Dr. T's Blog

 

Get Outdoors: Take advantage of the warm (okay hot!) weather and get outdoors.  Summer is a great time to harness the sun’s power to improve mood and sense of well-being.  Sunlight also is necessary for your body’s production of vitamin D.  But also, being outdoors in contact with nature has a number of benefits in itself.  The outdoors encourages exercise, stimulates creativity, and produces an appreciation for the abundant variety of the natural environment.

Eat Locally:  It’s always a good idea to eat locally, because you’re much more likely to get fresh produce that’s been grown optimally.  Local produce is usually on the shelf within 24 hours of picking; it is also usually grown to the peak of ripeness making it much more tasty.  Have you ever bitten into a beautiful dark red berry that was tasteless or bitter?  It probably came from a distance and was picked before ripeness to prevent spoilage during the long journey.  Since produce loses nutrients quickly, the longer it’s off the vine, the less vital it is.  Another advantage: local produce is much less likely to be genetically engineered. Eating locally allows you to eat what’s in season which is a great way to enjoy a variety of produce.

Spend More Family Time: The kids are out of school.  With a break from the hassles of homework and after-school activities, summer is a great time to spend more time together as a family.  Studies have shown that eating meals together as a family is protective against weight problems, and even protective against certain illnesses.  But don’t stop at family meals; get in some family walks and games as well.

By the way, here’s an interesting fact: studies are showing that outdoor exposure in a natural environment relieve symptoms of attention deficit. So getting outdoors is more than fun, it’s medicinal.

Are some of your food choices damaging your body?  Find out http://info.nihadc.com/integrative-health-blog/bid/71527/5-Toxic-Food-Choices-and-Simple-Ways-to-Trade-Up

 

On the front page of the December issue of the Pediatric News journal was the new recommendation to test all 9 to 11 year olds for cholesterol level.  According to this article, “…heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular problems in adulthood are often the end result of cardiovascular risk factors that went unrecognized throughout childhood…”1
I’m glad to see that we, as pediatricians, are acknowledging the fact that heart disease, like many other diseases, really starts in childhood.  And while I fully support the screening process, I’m much more interested in prevention.  What should we do during that first decade of our children’s lives to make the screening unnecessary?  It’s all about diet and lifestyle.
For the past thirty years, child health has been going in the wrong direction. Childhood overweight and obesity has skyrocketed during the past 3 decades.  And that trend is directly linked to the increased incidence of a variety of heart related disorders in children, most notably high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, and high cholesterol levels.  This is a very serious problem, given that epidemiologists are proposing that life expectancy for this rising generation of children could be shortened by as much as eight years.  So, what are the primary factors leading to these disturbing trends?

• Our reliance on convenient foods that are full of additives and sugar while deficient in nutrients.  Our fast paced lifestyle has us purchasing more fast food, and more prepackaged foods to feed our families compared to previous generations.

• our schools are largely feeding our children prepared, and often fried foods, offering minimal fruits and vegetables.  Schools also rely heavily on snack and soda vending machines for revenue, at the expense of children’s health.

• our children are leading sedentary, technology saturated lifestyles. With the average child spending about 7 hours using media daily (yikes!), our children are being deprived of needed physical activity.  And schools have severely reduced or eliminated physical education in the curriculum.

We need to make some fundamental changes in the way we feed our children.  Don’t believe the myth that children don’t need to worry about what they eat until they grow older.  We have known for years that the roots of heart disease begin in childhood.  And remember, the habits they develop in childhood will persist into adulthood, so we want to instill the right habits now.  Here’s what we can do:

• Provide our children with a diet high in fruits and vegetables.  Studies have shown that even as early as toddler age, our children’s diets are severely deficient in fruits and vegetables.  It will take creativity given their finicky appetites, but there are numerous resources available.  Check out “The Sneaky Chef” by Missy Chase Lapine or the website www.cancerproject.org for menu ideas.

• Provide more home cooked meals for our children, so that we can ensure that they are receiving freshly prepared and healthy ingredients in their meals.  Studies have shown that children who eat more meals at home have lower rates of obesity and other health problems.

• Get our children exercising more.  The recommended level of activity is 60 minutes of vigorous activity every day.  I know it sounds daunting, but just getting them outside for free play will peak their natural tendency to exercise.  And we can exercise with them.  Remember to make it fun.  Playing ball together, family walks, or even family P90X.We often say that we want our children to have a better life than we have; so let’s give them a better legacy of health and longevity!

  Reference:

  1)      Splete, H.  Test Cholesterol in all 9- to 11-year olds. Pediatric News.  December 2011, Vol 45, No. 12.

   

 

If you ate too much at Thanksgiving dinner, it’s probably not a big deal.  But for many people, Thanksgiving is the beginning of a six week period of eating too much, and bingeing on way too many of the wrong foods.  Of course, the easy access to food makes it difficult to resist.  During the holiday season, so many people bring in “treats” to work, like cookies, cake and donuts.  Therefore many people start gaining weight over the holidays that they usually never burn off, and so starts the cycle of gaining weight year after year.

But if you caught the Dr. Oz show last week, you realize that carrying excess weight is much more than a cosmetic issue.  In fact, while most people know that being overweight is linked to heart disease and diabetes, many are surprised to hear how much it contributes to cancer.  It’s now estimated that 1 in 3 Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.  But you can substantially minimize your chances of being diagnosed with the most common cancers by achieving a healthy weight.

However, if you have tried to lose weight by listening to the most popular health advice out there, you’ve probably discovered that it doesn’t work.  For example, I was recently talking to a woman who told me she doesn’t understand why she can’t lose weight since she doesn’t eat much at all, and she rarely eats sweets, and she eats a lot of “low fat” and “low cholesterol” options.  So what’s the problem?  First, infrequent eating often works against you, because it slows your metabolism and creates wide swings in your blood sugar levels.  Second, losing weight is much more about what you do eat than what you don’t eat.  While it’s good to avoid a lot of sweets, it’s even more essential to get the right foods in every day.  And finally, many of the packaged foods labeled “low fat” or “low cholesterol” are loaded with sugar and refined grains and artificial flavors.  These strategies will not lead to weight loss.

I’ve spent a lot of time learning the research on what really leads to weight loss and reversal of chronic diseases, and I’ve learned how to cut through all the confusing information out there and get to the simple truths of what our bodies really need for optimal health.  It doesn’t require laboriously counting calories, starving yourself with the hCG diet, or depriving your body of essential nutrients on a low carbohydrate diet.

Starting in January, A Healthy Tomorrow is launching our brand new Online Health Club, where I will lay out step by step the journey to permanent weight loss and incredible health gain for children and adults.  The first month is free!  Look for more details over the next few weeks.

Here’s a tip to get you started on your journey to a healthy weight:

Eat beans every day.  Beans are high in fiber, filling, a great source of protein, and very versatile and inexpensive.  Don’t like beans?  Try this:  grind up the cooked beans in a blender and mix the pureed beans into another dish.  For great bean recipes, visit http://www.beanbible.com