A routine physical revealed that President Obama has a “borderline high” cholesterol count. One of my favorite food blogs, Obamafoodorama reported this finding earlier today. Of course immediately the President’s diet comes under review. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated, ““I think it’s a few more burgers and a few more desserts over the past year”

I’m betting our President eats better than most Americans. He’s got a great garden in his yard and a full staff of chefs that are not using hazardous ingredients that could seriously impact his health. He gets regular physical exercise too. Both the President and First Lady are role models for good food and good health in my book.

Thanks to the internet, you can learn lots of detailed information about the president’s physical condition. It only took me 3 clicks online to learn that his total cholesterol was 209, his HDL 62 and LDL was 138.  According to the “experts”, borderline high cholesterol starts at 200, with LDL considered in the same category at 130. Who are these experts that decide what cholesterol level is safe and what is not? The National Cholesterol Education Program, which is part of the NIH’s National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Some critics and cholesterol skeptics claim that the guidelines themselves are biased toward drug therapy because a majority of the medical experts who drew up those suggestions have financial relationships with drug companies.

I’ve learned more than my share about cholesterol over the years. When I married to my high cholesterol husband 22 years ago, his  number was 270. After a decade of oat bran muffins, egg white omelettes and tasteless boneless skinless chicken breasts, his cholesterol continued to climb. Since I didn’t want him taking potentially dangerous cholesterol lowering drugs, I did some research. The first thing I discovered is that cholesterol itself is not bad! Cholesterol is essential for our health. Second thing I learned was that cholesterol is not really directly connected to heart disease. One of my mentors, Annemarie Colbin PhD, has written  a great essay on this issue.

So what should our president do to improve his health and make sure he doesn’t end up with a heart attack? Quitting those cigarettes once and for all would be a good start. But let’s face it, he is under mega amounts of stress on a daily basis. How can our president quit the cigarettes, decrease his stress levels and lower his cholesterol? The answer is not high tech or expensive. Its pretty darn simple. TM, Transcendental Meditation, has been shown to do all this and more.  While many of us think of the Beatles and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi back in the 70′s, many doctors and scientists have proven its effectiveness in numerous studies.

If I were Mr. Obama’s health consultant, I would strongly recommend he adopt a solid meditation practice. This strategy would help him to decrease his cravings for cigarettes, reduce his stress level and lower his HDL cholesterol. Imagine if meditation instruction were part of healthcare, skyrocketing costs would decrease.This is not woo-woo, there is solid science to back this non toxic, inexpensive therapy.

Why not take it a step further and imagine if all members of Congress had a regular meditation practice. In addition to better health they might even find a way to work together to create meaningful legislation that would make the world a better place.

photo credit: YoAmes

This week, 4th year medical students at New York Medical College learned about inexpensive and highly effective edible tools for healing. Kale, quinoa, ginger, turmeric, garlic and more. They also discovered the power of mindful eating along with the health benefits of good quality dark chocolate. They were horrified to consider the toxic food environment that the majority of their patients dwell in on a daily basis.

Thanks to the pioneering spirit of Dr. Ronald Whitmont, a physician and homeopath, these students are learning about complementary and alternative medicine in a 4 week rotation. I got them for 2 days to explore food as a healing tool along with some aspects of mind body nutrition. Students spent one session learning about food  through the lens of  both western herbology and Chinese medicine. They learned how dark green leafy vegetables support bone health, prevent macular degeneration and  supply essential micronutrients often missing in the Standard American Diet. Most importantly, they learned how easy, inexpensive and delicious it can be to prepare a health supportive meal with their own very skilled hands. Medical students and physicians must know their anatomy by heart: every bone, muscle, nerve and artery. It seems to me that they need to understand every ingredient in the American diet too. What ingredients can build health and alleviate chronic health issues?  What ingredients can undermine optimal  immunity?  Which ingredients support digestion and facilitate healing?

