Uday L. Deoskar M.D.

Healthy Cells Magazine October 2009

Food is playing a bigger role in the drama of our lives today. We are using it for much more than survival and bodily function. It seems that we cannot celebrate, socialize, manage stress or depression, do business, or romance without it. Food itself has become a huge business and because of its consequences, it is supporting a lot of the medical care industry. Strangely, it has created a new food business: health foods.

Food is a hero or a villain depending on what we do with it and that depends on what we know about ourselves and food. At this time, in the United States, how we consume it is a great threat to our wellbeing as well as a potential solution to our seemingly insurmountable medical and economic problems.

In short, the question is, how can we have our cake and eat it too? Simple, single answers, is cut it in half and replace it with veggies, fruits, and whole grains.

Over the years, I learned a lot about nutrition, but not much about food or eating habits, until I found it very frustrating to deal with chronic disease in my patients as well as in myself. My education, my experience in the medical profession, and my passion to improve the quality of aging through wellness has brought me to a few simple facts that can make our health, wellness, and happiness goals so much easier to achieve.

10 Recommendations to Master the Art of Good Nutrition

1. Educate yourself about food and eating. You did not start driving without learning to drive. Eating is far more complex, ubiquitous, and consequential than driving. There are plenty of opportunities in this community to get basic education in nutrition. The internet will give endless resources to enhance this basic education.
2. Diets are Dead; There is a book by this name. It is wonderful, and easy to read.
3. Analyze your food and eating habits. Identify your needs, make a plan, and keep modifying it until you get it right for you. Get the help of an expert to do this.
4. Form groups. Many people have food related problems and are always contemplating doing something about it. Group support makes it much easier to work things out, if the group is right. It is also fun and affordable.
5. Do not fall for the hype regarding special foods, supplements, and vitamins. Research has repeatedly shown, that a well balanced and varied selection of natural foods will supply all the nutrients we need and are more effective, less expensive, and a lot of fun. If you have a specific problem, follow your doctor’s recommendation.
6. A lot of prepared, processed foods, and certain methods of cooking create harmful products called “Advanced Glycation End Products” (AGE products) which cause tissue damage and accelerate aging and the degenerative processes even if nutritional values look great.
7. Learn stress management techniques and some exercise routines. Stress and sedentary lifestyle promote unhealthy eating habits. Yoga, tai chi, meditation, music, and volunteering are excellent examples of activities that are stress-busters.
8. Learn to say “No” to yourself and others for the right reasons. You will never regret it.
9. Do not address nutritional issues as an isolated problem. Most of our problems come in bunches and it is much easier to address them together. In short, examine your lifestyle, your choices, your goals from time to time, and keep alert and engaged in trying to address them as a bunch.
10. Keep changing your food choices until you get the best mix for health and enjoyment. Effective changes include the following:

• Reduce foods from animal sources and increase foods from plant sources.
• Switch from processed foods to natural foods.
• Go from large portion to smaller portions
• Change from eating out to eating at home
• Eliminate soda and sugary drinks