The Top 5 Most Important & Obvious Factors

for Health You Still Are NOT doing

By Marcus Wolford

When it comes to the field of nutrition and health it seems to be full of

mythology, politics and a lot of grey area instead of simply being
straight forward science and black and white recommendations. Part
of the reason for this is not only that much of it really is political but
also studies are not only expensive but can be slanted towards a
researches bias. Since Ancel Keysi vilified saturated fat and cholesterol
in the 1970s people have been afraid to eat meat, especially bacon
and anything high in fat. Now we know this has been a completely
false recommendation and concern as it has been shown that there is
no association between saturated fat and CVD.iiiii Just this last week Dr.
Oz to my surprise admitted he was wrong on the topic of saturated
fat.iv
With all the myths and confusion out there I want to get back to the
basics and give you a short list of the most important factors effecting
our health that the vast majority of authorities all agree upon.

1. Water Consumption: Everyone knows that the body is made

up of mostly water and you will very quickly die without itso drink
your water! Evidence has not shown that drinking a ton of water will
improve healthv, however its clear that dehydration is always
detrimental to health. You can get away with a surprising little amount
of water if you are sedentary but I hope thats not my audience, so my
recommendation will be largely exercise specific as the more you
sweat the more fluids you need. It has been shown that weight loss of
more than 4% of body weight during exercise may lead to heat illness,
heat exhaustion, and heat strokevi. To make up for this loss of fluid, the
athlete should consume 0.5 to 2 L/h of fluid.
Summary: Dont stress out about drinking a lot of water, but rather
use thirst and exercise as your guides to water consumption. My
recommendation is to consume a tall glass of water first thing in the
morning, another 1 liter within the 60min. following a mod-high
intensity >30min. workout, and for the rest of the day use thirst as
your guide.

2. Sleep: Perhaps more then anything else in life by which you have
control over, the quality of your sleep has the biggest impact on your

health and longevity. A bad or missed nights sleep makes the following
worse:
Immune functionvii
Memoryviii
Inflammationix
Workout Recoveryx
Moodxi
Cognitive Functionxii
Weight Gain & risk for Diabetesxiii
Lifespanxiv
A lack of sleep as you can see literally makes everything in life worse.
There is literally no good excuse for continued missed sleep. If you
have come to me asking about supplements to increase your exercise
performance, you should take a step back and realize improved sleep
will do way more for your health and performance then any (legal)
supplement. New research has actually shown something that is
completely unique to sleep, which is that fact that our brain cells
actually shrink allowing our cerebral fluid to flow more easily. This
increased circulation helps clear out toxins while we sleep, which again
makes sleep absolutely critical. You can listen to a short NPR piece on
this topic http://goo.gl/BQn5adxv
Summary: Getting 8-9hrs. of sleep is critical for your health, likely
more then anything else including the best possible diet. The following
are my top 6 recommendations for improving sleep quality:
1. Decrease exposure to LED light 2hrs before bed.
a. Install https://justgetflux.com onto your computer asap!
b. Buy Blue Light blocking glasses http://goo.gl/SdFLNM
2. Sleep in a cold room between 60-70F
3. Sleep in a completely blacked out room You cant see your own
hand.
4. Supplement with a 200-400mg of chelated magnesium 30-60min
before bed.
5. Dont be completely full or hungry: Eat dinner a few hours before
sleep and if you are on a low carb diet, 1-2tsp. of honey right
before bed can be beneficial.
6. Perform 10-15min of foam/lacrosse ball rolling before bed How
do you feel after a massage? Like youre ready for a fight or
ready for a nap?...Exactly!

Go Outside: Getting outside in nature is one of the most primal

things you can do and anecdotally its one of the most therapeutic and
stress relieving activities. Save a few bucks on a therapist by simply
taking a hike. This may sound tongue-in-cheek however spending at

least some of your day outdoors could save your life or at minimum
raise your overall mood. The biggest mechanism is by the production
of vitamin D via the exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D is perhaps the
most deficient nutrient, especially among northern Americans. Its
likely the closest thing to a Super Nutrient that we have partly
because so many people are deficient but mainly because of all the
mechanisms its involved in such as: gene expression, hypertension,
mood/depression, sex hormones, bone health, inflammation, oxidative
damage, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and the list continues. New
research is indicating that super doses or high levels of vitamin D may
not be healthier and could be detrimental, however the consensus still
seems to be to aim for a minimum of 30 ng/ml.xvixviixviiixix
Summary: Leave your phone at home or turn it off and get into
nature to de-stress your life. If you are fair skinned getting 20min. or
more at peak sunlight could give you as much as 10,000Ius of vitamin
D, however this exposure time increases with darker skin. My
recommendations are the following:
Get your Vitamin D levels tested
Spend 1hr. or more outside in the sun everyday.
Throw away your sunscreen as it can block the production of
vitamin D, or apply only after an initial >20min. of exposure.
Supplement with 2-4,000Ius of vitamin D each unexposed day
Supplement with up 1tsp. of Green Pastures Cod Liver Oil, as its
the best possible food source of Vitamin D with optimal levels of
Vitamin A and K2 combined together
http://www.greenpasture.org/public/Home/index.cfm
- Other food sources of Vitamin D are: Seafood, Eggs & Beef
Liver
Whenever possible walk barefoot or use earthing sandals such
as these ones - http://www.pluggz.com/Mens-Flip-Flopss/1816.htm

