Nutrition

Nutrition is the scientific interpretation of how nutrients and other substances in food relate to growth, reproduction, disease and health of organisms.

weight loss

Tums, The Weight Loss Wonder Pill

Are you stuck in the seemingly endless cycle of weight loss? Weight loss can feel tricky, especially if you always feel hungry. But here’s something to consider: in the course of one year, for every 100-calorie difference in your diet, your weight will go up or down approximately 10 pounds. If you think about it, …

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Your Immune System and Limiting Your Risk to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Because of my experience, frankness, and extensive history researching and treating individuals with HIV infection, I have been asked by many friends and patients about the Coronavirus and how one may improve their immune system’s capacity to fight off infections. The best way to avoid infection with coronavirus (COVID-19) and minimize the virus’s impact if …

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Are you AGE-ing?

You might be aging too fast … from how you cook your food. The manner and the temperature in which we cook our food have a large impact on our brains and body.  Higher cooking temperatures form unnatural and unhealthy substances referred to as advanced glycation end products. These substances are ironically abbreviated as “AGEs” …

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Choosing How You Die, One Meal at a Time

Too tired to fight with the kids over healthy food and snacks? Too tempted by tasty sugars and carbs to cut them from your diet? Let’s call your diet what it really is, it is your choice of death. Everything would be easy if we could really walk on the treadmill 30 extra minutes to …

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U.S. Senate Allows Pizza to Remain Classified as a Vegetable

Wow, what would we do without the U.S. Senate? Through all their brilliance, Congress just blocked rules proposed by the USDA  (U.S. Dept of Agriculture) that was targeted to decrease the quantity of starchy foods as well as increase the amounts of vegetables in school meals. Chalk up another victory for ConAgra, Coca-Cola and Del Monte Foods in their …

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Excess Stomach Acid Mimics Hunger

Introduction It is not uncommon for individuals to occasionally feel hungry, weak, and shaky or develop a ‘sour stomach’ between meals.  Many will interpret this as a sign they need more nutrients because their symptoms seem to improve after they eat a little food.  These symptoms can be so intense that it wakes them from …

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Low Carbohydrate Treats For Halloween

Poisoning Our Children’s Future The diabetes epidemic is growing so rapidly that presently 1 of every 10 adults in the U.S. has diabetes.  That number is anticipated to grow to 1 of every 3 adults by 2050.  That means that 1/3 of all those beautiful little kids in your child’s classroom, 1/3 of their soccer teammates and …

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Carbohydrates and Urination Problems

Introduction Many patients commonly experience symptoms of urinary frequency, urgency or incontinence.  They may wake 2-4 times at night to urinate, have a sensation of needing to urinate but produce only a small amount of urine, have frequent or even the surprisingly urgent need to urinate during the daytime. Does this sound familiar?  Many of …

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The Forgotten Protein: Plant Protein

The first word that comes to mind when the word protein is mentioned is ‘meat’.  Meat can include beef, pork, fish, poultry, and eggs.  All animal meats are excellent sources of protein, some even have other sources of added nutrients such as iron.  However, a commonly forgotten protein source is plant protein.  Plants can also …

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How Processed Carbohydrates Fuel Your Hunger Part 2

Good Carbs and Bad Carbs It is important to understand there are some very healthy forms of carbohydrates that you can eat without excessively stimulating your hunger (in future posts look at the lists of low carbohydrate fruits in vegetables that can be incorporated as part of your diet). A mistake that patients of mine …

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How Processed Carbohydrates Fuel Your Hunger Part 1

The Basic Science of Carbohydrates What are carbohydrates, and how do they increase our hunger and cause us to become overweight?   Carbohydrate is the term for a wide range of molecules that are often categorized as starch, sugar or fiber.  They are usually derived from plant leaves, roots, seeds or fruit.  A few exceptions …

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A No-Cook Type of Protein? Cottage Cheese

