everything you always wanted to know about Vitamin k2…

natto

The Bottom Line:

Vitamin K2 deficiency is very common.
Vitamin K2 deficiency is associated with:

  •    Heart attacks.
  •    Osteoporosis.
  •    A shorter life span.

The best food sources of vitamin K2 are natto, organ meats, cheese and fermented foods (such as natto, sauerkraut, kim chi and fermented cheeses)

My advice:

  • Start eating liver, sauerkraut, natto and kim chi.
  • Natto = fermented soybeans – a slimy and smelly Japanese food – just any old soybean won’t do; it has to be the fermented variety.

Are we sitting on a time bomb?

tme-bomb 3

The Bottom Line:

  • Prolonged sitting is as big a health risk as smoking is.
  • Sitting all day is worse than not exercising.
  • An hour at the gym doesn’t rectify the damage done from sitting all day.
  • A sedentary lifestyle is a stepping-stone on the road to diabetes, and increases your risk for heart attacks, strokes, obesity and certain cancers.
  • Standing for an extra 3 hours every day can reduce your risk for most Western diseases.

My advice:

  • Get off your bottom and stand up – your chair might be slowly killing you and sending you to an early grave.

Epigenetics: Are you what your grandparents ate?

5388-old-man-laughing


The Bottom Line:

  • DNA isn’t necessarily your destiny: Inheritance is more than just genes being passed on; how much each gene is switched on or off is what matters.
  • What you eat can cause reversible changes in gene expression, and those changes can be passed on to your children and grandchildren, even though the underlying DNA remains unchanged.

Examples of Epigenetics:

  • What a teenage boy eats can have effects on the longevity of his grandsons.
  • Iodine deficiency in a pregnant mother’s diet increases the risk of severe mental retardation in her baby.
  • Folic acid deficiency in a pregnant mother’s diet increases the risk of neural tube defects in her baby.
  • If a father starts smoking before the age of 11, his son is more likely to be overweight than is the son of a father who started smoking at a later age.
  • Low vitamin D levels are associated with a higher risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses.
  • A chemical found in plastic food and drink containers (Bisphenol A) has been epigenetically linked with obesity, diabetes and cancer in mice.
  • Curcumin – a compound found in turmeric has been shown to be an effective anti-cancer agent through epigenetic mechanisms.

Ditch the dairy

Dairy picture
“Let food be your medicine and let medicine be your food.” Hippocrates

The Bottom Line
Milk consumption is associated with:

  • Diabetes.
  • Increased BMI*.
  • Teenage and adult acne.
  • Prostate cancer and ovarian cancer.
  • Calcification in arteries (which increases your risk for a heart attack or stroke).

My advice:

  • Cut out, or cut down on dairy products from your diet.
  • Eat more fruit and vegetables (which helps you retain calcium).