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by Richard J. Johnson, MD

Scientific book about the survival switch, a set of responses triggered in our body when we eat sugar (especially fructose). It is there from millennia ago to keep us from starving. It causes our body to store fat and lower our metabolism. The switch turns on when we eat salty foods and umami (savory) foods also. We can prevent the switch from turning on by not eating high glycemic foods, by drinking 8 glasses of water a day, by exercising 3-4 days a week for 1 hour each time, and by intermittent fasting (16:8 one to two days/week). Eating fruit is okay but limit it to 1/2 a serving at a time. Umami foods that we should avoid that trigger the survival switch are beer and red meat. We should start eating more chicken. Dairy foods (lactose) are okay and do not trigger the switch. Fish Oil (Omega-3 fatty acids) block many of fructose’s effects. He recommends exercising before breakfast. High-Glycemic carbohydrates to avoid are potatoes, instant oatmeal, cornflakes, watermelon, white rice, white bread, pancakes, bagels, sweet corn, and spaghetti. He okays the use of Stevia and Sucralose (Splenda); in fact, he and his family use them. They do not trigger the survival switch. Also, Monk Fruit, Invert sugar, Xylitol, Maltitol, and Erythritol are okay. He does not recommend these artificial sweeteners: Aspartame, saccharin, Yacon syrup, Tagatose, and sorbitol. Sorbitol, which is in most sugar-free gums, is an artificial sweetener that the body turns into frucose, so Wayne needs to find a sugar-free gum that does not contain sorbitol.

The Switch Diet to lose weight is to go on a low-carb diet for about a month, or the Switch Diet but limit high-glycemic carbs, salty foods, and umami foods), drink at least 8 glasses of water a day, reduce salt intake to 5-6 grams daily, intermittently fast (16:8) one or two days a week (optional), and minimize or avoid alcohol, take a daily vitamin C supplement of 500 mg or less, exercise one hour, 3-4 times a week, eat dark chocolate or take epicatechin, and drink green tea.

The fruits to avoid are ones with high fructose content: Dried figs, Dried apricot, Mango, Green or Red Grapes, Raisins, Pear, Watermelon, Persimmon, Apple.

Medium Fructose Content Fruits are okay if you eat a 1/2 serving only: Medjool date, Blueberries, Banana, Honeydew melon, Papaya, Orange, Peach, Nectarine, Tangerine, Boysenberries, Grapefruit, Pineapple.

Low Fructose Content Fruits: Strawberries, Cherries, Star fruit, Blackberries, Kiwi, Clementine, Raspberries, Cantaloupe, Plum, Deglet noor date, Apricot, Guava, Prune, Cranberries, Lemon, Lime.

One of the studies they did was with two groups of overweight and obese women. One group was allowed to eat whole fruits. The other group was not. Both groups were not allowed any soft drinks, fruit juices or sugary foods and were put on a mild calorie restriction diet. The group that lost the most weight was the group allowed some whole fruit.

Here are the types of sugars:

Fructose: a simple sugar (single molecule) found in fruits and honey.

Glucose: a simple sugar found also in grains, beans, and vegetables; the main sugar in our blood–the main fuel of the body.

Sucrose: Table sugar formed from a fructose and a glucose molecule bonded together. They must be separated in the small intestine before they can be absorbed.

High-fructose corn syrup: Fructose and glucose mixed together, unbonded, to form a liquid. This is the absolute worst kind of sugar.

Uric Acid is a problem. When we eat sugar, uric acid levels in the blood go up.

Obese people are often dehydrated. Salt can create dehydration which triggers the survival switch. Drinking water (8 glasses a day) can prevent further weight gain even when continuing to eat a junk diet.

The survival switch is indicated in gout, which is when high blood levels of uric acid cause crystals to form which get deposited in the joints and cause painful arthritis.

Diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, stroke, dementia, NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), kidney disease, atherosclerosis, heart attacks, sudden death, cancer, alcoholism, behavioral disorders like ADHD and bipolar, Alzheimer’s – all can be caused by persistent activation of the survival switch. Fortunately, we can turn it off with the Switch Diet.

“The Switch Diet:

Sugar: Reduce sugar intake to 10 percent of daily calories (with 5 percent as a long-term goal), eliminate sugary drinks entirely.

Carbohydrates: Reduce high-glycemic carboyhydrates. Emphasize whole grains, low-glycemic vegetables, and high-fiber foods. Limit fruit to 3-4 servings daily, separated, with half servings for high-glycemic varieties. Avoid dried fruit, fruit juices, fruit syrups, and fruit concentrates.

