absolute maximum speed that a human being could run. Sir Roger shattered that barrier, and was an obvious believer in the merits of running.

It turns out that his quote was not just good advice for gazelles and lions, but for human beings as well. Based on the results of a Danish study, running just 1 - 2.5 hours per week can add as much as six years to your life. You can click on the link above, but here are the highlights:

The results are part of a population study which involved 20,000 participants over 35 years. There were about 18,000 non runners and 2000 runners in the study. Long story short, running increased life expectancy for about 5.6 years for women, and about 6.2 years for men. This sounds great, but here is the most staggering fact from the study to me: over the period of the study, 10,158 non runners died, but only 122 runners. The mortality rate for the non runners was almost DOUBLE over the 35 year period of the study!

This study basically confirms something that many of us have believed for years. We were made to run. Running, or other cardio intensive exercise is mandatory for human health. In this blog, I spend a lot of time talking about caveman nutrition, and eating like our primal ancestors, but I would point out that running is how our primal ancestors got their food. Before we drove cars or rode horses, we ran. We ran to find food. We occasionally chased our food down. We ran to escape predators, and we ran to take shelter from nature. Running was not just a way to lose weight. It was a way of life.

It is not so hard to believe that the same running which our ancestors used to prolong their lives would also work to prolong our lives. After all, we have the same bodies, and mostly the same DNA. Although we are no longer dependent on running to find food or avoid predators, our bodies don't know it. There is little to no doubt: our bodies need to run.

Jake, you say, that's great, but I'm not interested in living longer. I hear that a lot, but not exactly in those words. Usually the person expressing this sentiment says "well, you have to die of something." True enough, and I will be the first to admit that you can't live forever. In my opinion, it's not about quantity, but about quality. To those of you who were thinking those words, how about a life free of high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, depression, arthritis, chronic pain, and chronic lung disease. Running has been shown to impact all of these illnesses. If you don't care about having a heart attack or stroke, how about having more energy to perform your daily activities, and freedom from feeling tired or worn out throughout the day. All of these benefits come from running or other strenuous exercise. Not too bad for a 1 - 2.5 hour per week investment.

All things considered, I have to agree with Sir Roger Bannister: you'd better be running

M. Jacob Ott, M. D.

The Protein Myth

2012-05-02T16:46:00.003-05:00

They are usually the first words out of someone's mouth when I tell them that I am a vegan. It is almost a rhetorical response, kind of like "how's it going" and "ok." These six words form what I call the dreaded question. I am referring of course to "how do you get your protein?"

I call this the dreaded question not because I don't have an answer to it (in fact I have scads of answers and supporting data, which I will tell you about), but because it provides a little glimpse into the misconceptions that most people have about what constitutes correct nutrition.

You see, in America and throughout the industrialized world, we have a significant misunderstanding of protein, what it does and its possible dangers. That's right, I said dangers. If you are nutritionally naive and are reading this, you probably have never been told that protein is potentially dangerous. If you are like most of us, you have been taught that protein is good for you, and the more the better. You may even believe that foods are not good for you if they don't contain enough protein. Finally, you might even think that the only way to get enough of the "right kind" of protein is to eat meat. Sadly, this is at best a distortion of the truth, and at worst, a baldfaced lie. Worst of all, the lie is perpetuated by the people who produce the meat, to the expense of our national health.

The protein myth began innocently enough. At the turn of the 20th century, we finally had enough of a working knowledge of organic and biochemistry to begin analyzing the contents of the food we ate. It didn't take very long for food scientists to figure out that the food we eat is composed of three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fat, and protein. By experimenting on animals, it also didn't take long for them to figure out that if you deprive an animal of protein completely, it dies before too long. This was not so of carbohydrates or fat (in truth, it is a little more complex than what I write here, but the gist is the same). Thus, the scientists correctly concluded that protein was absolutely necessary for life. Even its name, protein, is from the latin proteus, meaning "first."

To this point the scientists were absolutely correct. In fact, if a human being does not get enough protein, they develop a malnutrition condition called kwashiorkor, which eventually leads to death. Protein is important, and that fact became widely known among laypeople. No problem there. Unfortunately, this is where the train began to go down the wrong track. Scientists, wanting to completely understand protein, began to experiment to define how much is enough. Most of there experiments were done on rats, and they settled on a "dose" of 1 gram per kilogram of body weight. What they did not realize at the time is that not all animals had the same protein requirements, and rats happen to require far more protein than humans do.

