avatarMike Broadly, DHSc

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Abstract

th, food scientists simply build on what we are wired to crave.</p><p id="a8dc">From <a href="https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/13-ways-to-fight-sugar-cravings#1">WebMD</a>:</p><p id="958f"><i>…Americans do overconsume, averaging about 22 teaspoons of added sugars per day, according to the American <a href="https://www.webmd.com/heart/picture-of-the-heart">Heart</a> Association, which recommends limiting added sugars to about 6 teaspoons per day for women and 9 for men.</i></p><p id="4b06">There is sugar in damned near everything, if it’s processed, along with additional salts and other crap you and I can’t pronounce. So it was easy to pack it on as some of us had to turn to packaged foods when getting to the grocer, or at least doing it safely, got harder.</p><p id="f572">Under Covid, many if not most of us packed on pounds, feeding ourselves “comfort foods,” many if not most of which included added sugars, if not were pure sugar, as in candies and chocolate bars. I know I did.</p><figure id="9904"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*2Yle9ir1P2JupdYN"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@heatherbarnes?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Heather Barnes</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="713b">For me, however, it was more about pure stress. It’s hard to make a huge cross-country move. That’s one of life’s biggest stressors. Add to that a trip to the hospital with a kidney infection and stones, then a nasty car accident, well. It’s been quite the year and it ain’t done yet. Hardly.</p><p id="2bc7">The extreme stressors of those events were just part of the overall circumstance set.</p><p id="a524">I had to completely overhaul my diet at 67, given that I have Interstitial Cystitis and kidney stones. IC is, to my mind, a catch-all phrase that means <i>we have no clue but we’ll give it a name to sound official.</i></p><p id="3708">I know what IC is like in practice. Bad enough so that when handed a long list of Do Not Eats, I was happy to comply.</p><p id="4e89">Now handed a much, much longer additional list to prevent a recurrence of oxalate kidney stones, I was also told in no uncertain terms that salt, and my beloved sugar, were off the table. Worse, NO MORE CHOCOLATE.</p><p id="7147">Even worse, NO MORE CHOCOLATE ALMONDS. As in <b>ever</b>.</p><p id="685d">Well. <i>Shit</i>.</p><p id="3ad0">While in some ways this is a blessing, I will confess that the forced divorce from one of Life’s Great Joys- milk chocolate almonds-was hard.</p><figure id="4e2b"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*lngsYribIcdTKR5w"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@grimnoire?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">emy</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="8e44">Unlike a friend, who, when faced with the same list I got, he intoned with great gravity, that he would “eat what I want and deal with the stones,” I like being alive. Those stones nearly killed me. Imagine eating what you want, but living with a potentially deadly Sword of Damocles over your head.</p><p id="8231">I can’t speak for anyone else, but kidney stones equal suffering. At least for me they do, and for anyone else I’ve ever spoken with who has experienced them. To that, and again I can only speak for myself, stuffing my favorite foods down my gullet out of the need to put my gustatory delights ahead of both my personal safety and that of others seems stupid at best, and foolish at worst.</p><p id="9c1c">The reason, at least in my case, that such decisions have the potential to hurt others, there’s this: I flipped my car because of a kidney stone in July. It was only stupid damned luck I didn’t land on top of a car full of kids, or cause oncoming traffic to swerve and kill off those occupants. You see my point.</p><p id="fb17">Our self-serving selfishness can indeed affect others in ways that we most certainly don’t intend. If, however, you and I learn that our desires can hurt others, and I am just teasing out food here, then it seems incumbent upon us to <i>back the fuck off.</i></p><p id="12f6">If what you and I ingest makes us unhealthy, causes us disease and other issues, then it’s most certainly not just about us. It’s very much about those who count on us, love us and want us to stick around a bit longer.</p><p id="cd30">But that’s just me.</p><p id="7086">In a country full of folks who can’t be bothered to wear masks because it protects OTHER people, why on earth should I expect those same folks to make better choices about their health for the same reasons?</p><p id="bc02">But I digress.</p><figure id="eb2f"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*G9hwJ4RPM6v3rvvE"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@ahungryblonde_?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Sara Dubler</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="4089">In my favorite <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Buddhas-Teaching-Transforming-Liberation/dp/0767903692">book </a>by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, he points out that you and I, when and if we are able to identify the source of our suffering, in this case for me both IC and kidney stones, we can choose not to ingest those things which cause us suffering. While in the largest sense this

