The people who will have the most money in their Health
Savings Account are those who fully fund it, put the money
in well-performing mutual funds, and stay healthy so they
can avoid making premature withdrawals. Diet is the
foundation of good health, and the healthiest diet you can
eat is the one we evolved to eat, commonly known as The
Paleo Diet.
Choose Not To Get Sick
One thing that most Health Savings Account owners have in
common is a belief in personal responsibility. They know
that if they depend on the government to pay their medical
bills in their old age, they'll be at the mercy of a
government bureaucrat, and their choices will be limited.
So instead they choose to put money aside each year to
cover future expenses. As a thank you, the government
provides a nice tax write-off, tax-deferred growth, and
tax-free medical spending.
The other area where most people can take more personal
responsibility is with their health. People tend to have
the attitude that "stuff happens", and there's not much you
can do to prevent the degenerative diseases that come with
aging. This is hogwash.
Longevity has advanced dramatically in the past century.
Some of this is due to new drugs and advances in surgical
techniques. But most of it is simply lifestyle - people
are bathing more frequently, they are working under less
dangerous conditions, they are smoking less, and some are
eating better food. (Fresh fruits and vegetables were rare
and expensive during winter months when my grandfather was
a child).
Other than not smoking cigarettes, the most powerful thing
you can do to ensure good health is to eat the right foods.
Most people get it wrong, but if you follow this advice
you will lower your risk of almost all the diseases and
disorders that disrupt the lifestyle and drain the bank
accounts of so many people when they reach their 50's,
60's, and 70's.
Why Is Nutrition So Confusing?
In 1988, Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop announced that
high-fat foods in the American diet had a health risk that
was comparable to cigarette smoking. So people began
eating no-fat and low-fat foods like bagels and Snackwell
cookies. Despite this change, the rate of heart disease,
diabetes, and obesity continued to grow.
Then the pendulum swung the other direction, with people
adopting the Atkins diet and eating nothing but meat,
cheese, and eggs. And then Atkins himself had a heart
attack.
Part of the problem is that food is big money. So the Food
Pyramid put out by the USDA is the product of very heavy
lobbying efforts. Another part of the problem is that
until now there has been no overriding paradigm about what
good nutrition really is.
And so the low-fat vegetarian proponents eat their whole
grains and soy burgers, thinking they are eating the right
way, while others avoid carbs like the plaque. Who is
right? Is the answer "moderation?" And what is that?
Eating the Foods We Evolved To Eat
Imagine that you were a zoo keeper, and it was your job to
keep the animals healthy. In one cage you've got a
giraffe, in another you've got a lion, and in the third you
have an anteater. What do you feed them?
Most people would answer that you try to feed them what
they would eat in the wild. If you do so, you're most
likely to have healthy animals. If you get things mixed up
and feed the lion leaves, the giraffe ants, and the
anteater meat, you'll have some sick animals very quickly.
So using the same thinking, what do you feed a human in
order to keep him or her optimally healthy? The foods that
they evolved to eat, of course.
For 2.5 million years humans lived as hunter gatherers. We
ate whatever we could pick, find, or catch. So our diet
consisted of fruits, vegetables, tubers, meat, and seafood.
(And the occasional bug).
It was only 10,000 years ago (500 generations) that humans
began eating grains (wheat, rice, corn, etc.) as a regular
part of their diet. Dairy consumption (other than mother's
milk) first began approximately 6000 years ago. The
regular use of vegetable oils, refined sugar, and salt is
even more recent. As I mentioned last month, two-thirds of
the foods we now eat are foods that are new to our system,
for which we are not genetically adapted.
Evolution moves quite slowly, and the simple fact is that
we are not adapted to eating these foods, and they are
making us sick.
The Problems With Grains
Grains are the seeds of grasses. The grass seed itself
doesn't want to be eaten, because its purpose is to grow a
new blade of grass. So it has various "anti-nutrients" to
protect it from pests and predators.
Protease inhibitors in wheat bind trypsin, preventing this
digestive enzyme from digesting protein. A protein called
wheat germ agglutin (WGA) happens to bind to a hormone
receptor in the gut, entering circulation and causing an
immediate immune reaction every time you eat a piece of
bread.
WGA also increases gut permeability, increasing the
likelihood that other undigested dietary components may
enter circulation.
Another component found in cereals such as rye, oats,
barley, and corn are "alkylresorcinols." These are thought
to provide the seed resistance from pathogenic organisms,
but they are also toxic to humans, and have been shown to
cause red blood cell destruction and DNA damage.
Grains also raise blood sugar very rapidly, causing a high
secretion of insulin from the pancreas. High circulating
insulin is characteristic of "metabolic syndrome", which a
vast number of Americans currently suffer from.
What About Milk?
Cow milk contains a hormone called betacellulin, which
binds to a receptor in the gut called the EGF receptor.
Just one glass of milk has the capacity to stimulate the
receptor 10 times as much would normally occur in 24 hours
from EGF in the saliva.
When the EGF receptor is stimulated it causes the body to
"upregulate" EGF receptors, basically causing more of them
to appear. This in turn let's even more betacellulin enter
the body the next time you have some dairy. Upregulation
of the EGF receptor is characteristic of many cancers,
including breast, prostate, lung, ovarian, and bladder.
No animals other than humans consume milk past the age of
weaning.
Prevent Autoimmune Disease
The incidence of autoimmune diseases increases as people
age. It occurs when the body loses the ability to
distinguish its own proteins from foreign proteins, and
starts attacking itself.
Grains and beans contain substances called "lectins", which
are known to increase gut permeability, possibly allowing
in gut bacteria substances that can trigger an autoimmune
reaction.
Cereal grains and beans also contain proteins with amino
acid sequences that are very similar to those found in
human collagen and other tissues of the body. If the
immune system gets confused, it can start attacking itself
(such as with rheumatoid arthritis when joints become
swollen and painful).
Get Rid Of Acne
Yes, even something as seemingly minor as acne can be
prevented by eating a Paleo diet. Saving just $2000 in
doctor visits over the next couple years could result in an
extra $25,000 in your HSA by the time you finally decide to
take the money out.
If these ideas intrigue you, check out: www.ThePaleoDiet.com
----------------------------------------------------
By Wiley Long - President, HSA for America
(http://www.health--savings--accounts.com ) - The nation's
leading independent health insurance firm specializing in
individual and family coverage that work with Health
Savings Accounts.
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