The problem only got worse from here. Of course, if some is good, more is better, right? Thus, we began to eat more and more protein, usually in the form of animal flesh (meat), since it was the "perfect protein" as it provides all the amino acids in once source. In fact, scientists define the "quality" of a protein by two factors: how easy it is to digest, and how many of the 20 amino acids it supplies. This led to a vast increase in protein intake, from about 10% of our daily calories to about 45% or so today.

You can imagine that the people who produce the meat are rather happy about this, and do everything they can to promote the virtues of protein. Most people in our culture are educated (read: brainwashed) to believe that if you do not eat meat with virtually every meal, you are sickly and weak, and cannot build muscle or do anything athletic.

So what, you might ask. Why is protein so bad anyway? The answer is, it's not, if eaten in the right amount, from the right sources. Here are some myths about protein:

1. The more protein, the better: This is not only false, but potentially deadly. In fact, the human body only needs about 10-15% of its daily calories from protein. This is enough for the body to repair the tissues of its organs, and to build new muscle and connective tissue as needed. More than this, however, can be quite detrimental, for two main reasons. First, the more protein you eat, the less carbohydrates and fat you eat. These nutrients are also important for a variety of body functions, and the micronutrients (such as vitamins, phytochemicals, and fiber) which go along with the carbohydrates in plant foods are lost when you eat a meat heavy diet. Second, protein is composed of amino acids. When you eat a large amount of protein, your body takes on a huge acid load, which it must then deal with. Since the body operates at a slightly alkaline pH, it must buffer this acid load. It has two ways to buffer. The weaker of the two is to shift acid back and forth between the lungs and the kidneys. The stronger of the two is to dissolve your bones, freeing up phosphorous to bind up the extra acid. Thus, a heavy protein load is hard on the kidneys, and many doctors now think that the high rate of osteoporosis in America and other industrialized countries is related to our massive protein intake.

2. Meat is the best source of protein: The main reason that food scientists originally thought this was due to what are called essential amino acids. You see, your body can make 12 of the 20 amino acids that you need from scratch. We are unable, however, to manufacture the other 8. These must be obtained from the diet. For the early food scientists, meat seemed like an optimal protein source because it contains all 20 amino acids. No vegetable protein source other than soy has all 20. This would be a really big deal if it made the slightest difference practically. In reality, however, it is not important to have all 20 amino acids together. In fact, you don't even need to take in all 20 from your diet. You only need 8 of them, remember? Thus, as long as you get enough of those 8 amino acids, your body has everything it needs to repair old tissues and build new ones. Whether you are a world class body builder or an infant, that is all the protein you need. Taking in more does not make you build more muscle, it just damages your kidneys and bones. Therefore, vegetables are a perfectly good protein source, and meat is in no way necessary for health or life. Eating meat also comes with some inherent dangers, such as cholesterol intake, as well as significantly higher rates of hypertension, heart disease, cancer (multiple types), osteoporosis, depression, heart attack, stroke, and premature death.

3. Athletes need more protein than non athletes: If you are an athlete, this will come as a complete shock to you, but your protein requirements (amount and type) are no more than anyone else's. All you need to eat is enough of the essential amino acids (10-15% of daily calories), and your body can build all the muscle you need. If you don't believe me, just ask Mac Danzig. He is a vegan MMA fighter. If anyone needs to build a lot of muscle, it is him, but he manages to do it on an all plant diet.

4. Chicken and fish are better than beef: In a wonderful bit of animal product in fighting, the chicken people try to convince you that their product is better than the evil beef, which is loaded with fat, and will kill you. That is true, but it is also true of chicken. Chicken may be slightly lower in fat, but as we have discussed, it is not necessarily the fat which is dangerous in animal products. Chicken still gives you the same excessive protein load, with no redeeming vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, or fiber, all of which you get when you eat plant based proteins.

5. Plant foods don't have enough protein in them: This is the final argument of the animal producers. You have to eat meat, to supplement (or replace) plants, because they don't have enough protein. Excellent propaganda, but completely not true. Let's take the much maligned potato for example. The potato, which is often decried for being a starchy carb bomb, and having little health value, has quite a bit of protein. Depending on the type of potato, it can have anywhere between 8 and 11% protein by weight. Interestingly, this is just about the amount that you need. Potatoes do not have all of the essential amino acids, so you could not survive on a diet of just potatoes, but you get the point. A diet consisting of a variety of vegetables can easily provide enough protein for good health and muscle development.

