Check out this article below. Apparently a husband and wife (both physicians) have decided to take celebrity health issues and turn them into “teachable moments.” What do you think about this?

On one hand, I hate the fact that it feeds into our unhealthy obsession with people who (in my humble opinion) are not always great role models of physical or mental health. But on the flipside, it may provide more reliable information and squelch health and nutrition myths. Check out the website here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

When Your Patients Want That Pill the Stars Are Taking
By Marianne Mattera | July 26, 2010

_____

When movie stars, rock stars, top athletes, and other celebrities use a
medicine, or an herb, or a home remedy it often makes news. News that is
likely to generate questions from patients. What do you tell them? Where do
you go to find out about these pill and potions, some of which are far from
mainstream?

Well, soon you can find such information at MedPage Today.

This week, we'll begin bringing you blog posts from "Celebrity Diagnosis," a
website run by a husband-and-wife team of physicians, Michele Berman and
Mark Boguski, who provide what they call "teachable moments in medicine" by
reporting on "common diseases affecting uncommon people" and the sometimes
uncommon remedies they use to treat them.

Like kombucha tea. That's a folk remedy currently popular with such
Hollywood notables as Gwyneth Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst, Lindsay Lohan,
Madonna, and Halle Berry. It's supposed to be good for everything from
anorexia to atherosclerosis. And it's the subject of the first Celebrity
Diagnosis post.

You'll learn what the tea is, what studies have been done on it, whether
there are possible side effects, and what role it may have played in
activating Lindsey Lohan's alcohol-monitoring bracelet -- a tidbit that will
prove you're up on the latest in the world of pop culture.

Having that reputation may not be one to which you've aspired, but it may
give you the cache necessary to steer some patients away from things that
are harmful.

The posts from Celebrity Diagnosis should also help you understand why
you're getting some of the questions you've been getting lately, or why so
many patients are coming in asking you about a given condition. Google
searches about lupus escalated after Snoop Dog revealed that his daughter
has lupus and Lady Gaga announced she had "borderline lupus." Berman and
Boguski knew those queries would be coming and dealt with the subject.

How they know these things, we don't know. What we do know is that we'll be
bringing you interesting reading -- with sound research behind it -- that
should help you answer the questions your patients will ask.

Look for the first installment on Tuesday and let us know what you think.

I stumbled across this delicious recipe, courtesy of the the Red Lentil restaurant in Watertown (which I HIGHLY recommend for delicious vegetarian/vegan food).  It's a fabulous meal for a warm summer day and makes great leftovers!  The recipe list looks long but it's a lot of stuff you likely have on hand.

Eggless Salad

2 16-oz pkgs. extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 2 slabs
3 Tbs. low-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbs. cider vinegar
2 Tbs. rice vinegar
2 Tbs. maple syrup
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup light or soy mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped cashews
1/4 cup golden raisins
2 Tbs. chopped cilantro
1 Tbs. paprika
1 Tbs. ground turmeric
1 Tbs. ground cumin
1 Tbs. ground coriander (didn't have, I just left it out)
1 Tbs. lemon juice (fresh is most delicious!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Press tofu slabs between two cutting boards 15 min to remove excess water. Pat dry, and place in baking dish.  **See my note below.

2. Whisk together soy sauce, vinegars, maple syrup, and garlic in bowl. Pour mixture over tofu.  Bake 15 minutes. Cool.

3. Crumble tofu in to small pieces and mix with the remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper as desired.

4. Enjoy on salad greens, in a wrap, or in a sandwich.

**My note.
I think pressing the tofu is a critical step.  If you don't know how to do it, check out this link. I press my tofu for at least an hour.  The more you press your tofu, the more water you squeeze out, and the meatier the texture of your tofu.

Your yummy food lovin' dietitian in Cambridge,
Marci

Each month I have a little fun showcasing an item that, in my opinion, just isn't as good for your health as it is advertised to be.  In the past I have showcased food items.  But last week, a client prompted me with a brilliant idea.  

She had been to City Sports in Cambridge and decided to try on a pair of Skecher's Shape-Ups (Reebok Easy-Tone is another version of the same idea).  You know the shoes.  Slim, long legged models wear them in their commercials, promising that they'll help you "burn more calories, tone muscles, and more."

