WCK - watch your lifestyle and diet!

[chusauli]

Oftimes, WCK is too economical in movement. What I mean by that, is for your health, you need to supplement it with proper diet and nutrition, and supplementary exercises. Modern man does not walk enough and problems modern WCK has is health.

Here is something related to diet from Jamie Oliver:

http://www.foodmatters.tv/_webapp_37...ty_and_Disease

The founders ate what they ate, but probably had shorter lives due to war, famine, disease, but they had to do things on the Red Boats by hand and walked more than us. I will say that what is done today as "Chinese Food" is overindulgent in fat, oils, sugar. MSG, salt/sodium, and simple carbs.

Too many carbs like rice, noodles/pasta, pho, buns/bao, bread, breadsticks, cake, cookies, chips, soft drinks and juices load up the body with too much sugar that can be detrimental to your health. This easily leads to overweight, obesity and eventually, diabetes.

What Hawkins Cheung always said to me was, "If you survive, your art survives..." It has strong wisdom behind it.

Many WCK teachers see the pounds coming on as they age and have to consistently do something to change their eating habits, build lean muscle, and rest properly. By eating poorly, it leads to many modern diseases like hypertension, high cholesterol, metabolic syndrome, obesity, coronary artery disease, hypothyroidism, diabetes, and cancer. Diabetes (usually type II in overweight or obese individuals) can lead to blindness, neuropathy, impotence, etc. It is important to maintain a healthy BMI.

For example, WSL passed on due to a brain aneurysm (stroke) - it usually means that his diet was not that good, and he smoked and drank alcohol.

Yip Man died at 79 due to throat cancer, which is diet related and due to toxins in the food. Cantonese often like to eat preserved foods like salted fish, preserved eggs, stinky tofu, etc. which are full of cancer causing chemicals.

Bruce Lee's favorite dish of Oyster Beef on rice is full of sodium, carbs and preservatives. Drinking raw beef juice is also not a good idea... some of his diet ideas were very poor.

Late nights talking, extensive Mah Jong, many Dim Sum sessions with students is detrimental to health, as are bobas, sugar cane juices, and shave ices Chinese like. And eating late at night after class is very unhealthy and leaves for bad digestion problems, like diverticulitis, bowel cancer, ulcerative colitis. Gambling, along with smoking and drinking, it is a very dirty habit that some Cantonese enjoy and detrimental to health.

Juicing is also unhealthy as it releases tons of sugar in your system at once. I shudder to think of the many cokes and snapples I drank after long workouts in my youth. Plain old water or unsweetened ice tea would have been better.

It is good to be conscious about health.

[yellow aster]

Good advice for us aging wing chun practioners.

[chusauli]

One thing I forgot to mention is instant Ramen is also very unhealthy - we often adopt what our teachers eat - and that stuff in excess will kill you and has very little beneficial nutritional value.

Chinese love congee (jook) and Soup noodles like Wonton Mien, CharSiu Mien, etc., as well as rice dishes like Char Siu Fan, Siu Ngaap Fan - they are loaded with sodium, fat and excessive carbs!

Anyone boasting they are a rice tub (Fan Tung) - eating 3 - 4 bowls of rice? Eat a lot less rice (1/2 bowl) and live healthier!

[LoneTiger108]

Well, I'm messed up

[anerlich]

It is good to be conscious about health.

I agree. I will be taking my nutritional advice from professional nutritionists rather than WC practitioners, however. The latters' track record re longevity ain't all that great. The Gracie diet seems to have better results, but I'm not going down that path either.

No offence.

And eating late at night after class is very unhealthy and leaves for bad digestion problems, like diverticulitis, bowel cancer, ulcerative colitis.

Opinions vary on this. One school of dietary thought has it that different people subsist better on different meal schedules and one size does not fit all. I personally eat a small breakfast and lunch, and have a large meal at night after training, and according to that school of though that is fine for my body type. If I ate before training, I feel that would be worse for my health and it would definitely affect the quality of my training (some sessions would have me spewing it all back up). I had a full physical, at age 55, two weeks ago and everything is fine. Many of my training buds follow similar patterns and are hardly plagued by digestive problems, let alone dropping like flies from bowel cancer.

