If "You Are What You Eat", Don't be Sweet!

As you know if you're following Lumigrate, our goal is to not only provide progressive, quality medical education and direction toward good sources, but to help empower each person who wants to have their 'highest health' (and if not, please click on 'Learn More' in the top box on the home page area, and also review the 'You' model on the home page).   Because I've been finding my path to health and well being since the 90's, I've covered some ground that many people around me have not, and that includes 'what you eat'.  It has become second nature to me to know what oils are better for what purposes and why, or why I only have brown rice in the house.  If you're at my house making strawberries for desert you'll find my sugar bowl with some strange looking brown crystals (turbinado sugar).  I thought I'd share some resources and concepts with you here, in case you're interested in getting started on better eating.  And as always: we strive to hit the high notes and get you going in a good direction for more information, so there will just be a few suggestions.

My favorite resource about nutrition, suprisingly, is a cook book by Andrew Weil, MD and Rosie Daley called 'The Healthy Kitchen -- Recipes for a Better Body, Life, and Spirit'.   I've always believed Dr. Weil is someone who progressed medicine to the public in enormous ways through his books and media appearances, for which I'm appreciative.  The cookbook is ingeneous because it weaves in pages here and there of education while automatically setting you up with recipes using ingredients that are healthful.  It includes a section on 'mindful eating' which when I think about it, was brought up several times yesterday in conversations with other people.  Lunch breaks get turned into hurried breaks, the television is frequently on in households when people are eating -- and we're 'missing' such a crucial time to really think about the important task 'at hand' -- which is putting food in our mouths to nourish ourselves. 

The Health Kitchen doesn't go so 'far out' that it's a completely different way of eating -- there is a recipe for angel food cake and fresh berries, for instance!  Each section begins with a page or so about concepts related to that section of the book.  The 'Beverages' section has pages about the importance of water and water quality, or why dairy/milk might be quite problematic for people to be drinking.  It doesn't go into a lot of detail, so you can cover a lot of ground quickly with this book.  It's like 'Progressive Eating: 101'.  The recipes bring in concepts inspired by the Mediterranean and Asian diets which are proven to have health benefits and are overlayed with what most of us like to eat generally.  It's interspersed with so many little facts, including sweeteners and artificial sweeteners and even will direct you to which ones appears to be safer and why, with very simple explanations ("Brand A may damage brain cells", for instance).    

In the section with deserts, Dr. Weil prefaces it with what kinds of oils to bake with and for what reasons.  Many people don't know that oils go rancid when left in the light and their beneficial properties change when heated (so steaming your vegetables and then drizzling 'healthy' oil on AFTER cooking is recommended).   I'm reminded fondly by the Huney-Nut Baklava recipe that my sister, mom and I made baklava as a holiday tradition many years ago (before we found out we had some form of wheat allergy or celiac or another).  I'm also reminded of what a process I've seen myself and others go through when they find they have a food allergy, have high blood pressure, blood sugar, etc. and "get it"  that "you are what you eat", and ultimately make the conscious decision to eat healthier. Which takes effort, but the investment is YOU and your health.

It's difficult for people because we remember all the information from the past: fats are "bad", carbohydrates are "bad", salt is "bad" ...... butter is "bad", eat margarine ... nope, now margarine is "bad", eat butter ....  It's confusing and we have to be mindful that behind any product with 'traction', there are vested interests in that product continuing to be consumed which likely influence the information we receive in much of the media.  So find resources you trust and we hope to continue to benefit more and more people looking for reliable and progressive information on such important topics as health and well being. 

There truly has been a revolution in progressive thinking about eating and nutrition, and this book is "one stop shoppin'" or "the most bang for your buck", in my opinion (and my edition is from 2002).  What Dr. Weil calls 'enlightened' principles for eating are typically coming to the public through non-medical sources because, as he states in the section on 'Nutrition and Health', physicians do not receive training in medical school "in this most important subject and so are unable to help us navigate through the confusion or interpret all the research findings."  Naturally, he is speaking about the overall/whole, and more physicians are educated and interested in these concepts daily, and if you're fortunate, yours is one.  Everyone is busy, including physicians and other health care providers, and it takes time to study about all the new developments and nutrition frequently doesn't make it to the top of the list, unfortunately. 

