9 habits of metabolically healthy people
Ovadia Heart Health, LLC.
Achieve Peak Performance: Comprehensive Metabolic Wellness for Your Entire Organization
Less than one in ten Americans are considered metabolically healthy.
This sort of thing doesn’t happen by accident — especially in our current healthcare climate.
We need to eat, exercise, and research with intentionality if we want to get (and remain) metabolically healthy.
So what are we not doing that 7% of Americans are?
I’ve done the research so you can see for yourself.
How people get and stay metabolically healthy
Most of us aren’t born with poor metabolic health. Over time, we pick up bad habits, advice, and behaviors that impact our ability to stay healthy.
People who fight to stay metabolically healthy know how to go against mainstream myths and bad online trends.
Here’s what they do to maintain their health, including what you can do to emulate it.
1. Eat whole, real food
Food is the biggest factor in maintaining metabolic health. Because as the saying goes, ‘you are what you eat.’ You can’t outrun a bad diet, no matter how much exercise you do.
Changing your diet to whole, real food comes with near-immediate benefits. If you want to see progress within two weeks, you should:
As a side note, don’t be afraid to start cooking at home. This will give you much more control over the ingredients added to your food.
2. Avoid added sugars
More than 60% of the food at the grocery store contains added sugar for ‘palatability.’ Fake sugar substitutes aren’t any better — these sneak into your diet and wreak havoc on your metabolic health.
You need to know the truth about food packaging claims so you can make informed decisions about your staple ingredients. You also need to learn how to cut sugar from your diet to avoid chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes.?
Speaking of diabetes, you should know carbohydrates convert into sugar in the blood. Watch for unnecessary carbs in your diet and consider switching to low or no-carb foods.?
3. Follow high protein diets
Contrary to popular belief, red meat does not lead to diabetes or heart disease. Those who consume higher protein diets tend to:
And the list continues.
I never tell my patients to blindly follow diets — only adopt an eating pattern of whole, real foods.?
You may find keto works better for protein intake, or prefer the carnivore diet instead. Either way, find a sustainable pattern for your body and consume more protein than you currently do.
4. Get plenty of sleep
Studies show sleep directly correlates to metabolic health, but we’re the most sleep-deprived generation yet. A third of all Americans sleep just 5.7 hours per night, far below the suggested average of seven hours or more.?
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Like with diets, I don’t prescribe a specific sleep range to my patients. Everybody is unique and requires a different amount of sleep, which could be anywhere between six to nine hours per night.
Once you get your sleep hygiene under control, I recommend getting a wearable sleep tracker. This is a great way to monitor the quality and quantity of your sleep so you can look for odd patterns and make lifestyle adjustments as necessary.
5. Focus on stress management
Stress and blood sugar have a reciprocal relationship. When stress levels spike, your stress hormone (cortisol) does too. This encourages the production of insulin, which can lead to high glucose over time.
This stress/blood sugar relationship once had a physiological purpose. But these days, you’re probably not stressed about getting chased by tigers (or feeling anxious about an upcoming mammoth hunt).
And yet, the negative effects of stress and blood sugar remain very real. A whopping 76% of Americans have experienced health impacts in response to stress, no doubt encouraged by the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Well-established biological patterns no longer serve humans in the ‘office work generation.’ While you can’t avoid or ignore stress responses, you can use healthy coping mechanisms to limit your physiological response.
Try:
6. Test their blood
If you don’t know your lab work, you don’t know your metabolic health. With just one in three Americans aware of their own blood type, many of us don’t know what to order (or even what to track).
I recommend purchasing a few different blood labs so you can get a better idea of your metabolic health. You should also invest in a continuous glucose monitor (or CGM) to keep an eye on blood sugar levels.
7. Continue to learn
Metabolically healthy people don’t follow conventional wisdom. Because if they did, they’d be slaves to the food pyramid — which is decidedly unconducive to metabolic health.?
You need to be careful about where you get your health advice. This includes knowing how to spot misinformation and reading studies by yourself to draw personal conclusions.
Never take anything at face value, no matter how trustworthy the source seems. Do your homework and reach out for clarification (if necessary). There’s a lot of misinformation in the health world.
8. Jump into a community
Health-oriented communities are a pillar of metabolic health. Not only do they offer plenty of encouragement and support, but they can help you avoid bad advice (especially misguided information from official sources).
You can find community in many different places, including:
9. Work with excellent doctors
The doctor you choose will either make or break your metabolic health. Misinformed or outdated doctors may prescribe beta blockers, statins, or medications that don’t resolve the root of the problem.
As we know now, medication isn’t the best way to treat chronic disease.
It’s just that not every doctor will admit it.
I encourage you to find a health professional who not only encourages your health journey, but supports it with research, encouragement, and clinical studies.
If you’re in the market for a doctor who ‘gets’ it, schedule a call with our Metabolic Health Coordinator today.
Wellness Advocate at Ironbywood and experience in Grocery retail
4 个月Good article. More reason for people to sign up for yourself newsletter or grab your book. Look forward to reading your book one day myself. As you see it's on my list
Director Employee Wellness Ovadia Heart Health
4 个月Great post one addition, “work with excellent doctors and work with experienced coaches!” ??
?Nutrition Network Coach Practitioner? (NNP) ; Accreditation through Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners (MHP); SUGAR Addiction Specialist, Retired Director of Nutritional Services
4 个月Excellent article!!????
President/Founder of Business Health Matters / MarketWell Solutions - Results Driven Marketing Agency | Newsweek Expert Author | Book Author | Investor | Philanthropist
4 个月Dr Ovadia - great article. Your coaching on our metabolic health has helped Teresa and I immeasurably. Great work. Alan
Functional Wellness Practitioner & Fitness Coach for health optimizers to strive to thrive as they age by improving metabolic health now with The WHOLESTIC Method approach.
4 个月Love this!!