Many of the choices we make in terms of the substances we ingest determine our health, of course, but also influence our wealth, happiness and emotions. A lot of the “ingestibles” in America are really bad for you. This is not solely an American problem but it seems to be exacerbated to a greater degree here.

Americans eat and drink a lot of bad things. Big culprits:

• Fast food (it’s not just McDonald’s, either – supermarkets, schools and high-end restaurants are selling the same junk)
• Highly processed foods
• Artificial flavors and colors
• Pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables
• Hormone-laced milk and milk products
• Tobacco products (one of the few things on this list that has no redeeming features whatsoever)
• Alcohol (although in moderation, alcohol can actually be good for you)
• Genetically modified foods (jury’s still out on this one – and while the jury’s out, I’ll call it unhealthy)
• Drugs (prescription, over-the-counter and illegal)
• And finally the subject of this article, soda, but I could probably think of 20 more examples.

I started drinking diet Coke in high school when it was first introduced to the country. It seemed to have a lot of advantages for a serious high school athlete in a sport that demanded quickness and strength without being muscle-bound.  Tennis also requires alertness. I drank more and more throughout my 20s and early 30s, drinking up to 8 cans per day at some points. I even kept it up throughout my time living in Russia, making frequent treks to the bakery across the street from my apartment which inexplicably sold diet Coke in addition to home-made black bread.

I quit drinking soda in 2005.  I still might have one on occasion, usually root beer or 7-Up, but my rough guess is that I won’t drink more than 5-10 sodas in a year now. Ironically at the same time I quit drinking “diet” soda I lost 100 pounds – not just because of that, of course, but I think it helped. I have given up diet drinks altogether, though – I touched a diet drink one time a couple of years ago, and it was horrific.

From Wikipedia’s article on diet Coke, a list of ingredients:

• Carbonated Water
• Caramel Color
• Aspartame (known better by the brand name “Nutrasweet”)
• Phosphoric Acid
• Potassium Benzoate
• Natural Flavors
• Citric Acid
• Caffeine

Why quit drinking sodas?

According to Food Chemical News June 1995, FDA Epidemiology Branch Chief Thomas Wilcox reported that aspartame complaints represented 75% of all reports of adverse reactions to substances in the [US] food supply from 1981 to 1995. Sodas cost a lot of money, they eat away at your insides and your teeth, they dehydrate you and the long-term health effects of aspartame (for diet drinks) are still being debated. I can’t really see any particular reason for drinking sodas other than continuing to get that sugar/caffeine/aspartame high, which isn’t really a high; it’s the lack of those substances that makes you feel bad, so you only bring yourself back to normal when you ingest them. So how do you escape your tastebuds’ cloying captor, the soda?

My tips for quitting:

11. Drink seltzer or club soda mixed with fruit juice (but make sure it’s 100% natural juice, not sweetened or artificially flavored. You can’t go wrong with this – if you try it, it’s much better. You will be amazed the first time you try this – it’s much better than straight juice or straight seltzer, and certainly better than overpowering soda. If you take a 12 ounce glass, fill it about 1/3^rd full with juice and then the rest of the way with seltzer, it’s very tasty. You can use any kind of juice, although personally I prefer apple or cranberry juice. I love having my Soda-Club Home Soda Maker (that is an affiliate link). I can make seltzer right at home – no lugging it home from the store, no wasted plastic bottles, and fresh fizzy seltzer any time I want it. I can’t recommend it enough.

10. Drink lots of water. I sometimes suspect that when I used to drink a lot of soda it had somewhat of a vicious circle effect. The sodium-laced soda would make me thirsty enough to grab for another soda. Water counteracts that desire and seems to tamp down on my appetite, too. Ideally everyone should drink approximately 64 ounces a day of water. It seems like a lot when you first start, but after you get used to it you won’t notice it.

9. Don’t drink mixed drinks with soda. This only applies if you’re a drinker, but it’s a big one. I used to drink Stoli Vanil mixed with vanilla diet Coke (while it still existed) as my drink of choice. Frankly, Stoli Vanil doesn’t mix well with juice, seltzer, etc. What’s the solution? I switched to drinking wine instead of vodka. It has some (somewhat unproven but reasonable enough) health benefits and it doesn’t need to be mixed with soda. That was a conscious decision to get away from drinking hard liquor, and killed two bad habits with one shot.

