One of the things that I find really constructive to creating a healthy lifestyle is cooking. Becoming familiar with cooking meals allows you to feed yourself with exactly what specifically your body needs. Feeling comfortable enough with making substitutions in recipes so that they better nourish yourself is an essential step to achieving overall wellness. Additionally, by cooking at home rather than eating out, you can ideally reduce the amount of processed foods you are eating. Eliminating as many processed foods from your diet as possible is another crucial step to a healthier lifestyle. Also, I think it’s really important to cook and eat food that you actually like. Sometimes eating healthy can feel like a sacrifice, like you have to cut out foods that you really like, and lose joy in eating. By cooking, you can learn to make the delicious dishes that you want, and realize that healthy food is actually really tasty!
Continue reading “Cook your way to a healthy lifestyle.”Elevated Levels of Heavy Metals are Common and Concerning
For the past decade I have monitored patients for heavy metals, specifically lead and mercury. I find elevated levels on a weekly basis and, sadly, these results no longer surprise me.
Continue reading “Elevated Levels of Heavy Metals are Common and Concerning”Salt: How Much is Too Much?
Recently I was surprised when a patient who was newly diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure) mentioned that she had not been advised to cut back on salt, even after consulting with a nutritionist. This is concerning, as, according to the CDC, it is estimated that 90 percent of Americans ages 2 years and above consume too much salt (sodium), and that 2.5 million deaths around the world could be prevented if our salt consumption was reduced to meet the levels recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Continue reading “Salt: How Much is Too Much?”Timing Matters when Intermittent Fasting
In the 15th century, the word breakfast became used to describe “breaking the fast.” However, when many people start intermittent fasting they tend to skip breakfast and begin eating at lunchtime. Unfortunately they are undermining their weight loss goals, as studies show that the benefits of fasting tend to be diminished when calories are shifted to the latter part of the day.
Continue reading “Timing Matters when Intermittent Fasting”What is a Healthy Glucose Level?
Recently I wrote about continuous glucose monitors, advanced technology for measuring glucose levels. Now that we know how glucose is measured and the available data, it’s important to explore what constitutes a “normal” glucose level.
Continue reading “What is a Healthy Glucose Level?”Gut-Wrenching Facts about Processed Foods
Most nutrition experts agree on a fundamental belief made famous by author Michael Pollan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mainly plants.” Pollan’s writings reflect that “food” refers to real, unprocessed food, and that what Americans buy in supermarkets and consume is, for the most part, far from real.
Continue reading “Gut-Wrenching Facts about Processed Foods”Cardiometabolic Health and The Thyroid
Cardiometabolic health is often an overlooked aspect in the management of hormonal health and, specifically, thyroid health. The two are intricately connected, displaying a complex, weblike relationship that is both interdependent and bidirectional.
Continue reading “Cardiometabolic Health and The Thyroid”COVID-19 Brings Attention to Cardiometabolic Health
Every day I see patients with varying health challenges, many of whom are additionally metabolically unhealthy. With the risk of COVID-19, poor cardiometabolic health has gained more attention, and some experts are even referring to it as a pandemic within the pandemic. As a preventive integrative physician, I see this as an opportunity for many to focus on metabolic health and, hopefully, make lemonade from lemons.
Continue reading “COVID-19 Brings Attention to Cardiometabolic Health”Approaching Wellness through Salutogenesis
Physicians spend a lot of time detecting and attempting to “fix” patients’ health issues. Over time, I have retrained myself to focus on reframing health goals to include not only the absence of disease, but the importance of living optimally and vibrantly.
Continue reading “Approaching Wellness through Salutogenesis”The Bitter Truth
We have all heard that too much sugar is bad for us. While sugar is clearly a villain, the lack of bitter in our diet also impacts our health.