Does "The Secret" work for your health?
Yes and no. Heart disease does seem to be affected strongly by stress and loss of control in your life, but cancer not so much. Studies show that whether or not you come down with a particular disease is not much influenced by your will or your wishes. However, when and how severely you get the disease, and how you progress in the course of that disease does seem to be somewhat affected by your mental and emotional outlook.
Many people believe that if they are stressed they risk such serious diseases as cancer and heart attack. In fact, when interviewed about what they think caused their disease; a majority of breast cancer patients attributed the cause to stress.[1] However, the reality is that there are no animal studies that show that stress increases the incidence of spontaneous tumors. Nor are there human studies showing the onset of cancer to coincide with stress. However, there are mixed research results showing that stress possibly affects the course of the disease, and that the more stress, the more likely to have shorter survival times. Those who take a fighting attitude toward their cancers tend to live longer than those who sink into denial and depression, according to most studies.[2]
For major life events, such as chronic disease, humans wish for more control over those events than we now seem to be able to exert. It would be really great if by virtue of sheer will we could avoid major, crippling diseases. And to a population of wishful thinkers, such as is our species, such a fad as "The Secret" is too tantalizing to ignore. (Especially regarding the making of lots of money, which is too hard for most of us to do the usual way; therefore, we wish that we could wish it to happen.) For our ancestors, infectious diseases were the scariest threats that they perceived to their longevity and well-being. These days it is chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. We would like to be able to insure ourselves somehow against even the onset of such diseases, especially if we could prevent them by means of our will alone.
However, it would be more productive and realistic to acknowledge that the way that you can influence whether or not you contract a disease is by means of basic common-sense good life habits: eat healthy foods, get exercise whether it's convenient or not, just make sure you do it, get restful and adequate sleep, and try to avoid pollutants as much as you reasonably can. These practices actually make a difference in whether you plant the physical seeds of illness in your body or not, and make almost all the difference in your continued well-being and longevity. So see you do have control after all. The true secret is this: If you want to affect your destiny, you have to work at it by means of healthy food and exercise. That's the most important thing you have to do.
What's for lunch and dinner?
The easier question to answer is what's for lunch. With restaurant lunch offerings having highly variable quality, depending on wherever you have the fortune or misfortune to find yourself in the middle of the day, it is more reliable in the long run to depend on your own food.
To do this, of course, you need the advance time to cook big meals when it's convenient for you, and have plenty for leftovers. Of course, you will also need a thermos, or sturdy plastic containers if you don't mind eating cold leftovers for lunch.
We like hot leftovers for lunch, so I heat up enough leftovers for my family's lunch in a Pyrex-type baking dish in a toaster oven. This takes about 15 minutes in the morning. Then I line up the thermoses and spoon it in. Some of us like the layers of different foods separated. Some like it all mixed together. To each lunch bag I add a fork and then either a piece of fruit, some nuts or cheese or strips of bell pepper, pickles, carrot or other cold vegetable. And that's it for lunch.
Dinner answers the question of where the leftovers come from. Here are some recipes that I cook in big enough batches for leftovers.
One of our favorites is wild Alaskan salmon. We bake it in a half-inch of water with a little dill and sea salt sprinkled over it. Don't overcook it, because then you break down the good omega-3 fats that make it so worthwhile to eat salmon. Make sure it is just barely flaky and stop cooking when the reddish pink of the thickest part has just barely turned to the familiar salmon pink color.
I serve this with brown rice and sautéed spinach. To cook brown rice, put one-cup dry rice in a pot with three cups of water. Cook over medium heat stirring occasionally, till all the water is absorbed. This will take about a half hour or more (depending on what you consider to be "medium heat.") Be sure to keep an eye on it toward the end, because as soon as the water is absorbed, the rice will begin sticking to your cooking pot, so stir vigorously as it's finishing, and take it off the burner as soon as it's done.
To sauté spinach, first rinse two bunches of spinach thoroughly in a sink full of water twice. This will get out all the dirt and sand. Chop coarsely and set aside. Cook over low heat a generous splash of olive oil, 2-3 cloves of garlic put through a press and a dash of sea salt until the garlic starts to get slightly golden and fragrant. Add the mountain of chopped spinach, and raise to medium heat. Gently turn that big mountain of spinach until it reduces to a little molehill (sad but true) and serve it as soon as it arrives to that just wilted but still tasty stage. Please don't overcook the spinach!
Another favorite is a chicken stew baked in a large pot with a lid. Add 2 cups of water. Also add fennel, onions and potatoes. I pour balsamic vinegar and some olive oil and sea salt over everything. Fennel is in season now, but not always. I have added root vegetables such as turnips or rutabaga in season. Any kind of squash can go in these soups. Seaweeds such as Kombu or Wakame are delicious in chicken stew.
You can vary this a lot. For example, let's say you want this to be a little more Italian in flavor. Then use zucchini and onions and tomatoes for vegetables. For sauce, use tomato sauce as well as the balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
Perhaps you want an Asian style chicken stew. You can use shiitake mushrooms, green onions and Bok Choy for vegetables. And use sesame oil and tamari for a sauce.
I either cook this in a crock-pot for about 5-6 hours, or I put it in a 375 degree over for about 75-90 minutes.
You can pretty much use the same recipes as above, substituting beef, beef brisket, turkey parts, or lamb.
Here's another recipe, a basic curry. Curry is a wonderfully healthy food from India. You can make it very spicy or not spicy at all or in between. Start with a whole stick of butter in a huge cast iron frying pan. (If you are worried about what butter might do to your cholesterol level, please see my article on cholesterol in the December 2006 newsletter). Cut the butter into slices and start to melt it in very low heat. On top of the melting butter put the following spices:
- 2 cloves of garlic put through a press
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon mustard seed powder
- ½ teaspoon ginger powder
- ½ teaspoon coriander seed powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Let these spices gently simmer till excitingly fragrant. Now add your vegetables:
You can put in either chopped cauliflower and string beans, or chopped baked eggplant and cubed potatoes, or potatoes and peas, or bell peppers and onions, for starters.
The smaller you chop your vegetables in advance, the more surface area you will have for coating with your very delicious curry sauce.
Next put in some cooked meat that you may have leftover: cooked shrimp, or chopped cooked poultry or red meat. Finally, if you want even more color, you may add chopped tomatoes toward the end.
Herb of the Month: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
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Here in Arizona, yarrow is now blossoming and its "thousand leaves" (from the species name "millefolium") are abundant.
Yarrow has so many uses that it's hard to begin with any single one. It is a vulnerary, which means a wound healer. It is styptic, which means it stops bleeding. This wound healing property works in more ways than simply a dressing for superficial wounds. Yarrow is also traditionally a warrior's herb. One who has been psychically wounded, and emotionally traumatized by the severe abuse and misery and atrocities of war can find mental and emotional strength repaired with use of this herb.
Yarrow also stimulates saliva, sweating and urination. It is a bitter, and thus has the digestive stimulating properties of bitters, while calming spasms and decreasing gas in the gut. Yarrow is also anti-inflammatory, and is good for wet, mucousy colds.
references
- Petticrew, M et al. Adverse life-events and risk of breast cancer: a meta-analysis. British Journal of Health Psychology 4. 1999.
- An excellent discussion of the ways in which stress contributes to various diseases is the very well-written book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, by biologist Robert M. Sapolsky.