Saturday, October 1, 2011

Overweight, Obesity and Diabetes: the other rising tide

Global warming has been in the news a lot lately and yes, the potential of the rising oceans is a major concern for our generation and beyond. However, the bigger threat to our immediate health and that of our healthcare system is the dramatic increase in health issues related to overweight and obesity in developed and developing countries alike. At current rates, the healthcare costs associated with the sequelae related to dysfunctional metabolism will stress to bursting our current systems of heath insurance and health care.

Pharmaceutical companies are already finding their supplies of insulin in demand at a greater rate than they can supply it and, of course, costs are increasing (to the thrill of shareholders, but not those who are insulin dependent). Drugs used to treat diabetes, including insulin and metformin, have become a $34 billion annual business (up 12% since only last year). Huge companies such as Novo Nordisk are making half of their profits on insulin alone. For Novo Nordisk that amounts to half of their $11.1 billion in sales. There are 366 million diabetes sufferers worldwide of which 1 dies every 7 seconds from issues that develop from the disease. The total health care costs related to diabetes is $465 billing according to the International Diabetes Federation.*

The maddening thing is that nearly all of these cases could have been avoided, and those that got started could have been reversed if people had only been given adequate information on how to take care of themselves. Probably THE most damaging information perpetuated in the last 40 years has been the nearly ubiquitous advice to ditch dietary fats in favor of high-glycemic carbohydrates. By dramatically increasing highly processed grains and sugars and taking out the traditional healthy fats that the body needs to maintain the endocrine system, brain, nervous system, and immunity, we have stomped on the accelerator driving our collective pancreases to the brink of destruction by forcing our bodies to process far more sugars than ever before in the history of the human food supply. Time and time again I have seen people struggle with weight, blood lipids, and blood sugar who are trying valiantly to follow low-fat diets and still seeing no positive change in their health or weight.

Finally, we are beginning to hear the voices of reason from scientists and biochemists and even journalists like Gary Taubes (see his new book "Why We Get Fat") and Nina Planck (check out her book "Real Food") who point out that we have been on the wrong track for decades. We MUST turn this ship around before our healthcare system is flooded. The incidence of type 2 diabetes has been increasing dramatically in younger and younger patients. What used to be considered "adult-onset" diabetes, is now showing up in children as young as 8 and 10 years old. To me this is even more ominous and immediately threatening than the polar ice caps melting...

Wake Up. Take Charge. Get Healthy. Get REAL.



(*as referenced in Bloomburg Business Week Oct 3-9/11 p. 30-31)