Protein: Limit high-umami proteins (red meats, organ meats, and shellfish). Emphasize, fish, poultry, dairy, and vegetable proteins.

Fat: Emphasize monounsaturated and omega-3 fats. Saturated fats can account for up to 10 percent of total caloric intake.

Salt: Reduce salt intake to 5-6 grams daily. Limit processed foods, as they are often high in salt (as well as sugar).

Water: Drink 8 ounces of water 6-8 times a day.

Dairy: Dairy is generally recommended, especially milk. Butter and cheese are fine if LDL cholesterol levels are controlled. High-umami cheese (blue, roquefort, gorgonzola, parmesan) should be limited.

Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate: Coffee and tea are recommended, Dark chocolate is encouraged.

Alcohol: Reduce or eliminate alcohol. If you must drink, sip rather than drinking quickly, and alternate with water.

Vitamin C: Take a Vitamin C supplement daily.”

Also, incorporate intermittent fasting, 16:8 at least 2 days a week (I think), or 5:2 which is fasting 2 days (500 calories/day) and eating normal for 5 days.

If we have activated the survival switch, exercising while it is activated is counter-productive. It actually reduces our metabolism and dooms our weight-loss goals. He recommends going on a low carb diet first to turn off the survival switch, and then incorporating exercise programs of 3-4 days per week, one hour each time. It is best to get 8 hours of sleep and to exercise prior to eating breakfast. That will burn fat.

Here are Wayne’s notes from the book (he scanned it in one afternoon):

“Some thoughts on gut management (excessive fructose bad, glucose needed)…

-Fish oil – full dose

-C – 500 mg (pees out uric acid, more risks stones)

-16/8 fast 2/wk—include 2-3 mile walk before eating

-Jeanne tea at lunch at latest

-evening hydration: one beer, one tonic, one licorice tea

-limit: “added” sugars, white rice, potato, other high glycemic

-moderate: spaghetti (use: pre-water and big side dish) and big red meat to once/wk

-other/detail:

-Balance (week): spaghetti/chicken (2)/tuna/eat out/red meat/egg sandwich w/beans, cauliflower

-sugar less than 8 g per serving: Fruits: orange 6g, pineapple (dessert, 4 g/slice), cherries or raspberries 4g/cup, prune 1 g, grapes 12g/cup)

-pulses definitely have a place here

-whole grain bread ok, and nuts

-all veggies ok

-umami (moderate these: beers, beef/pork, V8, broccoli/spinach

-Pur gum (sorbitol a proven problem for me)

-stevia and sucralose good (beware sweet tooth), saccharin/aspertame ok’ish

-sodium calculation: 1g table salt = 400 mg sodium, 3000 mg max

-dark chocolate (85%) a good thing! as is olive oil.”

by Charles Wheelan, 2021

Loved this book! It is our second Old Town Library Book Club selection for the 2022-2023 year, and so refreshing! It was fun and funny. Charles Wheelan is an incredible dad. He teaches Economics at Dartmouth but loves to travel. He and his wife, Leah, decide to take their three teenagers on a gap year around the world. They farmed out the two dogs and Leah’s sister’s family stayed in their house for the year (9 months, actually). They had to have a strict budget, and the two youngest children, Sophie and CJ, had to maintain their school status; Sophie by taking on-line classes, which was a huge battle, and CJ by home-schooling. Katrina, the oldest at 18, had just graduated and deferred her college admission for a year.

They started in Cartagena, Colombia, then down to the tip of South America, then they flew to New Zealand and did both islands, then to Australia and Tasmania, then to Vietnam and Southeast Asia, then to India, Bhutan, Burma, Africa, back to India, then to Eastern Europe, and finally, back home. It was from the fall of 2016 to June of 2017. They had a strict daily budget, which Leah kept track of on a spreadsheet. They each got to take one backpack. Charles wanted to read books along the way, so he picked places they were going where they would be staying with people they knew and mailed the books ahead to those places. CJ, the youngest child, a son, was a chatterbox. Charles and his oldest daughter are introverts. Sophie and Leah are extroverted. There were some meltdowns, maybe about 5 total. They happened when they were really tired, really hungry, and really uncomfortable. But they went around the world, learned so much, and grew so much. CJ became an eco-warrior (at the same time, he loved sports cars and any luxuries along the way). His major assignment was to write a paper on deforestation. He did so, and it was good. Charles and Leah had gone around the world together in the 1990s and they compared the times. One of the take-aways was there has been much environmental degradation – the coral in the Great Barrier Reef is dying, and there was deforestation going on everywhere they went.

