Nov
1
Secret Food Cures
Filed Under Health, Illness and Injury, Nutrition, Review | 5 Comments
One of my readers brought the following site to my attention: Secret Food Cures. The site is a commercial one, so be ready for lots of advertising and product pitches if you go there. The main subject of the site is a book written by three sisters which details a variety of food based cures for conditions ranging from migraines to asthma. Some examples are:
- Curing migraines with lemon rinds
- Cherry Bark tea makes asthma go away
- Gin soaked raisins to relive the symptoms of arthritis
- Chicken soup that cures colds
Personal Disclosure
Before I move on to my opinion of all this, allow me to disclose something about myself. I am not a fan of the modern medical system. We’ve become too reliant on pills to the point where we expect a prescription as the cure for every ill. High blood pressure? Get a prescription! Too fat? Get a prescription! Child too distracted to do their homework? Get a prescription! I think this is a horrible way to live life and I personally try to avoid taking pills. At the same time, I do believe in modern science and if I have some medical condition that’s bothering me, I go and talk to my doctor.
I tell her that I’m not just looking for a prescription that will make the problem go away. I want to know how I can live a healthier life to make the problem not recur. I discuss what I can do to remedy the situation and I will take her advice and her prescriptions. I’ve found that my doctor actually appreciates this attitude since she too is tired of most of her patients’ attitude of “This bothers me, give me a pill that will make it go away.” So while I am a believer in the efficiency of modern science and medicine, I do believe many issues can be resolved with healthier living rather than pills.
Home Cures
That said, I have a difficult time with books like this that recommend methods that are completely untried and untested as cures to serious health issues. Yes, a healthy diet can make many things go away, but it’s not a magic cure to everything that ails you. There are a few simple food based treatments that do make sense to me. For example, chicken soup with its legendary curing properties is not that hard to understand. It’s a broth based meal that’s rich in nutrients but still easy to digest. For a body weakened by illness, this kind of soup is welcome relief.
Note that this means any broth based soup has the same benefits. However, the authors of this book seem to insist that it’s chicken soup specifically that has this magical property. This is my issue with most of these home remedies. Yes, some of them do indeed have some basis in fact, but most people never bother to do the research of why some of these remedies are effective and some are not. That in turn leads them to use these remedies when they shouldn’t or in the wrong way.
Ignore Science At Your Peril
Also, a lot of these home remedies lead people to believe that they can forgo the doctor. I think this is a mistake and potentially a lethal one. There’s no substitute for a regular preventative medical appointment with a qualified doctor. I don’t care how many bowls of chicken soup or cups of cherry bark tea you consume, you should still see your doctor on a regular basis.
My wife for many years battled constant migraines. I suppose she could have tried some lemon rind based cure but instead she tried the medical approach. One operation to cure a deviated septum later, plus an anti allergen medication, she’s migraine free. So while I do advocate a healthy lifestyle, I also think you should go see your doctor if you have an issue and not try to cure it yourself.
My Preferred Approach
If you’re trying to avoid pills and such that’s fine. Tell your doctor that. In many cases you’ll find them relieved to hear a patient who’s willing to take responsibility for themselves rather than try to find pills to make the problem go away. They can chat with you about changes in your life and diet that you should make. In many cases, they may even recommend certain remedies like specific foods. However, let your doctor make that recommendation, not a book written to sell copies.
Summary
Pills are not the solution to all your ills. Neither are cherry bark and chicken soup. The best solution is probably a combination of both. Just make sure your doctor is on board with your plan.
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Sep
27
Good Calories Bad Calories
Filed Under Eating Healthy, Nutrition, Review | 2 Comments
There’s a new book out by author Gary Taubes. In it, he suggests that everything we know about weight control may be wrong. According to Mr. Taubes, overeating and being inactive are not the causes of weight gain. Instead, he claims that the basic cause of fat accumulation is an insulin imbalance caused by overeating refined carbs.
The Good
I heartily agree with Taubes assessment of refined sugars. Things like candy bars, white bread and refined pastas are bad for you. We eat too many of these every day and they’re nothing but empty calories. It’s probably more important to cut these things out of your diet than it is to cut unhealthy fat sources like certain meats.
