An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure
I
read some disturbing news today reported by a well known and highly regarded doctor of integrative medicine. According to the article, The U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force (USPSTF), a group charged by congress to analyze and recommend
preventive medical services, published its assessment of the value of physician
counseling patients on diet and exercise.
The report indicated that the health benefit of counseling was small,
and the official recommendation was for clinicians to choose which patients to
counsel based on their history and not a
recommendation for primary care physicians to counsel all adult patients. What? Doesn’t that once
again put the emphasis on treating symptoms after the damage is done, imply
that physicians have no influence on changing patient behaviors and furthermore
that they should limit visits to writing prescriptions, ordering tests and
performing surgery?
The mainstream medical community
is finally in agreement with alternative medical practitioners such as chiropractors
and naturopaths, massage therapists, and nutritionists who have known for decades,
that inflammatory foods in the diet of Americans are responsible for obesity
and age related chronic disease. I for
one can give personal anecdotal evidence, having reduced my blood glucose from 109
to the current 85 as the result of a diet consisting of at least 60% alkaline
forming foods and the elimination of refined grains and added sugar. But, sadly, this was not at the suggestion of
any primary care physician with whom I had entrusted my health for nearly 50 years, but rather at
the advice of my chiropractor.
It seems like everyone except
the medical community has heard the call to action, Eat Smart programs are popping up across the nation , celebrity
chefs are promoting changes to school lunch programs, the National Restaurant
Association’s KidsWell program was launched ensuring that member restaurants
have at least one healthy kid’s meal, and schools across America are responding
to the USDA recommendations for a change to eating patterns. But, unfortunately, although the objectives
are noble, if you read the mission statements and look at these programs close
up, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know they will not succeed in
changing the behavior of the adult American who lives on a diet of soda, sweet
tea, pizza, sandwiches with 10 oz of meat and pasta. And of all the families I know, there is not
one where the behavior of the child rubs off on the parents, but rather, in
every family I know, the child imitates the parent. Just ask anyone what their favorite go to meal is and they will respond with
a food which was a family favorite growing up---most likely served up by their moms.
There are, however, ways to go about
changing the diet behavior of adults. One is
through the influence of the family physician.
After all, if you go to your doctor and are told that smoking a pack of
cigarettes a day is causing you to have symptoms of emphysema and shortness of
breath and you must stop the habit, you would do it, right? Physicians must influence
behavior before symptoms of chronic
disease manifest themselves and the patient starts down the domino path of one
pill for this, one pill for that, and so on and so forth. And, the behavior must be a change to the American diet of the adult, not the
child. Your child will do as you do. We are our parents, after all.
The
second is through social mores. Eating
out is a social more and the restaurant is where the majority of meals are now prepared
and consumed. If dining out at a restaurant
that serves anti aging gastronomy becomes the social norm, the latest fad, the
cool thing to do, then adult behavior will adjust and so will the American
palate. The restaurant industry has done
it before and I am proposing to do it again now with the first eat smart restaurant to be located in the upstate SC.
Later
this month I am going to launch a funding campaign for a cafe and kitchen
co-op. The kitchen co-op will be a hub
for the upstate community, a fully equipped commercially licensed kitchen to be shared by food makers for the sole purpose of promoting anti aging gastronomy---artisanals,
caterers, entrepreneurs with ideas of starting a business and home cooks who
just want to can their garden vegetables.
The café will be a full service restaurant for the purpose of providing
the community with fresh locally produced menu items and a showcase for the co-op
members. No refined grains, no added
sugar, and 60% alkaline producing will be the standard for both.
I
am counting on you, my reader as well as the community to help launch the first
restaurant serving this new cuisine to which I refer to as anti-aging
gastronomy. Stay tuned and for the sake
of the next generation, EAT SMART, America!
Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB
P.S. My
current book EAT SMART, AMERICA, AN ANTI-AGING DIET PRIMER $ 2.99 is available now for Kindle on
Amazon
and for
NOOK at Barnes & Noble
