• Archives

  • 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.

     

  • Apr27

    Personal Food Revolution #1: Hot Dogs Make My Knees Hurt! (Osteoarthritis)

    Posted in: 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 #1 of 7.*

    Peggy had severe osteoarthritis. Except for the few blocks walk to the market, and the weekly shuttle to a matinee, she was virtually housebound.

    Peggy said she usually ate pastries for breakfast, tuna for lunch and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

    I explained that osteoarthritis was an inflammatory disease. Its pattern of pain and stiffness are predictable, so we could use food to prevent and even treat the pain.

    I prescribed an analgesic food for breakfast (berries), an anti-inflammatory food for lunch (fish, soy, ginger or avocado) and an omega-3 food for dinner (fish, walnuts or flax meal).

    She avoided foods with trans fats (they are inflammatory), starches and added sugars (they produce irritating cytokines) or red meat (the saturated fat fans inflammation).

    Three months after our first meeting she walked into my office without her cane. “My daughter took me to a baseball game last week, and I had a hot dog. My knees

    were killing me for three days afterwards. But I went back on my program, and you know what? I feel so good I’m going to move North, where I can get some land.” And

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

     

  • Apr6

    5 Tips on How to Lead the Food Revolution

    Posted in: Wellness and Health

    1. Prepare for a little discomfort: standing up in front of strangers, being known for something you believe in, breaking your day-glo-colored-snack from a vending-machine habit. Not comfortable. But big.

    2. Stay positive. No need to tear others’ food down, just because you have a better idea. Example: serve a beautiful, real-food recipe (use one of mine–they’re free) at your next party or Sunday dinner. Without the pep talk.

    3. Connect people: they expect it. Healthful eaters are the new silent majority. Tweet, blog, facebook, linked in link, youtube post and comment. Talk to people at church and in the produce section. How about those snap peas? How ’bout that epicurious? How about the Biggest Loser, or Huntington’s schools?

    4. Make your new idea old. Didn’t 7th grade kids used to take “home economics”? Didn’t we used to use the rim of the plate for decoration, instead of more food? Didn’t we used to use plates? Each of these “new ideas” has roots in the past which make them familiar.

    5. Feel the burn. What you care about leads to your place of leadership. Is it flavor, or child obesity, or diabetes treatment, or organics, or longevity? Take that passion, and bring something new to the break room. Talk to a hospital nurse about what is served to sick people. Work an hour a month at the local Foodbank. Then actively link up online. People who are interested will find you, and when they do, they’ll follow you. Passion itself is transformational. And so are you.

     

  • Jan5

    Capsiplex: Does Chile Work for Weight Loss?

    Posted in: Drug Food Safety

    Can weight loss and wellness be yours in a Capsiplex pill? Especially a chile head pill, with Britney, Brad and JLo as testimonials?

    There is clear evidence that capsaicin (the chemical in chilies that makes hot peppers hot, and presumably in capsiplex) does increase metabolic rate, and *eaten* over months, does help people eat less.

    The studies cited on capsiplex.com, and many more in pubmed.gov and my Culinary Medicine book, show fat-burning from capsaicin, in the right dosage, can work…though few people can stomach the right dose. Most studies are done with chilies, not supplements.

    However, the studies cited on Capsiplex.com are for a different compound, Capsimax™ Plus Blend. It consists of:

    Capsicum Fruit Extract
    Caffeine Anhydrous
    Black Pepper Extract (Piperine)
    Niacin

    If Capsiplex contains these, it’s not a good idea, IMO, for people with high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, irritability or caffeine addiction…without medical supervision.

    The amounts in Capsimax Plus are not mentioned; and the Capsiplex label is nowhere to be found. If the studies claiming “278 calorie burning” are published anywhere, there is no reference.

    The best way to wellness and weight loss in 2010 is learning what’s in what you eat. Choose quality over quantity, with extra flavor.

    Don’t be fooled by pills claiming to be good food.

     

  • Dec15

    "Drinks with Benefits" for Diabetes Prevention

    Posted in: Common Conditions, Environmental Health

    “Drinking 4 cups of coffee, decaf, or tea daily can reduce the chances of getting type 2 diabetes by about 25 percent to 35 percent.”

    That’s usually 6 ounce cups, that’s Harvard University data, and that’s almost 500,000 people…though a “small study.” Nonsense.

    Chalk another one up for the convergence of food-is-medicine, the medical literature, and real food. The green movement and the local food movements are close behind.

    And conventional medicine is finally catching up to patients. This week alone we’ve seen:

    1. a glowing review of “an up-to-date nutrition reference text that physicians, particularly family practice physicians, should have on their bookshelves” …about food that can help prevent and control disease (more books on culinary medicine).

    2. a JAMA caution about artificial sweeteners (saccharin, acesulfame, aspartame, neotame, sucralose). A pediatrician calls them an “inadvertent public health experiment”, citing 2009 adult data showing a 67% greater risk for type 2 diabetes with daily diet soda. Just one daily.

    3. Chefs beginning to think about the flavors of street food and their own health in the same taco.

    Of course, a low carb, low glycemic load, higher monounsaturated fat, plant-based diet with fewer calories and directed, guided, sustained muscle cell build up to amass insulin receptors is best for most people trying to prevent and control type II diabetes.

    Maybe it’s the magnesium, lignans, and chlorogenic acids in coffee; maybe it’s tea catechins which lower sugar production; maybe caffeine has something to do with it.

    But the take-out point? Food works. Get the right stuff.

    If coffee or tea were FDA improved, there would be a run on doctors’ offices and pharmacies. Caution if you’re addicted, have a heart arrhythmia, or have an anxiety disorder. Otherwise, enjoy.

     
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