The Philosophy of Lifestyle

by Darryl Penney

darryldarryl1@bigpond.com

1. Abstract
2. Preface
3. Dancing
4. The Philosophy
5. Salt in the Diet
6. Life-span
7. Palaeolithic Food Farming
8. The Philosophy of Miss-match
9. The Anti-ageing Centre
10. What Should We Eat?
11. Cholesterol
12. High Blood Pressure
13. The Thyroid and the Metabolic Rate
14. Supplements
15. The Vegetable Garden

Reference: 1. Can Affordances Save Civilisation?, Mind & Society,20(1), 107-110. doi:10.1007/s11299-020-00265-x

2. Penney D. Why Solving Cosmic Inflation Could Change Your Mind. Int J Cosmol Astron Astrophys, 2022; S1(1):1-6. doi: 10.18689/ijcaa-s1-011

3. Penney D. Understanding Everything Means Understanding Nothing. Int J Cosmol Astro Astrophys, 2022; S1(1): 7-12, doi: 10.18689/ijcaa-s1-012
4. Penney D. Exploring Numberland. Int J Cosmol Astro Astrophys, 2022; S1(1): 13-18, doi: 10.18689/ijcaa-s1-013
5. Penney D. A Penny for your Thoughts. Int J Cosmol Astron Astrophys, 2022; S1(1):19-25, doi: 10.18689/ijcaa-s1-014
6. Penney D. Organising Organisation. Int J Cosmol Astro Astrophys, 2023; S2(1): 26-32, doi: 10.18689/ijcaa-s1-014

7. Penney D. Social Engineering: Using Social Science to Improve Ourselves and Society. Madridge J Behav Soc Sci. 2023; S1(1):1-6, doi:10.18689/mjbss-s1-001
8. Penney D. Social Engineering: The Concepts behind The E.U., U.S., China and Australia. Madridge J Behav Soc Sci. 2023; S1(1): 7-13. doi:10.18689/mjbss-s1-002
9. Penney D. Social Engineering: The Context behind The E.U., U.S., China and Australia. Madridge J Behav Soc Sci. 2023; S1(1): 14-21. doi:10.18689/mjbss-s1-003

Abstract

Until 12,000 years ago, humans lived according to survival of the fittest and evolved the genes that allowed them to survive, but now technology has changed our lifestyle to such an extent that we are dying prematurely from ‘miss-match’ diseases because our genes can not change quickly enough. A philosophy of lifestyle is necessary for us to be able to decide how and if we wish to interact with technology and to do that, we have to understand our place in the universe and that requires a new way of thinking. This theory was born in cosmology and quantum mechanics and is necessary to understand the strangeness [to us] of the necessary restrictions.

Preface

‘Anti-ageing lifestyle’ should be a serious concern to a large number of people but they appear to be having difficulty understanding and putting into practice the vast amount of research that has been done and that is readily accessible over the internet. Thus, it appears that a means of bridging this gap is necessary if people are to gain the confidence to apply the knowledge that is out there, to their daily living. It is especially necessary to make up our own minds because there is a fundamental difference in the thinking of specialists, that put the information on the groceries and consumers because consumers are generalists and this difference [orthogonality] makes the free-flow of the appreciation of information difficult. The sections in italics are more theoretical, but necessary to establish the bottom-up organisation, that we must live with, when applicable.

Dancing

Anti-ageing has three components, state-of-mind, nutrition and exercise and in particular, dancing is a particularly valuable form of exercise because it relates the brain, mind and feet as well as having social value. This coordination is particularly important in older people that are in danger of breaking bones in a fall and the faster reaction time developed by regular dancing may prevent a fall and the risks attached to falls. Given that the faster you move, the younger that you are [effectively], most people do not move quickly in their daily life and dancing is a means of addressing that lack and the faster dances should be sought out. Dancing, in its many forms, has always seemed important in society in the past, but now dance floors are disappearing in clubs and the dancing seems to be informal ‘tea-bagging’. Clearly, it is in the club’s interest to do away with dance floors as dancers perforce cannot dance adequately or safely if inebriated and profits are less, but dancers add spectacle to the evening.

People are not learning dance forms, but are just jumping around, which is better than sitting, but dancing has a ‘feel-good’ factor as well as providing exercise apart from the very important, but little appreciated need to be able to move fast automatically when in danger. The creation equation [energy plus organisation is nothing] relates the energy and the organisation that the music, the singing and the dance-form contains to produce a relativity that is always there when organisation is purposely applied and inserted into music and into the words of a song. Further, one does not tire or habituate [require larger doses for the same effect] because the emotion is a ‘building block’ of the physical in life. Dancing and ‘showing-off skills’ add another dimension to music and song that appear in the mind as emotion that is pleasant, otherwise no one would do it. This emotion is how, I believe, that our mind works, by comparing the emotion produced by two separate thoughts and selecting the question that produces the most emotion. This is using the creation equation in it’s most simple form and an organisation [our universe] reacts when a question is asked. For example, when you go to a shop, you assume that certain things are for sale and buy-able in exchange for money, but you must ask by presenting the money.

The Philosophy

The universe is based on relativity because it originated from nothing, and if it did not and was created from energy [Big Bang] or by God, then logic would ‘fly out the window’ and this paper would be pointless. Physics says the the law of conservation of energy is that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, then relativity says that the orthogonal [independent yet entangled] to energy must be called something and I will call it a general ‘organisation’, and thus, I call this simple equation [energy plus organisation equals zero] the creation equation because it generates a fractal that produces the physical universe which functions on relativity and the form of the universe is defined by a lack of relativity that can be described simply by the ratios of relatives and is derived from first principles. In other words, when the organisation in the creation equation is ignored, that is, put constant, the law of conservation of energy emerges and that shows that physics could be incomplete.