Dairy is commonly forgotten for its protein content.  All dairy has some form of protein, and some are higher than others.  Cottage cheese is the dairy option with the highest amount of protein. A half cup serving contains between 100-120 calories, between 10-15 g of protein and a low amount of carbohydrates (3-6 grams). The …

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How to Start Your Low Carb Diet

The approach taken on this blog is not the Adkin’s diet.  Completely eliminating carbohydrates is not the intention, but more a reduction.  Reducing the amount of carbohydrates eaten in a day and increasing protein in the diet is one of the best steps toward weight loss. Besides the benefits of weight reduction, reducing carbohydrates in …

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How to Make Fast Food Healthier

Fast food restaurants are usually the quickest option for a meal, but unfortunately one of the more unhealthy options as well.  With the average fast food meal ranging upwards of 1,000 calories or more it is no surprise that the ‘convenient’ meal choice hasn’t been too convenient on American’s waistlines.  What would be a better …

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When Deciding What to Eat, Be Sure To Make It ‘Carb Worthy’

I recently had the pleasure to travel to the beautiful city of Chicago to visit friends, dine at a few nice restaurants and escape the generally maddening pace of running my medical practice. During our visit we decided to go to Gino’s East to enjoy some of their famous deep dish pizza.  Now, many of …

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Myth: You Need to Eat Carbohydrates To Fuel Your Body

Do you need to eat carbohydrates to fuel your body?  No. Carbohydrates (sugars and starches) are digested in the intestinal tract and transformed into a molecule known as glucose; this is the substance commonly referred to as blood sugar. Glucose is utilized as a energy source primarily for the brain and a small amount for …

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How To Prevent Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Attacks and Strokes

In a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers identified 4 factors tied to reduced disease risk: never smoking, having a body mass index (BMI) lower than 30, performing at least 3.5 hours per week of physical activity, and following a healthy diet. Participants with all 4 factors had a 78% lower …

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Saturated (Animal) Fat Does Not Cause Heart Disease

Ever since 1953 when a physiologist named Ancel Keys, Ph.D. compared fat intake and deaths from heart disease in seven countries including the U.S., the American medical establishment has clung to an unproven belief that saturated fat was evil. But in 1957, Jacob Yerushalmy, Ph.D. established this research was false and that Keys was guilty of only …

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America, The Snacking Nation

A recently published study from the University of North Carolina looking at trends in snacking behavior probably won’t surprise you: Almost all adults (97%) now report snacking at least once a day (up from 71% in the 70s) Adults are snacking more frequently per day.  Our snacks contain higher amounts of salt and carbohydrates (dessert foods, salty …

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French Fries Are The New Cigarette Of Health

Obesity is now a bigger overall threat to people’s health than smoking, according to results of the longest ongoing health study of adults in the United States. Obesity causes as much or more disease than tobacco, says the study, conducted by researchers from Columbia University and the City College of New York. It adds that …

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Beans Are Good for You

In terms of carbohydrates, an overall reduction of processed, simple carbohydrates in the diet is the best approach for weight loss while maintaining satiety.  Specifically, the carbohydrate reduction in the diet should focus on consuming more protein and less bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, and corn.  Along with that list, a natural reduction of sugars and …

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How Much Fish Oil Should I Take And Why?

Many patients I see  in my practice are taking fish oil supplements and don’t really understand why they are beneficial  but just that everyone seems to recommend taking them. Fish and certain plant and nut oils are common natural sources of omega-3 fatty acids.  Fatty acids are special molecules that have a wide array of …

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9 out of 10 Cocaine-Addicted Rats Prefer Artificial Sweeteners Over Cocaine!

I wanted to give you just another reason to worry about your consumption of artificial sweeteners. A recent study has demonstrated that the intense sweetness of artificial sweeteners (in this case saccharin) is preferred as a rewards over cocaine in rats.  This even applies to rats that were already addicted to cocaine! The cocaine-addicted rats …

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Do You Have Autonomic Dysfunction?