Food is a major player in health and disease, considering the fact that 80% of chronic disease is related to diet. It seems to me that medical schools should be devoting at least a semester to the impact of food on health. While nutrition education is also sorely lacking in medical schools, the systems approach offered by studying food gives health professionals deep and valuable insight into the health and well being of their patients. We don’t eat nutrients, we eat food.  Doctors need to be up on the latest food related trends and need to be able to walk their talk at the end of their own forks.

I look forward to doing more of this work in the months ahead.

If you could wave a magic wand and cause your doctor to  have a brilliant Food IQ, what would she/he tell you about how to be healthy?

That magic wand is in my hand right now. I have a huge opportunity to impact the Food IQ of a nearby medical school as part of a new course in Complementary Alternative Medicine for 4th year medical students.  I will have these future physicians for 3 hours of lecture time plus a full day of “clinical rotation”.

I’ve already got the “clinical rotation” figured out. I’m going to take them on a tour of the toxic food environment: the supermarket. We’ll explore what is hype and what is health supporting. Time permitting, we’ll hop on over to the nearest health food store to see some more hype.

Of course, I’ll teach them the top ten toxic ingredients along with my evaluation continuum. They need to learn that language is important and the power of advertising/ health hype.  But I want to take it even deeper. I want to shake up their core belief system on health and healing. I want them to look in the mirror and begin with what is at the end of their  own fork.

So here’s a question for you:  What do YOU think your doctor should know about food? Post it in the comments section. Pass this around to your friends and family too, let’s get a good long discussion going so I can share it with the medical school.

Yesterday, my hubby came down with something that could be considered the flu. Sudden onset, body aches and pains, chest pain, dry cough. It sidelined him to the couch and will probably keep him home from work for a few days. Is it the famous piggy flu? Or just another garden variety bug that he caught from burning the candle at both ends? Does it even matter?

I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you some of the strategies I use so that maybe, just maybe, the rest of my family won’t get sick. And if they do, they won’t suffer as severe an illness.

As far as vaccines go, I’m not convinced that a flu shot really does any good. Sounds like the new swine flu one is still under-tested and will be available too late to matter. There is more to do than washing your hands and sneezing into your elbow as the CDC keeps telling us to do. Let’s look at some things that can be done for little or no cost.

SLEEP Consider for a moment that sleep is a nutrient that we need every day. Scientists have shown that sleep is when we grow and when we heal. Parents know this first hand with their kids. When you’re sick, you sleep! Well, why not make sure you get adequate sleep BEFORE you get sick? This is one reason I’ve canceled all sleepovers this year. I want my kids home to sleep in their own beds at a reasonable time. Regular sleep hours are shown to be helpful in boosting immunity, and also in better brain function: retaining what you learn. Make regular, restful sleep a priority in your home and you’ll have happier healthier kids to show for it.

SUGAR We all love sugar, some of us have real problems with it as it can act like an addictive drug for some. The bottom line is that refined sugar can deplete your immunity and can drain the body of much needed nutrients. I could show you all sorts of articles and studies to prove this point. The bottom line is, we all need to look at decreasing our consumption of refined sugar. Replace sugary drinks with water, preferably filtered, from the tap and you’ll be saving loads of money and the earth ( all those toxic plastic bottles!). Take a good long look at how much refined sugar you and your kids eat over the course of a day or a week. Get conscious and cut back on the white stuff!

GOOD BUGS One thing that the Purell splashing germophobes might not realize is that we consist of all sorts of microorganisms living together in harmony. One group of bacteria that I’m particularly fond of is the lactobacillis family of bacteria that lives in your gut. You can add to this happy family of bugs that helps your digestive and immune systems to work optimally by enjoying foods that naturally contain these beneficial bacteria. Miso soup, Kim Chee, Sauerkraut, Kefir and Yogurt come to mind. You can also take probiotic supplements. This is one thing I get my family going on when there is a flu bug like the piggy flu flying around. I think of it as a tonic, a small action taken once a day that will make a big difference over time.

DE-STRESS Last but not least is about finding ways to decrease your stress levels. That may be a big ask in these trying times but is so so important. Taking a regular walk, doing daily yoga, remembering to breathe (that one is a biggy, believe it or not!) and taking time to laugh (I do that with the Daily Show and the Colbert Report). Reducing stress levels will help build up your resistance to illness.

