Refuse To Regain

New York Soda Ban: Gone But Not Forgotten

by Barbara Berkeley, MD In the war for the way America eats, the most recent battle went to Big Soda. Citing "personal freedoms" the Coke and Pepsi folks raised their glasses to Thursday's court decision that overturned the New York City limit on soft drink size. How much would you like to bet that those happy executives were not toasting with the sugar-filled products they sell? Heck no. They want to live long enough to spend their fortunes. To be... Read more →

1 IN 3 ADULTS HAVE BLOOD SUGAR DISORDER. Who cares? Very few.

by Barbara Berkeley, MD Diabetes is decimating us. This week, the CDC reports a sharp escalation in blood sugar problems, a rising tide of deadly disease. This should come as no suprise as this medical equivalent of global warming has been predicted for some years. What continues to be a surprise is the utter lack of concern about what is happening to us and to our children. Are we really so busy shopping, texting and watching America's Got Talent? Let's... Read more →

Medical Contrarian: A Most Interesting Story About Fats and Science

by Barbara Berkeley, MD I couldn't get enough of this article on Dr. Fred Kummerow, 99 year old researcher who has spent his life studying dietary fats. As you know, I can be accused of science geekery. Essentially this means that I find articles on the neurochemical pathways in the appetite centers of the brain and studies on LDL particle number as compelling as most people find CSI Miami. But for me, this article on Kummerow held all the twists,... Read more →

Banning Trans-Fats: A Lesson in Questioning the "Common Wisdom"

by Barbara Berkeley, MD On Thursday, the FDA announced that it will move to ban trans-fats from the food supply. Trans-fats, which as you know by now are fats that are frozen into a new configuration by chemical manipulation, have had a bad reputation for awhile now. Michael Bloomberg moved to ban them from restaurants in New York in 2006 and health experts like Harvard's Walter Willett have been warning that trans-fats are unsafe at any level for at least... Read more →

A Too Fat World: One Symptom of Systemic Cultural Illness?

by Barbara Berkeley, MD When I recently had the sobering task of visiting a friend in the midst of her severe clinical depression I was struck by one thing. My friend was visibly ill, not just mentally, but physically. Even before medications were started, her skin was sallow, her weight had ballooned up and she looked like someone with a devastating bodily problem. In western medicine, we are taught to view the body as distinct from the mind. Psychological illness... Read more →

Here's What We're Up Against: More on Obesity-As-Disease

by Barbara Berkeley, MD As I said in an earlier post, obesity is more complicated than we make it out to be. To say it is a disease defines only one part of what obesity is and its facets are legion. Having said this though, it is obvious to those of us who treat ob/ow patients that elements of modern life have left many of us "broken" and are continuing to destroy us via harmful pathways that are self sustaining... Read more →

Morning Joe: The Food Wars in Microcosm

by Barbara Berkeley, MD I am a big fan of Morning Joe, MSNBC's thoughtful and viewer-friendly morning news program. For those who have never seen it, this show is built on the sometimes warm, sometimes snarky relationship between its two hosts. Mika Brzezinski is the liberal daughter of former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough is the eloquent staunch conservative and former Florida congressman. These two serve as effective foils for one another, each one looking as if... Read more →

An Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore is Quite Large

by Barbara Berkeley, MD In the interests of political equity, I feel it only fair to observe that Al Gore has become oversized. I report this because I have written in the past about Mike Huckabee, a Republican who--during his political ascendancy---devoted energy and considerable lip service to the themes of healthy eating, exercise and weight loss. He lost around 100 pounds, wrote a book about his successful lifestyle change and became a cheerleader for health. Then he gained a... Read more →

Food, Violence and How We Fool Ourselves: Just My Opinion

by Barbara Berkeley, MD This week's unfathomable massacre in Newtown Connecticut and all of its recent violent predecessors started me thinking about the ways in which I believe we humans are clueless. It seems to me that our greatest liability is our inflated sense of ourselves; the perception that we somehow exist outside of the laws of nature and therefore operate by a different set of rules. It seems so incredibly naïve. We take the fact that we are omnivorous... Read more →

Meatless Fruitless Mondays

by Barbara Berkeley, MD Cue the gorilla in the room. Can you please start roaring and waving your arms? What's that you say? Despite a killing rampage, still no one notices you? Attention America. You are dying of diabesity. You are living in a country where 46% of the adult population has some form of impaired sugar metabolism--either pre-diabetes or diabetes itself. Let me shout this. FORTY SIX PERCENT!!!! Adult diabetes is a disease that develops most commonly when people... Read more →