Dr. Oz—Occasionally a lifesaving truth; but not very often

Posted on 12/16/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

This 2010 Oz Show segment with Dr. Ornish is outstanding.

Oz (the doctor) check out Oz (the patient)

Oz (the doctor) check out Oz (the patient)

Why do I say occasionally? Because being in the “entertainment” business requires that he devote many of his daily shows to fad diets and other oddities that simply add to the vast amount of confusion about food & health in our country.  But I want my readers to understand that there are some Oz segments that promote powerful truths about your health—but you may have to search for them.

This 4-minute video with Dr. Dean Ornish is one of those times. I had not seen it until this week when one of my readers referred it to me.

—DEAN ORNISH, MD, Founder, Preventive Medicine Research Institute; Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco; and author of The Spectrum and Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease

I like the relaxed manner in which Dr. Ornish describes how people can easily prevent or reverse heart disease. Dr. Oz states that the main problem most people have with Ornish’s dietary guidelines—is that they are too extreme and that most Americans simply cannot do them. Dr. Ornish responds:

  1. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” He’s implying that if you don’t have heart disease already that you can probably prevent it by moving toward an optimal diet—even if you don’t choose to go all the way.
  2. But if you’ve already had a few cardiac events and want to reverse the deadly disease, then you might be motivated to get real serious about embracing his guidelines forever.
  3. Most importantly, he says that it’s sometimes easier to make BIG changes rather than little ones.
Dr. Dean Ornish, one of the most famous "real doctors" in the world, says just "Get rid of your type 2 diabetes."

Dr. Dean Ornish, one of the most famous “real doctors” in the world, says just “Get rid of your type 2 diabetes.”

I find that all of the five M.D.s featured in Chapter 1 of our book agree with that. When making radical dietary changes, baby-steps are not recommended for many reasons. From our book, Dr. Ornish is quoted:

In our research, we learned that it is often easier for people to make comprehensive changes in diet and lifestyle than to make only moderate ones. At first, this may seem like a paradox, but it makes sense when you understand why.

If you make only moderate changes in lifestyle—for example, reducing fat intake from the typical American diet of about 40 percent of calories as fat to the conventional dietary guidelines of 30 percent fat—then you have the worst of both worlds.

You feel deprived and hungry because you are not eating everything you want and are used to, but you’re not making changes big enough to feel that much better or to significantly affect your weight or how you feel (or, for that matter, your cholesterol, blood pressure, or heart disease)

Dr. Dean Ornish wrote the cover endorsement----and we filled the entire book with a heavy dose of "big picture" CLARITY.

Dr. Dean Ornish wrote the cover endorsement—-and we filled the entire book with a heavy dose of “big picture” CLARITY.

Two famous doctors. I can’t end this blog without noting my assessment of these two doctors:

  • Dr. Mehmet Oz is the most famous doctor in America; but he now spends most of his time in the entertainment business—meaning that we can’t always depend on his show to provide the best advice when it comes to our health.
  • Dr. Dean Ornish is the most famous real doctor in America. He became famous in 1999 after working in the Clinton White House for six years and he has consistently delivered the same sound advice about promoting health through diet and lifestyle changes.

Finally, I would like to share the Ornish endorsement that graces the top of the front cover of our book.

“What’s good for you is also good for our planet. Although heart disease and diabetes kill more people each year worldwide than all other diseases combined, these are completely preventable and even reversible for at least 95% of people today by changing our diet and lifestyle. This book shows you how.”

Consecutive daily blogs

Consecutive daily blogs

More Dr. Oz blogs for your convenience; some helpful, but most are just plain confusing—doing much more harm than good.

Happy Holidays! Everyday is a shopping day on Amazon. Want to give the gift of health this year? This may be the answer to your shopping dilemma:

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

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J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.

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Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation

Posted in Celebrities, M.D.s---Health-Promoting | 1 Comment

From Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen—Three Sisters Casserole

Posted on 12/15/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

A great festive dish for your holiday gathering

Three Sisters Casserole with polenta topping

Three Sisters Casserole with polenta topping

This cozy recipe is made with traditional Native American ingredients. The term “three sisters” comes from the practice of growing beans, corn and squash. This recipe is a festive dish for a party. You can freeze it or make it fresh.

This recipe makes two 8 x 11  dishes. Cut the recipe in half if you only want one or make both and freeze one!

Ingredients—Polenta Topping

  • 3 cups yellow cornmeal or corn grits
  • 2 Tbs. chili powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp. salt

Ingredients—Filling

  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 large peppers, any mix of red, yellow and/or orange, diced
  • 1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 2 14.5 oz low sodium diced tomatoes or 4-5 large tomatoes, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp. ground coriander
  • 2 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 14.5 oz low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed or fresh beans (you may substitute the variety of bean)
  • 1 can of low sodium corn, drained and rinsed or frozen
  • One 14 oz. bag of spinach

Directions:

  1. To make Polenta Topping: Whisk together cornmeal, chili powder, salt and 9 cups water in double boiler, or in a large metal bowl over barely simmering water. Cook until polenta is thick and stiff, stirring a few times. This may take as along as an hour depending on your stove. If you choose to make the topping using the corn grits, follow the directions on the package. Remove from heat.
  2. To make Filling: Preheat oven to 375F. Add water or vegetable broth to large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, adding liquid as needed to prevent it from burning, cook for about 10 minutes, or until softened.
  3. Add the peppers, and cook about 10 minutes more, stirring often.
  4. Stir in the squash, tomatoes, garlic, coriander and cumin. Cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in 1 cup of water and the salt. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, and simmer, partly covered, 15-20 minutes, or until squash is soft.
  5. Add beans and corn, and cook 10 minutes, or until slightly thickened.
  6. Stir in the spinach, cover and let wilt for about 2-3 minutes.
  7. Coat baking dishes with cooking spray. Spread enough of polenta over bottom of dish to cover. Add squash mixture over top. Smooth polenta over top, covering the squash mixture.
  8. Score casserole into squares with knife. Bake each dish about 45 minutes or until heated through and top is golden brown.
  9. Enjoy!