In particular, when fundamental physics is made complete, a ‘mirror image’ [orthogonality] to materials engineering [technology] appears that supplies the organisation and control of technology and gives us a hope of saving civilisation and the environment. I call this hitherto undiscovered part of physics, social engineering. A property of a fractal, because it it generated by such a simple equation, is that all parts are similar and social engineering works for the individual, family, organisation and country and the information here is naturally targeted to the individual, but is generally applicable.

The information has been compiled and is available at NutritionFacts.org, but it needs to be made applicable to our daily lives and whilst it is the government’s job to inform us, which they do, by requiring lists of ingredients to be printed on the labels of grocery items, do we understand its ramifications? Food manufactures produce grocery items to serve their own interests, such as increased shelf-life and pandering to our liking for salt, sugar and fats that are difficult to find in the environment that is suited to the genetic makeup of our bodies [the hunter-gatherer lifestyle] that is a hang-over from the Palaeolithic. There seems to be a ‘stand-off’ where the regulators cannot , or will not, decide on what products we should eat and the producers that use ingredients to improve taste and shelf-life as a means of competing in the marketplace. It is up to us to make the decision and the philosophy of lifestyle is the tool to make that decision.

‘Lifestyle’ is the philosophy of living and it is for each of us to decide how we want to live our lives, however, if we are to make that decision we should understand how things work so that we are not led astray by those with a vested interest. Everything in the universe is relative to something else and this means that everything is ‘entangled’, and in particular, the concept of the genes [atoms, energy] that make-up our body is relative [orthogonal] to the context of the ‘organisational genes’ [orgenes] that tell what they can do and this equates roughly to epigenetics. The effect of epigenetics is produced by ‘blocking’ [methylisation] the action of the genes to effect a more rapid adaption to a changing environment and our environment is changing rapidly with technology. The question for each of us is, ‘how can we use the technology to benefit us?’ and can we control it? As 60% of the adult population is overweight or obese, it seems that we are having trouble making good choices.

Salt in the Diet

For example, an ordinary can of pea soup made by a large producer has 3.4 servings multiplied by 688 milligrams of sodium [salt] per serve equals 2340 milligrams of sodium. I knew that soups were high in salt, but I added plenty of vegetables and thought that it made a healthy vegetarian meal. However, ‘under the Dietary Guidelines for American’s upper limit of 2,300 mg of sodium a day’ (How Not To Die, Michael Greger, founder of NutritionFacts.org, p 129) the single can of soup contained the day’s allowance of sodium! To put this into perspective, ‘it is considered almost impossible to come up with a diet consisting of unprocessed natural foods that exceeds the strict 1,500 mg a day American Heart Association guidelines for sodium reduction’ (p 129) Clearly, 1500 mg a day should be the maximum to which we should aim.

Hint: ‘You can shoot for fewer milligrams of sodium per serving than there are calories’ (p 129) Notice that kJ [kilojoules] should be divided by 4 to bring it to Cal [calories], for example 580 kJ (139 Cal).

After decades of trying to eat healthily, I am appalled at how easy it is to get it wrong. The major contents of my cupboard are tins of pea and ham soup, baked beans and bottles of pasta sauce that exceed the hint by 4.91, 3.38 and 3.97 times respectively. I admit that cans are convenient, but I need to use smaller serving sizes, look around for brands that contain less salt or give up grocery items entirely. To be fair to the food processors I should mention that a person that I know that works for a major heath food chain says that small producers that try to limit the proportion of certain ingredients shorten the shelf-life of the product so much that it becomes a concern.

Life-span

However, the ‘elephant in the room’ is that consumers do not understand the organisation [philosophy] of the food chain. The government regulators require easy to use information on grocery items and the food producers supply them, so we are to blame if we do not use the information. Does it matter if we ignore ‘common food sense’? Consider this quotation from sydneydoctors.com.au/anti-ageing/anti-ageing-lifestyle ’24/05/2016 · Anti-Ageing Lifestyle Recent research from Harvard School of Public Health has shown that anti-ageing lifestyle can add 24.6 more years of productive lifespan’. That many years of ‘productive’ and generally ‘free of medical problems’ must be worth pursuing, especially as older people have assets and few liabilities that they have spent a lifetime building up. In fact, older people are happier, and more happy as they get older, provided that they do not have chronic incapacitating problems.

Even better if we look at the figures in the light of relativity because the figures that have been commonly quoted for the average age of death for males is about 80 years in Australia and a few years more for females. These figures are relative to a new-born baby that when transposed to a 75 year old that has escaped life’s sicknesses and accidents, we can add another 6 years of life to that average [if you make it to 75 your life expectancy increases to 86.8] . That means that we could possibly be considering a relatively active and useful 110 years of age, probably followed by a rapid decline. Surely this is worth pursuing!

Palaeolithic Food Farming

Given that the average person does not want to delve too deeply into academic specialities, the ability to understand the risks to our heath through the unwise consumption of the fats, carbohydrates and salt that are difficult to obtain in a hunter/gatherer environment is paramount and are those factors that processors rely on to tempt us. However, our laziness and desire to allow others to make choices for us must be overcome if we are to pursue a long healthy life. Having dealt with the ‘salt trap’, above, another simple trap is the miss-match in finding the correct variety of food in the supermarket versus the hunter/gatherers of the Palaeolithic. In the Palaeolithic, I believe, variety was crucial to make the most of the environment, especially in times of hardship and also it was crucial that the teachings be passed on to the new generations so that they could make the most of the environment in order to survive.

The concept of a Palaeolithic diet contained a lot of meat is, I believe, wrong to a certain extent because the cave was the base and parties would go out in different directions each time and ‘farm’ the countryside for food. I say ‘farm’ because you could not take the whole quantity of an edible root, shoot etc., but only a sustainable amount so that, by the time that you returned, the patch would have grown back. This meant that the diet consisted of a huge variety of different foods, the very thing that is lacking today.

