Category Archives: Uncategorized

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4 ways you become a fat vegan

I encounter many vegan or near-vegan patients who remain quite heavy or have a host of medical problems like diabetes, hypertension or even heart disease. Most vegan patients have a relatively simple time controlling their weight. But there are some exceptions to this rule. Lets consider a few of them.

You still eat too many nuts

Nuts are a dirty fuel.
From Medicalnewstoday.com. Nuts are a hidden dirty fuel, and a healthy one.

When an overweight person tells me they eat well, my first inclination is to ask if she counts the nuts she eats. Most people eat nuts by the handful while watching the game or a favorite TV show. Nuts are very healthy in limited quantities, but they are high in calories. Moreover, they are high in good fat, but it is still fat. When you eat fat it accumulates around the midsection and waist line for most folks. As a rule of thumb, I eat no more than 10-20 total nuts of any type on any given day. Nuts are a great appetite suppressant in limited quantities as well, but it backfires with larger portions.

Check those Avocados

Avocado-a not so obvious dirty fuel.
Avocado taken from Healthline.com

Avocados are expensive After some questioning, many admit that they eat avocado smoothies and avocado toast sometimes more than once or twice daily. Avocados are healthy in limited quantities, but they are high in fat calories. More than 1-2 weekly can lead to weight gain, and medical problems.

You still eat dirty fuel

Potato chips, the classic dirty fuel.
Classic dirty fuel

I love potato chips, but I might eat them on Christmas, New Years, July 4th, or my birthday. I just save them for a special occasion. Vegan restaurants carry french fries, tater tots and potato or vegetable chips with their sandwiches. These add up over time. Remember: It is not enough to simply eat clean fuel. You must limit or eliminate dirty fuel consumption as well. Weight Watchers only works because it limits your dirty fuel intake. But, the method requires portion control. On the other hand, eating clean fuel completely blows Weight Watchers away. You actually burn fat when you eat clean fuel combined with fruits and vegetables, and you can eat as much as you want or until your body says no.

To put it all together, if you are eating health and remain heavy, then chances are you are eating too many nuts, to many avocados, or a substantial amount of dirty fuel in addition to clean fuel. Let me know if you have questions. I wish you all well!

Check out this article for a list of clean and dirty fuel foods.

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5 Flu-Fighting Foods

This year  brought the worse influenza season I have seen since 2009.  Most people were affected by influenza in some way this year.  As the season hopefully winds down, I want to offer suggestions on using foods to prevent influenza and boost your immune system.

 

1.  Butternut Squash

Image result for butternut squash

I simply love this mildly sweet, but gentle starchy vegetable.  It is an anti-inflammatory food and also is a  good immune system enhancer.

2.  Sweet Potatoes

Image result for sweet potato

You are never wrong eating this starchy vegetable.  It has plenty of antioxidants including vitamin C, and beta-carotene that improve immune system function.  Carrots are another good option.

3.  Mushrooms

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This superfood boosts your numbers of T cells and natural killer cells of the immune system making you resistant to viral infection.   They also contain selenium, an immunity enhancing trace mineral.

  1. Black-eyed pea

Image result for black-eyed peas food

These flavorful peas contain zinc, a trace metal,  that is instrumental in immune system function.   Zinc is included in other foods such as pumpkin seeds and pinto beans.

5.  Almonds

Image result for almonds

 

Almonds contain vitamin E and they help prevent viral infection.  Unfortunately, almonds are a dirty fuel so strict portion control is necessary to avoid weight gain.  I recommend no more than 10-20 daily.  Almonds can be consumed as almond meal, almond oil, or almond butter.

Uncategorized, Weight Loss

Real Food vs Fake Food

Fake food, like fake news, is an interesting concept.  This concept and post was borne out of a conversation with a patient frustrated by his inability to lose weight despite exercise and dietary changes.  He proceeded to give me a list of the foods he ate the prior day.

Breakfast- eggs, toast and water.

Lunch-  turkey sandwich and chips with water.

Dinner-  spaghetti, garlic bread and salad, and water.

On the surface, his diet looks good.  There are some good elements here.  He did drink water.  Soda, juice, and dairy are dirty fuels full of empty calories and do not relieve hunger.   He avoided junk food except for the chips over lunch.

