Here and Now
Everyone is looking for better health.
We want it. We seek it; yet day by day and bit by bit, we distance ourselves just a little further. Suddenly it’s gone. What we wouldn’t give to have it back…
In today’s modern world we eagerly embrace a quick fix. “Hit me up and I’ll be on my way.” Unfortunately, much to our dismay, rare is the intervention which will instantaneously weave its magic to the breadth and depth of our broken bodies.
Stepping Back to Health
Sometimes you don’t realize just how close to the edge you were until you see the skid marks and other telltale signs, moments from the “diabetes divide” looming below.
The journey began about a decade ago, the warning signals so much more than the slow but steady weight gain and alarming blood markers. At the time, however, it was the elevated blood sugar levels, signaling borderline diabetes, which finally motivated our couch potato to get moving.
Thus, began a monotonously boring (and unsuccessful) flirtation with swimming, walking and exercising. In a stroke of good fortune, he was saved from eternal damnation as he became infected by a particularly vicious superbug of the all mountain (biking) species.
His first strokes were paved with blood, sweat and tears. Beginnings are hard, painfully so. Thankfully, his tenacity and persistence payed off. The growing strength and endurance gave a tenfold return in pleasure and pride. Addiction took hold, even to the point where he began to display painful detox symptoms when kept from his bike.
In the past, his diet was rich with sweets: afternoon spreads, laden with homemade delights, soft drinks and generously sweetened coffee.
He left it all behind: the sugar, the soft drinks, the ice coffee and the ice cream. Healthier foods took their place: whole grains and breads, less animal-based foods and abundant plant-based ones. Green smoothies became a daily habit …
The weight began to shed. His façade evolved. Long forgotten body contours were revealed and his flushed red face disappeared.
In time, the lifestyle makeover, the intense workouts and healthy nutrition, became routine.
Despite best efforts, the biker remained fat and his blood sugar high, bordering on diabetes. Frustrated and disheartened, why when he was doing everything so right was everything so wrong?!
More workouts…
More green smoothies…
He tried to break the vicious cycle but his weight and blood sugar had minds of their own and continued to climb.
Intensive physical activity and healthy nutrition: much promise, no delivery. Frustrated, but unwilling to give up, he was blinded by internal neon lights flashing “Route recalculation, Route recalculation NOW!” He began to suspect that his healthy nutritional choices were not so (healthy) for him.
A New Day
Personalized Nutrition by Prediction of Glycemic Responses
Research by the group of Prof. Eran Segal and Dr. Eran Elinav of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel Zeevi & Korem et al., Cell 2015
Cutting edge science linking diet, blood sugar and microbes quickly got his attention, so much so that he banked on it. And so, began our biker’s journey to personalized nutrition with Day Two.
Day Two, an Israeli application born out of licenced technology from the illustrious Weizmann Institute of Science, creates personal nutritional directives based on one’s unique gut bacteria and bio-individual responses (primarily based on blood sugar levels) to food.
By the time the Israeli documentary series “The Effect of the Microbe” made waves, the biker was already ahead of the crowd. His personalized app had been in use for over a month.
The journey began with “basecamp”: a week long continuous monitoring of blood sugar levels while meticulously journaling food and exercise. A questionnaire complete with latest bloodwork, as well as a stool sample, were submitted for analysis. As Day Two’s algorithm is now well established, these days new comers forego the preliminary “basecamp”.
His personal data was matched with the algorithm, unique personalized nutritional recommendations were prepared; a personal consultation was coordinated with the company’s dietician.
It did not take much toying around to rapidly discover that most fruit, baked goods, grains, both whole and refined, as well as beans and lentils spiked his blood sugar and should be avoided. Even his daily green smoothie was a no-no.
On the other hand, a window of opportunity opened up for other foods such as nuts, avocado, eggs, and high fat dairy. Beloved meals and snacks were discarded in favor of new and personalized ones. Every effort was made to create high scores above 8.0 (out of 10).
Everyone pitched in. Flax Sea-Bread, a gluten and grain free bread was born, immediately becoming a permanent and beloved fixture in his diet. New high scoring green smoothie combinations were perfected. Very quickly it became clear that almost any meal or snack’s scorecard could be bettered by merely adding additional fat or protein.
ROI – Return on Investment
And the result? Drum roll please…
Just four months into the diet and the results are remarkable including:
Gradual weight loss
Consumed by hunger no longer
Reduction of lumps of fatty tissue between skin and underlying muscle (lipoma)
Diminished “manboobs” (Gynecomastia, symptom of estrogen dominance)
No more fluid retention and swollen feet (Edema)
Disappearance of dark red patches of skin (acanthosis nigricans)
Reduced waist size
A flood of compliments
Bearing witness with awe to another and yet another body change, it’s been a journey, a wakeup call to a multitude of afflictions, all leading back to sugar. Four months into the journey, from clueless to laser vision awareness, it has been nothing less than remarkable. Everything is connected – give the body quality building blocks and it will find homeostasis on its own accord. As this is being written, the final piece of the puzzle awaits to be connected. Today’s new bloodwork and an updated A1C (three-month glucose average) score shall reveal the depth of change.
Update, the results are in!
The power of personal choice has never been so clear.
No one enjoys being told what to do. Often in an effort to improve our health we are told to “do this” or “abstain from that”. The beauty of this application is that the power of control is in the hands of the user. Any fool can learn how to correctly combine foods (to lower blood sugar). Incidentally, it’s relatively easy to sneak a ”bad” but beloved food into one’s meal. Simply pair a small portion of “bad” with “good” high scoring foods.
It’s worth noting that the final score of a meal is NOT equal to the simple average of its parts. The final score is dependent upon both the quantity and the mutual interaction of its components. With relative ease it is possible to build a meal with three greens, each with a 9+ score but when combined producing an overall score of 5-!
“For me the whole process has been like a compass.
A compass will show you the way.
It won’t take you there.
The walkabout is yours.”
Now that the map of the human genome is complete, we know that the difference between us amounts to less than 5%. The human microbiome, on the other hand, reveals a map of diversity, a difference of approximately 95%, a complete negative turnaround! This validates “bio individuality”, one of the founding principles of Integrative Nutrition. There is no one size fits all diet! What works for you will not necessarily work for me.
Everyone is looking for better health. Like everything in today’s fast modern world, we want it here and now. Unfortunately, rare is the intervention which will instantaneously weave its magic to the breadth and depth of our broken bodies.
The Effectiveness of a Health Intervention
Did our biker manage to find such a jewel?
Have you too embraced change? How can you evaluate the effectiveness of your health intervention?
To paraphrase the wise words of Colin Campbell in his book Whole: use these three metrics: rapidity, breadth and depth.
Rapidity: How quickly is change felt?
Breadth: How many biomarkers does the intervention affect? Does it affect a broad range of symptoms and illnesses?
Depth: Is the change powerful and far-reaching or barely noticeable?
Ready for change? Ready to walkabout to the vibrant being you were meant to be? Please feel free to contact me for support and guidance.
Food just got personal. | Neil Grimmer | TEDxSanFrancisco
What food is right for each of us? Neil Grimmer is sharing about his personal journey about defining what kind of food right was for him and how it inspired him to pursue that quest at scale, helping people defining personalized food choices for a better health versus the "one size fits all" mainstream approach.
If you have not yet read about the rocky part of my journey, you can read it here.
I would like to thank you for your patience in reading this post to its end.
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