By now, you might wonder what my answer is when I am asked the dreaded question. Obviously, I don't carry around a pamphlet with all this information on it, to pass out on demand (although maybe I should). Depending on how much time I have, I either give the short and slightly snarky answer- from food, or the answer which leads to a long discussion- why do you think that protein is so important? Hopefully you will ask yourself that question the next time you sit down to a steak or some chicken.

M. Jacob Ott, M. D.

Dollars and Sense

2012-04-17T09:54:00.002-05:00

As most of you are aware, this year is an election year. Much of Congress and the Presidency will be up for grabs. Already, the power players are jockeying for position and votes. Billions have already been "earned" and spent on political campaigns. Both Republicans and Democrats are hotly debating the issues that are important to most Americans.

Two of the most important issues this time around are health care and the federal budget. This year, the debt limit of the government received special scrutiny, and with it, the fact that we grossly overspend what we make as a country. The federal debt is in the trillions of dollars. We are practically bankrupt as a country, and can barely afford to pay the interest on our outstanding debts. Regardless of how you personally feel that we should increase our income (tax the rich vs tax everyone), it is clear that we must reduce the amount we spend. Like any poorly managed household, it is the fact that we spend more than we make that is forcing us in to ever more debt.

That brings us to the second hot issue of 2012: health care. With the passing of Obamacare, everyone is talking about it. For those of you who are not well versed on the topic, the major issue in the health care debate is not how to deliver it, or the quality, or even who should get what services. The issue is who will pay for all of the healthcare that we deliver.

Why, you might ask, is who pays so important? Well, it is because of the sheer amount we spend on health care. In America, we spend about $7,538 per person on health care. This is by far the most of any industrialized country. In fact, it is almost 1.5 times as much as the next biggest (Norway at $5,003). Here is a bar chart showing the average per person health expenditure for the major industrialized nations:

As you can see, we outstrip everyone else in healthcare spending. This comes to a staggering total of 2.26 TRILLION dollars. To put it another way, healthcare spending accounts for about 16% of our Gross Domestic Product, meaning about 1 out of every 6 dollars that US industry and jobs produce goes to health care.

Thus, the who pays for it discussion. To understand the debate, you have to understand who pays for it now. About 15% of Americans are uninsured, meaning that they pay for it themselves. Accordingly, about half of all bankruptcies are due to medical expenses. The other 85% is split between private insurance (36%), the federal government (34%), state/ local government (11%), and miscellaneous (4%). Obamacare is mainly aimed at the 15% or so who don't have insurance. The federal government aims to provide insurance to those people, absorbing the additional cost, as well as a myriad of other costs so that everyone will have health insurance.

While this is a noble goal, and no one should have to go without at least essential and emergency health care, we have to ask what we are getting in return. Surely, if we spend the most of healthcare, we must be the healthiest nation on the planet, right? Nope. In fact, we are one of the sickest industrialized nations on earth. Below is a listing of life expectancy for developed nations:

As you can see, the United States is no where near the top of the list. In fact, as of 2011, we rank 42nd globally in life expectancy. This is terrible, considering the amount we spend on health care. Thus, the question must be asked, why are we so sick?

Some people would say that this is an indicator of poor quality health care. I may be somewhat biased, being a doctor, but I disagree. We have by far the best health care system in terms of quality in the world. No one can surpass our developments in pharmaceuticals and life saving technology. We are sick despite our quality health care.

In truth, the health problem and the money problem are related to the same thing: our personal choices. We choose not to take care of ourselves, and suffer the consequences. The vast majority of the diseases we suffer from today in America are what I like to call diseases of lifestyle: cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, type II diabetes, stroke, chronic pain and obesity. I call these diseases of lifestyle because whether or not you develop them is almost directly related to what you eat and whether or not you choose to exercise. The fact is, in America, we eat mostly processed crap, and exercise little if at all. I have covered this at length in prior posts, so I will not go into it here. Click on the links if you want more info.

Thus, the problem with health care is not health care itself, but the amount we deliver. We are forced to deliver way too much healthcare, because we do whatever we want, and ignore the consequences. A recent study showed that obese people suck up over $2,000 more per person in health care dollars than a non-obese person. Maybe if we actually took care of ourselves, we would not have to spend five times more on health care than on national defense. If we only took care of ourselves, we could solve the healthcare crisis and the budget crisis without any help from the federal government. As a nation, we need to begin to regard the consequences of our actions, and adjust those actions to avoid the collapse that is coming.

