Go Home Now Ezekiel Bread Tree of Life Recipes Junk Food Exercise Vitamins Ripples Participants e-mails Non-Participants e-mails Hugh Wang, M.D. e-mails

 Austin Swartz, York '52:---

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• "Bruce, I'm back to talk about Splenda which itself is not bad.  It was approved by the FDA which tested it as a natural sweetener which I am trying to grow in my back yard having ordered it from a mail-order nursery.  It is struggling, and I'm not sure if it doesn't like my heavy clay dirt or if I'm not watering enough or too much.  It is sweeter than sugar, and fast became a favorite for diabetics.  A cup of coffee requires only a twentieth of a teaspoon.  Here's where the fraud occurs.  After the approval, the company added sugar to bulk up the packet to a teaspoon or more, so now what was okay for diabetics and obese patients with omental baggage is now causing insulin/leptin resistance and rises in blood sugar.  The company markets it as "made from sugar" without the downside of sugar.  Boo!"

----- Original Message -----

From: Austin

To: H. Bruce Downey

Cc: Carolyne Jordan

Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 3:22 PM

Subject: Junk Food

Hi Bruce!!

     Thx. for the junk food info. Now you can see why I cook most things from scratch, Well, I do use some cheese and other dairy products and

canned stuff like tomato sauce. And I eat manufactured cereal. In this case, I look for stuff that is low suger and fat. Oatmeal and Cheerios are

2 good ones.

    Pls check again about Splenda---I don't think that it contains Aspar-

tame.

    If anyone wants to lose weight, they can eat ONLY raw vegies and fruit along w/ the above cereals for awhile. Also, do you know about "Gly-

semic Index"? If not, let me know and I'll fill you in.

     Take care, Austin

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 Carroll Knight, York '52:---

----- Original Message -----

From: H. Bruce Downey

To: Carroll Knight

Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 7:48 PM

Subject: Re: Of the "ripples" found at "The York '52 Weight Room"

Thanks for this Carroll.  It's helpful.  And its useful too, for we can all learn something from all who are willing to share their thoughts with us.  And so I thank you for yours.

 

...Bruce************** 

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----- Original Message -----

From: Carroll Knight 

To: Bruce

Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 6:43 PM

Subject: Re: Of the "ripples" found at "The York '52 Weight Room"

Bruce,

 

I`am kind of busy and have not had much time to review your new activity of weight situation. The world is full of experts and book authors on the subject.

 

There are two parts to this; what you put in your mouth and how you exercise.

 

When I am in the 1st  pew of church doing all the right things I try to follow the advice of one of the experts that said do five things; no sugar, no caffeine, no refined white flour, no red meat and no dairy products.

 

That's my rule that I try to maintain and cheat from to some degree.

 

Always listen to what your body tells you and exercise pushing yourself a little.

 

Getting older we lose muscle mass and bone mass and need to eat better and exercise.

 

I am like a yo yo, up and down on weight. Being a wrestler in high school and college weight was a part of my daily life.

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 Ken Jones, York '52:---

Your recipe looks good, Ken, but for now I'm off such items as grains, dried fruit, grapes and bananas.  But once I lose my 20 lbs., perhaps I can then relax my diet a tad and begin to come back to the real world--- if only for a little while--- or perhaps it's better said as 'only once in a while.'  So if and when that time should ever come for me, I'm going to try your home cooked cereal mix that you describe below.

 

Still, your home cooked cereal recipe calls for a lot of preparation time, and the horses are always calling me for theirs.  Besides, I always liked Special K, which is what your Jennifer reaches for at breakfast time.  And by the time you're ready to take your breakfast creation out of that micro-wave oven some 25 minutes later, Jennifer is already out the door and gone to work.  Am I right on that?  Well, perhaps not, for in re-reading your note, you don't even try to eat this home cooked cereal of yours on the same day...but on the next day, and perhaps at a time when Jennifer is just getting ready for work, then her Special K, and out the door she goes, leaving you to consume your HM cereal later...or whenever you want throughout the course of your care-free day.  Now am I right?

From: Ken Jones

To: H. Bruce Downey

Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 7:35 PM

Subject: Re: "The York '52 Weight Room"

Re:

Soy Sauce.

 

A one pint (guessing) bottle lasts over a year.  I would put two to three tablespoons into that five pound squashed cabbage I wrote about.  I just made a brown rice thingy using one and a half cups of rice, a couple pounds of chicken, a big pile of various vegetables.  Some olive oil keeps the rice from sticking.  Two table spoons of soy sauce gives some body.  I save the water whenever I steam (never boil) vegetables and us it to boil rice.