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would be just as applicable to ingesting doom material, hate speech and the like, let’s just keep this to sugar, my beloved nemesis.</p><p id="f7b9">I was given long and difficult lists to redirect my eating habits to prevent stones. But also those nasty IC flareups which mean long nights on the toilet with no relief in sight and the unhappy prospect of having to wear Certain Undergarments. Look. For me it was easy. I have no interest in making myself suffer physically any more than necessary.</p><p id="5603">What that meant was that those foods were off the menu. Yeah, and forever this time. No more <i>next time</i>, or <i>just a little. Just one</i>. Because for me and my compulsive nature, Just One is an invitation to the Whole Damned Bag.</p><p id="e78b">I am as bad as a reformed alcoholic invited into a bar. Just a sip, that’s all.</p><p id="8e80">Not on your life, especially if it really does mean your life.</p><p id="fcfc">Since July, I’ve not had any of the foods on the May Not Have List.</p><p id="6458">Several things have happened. Not only has my weight, which had risen some 23 pounds, dropped back down (at first to sheer stress, and now it’s maintenance). The other gift, which has been echoed by fellow Medium writers, is that the tongue gets retrained naturally to enjoy what Nature has always offered us as natural candy: berries, bananas, apples, the sweet treats without the damaging <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323818">fructose</a>. Honey in my hot milk, for I had to give up tea and coffee because of the oxalates and tannins, is sweet enough.</p><p id="8033">A big handful of green grapes is about as sweet as I can handle. Those are my big, big treats. A Honey Crisp apple is nearly a meal unto itself. I have found immense joy in scarfing down a six ounce package of huge blackberries, and I never leave the house without two big apples in the console when I need consolation.</p><p id="a3e6">Why apples? There are all kinds of reasons that the old saw of an apple a day really is based on solid science:</p><div id="c1b4" class="link-block"> <a href="https://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-eats/nutrition/health-benefits-apples/"> <div> <div> <h2>13 Surprising Health Benefits of Apples That'll Have You Eating One (or More) a Day</h2> <div><h3>Sometimes the simplest foods are the best foods for us. You don't have to be a nutritionist to realize that apples are…</h3></div> <div><p>www.besthealthmag.ca</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*nwBspeSWAwx2gW2Q)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="30e6">If you can eat apples, have at it. As with all issues dietary, know what you can and can’t have.</p><p id="ba78">You may do that research and STILL eat shit. At that point, when the body rebels and we get sick, or get stones, or expire early, there really is just one person to blame.</p><p id="95c5">One Medium buddy had to do much the same thing with her body. She told me I could retrain my sweet tooth, and she’s right. While I will still use sweetener (certain kinds, not all), I have noticed that in the largest sense, giving up sugar has given me back two things: the body I had, which is much happier where I am now; better health from taking out those substances that make me feel heavy and logey; and better long-term health by removing substances that my particular body doesn’t like.</p><figure id="4e78"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*mIPHlZYL_YbLhX2a"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@elldot_?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Leon Ell'</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="6eb0">That last is likely true for all of us. I’ve written elsewhere that as we age, our dietary needs change. For some it’s just fewer calories. For others, for whatever reason, as we shift into life’s later gears, nutritional needs shift with us. Not paying attention can cost us dearly. Learning what we need, and still not paying attention, is just plain stupid, if not spiteful behavior towards the only instrument we have through which to experience life on Earth.</p><p id="24b9">Retraining my sweet tooth this year wasn’t strictly about getting my pre-breakup, pre-Covid body back. It wasn’t just about stating my gustatory freedom from the bad juju the breakup left behind. It was as much a statement of a genuine commitment to vibrant health as anything. While yes, you’re damned right I miss my chocolate almonds (which at one point my <i>Illumination </i>buddy <a href="undefined">Charles Roast</a> offered to send me express mail, bless his six-pack-protected good heart), I am done with them.</p><p id="873d"><b>That’s a statement of freedom.</b> From bad food, bad diseases, bad side effects. And the freedom to eat what Nature intended as our sweets, some of which (citrus, pineapple) I’ve also had to give up. But what’s left is plenty.</p><figure id="3621"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*b94AMNsik10wYjYD"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@clemono?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Clem Onojeghuo</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure></article></body>

Life Lessons from an Old Aussie Bloke

How to Keep Your Metabolic Mojo Rollin’ in the Senior Years, Aussie Style!

Five Typical Aussie Senior Health Niggles and How to Give ’Em the Boot with a Dash of Healthy Livin’ and Some Pro Tips

Photo by rüveyda from Pexels

Dear senior mates, I wanna write a yarn about our health today. No fluff, just fair dinkum talk about what we seniors might face as we get on in the years. You may wonder why I cooked up this yarn in this arvo.

Now, I ain’t no Einstein, but I’ve clocked a fair share of old age, so here’s me two cents for ya. Get ready for my chinwag today.

Let me start with the scary term sarcopenia. Not the fanciest name, eh? But it’s a bit of a bummer. So, as the years roll on, we lose a bit of muscle. It’s called sarcopenia.

Less muscle means weaker muscles, a bit less movement, and strife with daily tasks. It might even make us more wobbly and prone to stacks.

Blame it on hormones, less movin’ around, and a dip in protein action. We must keep those muscles in ripper shape; it is like having a squad for daily life.

