Q: My wife says that when I was growing up, Cheez Whiz must have been considered a vegetable in my house. That's true, but I've worked hard to change my diet. Now I hear that the way my parents and even grandparents ate impacts my health - and my kids'. Is that true? - Marvin S., Chicago
A: We are all what our recent relatives ate, at least in part. Researchers have discovered how the gut biome (and the trillions of bacteria it contains) gets passed down from generation to generation, affecting how you process the nutrition in food, regulate insulin and glucose, store or use fat, fight off immune challenges and more. But you have the power to change your biome, increase its diversity and enhance your health and the health of future generations as well!
A big culprit in the destruction of healthy, diverse gut biomes over the past few generations has been the lack of fiber in the processed foods that industrialized societies eat. In fact, Stanford/Princeton/Harvard scientists have sounded an alarm about the mass extinction of good-for-you gut bacteria because we are supplying them with Big Macs for their dinner instead of MACS (microbiota-accessible carbohydrates) that they need to thrive.
So, how much fiber does it take to restore a healthy biome? One study says around 55 grams of fiber a day provides what's needed for a fast turnaround in markers for colon cancer - a common disease related to a processed food diet. One ounce of oat bran delivers 12 grams of soluble fiber; an ounce of wheat, corn or rice bran delivers 12 grams of insoluble fiber, so sprinkle those over your morning whole-grain cereal and in casseroles and veggie dishes. A cup of beans provides 12 to 19 grams of fiber! Add 5-9 servings of fresh fruit and veggies daily, and you'll come close! One additional note: Avoid antibiotics in chicken and meats, and take them only for bacterial infections your body may not defeat.
Q: I work in a claims office and am mostly sitting for up to seven hours a day. I hear that nothing I do with exercise will counter the damage I'm doing to my body. What am I supposed to do, quit my job? - Ingrid S., Patchogue, New York
A: Don't be discouraged. There's a lot you can do to counter the effects of sitting for hours a day. But you're right, there are health risks involved in sitting a lot, day after day. It increases your risk for obesity, cancer, diabetes, depression and a cluster of lifestyle-induced problems, from heart attack to headaches. And several studies have said hitting the gym after work doesn't undo the damage.
Thank heavens there's a however: Making sure you break up your sit-down time can really help. Just standing up every 30-60 minutes, walking around, doing some in-place stretches and taking a couple of flights of stairs awakens your muscles, alters your glucose level, helps lower your waist size and your triglycerides. And now a recent British study makes it clear that regular exercise actually does help counteract damage from excess sitting and boosts your health big time.
The researchers tracked folks who met the recommended guidelines for physical activity and had lots of sit time, as well as those who had other combos of sedentary and active behavior. Turns out if you're physically active, even if you also sit down a lot, compared with folks who sit a lot and get very little physical activity you'll have a smaller waist circumference and lower total cholesterol, BMI and A1C (a measure of glucose levels over time), plus less bodywide inflammation.
So make sure you move around as much as possible during the day (just two minutes every hour really helps) and take that after-work walk (headed for 10,000 steps daily) or hit the gym, ride a bike, swim. You'll de-stress, have fun, and get healthier with every move.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
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