In the modern world, food variety has contracted to such an extent that, I believe, it causes the ‘miss-match’ diseases that are so prevalent today, namely heart disease, diabetes, dementia, most cancers etc. compared with the infectious diseases that killed most people a hundred years ago. Our body is a machine that requires energy and chemicals from the diet that is found around us in the wild because we evolved to use those chemicals that were available plus those that we had to make for ourselves within our own bodies. Our digestive system breaks down food to its simplest form of amino acids and glucose etc. to build what we need as well as the toxins and chemicals specific to plants [phytochemicals] that they used for defence against insects etc. for our own ends. Thus, it is common that we eat meat, but clearly it is a processed second-grade food that provides the same basic building blocks and energy, but without the plant chemicals that we have evolved to use and thus regularly require.

It is of very serious concern that we choose meat over vegetable foods because, specific to anti-ageing, the body chemistry utilises oxygen in its processes and this reactive element needs to be kept contained by the use of antioxidants that are found in, usually colourful fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. These substances are usually highly coloured because they have electrons that are loosely held and are readily available when needed as antioxidants. The idea behind anti-ageing is to provide the means of protecting the body, as much as possible, through control of the mind, exercise and nutrition.

Multi-celled organisms evolved because of limitations of the cell-wall and they evolved a mind/brain to make decisions for them and the mind/brain, like a computer, has to have a hardware and a software. The hardware we are born with and the software we accumulate over a lifetime by learning. If our body is not ‘trim and terrific’, we, the mind, is not doing its job of taking responsibility for maintaining the body’s exercise and nutrition and violates the trust that the body has paced in the mind. However, reading this, and acting upon it is, I believe, is the way to redress this situation.

Traditionally, Europeans have used herbs to add the required variety, but these days of ‘eating out’ has placed the responsibility of our health into the hands of others and they tend to use salt as a cheap seasoning. The Indians use a wide range of spices in their meals, in particular turmeric in curry powder, and it would probably pay to prepare meals at home, using herbs and spices in rotation. Personally, I don’t have salt in the house and believe that not using it will, over a short time, change our taste and herbs and spices can take its place healthily.

The Philosophy of Miss-match

Our civilisation, and perhaps the planet, are coming to an end through over-population and over-consumption brought about by, I believe, a deficiency in the understanding of organisation. This is not the place for a general discussion of organisation, but some aspects are pertinent to our way of life. Above, we saw how regulators required food processors to provide a list of ingredients in their product so that we could make choices, but whether we should use the product requires that we understand the philosophy behind ‘choice’. Doctors of medicine are highly trained and regulated so that the advice that they give can be relied upon, but “too often, physicians ignore the potential benefits of good nutrition and quickly prescribe medications instead of giving patients a chance to correct their disease through healthy eating and active living…….. physicians should consider recommending a plant-based diet to all their patients, especially those with high blood pressure, diabetes,cardiovascular disease, or obesity.” (p 11) Why this miss-match of advice? It could be that medications require continual care and visits to the doctor, whereas advice, if heeded, could fix the problem permanently without further visits. Unfortunately, even with the best intentions, it is clear which course results in the best financial interests of physicians and drug companies.

Thus, Pebbly Beach Anti-ageing Philosophy Centre is defined to be orthogonal to these concepts because everything is relative to something else, except the absolutes which have had relativity stripped out. [Can Affordances Save Civilisation?, Mind & Society,20(1), 107-110. doi:10.1007/s11299-020-00265-x] If we wish to consider something, it can only be compared to something else, and as there is financial gain involved in the business of food production, distribution and doctoring etc. something is needed as a counter-balance. Thus this centre provides FREE information about alternatives to living in a modern world where making money is the prime concern. Here, the prime concern is for the individual’s well-being and is necessarily free because it is unregulated and regulators like to regulate as much as they can. As mentioned above, a little advice can save a life-time on medication. Firstly, how do you charge for life-changing advice, and secondly, without set criteria, that requires a profit motive and regulation, the context to the concepts discussed can only be advice and it is up to the people involved to decide whether to heed that information, and thirdly, the value of the discussion is the sharing of information because there is always the need to learn.

‘Saving the World’ is easy because all that is needed is organisation. Unfortunately, organisation is difficult to quantify and is largely missing in Newtonian physics and thus requires a new way of thinking. A simple example probably best illustrates a complex situation and the banning of peanut butter sandwiches from schools shows that some mothers do not realise what is happening and what they are doing wrongly.

All the thoughts that we have ever thought are top-down, but a new way of thinking [Penney D. A Penny for your Thoughts. Int J Cosmol Astron Astrophys, 2022; S1(1):19-25. doi: 10.18689/ijcaa-s1-014] based on the relativity that makes the universe work says that there is also a bottom-up [orthogonality], and that is, that our genes are based in the Palaeolithic and we are living in the present. There is also a sideways orthogonality that says that if we have [physical or energy] genes, we also have organisational genes [orgenes], and to understand the situation properly, both must be considered. This new way of thinking [concept] has an orthogonal called ‘general mathematical physics’ [context] and this is based on ‘absolute truths’ [ratios that strip out relativity], namely that firstly, energy (E) plus organisation (O) is always zero, secondly, (E+O) per unit volume is constant [dark energy], thirdly, the speed of light is constant [distance/time, all E and O] and fourthly, (E+O)/distance is constant [quantum gravity]. Restrictions also apply, such as the universe must be expanding and that organisation [Occam’s razor] and energy [ principle of least action] must be minimised for the universe to exist.

Further, truths are generated by what evolution and people rationally do with their lives in living. If our genes are effectively those that we had 10,000 years ago [Palaeolithic] the organisation attached to those genes [orgenes] were that we lived in caves and sought sustenance from the surrounding countryside, but we did that in a logical manner [restriction]. Due to the variations in the seasons, the weather etc. we had to ‘farm’ what we found so that it would grow vigorously for our next visit. Clearly, we would take a little of everything edible over the [total] area around the cave, firstly for food and secondly, to teach what is food to the younger members of the tribe, also, thirdly, food was principally herbs and not the staples that we consume today. It seems logical that firstly, the evening ‘stew’ was composed of a vast number of ingredients and secondly, that it contained all foods that were edible as varieties changed over the seasons.

