Soapbox

I spend all day talking to people about what they eat. Now for a woman with a weight problem, this may seem silly. My weight is on the way down, but the numbers that really count - like blood pressure and cholesterol and blood sugar are great. I have taken it upon myself, using masters like Andrew Weil and Diana Schwarzbein to understand why my body acts and reacts to food the way that it does.

It amazes me the number of people who do not realize there is a connection between the artificial colors, processed-beyond-recognition foods, and preservatives that go into the body and the health of the body. Everything is interconnected: Insulin levels, estrogen levels, adrenaline levels, testosterone levels and seratonin levels. If your immune system is overloaded trying to clean junk out of your digestive track - it cannot do a good job chasing down free radicals and precancerous cells at the same time. Neither can it clean up cellular damage from high blood sugars and clean up cardiovascular damage all at once. It is like sending an army of ten against the damage wrought by a hurricane and expecting the job to be complete.

If your body has a predisposition to inflammatory processes like arthritis, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and diabetes, it is imperative that you allow the immune system only one field to fight on - keeping inflammation in check. There have been recent advances in research for diabetes that points to a close link between Type 2 diabetes and autoimmune disorders - mostly because of the inflammation markers which are similar in each disease process. How do you get your inflammation markers lower - watch what you eat - try to focus on unprocessed or minimally processed foods. Why do you want to? Studies point toward the probability that inflammation has a large part in determining who will have a stroke or heart attack - who will have ulcers and who will have diabetes.

I read once that the key is if you could grow it on your farm, hunt in in the forest of find it on a tree - it is probably good for you. Pop tarts do not grow in the garden so I can still have them - but once a month, not once a day. I have told innumerable patients the same things - stick to food you can recognize - does it look like an apple - then it is probably safe - does it look like oats -then it is probably good for you.