Now let’s talk about belly fat woes, another thing for us seniors. Our bodies love to store more fat around the belly as we age. They call it abdominal obesity. Not the trendiest look, I know.

But here’s the go — it’s linked to metabolic issues like diabetes and heart stuff. Blame it on hormonal changes and less getting around.

Too much fat around our organs can affect our ticker and sugar levels. So, keeping the belly in check is like saying no to unwanted health drama.

My favourite one is insulin’s sneaky game in our bodies. Have you ever heard of insulin resistance? It’s like our tired cells start ignoring insulin as we age.

Insulin is a good mate as it helps control blood sugar, and when it’s not pulling its weight, we might be looking at all sorts of shinanigans like type 2 diabetes. Not a ripper club to join, mates.

For some of us, keeping the blood sugar game strong might mean pills or changing up our eats and moves. Insulin sensitivity is good against diabetes troubles.

Another big issue for us seniors is thinning bones. Our trusty support system gets a bit less dense with age. Osteoporosis, they call it.

Makes bones fragile, like glass ready to crack. Hips, spines, and wrists are the usual suspects. A broken bone might take longer to heal, and we don’t want that, right?

So, keeping our bones happy and healthy is like giving them a shield against unexpected cracks.

Finally, let’s have a yarn about stress. Life throws curveballs, and it can mess with our peace of mind. Stress can stir up inflammation, causing a ruckus in our bodies.

Chronic stress brings along anxiety and inflammation. Not cool, right? It can mess with our kip, scoffing, and mood, which isn’t a great combo.

Keeping stress and inflammation levels in check is like having a chill pill for our overall well-being.

So, that’s the lowdown on what might knock on our health’s door as we age. But hey, knowing is half the battle, right? Let’s keep our health game strong.

Practical Aussie Steps for Senior Health

Now let me share a few tips I cooked up for you.

Happy Vibes, Happy Life

Losing mates or the kids flying the coop can feel lonely. Stay chirpy; it’s the Aussie way. And give those bad habits the flick. Learn from couples sorting out their grog dramas and turn it around big time. Keep the sunny side up, mate!

Flex Those Muscles

Resistance training is the go-to for muscle mass. Chuck in some weight-bearing exercises, like a brisk walk or a bit of lifting, to keep bones tip-top. And don’t forget your 150 minutes of fair dinkum exercise each week. Get the muscles moving, old sports.

Avoiding a Stack

Falls can be real trouble, especially as we get on. Consider tools like a cane or walker to dodge a tumble. Bones can get wonky with age, and we want to keep them in good nick. Look after yourself, mate.

Good Grub for Good Health Watch

Seniors need a bit more protein to keep muscles and bones firing. Go for top-notch protein from meat, fish, and eggs, or if you’re on the plant train, grab it from legumes or nuts. Cook it upright, and throw in some good fats to keep things smooth. What’s on your plate, cobber?

Weight Watch Like a Legend

Our metabolism slows down as the years roll on. Keeping a steady weight is the aim, so watch what goes in. There is no need for excess baggage It can play havoc with the ticker and other bits. Try a bit of time-restricted eating for a clever approach.

Snooze for the Win Time

Sleep’s not just for dreaming; it’s for keeping things shipshape. Aim for about eight hours a night; that’s the golden number. Struggling with shut-eye? I’ve got some nifty tricks in another yarn to sort that out.

Chill Out, Stress Less, No Need for Stress, Old Mate.

Stress is a real muscle muncher. Learn to wrangle time like a pro and chuck in some yoga, thai chi, or a quiet moment in the great outdoors. It’s all about keeping the good vibes rolling with your loved ones and good mates.

Stay grouse, legends!

Thank you for reading my story.

Of course, this story is not health advice. I wrote it only for information sharing my personal experience. If you have health concerns, you need to see your doctor.

If you have a bit of time to learn more science stuff, you may also check out a better story about seniors written by my mentor Dr Mehmet Yildiz.

How Seniors Can Maintain and Improve Metabolic Health

Do you want to explore more from my life lessons? Fear not. I compiled the links in a list to make it easy for you to find. Your feedback is important to me.

About Me

I am a retired scientist in his mid-70s and a new writer on Medium, but I am not new to writing. As a giveback activity, I volunteered to be an editor for Illumination publications, supporting many writers recently joining Medium like me.

Connect with Me

If you want to write for these publications, you may send your Medium ID via this weblink. I will be happy to read, publish, and promote your stories. You may connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Quora, where I share stories I read.

If you want to get my stories in your inbox when I post, you may subscribe to my account. I don’t spam anyone and don’t want anyone to do it to me.

Meeting New Writers

You may need to create a BIO if you are a new writer. As an altruistic activity, my good editor friend Aiden compiles these writer bios and promotes them. You can learn from this story. Meet ILLUMINATION Writers from Their Personally Penned Biographies

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