Health & Nutrition

Our Vialchemy team transformed their health by instilling key insights from these 3 life-changing books!

Why We Sleep: Unlocking The Power of Sleep & Dreams

Author: Matthew Walker

Key Learnings:

• Sleep enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and the flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. It helps you feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious!

• The recycle rate of a human being is around sixteen hours. After sixteen hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail. Humans need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance. After ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours. Three full nights of recovery sleep are insufficient to restore performance back to normal levels after a week of short sleeping.

• Two processes determine when we feel sleepy – a 24-hour circadian rhythm where the body is naturally awake for 12-16 hours and a chemical called adenosine that slowly builds up starting from the moment we wake and continues to build until it makes us feel very sleepy at night.

• First half of the night’s cycle is dominated by Non-REM sleep and the second half is predominantly REM sleep. Waking up 2 hours early may seem like you are only losing 25% of sleep. In reality you might be losing 60-90% of your REM sleep.

• During REM sleep, the stress triggering chemical Noradrenaline (brain equivalent of adrenaline) is completely shut off, allowing the brain to learn and usefully recall salient life events without being crippled by the emotional baggage that those painful experiences originally carried.

• During Non-REM sleep, the body repairs and regenerates tissues, builds bone and muscle, and appears to strengthen the immune system. As you get older, you get less Non-REM sleep. People under age 30 have about two hours of restorative sleep every night, while those over 65 might get only 30 minutes.

• Tips for a better sleep:

  • Stick to a sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.

  • Try to exercise at least thirty minutes on most days and not later than two to three hours before your bedtime.

  • Avoid caffeine and nicotine.  Caffeine’s effects can take as long as eight hours to wear off fully. Nicotine causes smokers to sleep only very lightly.

  • Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed. Having a nightcap or alcoholic beverage before sleep may help you relax but may rob you of your REM sleep.

  • Avoid large meals and beverages late at night. A large meal can cause indigestion, which interferes with sleep.

How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

Author: Michael Greger

Key Learnings:

• From an evolutionary standpoint the majority of the human population is eating in a manner much different than our ancestors. Studies show that as we have moved towards eating more animal products and highly processed foods our risk of chronic disease (such as cancer) has significantly increased. 

• 80% or more of our risk towards chronic disease is related to our diet and lifestyle and not our genes. Most western doctors are not highly trained in nutrition nor do they typically give nutritional advice when it comes to disease. The pharmaceutical industry is over a trillion dollar industry and they are more focused on treating the diseases rather than preventing them in the first place. 

• A study on prostate cancer showed the blood circulating throughout the bodies of those eating plant-based diets had nearly 8 times the stopping power when it comes to cancer cell growth. A study on breast cancer showed that after only 2 weeks on a plant based diet, their body was able to more effectively reprogram cancer cells for death (apoptosis) and stop breast cancer growth. 

• Many of our most common and universal diseases are non-existent in populations that consume a plant based diet, such as Uganda. Heart disease, the number one cause of death for westerners is almost non-existent in Uganda. Their diet is rich in vegetables, grains, greens, and almost all of their protein comes from plant sources. 

• Over 1000 families per day lose a loved one to high blood pressure. In plant based populations such as rural Kenya and rural China the 70-year-olds have the same blood pressure as the 16 year olds. The American heart association recommends a low meat diet vs a no meat diet even though they know a no meat diet is more beneficial.

• One of the best kept secrets in medicine is that sometimes, given the right conditions, our body can heal itself. If we keep reinjuring it 3 times a day (every time we eat) it may never have the chance to fully heal itself. 

• Studies show that people eating a plant based diet had around half the depression, anxiety, and stress scores compared to those eating meat. They suspect this is due to an inflammatory omega-6 fatty acid mainly found in chicken and eggs that can cause inflammation in the brain.

• Dr. Greger explains what you can incorporate into your life to prevent the top 15 killers. He calls them his daily dozen and they include the following: beans/legumes, berries, other whole fruits, dark leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, other whole vegetables and mushrooms, whole grains, nuts or seeds, 1 tablespoon of flaxseeds, 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric, plus other herbs and spices, 90 minutes of moderate exercise.

• On average plant foods contain over 64 times more antioxidants than animal foods! Why is this important? Antioxidants help to fight off free radicals in your body that are causing cell damage or oxidative stress. The experts believe that by reducing cell damage we can reduce the pace at which we age along with our risk for chronic disease. 

Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food

Author: Catherine Shanahan MD

Key Learnings:

• Food is like a language, an unbroken information stream that connects every cell in your body to an aspect of the natural world. The better the source and more undamaged the message when it arrives to your cells the better your health will be. A calorie is not a calorie when it comes to health. Different foods with the same caloric content can program your cells to act in completely different ways

• Genetic expression: your diet changes how your genes work. Epigenetics have found that everything we eat, do, think can trickle down into the level of our genes. The genome is more like a dynamic living being - growing, learning and adapting constantly. Disease is not necessarily tied to your genes passed down to you but how your genes function based on what nutrition you are feeding them. Our diet changes how our genes work.

• DNA needs to be able to remember what it learned to function properly. Cancer develops in your cells when they misunderstand their role as a cooperative enterprise. The DNA running a cancer cell believes its job is to keep dividing with no regards to its neighboring cells until its growing mass starts to kill its neighboring cells.

• Sugar and vegetable oil act as chemical static that block the signals our bodies need to run our metabolism smoothly which adds to the growth disruptions during pregnancy.

• Industrial fat products such as vegetable oils are toxic to your arteries because they contain delicate poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). These are prone to oxidative damage especially when they are exposed to heat.

• Good fats: can handle the heat during processing and cooking

  • Olive oil, Peanut oil, Macadamia nut oil, Coconut oil, Butter, Animal fat, Lard, Palm oil

• Bad Fats: cannot handle the heat during processing and cooking.

  • Vegetable oil, Canola oil, Soy oil, Sunflower oil, Cotton seed oil, Corn oil, Rapeseed oil, Safflower oil, Non buttery spreads including margarine.

• Vegetable oils intercept the delivery of antioxidants to the brain - oxidative stress is a leading contributor to all cognitive diseases.

• Sugar impacts changes how our hormones work by attaching and jamming receptors rendering us insensitive to the hormone insulin. Sugar stiffens the collagen in your joints and skin causing arthritis and premature wrinkling.

• 5 simple ways to get started on a healthier you:

  • Eat a big colorful salad 4 days per week with a non vegetable oil salad dressing

  • Include grass fed dairy fat into your diet (cheese, cream, butter)

  • Consume bone stock

  • Eat organ meats at least 1 times per week, or at least fish 3 times per week

  • Eat probiotic foods once per day (yogurt, sauerkraut, pickles)

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