COVID-19 Update : New Year and New Opportunities

RVAchironeuro • January 5, 2021

Hello everyone, and Happiest of New Year’s Wishes for a Healthy and Prosperous 2021!

As we watch this incredible past year fade into history, we are still faced with many challenges for the foreseeable future. As I reported in an earlier blog, the U.S. is the most co-morbid country in the world, with only 1 out of every 10 of us being metabolically fit and healthy. This is largely due to our dietary choices as food has been recognized as the leading cause of death and disability in America, and this fact that is reported regularly in the scientific press is not widely known or acted upon.

“Specific diseases and risk factors, such as drug use disorders, high BMI, poor diet, high fasting plasma glucose level, and alcohol use disorders are increasing and warrant increased attention. These data can be used to inform national health priorities for research, clinical care, and policy.”  (1)

Bottom Line:  There has seldom been a better time or motivator than Covid-19 related to urging us all to get rid of or reduce any co-morbidities that we may have. The best way to do that is to simply focus on health improvement and lifestyle upgrades, and as I have mentioned, food is the place for most of us to start. So where to start? From what I can read, it seems that shifting to a plant based dietary strategy offers multiple possibilities of health promotion for most of us. Given the facts about co-morbidities driving illness severity in Covid-19, that two thirds of us have insulin dysregulation issues, and 73% of Americans are either overweight or obese, this approach can offer enormous benefits in a pretty fast timeline. Why not get started now and kick off this promising New Year of 2021 with strong steps to safeguard your health and well-being!? As these authors found out, a vegan diet brought a slew of metabolic benefits, including an average weight loss of 13 pounds and increased insulin sensitivity, lower liver fatty infiltration and more. They go on to state:

“Excess body weight and insulin resistance lead to type 2 diabetes and other major health problems. There is an urgent need for dietary interventions to address these conditions.

In this 16-week randomized clinical trial, a low-fat plant-based dietary intervention reduced body weight by reducing energy intake and increasing postprandial metabolism, which was associated with reductions in hepatocellular and intramyocellular fat and increased insulin sensitivity.  Conclusion:  A low-fat plant-based diet is an effective tool for reducing body weight and increasing insulin sensitivity and postprandial metabolism.”  ( 2)

We send you our sincere best wishes for a healthy, safe and successful 2021!

Keep calm and eat your veggies!