I’ll have more recipes and strategies on flu prevention in my upcoming cable TV series, Dr. Susan Rubin’s House of Health. Stay tuned for more details.

Last night, I didn’t just listen to one brilliant speech on healthcare, I enjoyed two! I attended a talk by Andrew Weil, MD at the 92nd St Y. After watching the first 15 minutes of President Obama’s healthcare speech, Dr. Weil launched into his vision how we can put health back into healthcare.

The root problem of our healthcare crisis? We pay so much and have so little to show for it. We’ve got to ask ourselves the question: how did healthcare get so darn expensive? The answer: we don’t focus on prevention and health promotion. Instead our energy goes to disease maintenance.

Note that prevention is NOT mammograms, coloscopys and PSA tests. That is secondary prevention or early detection. Real prevention is what both Andy and I have been talking about for all these years: Food and Lifestyle changes that create optimum health.

Our government needs to make it easier for Americans to be healthy. Real food in schools along with food based education would be a start. Investing in school gardens and fresh fruits and vegetables from local/ regional small farms in schools will create a higher Food IQ in schools.

The food industry has to be taught, led or forced to give us food that supports our health. No more bogus green checkmarks that proclaim “healthy choices” on boxes of Froot Loops. No more Vitamin Water and processed chemicalized food products in schools. Corn dogs and chicken nuggets are not part of this vision of healthcare!

Dr. Weil has put together a new Call to Action on how to put Health back into Healthcare. I urge you to read it and share it with your community. It contains many smart ideas that we as citizens can help to create. True healthcare reform won’t be coming from politicians, it will be coming from the grass roots: us.

His new book, Why Our Health Matters, is on my top 10 list of books to read this fall. Check it out!

Me and Andy: circa 2003

If you’ve been reading anything I’ve been writing for a while you know that I believe that good food is the best possible form of healthcare we can create for ourselves.

Here’s what the Organic Consumers Association has to say on the subject:
The most affordable way to eat local organic foods is to grow your own. As global food prices continue elevating to new heights, a record number of first-time gardeners are looking to welcome the arrival of spring by planting their own veggie plot. Whether you have a yard or are joining a community garden, here are some quick and easy tips for beginning a vegetable garden with minimal soil disturbance.

Watch this video and get diggin’!

After battling the flu for over a week, I decided to pay a visit to my doctor. My cough had gotten bad enough that I wanted to make sure I didn’t have bronchitis or pneumonia. The good news is, my lungs are fine. The bad news is the medical system is more broken than I had ever thought!

I was shocked to see a soda machine and a candy machine side by side in the entrance to my doctor’s office. I’m glad to see they don’t have a cigarette machine in their lobby, but when you come to think of it, isn’t selling junk food just as bad?

When I consider the junk for sale in those machines, I’m not even considering our nationwide epidemic of Obesity. I’m thinking about the fact that refined sugar depletes your immunity. How diet soda and regular soda contribute to osteoporosis, tooth decay and increased LDL (the “bad cholesterol”). How ingredients in both those machines impact behavior in kids.

I’ve never been impressed with the fact that most medical offices have blatant advertisements for drugs in their waiting rooms. Our country is one of only two in the world which advertise prescription drugs directly to consumers. Your doctor’s office more than likely gets a nice commission for having posters or a TV screen blasting “infomercials” about the benefits of these drugs.

They obviously make some sort of money from the soda company and the vending machine company for selling the junk in that machine too. Is this ethical? Is it right?

As I sat waiting for the doc, I watched a fellow mom, more sick and tired than me with two little kids in tow. They spotted that machine within seconds of walking in the door and they were immediately harassing their poor mom to come up with some cash for some junk. Mom was too exhausted to argue, she gave in just to get a little peace. I wonder how many other mothers had done the same thing.

Why doesn’t this medical group have some Oranges for sale instead of packaged processed crap? A big shame on them for being part of the problem instead of part of the solution. Promoting junk instead of health, shame shame on you!