Regardless of who you plan to vote for, politicians and government cannot solve our problems. Only we as individuals can!

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.

Meat is (Self) Murder

2012-03-14T09:37:00.004-05:00

Most of you who read my blog or view my web page probably know that I am a vegan. I eat virtually no animal products. You probably also know my bias toward meat and animal products. Based on years of reading the research on nutrition and the link between animal proteins and various diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke, my opinion is that eating animal products is similar to slowly killing yourself.

The paragraph above is just my humble opinion. I am not the smartest person on earth, and my opinion may not mean much to you, but now some far smarter people than I have put forth evidence to that same effect. A day or two ago, the Harvard School of Public Health released the results of a 20 year, 110,000 person study into the consumption of meat, specifically red meat. The results of the study were conclusive and fairly startling.

In short, eating meat is similar to slowly killing yourself. Over 20 years, 24,000 people out of 110,000 died, about half from either heart disease or cancer. By analyzing the diets of the people in the study, the researchers concluded that eating just one serving of red meat per day was associated with a 13% higher risk of death. If the meat was processed (think bacon, salami, sausage, etc...), the risk of death was almost 20% higher.

Before you start to deny the results, or push back and make excuses as to why you want to continue to eat meat, really think about this. You face a 20% higher risk of death just for eating one serving a day. Who knows how much increased risk you face for eating 2-3 servings, like most people do.

I know. I've been there. This is a lot to stomach (pardon the bad pun). The first ~~lie~~ rationalization that you probably had was "everyone has to die of something, I would rather be happy and die sooner, than deny myself and die later." At least, this was the first one that I had. As I came to discover, that logic is flawed on two counts. First, it is not the early death that I am concerned about. There are fates worse than death. Imagine being unable to play with your children, because you only have a third of your heart function left. This is the consequence of a heart attack. Consider being unable to move one side of your body, or knowing what words you want to say, but being unable to say them. These are the consequences of a stroke. The risk of both are increased by meat intake.

Second, once you get over the brainwashing of our culture, and realize that meat intake is not necessary for health, life, or enjoyment, abstaining from meat is not denying yourself. I have experimented with a wider variety of foods since becoming vegan than I ever did before. Contrary to the idea of deprivation, avoiding animal products has opened up my dietary choices more than ever, and I enjoy food much more knowing that I can eat it without fear.

If you want more information on how to start down the path to health by removing animal products from your diet, please visit my websites:

www.devolvehealth.com
devolvehealth.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/devolvehealth
www.twitter.com/devolvehealth

If you would like personalized help, feel free to contact me through my website.

M. Jacob Ott, M. D.

Runnin' in a Winter Wonderland

2012-02-13T10:09:00.000-06:00

I don't know where you may be reading from, but at least here in Kansas, winter has arrived. For the past few months, the weather had been toying with us, offering temperatures in the 50's. There were even a few days in the 60's. Not very winter like.

I am an Ohioan by birth, so the cold does not really bother me very much. That doesn't mean I like it. I would definitely prefer 70 and sunny every day. Add some grey clouds and snow to the cold, and you have a recipe for some dreary days.

Since the cold is on my mind today, I thought I'd write about how workouts should change due to the short days and cold weather. I know that many people who are habitual exercisers tend to take winters off, because of the cold and the holidays, and then begin working out again in the spring. Though rest is good for your body, taking off three months can be seriously damaging to your fitness level as well as potentially your waistline.

I definitely continue to work out over the winter months, and I recommend that you do the same. If you want to use the winter as something of a rest period, consider working out 3-4 days a week, and taking the other days to rest.

You may need to modify your workouts as well. It is still OK to exercise outside. In fact, I kind of like winter runs. They can be rather invigorating. Be sure to take a few precautions, however:

1. Dress for the cold. Be sure to cover your head, fingers, and toes well. If the temperature is in the 20's or below, frostbite can set in rather quickly, even in as fast as 30 minutes. As long as you are moving and active, hypothermia is not much of an issue in the short term, but be sure to get in out of the cold as soon as you are done. Also, wear some layers, preferably of a heat retaining tech fabric. Avoid wearing too much clothing, however, as you can still overheat. You should feel a little chilly when you start, or you are wearing too many layers. Trust me, you will warm up as you go.

2. Be careful of slipping. In the ER, I see many patients who slip on the ice. Obviously, if you are running fast, this danger is increased. Be careful, especially going down hills or on pavement. Try to keep an eye on the ground a few yards in front of you, so you can identify any slick spots before you actually hit them. If you do slip, try to sit down on your bottom, rather than extending your hand or leading with your head.

