Dr. Chet’s Health Memos
If it’s in the health news today, I’ll be writing about it as soon as I read the research, both old and new. With my email Health Memos, you’ll know more about making lifestyle choices that will help you get and keep good health. These free, concise updates on health are emailed to subscribers twice a week. Subscribe today and get a free MP3, in English or Spanish, of Dr. Chet’s Top Ten Tips—Small Changes for a Healthier Life.
Tips for a Healthier 2019
Did
you notice there were no Memos this week? Maybe you were so busy with holiday
preparations, you didn’t notice. Rather than write long Memos during the week
before Christmas, I recorded an audio you could listen to at your convenience.
In
the audio, I give you three tips that can help you reach your health goals in
2019. Here is the link to listen:
You
can listen on your phone, your tablet, or your computer. If you have Bluetooth
in your car . . .
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Holiday Eating: Your Strategies
As we finish two weeks on planning for holiday eating, I’m turning it over to you, the men and women who read the Memo. There are excellent points in every approach.
This one encompasses just about every strategy and was the first response:
- Lose weight before the holidays. Be conservative on helpings starting with Thanksgiving. Allow some small portion of goodies or dessert, trying to eat it after protein consumption and while still somewhat full. Try to exercise more—this is more difficult due to the holiday schedule of activities. Stand up every 30 minutes if you . . .
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Holiday Eating: Just Eat
The final strategy of dealing with holiday eating is to just dig in and enjoy every morsel. Christmas holiday foods are generally around during a very limited time. Most of us don’t have one holiday party after another, day in and day out, so just eat. Eat what you like and don’t give it a second thought. It’s just around for awhile and then it’s gone until the next year.
The important aspect is what comes next: reestablishing control. Eat a slimmed down healthy diet for several days to balance your holiday eating exuberance.
There are . . .
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Holiday Eating: Preload
The fourth strategy of dealing with holiday eating is to preload. The idea is to eat some things that are healthy or at least healthier. In that way, you will be partially full and not as prone to overeat. There are two ways to do this.
The first is to eat a salad with a variety of greens: lettuces, kale, spinach, asparagus. Tomatoes are fine as well as cucumbers. Just skip the cheese and protein and use a minimal amount of dressing. Add a soft drink, coffee, tea, or water to fill even more space. If you occupy space with . . .
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Holiday Eating: Modify Your Recipes
The third way of dealing with holiday eating is to modify the recipe—that is, if you’re doing the cooking. This approach can be tricky, especially if you’re baking, and you may want to do a trial run. In some recipes, it’s the chemical reactions between the nutrients that contribute to taste and texture. Simply trying to lower the fat content of a recipe or changing to an artificial sweetener such as stevia may not get the results you want. The sweetness of stevia may be altered by cooking or baking; less fat can change the texture . . .
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Holiday Eating: Portion Control
The second way to deal with the onslaught of special foods during the holidays is to limit your portions. My diet philosophy has been that you can eat whatever you want as long as you control the amount and the frequency. Throw low-carb or low-fat out the window; if you can control the amount you eat, there are no holiday foods that are off limits.
That begs the question: can you control the portion? I make peanut brittle every Christmas. I have never done drugs, so I don’t know how accurate it is to say this, but . . .
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Holiday Eating: Abstain
The days of holiday cookies, candy, and other luscious desserts have arrived. It’s a month-long battle to limit the damage. But it’s not just the sweets; stuffing, gravy, marshmallow-covered candied yams, and many more all show up this time of year. Holiday parties from work, church, and other organizations range from simple pitch-ins to full-course meals. How do we deal with this onslaught of culinary delights?
I can think of at least four strategies we can use; there are probably more so I’m asking you to email me your strategies for holiday eating . . .
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The Bottom Line on Preschoolers, Probiotics, and Gastroenteritis
“These studies are likely to have significant impact towards eliminating use of medications that don't seem to work.”
That’s a quote from a physician interviewed by NPR who wrote a commentary accompanying the two research papers on probiotic use for gastroenteritis or GE (1). I think it perfectly illustrates the fallacy of the pharmaceutical model of research on nutrition and its impact on health:
Nutrients are not medications.
They may come in pill form, they can be administered like medications, but they’re nutrients nonetheless.
Questions About the Studies
The . . .
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Did Probiotics Help Preschoolers with Gastroenteritis?
The use of probiotics to stop diarrhea and vomiting for preschoolers with gastroenteritis (GE) was studied in two major studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the U.S. study, 55 of the 468 subjects who got the probiotics had scores of nine or greater on the scale while 60 of 475 in […]
Preschoolers, Probiotics, and Gastroenteritis
Estimates are that close to two million preschool children will be taken to the emergency room for vomiting and diarrhea every year; the term generally used is gastroenteritis (GE). Two research groups, one from the U.S. and one from Canada, conducted studies to see if probiotics would have any impact on the course of GE […]
