Paging Dr La Puma

Mar18

3 Foods That Boost Your Sex Drive

Posted in: Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

No, it’s not hype. It’s science.

I gave a talk on “Manly Dieting” to the National Wellness Association at #IHRSA in LA on Culinary Medicine and Manly Dieting this week, and was overwhelmed with the response: 10% of the audience spoke with me afterwards, to ask if they could be in my beta test for men (and bring 9 other men), which we plan to run online later this year. I loved it, and plan to include them. Meanwhile:

1. Walnuts (not drive but performance).

Especially after a fatty (read salami and cheese) meal: walnuts keep your arteries from constricting in response and responding abnormally to exercise and exertion. Walnuts are also high in the amino acid arginine, which you need to make nitric oxide, to keep arteries flexible, and improve your blood flow.

Dosage: 8 walnuts, with your meal, 4 hours before sex. Take with Viagra/Cialis/Levitra, or instead.

b. Beans, legumes and seeds, especially kidney beans, peanuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

These foods are richest in arginine, an amino acid which precedes nitric oxide in the body. And nitric oxide allow vessels to dilate.

An excellent study showed that a supplement high in arginine improved female desire, satisfaction and frequency of sex, regardless of menopausal status. Note: watermelon, which generates arginine indirectly, probably only makes you pee more.

c. Mediterranean foods, if you have a big belly and metabolic syndrome. The diet works to help you burn belly (visceral) fat…which blocks insulin so you store more fat, squeeze your kidney and poison your liver. If you’re a guy, you should know that belly fat turns the testosterone your testes make into estrogen. And drops your ability to make muscle, get lean and strong, and other drops.

The Mediterranean diet as a whole helps women with metabolic syndrome have better sex: better overall desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, pain.

It also helps men overcome erectile dysfunction (ED), also known as impotence. One-third of obese men with ED cure their disease after 2 years of a Mediterranean-style diet and exercise.

Dosage: It’s a meal! Three times daily.

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Mar3

Medicare Pays for Obesity: A Webinar and Cheat Sheet

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

Lots of things are starting to move. The economy is getting a little better. The bees in the avocado orchard are buzzing. My patients seem to be firing on all cylinders.

And Medicare is starting to pay doctors to counsel patients about obesity…and to help them lose weight. (I’ve been lobbying for this for decades). Right now, it’s aimed at guys in John Goodman’s age bracket. But not for long!

This is remarkable, life-changing and powerful. Doctors are like other workers: they do more of what they are paid well to do. And the right word from your physician can make the difference between losing the fat, or not.

Of course, Medicare does not pay docs well to do this: I estimate (from the RVUs) $34 to counsel patients on what is arguably the most complex and difficult to treat endocrine disorder.

But Medicare does offer 22 visits (if you lose 6.6# by visit 16, in month 6). And tells doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants what they need to do to help patients.

I think this is so important I am doing a live 90 minute webinar for clinicians and mana gers later this month. I’ll publish a step-by-step downloadable log, and a separate, detailed white paper here for those who want to get the documentation just right.

I’ve been interviewing coders and clinicians all over the country! Medicare and risk management are so hard to understand! But essential! Because I’m on a mission to help people who want to get really healthy do so! Whether it’s 20, 40 or 100#, you can do it!

Another encouraging note: PBS stations in Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin are re-broadcasting my “Eat and Cook Healthy” this month…and more every day!

It’s 90 minutes (+5 DVDs and a CD) jam-packed with everything I could squeeze in about culinary medicine–and what to eat for diabetes, cholesterol, back pain, heart disease and more. It’s a donation to PBS, one of the best things I know. TV is a blast to do: you can see a sneak preview on YouTube, and follow me on Twitter for broadcast times.

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Feb20

IACP Cookbook Awards: Health. Somewhat.

Posted in: Diabetes, Food FAQ's, Wellness and Health

The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) 2012 Cookbook Award Finalists have just been announced. The IACP has never been terribly interested in Health, seeing cooking as a master craft, and health as something to put up with.

I feel lucky to have been invited to speak in Portland at the national annual IACP meeting two years ago, on culinary medicine. The audience loved it. Or maybe it was just David Briggs’ gourmet chocolates for free (just mentioned in the Wall Street Journal as a taste of Portlandia).