4. Movement: Sitting Is The New Smoking

Answer the following questions:
Do you spend the majority of your day in some kind of movement? Or
do you spend the majority of your day sitting? Not only does sitting
effect your postural health it also gives you a tight Psaos because your
glutes and abs are relaxed which can decrease exercise performance
and increase risk of injury. However beyond that, long term sitting
greatly increases weight gain and new research has shown that despite
any physical activity done, if you sit for more then 6 hours per day you
have a 40% greater risk of death over the next 15 years. In fact
marathon runners and exercisers alike are even more likely to follow up

their day with sitting, and their physical activity will not buffer the
negative impact of long bouts of sitting.xxxxi
Summary: If you spend multiple hours sitting per day try the following
changes:
Take Breaks - Simply stand up for 2min. or more every 1 hour.
Use a standing Desk - http://goo.gl/sNfzu4
Use a treadmill Desk - http://www.treaddesk.com
Active Sitting: Stability Ball or Yoga Block.

5. JERF: Just Eat Real Food

One of the primary reasons I support the Paleo approach to eating is
simply because across all civilizations and even diets the primary
cause of health decline among all of them is not high carb, low carb,
high fat or low fat but simply when the food has been messed with by
modern man and in turn becomes less and less real. In my
understanding even though you can find many health benefits from
dairy, legumes and dare I say wheat, (more so when its fermented) the
Paleo diet offers an eating approach that is the least messed with by
modern processing techniques. Since Paleo is a branded term and
comes with its own baggage I often use JERF instead to simply refer to
Real Food.
When I use the word Real I am meaning its not processed or if it has
been processed, you are either the one who processed it or you can
actually speak to the person who processed it and the food has not
been drastically changed from its original creation. To quote John
Durant, to eat fewer processed foods actually means eat fewer
industrial foods. In contrast real food is grown on a farm or herded
on a ranch or gathered from the wild while industrial food is an
invention of the Industrial Age and often developed in a laboratory.xxii
To know whether what youre eating is an industrial food or real food
often doesnt need to be explained because you simply know for
obvious reasons. My favorite non-Paleo Nutrition writer is Michael
Pollan, and here are his obvious Rules for Real Foodxxiii:
Dont eat anything your great grandmother wouldnt recognize
as food
Avoid food products that contain more then five ingredients
Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader
cannot pronounce
Avoid food products that make health claims (on the actual
product)
Avoid food products that say lite. lowfat or nonfat in their
names

Avoid food products that are pretending to be something theyre

not (margarine)
Eat only foods that will eventually rot
Eat foods that have been cooked by a human being
Dont ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to
wear a surgical cap
If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, dont
Its not food if its called by the same name in every language
(cheetos, Big Mac)
Its not food if it arrived through the window of your car
Eat animals that have themselves eaten well
When you eat real food, you dont need rules

Summary: Unless you have some kind of unique intolerance or

allergy, as long as you eat Real Food and cut out Industrial Food it
doesnt matter what you call it, its a JERF diet and you will be
healthier.

i http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancel_Keys
ii http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2824152/
iii http://www.vipsantereunion.com/Biron/cholesterol-septique.pdf
iv http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/government-out-undermine-your-health?
video_id=3479158688001
v http://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/19/6/1041.long
vi http://link.springer.com/article/10.2165%2F00007256-199112010-00003
vii http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3256323/
viii http://fens2008.neurosciences.asso.fr/abstracts/R3/A101_2.html
ix http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3548567/
x http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21550729
xi http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070613071126.htm
xii http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18274263
xiii http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20585000
xiv http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2276139/
xv http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/18/236211811/brains-sweepthemselves-clean-of-toxins-during-sleep
xvi http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17145139
xvii http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reading-between-theheadlines/201307/vitamin-d-deficiency-and-depression
xviii http://www.westonaprice.org/fat-soluble-activators/miracle-of-vitamin-d
xix http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-frank-lipman/vitamin-d-what-you-needt_b_308973.html
xx http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/172/4/419.abstract
xxi http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2014/04/09/morning-workout-vs-breaksfrom-sitting-which-is-better-for-blood-sugar/

xxii Durant, John. The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health. 1st ed.
New York: Harmony, 2013. 103. Print.
xxiii Pollan, Michael. Food Rules: An Eater's Manual. New York: Penguin, 2009.
Print.