8. Start drinking tea. Let’s face it, no one wants to drink water all day. I work in big corporate hives where I can’t exactly keep a fresh supply of seltzer and juice, so I get a little bored with water. I find that having a nice pile of herbal and decaffeinated teas gives you something to drink that’s flavorful and healthy.

7. Drink lukewarm water. I think one reason people can’t drink a lot of water is that they drink ice-cold spring water bottles out of the fridge. Room temperature bottles taste terrible if you aren’t used to them, but you’ll notice they are easier to sip if they aren’t 33 degrees Fahrenheit. Plus, you can keep them sitting on your desk/in your car/wherever. Since you won’t expect chilled water, it will be easier to drink.

6. Don’t buy soda. This sounds obvious, but maybe it’s not. I stopped buying my poison of choice, diet Coke, and simply didn’t have it in the house. I had tried to “cut back” before, by buying a few two-liter bottles and telling myself “only one glass per evening”. That didn’t work for me. I removed the temptation entirely by not bringing it into my house.

5. Drink coffee. If you are a caffeine junkie, I won’t lie to you – withdrawal hurts. I think the addiction to aspartame hurts, too, and nothing really helps that. But you can ease your caffeine DTs with a cup or two of coffee in the morning. Just make sure you don’t waste your money buying it – brew some at home. Don’t skimp, either – buy something flavorful or you’re going to hate it. And learn to drink it black. You’ll save money, calories and your teeth.

4. Think of all the money you will save. Soda is fairly expensive. In all fairness, spring water is, too, but if you learn to drink from the office cooler at work and from the filtered water tap at home you can cut your expenses pretty significantly. I was working in one office where the diet Coke was free, which was fine, but when I moved into consulting I found I was dropping $1.25 four or five times per working day (let alone at home) to get a soda. That’s almost $1600 per year. I buy a box of tea bags for $3 (usually about 20 to a box) so even drinking five cups of tea per day, which I seldom do, I would only spend about $190 per year.

3. Tell your friends, family, co-workers and anyone else who cares to listen that you are eliminating soda from your life. A lot of people will laugh, but by and large I think most people realize that soda is bad for you and will be supportive. I wasn’t asking people not to drink soda in front of me, or anything, but the simple fact is that if you tell a lot of people who will be with you at mealtimes or other times you might drink a soda, you will be too embarrassed to drink one and look like a backslider in front of them. Public goal-setting is a great way to maintain a resolution.

2. Read. What? Read about aspartame. Read about Coke’s uses as a toilet bowl cleaner, or how it dissolves a steak (Google it). Do you really want that in your system?

1. Wait. If you stop drinking soda and give it a few weeks – and that’s it – you won’t want soda anymore. I never meant to completely quit drinking soda when I gave it up, but somehow I lost the desire for soda when I quit drinking it regularly. It just doesn’t seem appealing. Diet Coke is downright nauseating – it has a chemically, bitter taste. Regular soda, quite honestly, still tastes good. But the cloying sweetness is overpowering after you drink juice/seltzer or water or tea or black coffee for a while. I just don’t want soda. In the two years I have had a few sodas – on vacation I drank a root beer, and maybe once every six weeks I’ll find myself at a food court or some such place where my choices are tap water or soda. In those cases I’ll stick with 7-Up (supposedly all-natural) if they have it and Sprite if they don’t. But I haven’t had a Coke or a Pepsi in two years, with one exception. I was waiting overnight in a hospital on Little Buddy, who was briefly ill with a terrible virus a couple of years ago, and late at night I desperately needed caffeine to stay awake. The vending machine had nothing left but diet Pepsi. I choked half of it down, but even then I couldn’t drink it. Fortunately a very kind nurse (the wonderful-but-oddly-named Expie who seemed to me that night one of the most wonderful people on this planet) brewed a pot of coffee for me.

Soda is just one of those things you’ll never miss once you give it up.  Trust me.

(You might also enjoy my article “101 thoughts on how I lost 100 pounds“.)

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how to stop drinking soda is an original article from the website brip blap.

