#33: 🥗 Boost Your Lifespan with a Plant-Based Diet
Plus: Unlocking the Secrets of CBD: Everything You Need to Know about its Effects and Safety
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💬 In this note:
🥗 The Best Diet for Longevity
🌿 CBD: Exploring its Health Benefits, Usage, and Availability
📚 A Court of Mist and Fury
🥗 The Best Diet for Longevity
A 2019 study in PLOS Medicine calculated life expectancy based on eating habits using an online tool called Food4HealthyLife. The model revealed that adopting a diet rich in plant-based foods and minimizing processed food consumption could potentially add an extra 10 years of lifespan compared to the standard American diet, which includes added sugar, refined grains and processed meat.
The model also highlighted foods to avoid for a longer lifespan. Processed meats, refined grains, and added sugars were associated with shorter life expectancies. Evidence suggests that processed foods elevate the risk of various illnesses, including cancer. While evidence on the detrimental effects of red meat remains mixed, the model suggests that reducing its consumption can contribute to improved health.
What Are The Processed Foods To Avoid?
Processed food is any food that has been altered in some way during preparation - such as freezing, canning, baking, drying, or packaged. Examples include:
Breakfast cereals
Cheese
Canned vegetables
Bread
Meat products such as bacon, sausage, salami and deli meats
Flavored or coated nuts
Microwave-ready meals
Drinks that aren’t water, such as fizzy drinks, wine and beer.
The Most Beneficial Foods For Lifespan Enhancement
The model identified plant-based foods rich in fiber as the most beneficial for a longer life. These foods include:
Beans
Whole grains
Raw nuts,
Fatty fish, such as salmon, sardines and cod
These foods play a vital role in digestive and heart health, as well as maintaining stable blood sugar levels. Nuts and fatty fish provide healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, which aid in managing inflammation and reducing blood pressure.
Small Changes, Big Impact
Making dietary adjustments as early as age 20, transitioning from a standard American diet to one rich in beans, whole grains, fish, fruits, vegetables, and nuts, could potentially add 10.7 to 13 years to one's life.
Even modest changes can yield significant benefits. Researchers found that a "feasible" healthy diet, involving slightly more servings of nutritious foods and fewer unhealthy ones, can extend life expectancy by six years.
Embracing a plant-based or Mediterranean-style diet holds the potential to not only prolong your life but also improve overall well-being. Every positive step towards a healthier diet can make a difference, regardless of the starting point.
🌿 CBD: Exploring its Health Benefits, Usage, and Availability
Cannabidiol, or CBD, is the second most active ingredient in Cannabis (marijuana). While Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the psychoactive compound in Cannabis. CBD is rising in popularity, often featured in the media and you may see it as an add-in to a smoothie or find it added to a soft drink.
Health Benefits of CBD
A variety of animal studies, self-reports and research in humans suggest CBD may help with:
Anxiety
Insomnia
Chronic Pain
Addiction
Heart Health
Neuroprotection
Cancer-related symptoms
One CBD prescription product received FDA approval to treat seizures related to rare seizure-causing conditions, such as Dravet Syndrome.
How can I take CBD?
CBD comes in many forms including pils, extracts, capsules, patches, vapes and topical creams. For joint or back pain, you can find topical-CBD lotions or oils, or even a bath bomb. Alternatively, a CBD tincture or spray can be administered under the tongue for CBD to directly enter the bloodstream.
How does CBD make you feel?
Most people who use CBD experience a kind of ‘body high” that allows them to relax, relieve stress and feel more connected with themselves. Some strains of CBD make you feel energized or motivated, and higher amounts leave you feeling relaxed or sleepy.
Is CBD Safe?
CBD is primarily marketed and sold as a supplement, not a medication. The FDA does not regulate the safety and purity of supplements. Therefore, you cannot be sure that the product you buy has been tested for purity and dosages.
Some side effects may include nausea, fatigue and irritability. CBD may show abnormalities in liver related blood tests. Many over-the-counter drugs do the same, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol). Let your doctor know if you are regularly using CBD. Lastly, not enough research has been conducted to know the most effective therapeutic dose of CBD for any particular medical condition.
Where can I buy it?
CBD is readily accessible in most of the United States and Europe, however its legal status situational.
Products can be purchased online or in stores in most locations where CBD is legal or conditionally legal. Typically CBD is legal for medical purposes and can be purchased without a prescription as long as it has a THC content below 0.2%.
To know the legality of CBD around the globe, read more here.
📚 Book of the Week
A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, 2) by Sarah J. Maas
Book 2 in the Court of Thorns and Roses series is even more addictive and sexier than Book 1.
I said it once and I’ll say it again - this book…is CRACK
⚡️ Check this Out
Anne Helen Petersen’s April 19th essay on Overwork Culture.
In her essay, Anne explores the long-standing prevalence of overwork in offices, emphasizing the misdiagnosis of "workaholism" in the 1970s. Workaholism suggests an addiction to work, but rather what happened was that middle-class workers, fearing job loss, overworked to stand out and advance.
Overwork culture is defined by not taking paid time off, constant communication, early arrival and late departure from the office, adhering to these norms out of fear of being fired or the belief it's necessary for career success. This is a recipe for burnout.
How can it change?
Solutions include enforcing minimum PTO and encouraging breaks from communication. Companies can refuse scenarios where giving 120% is the only way to complete the amount of work that’s expected, and granting flexible work options. These policies benefit organizations by reducing burnout, turnover, and rushed work.
I want to see a future where quality of life is valued more than overwork. It’s possible, and we’ve already learned that employees and employers love the 4-day workweek.