Ogbono: My 2009 Summary

I have now collected a full year -- 52 weeks -- of personal health data after the introduction of ogbono into my diet a year ago. For the first 10 weeks of 2009, I took ogbono in the form of a supplement purchased from LEF. But by around week 6 or 7, I started buying ogbono in the form of ground up seeds from a local African food market. That's the form in which I've been taking ogbono ever since.

I include 1-2 teaspoons of ogbono in my diet about 5-6 times per week. It's been an extraorindary year for me. I can say that, after all of the health approaches I have tried and am currently practicing, ogbono seems to have had the most dramatic effects upon my health.

I base this conclusion on my health data for the year. Recorded every Friday morning upon waking, this data includes:

• Weight (in pounds)
• Body Fat % (calculated using the Navy method)
• Blood Glucose (measured using a finger prick device)
• Blood Pressure (measured using a home blood pressure meter)
• Pulse Pressure (calculated as systolic minus diastolic pressure)

Below are the charts for this data. The blue lines in the charts are for the actual data. The red lines are trend lines that show how the data seems to be moving. Below the charts I explain my interpretations of the data.

Here are some notes and interpretations of the data:

1. Ogbono Trial. Weeks 2-11 correspond to the 10-week trial I underwent taking the LEF ogbono supplements. The huge drop in weight and body fat % I experienced between weeks 5 and 11 really caught my attention. That's what motivated me to include the ground up ogbono seeds in my diet on a regular basis.

2. Shangrila Trial. Weeks 13-25 correspond to a 13-week trial of the "Shangrila Diet" (using extra light olive oil). The data suggests that this trial had no positive effect on me, and perhaps even a slightly negative one.

3. Liver Detox. Weeks 37-38 correspond to a liver detox program I underwent. This program seems to have exerted a remarkeable effect upon me, which I discuss next.

4. The False Magic Pill.  Through September of 2009, ogbono seemed to exert almost magical effects on me. I'm the sort of person who likes to push things to the limit, to see where the breaking point is. (It can be an annoying habit of mine.) Anyway, as 2009 went on, my diet became worse and worse. I started consuming more and more of the things that I know make me fat: bread, sugar, and alcohol. But until I did the liver detox, eating poorly seemed to have little to no effect on my weight, body fat%, or blood glucose. It seemed magical. I was 17 again -- impervious to poor eating habits! But all was not well on Fantasy Island for me ...

5. Pulse Pressure. There was one data point that did get worse as 2009 went along. That data point was pulse pressure. This is a measure of how hard my heart is pumping (i.e. its the difference in force between the push and pull phases of heart beats). Through September of 2009, the trend line for my pulse pressure was slightly up and to the right. That was a very quiet, ominous signal to me. I needed to try something ...

6. Liver Detox to the Rescue.  I took a guess that my poor diet in 2009, plus my rapid fat loss, was exerting a toxic effect on my liver. I guessed that this was a major cause of the uptick in my pulse pressure. So I decided to undergo a liver detox program in late September. It is a 3 week program that I ended after only 2 weeks because my dad showed up at the end of week 2 and the pristine diet went out the window. But even with a mere 2 weeks on this program, just look at the data! Pulse pressure for 2009 now trends downward, instead of upward. Indeed, notice that my blood glucose level was yanked sharply downward during the detox. Same goes for my weight and body fat %. All of this data hit their annual lows in connection with the detox program.

7. Looking Ahead. My resolution for 2010 is to minimize the toxins I ingest, and undergo at least 2 liver detox programs during the year.

I'll keep you all posted! Can't wait to see your own data.