tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post2393418517294739576..comments2024-03-29T09:08:47.702-04:00Comments on The Silicon Graybeard: Wait... I'm Not the Only One Questioning Wellness Programs? SiGraybeardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280583031339062059noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-84557559208227170742016-04-12T16:29:29.427-04:002016-04-12T16:29:29.427-04:00Note well that they NEVER recommend changes to the...Note well that they NEVER recommend changes to the most preventable health risk. After all, those are Preferred Species.Mark Matisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-67010837415959719152016-04-11T12:31:50.466-04:002016-04-11T12:31:50.466-04:00Well, congrats on making it through the quad bypas...Well, congrats on making it through the quad bypass. And it sounds like your cardiologist is on top of things. <br /><br />There have been a couple of massive statistical data mining studies on the roughly half century of pushing low fat diets and the results have not been friendly to the low fat dogma. They've said that the link to saturated fat is rather weak and telling people to cut fat and meat consumption isn't effective at preventing the first or recurrent heart attacks. I recall reading that in a British Medical Journal article back in '97! <br /><br />SiGraybeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00280583031339062059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-76901922003823840362016-04-11T12:23:54.625-04:002016-04-11T12:23:54.625-04:00Recently had a quad-bypass. The nutritionists are ...Recently had a quad-bypass. The nutritionists are still filling people with the "guit eating salt and fat" bull hockey. But my cardiologist told me, "Ignore whatever they tell you. Cut the carbs, eat healthy (non-processed) food and don't worry about all that other stuff."<br /><br />And yes, wellness programs are a joke. The carrot here is additional money for our Health Savings Plan.<br /><br />The wellness programs remind me of the useless Safety Programs. I get 3 or 4 safety emails a day. And everyone just deletes them. Safety is a leadership issue. If your supervisor cares, and knows what he's doing, your job will be 100% safer. Watching a million Power Point presentations is useless and just becomes static in the background...LCBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03146393047895889252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-41116367792966649962016-04-10T19:19:52.377-04:002016-04-10T19:19:52.377-04:00Diabetes is a genetic illness. It is often mischa...Diabetes is a genetic illness. It is often mischaracterized as 'caused' by eating improperly but that isn't true. The rates of diabetes hasn't changed. People of Northern European descent have a 6-8% diabetes rate. People of African or native South American descent have 2-4 times that rate. American Indians also have very high rates of diabetes while the aborigines of Australia tend towards 100%. You don't get it from eating sugar or carbs you get it from your parents and grandparents. <br /><br />Prediabetes is kind of an awkward thing. It is freely diagnosed in people who do not have diabetes will never have diabetes but the doctor simply wants to scare them into losing weight or eating better. What is meant by prediabetes is certain blood tests show high than normal levels (or simply in the high range of normal levels) of markers that can also be associated with diabetes. BUT that does NOT mean they have diabetes or will ever have diabetes. It is (often/typically) 'doctor-speak' for 'you are fat and need to lose weight how can I scare you into doing what is right'. <br /><br />These tests assume certain things which are not controlled. For example probably everyone who runs marathons will test "pre-diabetic" (whatever that means) because they are eating so much and carb loading. When I ran in marathons I would easily eat 3000-4000 calories for breakfast the day of the race and all of it carbs. However it is probable that EVERYONE who dies of starvation will have excellent results in those infamous 'pre-diabetes' tests. Their blood sugar will be awesome and if they were to have lived would have been deemed healthy. <br /><br />So what do these tests really mean? Most certainly get tested for diabetes (the fasting blood sugar test is the best one). Certainly if you are very overweight you should lose weight. (not just over BMI 25 but 30-60 lobs over normal weight for your height and body type). And you should get regular excercise. Will any of this actually make you live longer or avoid getting sick? NO! It will make you feel better about yourself and perhaps make you enjoy life more but for the most part it doesn't make a lot of difference in health. <br /><br />Diet advice should be to eat a diverse diet and make sure you are getting the MDRs. Avoid fad diets like the plague. And enjoy eating things you like in moderation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-51993394998229764732016-04-10T14:55:05.875-04:002016-04-10T14:55:05.875-04:00It's inevitable that we be colored by our expe...It's inevitable that we be colored by our experiences and viewpoints in life. I see the 60+% of insulin resistant, pre-diabetics and diabetics in this country who would benefit from carb restriction and think that's important. My brother is fully diabetic (type 2), my mom also was, and I've successfully intervened to prevent it. So far, I'm stable as an insulin resistant pre-diabetic and want to keep it that way, if not reverse it. The way I see it, the numbers are almost the opposite of what you say: instead of 80% can eat whatever they want, it seems to me it's closer to 20%. I freely admit I may be wrong and that the picture may not be complete.