Chicken & Artichoke Casserole

Catsroomie, one of the excellent weight loss surgery cooks in the Neighborhood recently posted this recipe for Chicken & Artichoke Casserole:Just came across this recipe on Allrecipes.com and it sounds delicious. Haven't tried it yet, but I plan to this weekend.Artichoke ChickenINGREDIENTS1 (15 ounce) can artichoke hearts, well drained and chopped (marinated preferred)3/4 cup grated Parmesan

June Fruit & Veggies

Have you been to the Community Kitchen in the Neighborhood lately? There is lots of good stuff cooking that feeds our weight loss surgery tummies well. Our LivingAfterWLS Food & Nutrition Director, Barbara Gibbons is busy adding new recipes, product reviews and nutritional know-how to our growing collection of information.This month she features Pluots© and Apriums© in the "Fruit of the Month"

Hormesis

Why are we so soft today? Why is it that our ancestors were able to perform feats like killing bears and wooly mammoths in snow-swept grasslands? How do present-day tribesmen withstand days of ultra-cold temperatures in Northern Greenland and prolonged periods without water in scorching hot Kenyan deserts? Why is it that a century ago, children in the Swiss alps ran barefoot through ice-cold mountain streams on cold days, while now they get carpal tunnel syndrome playing video games? How did they do all this without succumbing to the chronic diseases that are so rampant today? I believe part of the answer lies in hormesis.

Hormesis is the process by which a mild or acute stressor increases resistance to other, more intense or chronic stressors. It can increase resistance to a variety of stresses, not only the one to which you are exposed.

It might sound like a foreign concept, but you're more familiar with it than you think. Exercise is a form of hormesis. It's a stress placed upon the body that increases resistance to a number of other stressors: physical exertion, cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, age-related cognitive decline, neurodegenerative disease, etc.

Intermittent fasting is one of the most promising forms of hormesis. It's consistent with the variable energy intake our hunter-gatherer ancestors probably experienced. As with some other forms of hormesis, it has broad-ranging effects on health and stress resistance. Alternate-day fasting, a version in which food is available for 24 hours ad libitum and then not available for the next 24 hours, increases mean lifespan in mice under some conditions without reducing calorie intake. It increases resistance to neurodegeneration, stroke, myocardial infarction, toxins, cancer and diabetes in rodents. It increases the expression of heat shock proteins and SIRT1, both implicated in general stress resistance. Basically, it makes them tougher all-around.

Although only a few studies have been performed in humans, IF looks promising for preventing or reversing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, overweight and possibly other health problems. It can also decrease fasting insulin and increase insulin sensitivity considerably. I fast for 24 hours, once a week. No calories, only water. It's not a form of caloric restriction, because I eat like horse the day after fasting. It's just a mild stressor that toughens my body to other stressors.

I also take cold showers. Here the scientific data are more sparse, but it has a long history of use as a form of "body hardening". I do it to increase my cold resistance by firing up my non-shivering thermogenesis. It seems to be working. It certainly wakes me up in the morning! Have you ever noticed how you can get into cold water and be surprisingly comfortable once you're used to it, even though you're practically naked and water is conducting heat away from your body 20 times faster than air would? That's probably your non-shivering thermogenesis kicking in.

There are probably many other ways to induce hormesis. Do any of you have techniques to share? By the way, hormesis is one of the central tenets of homeopathy. Solid principle, incorrect application. I'd be happy to sell anyone sugar pills for 50% less than his or her local homeopath is selling them. I promise mine are equally effective...

Soft living makes a soft body. Give it some controlled stress from time to time!


Thanks to Kirill Tropin for the CC photo.

See ya'll later

I am off on holiday this evening. Its been a mad crazy week in my life, so sorry about not blogging before now, and sorry that this post is short! Getting ready for utter relaxation takes it out of one!

5 Day Pouch Test: Refresher Course

There has been a great deal of lively discussion lately about how to do the 5 Day Pouch Test correctly. The guidelines for the plan are very specific and deserve review.First Off - the 5DPT is a drastic measure to stop a carb monster or slider food habit. It is a rapid return to compliance with the general rules of successful weight loss or maintenance after weight loss surgery. The 5 Day Pouch

Walking Off 50 Pounds

Allison has lost 50 pounds since January. She took the extreme measure of participating in a 130 mile walk (15 miles a day along a noisy highway) back in March to get her motivated.

These days she does a file mile walk each morning and belongs to Weight Watchers. See her walking story here.

Nature's Laws

Last night I was watching a little video clip of the Jack LaLanne show. LaLanne was an advocate of strength training and whole foods nutrition whose TV show ran from the 1950s through the 1980s. In the clip, he describes how his father died an early death due to heart and liver disease. A quote that really stuck with me was when he said his father died due to "disregarding nature's laws". That pretty much sums up my philosophy. Live in a way that generally mimics what our genes evolved to thrive on. Why did our paleolithic ancestors have strong, healthy bodies? Why are there still cultures that are free of chronic disease to this day, even into old age? Because they are following nature's laws. Break the law at your own risk.

Jack LaLanne and I do differ a bit on what constitutes a natural diet. For example, I don't throw out my egg yolks... But hey, the man is 94 and going strong. Here's another quote of his: "If man made it, don't eat it". Words to live by. Quite literally.