Rie Andoh writes:
Mrs. Masuda is a postmenopausal 48-year-old
native Japanese, and housewife who has recently returned to Japan after
living in Canada for almost 20 years. So, her lifestyle is more similar
to that of a Western person than of an Asian. She is approximately 15 kilos
overweight, but she likes to stay at home and not does exercise much. Her
diet has some problems, too. She likes to eat three or four desserts at
one time. She sometimes tries to diet but her way of dieting is wrong,
because she skips eating breakfast, but after a few days of dieting like
this, she has to have something sweet and delicious.
She should do moderate exercise to keep weight down. Her life style is
not like Asians' diet, but like that of Westerners. People in Western lifestyle
have more risk factors for cancer and hardening arteries than Asians. For
example, Western women tend to have higher LDL levels, and Mrs. Masuda,
as we know, also has above normal LDL. She should do moderate exercise
for her health and to decrease her risk factors for those diseases, such
as exercising to lower her LDL-level. If she feels that it is hard to do
special exercise, she should try to go outside more instead of staying
at home. Walking is one example of exercise. And she should try going shopping,
not by car, but walking or by bicycle -- and not only shopping, but also
going everywhere by walking or bicycle instead for by car, bus and so on.
She should walk or cycle for short and middle distances.
Also she must use olive oil in her cooking instead margarine. Olive oil
is better than sweet coconut oil for health. The former is rich unsaturated
oil, but the latter is saturated oil. Unsaturated oil increases HDL-levels,
but saturated oil increases LDL-levels. High HDL-levels decrease risk factor
of hardening of the arteries, and may also help her to reduce her overall
weight.
She dislikes most vegetables, so she tends to have few vegetables in her
daily intake. Her diet is such that she eats more meat than vegetables,
and also most of her nutrition comes from meat, instead of vegetables.
It is important to get nutrition from various food. So she has to eat more
vegetables, especially those that have rich vitamins, and she has to decrease
Western-style desserts. Vitamins help to keep good body function, and also
vegetables have dietary fiber and less cholesterol. Western-style desserts
like rich cakes and ice cream have rich fat, and keep LDL-levels high.
She should also drink less, since alcohol is one risk factor of cancer.
Drinking a lot hurts liver functions, and also increases risk for cancer.
Now, according to mammograms and other laboratory tests, Mrs. Masuda is
cancer-free, but as noted her LDL-level is above normal. Those tests show
her cancer-free condition at that time. But she should have those tests
every year, because tests, of course, don't show that she will never get
cancer and so on. So, a test every year helps her know her health condition.
This way, even if she gets cancer, she can know it at an early stage. Most
cancer at an early stage is easy to cure, but some cancers at 3rd or 4th
stage are hard to cure, and most cancer at terminal stage lead to die.
Finding cancer at early stage is important.
My advice:
1. Do moderate exercise to keep down her weight, and also to keep lower
LDL-levels.
2. Use olive oil instead of sweet coconut oil and margarine in her cooking,
because the former is rich in unsaturated oil, the latter is saturated
oil.
3. Eat more vegetables, and also eat less Western-style desserts.
4.Take
tests every year to know her condition. If she were to develop cancer,
those tests will help her find cancer in an early stage.
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