3. Prepare for emergencies. carry with you at least a little water, a small amount of food (like an energy bar), and your cell phone. You don't want to sprain an ankle three miles from any sort of aid, and be unable to call for help.

Follow these precautions, and you will be able to safely work out through the winter. Who knows, you may even enjoy running in the snow!

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.

All In

2012-01-26T17:00:00.000-06:00

Now, I know that cavemen did not formally gamble. They did not have casinos and poker chips, so a blog post titled "all in" might seem a little odd in the context of either caveman style living or health education, but bear with me. I do have a point to this analogy.

In fact, it could be said that cavemen gambled much more frequently than we do nowadays. All parts of the life of a caveman were an exercise in risk. Do I run from the predator, or try to hide? Do I risk going out into the open to gather food, or wait until a better time? Do I waste precious energy chasing down the deer, or do I just go with the easily gathered vegetables?

By comparison, the risks we take with our lives in today's society are fairly mild. Driving in a car is about the riskiest activity that most of us will undertake on a daily basis, and even driving is really quite safe. In the industrialized world, unless you serve in the military or live in the worst portions of the inner city, your life is infinitely safer than that of a caveman.

Ironically, the safer we get as a society, the less willing we are to take risks. We are unwilling to risk our lives, our money, and our social standing. In fact, we have gotten to the point where few people say anything controversial or take bold action because they are afraid to risk what they have.

The practical result of fear of risk is a kind of wishy-washiness, that forces people to take halfhearted action, then give up their course of action at the first sign of resistance. No great achievement can come out of this kind of action. Only commitment and bold action can lead to great achievement.

So, how does this apply to health, you might ask? Well, just like the caveman, the quality of your health and life depend on how committed you are. If the caveman decided to give up as soon as the search for food got hard, he would quickly starve to death. If he decided that hiding from the lion was just too much trouble, he would quickly have become lunch.

In modern society, we have the opposite problem. Obtaining food is easy, far too easy in most cases. To make the situation worse, the foods that are the easiest to obtain are the the worst for us. Thus, if we don't really commit to eating the right foods and follow the easy path, the result will be poor health, obesity, and chronic disease.

Similarly, with exercise, the easiest path nowadays is to get little or no physical activity. That was not an option in the past. Cavemen had no cars, planters, harvesters, or grocery stores. The search for food and safety was all consuming and HARD. Nothing short of complete dedication would get the job done.

One thing hasn't changed after all these years: if you want optimal health and wellness, as well as to avoid obesity and chronic disease, you will have to dedicate yourself completely. Like a poker player pushing their whole pile of chips into the pot, you will have to go all in with your health and wellness efforts.

Even if you go all in, I cannot promise that you will achieve every one of your goals. If you don't go all in however, and take the type of wishy washy action that most people take, I can promise that you will not. Any difficult achievement requires both passion and commitment, and nothing worth having is easy. So if you really want something, and this goes for anything in life, not just your health, stir up your passion and commit fully to the effort. You will be amazed at the results!

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.

Choices, Choices

2012-01-12T10:05:00.000-06:00

Many of you probably know that my day job is that of Emergency Medicine physician. I work in several busy emergency departments, and see a wide variety of patients. All of my patients have at least one thing in common: they have something wrong with them. No one comes to the emergency room when they feel great, except for the staff members. In addition, most of them are scared that what is wrong may be serious. Most people will not come to the emergency room unless they think what they have is serious. The fact of the matter is that the majority of patients that I see don't have an actual emergency, but that is irrelevant. It is the perception of an emergency that drives them in to see me.

The fact that I find most interesting in my job is that the things people worry about the most are usually the least deadly. Every year, during the winter months, I see hundreds of people in the ER for colds, coughs, bronchitis, the flu, and upper respiratory infections. I know why they come in for these problems: a cold or the flu will make you feel pretty crappy. That being said, all of these diseases are self- limited. What that means is they will go away on their own no matter what you do, and there is no medicine that we have which will make them better in any way. What I do with these patients is put them on medicine which will cover up their symptoms (almost all of which can be bought over the counter) until the disease goes away.

