In the last blog, I talked about how food often represents something besides just food.  We’re not always aware of this.  For example, people may say “I love food.”  But is it really food that they love or that food represents someone in their lives who was loving and may have cooked that particular food.  For me, my grandmother represented love in my life as a child.  She just happened to be a “home economics” major in college and an excellent cook.  Certain foods evoke a memory of my grandmother and when I am faced with these foods, I feel like I’m 7 years old, sitting at the formica table in my grandma’s kitchen.  I can see her standing at the stove with an apron on, her hair tied up in a knot.  I can imaging the softness of her hand as she hands me the strawberry shortcake.  And I feel at home and loved.  All that from a piece of strawberry shortcake. (more…)

The recent crisis in the Gulf brought to mind, as I’m sure it has for many, how we take care of our home.  The earth, our terrestrial home is under siege and it is heartbreaking to watch the damage she is suffering.  We can use this macro lesson in caring for our home to bring to our awareness how important it is to take care of another home – our bodies.  When we abuse the earth or don’t take proper care of the earth – there are consequences – some greater than others.  when we abuse our bodies, the same applies.

Most of us don’t think of our bodies as our home but in fact they are.  We get one body at birth. We live in that body-home until we die.  The food we eat, whether or not we are active, how we nourish our bodies in general will have consequences.  If we smoke, we damage our hearts and lungs.  When we eat foods that are highly processed, we send out inflammatory cells to all parts of the body which over time cause wear and tear on the body organs.

As we look at the disaster being played out on our TVs in the news, I wonder what headline news it would take to get all of us to take our body health as seriously.  While the media is churning out more and more studies about how “bad” obesity is, we forget that scare tactics never work.  We must all refocus what has been called the war on obesity into a partnership to put health first, then weight. If we saw ourselves in the same light that we see the poor creatures of the sea; if our hearts would open to our own need for caring, then perhaps changing how we treat ourselves, our bodies would make sense. Because, to me, it doesn’t make the most sense that we try to get everyone to “just be thin.”  There are many thin people who are unhealthy.  So thin is definitely NOT the answer.

But anyone who takes care of themselves, who views their bodies as their friend, not adversary, who is a good steward of this home will be as healthy as humanly possible.  Perhaps BP’s oil spill and the crisis in the gulf can serve as a wake up call for us all to take care of all the homes under our guardianship – from our bodies to the earth itself.

How did we end up as a nation where over half of our citizens are losing the battle of the bulge?  I’ve talked about genetics already.  But our genes haven’t changed in the last 50 years while the percentage of us who are overweight or obese has skyrocketed.  Currently there is no state in our nations with less than 20% of its people who are not obese.

Well a lot of other things have changed in the past 50 years.  When I was a kid, we had only one Mc Donald’s in our hometown.  We also had a Dairy Queen.  Going out for fast food was a rare treat, usually reserved for long car trips when we couldn’t find a restaurant such as Stuckey’s to have a sit down meal.   (more…)

Fact #6 – Obesity is associated with a number of health risks.  When you got to most doctors, they will tell you that if you don’t reach your “ideal weight” you will get heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.  Your risk for heart attacks and certain cancers go up.  That’s not all there is to know about this topic.  (more…)

I just recently attended and was a speaker at the 6th Annual Nutrition and Health Conference put on by the University of Arizona (www.nutritionandhealthconf.org).  The conference was held in Chicago and May 11th was declared by Mayor Daley to be Nutrition and Health Day.  The conference featured nationally known speakers in the fields of public health, nutrition, research and culinary science, including Chicago chef, Rick Bayless.  (more…)

My son, Noah suffered from severe depression for ten years before his untimely death at the age of 29. He was a fashion photographer, a brother and an uncle. His death five years ago this month left a hole in many of our lives. Depression is the number one cause of disability in the world. It affects 20 million people in the US. And yet, despite many new drugs on the market in the last two decades, almost half of those treated do not respond completely to medications. A recent European study aims at predicting the risk for depression in much the same way that we estimate risk for heart disease or stroke. See their website for a depression risk test: www.ucl.ac.uk/predict-depression/
When my son was so sick, I tried many many different ways to help him get well. I now am convinced that the missing piece has to do with the biochemistry of nutrition and its effect on brain chemistry. I just recently read “A Promise of Hope” a remarkable story about a family that was afflicted with generational bipolar disorder that resulted in two suicides and many family members being hospitalized in psychiatric facilities. What this made me realize is that the same thread of mental illness runs in my own family. When viewed from the vantage point of handling one crisis after another, it’s easy to forget that my mother’s sister, my mother, my first cousin, my nephew, my son, my niece, my brother have had serious mental illnesses from depression to bipolar affective disorder to psychotic breaks. (more…)

The financial crisis has really made me stop and think about my own patterns in life.  I can see that I have always assumed that I lived in a “land of plenty” and that I would be able to feel safe sampling from the bounty that we as Americans take for granted.  Now, it seems that this assumption is being called into question on a daily basis.  I know that many people, like me, have experienced hardships because of the economy and the tightening of the credit markets.  When I think of how that applies to health, (more…)

Finding your anchor

The Anchor process is a technique I’ve developed in my practice to help people make changes which are difficult. It is a way of finding your safe place, your place of stability in the stormy seas in our lives.  Perhaps you’ve had some trauma or abuse or neglect or other experiences in your life that you may have been too young to deal with or may not have had the skills to manage.  So, you did the best you could and you found it safe to put on weight as a protection, to be a people pleaser or like me, to be an overachiever. This behavior became an anchor that helped you get through life. Then you grow up – still being moored with the anchor you found in younger years.  (more…)

If you don’t feel you eat large quantities of food in one sitting, but you have struggled with your weight and have been on and off diets most of your life, you may be a compulsive overeater (CO).   The main difference between binge eating disorder and compulsive overeating is that people with CO don’t experience discrete episodes of binge eating.  They tend to eat past the point of fullness, but don’t necessarily binge while alone or hide their overeating.  Here’s an example of a person who is a compulsive overeater. (more…)

There is a code that is much like the genetic code in your DNA that may make you more prone to being overweight, for example, because it’s in your genes.  However this code is the code of your soul or spirit. It is what makes us have a passion to do something with our lives.  It’s the part of us that keeps us going even though life may seem like being on the open sea during an endless storm.  It is also our map for life, our compass.   It is what makes you want to become a mother.  It’s the code that pulls you towards a career in teaching or medicine or law.  This soul code may direct you to climb mountains or work to help the homeless.  It’s the part of you that helps you soar to greater heights.  It is the healthy part of you – the part that wants to see you recover and move on with your life. (more…)

Binge eating disorder (BED) affects between two and five percent  (Spitzer 1993) of adults in the United States (over four million Americans) and is the most common of all the eating disorders.  Up to 25 percent of overweight or obese individuals seeking treatment for obesity have binge eating disorder (Pull, 2004).   This number goes up in those who are severely obese.  Binge eating disorder may be as common in men as it is in women, unlike the other eating disorders (Grucza 2007).   It affects African-Americans as often as Caucasians.
You may have binge eating disorder if (more…)

Maryann felt overwhelmed.  Her youngest child was home sick, her boss was upset with her for missing work and her father was just rushed to the hospital.  She couldn’t take one more thing happening!

John did not get the promotion he had worked so hard for.  His wife was expecting to be able to move into a bigger house.  He had three children to support and now his doctor told him he has high blood pressure.  What more could happen?!

Do these high stress stories sound familiar? (more…)