The Bad
I completely disagree with him on his assessment of exercise. The author seems to believe that exercise is not an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Perhaps he thinks weight control is the only important part of a healthy lifestyle, but even there, exercise is essential. Exercise and being active is what uses up calories. It strengthens our bodies and keeps our systems tuned up. I think Mr. Taubes is catering to the “easy solution” crowd with this book, telling them they don’t need to exercise in order to lose weight. In doing so, he’s doing them a disservice. Exercise will help you lose weight and it will provide you with many other health benefits.
The Ugly
As with the Atkins diet, I’m afraid that many people will misinterpret Good Calories, Bad Calories to mean all carbs are bad. Even Taubes himself does not claim this. In his book, he mentions that leafy greens are just fine and that the “bad” carbs he’s specifically targeting are from refined sources and starchy vegetables like potatoes. So please, even if you do choose to follow this diet, don’t eliminate fruit and vegetables from your diet.
Recommendation
This book felt like a variation on the Atkins idea. As such, I can’t recommend it. I believe Atkins and other diets like it got some things right (eliminating refined carbs from your diet is great) but they also pushed too many people into a mindset that encouraged eating all the meat you want, doing no exercise and eliminating fruit and healthy vegetables from their diets. Stick to what we know works. Eat healthy and be active, the rest will come naturally.
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Aug
22
Book Review - You, The Owners Manual
Filed Under Review | 2 Comments
I’ve had the link to You, the Owner’s Manual up on 60 in 3 for a while now, and recently, someone asked me why. Why do I recommend this book to my readers? Well, here’s my answer.
Overview
What do you know about your car? Do you know what the brakes do? How about the transmission? Do you know how your engine works in theory? Most people, even non mechanically inclined ones like myself, know the basics about cars. We might not know the specifics of how the transmission works or what the carburetor does, but we do in general understand the workings of our car. So it’s a bit ironic when you ask the same people how their body works and they don’t have a clue. If you had asked me four years ago how an internal combustion engine works, I could have answered you in good detail. If you had asked me how my own metabolic engine worked and how it kept my body supplied with energy, I would have been clueless. That’s where You, The Owner’s Manual comes in.
Authors
You, The Owner’s Manual was written by two doctors, Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz. Dr. Roizen created the Real Age concept which you can learn more about on his webpage while Dr. Oz is a professor at Columbia University.
Purpose
The purpose of You, The Owner’s Manual is to provide you with the basic guide to your body. It’s not an encyclopedia or a detailed medical text. Instead, it is a high level overview of every system in your body along with tips on how to improve its performance. Just like a car manual, it will explain the basics, cover day to day use and provide you with maintenance recommendations.
Contents
The book is divided into 12 chapters listed here:
- Chapter 1 - Your body, Your Home: Super Health
- Chapter 2 - The Beat Goes On: Your Heart and Arteries
- Chapter 3 - Do You Mind: Your Brain and Nervous System
- Chapter 4 - Motion Control: Your Bones, Joints, and Muscles
- Chapter 5 - To a Lung and Healthy Life: Your Lungs
- Chapter 6 - Gut Feelings: Your Digestive System
- Chapter 7 - Sex Marks the Spot: Your Sexual Organs
- Chapter 8 - Common Sense: Your Sensory Organs
- Chapter 9 - Sick Sense - Your Immune System
- Chapter 10 - This Gland is Your Gland: Your Hormones
- Chapter 11 - Hells Cell: Cancer
- Chapter12 - The Owner’s Manual Diet
As you can tell by some of the awful puns in the chapter titles, the authors have a low sense of humor and aren’t afraid to use it. This is one of the reasons I liked this book so much and recommend it to everyone. Somehow, the authors managed to make a medical text that’s actually fun to read. I never had to force myself to keep on reading this book, I simply enjoyed every chapter.
Chapter Basics
Each chapter begins with some myths about the topic it will discuss. It then provides information about the system in question and answers basic questions. It also provides tips on how to better care for the specific system discussed in the chapter. The tips are straightforward and easy to follow. Best of all, the authors explain each tip in detail, providing you with the “why” and not just the “what to do”.
Recommendation
This is the first book I would recommend reading if you’re interested in learning more about your body. It provides you with all the basics you need to understand other, more detailed reference sources. It also gives you the foundation to living a healthy life. So if you’re interested in health and how to better maintain your body but you’re not quite sure what to do, start with You, The Owner’s Manual.
Summary
If you’re going to improve your health, you need to better understand your body, and You, The Owner’s Manual is the place to start. If you’re interested in it, check out the link on the left hand side of 60 in 3 or click the following link:
YOU: The Owner’s Manual: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger
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