So my client was curious to know whether or not there was any actual research behind the dramatic sales pitch.  So I did some research of my own.  First I looked for any data to support the claims of calorie burning and leg toning.  Nope, couldn't find anything.  Doesn't appear that either company has done any actual research that would validate such claims.  Skechers or Reebok, if you know something I don't, please send the research my way!  I'm all ears.

Then I decided to contact my colleagues. Here were their responses:

• There was another brand that came out a few years ago with these. I bought them (because Oprah had them...lame, I know!) and they really hurt my knees so I gave them away. A chiropractor told me they were not great for your back.

Are you or is someone you know working on recovery from an eating disorder?  The Renfrew Center is offering an excellent (and might I add free!) workshop/webinar.  Topics include goal setting, body image concerns during the summer, and coping with the challenges of vacations. 

Here's a link for more info.

Did you know that research shows that the right tunes can actually help you enjoy your workouts more?  I recently read this article and thought the concept was great.  If you are prone to hanging out on the couch, the right music may just help you get your bootie movin'.  Check out the playlist selections posted in the article, it may be just the motivation you need to get up, get out, and start having a little fun. :)

  Here are the top 5 songs that get me excited to exercise:
1. Right Round- Chani
2. Lovegame- Lady Gaga
3. Glamorous (Craig Dice remix)- Fergie
4.  Maneater- Nelly Furtado
5.  Bounce That- Girl Talk

What tunes get you moving?

Your beat loving dietitian in Cambridge,
Marci 

Each month I highlight a product I love.  It's usually food, but this month I wanted to highlight a pretty cool IPhone app.  It's called My Lil Coach, developed by Registered Dietitian Lisa Bunce.

In her 20 years of nutrition counseling experience, she ran across the dilemma that most people have- figuring out a way to stay consistent with making positive changes for their health...for the LONG-TERM.  Here's a little summary on the product:

Mylilcoach is an iphone or ipod touch application that uses gentle reminders on the app on your iphone or ipod periodically throughout the day at pre-determined time intervals. In addition to a built in pedometer, these gentle nudges help her clients change behavior and comply with the basics of a healthy lifestyle: eating right, staying hydrated, increasing physical activity and practicing mindfulness in eating and stress reduction. The application saves your data for tracking purposes, which can be sent to your healthcare provider daily, weekly, or monthly. Lisa has seen that the use of the app by individuals changes habits and keeps healthy regimes in the forethought of the patient and changes in behaviors.

Current research at Stanford University shows that the development of healthy behaviors can be achieved and maintained by using gentle reminders. This growing body of research reflects that even the smallest amount of social support can influence an individual's ability to change behavior. 

To access and download the application for $1.99 visit:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mylilcoach/id376407824?mt=8

For more information visit: www.Mylilcoach.com

I love that she incorporates gentle reminders to practice mindfulness-based eating.  What a fantastic product to help encourage you to spend time developing healthy behaviors.  I'm going to start using it and will keep you posted on my experience.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I think measuring things like weight and BMI isn't all that useful.  I just don't feel that the information tells us a whole lot about our health. I believe that it gives us a sliver of information, not the whole picture.  I believe that focusing on behavior is much more important.  Working towards healthier eating habits and moving our bodies more is far more productive for our health than being concerned about the number on the scale (which for someone who works with eating disorders knows that weight tells very little about health).

Check out the book "Big Fat Lies" if you are interested.  The author describes (in detail) the flawed data that our current BMI and weight charts as based on.  I highly recommend it.

Just today, a client forwarded me an article I couldn't help blogging about because it's just so darn ridiculous.    Apparently a new study shows that your neck measurement may actually be a better way to determine your body fattness.  What!?  As if we need another number to be concerned about.  

The study authors had the following to say:

"We've been using BMI to advise parents and patients for making healthy choices," he said. "Unfortunately, often we tell someone their BMI is 27 or 30, most of the time it doesn't mean much. To tell you that your neck is wide, these are some of the risks associated to it -- that we feel people would be able to relate to it better than BMI."

