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  • May31

    Personal Food Revolution #6: Lose 100#. Avoid Stomach Surgery.

    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 #6 of 7.*

    Kathi uses seat belt extenders on airplanes and airplane trays ride up on her stomach. Her car seat is back as far as it can go.

    She owns no pants without elastic waists, except those that do not fit. Sometimes she stops breathing when she sleeps. Her sister died of diabetic ketoacidosis last year.

    I recommended that Kathi see a bariatric surgeon for a gastric bypass. It does carry risk and means learning new eating habits, but it works very well.

    She refused. She had taken every diet pill and intimidated every dietitian she had met. She rejected theories of genetic fatalism. She knew that I could help her.

    So I agreed to try. I drew a plate. Three-quarters vegetables and one-quarter other foods—foods she chose. She would see me and her physician regularly.

    We have continued to work at it. As Oprah has said, “I’ve been through lots of diet programs, and there’s nothing like getting up and getting going and going for a walk in the morning.”

    Over 3 years she lost 120 pounds. And has kept off 60, after 5 years. Not perfect. But better.

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

     

  • 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.

     

  • 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.

     
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