To return to the allergy problem, it seems likely that babies, fed on the ‘stew’ would have an immune system that recognises as food, the intake of the first two years, at least, to cater for biennial foods and the vagaries of the seasons. This time limit of two years seems to be in line with what is found by researchers and by feeding small quantities, as might be found with changing flora, the body adapts slowly over time. The basis problem today is that mothers do not allow their babies to sample regularly all of the foods that they are liable to encounter in life and this is a result of poor teaching by their own mothers, poverty, ignorance etc. Once the problem is recognised, the answer is simple, and that is variety in the diet and that aligns with the aim of anti-ageing which is supposed to supply sufficient nutrients at all times.

Conclusion: We live in a market economy where marketeers manipulate us for their profit and a philosophy of lifestyle explains and counteracts this problem, but depends on adherents ‘wanting to learn’ with a reward of the promise of decades of healthy active life more than the average person.

Prediction: in a universe built on relativity, a conclusion [concept] generates contexts that are effectively predictions. Firstly, throughout all stages of life it is necessary to eat in a special way, as above, that contains the total variety of foods in the region and especially in an anti-ageing lifestyle as one grows older. Secondly, processed foods, such as meat, fish, cheese, dairy etc. should be eaten under advisement because they lack the phyto-chemicals that our body uses that are ingested from plants.

This simple miss-match of neglecting to introduce a food [such as peanuts] at the correct time [within 2 years] can cause allergies and even death throughout life. There are many types of miss-match in our modern society, some caused by ignorance [peanuts], some by lack of training or time and money [doctors], some in trying to placate a number of agents in the food-chain [regulators], but probably the most notable is the diseases that are killing us today compared to a century ago. In the Palaeolithic, the separation into small distinct tribes meant that infectious diseases were unlikely and that predators, fighting, hunting and childbirth would account for most deaths. Up to a hundred years ago, infectious diseases, especially in the towns, were rife and deadly, whereas modern medicine has eradicated many infectious diseases. The common fatal and chronic diseases are heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, many cancers etc. and some books suggest that these are miss-match diseases brought on by modern foods and the propensity to reduce exercise.

The Anti-ageing Centre

The philosophy of ageing has not been formulated, as far as I know, probably because the participants in the food chain are not wanting to tell the whole story, if for no other reason than a lot of people are making a lot of money from the present system and ways have been found to preserve food for convenience. For most of history, seeds could be stored by inventing pottery as containers and keeping cats, farmed meat and milk were kept fresh and available ‘on the hoof’, root vegetables ‘cellar-ed’ with canning, bottling, refrigeration, freezing and drying are recent means that provide the bulk of our groceries and the rise of the supermarket and the concept of ‘shelf-life’. There are people telling us how to eat healthily, but do we want to listen? We like junk food and we like fats, sugar and salt because they have always been difficult to find in the wild and junk and processed foods supply them in excess to tempt us.

Pebbly Beach Anti-ageing Philosophy Centre was started because the farm [40 Pebbly Beach Road, Batemans Bay] contains a landscaping-plant nursery that I am maintaining and the house now has six bedrooms courtesy of two generations that have grown up there and as I am on my own, I needed to use the house to keep it habitable. As anti-ageing philosophy is not recognised by government and regulators, no one is licensed to give advice and the format will be discussion and comments made and left on the website. Anything that goes on the website anti-ageing.org will be fully referenced. The reason for setting up the centre was the necessity of having medical tests for my 75 year drivers’ licence and I asked the doctor what is my ‘real age’ according to the tests and she said 50 years old. This number is similar to that given by the Harvard study, above, and I repeat that 25 years, at the height of our mental powers, experience, knowledge and assets is worth seeking. See increased intellect, Management as a Science, a not yet submitted manuscript.

A discussion group can learn from other peoples’ experiences, but there is another reason that a discussion group is necessary, whether face-to-face or via the website, ‘in western societies, at least, social isolation is as harmful as drinking and smoking, and suggests that it is actually more dangerous than lack of exercise or obesity.’ (Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind over Body, Jo Marchant, p 211) Further, ‘the average household size in the US has shrunk. According to the 2011 census, 32 million people in the country now live alone; that’s 27% of households, up from 17% in 1970. When researchers asked a representative sample of Americans in 1985 how many confidantes they had, the most popular answer was three. When the study was repeated in 2004 , the most popular answer – given by 25% of the respondents – was none.’ (p 212) Clearly, the social outlet of regular dancing in groups, above, is advisable.

Thus, anti-ageing philosophy is to work on the three categories of state on mind, exercise and nutrition and the above shows that state of mind is as important as the others as we work to a long healthy active old age of the order of 25 years [plus] more than the average. Consider “we over-estimate all the negatives about ageing, and don’t sufficiently emphasise what gets better with age. What gets better is that we have accumulated a lifetime of wisdom and knowledge. And we don’t have a vehicle for giving it back.” (p 223) Anti-ageing allows us ‘free-rein’ to socialise, use our experience and compile a philosophy that benefits us directly for the rest of our lives.

What Should We Eat?

Given the importance of the food chain and the number of people and links involved and the fact that we are at the very end of this food chain as consumers, the question of ‘What Should We Eat?’ must be answered because those involved have a financial interest in promoting their products and they, unfortunately can apply pressure on regulators. Consider, ‘Light was teaching at New York University in the late 1970s when she was approached by the United States Department of Agriculture to develop a revised set of food guidelines to replace the Basic Four that had been around since 1956…. the new food guide conceived by Light included:

1. five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables as the foundation,
2. two to three servings of dairy,
3. 140 to 200 grams of protein such as red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts or beans,
4. two to three servings of wholegrain bread, cereal, pasta or rice ….
5. 60 millilitres of ‘good’ fats, including olive oil, flaxseed oil and cold-pressed vegetable oils,
6. no more than 10 per cent of calories as sugar and no more than 30 per cent of calories from fats.’ (Eating Ourselves Sick, Louise Stephen, p 53)

Needless to say, it was not adopted, but for our purposes it could be taken as an honest unbiased diet because ‘with a background in public health, Light felt that it was important to devise a guide that better reflected chronic-disease prevention, which was a rapidly emerging problem even in the 1970s.’ (p 53) Notice the emphasis on fruits and vegetables. From a personal perspective, I forgo dairy, meat salt and sugar.

