I attended a lecture recently given by Dr David Phillips, MD, Harvard grad, ER surgeon, and Chief Medical Advisor for Athletic Training Services in Atlanta, Georgia.  He is also a Triathlete and competes nationally.

 

The gist of his talk was this:

exercise (the right kind) and diet (the right kind) = longevity.

 

He said that diet and exercise are the two wheels of a bike. 

You must have both wheels pumped up and working to get on a roll.

 

Exercise should consist of 20-30 min. of aerobics 5x a week (walking briskly will do, or in bad weather, jump on a mini trampoline), plus weight training twice a week (using an at-home Pilates kit is just fine and stretching/flexibility training:  bending and stretching and balance a few times a week.  (yoga stretches are superb!)

Again, all achievable at home on in the park w/o a gym membership. 

 

Diet should be mostly from the plant world, supplemented with small amounts of animal products, if desired.

 

Sound familiar? 

It's deja vu all over again :-)

 

He talked about the alkalizing effect of plant foods and the acidifying effect of animal products and grains (cereal, grains, breads, etc)  He mentioned the loss of bone from a diet too high in animal products, not to mention sodas!

 

Here's something he said that I thought worth hearing again:  people who exercise and particularly athletes who compete, have much greater needs for anti-oxidant foods - vegetables (and some fruits) than sedentary folks.  Amazing, I know.  This is because exercise causes oxidative stress.  More free radicals are produced. Temporary stress to this system is a good thing:  it's  "adaptive stress" and it tunes up the system at first.  And the advantages for exercisers outweigh the free radical damage from exercise but you don't want the long-term damage caused to an exerciser that isn't protected by the phytonutrition that fruits and vegetables offer. The perfect scenario is to eat really well (lots and lots of vegetables) and exercise, too.

 

Great diet + sedentary lifestyle = bike won't roll (has only one wheel!)

Great exerciser + poor diet  = bike won't roll (has only one wheel!)

Longevity demands 2 wheels.

 

We learned this from the study done on COBRA, the elite fighting forces of Austria that are the European equivalent of our Navy Seals. These men are the elite of the elite in terms of physical fitness, because of their extremely challenging endurance requirements.  At the end of their 6 mo of intensive training they were often ill; colds, flu, bronchial infections, weakened immune systems in general.  These men needed even higher amounts of antioxidant protection than non-athletes but weren’t getting it from their diet.  The government set out to find out what to do to keep them fit and well.

(see end of this story below!)

 

Non-athletes need from 9-13 servings of fresh vegetables and a few fruits a day; athletes require 16 - 20 servings in order not to sustain permanent protein damage.  Try getting an athlete (or anyone!) to eat that many vegetables a day!  This is when Dr Phillip's research as an often-ill-triathlete turned to Juice Plus+.  He was a buff, gorgeous, chiseled athlete  who competed in national triathalons and always came in 1st or 2nd or 3rd but suffered bouts of bronchial infections every year after the events.  After taking Juice Plus+ every day for a year, he not only came in 2nd but has not had a cold or bronchial infection since.  The research convinced him but his own body proved what the research showed.  Juice plus+ is raw food nutrition and it furnishes the anti-oxidant protection of 27 plants which feeds every one of the trillions of cells in our bodies every day, from hair follicles to toenails and everything in-between. 

 

Back to COBRA:  the Austrian government approached their top University at Graz and asked them to "figure this out"  and to find some way to protect their special forces soldiers in training.  They set up several groups to study and one of them was given Juice Plus+ every day.  After 6 months of this double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the researchers found that the group taking all 3 juice plus colors (red, green, purple) had no release of protein carbonyl.  This is the toxic breakdown of protein that winds up in the bloodstream of athletes for several hours after extreme exertion.  It does great oxidative damage, damages protein, and leaves one with a weakened immune system.  Hence the outbreak of illnesses in the soldiers after the 6 mo of training.  The Juice Plus+ group not only did not sustain protein damage, they also did not get sick!  This convinced the German, Austrian, Swiss and French governments to supply Juice Plus+ to their entire Olympic teams until the 2012 Olympics.  They began the Juice Plus+ supplementation in 2009  so they will have been using Juice Plus+ for almost 4 years before the Olympics in the summer of 2012.  This is the only supplement being used by these Olympic teams.  Since it's "just whole raw food" it is not a vitamin nor can it be construed as a performance enhancer.  It carries the NSF label.  Hard to come by.

 

It's this kind of information and these kinds of talks that make me a continual supporter of Juice Plus+ for everyone.  There's no better way to "bridge the gap" from what we know we should eat compared to what we actually do eat.

Click here  www.maryannesharesjuiceplus.com  to learn more, watch short clips, and order JuicePlus+ for yourself and your family.  If you have children be sure to email me so that I can submit your child's name for free product for 4 years along with yours. (ages 4 through college)