IMO training hard sorts out a lot of stuff. You have to eat and sleep reasonably well to sustain it, and if you smoke, get hammered on alcohol every night or follow other unhealthy pursuits you won't be able to keep up.

IMO trying to be too restrictive or too particular in what you eat can be as bad as eating whatever junk is at hand. I've met some people who are vegan and are excellent athletes, but I know from experience I personally would fail to thrive on their diet.

we often adopt what our teachers eat

Not in my experience. IMO we adopt what our parents eat and what advertising rams down our throats.

Many WCK teachers see the pounds coming on as they age

Not me nor my teacher. Many WCK teachers they see the pounds coming on because they are slack. Becoming a fat b@stard as you age is a choice, not an inevitability. I have a pretty reasonable six pack and am still the same weight I was 30 years ago. From what I've seen of Phil Redmond in vids, etc. he's not exactly a bloated whale either.

[Lee Chiang Po]

One thing I forgot to mention is instant Ramen is also very unhealthy - we often adopt what our teachers eat - and that stuff in excess will kill you and has very little beneficial nutritional value.

Chinese love congee (jook) and Soup noodles like Wonton Mien, CharSiu Mien, etc., as well as rice dishes like Char Siu Fan, Siu Ngaap Fan - they are loaded with sodium, fat and excessive carbs!

Anyone boasting they are a rice tub (Fan Tung) - eating 3 - 4 bowls of rice? Eat a lot less rice (1/2 bowl) and live healthier!

I love rice any way prepared, but eat very little of it. Today I ate chicken breast cut into bits, sauted with cabbage, carrots, red and green peppers, cayene peppers, seasoned with some black and white pepper, sesamie oil and soy sauce, low sodium. Didnt have onion or garlic to put into it. Sugar in any form should be taken from whole fruit rather than processed. The industry today uses corn suger in the form of syrup to sweeten and cook with because it will not crystalize like cane sugar does. Anything to do with corn I will not eat. I will consume it in the form of bourbon though. I think that to eat healthy you need to learn what is good and bad, and cook from scratch so you know what is in it. The fast food industry has made America obese, diabetic, and heart challenged. We fed the bear by buying it. They should legalize marijuana and outlaw commercially prepared foods.

[chusauli]

I agree. I will be taking my nutritional advice from professional nutritionists rather than WC practitioners, however. The latters' track record re longevity ain't all that great. The Gracie diet seems to have better results, but I'm not going down that path either.

No offence.

None taken! I am a licensed Acupuncturist in CA and not a registered Dietician or Nutritionist. Our practice can include nutrition, as it relates to Oriental medicine is based upon a dietary system which holds that basic flavors have special relationship to the internal organs. (Act (section 4937(b)) and I can recommend
Drugless Substances to promote health, and prescribe nutritional advice which includes the use of drugless substances. (Includes plants and vegetative material, but may include some mineral and animal products.) But these must be (1) used as a dietary supplements, and (2) they must be drugless. As enumerated in the Act (section 4937(b)). (BTW, I am not giving anyone specific nutritional advice here, just starting a conversation about Diet and Lifestyle related to WCK...)

Gracie diet looks to me as having its roots in Ayurveda. It does make sense.

Opinions vary on this. One school of dietary thought has it that different people subsist better on different meal schedules and one size does not fit all. I personally eat a small breakfast and lunch, and have a large meal at night after training, and according to that school of though that is fine for my body type. If I ate before training, I feel that would be worse for my health and it would definitely affect the quality of my training (some sessions would have me spewing it all back up). I had a full physical, at age 55, two weeks ago and everything is fine. Many of my training buds follow similar patterns and are hardly plagued by digestive problems, let alone dropping like flies from bowel cancer.

I am really speaking about people overindulging late at night after class, when a light meal would do. Also, I would guesstimate the obesity issue to be more of a USA (30.6%) problem than Australian (21.7%). You can always know the Europeans on vacation by speedos, Aussies are generally fitter, Canadians are pretty good, but you can readily spot the Americans (unfortunately).

If you have a body type of lean muscle (do your cardio, weight train), eat your veggies, and don't overindulge in carbs, you don't have to worry. Bowel Cancer in the USA is more of a reality, in 2006, the American Cancer Society predicted 148,610 men and women (72,800 men and 75,810 women) would be diagnosed with colon cancer and 55,170 men and women will die of colon cancer. That's a lot. I'm sure the number is less in Australia.