However, ‘we are more microbial than we are human: the total microbial cell count outnumbers the human cell count by ten to one, while the genes associated with these microbes outnumber the human gene count by 100 to one…… By far, the largest microbial populations inhabit the gastrointestinal tract – in particular the colon. (p 103) Researchers were surprised to learn that the ‘Human Genome Project estimated that humans have around 30,000 protein-encoding genes, almost the same as a mouse yet, strangely, less than rice. ‘ (p 89) A simple explanation of why we, and mice, have far fewer genes than expected is that we use a different system to plants in that we have a digestive system that has help from microbes. The microbes are in our digestive system because they help up digest our food. The small intestine absorbs what it can from the food as it passes through and the remainder that is indigestible to us passes to the colon where microbes use what they can as food and their waste products can be absorbed by us for our use. Clearly, this is an extension of the concept of absorbing food, because it is also manufacturing food.

‘This essential colonisation of the newborn by bifidobacterium strains has a 200-million-year history (p 105) and ‘another startling finding regarding the importance of the bifidobacterium colonisation process is that some of the sugars in the mother’s breastmilk are indigestible by the infant, but instead are there to feed the bacteria that in turn help the baby develop properly. (p 106) On the negative side,’the differences in the microbial communities of those delivered by vaginal versus caesarean births was still present at the age of seven. (p 105) Clearly, this shows the importance of bacteria to our digestive system and yet we eat processed food that has the fibre and nutrients reduced.

Another aspect of digestion that is frequently overlooked is that fruits and vegetables have been selected genetically to be larger and so the source of phytotoxins and other phyto-chemicals that are usually found in the skin as a first line of defence against chewing insects are proportionately reduced. We use some of these toxins for our own defence, stimulation etc. and examples are easily found as nicotine in cigarettes and caffeine in tea and coffee. Further, the spraying of insecticides etc. on fruits and vegetables lowers the plants need to generate phytotoxins on its leaves, fruit etc. and we are the losers also.

We have played ‘fast and loose’ with our food supply as we moved away from survival of the fittest and will have to, in the near future reinstate population controls, so, it is worth pointing out the interaction between plants and animals in the environment. Animals are necessary to some plants to distribute its seeds and the method used is to provide a reward to the animal by providing a nutritious fruit within which, are buried the precious seeds. The plant does not want the fruit eaten until the seeds are ‘ripe’, and it signals this by changing the colour and increasing the sugar content. The point is that the plant will provide ‘cheap’ filling in its fruit, but sufficiently nutritious to be worthwhile to the animal and an extreme example is watermelon. Conversely, vegetables are part of the plant’s ‘self’ and jealously guarded and are protected in other ways. We owe a debt to our ancestors for testing and selecting those foods that sustain us and clearly, using food processors’ concoctions is asking for trouble, which is one of the reasons that obesity is rife.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol and the Body

In the standard medical tests, cholesterol readings are part of lipid studies and are a determinant of heart health. ‘The American Heart Association came up with “The Simple 7” factors that can lead to a healthier life: not smoking, not being overweight, being “very active” (defined as being the equivalent of walking at least twenty-two minutes a day), eating healthier (for example, lots of fruits and vegetables), having below-average cholesterol, having normal blood pressure, and having normal blood sugar levels.’ (p 4)

Clearly, these seven factors are important as determinants of health, but cholesterol is not as easy to comprehend as the others and this could be because there are different types of cholesterol, principally LDL and HDL, that have different jobs in the blood stream. Basically, LDL deposits ‘gunk’ on the walls of the arteries and HDL removes it, so, the Lipid Study in the blood test indicates medicine’s estimation of what the ratios should be for a healthy functioning of the body. The numbers serve two purposes, ‘pill pushing’ Western medicine will prescribe statin drugs to reduce cholesterol, whereas we can use the numbers to regulate our lifestyle. Consider ‘for those at high risk of heart disease who are unwilling or unable to bring down their cholesterol levels naturally with dietary changes, the benefits of statins generally outweigh the risks. These drugs do have side effects, though, such as the potential for liver or muscle damage.’ (p 23)

Thus, we either accept the risk, take the statins that doctors prescribe, or change our lifestyle. This happened to me because the tests showed high LDL, high non-HDL, normal HDL, high cholesterol and slightly high triglycerides so I took a statin for one month while I gave up cheese and lowered the amount of some of the oil seeds. We did not evolve in an environment of saturated fat, excess salt or easily won carbohydrates. In the modern diet, food processors produce products with excess levels of these nutrients to pander to out natural cravings and the result is 60% of people are overweight or obese. The major point is that, whilst the doctor mentioned cutting down saturated fat, the expectation was that I would accept the taking of statins for the rest of my life. If we accept that cholesterol is a measure of Lipid Studies, the simple formula of (HDL*1.5 – LDL) where both are measured in mmol/L should be as highly positive as possible, whereas mine was 1.7*1.5 -4.9 = -2.35 and significantly negative. Thus, blood tests are an important part of fine-tuning our lifestyle and cannot be left to guesswork and that is why a discussion group is necessary.

