• Archives

  • Aug17

    Salt Much? Discussion 1-on-1 For You?

    Posted in: Common Conditions, Diabetes, High Cholesterol, Hypertension, Obesity and Weight Loss, Vitamins and Supplements, Wellness and Health

    Several sneak peaks–including my statement to the Information Hearing on Diabetes and Obesity in Sacramento 8.25.10 are in the newsletter tomorrow (quick sign-up to get it, top right!).

    It was challenging to say something new, practical, and responsible…to decisionmakers about policy.   Let me know what you think.

    The news that the average American ingests 3366 mg sodium daily, over 2x what’s recommended is not shocking.

    Ditto that 90% of sodium comes not from the table or cooking, but from prepared foods.

    What is shocking is that dropping from 3366 to 2166mg daily could prevent 32-66000 cases of stroke, and up to 120000 cases of heart disease every year. The top 5 foods for salt by how much and how often we eat them in the U.S.?

    1.  Meat pizza
    2.  White bread
    3.  Processed cheese
    4.  Hot dogs
    5.  Spaghetti w/sauce

    Lastly,  I answer 10-20 emails weekly at ChefMD.com and on FB. But I feel as if I don’t really have the space or time to give you as complete an answer as you deserve.  And need. And for many people, the time and cost involved in traveling to Santa Barbara to see me is too much.

    Please take our Discussion Survey (not a medical consultation).  If you even might be interested, please take it…it’s a quickie, no contact info, no e-mail required.

    And if there’s enough interest in one-on-one discussions with me on weight loss, medication, cholesterol, more…we’ll do it!

  • Mar30

    Are You Addicted to Food, Or Just the Rat Research?

    Posted in: Obesity and Weight Loss

    My private practice based in Santa Barbara is primarily about weight loss. I’ve been able to study it too, including Chef Clinic and RealAge Diet programs.

    But this week’s report in Nature showing the more high fat junk food rats eat, the more they want to eat it and the less rewarded they feel is sad. Because too often we see brain chemistry and addiction as insurmountable.

    Out of our hands. Off our plates. (Whether rat research applies to people is also important…often it doesn’t).

    But as Marion Nestle points out about the new West Virginia research showing that Jamie Oliver’s reality TV intervention kids didn’t like the more higher fat(!) food or change their eating habits.

    In the UK, Oliver’s food has apparently improved kids’ test scores and attendance.

    The trap here is that sometimes research does not measure what is really important.

    What is really important is that people who want to lose weight and keep it off find a method and an someone to be strongly accountable. And stick to them: that works, over and over again, in my practice.

    The best diet is one you can stay on, that uses Real Foods. Meals that fit for you, into your lifestyle, time-frame, and capabilities. And that help change your life.

    Have you had success with an approach/person that really works?

  • Mar12

    How to Make Weight Loss Fun

    Posted in: Child Obesity, Obesity and Weight Loss

    I’ve been thinking about ways to make weight loss fun. What’s missing from most programs is just that.

    My most successful group program was Chef Clinic, which our contestants (we had contestants, like Jillian Michaels!, back in ‘98) called “Camp for Adults.” No panty raids, but a lot of campfires, and incredible success.

    Now I’m preparing to do a weight loss program for overweight kids, at the YMCA here in Santa Barbara. With a 8 week easy Chef Clinic, for parents, nearly all online. To give parents the cooking/healthy eating/fitness/coping skills they don’t have, to take the pressure off overweight and obese kids, to make the best choices easy choices. At home, at school, on weekends, at night.

    My friend Mark Palmer sent me the video below, from thefuntheory.com, part of Volkswagen. Bugs have always been fun, and Vanagons too (I learned to drive in a parking lot, grinding the gears of Julie P’s bright yellow VW). Boy, was that fun.

    And Mark has it right: creating a environment helps people do the right thing in that environment. But even in a suboptimal environment, parents can help kids, especially kids under 12 years old with more dependence and less autonomy than teens, make the right choices by making them for the family. Without blame or finger pointing, but instead with a wink and a nod.

    How does your family have fun eating to lose weight?

  • Feb1

    Kids on a Diet, and How Parents Can Help

    Posted in: Wellness and Health

    Putting kids on a diet is verboten in medical circles.

    Expert psychologists and physicians explain that kids can’t handle the destruction of self-esteem that being on a diet carries with it.

    Being overweight or obese is hard enough for the 6-11 year old, the argument goes. And as an adolescent…well, forget it. The teasing and ostracizing are unbearable.

    But pediatric obesity is an epidemic. 19 percent of children 6 to 11 years old in America are obese.

    And most parents don’t see it, even in their own family. One study showed that only 27 percent of overweight kids were identified as such by their parents.

    Parents are caught. They never hear the word “Diet” from their pediatrician or family physician, but they do hear it everywhere else. They know diets work for a short while, and lifestyle skills work long term.

    Supposedly, parents provide (the food), kids decide (how much and when to eat). That division can work with younger kids, with real structure, strong parents, and clear meal plans. But without those tools, parents are lost.

    My idea is that Chef Clinic–cooking, healthy eating and fitness lessons–for the parents of overweight and obese kids could help. For the tools. And for changing kids’ food environment at home. And for being clear that the family is on a diet. Irrespective of whether the parent needs it.

    What do you think? Should overweight kids be put on a diet? Would giving their parents new skills help?

  • Dec2

    Free Healthy Recipe Download: DASH to Lower Blood Pressure

    Posted in: Wellness and Health

    What good could come of working with a top international PR agency and an industry better known for mustaches than medical advice? Lots.

    There is a diet that actually works for lowering blood pressure. It’s called the DASH diet because it’s an academic acronym. (Sadly, the name makes people think they have to flee, which raises blood pressure. So much for academic savvy).

    The name may not be much of an excuse, but it might explain why DASH never reached the popularity that even the RealAge Diet has. (full disclosure: I wrote it with my friend Dr. Mike Roizen, of YOU/Oprah/Dr Oz fame).

    Why DASH works is the real enigma. Is it the weight loss, or the naturally low sodium levels? Is it the potassium and magnesium so many people get so little of? Is it the calcium and fiber? Is it the lean protein?

    Or do people just feel better, eating easy recipes for health, and can relax a little?

    Whatever the case, here are free DASH recipes to lower blood pressure.

    Before I joined Mike Roizen, and just before we created Chef Clinic in Chicago (now in Santa Barbara), I got to develop these 15 recipes in the spirit of doing good with food.

    As their 10th anniversary approaches, it’s way past time to share them. Enjoy!

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