Jun 11, 2017
Are you going to live to 100? Do you care about your ACE - Activity, Coping and Eating?
Listen to Dr John Tickell, a medical doctor in Melbourne Australia, who in this episode starts by describing how he visited and studied the Okinawans, a cultural group with the largest proportion of people who live past 100 years of age. He discovered that the Okinawans never talk about calorie or carbohydrates, aren’t fanatical about anything and stay active all of their lives.
He identifies some of the things in our Western society that don’t serve us well: like retiring from work and losing purpose, getting annoyed if we can’t get a car park right outside the supermarket, consuming food from packets or cans rather than in its whole form, reading newspapers filled with doom and gloom, living in congested apartments rather than old-style communities like villages, buying food that has traveled hundreds of miles to get to us, defining success by things we can count like money, and living a life lacking in family, fun, friendship and faith.
Dr Tickell talks about getting back to basics. Eating the food the earth provides us – without human interference (HI). He gives other well considered general preventative health advice that's easy to understand and built around the tenets of a very basic lifestyle – Activity, Coping and Eating.
John talks about how he became interested in preventive health during his medical training, and how when his general practice receptionists found that the most prescribed drugs were valium and antidepressants, that this was proof that we all need better coping skills than simply popping pills.
John uses a bunch of great acronyms to help people understand the key principles and he tells a great story or two. Hear about his interaction with Kerry Packer, a story that might not flatter the late media mogul but explains how the choices we make damage the brilliant machine of a human body we are born with.
This is not an episode about pure plant-based eating but John gives some great advice about how we need to eat 80% basic foods (plant foods) and 20% bonus foods. Basically everything in moderation except laughter, sex, vegetables and fish.