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Reinventing Box Lunches

In case you hadn’t noticed all the back-to-school sales, getting the kids out the door in time for school is just around the corner. One of questions (and exasperations) I hear about a lot is “I want my kids to eat healthy at school, but I don’t know what to give them and it’s easier to send them off with lunch money for the cafeteria.” Part of the conundrum revolves around a child’s age. When they are younger parents have more influence over their food choices. I always suggest that parents avail themselves of the opportunity to expose their kids to lots of different flavors while they are young and get them used to eating healthy nourishing foods early. This sets the stage for good habits later in life. The tricky part is getting through the tweens and teens when peers have more influence over food choices. 
I highly recommend making time in the morning to make your children box lunches. While you’re at it, make one for yourself if you’re headed out the door too. In the long run you will save money and promote good habits for them (and for yourself). It is very important for kids to see you take care of yourself so they have a good role model. If it takes getting yourself (and your kids) up 15 minutes earlier, it’s worth it. Teens can certainly be making their own lunches after some simple training.
Make it Fun:
One really fun way to keep lunches interesting for kids (and adults!) is to use Japanese style bento boxes (check out www.laptoplunches.com or www.lunchinabox.net) or Indian style tiffin boxes (www.lunchboxes.com/indian.html or www.amazon.com/Eco-Lunch-Box-three-in-one-set/dp/B0040MH642/ref=pd_sim_k_6). This concept falls in line with another recommendation I make with regards to grocery shopping: rather than getting home with all the bags and just stuffing everything away, take a little time to “pre-process” some of the veggies and fruits into slices or chunks that can be easily added to salads, stir-fries, or used for dipping. If you have done some of this work beforehand, it makes it easy to simply fill some of the bento boxes with fresh healthy foods quickly on a busy morning.
Contents:
  1. Great things for younger children and for adult mid-day snacks are bean dips and spreads with veggies and/or whole grain crackers. Try the curried hummus recipe below for a vibrant golden tasty option. You can make bean dips from any bean.
  2. Leftovers are a great option too. When cooking dinner the night before, think about cooking twice as much as you need for that meal so everyone has leftovers for their lunch boxes the next day. You can even put the leftovers away in lunch box containers so all you have to do is grab and go in the morning.
  3. Soups, stews and chili are good choices as well. Again, simply make more than you need for a dinner meal and store in lunch sized (spill proof) containers that you can pack in an insulated lunch box. You can even get soup style thermoses with wide mouth tops
  4. Salads: keep in mind that salads don’t have to begin with lettuce! There are thousands of ways to put together a combination of ingredients that can be called “salad”. You can create a grain and legume salad such as quinoa and lentils with a bunch of other delicious veggies diced small and marinated overnight in a simple dressing of olive oil and lime juice with a little salt and pepper. There are also delicious tuna salads, egg salads and chicken salads that you can create to you children’s taste. If you make some of these things in advance, it’s easy to scoop some into a lunch container and blast out the door in the morning. 
It takes a little pre-planning, but home made lunches made from real food ingredients are guaranteed to be more nutritious than most of the offerings at the cafeteria (particularly the options your children will likely choose when left to their own devices), and it is far less expensive in the long run for both you and your children to eat a lunch brought from home.
Quick Curried Hummus
all organic ingredients if you can
by Kia Sanford MS CN
1 large can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
3 cloves garlic, peeled
3 scallions with greens, chopped
juice of 1 lemon (you can add a little grated rind as well, I use Meyer lemons when available)
a generous ¼ cup tahini
2 Tbsp tamari
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp turmeric
½ tsp Kosher salt
Put all ingredients in food processor and let it run until the consistency is what you want. Adjust spices to your taste (may want to add a little more salt). To make it more creamy, add olive oil to your taste. Serve with veggies or whole grain crackers for dipping, or use as a sandwich spread.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Control-Z

How many times have I momentarily wished for a "control-z" or "undo" button in my life?! I'm sure I'm not alone in applying the time-honored self-inflicted dope-slap to my own forehead. There was the time I used the wrong ATM card at Goodwill for an amazing deal on a coffee grinder that ended up costing me nearly $60 more in overdraft fees. There was that time I got back from a baseball game much much later than I had planned only to find my car had been locked into the parking area and there was nobody at the kiosk. Oh yeah, and there were those 20 years I was married to someone I thought would grow and learn and change along with me. As I wade backwards there are many many more stories, big and small. Still, when I think back, I learned something and grew -- sometimes a lot and sometimes just a tiny bit -- each time.

I've spent the last couple years of my life in transition and with that has come much self-examination. I have talked with myself, my therapist, my spiritual teachers, my family and my friends through my careful unweaving and rebuilding of my life and although I've been asked many times, I have to say there are very few regrets, and not for the things that most people seem to expect me to point to. Really, upon examination, every challenging moment has had a silver lining. Every rough patch has helped me to learn something that there really wasn't any other way for me to learn. In fact, I've learned far more from the pot holes and speed bumps than I ever have from periods of smooth pavement on this highway of life. Yes, there have been some seriously difficult times that were in no way fun or entertaining. But when I really think about it, I wouldn't trade them (although I hope I don't ever need wake up calls that big again!). It even begins to look like I needed the lessons to come in the forms they did in order for me to "get it". As strange as it sounds, even the tragedies fall into this category.

It is with profound gratefulness that I attended a recent intensive entitled "Fierce Grace". Right as I was contemplating all the benefits I received from my difficulties, I listened to this very wise teacher confirm my dawning awareness that there are no mistakes. It just takes the right perspective to find the blessing and the benefit and the learning in the midst of the chaos and the challenge. It is the challenges that make life interesting and test our strengths and limits. It is the chaos that gives us opportunities to grow and move forward. I better understand my cancer clients who have come to me and said that their cancer was the biggest blessing they have ever received. From a ground floor perspective that sounds to some people like crazy talk, but once you take the express elevator to the roof, the view looks really different. I've decided I don't really want an "undo" button, but I'd like a button that reminds me to look deeper. And, I hope that my lessons come in gentler "packaging" from here on out.