IMO training hard sorts out a lot of stuff. You have to eat and sleep reasonably well to sustain it, and if you smoke, get hammered on alcohol every night or follow other unhealthy pursuits you won't be able to keep up.

Yup.

Not in my experience. IMO we adopt what our parents eat.

Not me nor my teacher. Many WCK teachers they see the pounds coming on because they are slack. Becoming a fat b@stard as you age is a choice, not an inevitability. I'm still the same weight I was 30 years ago.

In the Chinese subculture, we went out with the Sifu almost every night to chow down and then have late night chit chat. So I guess its a bit different with you. I know Rick Spain to exercise well and eat well - he was an athlete. He had the drive, did his weight training and road work and then did his martial arts.

I agree, there is no inevitability - you dictate your choices.

[chusauli]

I love rice any way prepared, but eat very little of it. Today I ate chicken breast cut into bits, sauted with cabbage, carrots, red and green peppers, cayene peppers, seasoned with some black and white pepper, sesamie oil and soy sauce, low sodium. Didnt have onion or garlic to put into it. Sugar in any form should be taken from whole fruit rather than processed. The industry today uses corn suger in the form of syrup to sweeten and cook with because it will not crystalize like cane sugar does. Anything to do with corn I will not eat. I will consume it in the form of bourbon though. I think that to eat healthy you need to learn what is good and bad, and cook from scratch so you know what is in it. The fast food industry has made America obese, diabetic, and heart challenged. We fed the bear by buying it. They should legalize marijuana and outlaw commercially prepared foods.

Hi LCP, there has been recent ads to push High fructose corn syrup as a "natural" substance, but it is known to aid in belly fat, according to some studies.

I would avoid it personally.

[chusauli]

Well, I'm messed up

Dude, you can change it - go get some nutritional advice specific to you. And get an annual checkup with bloodwork.

[anerlich]

Robert,

Fair enough.

That's a lot. I'm sure the number is less in Australia.

It is enough to be a concern here. The government here makes a token effort by offering free BC tests to citizens when they turn 50, 55, and 65. My doctor recommended annual tests after 50 via a private organisation, and I have followed that recommendation. BC sounds like an extremely unpleasant way to die.

I don't think we've reached US levels just yet, but there is concern here that we are moving steadily towards the top of the ranks of the world's fattest citizens. We might even make the medals if there were a Fat B@stard Olympics.

[Sardinkahnikov]

Good advice for us aging wing chun practioners.

I think it's even more important to the younger practitioners, who still have time to avoid lots of health-related issues.

Nice thread. Good nutrition is very important. In order to contribute, I'll share the advice that my mom gave me: eat broccoli.

[k gledhill]

Okinawans have on average the healthiest long lives on the planet, fish, fish and more fish.

[anerlich]

fish, fish and more fish.

But monitor your mercury levels.

[Knifefighter]

The most biggest risk factor for disease and early death is lack of physical fitness.

That being said, staying healthy and fit is a relatively simple three step process.

- Do 1-3 hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity on most days.

- Eat a diet that is mainly whole grains, legumes, vegetable and fruit, supplemented with small to moderate amounts of lean meats and fish and some non-fat dairy.

- Dump the supplements. Supplements are a great way to slowly poison your body.

[Dave McKinnon]

Hi

Look into Paleo or Primal eating.

Grains and Legumes are B.S. and the biggest indicator of health and longevity in the U.S. is belly fat (especially in men). Fitness is important too, especially in regards to having cardio and muscle reserves for when we are ill. Being able to walk vigorously for an hour a day, lift heavy things and do a little sprinting means we can recover more quickly from injury and as we age will prolong our health and vitality.

Look at Marksdailyapple.com, Paleo diet, neanderthin etc.

Our ancestors may have had a shorter lifespan due to disease, accidents, war, wild animals etc. However, the hunter gatherers of 10,000 years ago who lived till there 30's tended to have longer lifespans by 3 - 4 years and larger brains to boot. There is lots of research out there to support what I am saying and lots of lobbies against it.

Dave McKinnon