By Curmudgeon.  Just to make sure none of my anxious relatives read this and think this is me, I’ll repeat – no, I didn’t write this.  That having been said, Curmudgeon has a few important notes about health care in America that we’d all be better off thinking about now rather that later.  My family is also struggling with this with some of our family members, as well – the good and the bad.

I was just discharged from the hospital. I went in through Emergency, with a life-threatening condition.  I had my wits fully about me during most of the time (when not on painkillers), and tried to pay some attention to what was going on around me.  The hospital was a mid-sized facility in a small city in New England, and is probably fairly typical in that regard.

I’ll start with a couple of neutral observations.

• Health care, and health care delivery, are highly complex and involved.  The machines used for diagnosis and treatment are big, highly sensitive, and expensive to operate and maintain.  Yet because my hospital had them on site, I was able to get a diagnosis within two hours, rather than days.
• The machines are not compatible.  They produce paper as output, and are not wired together in any sort of process as we might understand in business.  This result in a huge paper file that must be available to the caregivers, and must be read and comprehended.

The processes involved are enormously complex and individualized. No two persons’ care is identical, and while individual steps are well-known and practiced, the process as a whole is driven by the needs of the patient.

Now a couple of positive observations.

• I was attended to by a large number of dedicated and caring professionals.  I can’t say enough about the people who attended and assisted me.
• In the hospital no one is asked how they are going to pay for a particular test, procedure, or treatment.  This is a really good thing; patients are in a poor position to make economic tradeoffs with their health.

Next a couple of not-so-positive ones.

• At my estimate, approximately a third of the time of these dedicated professionals was spent checking and correcting errors, omissions, or inconsistencies caused by others, or by the system itself.  Some of this is to be expected; the processes involve humans, after all.  But not this much.
• As a patient, you deal with a confusing array of care providers on a daily basis.  For example, I counted a dozen different types of nurses before giving up, and that doesn’t include specialty nurses.  No doubt these distinctions are made to differentiate both function and skill set, but to the outsider it is pretty opaque.

The number of specializations concerns me, but perhaps is justifiable by the complexities involved.  However, I’m much more concerned by the lack of a seamless and accurate flow of information between them. There is also not one “master truth” in the system, as many professionals hold many different understandings of what tests were conducted and what treatments administered.  I had to go through a stress test, for example, because the admitting doctor’s offhand remark that I seemed to have a mild heart murmur lead others to believe I was experiencing chest pains, which I was not.

I would like to think that much of the confusion and misunderstanding can be eliminated. As a computer guy, my inclination is to think of a set of automated solutions, but that may not be the full answer.  But there are inefficiencies in the system that can be corrected, letting the health care professionals do the jobs they need to.

photo by Rodrigo Basaure

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My Up Close Look at Health Care is an original article from the website brip blap.

One of the things I come back to again and again in my conversations with family, friends and colleagues is that there is no way to waste money on good health. Organic food can be pricey. A gym membership can be expensive compared to working out at home. Vitamins or medications can be burdensome. But if you can spend your money on one thing in this life, don’t let it be education, or your family, or your belongings. Spend it on health.

Warren Buffet is 78 and the second richest man on this blue dot. Do you think he’d be getting the accolades for wealth and investing acumen if he had died at 42? Maybe. Many rich people have died young. Many poor people have died old (and unlamented). Wealth and health have long been completely unrelated. I’m sure every one of us knows old poor people and young rich people, and the opposite, and many variations. But age has long been seen as a virtue, at least as valuable as wealth.

But the key question is: would you rather be old and moderately well to do, or die fabulously wealthy at a young age? I doubt many of us would wish to live a highroller lifestyle and die at 40 versus living a moderate middle-class lifestyle and dying at 80. Health is, in a sense, the ultimate prize.

If you consider a long life a valuable thing to pursue, it’s doubly amazing that so many people don’t bother. I pursued my career at the expense of my health for the best part of my twenties. I wasn’t thinking about life in my sixties – it was my money and I wanted it now. How many times have you told yourself that you’re just too busy at work to take some time to exercise?

I don’t exercise as much as I should. Four years ago I was running competitively, lifting weights 3-4 times per week and eating a 90% vegetarian diet – I was in the best shape of my life. But work, kids and life got in the way and I slid waaaaay back on the health scale. It’s easy to do, and if you’ve ever gotten in shape you know how simple it is to slide back. But that’s no excuse. Your health is the only thing – other than your mind – that you can control in this life.