Consequently, I read a couple of books that specifically stated that they would control cholesterol, but I found that they had no specific plan other than to eat healthily, so, I offer a few examples of research in area that are pertinent. ‘Many population studies have shown that people who eat significant amounts of legumes (e.g. beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils) tend to weigh less. They also have slimmer waists, less obesity, and lower blood pressure compared to people who don’t eat many legumes….. The legume group also gained additional benefits in the form of improved cholesterol and insulin regulation.’ (p 108)) Further, ‘amazingly, compared to the control group who ate no nuts at all, just a single serving of four Brazil nuts almost immediately improved cholesterol levels. LDL – the “bad” – cholesterol levels were a staggering twenty points lower just nine hours after eating the Brazil nuts. Even drugs don’t work nearly that fast. Here is the truly insane part: The researchers went back and measured the study participants’ cholesterol thirty days later. Even a month after ingesting a single serving of Brazil nuts, their cholesterol levels stayed down. (p 26) Note that ‘Brazil nuts are so high in the mineral selenium that eating four every day may actually bump you up against the tolerable daily limit for selenium’. (p 27)

Anti-ageing philosophy is seeking the best lifestyle, so consider the following. ‘In terms of cancer prevention potential, both green and white teas have been shown to protect against DNA damage in vitro against PhIP, the cooked-meat carcinogen I described in chapter 11. White tea won out, though, blocking upwards of 100 percent of DNA damage compared to green tea, which at the same concentration only blocked about half….. cold-steeping involves tossing the tea in cold water and letting it sit at room temperature or in the fridge for at least two hours….. they mixed LDL (“bad”) cholesterol with free radicals and timed how long it took the cholesterol to oxidize in the presence of both hot- and cold-steeped tea…..cold-steeped white tea was significantly better at slowing down oxidation. (No significant effect of brewing temperature on the antioxidant activity of green tea was found.) The researchers surmised that traditional tea water is so hot that it manages to destroy some of the more sensitive antioxidants in white tea.’ (p 387) Clearly, common choices and traditional methods of manufacture and preparation of teas may not be optimal.

Cholesterol is about the fat and oils that we eat and I have wondered about the practice of adding fat and oils when cooking vegetables and in particular to salads. ‘When researchers tried feeding people a healthy salad of spinach, romaine, carrots, and tomatoes along with a source of fat, there was an impressive spike in carotenoid phytonutrients in their bloodstream over the next eight hours. With a fat-free dressing, carotenoid absorption flat-lined down to negligible amounts; it was as if they’d never eaten the salad at all.’ (p 316) We are losing the techniques to cooking as we consume more ‘take-out’, live on our own and live longer, and it is important to know what we are consuming. Thus it is important that we do consume small amounts of fat and oils with food, especially vegetables and salads. This practice is being lost as we eat more ‘take-out’ food. The relation HDL*1.5-LDL should be as large as possible, but fat and oils are an important part of the mechanism of digestion and whilst my immediate job is to make the relation positive, and that is why I have stopped eating cheese, but we should be wary of pursuing extreme values by reducing fats and oils. In other words, as long as the ‘cholesterol balance’ is positive, that should be sufficient until we know more.

Its strange how ‘truths’, such as eating oil with vegetable meals can evolve over thousands of years of use and another important one is music that was derived [top down] as certain intervals that fitted together nicely. The same intervals can be generated by applying bottom-up relativity and another example is the proverb ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’. Consider, ‘eating a dozen dried apple rings a day may drop LDL cholesterol levels 16 percent within three months and 24 percent within six months.’ I have two or three small cooked apples each morning with my special muesli for breakfast. The reason for choosing small apples is the increase in the ratio of skin to pulp because the skin of the apple is the defensive layer and contains more phytonutrients to discourage insect damage.

Fruits, when ripe, contain sugar, presumably when the seeds are ripe and ready for dispersal, so, is the sugar harmful to us? Drinking ‘sugar water’, as in fizzy drinks raises blood sugar levels, but fruit, with the accompanying fibre, does not. ‘People were asked to eat twenty servings of fruit per day for months. Despite the extraordinarily high fructose content of this fruit-based diet – the sugar equivalent of eight cans of fizzy drinks a day – the investigators reported beneficial outcomes with no adverse effects for body weight, blood pressure,insulin, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels….. all while lowering LDL (“bad”) cholesterol by an astounding thirty-eight points.’ (p 291)

Cholesterol and the Brain

‘Autopsies have revealed that Alzheimer’s brains have significantly more cholesterol buildup than normal brains….indeed, advanced brain imaging techniques, such as PET scans, have shown a direct correlation between the amount of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol in the blood and amyloid buildup in the brain.’ (p 53)

‘Despite the billions of dollars spent on research, there is neither a cure nor an effective treatment for the disease, which invariably progresses to death….. There is an emerging consensus that “what is good for our hearts is also good for our heads”, because clogging of the arteries inside of the brain with atherosclerotic plaque is thought to play a pivotal role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. It is not surprising, then, that the dietary centerpiece of the 2014 “Dietary and Lifestyle Guidelines for the Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease”, published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging. Was: “Vegetables, legumes (beans, peas and lentils), fruits, and whole grains should replace meats and dairy products as primary staples of the diet.” (p 51)

‘Most Alzheimer’s sufferers aren’t diagnosed until they’re in their seventies, but we now know that their brains began deteriorating long before that. Based on thousands of autopsies, pathologists seemed to detect the first silent stages of Alzheimer’s disease – what appear to be tangles in the brain – in half of people by age fifty and even 10 per cent of those in their twenties.’ (p 55)

In conclusion, medical practitioners seem predisposed to using pills to eliminate the symptoms, in spite of the side effects, which are to be expected when the body’s processes are changed by drugs, food producers lobby regulators to change the recommended food groups in their favour and the consumer is left to their own devices in choosing a lifestyle. I think that it is obvious from the above that a philosophy of lifestyle is necessary and we have to build it, if we are to participate in a modern society, and a discussion group is the best that we can do at the moment because an authority does not exist that we can trust or easily access.

If our universe runs on relativity, as I believe that it does, a conclusion is a concept that generates a context and the overall context of anti-ageing is a combination of state of mind, nutrition and exercise, then an example of that dependency [entanglement] is ‘in a 2010 study published in the Archives of Neurology, researchers took a group of people with mild cognitive impairment …. and had them engage in aerobic exercise for forty-five to sixty minutes a day, four days a week, for six months…. the exercising group not only didn’t get worse, they got better.’ (p 60) In other words, state of mind, nutrition and exercise are all involved in anti-ageing.