It is my sincere wish that you find and focus on that which brings you growth and change, for change truly is the only constant in a healthy dynamic system. Get grounded. Get grateful. Get REAL.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Storage Units: The Pathologies of Packing and Packing It On

It occurs to me that in this country we have parallel pathologies on the same trajectory to ill health. Have you noticed that nearly every community, no matter how small, has an extra “roll” around the edges of self-storage units? They are sprouting up everywhere. As a culture and a people we can’t seem to let go of “stuff”. We are on a path to collect stuff. We pass on our stuff to our kids and grandkids. We build whole new houses to put more and more stuff in. We forgo investing in businesses to help humanity in favor of the sure bet of building more storage units. We can’t seem to take responsibility for getting rid of the stuff that accumulates. Instead, we make excuses for the amount of stuff we have and stuff that stuff into bigger “clothes”. At the same time, as a people we are stuffing ourselves. We buy more and more low quality foods because we are lead to believe we can afford more of the cheap options. We eat more and more highly processed foods that put our bodies into storage mode. We trick our metabolism into wanting more and more calories so the body can create more storage units and we can buy bigger clothes. We then store the smaller sizes in the storage unit in the event that sometime in the future we will lose weight. The closer I look the more connected I believe these two pathologies are. 
Commonalities in development:
  • Abdication of personal responsibility in favor of the “expert opinion” or “just take a pill”.
  • The credit culture has eliminated anticipation and saving or working towards a desired goal. Waiting until you can actually afford something is seen as silly now. But because we can have whatever we want “now”, the thrill of the chase is eliminated, we grow weary of our new acquisition quickly, and fixate on the next “must have” item. Whether that is a Big Mac, a 65” TV or a Hummer.
  • Dedication to the TV as evidenced by the ever expanding channels and the ever dumbing down of content (we now watch “reality TV” to see what life is like in the outside world).
  • Reduction in interest in the physical environment and dissociation of humans from the environment to the point where children can’t recognize a vegetable or understand that chicken doesn’t just materialize in styrofoam and plastic wrap.
  • Diminution of actual bodily movement -- the most used appendage seems to have become the thumb and some people manage to move little else. 
  • Withdrawal from real human connection in favor of mass media entertainment and virtual worlds.
  • Growing inability to communicate effectively which goes hand in hand with the last item.
  • Oblivious disregard for personal impact on the environment. With no relationship there is no responsibility for one’s actions.
  • Definition of success as accumulation and chronic overabundance, and the denial of the growing problem of excess. Belief that endless expansion is sustainable, but uncontrolled growth is abnormal growth. In cellular terms, this is cancer.
  • Inability to find a starting point to make personal changes.
  • Lack of tools to create and sustain lasting change.
Re-Style Your Lifestyle:
It's Spring Cleaning Time! Cleaning up and cleaning out your physical storage units has positive impact on many levels not the least of which is you may discover you don't really need most of what you've been storing. You can make money selling it off, or take a tax break for donating your "stuff" to charity. Hey, you may even discover you don't need to be paying rent on that storage unit at all! Now, with that extra money available, you can actually afford to invest in yourSelf. Now you can more easily get to work on your cellular storage units. Now you can afford to join the gym, sign up for Boot Camp, take a nutrition class, and/or upgrade your grocery choices...

More on this as the metaphor manifests... Get A Grip. Get Organized. Get REAL.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

REAL Cool iPhone Apps

So, a wise friend and colleague thought a good follow-up to the last post on helpful web links would be iPhone applications that I find useful since so many of us are iPhone junkies... (yes, myself included). I tend to be most interested in the ones that are free or very inexpensive because they are easy to recommend to people who want to try something new. Here are a few that I use myself that you may want to check out.