Don’t neglect your health. I lost 100 pounds (actually a bit more) and it’s possible for anyone. Remember that your health is worth more than all the money in the world. Just ask someone who’s not healthy, and you’ll get a straight answer.

Photo by ~ggvic~

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there is no cost to good health is an original article from the website brip blap.

I have just had my annual physical examination (I passed, although some of the parts that have gone out of warranty are getting a little creaky).  What? You haven’t seen a doctor in ten years?  Are you, well, nuts?

My parents were children of the Great Depression (not this little blip we are currently living through).  The prevailing attitude of that generation is that you went to see a doctor only when you were about ready to die.  It’s a stark commentary, but it’s largely true.  A part of it is cultural, but a part of it is a distinctly human trait that encourages us to avoid hearing bad news, and having to act on that news.

A decade or so ago my mother took my father into the hospital emergency room, for his first time in 40 years, because he could no longer stand the pain of the cancer that infiltrated his body. He lived for a year and a half afterward, although I can’t call his quality of life anything to write home about.  For the last several months, he was delirious and bed-ridden.

While we decry the state of health care in the United States, at least in comparison with nationalized programs in other countries that the media describes (all of which have their downsides), the fact of the matter is that if you are fortunate enough to have a decent employer-sponsored health care offering, and are not taking advantage of it, you are a fool who is taking unnecessary chances with your life and livelihood.  Despite the costs, paperwork, and general confusion, it is largely the best program in the world.

I recognize that there are those of you who don’t have access to such a program, and in my older years I have been an advocate for a drastic change in how the US delivers health care. Yet even so, it is more important for you to find a way to obtain the care that is the privilege of living here, because you likely need it all the more.  Without good health, you can’t fulfill any of the goals that Steve describes as the cornerstone of his postings.

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guest post: a kick in the pants is an original article from the website brip blap.

I’m going to divert from my usual ramblings and talk about the staggering (to me, at least) implications of the COBRA premium reduction. First of all, what is COBRA?  From Wikipedia:  “The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985… is a law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Reagan that, among other things, mandates an insurance program giving some employees the ability to continue health insurance coverage after leaving employment.”  Basically it means that if your employer gives you access to health insurance coverage and you use it, then you are eligible to continue in that plan after you quit or get laid off.  Usually the employer’s been picking up a chunk of the premium that the employee has to start paying, but it’s still a fairly nice deal for most people as a bridge.

At least it was until the Great Recession hit. Like many other people, I didn’t anticipate being out of work for almost five months now.  I knew from day one I’d need COBRA, because until recently you had a 30 day window to opt in or out.  If you opted out, you were out – you couldn’t come back to COBRA after you left.  Finding independent health insurance is difficult even if you’re healthy; if you are sick, or (like me) you have a family with two small children (i.e. needing lots of medical attention in the form of shots, etc.) it becomes a real struggle to find affordable insurance.

So out of the stimulus act comes the COBRA premium reduction. You are an assistance eligible individual if you are qualified for COBRA and:

1. Your COBRA period began between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009.
2. You became eligible for COBRA as a result of a covered employee’s involuntary termination of employment in that time period and
3. You elect COBRA coverage.

Cutting through the legalese, what does that mean? It means that if you qualify for COBRA, the government’s going to pick up 65% of your bill.  65% is a typical employer’s share of the premium payment for current employees, so it likely means that if you’re laid off your medical bills won’t go up much.

Forget politics, and forget whether this is prudent in the long term for America. That’s another post.  What this provides is a huge opportunity, and one worth considering seriously.  I’ve suddenly been told that I can keep my health insurance, which covers the great majority of my medical expenses, for a reasonable amount (about $400 per month) instead of an unreasonable amount ($1400).  The unintended social effect of this may be profound:  people like me who might have been otherwise inclined to scurry as fast as we could back to corporate employment for the sake of health care benefits may instead opt into independent contractor status in the short term.