By Mark Smith August 17, 2026
This is a subtitle for your new post
By Mark Smith August 10, 2026
This is a subtitle for your new post
By Mark Smith August 3, 2026
This is a subtitle for your new post
By Mark Smith July 27, 2026
This is a subtitle for your new post
By Mark Smith July 20, 2026
This is a subtitle for your new post
By Mark Smith July 13, 2026
This is a subtitle for your new post
By Mark Smith July 6, 2026
This is a subtitle for your new post
By Mark Smith June 29, 2026
Health News Update: Pesticides, Cancer & Why Go Organic 6.29.26 Hello everyone: Slowly but surely, despite the health and food industries downplaying the risks, evidence is emerging that the long-term consumption of trace amounts of toxic chemicals can add up to some serious health consequences. “Our process-based model, encompassing 31 key pesticide active ingredients, together with an innovative stratification of cancer cases by developmental lineage, reveals a robust spatial association between environmental pesticide exposure risk and cancer incidence. In pesticide-associated cancer hotspots, exposomic profiling of liver tissue—a primary target of chemical carcinogens—uncovers a distinct transcriptomic signature of pesticide exposure, implicating a non-genotoxic mode of action that disrupts core regulatory circuitries sustaining cell identity. Collectively, these findings strongly support a mechanistic link between pesticide exposure and cancer, challenging assumptions of human non-carcinogenicity derived from reductionist experimental models. This study redefines the exposome as a lineage-conditioned, mechanistically tractable framework and shows how complex pesticide mixtures can contribute to carcinogenic trajectories, with profound and far-reaching implications for global health policy and socio-ecological equity.” https://www.nature.com/articles/s44360-026-00087-0 pesticide exposure & cancer risks Bottom Line: Whenever possible, purchase your food from organic sources including local farmers that use regenerative and organic practices. Not all foods need to be organic, and to decide which ones absolutely need to be, you can access the Environmental Working Group’s yearly list of the Dirty Dozen foods that are the highest in pesticide residues. This will also include the Clean 15 foods that do not need to be organic as they are usually grown without or with very low pesticide levels. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php dirty dozen food guide Additionally, high quality nutrients support the natural detox processes our bodies use to get rid of any and all toxins. When we consume the Standard American Diet or Westernized Diet, we are low in the nutrients and co-factors needed to support optimal detox cleansing. So always start with food upgrades as they will carry your upgrade the farthest. Remember that most chronic health conditions start 20 years before you even notice them creeping up or becoming diagnosed. What you do now is creating your future. It used to be said that you are what you eat. Another way to say that is we become what we eat…so please take good care and make sure you always put high grade fuel into your Temple.
By Mark Smith June 22, 2026
Health news Update: High Fat Diets Promote Inflammation and Illness 6.22.26 Hello again: This news has been slow to surface with the popularity of keto and paleo dietary trends, but the following information is what is known about the typical Standard American Diet, also known as the Western Diet. “Conclusion : HFD-associated low-grade inflammation results from overlapping effects of dysbiosis and high fat intake, with crosstalk between microbiota and fat-driven inflammatory processes independent of gut flora involving multiple mechanisms. For this reason, it is difficult to determine what occurs first, thus, HFD-driven dysbiosis and HFD-related inflammation should be considered partially independent but closely correlated mechanisms.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8619527/ High fat promotes inflammation Bottom Line: As you all know by now, inflammation will cause, perpetuate, and/or aggravate every known illness or condition, including aging. The next logical question is what to eat? The answer is the Green Mediterranean food plan…which essentially going vegan but allowing some animal-based foods no more than 3 times per week. This takes some planning but is most easily achieved by using a ‘crowding out’ method. This is simply accomplished by including more and more unprocessed, whole plant-based foods in place of processed or fatty foods and naturally reducing those less than healthy items. Below is some more information to help you make the switch…knowing that you can improve your day-to-day nutrition by making small consistent upgraded choices is critical. Upgrades to improve your health path do not usually arise from one big resolution but from those small individual choices made every day…and these add up to some major improvements over several months and longer. “The gut microbiota is responsible for recovering energy from food, providing hosts with vitamins, and providing a barrier function against exogenous pathogens. In addition, it is involved in maintaining the integrity of the intestinal epithelial barrier, crucial for the functional maturation of the gut immune system. The Western diet (WD)—an unhealthy diet with high consumption of fats—can be broadly characterized by overeating, frequent snacking, and a prolonged postprandial state. The term WD is commonly known and intuitively understood. However, the strict digital expression of nutrient ratios is not precisely defined. Based on the US data for 1908–1989, the calory intake available from fats increased from 32% to 45%. Besides the metabolic aspects (hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, sympathetic nervous system and renin-angiotensin system overstimulation, and oxidative stress), the consequences of excessive fat consumption (high-fat diet—HFD) comprise dysbiosis, gut barrier dysfunction, increased intestinal permeability, and leakage of toxic bacterial metabolites into the circulation. These can strongly contribute to the development of low-grade systemic inflammation.”
By Mark Smith June 15, 2026
Health News Update: Meal Timing Makes a Significant Difference 6.15.26 Hey there everyone: There are more and more papers coming out about meal timing and they pretty much all point to the same conclusion: “These study results are observational, so not proof of causation, but it fits broader chrononutrition science showing that aligning meals with daytime circadian biology supports metabolic and overall health.” — Monique Richard, MS, RDN, LDN https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/eating-breakfast-late-linked-biological-aging-depression-oral-health?utm_source=Sailthru%20Email&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=sundaysupplement&utm_content=2025-09-14&apid=32362300&rvid=24561ae4b347411c6ae1874dad579a0aedec4a5e471e9b3b5a21dc0826faa6b9#Eating-breakfast-later-in-the-day-linked-to-several-health-issues eating breakfast important for long term health Bottom Line: To achieve a meal timing pattern that is in harmony with your circadian clock, consider what the authors provided: Anchor the Day Early: Aim to eat breakfast within one to two hours of waking, most days. A simple pattern like breakfast: 7–8 a.m., lunch: noon–1 p.m., dinner: 5–7 p.m. works for many families and individuals, allowing for possible snacks as necessary, keeping a consistent window of sleep and fasting open ~10–12 hours, and try to avoid snacking two to three hours before bed. Front-Load Protein: Target ~25–30 g protein at breakfast (e.g., Greek yogurt + nuts + berries ; eggs + beans + veg; protein-fortified oatmeal ). Distributing protein across meals supports muscle function, brain health, satiation, and numerous other functions. Eat Early and Evenly: A protein-strong breakfast, a steady midday meal, and a light, timely dinner, hydration in between, coupled with laughter and loved ones. This schedule pretty much is defined as eTRF, or early Time Restricted Feeding, which is known to have multiple benefits including weight loss and management, blood sugar balancing, improving sleep, and more.
More Posts