• Archives

  • Dec21

    Treating Overweight Kids…With What?

    Posted in: Child Obesity, High Cholesterol, Obesity and Weight Loss

    Dr Molly Ferguson is a naturopath in Michigan who is courageous enough to discuss treating childhood obesity.
    Video: Treating Childhood Obesity

    Putting kids on a diet has long been terrifying to physicians because we are frightened about creating eating disorders (the other way!)

    But there is good data to show that the suggestions she makes: “eating the rainbow”, “eating fewer processed foods”, and “avoiding chemical additives” can have beneficial effects on kids’ health: improving immunity, increasing energy level at school, reducing hyperactivity symptoms.

    Is there a good diet for overweight kids? If there were just one, all kids would be on it.

    Childhood obesity has leveled off in kids ages 2-5, because Moms are super concerned, and have more control over what there is to eat.   The next frontier: kids ages 6-11 or 12.

    I think teaching kids about food and the basics of how to cook would transform family lives: treat Mom’s diabetes, and Dad’s cholesterol and heart disease, and Sis’ asthma.

    Eating and cooking healthfully to lose weight has worked for adults enrolled in Chef Clinic, and in adults who make big lifestyle changes.

    Should overweight kids be on a diet? And if so, what would one look like?

     

  • Sep28

    Is Food the New Pharma or Woo-Woo?

    Posted in: Cancer, Common Conditions, Environmental Health, High Cholesterol, Uncategorized, Wellness and Health

    New exciting food is the new pharma initiatives seem to be fighting with an equally new governmental crack-down on food with pharma claims.

    Who should you believe?

    On the one hand, Nestle is about to invest $500m in a new company to create food-based solutions to diabetes, obesity, Alzheimers and more.

    I think this is brilliant–Kit-Kats aside–and will bring much of the global interest in the health effects of foods front and center.  And it’s about time.

    On the other hand, the FDA doesn’t like Walgreen’s/CVS/Johnson and Johnson claiming that their mouthwash improves oral health because it contains flouride.  The FTC doesn’t like POM Wonderful’s claims that it improves prostate cancer (or its CEO’s claims that it is “40 percent as effective as Viagra“)…or a dozen other issues in the warning letter.  Cheerios don’t lower cholesterol, Mini-Wheats don’t improve kids attention, and there is more to come.

    How does a consumer make sense of this?  Does food work like medicine, or is it just food?

    I’m going to talk about this, and our way out, at TEDx American Riviera in Santa Barbara next month: the NYTimes covered TEDx talks this weekend. Expect 12 intense and hopefully entertaining minutes.

     

  • 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?

     
« PREV.POSTS
NEXT POSTS »