High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure appears to be caused and continues to result from a modern lifestyle, and it is pointless regurgitating the obvious that ‘to lower blood pressure, you should still lose weight, reduce your salt intake, get more exercise, and eat healthier.’ ( p 136). This advice is well meant and in following it, will achieve the promised results, but, the problem is to follow it because it suffers from the software of the mind that we use. Our minds look at problems top-down and a new way of thinking is needed because:

‘Today’s problems cannot be solved with today’s mind’

Albert Einstein and many great thinkers …

(Fair Food, edited by Nick Rose, p 250)

High blood pressure is just one of the problems facing our civilisation [others include global warming, over use of resources, over-population etc.] and needs a new way of thinking and that requires a new ‘software’ to enhance the hardware of the brain that evolved over 3,000 million years. In other words, a new philosophy is needed to go with a new way of thinking, and as philosophy ‘hived off’ all of the aspects of science, it requires a general mathematical physics as the context of the concept ‘new think’.

To return to the first sentence, ‘ lose weight, reduce your salt intake, get more exercise, and eat healthier’ are all concepts without the contexts and relativity requires both because the working of the universe is relativity and the structure of the universe is a ‘lack’ of relativity. Thus the concept of anti-ageing philosophy is orthogonal [independent, yet entangled] to the context ‘state of mind, nutrition and exercise’ and this entangling of everything produces the difficulty in understanding. This context, in a fractal, becomes concepts that are entangled [state of mind, nutrition and exercise] and we need to consider each concept together with its contexts. For example, to change our nutrition, or exercise, we need to change the state of our mind.

‘People who cut out all meat, eggs, and dairy did the best, with a 75 percent reduced risk of high blood pressure.’ (p 132) This suggests that a vegetarian diet should be followed, but we should be wary of the processing of foods. ‘Daily servings of white rice were associated with a 17 percent greater risk of diabetes, whereas replacing one-third of a serving a day of white rice for brown rice might lead to a 16 percent drop in risk. And it looks like replacing white rice with oats and barley may be an even more powerful step, associated with a 36 percent drop in diabetes risk.’ (p 129)

Another example of context that must be kept in mind is that ‘ground flaxseeds alone “induced one of the most potent blood-pressure-lowering effects ever achieved by a dietary intervention.”…. Ground flaxseeds may work two to three times better than these medicines, and they have only good side effects. In addition to their anticancer properties, flaxseeds have been demonstrated in clinical studies to help control cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood sugar levels; reduce inflammation, and successfully treat constipation.’ (p 133) If flax seeds are so good, why are they not universally prescribed by doctors? The answer is economic, because the structure and working of medicine requires funding and, as above, doctors, in general, need constant customers to support their practice and the pills that they prescribe cost money that flows to the drug companies. Hence, the philosophy of anti-ageing and lifestyle is to provide knowledge that allows us to make informed choices.

The philosophy of anti-ageing is built on three aspects – state of mind, exercise and nutrition and nutrition consists of food ‘fuel’ to provide energy and an array of chemicals that support the body in its aim to exist. The environment contains many dangers that have to be avoided and one of those is the chemistry that makes life possible, and in particular, the very reactive oxygen that is the basis to living in the mainstream of life. Our bodies are sufficiently robust to make our way in life, but sufficiently delicate that we can be recycled and and we use natural chemicals that are found in food as an aid to neutralising reactive byproducts of the chemistry of living. An important class of chemicals we call antioxidants and ‘in terms of antioxidant bang for your buck, acai berries get honorable mention, beating out other superstars, such as walnuts, apples, and cranberries. The bronze for best bargain, though, goes to cloves, the silver to cinnamon, and the gold for most antioxidants per pound – according to a USDA database of common foods – goes to purple cabbage.’ (p 159)

This quotation is important because we, and all Life on the planet evolved to use for food, whatever could be accessed, but our modern lifestyle produces choice and we can see the results around us with 60% of adults overweight or obese with the attendant problems of diabetes, heart disease, being unemployable etc. This is survival of the fittest with the mind making choices to allow the ‘more fit’ to survive that leads to survival of the best. The philosophy that I am using is based on a new of thinking and leads to survival of the best, restarts evolution and, I believe, must be used to solve the world’s problems, if for no other reason, we can’t do it using today’s thinking. In other words, the quotation in the previous paragraph suggests, to me, that apples and red cabbage should be used in quantity and curry powder and other spices used in moderation and this has affected my thinking that I use red cabbage instead of green cabbage, two medium cooked apples with muesli in the morning and curry powder in moderation.

Further to the use of antioxidants, ‘erectile dysfunction (ED) pills like viagra work the same way; they boost nitric oxide signalling, which relaxes penile arteries and improves blood flow to the penis. The ED you really need to be concerned about, though, is endothelial dysfunction, the failure of the linings of your arteries to produce enough NO to properly dilate them. Nitric oxide is produced by an enzyme called NO synthase. Its enemy is free radicals’ (p 136) which are destroyed by antioxidants. ‘In addition to eating antioxidant-rich foods that can boost your body’s ability to produce NO, you can also eat certain vegetables, such as beetroot and greens, that are rich in natural nitrates, which your body can convert into nitric oxide.’ (p 137)

‘If nitrate-rich vegetables can so powerfully modulate humanity’s leading risk factor for dying, why did it take until 2015 before such a study was published? Well, who was going to fund it? Big Beetroot? ‘The “veggie Viagra” effect…. There’s a link between vegetable consumption and improved sexual function, as well as improved blood flow to the most important organ in the body, the brain.’ (p 138) The study had to wait on ‘charities like the British Heart Foundation, which finally funded a beetroot juice study involving people with high blood pressure.’ (p 137)

Clearly, as the case of flax seeds and beetroot have shown, we are being manipulated by Big Medicine and Big Pharmaceuticals, and it may be necessary for us to accept this manipulation to get the medical service that we demand, and that service is a product of the current state of thinking. However, if we use this new way of thinking, we can manipulate the system to our own advantage and its not difficult to (possibly) gain an extra 25 years of life because my doctor said that based on my test results, I was (effectively) 25 years younger than my chronological age..