Now, it is true that infectious diseases used to be very deadly. In fact, Sir William Osler, one of the patriarchs of modern medicine, called pneumonia "captain of the men of death." In the days before vaccines and antibiotics, infectious diseases were the leading cause of death in all age groups. To illustrate this, here is a list of the leading causes of death in New Jersey in 1900 vs 2000:

Leading Causes of Death, New Jersey, 1900 and 2000

Rank                         1900                                                       2000
                     1 Acute lung diseases                                     1. Diseases of the heart
                     2 Consumption                                                 2. Malignant neoplasms
                     3 Diarrheal diseases of children                     3. Cerebrovascular diseases

                     4 Adult brain and spinal diseases                 4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases

                     5 Diseases of heart and circulation               5. Diabetes mellitus
                     6 Deaths under one month of age                 6. Unintentional injuries
                     7 Contagious diseases (not TB)                    7. Influenza & pneumonia
                     8 Renal and cystic diseases                            8. Septicemia
                     9 Brain and nervous diseases of children     9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, & nephrosis
                    10 Violent deaths                                               10. Alzheimer's
                    11 Digestive and intestinal diseases              11. HIV disease

                    12 Cancer                                                           12. Chronic liver disease & cirrhosis
                    13 Puerperal                                                      13. Pneumonitis due to solids & liquids
                    14 Acute rheumatism                                      14. Suicide
Here is what I find interesting about this list: in the year 1900, You have to go down to #5 on the list to find the first cause of death that is not an infection. The first four are: acute lung diseases (pneumonia), consumption (TB), Diarrheal diseases of children (almost all are bacteria or viruses), and Adult brain and spinal diseases (such as meningitis and polio). Finally, with #5, you get to a non infectious cause of death: heart disease. In the list from 2000, you have to go down to #8 to find a cause of death which IS from an infection: Septicemia (systemic blood bacterial infection, commonly called blood poisoning).

That's great, Jake, you may be saying, but what does this mean? I'll tell you. Infectious diseases are random. If you are exposed, you can be infected and get sick. Though lifestyle choices can make you more or less likely to get sick, they only play a limited role. The modern death list is filled with what I like to call "diseases of lifestyle." Though there are some environmental factors at play, diseases such as heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease (stroke), and chronic lower respiratory diseases (such as emphysema), are largely based upon the choices we make. Having a heart attack or stroke is mainly based on what you choose to eat and whether or not you choose to exercise. The vast majority of cancers are either diet or tobacco related, and emphysema and other lower respiratory diseases are almost exclusively smoking related.

Thus, in the modern world, whether you get sick or not, and how well you heal is based largely upon the choices you make. Modern medicine has come up with many fancy drugs, and many fancy procedures, but other than antibiotics for infections, heart catheterizations for heart attacks, and emergency surgery for conditions such as appendicitis, these medicines and procedures don't really cure anything. Drugs for high blood pressure don't cure high blood pressure, and patients are placed on a treadmill of ever escalating doses as their body adapts to the medicine. Drugs for cholesterol are far less effective than proper diet and regular exercise in treating cholesterol problems. Drugs for heart disease and emphysema do nothing to reverse these diseases, only slow their progression somewhat.

Somehow we as doctors have failed in our education of patients, and this information does not reach people. I say this because I have a stream of people through the doors of my ER wanting me to rescue them from their self limited infections and the end consequences of their poor lifestyle choices, but relatively few are ever interested in how they can prevent these diseases in the first place. In America today, we want to go to the doctor, get a prescription pill, and continue to eat however we want, and neglect our responsibility to exercise.

The main reason I write this blog is to try and bring home this point. Proper nutrition and exercise are far better medicines than anything the drug companies can mix up in a lab. If you fuel your body properly, and exercise every day or nearly every day, you can avoid most of the diseases on the list above.

In the end, it all comes down to choices.

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.

New Year's Commitments

2012-01-05T20:22:00.000-06:00

Have you ever made a New Year's resolution? Most of us have. You resolve to go to church more, talk to your family more, do more things with your friends, or quit smoking or drinking.

Perhaps the most common New Year's resolution that is made each year in America is the resolution to lose weight. After holiday face stuffing, during which people gain an average of 4 pounds a year, the guilty parties (I was one for years) resolve to lose weight and get down to an arbitrary goal weight. Full of piss and vinegar, they go to the local gym. The gym just happens to be running a big special designed to help people lose weight in the region of their wallet, and is happy to relieve them of a years worth of membership fees.