For a “printer-friendly” one-pager, ideal on your fridge with a magnet—Just click here for a PDF.

With love from Lisa

With love from Lisa

Click here for the page containing all recipes.

Be sure to tell your friends about our easy-to-remember website at www.4leafprogram.com and if you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list.

Let me hear from you: lisa@4leafprogram.com

If you like what 4Leaf eating is doing for you and your family, you might enjoy visiting our new “4Leaf Gear” store. From the New England village of Holden, Massachusetts — Be well and have a great day.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now. Also some great recipe books.

Posted in Recipes & meals | Tagged | 1 Comment

Dr. Oz—still promoting the diet gimmick of the month

Posted on 12/14/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

The doctors who say “Everything You Know About Cholesterol Is Wrong”

That was the title of the lead segment of the Dr. Oz show on 12-11-12. While he occasionally presents some very helpful information (See my “home run” blog below), his typical audience has no idea what to believe. That’s because the information presented on Tuesday is likely to be contradicted on Wednesday or Thursday.

BSB Word 2 pdf Ad

But let’s not blame Dr. Oz. We must remember that he is in the entertainment business—not the health-promotion business. If he just talked about healthy stuff, his show would be cancelled in less than a month.

But the sad part of this story is that millions of Americans take everything they hear on his show as fact—and that could sometimes be hazardous to their health. Confusion over clarity is not good for promoting health. But it is good for making money.

Dr. Oz juggles his food, which of course includes the all-important

Dr. Oz juggles his food, which of course includes the all-important “protein” that is so important to him.

So what about this new book, The Great Cholesterol Myth? Dr. Oz interviewed the two authors, a cardiologist and a doctor of nutrition and simply asked them questions. From their book’s description on Amazon, here are a few examples of things that Jonny Bowden and Stephen Sinatra covered in the interview:

Myth–High cholesterol is the cause of heart disease.
Fact–Cholesterol is only a minor player in the cascade of inflammation which is a cause of heart disease. 

Myth–High cholesterol is a predictor of heart attack.
Fact–There is no correlation between cholesterol and heart attack.

Myth–Lowering cholesterol with statin drugs will prolong your life.
Fact–There is no data to show that statins have a significant impact on longevity.

While portions of the above statements might be true, that is not the point of this blog today. My point is that the multi-million-person viewing audience was only more confused about nutrition by the end of the 20-minute segment.

That’s because they never got really clear about exactly what one should eat to promote vibrant health. But they did imply that grass-fed beef and free-range chickens were perfectly healthy foods. And I could tell from the enthusiastic cheers from the audience that they were loving what they were hearing about their bad habits. To be fair, Dr. Bowden did encourage the audience to eat lots of fruits and vegetables—and he did look fairly healthy himself.

Jonny Bowden

Jonny Bowden

So who is Dr. Jonny Bowden and Dr. Stephen Sinatra? Well, you can do your own Google search and find out for yourself. After learning that Dr. Bowden got his doctorate at Clayton College, I found the following on Dr. Stephen Barrett’s QuackWatch website (See link below):

Many non-accredited correspondence schools issue “degrees” and certificates which suggest that the recipient is a qualified expert who can provide rational advice about nutrition or health care. These documents are promoted as though they are equivalent in meaning to established credentials—which they are not. One of the most prolific was the Clayton College of Natural Health (CCNH), of Birmingham, Alabama, which offered “degrees” and certificates in “natural health,” traditional naturopathy, “holistic nutrition” and related subjects. CCNH described itself as “the world’s leading college of natural health” with over 25,000 graduates. But, in July 2010, it suddenly announced that it was closing. This article explains why I recommend avoiding its alumni. (See link below to read more)

Dr. Oz at the NJ Zoo discussing the raw plant foods with his participants.

Dr. Oz at the NJ Zoo discussing the raw plant foods with his participants. (See first link below)

The Bottom Line. Although the Oz Show can be very entertaining, you should not consider it your primary source of dietary information. Do your own research and discover the legitimacy, credibility and authenticity that you deserve.

After sharing this blogpost with my esteemed colleague, Dr. Campbell, this was his comment:

It really is about ‘confusion over clarity,’ as you have repeatedly said. This tactic is used by those who want to do their thing without having to defend it. Stealth under the cover of darkness. Aimless wandering in a dense fog. And getting someone with a fake ‘PhD’ to create more fog is all part of the game. Disgusting. —T. Colin Campbell, PhD

Finally, I do urge you to check out the first two blogs below about two great Oz segments. The first features a group of women who tested a “prehistoric diet” while living in a tent in New Jersey for just 48 hours. The results were amazing.

Consecutive daily blogs

Consecutive daily blogs

The second features Dr. Colin Campbell, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Neal Barnard and others in a show devoted to the truth about the optimal diet for humans.

Handy 5-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

Why should we be eating mostly plants? The “big picture” in 4 minutes.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

International. We’re now reaching people in over 100 countries. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or get daily blog notices by “following” us in the top of the right-hand column. For occasional updates, join our periodic mailing list.

J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, visit our 4Leaf page and also enjoy some great recipes from Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member since 2012; click banner for more info:

Nutrition Certificate
Posted in Celebrities, Heart Disease, Medical Experts | 13 Comments