People are increasingly looking to the internet for information, so 'the gap' that I speak about in health care can be filled by YOU.  Decide to take an interest in your health and budget your resources (being time, energy, money) so that you can be better educated.  If you're not doing that, consider figuring out why you're 'getting in your own way' perhaps.  I have to do that all the time in this process of figuring out what's going on and making changes to have better health, today included.

Three highlights from his book:

Omega-3 fats which come from fortified eggs, salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines and walnuts (not almonds -- not all nuts have the same things, so study up if you're so inclined -- there's a link below). 

Carbohydrates: Carbs are important fuels and unfortunately popular diet programs' sound concepts have been distorted to make people think all carbohydrates are 'bad'.  Carbohydrates are basically sugars and starches.  Dr. Weil likes to look at what foods are 'better' and utilizes the glycemic index (GI) to figure how rapidly carbohydrates convert to glucose and raise blood sugar.  Food or drink like potatoes, bread, and sweet drinks cause a rapid rise in sugar which requires the pancreas to secrete insulin, which is a hormone that allows glucose to enter cells.  People who eat diets of high GI carbohydrates will gain weight and develop high levels of fat and cholesterol in their blood, with an increased risk of diabetes and high blood pressure.  The GI of a food is influenced by it's chemcial nature, physical structure, and method of preparation.  

Grains which are whole or cracked (as opposed to processed to become a 'white flour'), are converted slowly and the blood sugar rises slowly, which does not require a huge outpouring of insulin.  Oatmeal is another example: steel cut or 'Irish' metabolize differently than the 'usual American' oatmeal.  Fruits eaten as opposed to being in the form of juice is another example of the preparation being a factor with foods.  You might read our previous blog about adrenal fatigue, as that book goes into a lot of detail about blood sugar and the effect on the hormone systems which are at play in recovering from adrenal fatigue. 

We've attended Christopher Lepsito, ND's seminar on diabetes from a naturopathic standpoint, as well as Dr. April Schulte-Barclay's seminar on addressing metabolic syndrome via acupuncture and Oriental medicine and hope to bring to you a comprehensive resource about integrative medicine's approach to diabetes in the near future, because it has been very impressive to me how each discipline has a unique approach which proves to be successful with medical conditions such as diabetes, fibromyalgia, and food allergies.  Dr. Lepisto's seminar demonstrates how progression continues in thinking, with some providers now utilizing 'glycemic load' (GL) for reference about foods, which factors in the fiber and water.  Generally, for advise about nutrition, he recommends Nourish This, a website of progressive information about nutrition and we'll provide that link, below; it utilizes GI, but there are sources online related to glycemic load you want to investigate that further.  

Those old sayings sometimes just are perfect: "You Are What You Eat".   I also heard a new one yesterday on the local public radio station from Tim O'Brien's song Less and Less: "Coffee in the mornin'... a little wine at night .... A meal somewhere in the middle ....  I think I'll be alright."  So we hope that gave you a little chuckle as well, and that you are inspired ..  as I am reminded to be ...  to do your best with nutrition every day.  We all need to continue learning and helping others in their knowledge as well, ane one way is letting them know about good resources and information we find, just as we have done here with YOU. Please pass it on!

Resources:

The Health Kitchen - Recipes for a Better Body, Life, and Spirit, by Andrew Weil, MD and Rosie Daley

Dr. Weil's website: www.drweil.com [1]

Website of progressive nutrition information: www.nourishthis.com. [2]

Christopher Lepisto, ND, Integrative Medicine Center of Western Colorado www.imcwc.com [3]

(Acupuncture is also a component at The IMC, so their website is a good resource for more information on Oriental medicine, as well as what Scott Rollins, MD includes about hormones.  (Testosterone, if lagging, leads to less muscle mass, which then plays a role with metabolism and blood sugar normalization.)

April Schulte-Barclay, DAOM, www.hhacumed.com [4]