The resolutioner, let's just call him Jake, since this was me for years, goes to the gym every day for the first week. He hits the treadmill and the weight machines, and gets sore and feels like crap. Soon after, daily turns to weekly, which becomes not at all. Don't believe me? Go to your local gym this week, and notice how many people are there. Then go on February 1st, and do another count. I would be surprised if more than 60% the number of people are there. Prove me wrong, and leave a comment if you disagree!

The same happens with our diets. A friend of mine who is a reporter in New York just did a segment on the top ten diets as rated by US News and World report (I am not linking to it, because they are mostly useless. Since when can a news magazine tell you anything about losing weight). The point is that people want to hear a lot about diets this time of year. The gym phenomenon plays out in the area of diet as well. Jake goes out to diet until he weighs 180 lbs, and begins a program, such as Weight Watchers. He follows the rules very strictly... for a week or so, until the first time he messes up. Once he messes up, he feels like a failure, and the shame and self-loathing come back, along with the comfort food to bury those feelings. Before long, Jake has given up and gained another five pounds.

I know this story so well because I lived it for years. I am guessing that many of you know it as well. Fortunately, over long bitter experience, I learned how to break the cycle, and finally lose the weight for real. It's not about a gym, and it's not about a diet, although those are both necessary tools. It is all about attitude.

The reason that virtually all New Year's resolutions fail is because the focus is all wrong. Jake was never really committed to his health. All he cared about was losing a little weight so that he could feel good about himself. Thus, when his commitment was tested, as all commitments are, he gave up. If you want to lose weight and achieve optimum health, your focus must be on something deeper than just fitting into a pair of jeans, or even looking good in the mirror. These superficial ideals will never sustain the dedication required to lose a significant amount of weight.

Instead, your focus must be on something greater than yourself. Only dedicating yourself to a cause outside yourself will give you the staying power to endure through the days that you don't want to work out, and the days where it seems like cookies are everywhere, and the days that it seems that your scale is possessed by demons.

What should your focus be? Frankly, I have no idea. Mine, just so you know is my family and God. I want to be around on Earth as long as possible, to do God's work, and to help grow and lead my family. That commitment gets me through the rough patches and down days, and strengthens me when I am feeling weak.

Don't get me wrong, life is not perfect. In fact, it is brutally IMperfect. Temptation is still ever present, and for me at least, it is very strong. Having a higher cause makes my success mean more than a momentary temptation, and allows me to persevere, even if (when) I fail.

This year, instead of a New Year's resolution, I encourage you to make a New Year's commitment. Commit yourself to your health because of something other than your looks, emotions, or jeans size. Make that commitment public, and dedicate yourself to it totally. That is the only way to truly succeed.

If you do commit to your health, do me two favors: first, comment about what your greater cause is, so that I can help encourage you, and pass this blog along to your friends who might be struggling.

Good Luck!

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.

An Attitude of Gratitude

2011-11-24T08:56:00.000-06:00

We in America are good at wanting things. We are a consumer culture. Advertisements on TV show us things to buy. Everyone is concerned with having the latest, greatest, and newest. From the time we are kids, until we are adults, we seem to want, want, want.

Today, however, is a day for giving thanks for what we have. When I was young, I saw a motivational speaker. That speaker's topic was the importance of having an attitude of gratitude. At first blush, I did not really agree with what he said. Why was it important to have gratitude for the things I already had. I always thought my focus should be on my goals, and what I wanted. How on earth are you supposed to reach your goals by focusing on what you already possess.

I have grown and changed much in the intervening years since I saw this motivational speaker. As those of you who follow my blog know, I have had many trials and life experiences which have taught me the importance of being thankful. As it turns out, being thankful is critically important to any goal you might want to achieve in the future, for several reasons:

1. It reminds you of how blessed you already are- No matter how difficult your life is, there are some important things you possess. You possess life, the most precious gift imaginable. In addition, you likely have at least one or two people who love you. When you realize how important the things you have are, the things you want aren't quite so pressing.

2. It relieves stress- Part of the stress that we experience comes from the American rat race. The rat race is an endless pursuit. You run in circles pursuing a career, a higher rung on the corporate ladder, a bigger house, a nicer car, and more money. Ceaselessly pursuing the next big thing creates a feeling of pressure. This pressure turns to anxiety, which leads to stress. People who are under significant negative stress are at higher risk for obesity, heart attack, stroke, and sudden death. Gratitude is like a flood gate which releases the stress when opened. Someone who is grateful on a daily basis is far less likely to hold on to stress.