I have to admit that I was anxious to get a “job” with benefits as quickly as I could once I realized my independent contractor lifestyle included an almost $1500 per month bill for health care (for a family of four). It’s not like that $1500 per month includes 100% of my costs, either – $25 copays, pharmacy copays and 10% (or more) shares of medical treatment add up.  Children’s immunization shots are pricey.  Even minor medical treatment can add hundreds to that premium payment of $1500 per month, but I’m grateful – without insurance the treatments would soar into five figures for even routine medical care.

If health reform becomes a reality, imagine what it would mean if everyone was entitled to $400 per month (or less) health care. Fear of striking out on your own as an entrepreneur would drop drastically.  People wouldn’t need to drop health insurance coverage to pay the rent.  Families would go to the doctor for routine preventative care in order to avoid later, more serious health problems.

I’m not suggesting that this COBRA premium reduction is a cure-all, because it isn’t. I know quite well that the whole doctor-insurance-company-patient triangle is rotten to the core.  Charges are flung about at random in hopes that some will stick and someone will pay them:  the insurance company, the government, the individual.  But it’s refreshing to see a change in the health care paradigm in this country.  As someone who has a (knock on wood) healthy family of four I had started to consider quite seriously dropping health insurance in favor of a catastrophic plan, and I’m glad – for once – that the government is doing something which will hopefully have a long term positive effect.  If people are confident that getting laid off won’t mean they can’t afford health insurance, they may be able to go out on their own or hold out for a decent job before settling for a position just for the sake of benefits.

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COBRA premium reduction is an original article from the website brip blap.

There may be a lot of ways to save money on food, but one of the simplest and best ways to save money is to have a good breakfast. This may sound like a simple thing, but it eludes many people, who rush off to work with a bagel and a coffee. A good breakfast accomplishes a number of important goals:

1. It gives you energy and keeps you alert. Most people realize that there’s a fine line beteen eating too much and too little. Both essentially have the same result – sluggishness. Failing to eat breakfast can cost you the energy that you need after your overnight “fast”. Even the name of the meal, “Break (Your) Fast” implies that you’re sitting down to a meal after fasting all night. You need those calories to reenergize your body and yourself.

2. Many of the tastiest breakfast choices are also healthy for you. As mentioned in #1, eating is important for energy’s sake. What types of food are best for you depend on your individual metabolism, but I think they fall into one of three basic categories:

a. The hearty breakfast: this breakfast is the most dangerous since the temptation to overload on food will be there. Bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns and other heavy foods fall in this category. My advice if you prefer this category is to stick to one type of food or the other, carbs or proteins. Carbs (toast, hash browns) will give you a quick burst of energy but may leave you hungry again later. Proteins (eggs, bacon) may not fill you up as much but will give you energy throughout the morning. Take it easy if you eat these. None of these foods are bad in moderation, but eating a rasher of bacon every day will eventually have some consequences.

b. The convenience breakfast: cereals, grits, oatmeal and other “bowl foods” are an easy way to start your day. Make sure you read serving sizes! A bowl of cereal does not mean a bowl poured up to the rim with flakes. Try measuring out a cup using a serving size measuring cup. It is not a lot of food. If you really love cereal, this breakfast is OK, but it usually won’t be enough for a full day. Try to eat a small amount of these bowl foods along with some fruit. The fruit will add some flavor, provide some vitamins and add to your sense of being full without adding massive amounts of calories.

c. A “non-standard” breakfast. A grapefruit, a bowl of rice, olives, mixed veggies and other “different” breakfasts fall in here. I remember eating cheese, butter and bread with a slice of kielbasa every morning while living in Germany. As an American I thought of it more as a sandwich, but it was a good solid breakfast. Once in a while at home I have what I jokingly refer to as my “Mediterannean Breakfast” – olives, cheese, maybe a slice of bread. There is no need to eat “breakfast food” for breakfast. Eat pasta if you like carbs! Eat some turkey and cottage cheese! Eat a salad! Try to think past eggs and toast.

3. It makes you happier. Let’s face it, if you start the day with a healthy, filling, pleasant breakfast your morning is going to seem more pleasant. I used to be a big fan of grabbing a bagel on the run so I could sleep an extra 15 minutes. Get up a little earlier and fix yourself a nice breakfast. Have it with some tea or coffee. Don’t read the morning news, but open a window or better yet sit on the porch or balcony if you have one. Make breakfast a smooth start to the day instead of a jarring mass of calories jammed down your throat. You’ll be surprised how much more relaxed you’ll feel all day.

