Ever feel confused about what to eat to maintain health? Who hasn’t?

Ever wonder where some recommendations come from and who you should trust? I know, even as a lifetimes healthcare provider and proverbial health nut, sometimes I, myself have been confused.

The thing is, there are standard and straightforward answer for much of this stuff. The way to understand is to figure out (1) who is paying for the information. Hint: if it comes from most governmental entities or disease non-profits (American Heart Association, AHA,  for example), millions of dollars have been donated to most of the entities in question by the food industry and the drug industry. Maybe that’s why the AHA’s website, for example, has over 30 pages of animal products listed on their “approved food list”! (maybe there’s a conflict there?) (2) Related: who will profit from what’s being recommended? (3) Is there science that backs up what’s being said and does that science represent the majority of the data? You can find studies that say almost anything; I can show you real studies that say cigarettes don’t cause cancer but that isn’t what the vast majority of studies say. However, when you look at both clinical trials and observational studies about diet you find some basic commonalities like the fact that those people who live the longest & healthiest eat mostly fruits, veggies, beans and grains. And people with good bio-markers (eg. low cholesterol) that they got by taking drugs or even supplements (not by changing their diet) are just as likely, in the long run, to experience disease and disability as those who have unhealthy blood levels and take no medication! These are just some things we’ll tease apart in my upcoming Food Over Medicine program. Learn how to understand the studies. Learn how to interpret conflicting info. Learn which medical tests have good solid backing & which may cause you more harm than good. Hope to see you there. 

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The Latest News about Good-for –You Foods

Chocolate: Wondered if all the hype about chocolate being good for you is true? Well, for sure the cheap milk & sugar laden kind isn’t but a REAL study at Loma Linda University show EEG proof that chocolate (minimum 70% raw cacoa):

• reduces stress and inflammation
• Improves immunity, memory and mood 

Salmon: Fish oil can help reduce the symptoms of osteoarthritis (the most common type of arthritis) according to a study published in the journal Rheumatology. Full disclosure: this was a meta-analysis (study that correlates multiple other studies) of  fish oil capsule studies but there is every logical reason to suggest salmon would do the same. 1,000 mg (1.0 g) of Omega-3’s was found to work well. How much is that?

• Salmon: a 3 ounce serving =1.0-1.9 grams
• Vegan choices: a serving of nuts (¼ cup walnuts =about 4 grams) but doesn’t contain DHA (one type of Omega-3). Learn more & vegan alternatives here 

Tea: New reasons why tea is good for your brain and more:

• Tea reduces Estrogen levels in women and may lead to epigenetic changes. (types of tea wasn’t specified in study) 
• Green tea:  A study suggests that EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate) in green tea, could alleviate high-fat and high-fructose (HFFD)-induced insulin resistance and cognitive impairment. (HFFD-Read as S.A.D. Standard American Diet)

Sign into my store and put chocolate, Omega-3 or Fish oil in search bar for some great suggestions.

Watch this blog and my Facebook page for upcoming announcements about my webinar and my upcoming coaching program: How to Dis-Inherit Your Parent’s Disease

The post Food as Medicine: Green Tea, Dark Chocolate and More appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

Some people were upset, confused and maybe even a little bit frightened recently when an article suggested that multi-vitamins don’t have the power, for the most part to prevent chronic diseases. Today, I’ll take a closer look at that: The study was published in the Annuals of Internal Medicine late in 2013 and it added to a list of several other articles that drew similar conclusions.

As our knowledge of nutrition has increased throughout the years, we’ve come to realize that there are far more essential nutrients than the 13 vitamins that were discovered over 100 years ago. Why should we believe any group of things we discovered from 1902-1937 is or could be complete?

Yet, unfortunately the myth continues, perhaps in part because we haven’t adopted a single-letter recognition for most other essential nutrients . Further, it’s hard to qualify what is essential and what isn’t. It’s obvious if someone gets Beri-beri or Scurvy they are missing an essential nutrient, but other nutritional deficiencies may not yield as obvious of a response and may take much longer to become visible. Yet it doesn’t make the substance any less essential.

Another basic fact is that we now also understand that most diseases and conditions are multi-factorial so the lack of one or several nutrients alone is not likely to cause anything. Cardio-vascular disease, for example usually involves a combination of poor eating habits, lack of consistent exercise, increased stress, being over-weight or obese, having high blood pressure, genetics, high cholesterol, smoking and more; not any ONE of these is mandatory for the condition and a lack of several doesn’t necessarily absolve one from the danger either.

All this to say, the basic fact remains that our bodies require whole real food, with its thousands of nutrients,  even IF we don’t understand what each molecule in that food does. And maybe that’s the entire point: part of the fault lies in the Western Society’s desire to break things down into components (deductive reasoning) and pretend that the whole is nothing more than the sum of its parts as if we really had the capacity to analyze all of the parts. “The whole may be equal to the sum of its parts but it is never equal to just some of its parts,” a mentor of mine used to note.

We now know that there are literally thousands of nutrients in food and our bodies require ALL of them. For example, there are almost 10,000 nutrients that have been discovered in the apple. Here’s an analogy: let’s say that the apple was a 10,000 piece jig-saw puzzle and you were going to put it together (essentially what your body does) where would you start? If you’re like most people, you start with the known quantity; the corners and edges. Our known quantity in the nutrition world are the vitamins & minerals; easy to find, we know what they do, etc. But just like the puzzle is more than the edges, our nutritional requirements are more than just the vitamins. Now here’s another part ‘part of the puzzle’: What if I took away the last 500 pieces when you just about finished with the puzzle but gave you an extra 10,000 corners and edges to ‘try to make up the difference’? You can begin to see what a hard time your body has in utilizing these nutrients to produce optimal health.

This is why when I choose a supplement, I choose a whole food one, like Juice Plus+; a supplement made from fresh fruits & veggies without additional isolated nutrients. How do you know the difference? Check the label, does it have a “Supplement Facts” label like vitamins or does it have a “Nutrition Facts” label like food? Many/most green powders also have a nutrition label.

So in conclusion, it’s easy to see why the addition of 20-40 nutrients makes little or no difference and may actually make the body work harder to produce what it really needs to be healthy. The more we return to relying on basic whole food, the healthier we will be. If I can provide you with further guidance, please contact me.

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