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  • May20

    Coaching for a Healthier Lifestyle

    Posted in: Aging and Costs of Aging, 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.

     

  • May14

    Personal Food Revolution #3: Eat Your Breakfast, Skip Your Migraine

    Posted in: Aging and Costs of Aging, Common Conditions, Environmental Health, 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 #3 of 7.*

    Mary C. is a 29 year-old Houston mediator with migraines. A poster child for tyramine-rich olives, nuts and pepperoni, she also had brie on English Muffins for breakfast. She downed a six pack of Diet Dr. Pepper or Diet Coke every week, usually at her desk, and beer on weekends. She regularly went a whole day without eating.

    There were several factors that could trigger her migraines—skipping meals, stress, artificial sweeteners, beer, the tyramine in her food.

    The best way to find out which was her trigger would be to correct all of these, and add them back one at a time. Mary didn’t want to do that, at all.

    But she did decide not to skip meals after she learned that is the most common trigger of all. She tried several high-iron cereals (Total and Product 19) for snacks, instead of olives and nuts. And wherever she went she packed her “migraine snack”: toasted pumpkin seeds, which are high in magnesium, which lowers the frequency of migraines.

    She’s cutting back on the diet soda and the beer, but since she’s not had one more headache, she says she might stay just where she is on the beverages.

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

     

  • May6

    Personal Food Revolution #2: Are You Overweight, Never Hungry and at Risk For Stroke?

    Posted in: Common Conditions, Obesity and Weight Loss

    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 #2 of 7.*

    Susan was just 50 when her younger brother Bill died of a stroke. Always significantly overweight, she nevertheless was healthy. She felt energetic, took no medicines, ran a small textile business (“love fabric”), avoided doctors (“no need, unless you’re sick”). But Bill’s death moved her like nothing else, until at 51, she had a TIA.

    Susan was a very picky eater: raised on corn casserole and peanut brittle, she kept to those foods. She had trouble changing her eating habits because she did not actually feel hunger. So she learned to stop eating when the plate was 80 percent empty.

    She also promised to begin to eat six fruits and vegetables daily, especially high folate (vitamin B9) ones, because folate in food cuts stroke risk.

    She chose one citrus fruit (tangerines), one vitamin C rich veggie (she chose red peppers), one green leafy (spinach), and three cruciferous (Brussels sprouts, watercress, broccoli) veggies. Her risk just dropped 55 percent, I told her.

    After four years, 72 pounds, three changes of wardrobe, two years off cigarettes, a new kitchen and one more scary TIA, Susan is still stroke free…and walking 20 blocks daily in Manhattan as a textile buyer for a major department store.

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

     

  • May3

    Live Training Session on Culinary Medicine in Santa Barbara

    Posted in: Wellness and Health

    With Seth Godin as an inspiration, I’m going to do a live session in Santa Barbara on Friday, June 18, 2010.

    Instead of charging my usual fee for tickets, I’m offering seats only to people who want to be able to train several others. If you’re a coach, a teacher, a clinician, a chef, the leader of an organization or someone who has the desire to teach a group about the ideas in ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine, I’d love to have you come.

    The entire session will be focused on how to talk about and spread the ideas in the book–that the right foods, menus and eating plans, tastily prepared or well-chosen, can transform your health, energy level and productivity, and that of your group.

    Because it’s a small session, seats are limited and are reserved for people who can buy ten or more copies of the book from the retailer of your choice. We’ll accept applications until all the seats are allocated, so hurry. Invitations will go out on a rolling basis. All the details, including optional dinner menu from the book, prepared by the talented Pete Clements, with optional paired wines here.

    Thanks to each of you who have read the book and want to share it with others. I appreciate it. Your support made it a NY Times bestseller, a top USA Today pick, listed in the Journal, and so on.

    But what I really love is that it has helped some people begin to eat real food, transforming their lives. Thanks for making something happen.

     
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