I couldn't help but laugh. Let me be so bold as to offer you some advice- stop obsessing about numbers.  Stay focused on what you can do today and every day to be healthy: get plenty of sleep, stay hydrated, eat lots of produce, make an effort to move your body, you get the idea.

Yesterday, I received several emails with a link to this article on a condition called "Orthorexia."  Most people read the article and wondered if it was serious, wondered if it wasn't some sort of exaggeration or joke.  

And while I admit, reading about it online may seem strange or even ridiculous, it is a true disorder that affects both the physical and emotional health of a lot of people.  Just read my recent client spotlight. What began as "healthy eating" and exercising for her, quickly became orthorexia, which then became a much more severe eating disorder that required residential treatment and intensive outpatient care.  

Now of course I believe in healthy eating and exercise- my life is committed to supporting it in myself and others!  BUT, the distinction between healthy living and orthorexia are two important words: unhealthy obsession.  You can read more on the Orthorexia home page, written by Dr. Steven Bratman who coined the term and wrote the book "Health Food Junkies." 

<Ironically, I just loaned my copy to a client who has suffered mental, emotional, and physical distress FOR YEARS due to an unhealthy obsession with "healthy" eating and exercise.> My clients who suffer from orthorexia share a single characteristic- the obsession diminishes rather than enhances their quality of life.  Relationships suffer, social isolation ensues, they have often feel paralyzed, depression/anxiety is worse, sleep patterns are affected, etc.  

My philosophy is that moderation with food, exercise, and in life- is the key!  And I also believe that we are meant to find enjoyment, satisfaction, and fulfillment from the food we eat.  Anything taken to an extreme is unhealthy.  If you have always been interested in "healthy" living and are curious as to whether or not you are taking a bit too far, the assessment below may be helpful to you.  This is taken from Dr. Bratman's book.

Dr. Bratman suggests that you may be orthorexic, or on your way there, if you:
o Spend more than three hours a day thinking about healthy food.
o Plan your day’s menu more than 24 hour ahead of time.
o Take more pleasure from the “virtuous” aspect of your food than from actually eating it.
o Find your quality of life decreasing as the “quality” of your food increases.
o Are increasingly rigid and self-critical about your eating.
o Base your self-esteem on eating “healthy” foods, and have a lower opinion of people who do not.
o Eat “correct” foods to the avoidance of all those that you’ve always enjoyed.
o So limit what you can eat that you can dine “correctly” only at home, spending less and less time with friends and family.
o Feel guilt or self-loathing when you eat “incorrect” foods.
o Derive a sense of self-control from eating “properly.”

Bratman suggests that if more than four of these descriptions applies to you, it may be time to take a step back and reassess your attitude toward what you eat. If they all apply, you’re in the grip of an obsession.

This seems to be a controversial topic.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Striving to live a balanced life in hectic Harvard Square,
Marci

Each month I look forward to posting a client spotlight.  And I'm so grateful that "A" was willing to share her story with all of you.  It has been so gratifying to work with her as she has worked hard to develop a happy/healthy relationship with food.  She has fought hard in her recovery from an eating disorder and along her path found two keys to healthy eating and exercise- cooking and climbing.  Read on and enjoy.




Six months ago I hit a low point in my battle with an eating disorder. I had literally run my body into the ground through a long-standing combination of over-exercise and under-eating. It took three full months in a treatment center to restore my body to health, but it continues to take work to restore my mentality surrounding food and eating healthfully. Thanks to the support of Marci and my therapist, (as well as constantly checking in with myself on a daily basis), I can honestly say that I am in a place that I haven’t been in for years. My approach to both food and nutrition has been transformed. No, I don’t pretend to say that disordered thoughts and tendencies don’t exist – but I know how to fight them.

Background
I never intentionally tried to compromise my health or destroy my body with an eating disorder. Rather, it felt like something I could control in the middle of an emotional tornado. I had always been an athlete, rowing through college then running marathons in the years afterward. I thought I knew about sports nutrition and healthy eating. But what was originally a way of staying healthy became an addiction; I only allowed certain foods into my body, at certain times, in certain amounts. I shut off everything my body was telling me. I continued pushing myself physically, until my body nearly gave out. I was mentally, emotionally, and physically spent. I had a brutal awakening in January of this year and realized that I couldn’t continue treating my body this way. So I decided to give up all control for the sake of getting both my healthy and my life back.