 

Snacks are either cashew nuts or  gorp (good old peanuts and raisins).

 

For years my breakfasts have been the same.  Real peanut butter (the oily kind) on toasted whole wheat or pumpernickel raisin bread.  Jennifer and I consume olive oil on Italian bread or various designer breads from the bakery.

 

Ken

----- Original Message -----

From: H. Bruce Downey

To: Ken Jones

Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 12:49 PM

Subject: Re: "The York '52 Weight Room"

Thanks Ken.  Yours is both informative and interesting, which oft times is difficult to do.

 

But tell me this, Ken--- please do a little research on this soy sauce business.  I think of soy sauce as being very salty stuff--- the very heart of Chinese food everywhere, which of course is off limits in my "Weight Watchers" diet.  If you could, look into this subject (Soy Sauce and its sodiium content) on the Internet or just read the label on your own bottle of it.  The use of olive oil for butter is commendable, but must take some getting used to--- like olive oil on top of toasted raisin bread?  Hmmmm.

 

In our house we don't buy the old standby---"When it rains, it pours"--- a 100% sodium product.  Instead, we use a product called "Salt Sense", containing 33% less sodium.  It's iodozied, and label-wise claims itself to be "real salt".  It's maker?:--- Diamond Crystal.  And if I'm right on this, you may want to switch your allegiance from Soy Sauce to Salt Sense.  Just a thought.  Check it out.

 

...Bruce************* 

 

 

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----- Original Message -----

From: Ken Jones

To: H. Bruce Downey

Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 10:23 AM

Subject: Re: "The York '52 Weight Room"

Interesting, Bruce.

 

My diet is very unlike the Weight Watchers Diet of your WEB page.  I eat a great deal of grains and fruits.  We have not opened a bar of butter in over five years, but we eat quite a bit of olive oil.  We drink skimmed and fortified (added milk solids) milk.  I have no idea where the sugar dispenser is in the kitchen cabinets.  We do use granulated sugar to feed the humming birds.  Our salt shaker sits lonely in the corner by the stove.  We use soy sauce for salt.

 

My exercise has been weight lifting for power.  Pushups, pullups and weight repetitions no more than fourteen.  Once I can do 14, I am obliged to up the weight.  I walk a hilly path most every morning with my dog.  For cardio I punch the speed bag.  My tin hips limit the pounding my legs can endure.  I also play racquetball two to three times per week.  (I do not dive for the ball.)

 

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHYbqg9DPfM&feature=PlayList&p=62187C179BF62508&playnext_from=PL&index=10

 

As I told you in that past email stopping taking Lipitor has been an absolute age reducing miracle.  All kinds of limitations caused by what I thought was "getting older" have gone completely away.

 

Carroll Knight is in good shape.  He kicked my ass in racquetball back in Elmhurst in 2007.

 

Good idea this WEB site.

 

Ken

----- Original Message -----

From: H. Bruce Downey

To: Class of York '52

Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 7:59 AM

Subject: "The York '52 Weight Room"

  From: H. Bruce Downey

A few days ago, I inquired whether any of you were interested in weight loss?  A handful responded.  So for them, I invite you now to go to a brand new website which I call "The York '52 Weight Room" ---

 

http://www.majordomoers.com/Docs/TheYork52WeightRoom.html 

 

My plan is to update this website from time to time, even on the spur of the moment and without necessarily advising you by e-mail each time there has been an update posted to it.  So for anyone interested, you might want to make this new website "a favorite place" by making it into an icon on your desktop so that you can easily come by "The York '52 Weight Room" at anytime to see what's new.  And from time-to-time "The York '52 Weight Room" is a place where you too can tell the rest of us of anything on your mind--- including any comments or questions you might have--- concerning your own personal weight program.

 

The road ahead is "full of sacrifices" and of course "misery loves company" but in the end, "this is for a new, healthier you!"

 

Remember the name of the place on the Internet where it all happens:--- "The York '52 Weight Room"

 

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                                                                      ...Bruce******** 

 

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----- Original Message -----

From: H. Bruce Downey

To: York '52

Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 10:02 PM

Subject: About "Your perspective" and "Ripples"

  From: H. Bruce Downey

The following is an e-mail from me to a friend-of-a-friend--- Dr. Hugh Wang, a friend of my classmate at Harvard '56--- Malcolm Ing.  The subject is "weight loss."  If anyone is interested in doing what I've just begun doing...let me know...for I have heard once again from Dr. Wang--- in a follow-up e-mail not enclosed here--- an e-mail Dr. Wang calls "Ripples." 