The Thyroid and the Metabolic Rate

A general observation is that the older people move slower than younger people, who, in turn move slower than children, and this leads to the surmise that the faster that you move, the younger that you are, effectively. Given that anti-ageing involves the state of mind, nutrition and exercise, moving slowly could be caused by the any of these three causes and in particular, the thyroid that controls the metabolic rate of almost all cells in the body. Thus, increasing the metabolic rate is desirable and can be attained by consciously moving faster as well as nutrition and exercise. I think that dancing is particularly beneficial, especially the faster dances, such as Salsa and Rock’n’roll.

‘Your thyroid gland is a critical part of your endocrine system. Its purpose is to secrete thyroid hormones that:

• Control the metabolic rate of almost all cells in the body
• Control the metabolism of fat and carbohydrates
• Boost protein synthesis
• Regulate heart rate and blood flow to organs
• Are important for energy production and oxygen consumption in cells
• Promote linear growth and brain development in children
• Are needed for normal reproductive function in adults
• Are important in bone and calcium metabolism’ (https://www.thyroidfoundation.org.au)

‘Iodine deficiency is a major cause of lowered IQ in children, according to leading international health authorities, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and the International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD). When the deficiency is very severe, the effect can be up to 15 IQ points lower than normal (or a reduction of 15 per cent of the average IQ.’

‘Most of our iodine intake comes from what we eat and drink. The main sources of iodine are seafood, dairy milk or dairy products, commercial bread, eggs and foods containing iodised salt. Plant foods grown in iodine deplete soils and meat from animals that have grazed in iodine deplete areas only contain low levels of iodine.’ ‘International health agencies WHO, UNICEF and ICCIDD recommend that all salt in our diet be iodised. This is called Universal Salt Iodisation (USI).’ ‘Thyroid Disorders affect 10 times more women than men, worldwide. Thyroid Disorders, especially hypothyroidism – or an underactive thyroid gland – become more common as we grow older. Iodine Deficiency has re-emerged in Australia and we can expect more people to suffer from swelling and enlargement of the thyroid gland, also known as a “Goitre”’

N
otice that commercial bread and iodised salt have added iodine and this has been done because of the problems that can occur in areas where low levels of iodine are found, which can lead to ‘cretinism’. Cretinism Definition – the term ‘Cretinism’ refers to severe hypothyroidism during birth (deficiency of thyroid hormone) leading to stunted physical and mental growth. It is also known as: In children aged 2 years or above, the disease is referred to as primary hypothyroidism. (internet) This deficiency of a versatile, obviously necessary element occurs worldwide to a varying degree in the soils although eating seafood and seaweed are stable contributors, other foods vary and governments have tried to alleviate the problem by enriching salt and bread.

Considering that salt contributes to heart disease and iodised salt may not be used in cooking, the daily dose of I-FOLIC (in pregnancy) contains 150 micro-grams of iodine, whereas Deep Sea Kelp contains 240 micro-grams, so I take the latter, one tablet every third day to be safe. It is interesting that the natural sources of iodine are seafood where iodine accumulates and in dairy and eggs presumably to enhance the diet of the offspring. Currently, I use a quarter teaspoon of mixed seaweed daily.

Supplements

Most nutritionists tend to support the idea that a diet containing a modicum of fruit and vegetables is sufficient, but as an insurance , I think that it is necessary to supplement occasionally. The question of iodine is revealing and I use a quarter teaspoon of mixed seaweed daily to be on the safe side. Folate appears to be unnecessary if the diet contains plenty of green leaves [folate from foliage]. Vitamin D, I take daily to again be on the safe side and an extra capsule daily in Winter. Vitamin B12, a quarter of a tablet daily [250 mcg orally disintegrating tablet daily] because it can be difficult to find in a Vegan diet. Lastly, I take two capsules of fish oil daily, although some sources say that it is unnecessary. I have a DVD that I recorded from a TV series that showed that ‘couch potato’ school children, when given six capsules a day, vastly improved their schoolwork and attention.

The Vegetable Garden

I had another blood test that showed that my cholesterol is decreasing [7.5 to 6.9 to 6.2, range is 3.9 to 5.2], still too high, but decreasing satisfactorily. I have made a substantial veggie patch at the farm and the produce that it is producing has solved a problem that has concerned me for some time, and that is, getting a constant supply of edible green leaves. Green leaves are not something that the plant want you to take and they have not evolved as a store of energy nor to keep that store for lengthy periods, but as a factory to produce sugar and starch. The shops and consumers reject leaves that have insect damage, but the damage causes more phyto-toxins to be held in the leaves as a defence and thus have more value for us. Shop produce that is chemically sprayed has less phytotoxins because the plant is protected by the sprays.

It is particularly useful to be able to access the green leaves regularly and it gives you the opportunity to use the outside leaves that are in the full sunlight of all of the cabbage, silver beet, beetroot, kohl rabi, lettuce, spinach etc. at all times as well as herbs and parsley. Green and yellow beans are easy to grow, and peas are available that have a pod that can be eaten after ‘stringing’ like beans. It is important to eat plenty of vegetables because the indigestible parts pass into the colon for bacteria to feed on and produce by-products that we can use. I think that this is an important consideration because we coexist with certain types of bacteria, see above, and who knows what necessary chemicals are produced. A modern diet lacks variety and shortages of necessary chemicals prevents the rejuvenation of organs and replacement of cells throughout the body.

Apart from a wide variety of vegetables at night, there are about 30 common varieties of nut, seeds and cereals that I have as a muesli in the morning and I tend to have half of the quantity on each of 2 days because it is onerous to prepare, with cooked apple and dried fruits. Also, the idea of masticating a plateful of coarse ingredients is not appealing in a modern world in the morning, and microwaving for a short time the wetted ingredients work well.