<br /><br />The most important point is that it's not an employer's position to regulate our lives, especially with the current state of knowledge, yet that's exactly what the wellness programs do. <br /><br />SiGraybeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00280583031339062059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-63104161004364923162016-04-10T11:14:43.968-04:002016-04-10T11:14:43.968-04:00If you have a health problem diet (a specific diet...If you have a health problem diet (a specific diet) may well benefit you. A good example is diabetes. If you are diabetic a diet can improve your day to day health and extend your life. No question, no argument. If you do not have a health problem affected by diet than none of this is true and all food is simply 'food'.<br /><br />To your point that some foods are better or worse (for specific people). true for specific people and untrue for the other 85% of the population. And that is my point. I apologize if I strayed too far from your main point but you did bring up diet and that is my pet subject. There is so much misinformation out their, people who will tell you that they can prevent cancer or make you live 10 years longer, low carb, low fat, no meat, yadda, yadda, yadda. But it is all hokum. There is now "good food, bad food. There is most certainly foods that have more of the necessary nutrients we need but if in the end we are getting our nutrients from our food what difference then does it make that you eat white rice instead of brown rice? The American diet gets a lot of criticism but it generally does give us our MDRs unless you choose to follow one of the many fad diets. I still feel the best advice is eat everything, eat what you like and eat with moderation. AND if you have a health problem that requires a special diet follow your doctors advice. Notice I didn't say follow some author's advice or some friend's advice. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-13914226007558251202016-04-10T10:49:22.498-04:002016-04-10T10:49:22.498-04:00Eat a variety of foods, don't discriminate aga...<i> Eat a variety of foods, don't discriminate against a food or class of food and eat everything with moderation. </i> There's less evidence that statement is true than you think, but <b>that's not the point of this piece</b>. <br /><br />The point of this piece is that wellness programs are intrusive, offensive and ineffective. "Wellness" is a great idea, but there's horribly little hard science that says these programs are good for people or will save the companies money. To begin with all of these diet or lifestyle studies are subject to one enormous, unavoidable problem: they're not controlled, double blind studies. It's far too expensive to put thousands of people in a metabolic ward under lab conditions. Without a hard scientific justification, the wellness programs become human experimentation without the subjects' willing approval. As do the national dietary guidelines, like the Food Pyramid or My Plate. That's unethical in any lab in the country, if not in the world. <br /><br />The best summary is "one size never fits all". In the diet realm, you're quite right that there is no magic food, but there are foods that are better or worse <i>for specific people</i>. A study from Stanford (? I think - the A to Z study) recently demonstrated that the lowfat diets work for people with high insulin sensitivity, but for the insulin resistant people they showed low carb diets worked much better. The insulin sensitive can eat low carb or a low fat or anything they want and lose weight, while insulin resistant people need to stick to low carb. The hidden gotcha is that the standard low fat diet seems to <i>cause</i> insulin resistance in people that are genetically predisposed, just based on the population statistics of the last 30 years. <br /><br />As I said in the piece, I could list references all day, but that's not the point. <br /><br />SiGraybeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00280583031339062059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-61735574022757363272016-04-09T23:52:52.892-04:002016-04-09T23:52:52.892-04:00Honestly it would be a totally different issue if ...Honestly it would be a totally different issue if the 'experts' were right. But there is virtually zero evidence that any of the fad diets make a difference. Is it low fat or low carb? All the experts point in different directions on this. Then there are the vegetarians and vegans who are convinced it is neither but that low or no meat is the answer. IMHO there is simply no magic food or harmful food sold in our super markets. There are fads and biases and even a handful of strange beliefs out there but no proof. Eat a variety of foods, don't discriminate against a food or class of food and eat everything with moderation. But even then there is really no evidence that eating immoderately is harmful either. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com