A National Focus on Food as Medicine
On Wednesday, September 28th, 2022, at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, President Biden introduced a national strategy that recognizes the critical role that nutrition plays in health. Efforts were spurred by the fact that 80% of our health expenditures go to treat preventable illnesses, and that one in ten households still do…
Zooming with Chef AJ
Chef AJ is a chef and culinary instructor who been strictly plant-based for decades. She hosts a YouTube channel that has over 200,000 followers. Several months ago, Dr. Nathan was featured on her show and talked about Indian spices and their role in cooking, healing and culture. She then introduced me to Chef AJ, who…
The Human Microbiome – part three
Welcome back! This is part 3 of our series on the human microbiome. In brief, in parts one and two, we learned about prebiotics and probiotics being fiber and fermented foods, respectively. Now we’ll go on to what postbiotics are, and assess our current knowledge base and where this may lead going forward and how…
The Human Microbiome – part two
Last week, we ended by saying that we determine the makeup of our microbiome by what we eat. We’ve been aware of the benefits of fruits and vegetables for a long time. The microbiome has been the secret helper we never knew. This is the meat of the matter, so to speak. Carnitine is found…
The Human Microbiome – part one
Be good to it so it can be good to you! There is a huge village living inside of you. It is invisible to the naked eye, yet it plays a role in what happens to the food you eat, the medications you take, the allergens you react to, how you react to stress…
Diet, Our Microbiome, and Our Risk For Heart and Kidney Disease
Last week, I attended – virtually, of course, the annual International Conference on Nutrition in Medicine cosponsored by the GW University School of Medicine and the Physician’s Committee for responsible medicine. Dr. Tang’s talk about how our bodies differ from each other based on the composition of the gut micro biome was fascinating. He is…
Eating Right During Stressful Times … and For Life – Macronutrient Balance
Let’s start with a quick review! The foods that we eat are made up of macronutrients, micronutrients, and phytochemicals. Macronutrients include carbohydrates and dietary fiber, proteins, and fats. Almost ALL foods are a combination of these macronutrients. It is important that we do NOT categorize foods by their dominant macronutrient. Foods are foods…. each…
Easily Adaptable Indian Cooking
A healthy diet is so important for your longterm health. Below and in future posts, I will share some healthy recipes that you can adapt easily to the ingredients you have on hand. Here’s a video with personal attestations of the importance of a wholesome plant-based diet. Some basic ingredients for Indian food are: Cumin seeds Mustard seeds…
Nutrition in the Time of Covid – and Beyond
Here are some simple adaptations regarding food shopping and food prep that are relevant to our stay-at-home situation. Many of us as health care workers, are still on the job in some ways, but we are home more than we’re used to, out of our routine. And many have their young children or adult children…
Intermittent Fasting – Is there any scientific basis for it?
written by Marsha Seidelman, M.D. Intermittent fasting has become popular both for weight loss and health improvement. People have adapted this to be anything from alternate day fasts, drastically restricting calories for 2 days each week(a 5:2 plan), or restricting eating to a certain number of hours per day, usually 8-12 hours. Is there any scientific…