Medically Related Applications:
Epocrates = solid information on drugs, interactions and research updates
Medical Calc = a grouping of calculators used in medical settings
MedRef = lists of normal lab values and references
PubSearch = the iPhone app version of PubMed Search referencing hundreds of medical journals

Fitness Related Applications:
TrailGuru = tracks your hike, walk or bike via GPS; you can upload the info including photos taken on your outing to their website; gives you distance traveled, elevation gain and loss, and a map of your journey
StepTrakLite = step counting program which gives you input on levels of exercise not just steps counted
iWalk = gives you step counting, total distance, speed, and calories burned
LoseIt! = very comprehensive food journaling app that also allows you to enter exercise, goals for weight and nutrients, logging with groups of friends, setting up motivating daily emails, and more. This is a favorite although I wish it worked more with serving size and less with calories.
GymGoalLite = a good exercise workout tracker complete with instructional videos of various exercises, set programs to try, and the ability to create your own workout with goals and tracking

Food Related Applications:
Dirty Dozen = the complete list of pesticides in produce from the Environmental Working Group, handy to have when you're doing your shopping
SeafoodWatch = a good fish list from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, also handy while shopping
Epicurious = recipes and menu ideas, searchable by ingredient, meal type, season, and ease of preparation; also creates shopping lists for you from recipes; lets you save favorites in your own file
AllRecipes DinnerSpinner = a fun way to change up your meals and try something new

Strictly Geeky Photo Fun:
Hipstamatic = photography with a retro twist to create really fun effects and photos
CameraBag = like Hipstamatic but you can import photos and tweak them within the program as well
PS Express = Photoshop mini version for the iPhone; import or take photos and then play with them
Autostitch = create panoramic photos from a series of shots

There you have it! Get Connected. Get Hip. Get REAL!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Linked Up

Hi All! It was a hectic month of moving house and torrential rain storms. Finally up for air and back on the board.

A friend and colleague suggested that I post some of the links I find useful in the wide web world of food and nutrition, so here goes:

The USDA Nutrition Database is good basic info on food contents: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

and Nutrition Data is a searchable database of foods that uses the USDA information to create a broad analysis of nutrients, energy availability, and more: http://nutritiondata.self.com/tools/nutrient-search

The Environmental Working Group is an independent research and reporting group that isn't owned by Monsanto so they aren't afraid to report the truth of what they find: http://www.ewg.org/

The Glycemic Index Foundation has valuable info on the glycemic index and glycemic load of most carbohydrates in our food supply: http://www.glycemicindex.com/

The Harvard School of Nutrition is among the first of the more conservative sites to wake up to the problems created by the over emphasis on high-carb diets, and they are a good conservative scientific voice about nutrition in general: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/index.html

Lance Armstrong's site has a good, easy body fat estimator (they call it a calculator, but it's hard to do that with just numbers and a formula, you need a way to actually measure): http://www.livestrong.com/tools/body-fat-calculator/

The Organic Consumers Association has their finger on the pulse of food news: http://www.organicconsumers.org/

There, that's a solid start! Do you have any favorites?

Get Curious. Get Info. Get REAL.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

"Ogres have layers, onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers"

"Oh, ok, but you know, not everyone likes onions. Cakes! Cakes have layers. Everyone likes a cakes!"

If you are a client of mine, you know I use a multitude of metaphors and movie references to get my points across using pictures that pop into full color clarity in your brain. Sometimes all the talk and discussion and persuasive pretty words won't turn on that light bulb the way a picture does.

We all have layers like Shrek. Whether you think of them as the layers of an onion, or the parfait that Donkey finally decides on, or the stories of a house, we are not simply a conglomeration of parts that can be removed, fixed and replaced like a car. The tricky part is that all of our layers are connected to all of the other layers that make up who we are and contribute to our overall health. However, we have been told over and over again that this isn't true. We have been told that you can just take this pill or just follow this diet or just do this workout or just say this prayer and everything will be fixed and you won't have to think about what's troubling you again.

Let's look at just one of the layers we're dealing with as humans. You know this one well because it is the focus of our Western way of living: the physical exterior. We are trained from an early age that our exterior is the most important layer we have. It is the focus of fame and fortune. It is the shell that gets all the attention from the diet industry, the manufacturing of beauty, and the celebrity machine. But, nearly all the efforts to perfect and maintain this exterior facade are at the expense of all the layers beneath that shell that actually make us human. The creams and shellacs, the chemicals and processed foods, the medications and surgeries, the deprivation and self-abuse, all lead us down an extremely unhealthy path in the long run. We may end up with a very pretty mask to wear, but just beneath that surface often lives a starved, scared, lonely, lost spark of conscious life that knows something is very wrong but has no idea how to fix it.