3. It makes you more likely to get what you want- I don't have a good explanation for this based upon science and nature, but it works. I attribute it to God. If you don't believe in God, you can call it the universe, karma, or whatever you want. Reason would suggest that there is no connection between being grateful for what you have, and getting what you want, but I can tell you from my own life that it works! If you spend time daily focusing on being grateful, many of the things you want will come to you, and you will be less concerned about the things that don't.

As you sit down with your family members to your (hopefully healthy) dinner, spend a minute being thankful for all the blessings in your life. In the end, you will have much more to be grateful for!

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.

Eat the Whole Food

2011-11-14T09:38:00.000-06:00

Better living through chemistry. DuPont used this slogan back in the 80's. The intent of the phrase is obvious: DuPont (and by extension, mankind) can top nature by producing artificial products to meet all of our needs. Better materials, better drugs, better foods, all of these things are implied by the slogan. Back in the 80's, most people really believed in it. Not DuPont, necessarily, but the idea that we could create products out of virtually nothing which could supplant similar (inferior) versions made by nature.

These days, much of the public and virtually all of the healthcare industry believe the same thing. We have synthetic medications, clothing fibers, building materials, and synthetic foods.

Synthetic foods, you ask. OK, so you might be thinking "I don't see any polyester apples out there," and you are right. We don't have completely synthetic foods, but we have something very close to it. Food companies are able to chemically separate parts of foods, and combine those parts into various other types of "food." I put food in quotes, because these products have little or no value as food. Mostly they are clever combinations of corn and soy molecules. Not the good parts, mostly the fat and sugar.

Yet these convenience foods flood our grocery stores and vending machines, and many people eat a diet which consists of almost all processed convenience foods. Often times, these foods are even marketed as being good for you. The manufacturer will note one or two of the nutrients contained in the product, and tout it as being good for you. For example, I am currently looking at a cereal box that touts "heart healthy grains," and "14 vitamins and minerals." Of course, they fail to mention that the "heart healthy grains" are combined with high fructose corn syrup, and that the "14 vitamins and minerals" were added in artificially, and do not actually belong in the food in question.

What is the problem with synthetic foods, you might ask? If we get all of the nutrients we need from them, why is that not an OK way to eat? They are easy and taste good. Well, there are really two major problems, and a host of minor problems. I will discuss the major problems here:

1. The foods are too energy dense. Processed foods concentrate the parts of food that we humans find appealing based upon our sense of taste, namely the fat, salt, and sugar. They leave out the fiber, starch, and all the "filler" which is in whole foods. This amps up the calorie density, and makes the foods far richer than they should be. Thus, you eat far more calories before your brain knows that you are full.

2. All that "filler" is pretty important. We are pretty arrogant as a species. Because we now believe in the omniscience of science, we study foods, and try and isolate the parts of food that are "good for us." We hone in on these nutrients, and study them. When we find one that shows some benefit in our studies, we start adding it to all kinds of processed goodies. We feel good about ourselves, because we think that this makes the otherwise unhealthy food healthy. Unfortunately, this is very far from the truth. In our arrogance, we forget that there might be other chemicals in the whole foods that we can't detect which contribute to the benefit we see. A classic example of this phenomenon is fiber. I'm sure you have heard that fiber prevents colon cancer. Shortly after this was discovered, synthetic fiber products appeared in large numbers on grocery shelves. Fiber was added to cereal, doughnuts, bread, and scores of other foods. People feel better, because they are able to get their 35 grams of fiber without changing their habitual diet at all. Wonderful, right?

Not so much. The colon cancer rates did not fall with this influx of fiber. In fact, they got higher! When the scientists did research as to why, they got quite a shock. Where the fiber in whole foods did lower the risk of colon cancer, the "fake fiber" in the other products did not. The same is true of most of the nutrients the USDA recommends. While vitamins are crucially important, and deficiencies of vitamins cause diseases, taking vitamins in pill form does not improve lifespan or mortality. In fact, some recent studies have shown that taking a vitamin may actually INCREASE your risk of death!

The bottom line is that we were meant to consume the whole foods, not their chemically rearranged counterparts. There are probably thousands of nutrients in the whole foods that we are unable to detect that work together to produce health benefits. That is why the Devolve eating rule #1 is:

Eat foods like they grow in nature

Wherever possible, eat the whole, unprocessed food. The closer you get to plucking it off the tree or pulling it out of the earth, the more nutritional value you will get out of it. In general, if your food was created in a lab, you will probably need to take a lot of lab created medicines to treat the diseases your created foods caused.

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.