On the other hand,  there are reasons why he is not achieving his goal.  Keep in mind that exercise only accounts for 20% of weight loss at best so diet is the cornerstone.  The most glaring issue is the lack of any clean fuel for the entire day.    As I have said before, clean fuel foods are necessary for weight loss.  When I first started eating clean fuel, I at least tried to consume a clean fuel food once daily.  Now, I do my best to eat at least one or two clean fuel items with every meal.   The theory is that clean fuel stimulates fat burning.   If you eat dirty fuel without any counterbalancing clean fuel, then unopposed weight gain is possible, and you certainly will not lose weight.  Meanwhile, consider the food I ate earlier this week.

Alternative diet menu plan:

Breakfast- oatmeal or cinnamon-pecan Special K with almond milk

Snack-blood orange, banana

Lunch-  sauteed mushrooms,  and roasted potatoes with a tossed salad.

Dinner- Tossed salad, butternut squash tacos with purple cabbage slaw,  slow-cooker pinto beans cooked in beer,  Asian rice pilaf, green salad.

Dessert- blood orange.

Again, I make sure to have a clean fuel food with every meal and dirty fuel is largely absent.  There are several fruit and vegetable servings as well.

My pinto bean recipe will be done soon and posted.    Do not forget to like this article on Facebook, subscribe or share the post with your friends.  Please leave a comment if you have questions.

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Food Energy

Can you eat foods that improve energy?  One of the most common complaints I see is fatigue, or feeling tired.  I see fatigue complaints at least 1-2 times weekly.

Fatigue is a nonspecific issue and there are many reasons for it.  The most common reasons include low vitamin B12, depression, medication side effects, sleep apnea, low testosterone, sleep disorders,  and substance abuse disorders.  I take a thorough history, examination,  check thyroid and vitamin B12 levels along with a basic set of labs.  However,  once the history, physical and bloodwork yield no diagnosis, I am done.

Before three years ago, I laid these issues to rest, but I made a few discoveries as I learned more about nutrition.  For one, there is frequently a correlation between your diet and your energy level.  I commonly encounter a tired man who eats once daily, usually dinner, but skips breakfast and/or lunch routinely.  Or,  he eats a  Chic-fil-A chicken biscuit, hash rounds with coffee or Krispy Kreme doughnut for breakfast.  .

The problem with any of the above foods is that they are dirty fuel, not clean fuel.  Dirty fuel is high in calories due to fat content, but nutritionally deficient  in comparison to clean fuel, fruits, and vegetables.  Krispy  Kreme doughnuts are processed foods that cause huge blood sugar increases with subsequent sugar crashes that leave you tired.  Doughnuts have a high glycemic index leading to rapid, massive sugar release into the bloodstream.  Bacon, eggs, and toast in combination or separate fails to provide much readily available “good sugar” to improve energy.  Sugar is the first and best  fuel your body wants to burn.  Fat and protein are not as easily accessible for energy when compared with sugar; therefore, many become tired when eating  low carbohydrate diets.

Clean fuel foods are significant because they are  slow-release   carbohydrates (low glycemic index) supplying a steady stream of sugar into your blood stream leading to better metabolism, improved appetite, increased energy,  and effective brain function.

So, instead of having a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from McDonald’s, consider the oatmeal, or better yet, make  it at home and eat it at work the next day.

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Clean snacks?

The holidays are an interesting time of year  for food.  There are all types of temptations especially at work.  I never want to become so desperate that I mindlessly consume whatever is present.   I have improved my willpower over the years by providing myself with plenty of options.

At least once yearly, someone gives me a gift basket containing mixed nuts or candied nuts.  I love eating nuts.  They taste great, and they reduce your appetite when consumed in small amounts numbering 10-20 daily.  However, eating more  will cause weight gain that is difficult to lose.  You see nuts are made of good fat, but your body still absorbs it directly as fat.  Nuts are dirty fuel plain and simple.  It will not help  your cause if weight loss is your goal.

Though we have talked about it already, cured meats and cheese are commonly contained in gift baskets, and they are tempting.  Please refer to my prior post on milk and disease for more details.  But both are quintessential dirty fuels.

How can you overcome these temptations?  By supplying yourself with plenty of options.  First, if able, always eat breakfast before going to work or take it with you and eat it soon after you arrive.  I usually eat cereal with almond milk or overnight oatmeal.  Both are very filling.  Second, I bring 1-2 bananas, or a banana and grapes with me.  Though I am not a fiend for sweets, the natural sweetness of fruit satisfies me enough to bolster my willpower.  And I may only do one serving or a small piece of a pastry rather than doing 1 or more of them if I do any at all.  Or course, all bets are off if you drive all day for work or do construction.  I will save that for another post.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

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Eating Out and Clean

Eating out and clean is a struggle.  I try to eat meat or dirty fuel  once daily on three out of seven days weekly.  Someone asked me today if I eat meat to get enough vitamin B12.  For those who do not know, vitamin B12  is found in meat, and you can become B12-deficient on a vegan diet.  Anyone on a vegan diet should consider taking over-the-counter vitamin B12 1000 micrograms (mcg) once daily.   I told her  I eat meat in certain situations  out of desperation (due to lack of options) more than vitamin B12. I don’t always have the time to cook and my refrigerator is empty when that happens.

