On many occasions, patients have asked me whether it’s OK to eat fruit. They’re worried about whether they should be eating foods high in sugar. Is fruit in that category? No, it is not. Does anyone really believe that fruit is what’s causing the paired epidemics of diabetes and obesity? This scourge is not being caused by fruit.
Let’s think about this. As long as the sugar in the food you …
Fruit and sugar: Debunking the myths
Mindfulness, my own personal word-of-the-decade, is the polar opposite of multitasking, which is not at all what it sounds like. Despite popular opinion, multitasking does not help you to get a whole bunch of different things done all at once. When you multitask, what you actually do is to switch your attention incessantly from one focus to another, giving none your full consideration. To multitask is to invest heavily in …
The antidote to multitasking is mindfulness
All kinds of behaviors can have an effect on your weight, and the solution to each is different.
Maybe portion size is your biggest issue. Maybe it’s hard to get moving, even though you know you need to get some exercise. Maybe you have a sweet tooth that you can’t shake. Maybe you’re completely stressed out, and you never get a decent night’s sleep. Maybe you are a nighttime snacker. Or …
Solving the different behaviors that lead to obesity
Frankly, it rankles me when people use the term “healthy fats.” We don’t make a distinction like that when we’re talking about carbohydrates, although there are certainly carbs that are nutritious and carbs that are not.
Consider the Atkins diet. I like to believe that Dr. Atkins was on the right track, but that he had some of the details wrong. Clearly, he realized that there was something about carbohydrate in …
I like my patients vertical. Not horizontal.
If I can help it, I want to make sure that nobody gets a disease that could have been prevented. Sure, accidents happen. And illnesses show up every day in the lives of people who did nothing to deserve them, and who could have done nothing to prevent them. But not all illnesses.
Physicians know that newly diagnosed diabetic patients present to the doctor …
Doctors diagnose diabetes 10 years later than the disease warrants
What does low-carb mean? Well, the first thing it means is that something else has more carb. So what are you comparing it to? Breakfast cereal? Angel food cake? The standard American diet (sAd)? Anything would be low-carb compared to those.
A whole bunch of folks at the Nutrition & Metabolism Society have been working hard to help people understand that carbohydrate, and not dietary fat, is the main dietary component causing …
The problem with naming a diet low carb
On the subject of shopping for and preparing nutritious meals, one piece of advice that I like to share is that it’s best to stick to the outer walls of the supermarket and avoid the center. So with only a few exceptions, like flour, oil and beans, that’s exactly how I shop. What does it mean to shop at the edges of the supermarket? Let me show you what I …
Supermarket tips for preparing nutritious meals
My mom doesn’t take any diabetes medicine. She keeps her blood sugars normal through a combination of common sense and careful carbohydrate consumption.
A few months ago, she had to be hospitalized for what she calls a “minor procedure.” The procedure went fine, but not the food. The first meal they brought her consisted of breaded fish (frozen), mashed potatoes (instant), corn (canned), a dinner roll (frozen), and tea (2 sugar …
Hospital meals make it difficult to control blood sugars
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