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  • Jul14

    Food as Medicine as a Movement

    Posted in: Wellness and Health

    When Johns Hopkins Medicine happily and positively publishes “Take Two Carrots and Call Me in the Morning” and Hopkins Public Health researchers pen a NPR-covered pilot study of better-for-you hospital food—within 2 months of one another–you know something is changing in mediicne.

    When the Harvard School of Medicine/CIA 5th Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference is oversubscribed, and Touro University asks me for a proposal to teach online cooking classes to students in three of its medical schools, something is cooking.

    When media luminaries like Drs Oz and Roizen proclaim on Oprah! that “food is medicine” (full disclosure: they are my friends), and Dr Hyman’s, Dr Mercola’s and Dr Weil’s HuffPo columns on the relative virtues of nutritional components and their affect on your health are among the most popular on the site, you know that the health-conscious public wants to support doctors who are on the same page.

    And when the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports becomes the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, and the First Lady invites pediatricians and chefs to the White House to talk about swapping out fryers for salad bars in schools, you know practicing physicians are going to get it.  And just maybe, lead it.

    Not every doctor has to write recipes on prescription slips. But the more we know about what our patients eat, and what they could eat and drink to help themselves look and feel better, the better we’ll serve.

  • Jun7

    Personal Food Revolution #7: Reverse Diabetes with What You Eat…Out

    Posted in: Common Conditions, Wellness and Health

    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 #7 of 7.*

    Carol has diabetes. She is 48 years old, the mother of two and a successful Washington litigator. She does not know what to eat at the dinner she must attend tonight.

    She eats out ten times weekly, usually orders chicken Caesar salad, and snacks on cheese, chocolate and energy bars. She often eats the last of her Taco Bell in the front seat of her car before going in for the night.

    I tell her that she can beat insulin resistance, which is causing her out of control diabetes. But she has to treat her disease like her best client–conscientiously.

    She is to avoid red and processed meat for 12 weeks: the heme iron increases diabetes risk. Ditto, any food with the words High Fructose or Enriched Flour or Sugar or Rice or Corn Syrup on the package.

    Tonight, like every night out, she should have two dinner salads with good vinaigrette over 20 minutes with good fish or lean poultry, and drink hot cinnamon tea afterwards. She should pack almonds, high protein cereal, tea bags and string cheese when she travels.

    Carol liked knowing what to eat, and practiced it, a lot, with coaching. She now teaches water aerobics in Virginia.

    *adapted from ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine.

  • 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.

  • May20

    Coaching for a Healthier Lifestyle

    Posted in: Environmental Health, Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

    The training in culinary medicine next month is getting lots of interest (thanks jillianmichaels.com! thanks RealAge.com! thanks ChefMD readers!). So I thought I’d show you what you might expect.

    It’s easy to say eat more whole foods, fewer processed ones, walk/train 60 minutes, know your palate, handle stress, get a coach. Everyone says that already, and it’s 90 percent of the work.

    It’s harder—and infinitely more worthwhile–to find the last 10 percent. The nitty-gritty how-to strategies and tactics that most people believe aren’t worth the effort. That’s what we’re shooting for.

    Sure, coaching for a healthier lifestyle is tough to fit into 3.5 hours, especially with wine and appetizers afterwards, and a luscious dinner to boot. But this week’s news topics tell you what you need to know. We’ll learn is how to develop a plan for your own group’s needs–whether team, class, business, practice.

    First, there’s this terrific idea of learning to get the most from, cook (and even identify) real foods. Already ahead of the curve? See the outline of this 12 week cooking course from nourishedkitchen for cutting-edge subjects.

    Second, the ways to avoid toxins in your food and the environment. I identified the dyes showed to worsen ADHD in kids in the Big Book, and just yesterday, the names of 37 organophosphate pesticides (list) shown to do the same.

    And third, there’s losing weight and feeling full and satisfied with foods of color. Will tiny steps in the right direction, like Michelle Obama’s “Trim a Trillion Calories” really help you choose smaller packages (like 100 calorie Oreos), or is there a better, more personal approach?

  • May17

    Personal Food Revolution #4: Tired, Gassy and Moody? Could It Be Gluten?

    Posted in: Common Conditions, Wellness and Health

    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 #4 of 7.*

    Terri is a 38 year old who traces her tummy problems back to high school. She has had off and on again fatigue, cramping, gas, bloating and mood swings. She has seen 11 doctors, and been told she is a “diagnostic dilemma” and has “atypical bowel syndrome.”

    Terry has celiac disease, an auto-immune reaction to gluten. Celiac is caused by—and can be cured by—what you eat.

    Gluten is a protein in wheat, rye and barley but is often hidden. Spelt and triticale have wheat, millet does not. Most blue cheese and soy sauce are off limits.

    The medicine? Savory, gorgeous gluten-free pasta, nuts, vegetables, meats, seasonings and even beer. They can heal and reverse insomnia, depression and osteoporosis in people with celiac disease.

    Terri re-discovered cooking and began to cure herself.

    She filled herself with the best ingredients—for her. Food became a joy, because she tasted it fully and didn’t overeat. And it changed her life.

    Off gluten, she felt better than she had in 40 years. She gained muscle strength, dropping to a size 8.

    Terri’s case inspired Gluten Free Quiz (www.glutenfreequiz.com) a free self-assessment of your risk for celiac disease.

    *adapted from my ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine.

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