• Archives

  • May24

    Personal Food Revolution #5: Eat Your Way to Lower Cholesterol

    Posted in: Common Conditions

    One of the best ways to help people transform their lives and create their own food revolution is to write my patients’ stories: this is #5 of 7.*

    Tom’s case was a quandary: a Pulitzer-winning health reporter, he already exercised diligently, running about four miles most days. He had long ago given up meat and most cheese. Yet his LDL (bad) cholesterol was 169, way above the recommended 130 and an optimal 100.

    A single Dad, Tom’s two teenagers had grown accustomed to a stick of butter in their weekend Slow Roasted Hen.

    So I worked with Tom to add multiple terrific dishes to their eating cycle. There was a Turkish eggplant recipe, and white beans with escarole and tomato.

    His internist was astonished. His LDL dropped 33% to an acceptable 114; his healthy HDL cholesterol was up to 75.

    Apart from not spending his own and his employer’s money on drugs, Tom found another benefit to this program.

    His daughter regularly makes steel cut oatmeal for breakfast and enjoys split pea/carrot soup with tarragon, nutmeg and barley. And his son’s special request for dinner this past Saturday was grilled salmon with honey-mustard marinade.

    You can’t get that with a pill.

    *adapted from ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine.
    **adapted from the Wall Street Journal report on lowering cholesterol, by Tom Burton.

  • Mar24

    Fat, Satisfied and Saturated. What Should You Eat?

    Posted in: Wellness and Health

    The recent Harvard/Kaiser study showing saturated fat not causing heart disease and the WHO review of similar data showing it does, and a third showing polyunsaturated fat replacing saturated fat –is a good place to come to our senses, nutritionally and literally.

    People eat food, not fat, protein, carbohydrate or alcohol. No food has all one type of fat, whether saturated, monounsaturated or poly (trans fats are a type of poly). And many fats are good.

    So what food should you eat? It depends on what condition you are trying to prevent or avoid.

    For example, if you are trying to prevent recurrence of metastatic colon cancer, avoid processed meats and grains and eat whole foods: you have a 3.5x better chance than the opposite approach.

    If you have prostate cancer, avoid chicken with skin and eggs but not skinless poultry and other meats: you have 2x chance of avoiding recurrence and metastases. More in my ChefMD culinary medicine book.

    If you’re just trying to stay healthy and have a great quality of life, then what?

    Foods with trans fat, which occurs rarely in nature, and highly refined sugars and starches, are the ones to avoid. They are inflammatory, interrupt immunity, cause stroke and heart attack. Especially if you see trans/partially hydrogenated on a label, put the can, bottle or box back (pie shells, coffee creamer, pastries), and back away. In fact, put down the cans, boxes and bottles as much as you can, regardless.

    Try to use your senses: smell, touch, feel, hear, truly taste your meals…you’ll have a great time. And eat more of the right foods.

    Eat real food. Make it yourself. Buy foods in their natural state, with minimal processing. Learn to cook, even a little.

    Don’t worry about every bite. Enjoy it more. Eat a lot more vegetables, fruits (avocado is a fruit!) and legumes, and make fish, poultry, cheese and a little (grass-fed) red meat side dishes. Stay liquid in your fats, low in your sugars and starches, and lean in your meats, but don’t kill yourself doing it.

    Love what you eat. Or don’t eat it.

  • Mar23

    Statins, Leg Pain and Cholesterol: Foodie Alternatives

    Posted in: Common Conditions, Wellness and Health

    The March 19 2010FDA Warning about Zocor, a statin medication causing myopathy, and rare rhabdomyolysis, makes me think about other ways people who love food can lower their cholesterol too.

    The simple story is this: eating food with cholesterol in it doesn’t raise your cholesterol level, very much. It’s foods (red meat, cheese) with solid fats (saturated and trans) and for some people, highly processed foods with starches and sugars.

    The NY Times’ Tara Parker Pope’s smart “Eating Your Way to Lower Cholesterol” has great tips (see #24 and #61) as does the WSJ’s Tom Burton’s now famous “A Reporter Eats His Way to Lower Cholesterol.”

    The foodie story? Foods rich in soluble fiber (barley, oats, beans, lentils) lower LDL cholesterol: up to 50 grams daily has an effect: beyond that, not.
    Flax meal has an important effect: up to 2 tablespoons twice daily. Omega-3 fatty acids raise HDL (healthy cholesterol), as does alcohol–one drink for women, and two for men.

    Eat an ounce and a half of nuts daily instead of carbs like crackers/chips. Try stanol/sterol margarines instead of butter and sour cream. Add green or black tea. Consider cinnamon.

    In the supplement world, look at lecithin and psyllium.

    None of these cause leg pain, cost hundreds of dollars per month, or necessitate remembering to take your pills. And they can taste much better!

  • Dec23

    The Doctor Will See You Now, Online. Will You See Her?

    Posted in: Wellness and Health

    Virtual visits with a board-certified physician are about to go national. NowClinic.com will use video chat to connect patients and doctors using video chat in 2010 nationwide, for routine, ordinary care.

    There are many reasons this will work…especially for those physicians interested in lifestyle change, weight loss, diabetes and nutrition. I’m excited about it, and think it could help the doctor-patient relationship, not vitiate it.

    Many consumers now feeling ripped off by their health care experience: neither patients or partners, they’re just surprised.

    Emily Dwass “definitely was caught off guard when I checked in to see a specialist in a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center building in Los Angeles and was told to pay a $75 facility fee.” More and more common.

    Our virtual visiting helped Wall Street Journal reporter Tom Burton lower cholesterol and lose weight…by phone and email, 2000 miles apart.

    This is an opportunity. Telemedicine may explode in growth, Price Waterhouse says: $7 billion by 2015, taking disease management and IT to $100 billion if it really explodes.

    Physicians do not have incentives to do basic preventive care. Most have substantial overhead that office counseling and diet histories just don’t pay for. And like other workers, doctors do more of what they are paid well to do.

    What would you use videochat with a new doctor for? A cold? Weight loss? Diabetes control?

  • Aug4

    A Reporter Eats His Way to Lower Cholesterol: Do You Need Lipitor, or Can You Do It With Food?

    Posted in: Common Conditions

    The New England Journal of Medicine report that Lipitor beat Pravachol in cholesterol-lowering for patients is one thing. Using food to lower cholesterol is an additional, not alternative approach.

    Will the 80 mg cost $276 U.S. for 90 days from drugstore.com or will it cost $338 from CVS or $162 U.S. from a Canadian pharmacy?

    In 2003, the Wall Street Journal reported Dr. La Puma patient/WSJ reporter Tom Burton’s success to lower his LDL from 169 to 114 over 9 months. Tom followed Dr. La Puma’s tailored prescription and recipes. Some are free online.

    Come to Santa Barbara to start your program and continue it at home. Learn how. Click “More” for the details of the Wall Street Journal Program.
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