We have layers of consciousness, spirit, emotion, intellect, connection, and wonder. We have an inner Self that gets trampled in this Western world by the demands of Ego and it's drive for the perfect shell. We are subjected to a very effective marketing machine that tells our Ego it's doing the right thing. When we starve ourselves by withholding food or fun or friends or feelings, we play into this misguided drive for external perfection (which changes with the whim of fashion every few years). It's designed to be a losing battle and yet we strive for acceptance through this struggle to create the "right" facade. You see this in fashion, $50K cars, 10K square foot houses, extravagant vacations, $25K weddings, and the list goes on as if you could actually buy happiness and fulfillment by focusing solely on the one layer of what it means to be human that actually has the least to do with happiness or fulfillment.

I just had a conversation with a friend about how some of the wealthiest people he works with are the most miserable because they feel that they SHOULD be happy now and they are coming to the realization that they ultimately can't buy a membership to that club. Now I know most of you out there, and me included, don't have that problem (at least as defined by the Western idea of "wealth"). And yet, how many of us put off happiness? How many times do you find yourself saying "I'll be happy when I get that job", or "I'll be happy when this year is finally over", or "I'll be happy when I finally fit into those size 4 jeans"? I challenge you to start seeing from those other layers of who you are and finding ways to insert wonder, amazement and see how good your life actually is. I challenge you to start seeing your glass as half full. I challenge you to be your true self without apology.

Unveil the layers of your REAL Self. Let your spark shine. Get REAL.

Monday, January 3, 2011

A Revolutionary Idea

Are you one of the many thousands who make New Year's Resolutions? Do you start off with oodles of resolve and commitment only to get to the end of January and throw in the towel? The diet and fitness industries (and oh yes, we're talking huge money making industries!) count on you to fail. Yep, you read that right. They count on you to FAIL. Why? Simple math. Their marketing gurus can then guilt you into buying another diet food or signing up for another gym membership or purchasing another piece of bulky home equipment. All of these are destined to miss the mark as well. One of the things I tell my clients regularly is that the diet industry is not your friend. They are guaranteed to lighten your wallet but fail you in your well-intentioned desire for health. The biggest reason for this is every diet and exercise program is "bookended", meaning that there is a beginning and an end. Once you reach the end (or quit in frustration) you tend to return to the "real world" and all the old habits that got you in trouble in the first place. Lasting change is NOT what the diet industry wants! That would devastate their profit margin.

Reclaiming your health is nothing short of Revolutionary in this day and age. Truly. There are so many forces out there fighting against you! It takes courage and guts to claim your Self. We are lulled into oblivion by sales pitches, television, fake surgically-created celebrity bodies, quick fix promises and medications that seem to magically remove personal responsibility (until the side effects kick in). We are sold a load of garbage and told it's food. We are tricked into believing that we don't actually have to DO anything about our health, just take this new medication. Those clever marketing agents have discovered that people don't really want to hear the truth: if you want to attain and maintain health, you have to take an active role. You actually have to take responsibility and make changes that stick for a lifetime, not just until the end of January or until you make it to that high school reunion. You have to swim upstream against the marketing assaults that hit you in the gut at every turn. You have to start listening to what your body needs and break free from the hypnotic drone of the advertisements for no-calorie, no-fat triple chocolate layer cake, no-exercise, eat-all-you-want, lose-20-pounds-in-2-days, fat-flush fantasies. You have to get to that place where the proverbial line in the sand stops moving and you take the first step toward the You you know is in there buried under the cases of Slim Fast, Lean Cuisine and Vitamin Water. The REAL You. The Vibrant You. I won't pull punches, the beginning is difficult. The terrain is fraught with perilous pitfalls and dead ends. It requires moxie and stick-with-it-ness. But you know what? The challenge is worth it. YOU are worth it! I haven't worked with a single person who has made this commitment to care deeply for themselves and regretted it! I have met many people who have woken up out of their couch-glued, prime-time, high-fructose, guilt-induced-sound-bite stupors in wonder, gasping at their new-found sense of vitality. They wonder how they ever allowed themselves to slip into the rivers of snake oil. With new-found strength and determination they spring forward into the adventure called life that stretches out in front of them. Won't you join them?

Here is a radical idea: WAKE UP. TAKE CHARGE. GET REAL.