Packed full of research, Anastacia's findings argue that we need to move beyond our diet-focused model to a new concept of managing "lifestyle diseases" by exercise.
A Menopause Movement Book Club Review.
Read this book with an open mind before jumping to conclusions, as the title and topic is bound to cause controversy!
Anastacia Marx de Salcedo has carried out compelling research in her investigations into “lifestyle diseases” and how exercise, above nutrition, is the main way to mitigate the impact of health conditions including obesity and cardiovascular disease. Cats, rats, bats, horses, human habits, pigs and even pinworms are amongst her subjects.
Anastacia has multiple sclerosis, and this book was driven by her discovery that being active and her daily run has kept her symptoms at bay. This led her to dig deeper into understanding why, and whether it is the same for other lifestyle diseases that have rocketed in numbers in recent years.
Anastacia has looked beyond our diet-focused model to consider a new concept of our metabolism being regulated via exercise.
The book intertwines her personal life experiences, and those of her friends and family throughout the Covid 19 pandemic. She looks at the habits of animals, comparing the lifestyles of domesticated pets and wild animals to the conditions that laboratory rodents live under. Does animal care and their innate need to be active affect their health, and impact results of major research projects?
She delves into published research studies, and research that has been hidden, skewed, or dismissed.
There is a very revealing chapter on mortality risk associated with obesity and the discovery that it can “largely be attenuated or eliminated by moderate-to-high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) or physical activity (PA).”
From a research standpoint this book looks at published studies that focus on changes in physical activity and their association with improved mortality risk comparing them to studies that were carried out for intentional weight loss. The evidence was consistent, “it is far better to be fit than it is to be thin.”
In cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality, whether normal weight, over-weight or obese, the results showed that unfit people had higher mortality rates. What she finds may help reduce the epidemic, in that the answer to good health is quite simple. “Don’t worry about what you eat. Worry about how much you move.”
Although the focus of the book is not about menopause, there is persuasive evidence that bolsters Menopause Movement’s approach that, through exercise, age related diseases; including osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, weight gain and dementia, can be vastly improved.
We don't advocate eating like a pig, we don't condone fad weight-loss diets. We do believe that a balanced diet and good nutrition are important to help maintain optimum health into the menopause.
But there is no doubt that this book has endorsed our message that "movement in menopause is medicine!"
September 2022
Eat Like a Pig, Run Like a Horse
Published by Pegasus Books
www.anastaciamarxdesalcedo.com
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