Almost anyone over the age of 35 has this experience. A kind of slowing or decline. We don’t recover quite as fast from certain illnesses, our digestion slips a notch or two, we have less emotional tolerance toward certain situations, or we are plagued by odd symptoms or feelings that fail to make their mark on a western biomedical exam. There are countless ways in which we used to have a bit more “space,” more “flexibility” or a greater capacity to navigate stresses and strains that naturally arise in the  process of living. Mister Wu has learned a great deal about people by working on their feet for the past 30+ years. He has this idea that as we age, our body accumulates small compromises that by themselves quickly become unnoticeable, but at a certain point will begin to interfere and reduce our body’s ability to deal with assaults from the outside, or can coalesce together into a chronic or serious illness.

As he says it, “the space within the body gets filled up with the waste products of not quite resolved illnesses, unreleased emotion experiences, environmental toxins or the residue of physical injuries.”

From my clinical work, I think this is true. Problems that we used to be able to shake off, now seem to stick to us. It is like a car with worn out shock absorbers. We feel every little bump in the road, and our ability to maneuver seems more mushy.

While I use needles and herbs to treat these kinds of situations Mr. Wu uses his hands, which he focuses on the feet. His methods include those which more deeply direct the body to heal illness, and those which gently can be applied in a daily way to strengthen our systems so that they can properly metabolize and expel the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life.

There is a little foot massage protocol that he uses to get a person warmed up to receive a treatment. It stimulates the spine and all the spinal nerves, the immune system, the lymph system, along with the ren and du channels (these are major acupuncture channels that are considered quite fundamental). Along with these are five points on the big toe, these stimulate and balance deeper structures in the brain and thus rebalance the hormonal and endocrine system.

You can do this little massage for yourself or loved ones on a daily basis, like you take a vitamin or exercise to maintain your wellbeing. It is simply done in five minutes, feels great, and not only will boost your body’s ability to metabolize and expel what which does not serve you, but creates a quiet sense of wellbeing as well.

It all started in the 60’s with Space Food Sticks. Those Tootsie Roll like “meal in a bar” innovations, developed by scientists, that astronauts ate. Since then we have been through countless evolutions of the same basic idea— a quick, balanced, healthy meal on the go. Today there is everything from your basic repackaged, sugar-laden breakfast cereal in bar form, to “low-fat” weight loss bars, to healthy chocolate something crunch bars. And for a “quick pick me up,” or “get me through,” there are more than a few that will do the job.

I read the label
So, just what is it that you look at when you are stocking up on your favorite bar for this weekend’s outdoor adventure? Calories? Fat content? Protein? Type of chocolate used?

Most of us want something that is tasty AND healthy. And while we have been sold the bill of goods that calories out must balance with calories in, metabolic arithmetic is not one of linear sequencing. The kind of calorie makes a big difference. And if you are thinking “low fat” is what you should want, then you would be wrong.

Know what the numbers mean
Jade and Keoni Teda in their easy to read, The New ME (Metabolic Effect) Diet help us to understand why some of us hamster ourselves on treadmills for hours a week and cultivate “low fat” diets, and yet the waistline resolutely ignores our efforts. The problem is not simply calories; it is what kind of calories. In essence, it is the carbohydrates, and most especially the refined ones that lead to all kinds of metabolic mischief.

In their book is a handy guide to reading the labels on energy bars. They read it not from the perspective of calories or fat, but rather from the point of view of glycemic load. The thought being that if you can moderate the insulin response, then you have a tendency to burn more fat and store less of it.

A smattering of simple math
You want energy bars that:
1) don’t have a bunch of hard to pronounce chemicals in them
2) a total true carbohydrate load of 10-15g and ideally less

To calculate the true carbohydrate load:
Take the total number of carbohydrates in grams
Subtract out the grams of fiber
Subtract out the grams of protein

Here is an energy bar that has a high vegetable and fruit content. (It’s one of those specialty bars)
It contains 28g of carbohydrate
From this we subtract the 3g of fiber and 12g of protein, which gives a total carbohydrate load of 13 grams.
By the way, the 12g of protein here is equivalent to two Trader’s Joe’s hotdogs.

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Now lets look at the label of a peanut butter protein bar.
It contains 20g of carbohydrate, but when we subtract out the protein and fiber, it weighs in at just 4 grams of carbohydrate. That and all the fat in it will barely cause an insulin response.

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Here is the label of “Healthy” brand found in your local grocery store.
Total carbs clock in at 25g. Once the modest amount of fiber and protein is subtracted out, this unit has 21g of insulin spiking carbohydrate.

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Just for fun, let’s turn to the more sugary side of the spectrum; pop tarts.
This bad-boy has 32.2g of carbohydrate, and once the barely present fiber- .75g, and small amount of protein- 2.7g is subtracted out, we see a metabolic load of 28.75g of refined carbohydrate.

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What about fat?
It goes without saying that trans-fats and hydrogenated oils should be avoided. Omega-3 fats, mono-unsaturated fats and flaxseed oil are worth seeking out. Ideally, your energy bar should contain 15g or less of fat.

Remember
Low fat usually means high carb. It is not necessarily the fat in our diet that makes us fat. Those carbohydrates are responsible for spikes in your insulin level, and insulin causes the body to store fat.

Read the label, do the math. If you have a tasty energy bar that has a true carbohydrate load of 10g or less, share it in the comments section!

Most of us labor under the belief that weight gain (or loss) is due to the simple arithmetic of calories consumed vs calories burned. As with so many things in life, it is not such a simple equation. And the reason it is not simple is because the body metabolizes sugar differently than it does protein or fat, and different kinds of sugar get metabolized in different ways.

As with many issues regarding health and well-being 30 second sound-byte snippets of advice are not particularly helpful. If you can set aside about 15 minutes to read this article on the problems associated with fructose and high levels of dietary sugar, it will give you a basic glimpse of why long term use of sugary foods can lead to diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

If you have an hour and half, then this lecture will acquaint you with the science behind sugar metabolism.

Both will help you to understand why it makes sense that various chronic and deadly diseases have risen in relation to the amount of sugar in the average American diet. Not a sweet story.