Hi!! I's Dr Beck again and it's Friday--Blog Day! Hope everyone is staying dry!! It is raining here in Pompano, so it's a GREAT blog day!
If you've read through the Functional Medicine Tab(yes it is long) of the Womens Besthealth website, the last 2 paragraphs (go there, skip down and read them) talk about the "Functional Medicine Practitioners Tool Kit". One of the most important--if not THE MOST IMPORTANT part of my tool kit is the 7 Day Diet Diary. The funny thing is that patients will give me every excuse in the book why they couldn't or wouldn't fill out this food diary!
- The dog ate it!
- I didn't have time!
- I had company in town and we ate out every day!
- I eat GREAT: organic food/natural food so I didn't think it was necessary.
- Did I ever get that form???
---OR, if it is filled out, they hand it to me and say---
- "It was a "bad" week--I don't usually eat this way--REALLY"!!
- "I was depressed and I ate foods I don't normally eat"
The list goes on and on!!
WHAT THE HECK IS THE PROBLEM ANYWAY???!!!
The 7 Day Food Diary is not used as a "judgement" in any way. It is used to see:
- If you are eating at the best times of the day to control hypoglycemia
- If your ratio of Carbs/Proteins/Fats are best for your health condition or weight loss if necessary
- If you are eating sugary snacks at night which cause you to wake up at 3AM unable to go back to sleep due to a blood sugar drop
- If what you eat may be causing or worsening your current symptoms
- If you are eating too many inflammatory foods such as dairy and wheat(gluten)
- If you are eating enough protein to sustain life!!
These are just some of the reasons I look at a patients eating habits. Look, we all eat "bad things" and comfort foods and we all "pig out" at times--no one is perfect. Hey, I once had a patient who "existed" on tuna sandwiches with a Sprite and ate jelly beans all day as a snack!!!
99% of most peoples diseases or symptoms are from LIFESTYLE, and lifestyle includes what you EAT. CANCER has been designated a lifestyle disease--so yes, you CAN help prevent cancer thru lifestyle changes--don't sit around and grow old waiting for a cancer vaccine--it "ain't gonna happen"!!
Even Medical Doctors--yes, MD's are starting to think about food as a cause of disease-check out this link to an MD's article:http://ahha.org/articles.asp?Id=52
So, the next time YOU are asked to fill out the "dreaded 7 Day food diary'--do it so that I can be a "detective" and help you get to the root cause of your heath problems!