Let Food Be Thy Medicine...
The food that you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison - Ann Wigmore
By now you’ve heard the rant; Industrial food production and the Standard American Diet (SAD) made up of low fat, high carbohydrate, processed foods has lead to the current epidemic of overweight and unhealthy Americans.
The numbers are stark. According to The National Institute of Health more than two-thirds (68.8 percent) of adults are considered to be overweight or obese. More than one-third (35.7 percent) of adults are considered to be obese. More than 1 in 20 (6.3 percent) have extreme obesity. Almost 3 in 4 men (74 percent) are considered to be overweight or obese.
The Article - Relative androgen deficiency in relation to obesity and metabolic status in older men Published in The Journal of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism concluded that Androgen deficiency is the consequent of, rather than a cause of, poor metabolic status.
There is good news. The recently published Fundamental Aspects of Hypogonadism in the Aging Male states that correction of poor nutrition, discontinuation of certain medications, and abstinence from alcohol may increase serum testosterone concentrations and circumvent the need for testosterone treatment.
What Nutritional Factors Suppress Healthy Hormone Production?
Several factors can suppress testosterone output and ultimately reproductive function. These factors include:
• chronically low calorie intake (>20% below basal needs) and chronically high calorie intake (especially if obesity results)
• low nutrient intake and vitamin/mineral deficiency
• low fat intake
• obesity and other metabolic disorders
Loose Weight by Watching a Movie?
I’m sorry to say it is not yet quite that simple. However, arming yourself with an understanding of basic nutrition can make a huge difference in the choices you make in regards to food consumption. A simple Google search of the term “Diet” yields 461 million results. Add in “Obesity,” “Calorie” and “Fat” and you are well over a billion results.
Even when you refine your search to “Healthy Foods,” “Safe Weight Loss,” or “Fat Burning Diet,” the result list is staggering. Numerous documentaries, thousands of pages and countless podcasts are dedicated to the subject.
The good news is, we love this stuff. We’ve spent years reading, watching and experimenting in order to develop our personal nutritional plan.
Master Your Table with These 6 Invaluable Resources
Here are a few of our favorite resources to get you started:
Nutrition and Health Documentaries (Link Here)
Supersize Me (2004)
Film maker Morgan Spurlock filmed his experience of eating 3 meals a day for a month at McDonald’s. As you can imagine, the result were less than healthy. Spurlock checks in with doctors, health experts, nutritionists and folks who subsist largely on fast food. A great review of the film can be found here.
King Corn (2007)
Two friends from college move to Iowa to grow America's most versatile crop (corn) and make a movie about it. As they chart their journey, they dig into big issues like government subsidies for agriculture and the nation's addiction to high-fructose corn syrup. A great review of the film can be found here.
Food Inc. (2008)
This documentary addresses the issue of corporate farming in America—and as you'll find out, it's a very big problem to tackle. There are three acts, tackling industrial meat production, large-scale production of vegetables and grains, and the ways in which economic and legal power is wielded in this country to product big business. Watch the YouTube trailer here.
Hungry for Change (2012)
This documentary claims to reveal the secrets kept from you by the weight-loss and diet industries. These secrets are mostly things that you've heard many times before, but will serve as fresh inspiration if you need it. Watch the YouTube Trailer here.
Bite Size (2014)
While the problem of childhood obesity is known, many people only encounter it through non-salient statistics and figures. Corbin Billings' 2014 documentary Bite Size helps put a face to the epidemic by following four overweight American kids as they struggle to lose weight and focus on healthier eating habits.
Fed Up (2014)
Stephanie Soechtig—in conjunction with An Inconvenient Truth's Laurie David—took on the topic of the unfettered amount of sugar that's been added to kids' meals over the decades. Soechtig looks at how that additive has ballooned childhood obesity and how powerful sugar-industry lobbyists have prevented any meaningful legislation from passing through Congress. Anyone who's concerned about how our diets are shaped—and the risks this type of eating presents—will find Fed Up incredibly fascinating. Check out the trailer here.