4. It saves money. Eating breakfast is a big money-saver. Failing to eat breakfast means that you’re going to be tempted to grab a coffee and a bagel, a Pop-Tart or a power bar around 11 am. Having a filling breakfast means you’ll make it to lunch without being tempted by junk food. Plus, you’ll have more energy, get your work done quicker and leave work earlier. Right?

So think about sitting down for a slow breakfast tomorrow and starting your day off better. In the same way that compound interest just builds and builds, putting a little effort into the beginning of your day can have a big payoff for your afternoon and evening!

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a simple way to save money on food is an original article from the website brip blap.

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Here’s a question for you, to see where you fall on the health/hygiene versus the environment scale. Ladies, sorry but I’ll be referring to a purely male institution so bear with me.

In the office I’m working in we have urinals. They are the old-fashioned kind where you have to yank a lever to flush – no motion detectors, no waterless suction, etc. When you flush, a HUGE amount of water rolls down the drain. And the drainage is so crappy that to get the water clean, you have to hold down the lever.

Here’s the question: which is the best course of action?

A. Hold down that flusher until the water is as clear as Lake Baikal
B. Push the flusher down for one second, just to show you made an effort to anyone else in the bathroom, but effectively leave it unflushed.
C. Walk away and wait until the urinal’s been used by four or five different guys before flushing thoroughly.

I know it’s a disgusting topic but every single day for a year it’s bugged me, and I’ve even said something. For the record, the response was “we plan to install waterless urinals eventually.”

Not if eventually means within the past year, they didn’t.

So which is worse? A bathroom smelling like a Greyhound station or gallons and gallons of clean water being used to flush a fairly small amount of waste down a drain?

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where is Solomon when you need him? is an original article from the website brip blap.

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I have seen some good stuff written about fat man pants. What are “fat man pants”? The idea is simply that when you gain weight, you need to buy new, comfortable pants rather than walk around in your waist-cinching pantaloons. Simple enough. If you have a size 32 waist and you wear size 32, you’ll be comfortable and look fine. If you are size 32 and wear size 34, you’ll look a little puffy, maybe, but still OK. Size 34 man stuffed in size 32? Ouch, and it can get worse – size 36 trying to squeeze into those nice size 32 jeans that fit just a few Coca-Colas ago? Not a pretty sight.

But fat man pants are a big mistake. I recently felt the need to buy some new pants (always need to look presentable in the fashion-conscious accounting field…hah). I was a little bit unnerved to see that my usual size 34s were suddenly a little too tight unless I got the “comfort waistband” – a code phrase for “fat and/or bloated stretchy waistband.” It was not a proud moment for someone who lost 100 pounds.

I got a little bit lazy over the last two years. With a baby boy and a sports injury my weightlifting and running trailed a long way back. A cold winter slowed me down even more. A pregnant wife meant that I felt like I was able to “gain a bit” since hey, she did too! That is bad thinking.

So my fat man pants moment came and passed like this: I got the comfort waistband, but I also took a hard look at my diet. I’ve been down this road before.  I cut out bread, pasta, rice and sweets from my diet. I switched from eating toast with cream cheese in the morning to eating an omelette (few carbs, less fat). I started doing pushups and started taking the stairs again.

And you know what? Just like that, my comfort waistband slackened. I haven’t been starving myself, or doing any weird exercises: just restricting the worst of the carbs (I’ll still eat veggies and some fruits) and avoiding the easy way out of taking escalators or elevators and making sure I drink plenty of water.

My point? Weight loss is not difficult – changing your mindset is. People make it difficult by treating it as a massive project; I see people launch into diets with the fervor reserved for political campaigns. Just make a series of gradual changes. Don’t be halfhearted – you ARE making a lifestyle change – but don’t feel that you are entering a “special time” of dieting, at the end of which you will emerge thin and able to eat anything. You will not. You need to change your approach to food and exercise to match your life as it is now, not as it was before the kids or back when you had more free time or before the knees got stiff. Evolve.

And for the record, I have shed 8 pounds by doing nothing more than this.

