I just learned that a long-time business associate, someone I consider a friend died very recently of a heart attack. She was in her mid-60’s and was overweight for as long as I knew her (30 years). One simple measure; healthy eating could’ve made a huge difference in her life and I was sad to learn nothing I or others had said or done had made enough difference to get her to act before it was too late. If YOU are reading this now, healthy eating could make a difference for you. But thinking about it and following through on it are two very different things for most of us.

I’m going to share ONE SIMPLE MEASURE for healthy eating you can start on today. It can make a significant difference.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to go down the rabbit hole, get paralyzed & go nowhere.

What do I mean by this?

We know that Americans eat way too much sugar, empty carbohydrates, and processed foods. In fact, the average American gets more than half their daily calories from foods that have almost no nutritional value. Graphic here

It’s easy to say, “Stop eating processed foods.” However, many people don’t understand what is processed and what isn’t. There’s a TON of vegan processed junk food out there, for example. Some people are under the impression it’s “healthier.”

It’s easy to say, “Stop eating high-fat foods.” But people don’t consider chicken or fish to be high fat, though it is higher in fat than what most people realize. Not to mention that while eating a small handful of nuts can be healthy, eating a 12 oz. bag while watching a football game can add a walloping 2,000+ calories and 200gms of fat (1800 calories’ worth of fat!) to your daily intake!

It’s easy to say, “Eat less sugar,” but there is hidden sugar in many foods. And drinking juice by itself (which many consider ‘healthy’) can adversely affect your blood sugar and triglyceride levels as much or more than a candy bar.

And it goes on and on and on.

A simple change isn’t easy for most

It’s easy for someone like me to come along & tell you that you “should” change it all. It’s too easy for you to say, “That’s too much. I’m just going to continue eating what I want and hope for the best.”

That’s the rabbit hole I’m referring to: the one where you get stuck in all the ‘I could, I should’s’ but you stay paralyzed and don’t do a thing to change.

Then, you’re like my friend mentioned above… .6 feet under. . . or suffering the consequences of chronic disease, in constant pain, living between doctor’s appointments and feeling like crap. I don’t want that for you.

Fortunately or unfortunately (your choice) as I often point out, for most of us, how we take care of ourselves during mid-life will dictate how much suffering we do over the final 5-10 years of life. (For simplicity sake, if you’re looking for numbers, we’ll consider mid-life 35-70+.)

One Simple measure of healthy eating you can improve on

What if there were an easy simple solution that would just steer you in the right direction? One thing that you could continually measure and continually work to improve? And what if there were substantial proof that it WOULD make a difference? The good news is that there is.

Now, this solution is far from the ‘end all be all’ but if used in the way I suggest, it will, at least head you in the right direction. Then you can take more steps, by working with me, for example, to better structure your diet for a long healthy life.

So, what is this measurement? You ask.

Simply this: Take a look at your diet; overall; day-in and day-out. What is the percentage of your diet that is plant-based whole food?

More Plant-based Whole Food

By plant-based whole food, I mean fruit, vegetables, beans, and whole (unpulverized) starches. A little more specifically: corn is a whole starch, cornmeal is not. A potato is loosely considered a whole starch, but a French fry, mashed potatoes or baked potato slathered with butter, no. Bread, even whole wheat or gluten-free grain is pulverized; so, not a whole food. Brown rice=whole grain, white rice=NO. Steel-cut or thick rolled oats=yes; quick-cook or instant=no. Quinoa, barley, millet, buckwheat, and amaranth are more examples of whole grains if they are not pulverized and ground into flour.

This doesn’t mean don’t ever eat pulverized grains again. Just be aware of how much you are eating and work toward more whole food (more below).

Similarly, whole fruits are great; juiced fruits; fruit in cans with sugary syrup; not so much. A glass of plant-milk is fine as is a little juice in a smoothie (again, more below).

For practical purposes, don’t concern yourself about juiced veggies but know that pulverizing them in a Vitamix or blender is better than a juice extractor.

