Healthy flying

The corporate food industry is trying to make you fat. It advertises carbohydrates because they have a higher profit margin than protein, and forget anyone pushing fruits and vegetables. Corporate food interests, whether at a fast-food restaurant or in the grocery store, are pushing high levels of sugar, fat, and salt—items that light up the same areas of your brain as cocaine. Think you know what is in your food? Just remember ketchup has more sugar by weight than a Hershey bar.

So, what is wrong with being obese? From a medical perspective, a lot. Blood pressure increases with weight simply because your heart must pump hard to reach all the expanded area of the body. Your hips, knees, and feet all suffer from carrying the extra pounds. If you do not believe me, just carry around a 10-pound backpack from the moment you get up in the morning to when you lie down at night. Ten pounds does not seem like much, but it will at the end of this test. Obesity generates back pain, especially when it is carried in the belly, which causes an increased curve in the low back.

The strain on the heart comes from the required extra pressure it must put out to circulate blood through all the adipose tissue. Cholesterol and triglycerides, which contribute to the deposits of plaque material in the arteries of the heart, brain, extremities, and even the intestines, increase with weight. Obstructive sleep apnea is most frequently caused by obesity.

For snacks in the cockpit, taking things like tree nuts, fruit, carrots, celery, and hummus is far better than the snack food that comes in bags. “Protein” bars are just expensive candy bars.The big factor is non-insulin dependent diabetes. You may have heard there is a tremendous increase in this type of diabetes, but most of it is what is called obesity-generated diabetes. Diabetes is a syndrome in which the pancreas does not put out enough insulin for the cells to use glucose. This wreaks havoc in the kidneys and can lead to renal failure. In addition, diabetes is synergistic with high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol in creating disease in your blood vessels, heart, and brain.

Obesity is a factor in conditions that not only affect your quality of life, but also your medical certification prospects. So what is the best way to lose weight? The most important concept is reducing the calories “in” and increasing the calories “out.” Reducing calories “in” is hard, especially when traveling by air, but it can be done. Avoiding carbohydrates as much as possible is key. For snacks in the cockpit, taking things like tree nuts, fruit, carrots, celery, and hummus is far better than the snack food that comes in bags. Also remember that “protein” bars are just expensive candy bars.

On the ground, you are far better off eating chicken than pasta, especially if the chicken is grilled instead of fried. Only eat when you are hungry instead of when bored, and leave the serving bowls in the kitchen so you must get up to get seconds. The few steps to the kitchen will remind you to ask yourself, “Am I really still hungry?”

Increasing calories “out” is done by exercising. The key to exercise is heart rate, and the goal is to get your heart to beat in the target zone for 30 consecutive minutes. (220 minus your age, times 0.7 is the target zone for most people.) It does not make any difference what you do as long as the heart rate is in the zone.

You could walk briskly one day, bike the next, and be on an elliptical the next. Heart rate is the end point. If you did this seven days a week, that is roughly 3,500 calories, which is a pound of weight loss a week. If you combine exercise with caloric restriction, you will lose even more. What you look like is not the important issue; your health is. Let’s all get healthy and keep flying.

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