Katrina, the 18-year old, picked up a flesh-eating parasite during their time in the Amazon jungle. They noticed these sores on her feet that were not going away. Finally, a friend of hers in Germany hooked her up with a doctor in Germany that specialized in tropical diseases and they figured it out – Leishmaniasis – which had to be treated before it was too late, with 28 days of pills that make you feel like you are on chemo.

by Gregory Zuckerman, 2013

Everything you ever wanted to know about fracking. Very detailed. This book was one of the books about oil that the Economist recommended. Thanks to the perseverance against all odds by a few determined men, the U.S.A went from being dependent upon OPEC for energy to being an exporter of energy. But it is so difficult to get oil and natural gas from rock. It took decades to figure out how to do it – horizontal drilling and up to 30 stages of fracking. Supposedly, the process does not cause earthquakes, or pollute underground water ways, although that is not definite. We have fracking spots all over northeastern Colorado, and when we drove to Steamboat, there is one in North Park right alongside the highway.

It turns out that Europe has oil and natural gas, too, but they don’t allow fracking because they are so populated and don’t have the wide open spaces that the U.S.A. has. Poland actually tried fracking but they would have to go too deep, (16,000 feet), to get to the oil, and that’s not feasible. The UK is an excellent candidate for fracking, but the Crown owns the mineral rights and it makes it very difficult to frack. Also, they are so populated and the population is against fracking.

The major US oil companies, like Exxon, were not involved in fracking. They had given up on oil in America and were working overseas when these independent companies like Mitchell Energy and Chesapeake finally got it going and became billionaires. That’s when Exxon and Chevron came back to America.

It’s a very good, detailed book, but since it is 10 years old, I really want to know what’s going on now. I googled, “Is the US still exporting natural gas?” A Reuter’s article from Sept 9, 2022, came up and we are the biggest exporter of LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) in the world.

He describes the history, lives and personalities of the main people responsible for making the US into a oil and natural gas powerhouse via fracking, and their various companies:

1. George Mitchell of Mitchell Energy: It took 17 years but his people finally figured out how to frack and get oil out of the Barnett Shale in Texas. George Mitchell wanted natural gas to be used as a cleaner alternative to oil and coal while allowing renewables to advance in the meantime. He conceived and built The Woodlands community in Texas.
2. Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward who started Chesapeake Energy: Oklahomans who took fracking mainstream and bought and leased land all over the US and fracked and fracked and fracked. He describes how rich they both were, but Aubrey especially was over-the-top wealthy. Twenty million dollar homes, $100,000 wine collections, etc. Aubrey made Oklahoma City into an upscale city with his donations and influences. He and Tom Ward were both forced out of their companies, though, after the 2008 downturn. I Googled Aubrey McClendon and he died in a single-vehicle crash in Oklahoma City–he ran into a concrete overpass in Oklahoma City and died instantly at 9:12 a.m. on March 2, 2016. Sounds like suicide. This was the day after he was indicted by a federal grand jury for violating anti-trust laws while CEO of Chesapeake Energy from 2007-2012. Tom Ward is still alive and is still in the energy business. He currently runs Mach Energy. Former companies were Chesapeake Energy, SandRidge Energy, and Tapstone Energy.
3. Charif Souki, the Lebanese immigrant who dreamed of importing Liquid Natural Gas and started a company, Cheniere, and held out hope against all odds, eventually turning it into a LNG exporting company. It is the first company in America to export LNG in 2016. He grew up in Lebanon and learned to ski in the mountains of Lebanon. His persistence was amazing.

There are a few others described in detail, too: Harold Hamm and Mark Papa. He also describes the town of Williston, North Dakota, when Harold Hamm finally figured out how to get oil and natural gas out of the Bakken. It sounds like a horrible town – no place for anyone but the dregs of humanity. The Walmart parking lot was where many of the oilmen lived and it was dangerous for women to walk through that parking lot. Streets were being built so fast, Google maps couldn’t keep up.

I end up rooting for the frackers. I totally forgot about nuclear power, the true answer in my opinion. Maybe there will be a book someday about the people who, against all odds, finally got rich on nuclear power. America is the place where this type of thing can happen because most of our land is not owned by the government, an individual can get wealthy beyond their wildest dreams through their hard work and persistence, and we have lots of wide open spaces.