A statistic: 69 per cent of what Americans eat has no nutrition. Canadians are better at 54 per cent with no nutrition.
I have had a great life, mostly due to my Dad who, with Type One Diabetes, showed me his basic rules for a good life for him and our family as we depended on the three ‘Pillars of a Good Life.’ These are lifestyle, diet and exercise. I followed these pillars most of my life, with even more dedication when my daughter became a Type One Diabetic at seven years of age. If I follow these then I should end up with a healthy brain and a healthy body when I am considered old – like now at 82 years old.
In the last few years I have taken on some health issues that are in excess of growing older. These are:
– a dementia, probably front temporal dementia, which can lead to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) with no cure;
– an autoimmune disease called dermatomyositis (DM), which has really hit me hard and took away my strength; and
– cancer – melanomas that seem to grow with great enthusiasm in the last few months. I start new pills soon.
I’m not intending to be morbid, but any one of these could cause the death of me. I am fighting hard with the doctors to defeat these health issues. Hopefully, if I can get rid of the melanomas, I can also get rid of the DM.
This column today is to tell all what I am doing to fight off DM through diet – No. 2 of my seven pillars. The prime drug used to fight off DM is a steroid called prednisone, along with an immunity drug known as IVIg. These are fed into me intravenously or via a line directly into my stomach along with my ‘food’ supplied by Nestle Health Sciences.
Beginning about Nov. 16, 2021 a food has been fed directly into my stomach due to my DM. The DM prevented me from swallowing, so the insertion of a feeding tube directly into my stomach with the liquid food, nutrients, water, etc. was injected into me for eight hours per day. I lived on this for three and a half months while the DM was being corrected. The doctors at the London Health Science Centre consider this ‘food’ – the Nestle ‘isource’ liquid formula – as an ideal diet. I was not hungry and my weight remained the same for most of the time with stomach feeding. When I was able to swallow, I went back to eating, as I had before last November.
The food that was being fed into my stomach came from Nestle, the largest food company in the world. The product I was being fed was called “isosource fibres.” I was fed this food/nutrient for eight hours per day – 1.5 Cal/ml, 105 grams of protein and 2,250 calories. It kept me healthy for three and a half months. While I didn’t miss eating food, I did miss ‘eating’ a meal or a ‘snack’ – psychological, I guess.
London Health Sciences Centre feels this is what is best for me for nutritional management as follows:
– Protein – 18 per cent from soy protein isolate
– Carbohydrate – 47 per cent from corn syrup 35 per cent from canola oil, water content – 760 ml/1000ml.
A lot of this sounded ‘Greek’ to me. With help from my dietician, I converted these specs into real foods that I can eat to maintain a good diet and, presumably, a healthy life.
This is a high protein, high carbohydrate diet. I am not aware of a ‘catchy’ name. So why this diet? A major benefit is that protein is used by the body to build and repair muscle. It also helps to heal after surgery, which I had. I did lose some weight with the surgery but this diet will help maintain my weight from the extra carbohydrates I am eating. After three weeks, I am up by seven pounds to 157 lbs (a BMI of 22). By choosing higher calorie foods I will be able to maintain my weight without increasing the amount of food I eat. Just for your information – I do not count calories.
The following are some general tips that I will use to manage my diet:
– Eat every 2-3 hours, three times per eight-hour period and include as much of protein and carbohydrates as possible.
– Keep high calorie, ready-to-eat snack foods on hand.
– Avoid food labels that say “light”, “calorie reduced” or “low calorie.”
– Avoid “empty calorie” foods such as pop, coffee, broth and candy.
Some guidelines:
– You can use milk instead or water in soups, pancakes, cereals, puddings, smoothies, custards, etc.
– Adding cooked eggs works, as does grated or sliced cheese, to improve the taste of some foods.
– Increase protein intake by eating more eggs, meat poultry, tofu, nuts, seeds or legumes.
– Limit sugary drinks such as sodas, fruit juices, chocolate milk and other sugary drinks.
– Reduce intake of refined carbohydrates (white bread) and ultra processed foods (fast foods, packaged snacks).
– Eat more fruits and vegetables.
There is no ‘perfect’ diet. Each of us has to experiment and find the food/nutrition/liquid that is right for us. Refer to the Canada Food Guide if you want what is right for you. I am doing so to get back to good health and live on.
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Bob Murray is retired from the graphic communication (printing) industry and has been living in Seaforth since 2015. Murray was diagnosed with Dementia in 2013 and works hard to stop the progress of the disease to AD. He shares his experiences in his column entitled “My Voyage with Dementia”. Follow him on his blog entitled Voyage with Dementia – https://myvoyage553264702.wordpress.com.