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fat man and the comfort waistband is an original article from the website brip blap.

This is more or less the way you need to approach spending if you’re in debt, or eating if you’re trying to lose weight, or getting over a bad habit of any kind. It may seem like an oversimplification but that’s what it is. Your mind is an amazing tool (but also a dangerous one) but you are its master.

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an unending itch is an original article from the website brip blap.

One day last week I learned a valuable lesson: just because something is “natural” or “organic” does not mean it is good for you.

A little background: for a long time, I had high blood pressure. I was on Lisinopril for a while, and eventually I managed to get it under control through changes in my diet, exercising and learning how to control my temper (which has always been extremely bad). When I was running frequently and eating a more-or-less vegetarian diet, I managed to get it well under normal. With a slump in my diet and exercise over the last couple of years – which started out as simply a slowing-down of my heavy workout schedule and recently has turned into an honest-to-God slump – it crept back up a bit, but not too much. At my most recent checkup, it was (after a few readings) 130/85, 128/87, etc. Not great, but certainly nothing to get worried about.

Last week I started feeling crummy and decided to check my blood pressure while waiting at the pharmacy. Boom! My blood pressure had shot WAY up, to 150/100. That’s a desperately high number. Subsequent readings didn’t get much better although some of that is probably thanks to the fact that I got nervous. Very nervous.

So I tried to analyze what I had done in the last 2 months that made it shoot up so far. I’m not exercising as much as I should, but I still do a lot of walking and climbing stairs during my commute. I was eating nothing but raw fruits and vegetables for breakfast and lunch several days a week (occasionally I would have an omelet for breakfast) and maintaining my lifestyle otherwise. I hadn’t taken up snorting glue or anything like that.

So for a couple of headachey days I wondered what was going on while I tried to analyze what had changed. After some real serious consideration I realized a few bad mistakes I had made.

1. The salad bar at work had added jalapenos. I knew they were pickled (are they cooked? I don’t know) and I love spicy food. I was pouring them on like they were shredded carrots. They are not. I was eating a good fistful of jalapeno slices on my salad every day.
2. Over the holidays I took a week off and overate, drank a lot of hard liquor – which I seldom do anymore – and didn’t stir much from the house.
3. I was sleeping a lot less from being busy late in the evenings with the blog.
4. For some reason, I have felt a lot more internal stress over the last few weeks. It’s probably due to feeling behind on my “global” to-do list. I have big plans for some projects but I don’t feel I’m making enough progress on them.

However, the real problem still eluded me, because these are the types of things which would ramp up blood pressure over time, not overnight. Then I remembered that I was drinking a new kind of organic tea. It tasted wonderful and packed almost as much punch as coffee – sometimes even more. It was flavored with fennel, cardamom, fenugreek, cloves and pepper, but the primary ingredient was St. John’s Wort. I thought “maybe there’s something about that tea”?

Bingo.

Some brief research on the Internet showed me I was right, but this line was the kicker:

There is a risk of hypertension if it is taken with food that contains the natural chemical tyramine, found in beer on tap, red wine, liquors, aged meat and cheese, yeast extract, and soy sauces (link).

I drink two glasses of wine every evening. Over the last couple of weeks, I had something with all of those ingredients. We at aged meat and cheese in abundance over the holidays. We had stuff with soy sauce. I had beer on tap, and red wine. Yeast extract? Probably in something I ate. As I sat there with a headache going down this list, I thought “uh-oh.”

So after reading this article and several others, I quit drinking the St. John’s Wort tea and I can already feel my hypertension fading away. I quit adding jalapenos and I am sleeping and relaxing a bit more, but the main change has been dumping the tea. I plan to go check my blood pressure soon, but I feel much better already. I am back to eating plain salads and drinking white tea and water.

I am not trying to dissuade anyone from taking St. John’s Wort (which can be very helpful for people suffering from depression, for example – although I am not a doctor and you should verify that with someone who is). I just hope that nobody has to discover the hard way like I did that just because something is “organic” automatically means it is “good for you.” I will approach other herbal teas, for example, with a great deal more caution in the future.

(photo credit: australian_overanalyzer)

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a cautionary tale about organic and natural things is an original article from the website brip blap.