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…
Diabetes, fiber and the micro biome
One of the talks at the conference was “Beyond Carb Counting: Why Plant-Based Nutrition is Sweet Medicine for Insulin Resistance”. It was delivered by Dr. Michelle McMacken, a board-certified internal medicine physician and an assistant professor of medicine at NYU School of Medicine. She is vegan and is deeply involved with encouraging her patients to…
Food as Medicine
I had the pleasure of returning to my alma mater in the Bronx – Montefiore Hospital – where I did some of my clerkships in medical school, and the majority of the clinical work during my pulmonary fellowship. It’s been renovated so much in the 31 years since I’ve been there that the only building…
Herb-Marinated Chicken Breasts
Amy Riolo is an award-winning author, lecturer, food historian and cooking instructor. This recipe is adapted from her book, The Ultimate Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, Harness the Power of the World’s Healthiest Diet to Live Better, Longer. Part of her journey revolved around trying to understand why her relatives who continued to live in Italy were so much…
Osteoporosis: a Review of Bone Loss and Nutrition
Osteoporosis, a Brief Overview. Let’s talk about a process that we should think about when we’re young so we can try to prevent unfortunate events as we age. First, here are a few important definitions. Osteoporosis is a decrease in bone mass leading to fragility of the bones and increased fracture risk. Osteopenia is its less severe sidekick and sarcopenia is…
We Are What We Eat: Stay Slim the Japanese Way
I often heard the expression “We are what we eat,” which turned me immediately off from certain foods. Who would like to be a cow? Chicken? Pig? Should I be a turnip or donut? An apple or brownie? There is some truth in this statement, however, I secretly agreed. Studies on obesity have shed some…