The early stages of treatment were both physically and emotionally intense, uncomfortable, and even painful.  But the challenge now is regaining a healthy perspective around eating, exercise, and maintaining life balance. I am a different person now – physically, yes, but more important, mentally. While there is clearly no single thing that helps individuals recover from an eating disorder, two processes have remarkably helped me find my way to a fresh food mentality: cooking and climbing. Let me explain. :)

Cooking
I had never really cooked a meal to share with others; sure, I cook my own food, but I had never truly enjoyed food preparation because of my tight restrictions on what I allowed myself to eat. I ate a baked sweet potato but never cheesy mashed potatoes. I grilled fish with lemon but would never have given it a maple glaze, for example. I can’t explain it, but there were so many foods I wouldn’t eat in the midst of the eating disorder simply because the dish, as a whole, terrified me. I met a friend, however, whose joy was in cooking delicious meals and who graciously began to share that skill with me. I began to help with the cooking a couple times each week as we made dinner for ourselves. Something about the process of creating a meal and being involved in each piece of onion dicing or butter melting made something in my head suddenly click. Once I prepared a “challenge food” in this context, from start to finish, it was no longer scary or off limits – I could easily see exactly what it was, and in breaking it down into ingredients and steps. What had been a looming pasta nightmare, for instance, became a delicious, hearty pasta dinner that I could enjoy with a great friend. So challenge by challenge, I realized the key to tackling my fears was just to cook them! And I know now that all I have to do when confronted with something that I hesitate to eat, or when I think twice about whether something is “healthy enough,” is cook it myself and understand that it is simply food – delicious and nutritious in all of its forms.

Climbing
Coming from years of exercising for the wrong reasons, I have been careful, in my recovery, to approach exercise as something that I WANT to do for the sake of enjoyment. The same friend has recently reintroduced me to hiking and backpacking as a fantastic form of physical activity. I must admit that in recent years I haven’t been an enthusiastic hiker…it did’t provide the physical challenge and intense vigorous exercise that I thought I needed. But in re-learning what is healthy and good for my body, as well as what is thoroughly fun in the process, I am coming to absolutely love the periodic hikes and trips I have been taking through New Hampshire’s White Mountains. But they have been invaluable as well in what they have taught me about my body’s needs regarding nutrition.

I have realized through the months of treatment that I need to put a lot more food into my body in the course of a day than I was ever aware of, simply to get through a normal, busy weekday. Butthrowing in about 4000 feet of elevation and miles of trail, I discovered that food is, plain and simple, fuel for my body. Without sufficient amounts of food, I cannot perform. I have been at the point of tears on a trail, body exhausted. Yet after refueling I’m suddenly happy and able to continue going.
Of course, we all know that proper nutrition allows us to live and have the energy our bodies need. But it wasn’t until a hard day of hiking that I was able to see the direct correlation between food in and energy out. Easy. It was so freeing to realize that to some extent, it doesn’t matter what I put in – I need the fats, the carbohydrates, EVERYTHING, in order to do what I want to do.

But this applies to the rest of life too! Pretty much any food, in moderation, can and will be used by my body to live the active, healthy life I want to live. And in consuming every food, in a variety, I am happier. Eating what I want to eat, when I want to eat it, is less of a challenge when I acknowledge that food is fuel. End of story.

So of course, the mental battles of eating habits are there, and they may always be, but they are few and far between. And when they arise, I know how to fight them. I am committed to living a life that isn’t dictated by my food choices, but enhanced by them. And I’m getting closer!

Today I'm appearing on the Money Matters Network Radio Program at 2:00.  You can tune in live here or listen at WBNW AM 1120 Boston.

I will be mentioning a handout: Nutritious Eating on a Budget. Click here to access the handout.  And to those of you who tuned in and listened- thank you!

Feel free to call in and ask me an easy question. :) 888-205-2263.