You see, I struggle with the same struggles anyone else does.  I have  enjoyed my fair share of dirty fuel, and yet I have severely limited my dirty fuel consumption  for over two years.

With that said, I wanted to give some specific recommendations for anyone interested in eating clean while out.

1.  I have heard that Taco Bell has a decent-to- good vegan menu.  I cannot vouch for  it since I do not eat their food.

  1. Mexican restaurants: I recommend beans and greens for maximum weight loss, but these restaurants offer diverse rice and bean options.  You cannot go wrong.  Try not to do cheese and sour cream though.

3.  Thai or Chinese restaurants:  Jasmine rice is good stuff especially combined with other sides.  Do not sleep on rice.  Rice is required at every meal in parts of Asia and people are rarely overweight unless they eat KFC.

4.  Soulfood and Caribbean restaurants:  They are imperfect, but you can usually get beans, potatoes, yams, cabbage and other assorted vegetables.

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Dirty and Diabetes

I have mentioned this before, but I will reiterate it again.  Diet was not a priority during my medical training.  We always asked or ordered an  American Diabetes Association (ADA) diabetic diet consisting of 1500-2000 calories per day for hospitalized patients with diabetes.  The ADA diet consisted of eating a well-balanced  diet that limited processed food consumption.  On the surface,  it seemed to help diabetes, but these patients rarely improved their sugars and many had to at least maintain their present medications.

The ADA diet is inadequate for eliminating diabetes, but eating clean fuel and limiting dirty fuel can clearly control diabetes and reduce insulin  and medication use.   Carbohydrates are supposedly the problem, but rice is consumed in large quantities in Asia where diabetes is rare.  Furthermore, parts of Africa are similar and their primary diet is sweet potatoes and beans.  Again, carbohydrates do not cause diabetes.

However, there are several studies showing the contribution of fat to the diagnosis of diabetes.  Fat containing foods or dirty fuel promote fat absorption, weight gain and insulin resistance leading to diabetes.   The difference between the western world and parts of Africa and Asia is that the western world eats more processed food, fat and animal protein than the simple carbohydrates consumed in other parts of the world.

Compare a diabetes-causing meal versus a diabetes-curing meal.

Dirty meal:  Fried or baked wings, french fries and cole slaw.

Clean meal:  Two oven roasted sweet potatoes (1 tablespoon of olive oil) prepared like french fries, a bowl of black beans and a tossed salad.

The dirty meal causes diabetes, but there is not one sweet item on the menu.  However, the grease and animal protein causes insulin resistance fueling diabetes.  The clean meal is a profoundly low fat meal.  Eating this way will reduce a patient’s weight, diabetes medications or insulin requirements.    I did not provide the specific references to articles contained in the post, but please write a comment if anyone is interested in obtaining them.

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Diet and Cancer

There was a time as a physician when I was less interested in diet.  After taking my board exams three years ago, I decided to confront diet once and for all.  I embarked on an educational journey to determine specific instructions for patients with certain medical conditions.  Though I was already aware of the effect of food on the treatment of high blood pressure and diabetes, I was uninformed about its effect on cancer risk. I touched on this a bit in my last post.  This post will dig into this topic a bit more.    The China study fully informed me of the relationship between food and cancer.

In the 1980s, the China study looking into death rates and cause of death in China spanning 20 years.  These rates were mapped and grouped into geographical areas.  The study concluded that coastal provinces were noted to have the highest incidence of cancer; whereas, cancer rates were nonexistent in the rural provinces.  Incidentally, the coastal areas included wealthy big cities like Shanghai and Beijing and their eating habits were different.  They consumed much more meat, eggs, and dairy than those in the rural provinces.  Meanwhile those in the rural areas were not vegan or vegetarian, but they ate significantly less meat protein due to cost.  For example, they would split one chicken breast  in a rice dish 30 ways to feed 30 people.

Of course the China Study analyzed several variables in order to accurately isolate and capture the effect of multiple lifestyle factors.  And naturally, a diet low  in meat protein was most highly correlated with prolonged life span.