Now understand, none of this means your diet needs to be 100% whole foods. That’s nearly impossible; even for crazy health nuts like me!

For most Americans, the sad fact is that their diet is less than 15% fruits, vegetables, beans & grains. The most abundant vegetable in the American diet is the French Fry and the most common fruit is (fiber-less) fruit juice! When calculated out of the mix, Americans get about 10-12% of their daily calories from whole plant foods! NO WONDER WE ARE SO SICK! 

We get over 1600 calories per day from processed grains, added fats and sugar alone! In fact, according to Governmental studies, the average 51-70-year-old gets 73.8% of their calories from 30 foods that are all either processed & prepared or are animal-based.   

So, the ONE SIMPLE MEASURE for HEALTHY EATING is this: What percentage of your calories daily comes from WHOLE PLANT FOOD?

That number may be difficult to accurately calculate but you don’t necessarily need to. Just look at your diet and estimate realistically. Then, start by adding an extra serving each of fruit and vegetables daily. Get to at least 5 per day if you’re not already there. An additional step can also be to start substituting beans as a protein source/main dish.

Just getting to 5/day along with other simple measures like getting a mere 30 minutes of exercise 5 days/week, not smoking and limiting alcohol to 14 servings or less/week meets the basic parameters for the mid-life changes shown to make a substantial difference. 

Once you’re at 5/day, increase to 7/day then more. Become more aware of how much processed foods you eat and start choosing to change that. This will automatically help your one simple measure of healthy eating.

Don’t have the time to avoid eating junk food? Does it take ANY less time to open a potato chip package than it does to bite into an apple? Does it take any less time to cut up cheese and get out crackers than it does to peel an orange? You can buy ‘baby carrots’ & cut up broccoli crowns and dip them hummus (email me for a no-added oil recipe or experiment on your own.) A lot of this is awareness, choice and which isles of the grocery store you choose to spend your time in. (Hint: spend more time in the produce aisle, go to Farmer’s Market or sign up with a local CSA group for home delivery)

Now, if you have major or minor health issues; are on medication, are over-weight, have a hormonal, gut or other health problems, this step-wise progression may be too little to make the progress you need quickly enough to make a difference. I urge you to contact me today and have a Complementary Conversation to discuss working together to help you get the results you need before it’s too late.

For the rest of you, I urge you to begin today. Comment below and let the world know what you’re commi

The post Healthy Eating Starts with One Simple Measure appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

It happened again this week. Some news came across my desk about new black box warnings on another drug. It seems that this new rock star of a drug for gout (a condition easily corrected by diet) can cause sudden cardiac death! But does the FDA pull it off the market? NO! They put a black box warning on that your doctor is likely unaware of and life goes on. Cha-ching! Cha-Ching! (That’s the sound of money going into the drug company coffers.)

Then today, something else came across my desk. It was information for physicians on the same drug. Seems this drug can also cause anaphylactic reactions (life-threatening shock) . Further, one of the most common untoward reactions of this drug is an INCREASE in acute flareups of gout! Cha-ching! Cha-Ching!

Yes, get this straight: the new block-buster drug can cause acute flareups of the very thing you are using it to treat! (most people START on such drugs BECAUSE of an acute flareup!)

Oh & BTW, it also said the “most common adverse reactions” are “gout flareups, . . . chest pain, anaphylaxis. . .”(and 7 other slightly less disturbing symptoms). Cha-ching! Cha-Ching! (Ok. That’s the last time. . .it’s probably getting old.)

But you don’t have gout so why should this matter to you?

Simple: according to a study I pulled up; the FDA issued over 100 black box warnings between 2008 and 2015. That’s more than 1 per month. Your doctor can’t possibly keep abreast of this, along with everything else, no matter how hard they try.

It’s stuff like this makes me passionate about the work I do educating people so they can get off medication and usually live a healthier and longer life as a ‘side effect’ of lifestyle changes.

But it’s not just about diet and exercise. It’s also about becoming an informed medical consumer so you don’t become an unwitting victim of stuff like this.

