Been reading/trying some interesting things lately on general health and how we might stack the odds in our favor when it comes to longevity (i.e. not "kicking the bucket" too soon) I guess it's something that we all start to think more about as we reach our 50s and beyond. A few topics have been spiking my interest, optimal diet, exercise mix and intermittent fasting.
Under the "optimal diet" heading I have tried to adopt the 5 well established tips for things that help you live longer (or at least give you a smaller statistical chance of getting some nasty diseases earlier in life), barring holidays, weather events and special occasions I more of less follow these,
1. Don't smoke and get 8+ hours of sleep per night
2. Eating a healthy diet (right mix of food groups)
3. Regularly exercising (30+ minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity)
4. Keeping a healthy body weight (BMI between 18.5-24.9)
5. Moderate alcohol consumption i.e. less than 40 ml per day.
The term "healthy diet" is a bit vague so here's a more tangible definition,
a. 5-a-day fruit & veg + starchy foods (grains, pasta, potato etc.) (45-65% of total)
b. Dairy, Oils & Spreads (small amount) (20-35% of total)
c. Beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat (lean) & other proteins (10-35% of total)
d. Avoid saturated fat & sugar
According to the literature, ideally, men should be aiming for around 1800 - 2500 calories per day with this mix of carbs, fats and protein (depending upon size, age and activity levels etc.) Any exercise done can be offset against these totals, broadly I try to do at least 20% of my calorific input as output (i.e. exercise), for me that's around 400 calories per day which boils down to a 30-40 minute brisk-walk and perhaps 30 minutes of weights or something else like 15 minutes on a cross-trainer, gardening or whatever floats your boat etc.
My next interesting "health" topic is a new craze that's sweeping the more bio-hacking obsessed cliques of Silicon Valley (which might just put many off right there) called "IF" or Intermittent Fasting. The effects have some interesting evidence-based outcomes which would suggest benefits along the lines of increased mental and physical function as well as a longer term benefit for longevity.
"IF" is simply about managing when you eat rather than what you eat (within reason) The basic idea is that certain things happen in your body when you don't eat for a while, these are natural processes that essentially provide "down-time" for your various systems to repair themselves. Since we evolved in an environment that has day and night many of our biological systems became tuned into this cycle and generally speaking our bodies expect to be sleeping (and not eating) when it's dark and eating and moving around when it's light. This all makes perfect sense from an evolutionary point of view but what are the practical implications?
There are many ways to do "IF", I prefer to fast for 16 hours per day and eat for 8, meaning that I have my evening meal around 5-6pm then don't eat anything at all (water only) between 6 pm and 10 am the next morning, then I have a couple of smaller meals between 10 am and 6pm (i.e. 8 hours), then repeat. Doing "IF" like this allows you to have 2 "cheat-days" per week, which fits in nicely with the weekend when the eating part is usually shifted by a few hours toward the evening (i.e. eating meals & drinking later etc.) I'm not a big breakfast fan so it works well for me, others may wish to skew things later or earlier in the day according to preference, ideally you want to not eat late if possible.
Here are 10 (evidence based) benefits to "IF"
1. When you don't eat for a while, several things happen in your body. Cellular repair processes start and changes to hormones make stored fat more accessible (Ketosis). When you fast, insulin levels drop and human growth hormone increases, this particular hormone is linked to longevity.
2. "IF" does help weight loss (for me at least) - short term fasting increases metabolic rate by 4-14%, you basically burn more calories for the same amount of work. Fasting also tends to (habitually) reduce the total caloric input benefiting both sides of the calorie equation.
3. Reduces insulin resistance and risk of type 2 diabetes - blood sugar is reduced when fasting although Men seem to benefit more than Women. There are many documented cases of people eliminating diabetes completely by simply fasting or doing a 5-2 diet etc. See stuff by Dr Michael Mosley on this for more.
4. "IF" reduces Oxidative stress and inflammation - these are two important contributing factors to many chronic diseases associated with ageing.
5. "IF" may be beneficial for heart health - studies show that intermittent fasting can improve numerous risk factors for heart disease such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, triglycerides and inflammatory markers.
6. Fasting initiates various cellular repair processes - fasting triggers a metabolic pathway called autophagy, which removes waste material from cells.
7. Intermittent fasting has been shown to help prevent cancer in animal studies. One paper in humans showed that it can reduce side effects caused by chemotherapy.
8. Intermittent fasting may have important benefits for brain health. It may increase growth of new neurons and protect the brain from damage.
9. Studies in animals suggest that intermittent fasting may be protective against neuro-degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease.
10. Studies in rats have shown that intermittent fasting extends lifespan in a similar way as continuous calorie restriction.In some of these studies, the effects were quite dramatic. In one of them, rats that fasted every other day lived 83% longer than rats who weren't fasted.
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