Mustafa Koç, the Chairman of the Board of Koç Holding, passed away recently at a very young age and left behind a huge group of grieving relatives, friends, acquaintances and countrymen.
As I am writing this, it is the fifth day since his passing and the newspapers are still full of his obituary notices. I have never seen anything even close to this in my life. The business community, the sports community, NGOs and a very large group of friends grieve his passing at the age of 56.
His warm eyes projected his attitude towards life and his helping hand to the less fortunate made him stand out as quite different from other well off people in the global business world.
He was an avid sportsman; golfer, equestrian, sailor, scuba diver, rally driver, and more. His wildlife photography and underwater photography were exceptional.
He’s gone to a better place; may he rest in piece.
You are probably wondering why I chose to write about Mustafa Koç today. Well, it’s because the probability of his dying at this very young age would have been much smaller if he had been advised of and practiced a better nutrition and activity/sports path.
George Washington University, 1983.
Mustafa, the slim guy standing on the left, is as fit as a fiddle. Apparently his nutrition and activity choices were OK in those days.
Well, this is Mustafa 20 plus years later. His nutrition plan (?) and his sports/activity choices apparently left much to be desired.
This is one of his recent pictures, taken after he had stomach surgery and lost 40 kg. (88 lbs.) in the process.
Humans are probably the only species that, at some point, know they will die after they are born. But they live as if they will never die. This, of course, is God’s gift to us. Can you imagine a life where you await death constantly?
What troubles me is the same attitude when it comes to eating and health: I’ll eat all this stuff you call junk because I’ve been doing it for quite some time and nothing has, or will, happen to me. Well, that’s not the case. I think fatness, obesity, creeps up on you.
We lost a great and very widely loved person last week; I’m now going to summarize my views on nutrition and sports/activity, hoping that some of you will reconsider your lifestyle and prevent your loved ones from facing another early death.
SOME BASICS
- You CANNOT loose weight by just exercising;
- Humans are not genetically programmed as runners;
- We are programmed to walk and sprint;
- We are not programmed to eat:
- Grains,
- Milk and milk products, and
- Legumes.
Let’s briefly go over the above.
For me to burn one pound (453 gm.) of fat, i.e., use it as fuel, I would have to walk for 10 hours or run about 42 km. (26 miles). No, you can’t split this up and do it in, say, one week.
If it had been so easy to burn fat, the human race would not be around today. Fat was/is the reserve for times of famine.
So, an hour walk on the treadmill or better still outdoors is good for you but will do nothing to make you thinner/fitter. Look at the men and women in your gym who do this; see any difference?
We were not created as runners; we walk and sprint to catch tonight’s dinner or to escape from the saber tooth tiger that wants to make us his dinner.
Besides messing up our joints, running (or jogging) is an aerobic exercise, meaning that it uses oxygen to make ATP (our energy source), and creates free radicals, which shorten our life.
Men: 220- your age X 0.85, and women: 226 – your age X 0.85. This is the heart rate that should not be exceeded. If you do, you are exercising aerobically and thus creating free radicals. STAY BELOW THE ABOVE LIMITS.
I guess we are now clear on the fact that we cannot GET THIN/LOOSE WEIGHT by just exercising. So what are we to do? STOP EATING CRAP to begin with.
Look at my post “Nutrition/Health “dated March 11, 2015. This will give you the details of what to eat, what not to eat and why. The “why” is particularly important, because insulin resistance, leptin resistance leading to “metabolic syndrome” can be the culprit behind early deaths on treadmills.
I just want to touch upon grains, or bread in particular, as it has such an important place in our culture. Besides being a food that we are not programmed to consume (grains in general), today’s bread is made from wheat that has nothing to do with the wheat of 20 – 30 years ago; it is GENETICALLY MODIFIED WHEAT.
Even if the wheat was OK, just consider the fact that eating one slice of bread is exactly the same as eating a spoonful of sugar. Everybody is talking and writing about the evils of consuming sugar these days; I’m sure you are aware.
I’m not even going to mention TERRIBLE additives that are put into bread these days, such as HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.
Anyway, read the post I mentioned above.
Another thing I briefly want to touch upon is the brainwashing that some unethical corporations are successfully implementing. One that I particularly dislike is that “breakfast is the healthiest meal of the day and should not be skipped”.
Breakfast cereal manufacturers, of course, are pushing this, upon the public. It’s utter nonsense.
Another one is that “one should eat many small meals a day”. I don’t know who’s spreading this around but DON’T BELIEVE IT AND MORE IMPORTANTLY DON’T DO IT.
The more often you eat, the more insulin your pancreas produces insulin; YES INSULIN RESISTANCE. Leptin resistance follows in insulin’s footsteps.
I suggest intermittent fasting (look at my post of April 25, 2015). One-way of doing this is to SKIP BREAKFAST. Fasting makes your cells younger and your mitochondria (power cells of your cells) also are rejuvenated.
So that’s it in a nutshell. I strongly suggest you look at this seriously.
We don’t need beautiful, young people leaving us at an early age.
Please don’t hesitate in writing comments or e-mailing me directly.