You see, sooner or later, all of us will need to make decisions about which tests to have (or not have), which procedures to consent to or not and what medications to take or allow a loved one to.

Most will listen to their doctor or a trusted friend.

I’d like to suggest a different way.

That’s why “Empowering Your Health & Choices: Food Over Medicine” (my program that begins April 2^nd) spends a significant amount of time helping you understand the potential hazards of tests and procedures and the stats associated with them so you can start to make informed choices.

Think of it this way: you wouldn’t sign a mortgage contract without understanding how much money the loan will cost you monthly for how many years. Yet we don’t typically ask for similar data on the procedure we are about to have on our own body!

Some procedures, for example PAP smears DO have good supportive data & we discuss this as well. Others, when you see the data, will give cause to pause and reconsider.

Last week, in my blog, I talked a little about cardiac procedures. One study I reviewed found that 94% of people that had a cardiac procedure had to have another one over a 30 year time span. If you’re a 45 year old having a stint put in; don’t you think you have a right to know that? Don’t you also have a right to know that statistically, you’ll probably need another stint within 10 years unless you drastically change your diet?!

Now, understand, I’m NOT saying you shouldn’t have procedure X, Y or Z. I’m saying you should understand the full gravity of what your about to do and find out if there are safer things you could do that have good outcomes attached to those as well. Then, you can make a more informed choice.

I hope to see you there. Your life or the life of someone you love really COULD be saved by getting this information.

The program will be held over 5 sessions on Tuesdays & Thursdays April 2-16, 2019 at 6:30-8pm in Morro Bay. You can register here:    or set up a free consult here   to learn more.

The post More Black Box Warnings . . .and life goes on appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

But my reason for this article has more to do with overall dangers and alternatives than the individual drugs.

Also in the statement was the acknowledgement that current labeling which warns of increased of heart attack and stroke after 10 days on the medication is inadequate and needs to be revised. At least one recently published study indicates danger (stroke or deadly heart attack) can occur in as little as 7 days. In fact, a closer look shows us that studies in late 1990’s estimated NSAIDs caused about 107,000 hospitalizations and 16,500 deaths yearly in the US and the use of these drugs has increased exponentially since that time. Circulatory events (stoke or heart attack) and gastrointestinal bleeding are the most common causes of hospitalizations and death.

One problem I find with the medical approach is that they insist they must know why and how something happens and this tends to minimize its affect in the public’s eye. Here’s what I mean: understanding physiology on a holistic level, I can come up with a number of plausible reasons, but maybe not the exact mechanism for how these drugs can cause a heart attack. In the meantime, they wring their hands because they don’t know exactly how it happens. Human nature is such that we tend to ignore what we don’t understand or can’t explain. Thus, the doctor can’t explain the danger to the patient OR understand it exactly in his/her own mind and still writes the prescription. The patient, while being aware that all drugs carry risks, figures if the doctor has prescribed it, the benefit must outweigh the risk. Some of these patients are tripling the likelihood that they will die of a heart attack and they are completely unaware of it.

In the meantime, natural approaches, while they may not work as quickly, do work, are safer and actually have a byproduct of producing health! One could start with an alkaline, anti-inflammatory diet and the elimination of GMO foods and foods the person may be sensitive to.  The addition of whole food anti-oxidants, specific enzymes like Bromelain (which is anti-inflammatory), specific herbs like turmeric,  boswellia or others, live cultured vegetables and more can give the right balance for pain reduction. Add to that gentle exercise, weight reduction when appropriate and Acupuncture and/or Chiropractic care to help tune the body’s innate response, some detox if appropriate and other mechanism and you have a health creation plan rather than a symptom-based drug treatment.

This is generalized example of the kind of step-by-step approach and guidance you can get through health coaching and consulting with me. Such care is not medical advice or medical care and it doesn’t take the place of it. What it does do is give you the step-by-step guidance, knowledge and motivational tips that your doctor or other provider doesn’t have the structure to provide.

Please pass this on to anyone you know that might benefit from it.

The post NSAID Dangers in the News AGAIN! appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.