 

Dr. Wang is a native Hawaiian who went to High School with my friend from Harvard '56, Dr. Malcolm Ing, MD.  They were the only two from that same High School in that same graduating class (1952)--- the very same H.S. that Barrack Obama years later was to go to--- that went on to pursue careers in medicine.

 

And I want you to know that I have new info from Dr. Wang that the key to weight loss is not controlling quantity as I had previously thought...but rather, what we eat...and once you commit yourself to that regimen...you can eat as much of it as you want...and do so without exercising...and you will lose weight!  The exercise can come later...as a kind of a maintenance program.  Learn what you should know about what Dr. Wang calls "belly weight" or "omental weight"--- and how to get rid of it by controlling what you eat...and not how much you eat...with noticeable results in as little as two weeks time--- that is if you too want to join me in my efforts to lose some weight.  Just let me know and I'll tell you what weight loss secrets Dr. Wang has since told me.

 

 

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----- Original Message -----

From: H. Bruce Downey

To: Hugh Wang

Cc: Malcolm Ing, M.D.

Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 3:53 PM

Subject: Re: "Your perspective"

Recently Malcolm Ing, MD in Hawaii sent me an e-mail that you wrote on the subject of "Your perspective".  In particular I was interested in what you had to say about obesity in this country, suggesting that if we eat right and controlled our weight we would all be healthier, to wit:--- 

 

"I have proven to my satisfaction among my patients, friends, and 
acquaintances who are willing to do it, that eating a certain way in 
content and volume will decrease prescription drug need, will reduce much 
debility, will reduce heart disease and cancer which cause 75% of the 
American deaths at an earlier age and with disability.  Not many will do 
it.  They prefer taking diabetic, blood pressure, and heart pills it 
seems."

 

So I looked into this from my own perspective.  I started by buying a new digital scale with a memory chip from Bed Bath & Beyond--- a Taylor "Cal-Max" scale.  After programming into this machine my gender, age, height, and activity level, I discovered that while not obese, I am overweight at 221 lbs when fully clothed except for shoes.  My BMI (Body Mass Index) is 27 whereas it should be no more than 24 @ a desired weight of 197 lbs. based on my gender, age, height, and activity level.  In addition to displaying all this info, my new scale tells me that by eating 2,900 calories a day I will maintain my current weight (221 lbs).  So I must undertake a calorie count program to eat something less than 2,900 calories a day in order to lose weight and get my BMI down to the desired goal of 24 @ 197 lbs.  Even then, it will take me a very long time to get there...but I now have a scale that will "remember" where I once was and how well I'm doing every time I get on it.

 

I have no particular plans as to what I will eat, for I plan on starting out by simply reducing the quantity of what I eat at any one sitting.  To this end I plan on keeping track of the calories I eat on a daily basis, for I figure that's the key to success. Snacks will be out for me (Did you know that just 7 Triscuits--- the healthiest cracker one can eat--- add up to 140 calories?  Deserts too will be gone, other than say fruit of some sort.  We also have this new book--- "Eat this, Not that" which I highly recommend to all. 

 

I know too that before embarking on this less-than-2,900-calorie-per-day diet, you would advise me to see my primary care physician and/or my cardiologist.  In my case at 76 years old it's hard for me to tell which of the two is "primary" anymore.  But I'm still very physically active--- personally doing all the chores of maintaining this place here in Southwest Virginia with its 27-acres, two houses and three horses on this mini-farm of mine.  The most strenuous thing I do is bend over and pick up horse feet to trim and shape their nails using a big, hand-held file in my right hand.  I used to be able to do all 4 feet at one sitting, but can only do 2 feet now--- for tomorrow is another day.  Not everyone would be happy with this way of life, but it's the way I want it until the time comes when I can no longer do any of it anymore. 

 

I know too that the world is "paved with good intentions" but when you get as old as I am and considering the alternatives that are just around the corner for the likes of people like me, I think I have enough motivation to stick this thing out.  Twenty pounds is a lot to expect, but being "retired" as I am, I figure I've got the time to invest in my own health.  And it's about time that I paid some attention to something I've always just assumed would always be there for me.

 

And your e-mail that Mal forwarded to me re: "Your perspective" is all the encouragement I need to get started.  And for that,  I thank you, Dr. Wang.

 

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