But with these books, and with the upcoming annual conference, there’s just the faintest lessening of daylight between cooking on the one hand, and health on the other, in the peri-Chew culinary world.

(though tellingly, when I googled “iacp new york conference 2012 health track”, the top two hits belonged to the International Association of the Chiefs of Police).

These books, though, make health taste really, really good: check them out.

Ancient Grains for Modern Meals
Author: Maria Speck (finally, what to do with whole grains!)

Food Intolerance Management Plan
(already a hit in Australia, and just being released in the U.S: resembles the Specific Carb Diet approach)
Authors: Dr. Sue Shepherd, Dr. Peter Gibson

The Sweet Life: Diabetes Without Boundaries
Author: Sam Talbot (a rockstar chef, and Dr Oz guest)

For those who believe that butter and salt are actually techniques, and not merely ingredients, as does IACP keynoter, former CIA instructor, writer and entrepreneur Mark Ruhlman in Ruhlman’s 20, here are the IACP Cookbooks of the Year for 2009, 2010 and 2011. Enjoy!

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Feb15

IBS: Recommended Diet and Books

Posted in: Wellness and Health
Two of my (well-informed, really sharp, time-stretched) friends this month have called me to ask for advice about Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Crohn’s Disease. Specifically, what to eat and what to avoid.

In looking thru the latest research, it’s surprising how much info and misinformation there is. No wonder people are confused! Two books help.

It’s very clear that for some conditions, food works as well as prescription medicine, and in some cases, better. For many people with IBS (and for everyone with Celiac disease…do you have it?) it’s the difference between feeling well and feeling sick.

The Specific Low Carb Diet, is also known as the low-FODMAPS diet (described below), for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In IBS – Free at Last, dietitian Patsy Catsos describes the diet and its treatment.

FODMAPs are:
1. Fermentable
2. Oligosaccharides (eg. Fructans and Galactans)
3. Disaccharides (eg. Lactose), Monosaccharides (eg. excess Fructose) and
4. Polyols (eg. Sorbitol, Mannitol, Maltitol, Xylitol and Isomalt)
Some people who make the change find that their IBS diarrhea stops within 7-days…for the first time in years.

These carbs (1-4 above) provide a substrate for pro-inflammatory bacteria, and cause problems. Symptoms can improve dramatically. And in Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, Raman Prasad makes it delicious.

Trying this, one step at a time, is a way to regain control over your gut and your body.

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Feb6

Overweight but Malnourished: How? What to Do?

Posted in: Common Conditions, Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

TOTAL CALORIES: 24,375 TOTAL GRAMS OF FAT: 1,285 TOTAL COST: $86.47

My patients eat a lot of calories, but are actually malnourished.

Your brain doesn’t count calories–it counts nutrients. But there are few (worth absorbing), and it’s hungry for more.

Your stomach is empty and growling but you just ate. Too many calories, too few nutrients. Brain poop. (Conversely, a low starch, higher healthy fat Mediterranean diet seems to fight brain damage).

Belly fat is toxic, and sugar and starch cause its accumulation, not fat.

Belly fat lies adjacent to the liver, mainlines fat there and you end up with foie gras as a liver. Which is still illegal in my sweet home Chicago, a true paradox.

The kidneys get squeezed, and you get high blood pressure. The number one hormonal organ in your body, if you’re overweight, may well be your belly fat.

80 million Americans are diabetic, or pre-diabetic. That epidemic is going to destroy our health as a country.

Doctors treat with medicine, because those are the weapons that we were trained to offer. But they’re only band-aids, and as effective as French Fries on a heart patient’s hospital menu.

Diabetes medicines often cause more weight gain. So do some common high blood pressure medicine–beta blockers, for example, slow down your pulse and with that, y0ur metabolism.

But there is hope. Nearly 90 percent of type II diabetes are reversible. Having high cholesterol is often reversible, without statins. Controlling high blood pressure with your lifestyle and healthy self is within your reach.

The environment takes decades to change. But you can change your own habits tomorrow. One small step at a time.

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