The China Study was a powerful analysis with very interesting results.  It was something that was omitted from my education.  I suggest looking at the documentary entitled Forks Over Knives, and then checking out the book to further flesh out the details.

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Is Eating Clean Necessary?

I just finished reading this article and I thought it raised some very interesting points.  The writer does an excellent job of discussing several misconceptions about food.  I actually do agree that celiac disease (gluten or wheat sensitivity or intestinal allergy), and  monosodium glutamate (MSG) are overblown compared to their actual level of incidence and disease severity.   Genetically modified foods are an unknown quantity. There are three points that need to analyzed.

He notes that “in some studies, processed red meat in large amounts is associated with an increased relative risk of developing cancer. The absolute risk, however, is often quite small. If I ate an extra serving of bacon a day, every day, my lifetime risk of colon cancer would go up less than one-half of 1 percent. Even then, it’s debatable.”   Though it is not well-publicized, pork and red meat have a known association with certain cancers.  The incidence of colon cancer is higher though it is nowhere near as high as the  association  between lung cancer and cigarette smoking.

He is correct on this, but he singles out just one issue.  Heart attacks, strokes and diabetes are also associated with  moderate meat consumption.  Cancer was his large point and I intend to discuss this in a later post, but he neglects to mention how diet causes two of the most common chronic illnesses in America.  Dirty fuel is the direct link to both cancer, diabetes, and heart disease in America.

The next issue is that the author notes that being afraid of food is a problem.  It is important to keep this in a certain context.  You will do better than most if you ensure that 90% of your food is clean fuel.  Doing so will ensure that you are not necessarily vegan, but you will be what Dr. Joel Fuhrman refers to as a nutritarian.

And last, but not least, the author is an Pediatrician  and researcher at Indiana University School of Medicine.  Many university researchers seek grants from large corporations to perform food industry-friendly research and receive large payments in exchange for pushing certain narratives.  His viewpoint differs from mine in that I am an internist who sees cancer, diabetes, and heart disease on a daily basis. He is a pediatrician and has limited daily exposure to the long-term effects of these chronic conditions.

 

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Weight loss? How is it done?

In my last post, I discussed how to begin a weight loss journey.  Today I will dig deeper on this topic.  Most patients come to me  with the desire to loose weight, but they barely eat.  Skipping meals, eating sweets or consuming high calorie beverages are very common.  These same patients  tell me that they exercise  consistently or are getting back into it .

In my experience , there are two primary reasons patients fail to lose weight.

Scenario #1:  A woman eats balanced meals including clean fuel three times daily , and yet weight loss remains elusive.   She eats oatmeal with eggs and sausage in the  morning, and  yogurt and a chicken sandwich for lunch.  Dinner consists of beans, rice, and a chicken breast.    She is not eating poorly, but I see why the weight remains.  Quite simply, clean fuel intake has increased, but dirty fuel intake remains unchanged.  You cannot do both.  It is not enough to simply eat more clean fuel and lose weight.  Dirty fuel intake must severely decrease for effective, sustained weight loss with or without exercise.  Moreover, decreased dirty fuel means more clean fuel is necessary.  Otherwise, you will get hungry.

Scenario #2:

A man weighing 300-400 lbs experiences steady weight gain yearly, but only eats 1-2 meals daily.    He walks 30-60 minutes daily and still the weight remains.  When a person skips a meal, the body’s metabolism will go in to “emergency mode” and seek to burn as few calories as possible because it physiologically does not know if and when it will get its next meal.  Hence, failing to eat slows down the body’s metabolism (the ability to burn calories).

Not only is his metabolism slower, but he is very hungry by the end of the day,  and stops for  takeout  where he eats a  dirty fuel meal consisting of a  fried chicken breast sandwich, large fries and a milk shake, thereby consuming 2000 calories  in one meal.   Of course, by eating dirty fuel, the body has no choice but to absorb this meal directly as fat rather than burn it.  Again, clean fuel stimulates fat burning.  The absence of any food at breakfast and lunch with dirty fuel for his last  meal means that his body holds on to every calorie,   and he has unopposed fat absorption over the entire day.   This scenario leads to excessive weight gain and is very common.

In all,  eating three meals  daily containing fruits/vegetables and clean fuel will lead to long term fat burning and  weight loss success as long as dirty fuel intake is eliminated or severely reduced.  My goal  is to eat meat or dirty fuel no more than once daily three days weekly.   Exercise is helpful, but weight loss is not substantial without profound dietary changes.