Fit to Print Volume 24 Issue 3 September 2015

Health Coach by Dr. Donna Brown The Skinny on Thin Yes, You Can Be Thin and Unhealthy. It’s Easy! inﬂammation and, ultimately, type2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease and cancer. Our diets have become worse than ever. I look around, and I see ever increasing amounts of sugar consumption. Walk into any Starbucks and look at the orders of the volumes of people waiting on line. Incredible amounts of sugar being pumped into the bodies of consumers starting ﬁrst thing in the D o you think that because you are thin that you are indeed healthy? Do you gauge your health by how the scale looks? So many times I hear that a certain person can eat anything they want, and they never gain weight. They believe that this person is a lucky person because they can indulge in all the treats that surround us without outward physical manifestations. Sadly this type of thinking is completely wrong. Although there are many thin people that are indeed very healthy, there are many who are not. Sometimes being a person who gains weight more easily is a good way to gauge what's happening on the inside. It's a blessing in disguise. It forces you to make better food choices. I've had patients over the years tell me that their husband or wife - who could always eat anything they wanted and was the picture of health - died suddenly. They were the one who was always on a diet, eating more salad and avoiding cake. And they are the one who is the survivor. What this tells us is that there are other ramiﬁcations of having a poor diet than outward physical manifestation. What is happening inside on the cellular level is far more important. The damage that we are doing by indulging in sugars, starches and poor fats translates into Our diets have become worse than ever. I look around, and I see ever increasing amounts of sugar consumption. morning. The only non-sugary drinks are plain coffees and some tea. Walk into any restaurant or bar and take a look at the cocktail menu. One drink after the other laden with sugar, all very fancy and enticing. I even love when they try to make the drink sound better to the "health conscious" by adding agave syrup. Agave is not a healthy sugar. The processing of it causes long chains of fructose molecules which have another more wellknown name: high fructose corn syrup. As it turns out, fructose is as damaging to the liver as alcohol. So, innocent sounding fructose is not so innocent at all. Most worrisome should be what we feed children. Look into the shopping carts of people around you on line in the supermarket. Almost every item is loaded with sugar and starches. You know what I mean: breakfast cereals, rolls, bread, crackers, and cookies. And if Autumn 2015 FIT to Print they happen to be shopping with children, the sugary treats they purchase probably outweigh the vegetables, and by an alarming margin. The result is mindless consumption of sugar all day. And the effect is that type 2 diabetes rates have gone through the roof. And the cost in human lives and suffering is staggering, along with the ﬁnancial burden on the healthcare system. On another point, the management of diabetes is another horrendous situation. We deal with it by prescribing pills that, in effect, let diabetics eat sweets and starches, hopefully at a slower rate. The idea seems to be that the pills will manage everything. Why change your diet when you can take this pill and still indulge? Our minds have become twisted with inaccurate messages that lead to grave consequences. The single best thing you can do to increase your health is to avoid too much sugar and starch in the diet. And guess what else? Add healthy fats at each meal. You read that correctly. Add healthy fat to your diet. Not only do healthy fats not cause you to become fat, they are anti-inﬂammatory and very satiating. By removing the potatoes, for ex

Fit to Print Volume 24 Issue 3 September 2015 | Page 13