Your Doctor’s Orders A blog by Terry Simpson, MD, FACS

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

100 Calorie Snacks- Not that Great

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

YourDoctorsOrders.com – 100 Calorie packs are still FAT! from TweetMeTV on Vimeo.

The 100 calorie snack food has come in just about everything from Oreo’s to Rice Krispie treats. These appear to be a great alternative for those who want a little something, but not over indulge.

There is a central problem with these foods. If you are trying to lose weight, then you want to have foods that will be used as fuel and not stored as fat. With highly processed foods- like these snack treats -they are quickly stored as fat – and not used by the body as fuel.

This has to do with something called the Glycemic Index. The Glycemic Index is a measure of how fast a particular item raises blood sugar. The faster a food raises blood sugar the more likely it will be stored as fat, and not used as fuel.

Take an apple– it will slowly digest, with a minimal rise in blood sugar. This allows the body to use the apple as fuel over time, instead of getting a BURST of sugar in the bloodstream. The apple has fiber – or bulk – which means it will suppress the appetite for a longer period of time.

When you eat something like an Oreo- even if it is a few with 100 calories- the blood sugar will rapidly rise. The pancreas produces insulin to move the sugar into the fat cells. If the pancreas over produces insulin, it can cause the blood sugar to drop. And if your blood sugar drops, it doesn’t feel well — so the next thing to make you feel better— another cookie. There is a reason it is called “junk food junkie.”

So instead of those highly processed 100 calorie snacks– look to something that is just as portable, but doesn’t cause that rapid rise in blood sugar– think of a fruit– like an apple. Your body is more likely to use it as fuel, and it will keep your appetite satisfied much longer than a cookie or other treat.

If you want to lose weight– start by changing from highly processed foods and moving snacks to fruits and vegetables.

Tags: fruits, Weight Loss
Posted in Celebrity Weightloss, Eating, Myths, Uncategorized, Weight Loss, healthy eating | No Comments »

Dogs and Health

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

There is no doubt that I love dogs – and think that they are a wonderful addition to families – and in my case, the office.

I have always enjoyed the company of dogs– and my house has three doggie doors. My last dog I took to the office daily, and my patients loved the little guy.

There have been plenty of articles written about the value of having a pet. But let me give a few simple tips:

If you have a dog– walk them. It does not matter if you have a big back yard, or if you have a dog door– the dogs need to be walked – -a lot. The larger the dog, the more exercise they need.

So, I am ready for a dog in my life again – -but to honor the dogs I have had recently – I am showing photos. I miss my guys – and have missed walking with you. Two of them – Bert and Ernie- died after 16 years of great service. Diego is gone after five. But love them all, and am looking forward to the next member of my family – who will also get to greet patients in my office, and will become a therapy dog for our patients in the hospital.

For those of you who don’t like dogs, I am sorry – sometimes I can’t help myself here.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Juicing for Weight Loss

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

YourDoctorsOrders.com – the Juice and what it’s full of! from TweetMeTV on Vimeo.

Today in the supermarket there is a wide variety of juices available. Great combinations of just about any juice you could imagine. And, if you wanted even fresher juices, there are machines that will do it for you. One of my favorite devices is a juice press that I use for making fresh squeezed orange juice from the trees in my back yard.

But what about using juices for weight loss? For weight loss you want to have a lot of volume in your stomach of bulky high fiber items that are low in calories. For that, vegetables and fruits work well. But if you juice those fruits and vegetables, then the stomach doesn’t register the bulk with the brain.

Everytime you eat something, especially something with bulk – the brain registers that sensation through a complex nerve network that begins in the top of the stomach. As bulky food goes through this area, your brain gets the sensation and when it reaches a certain amount it will hold off on sending out those hormones cause you to be hungry.

For example, if you eat a cup of broccoli you will have a lot of bulky foods, but only 12 calories! Your brain will sense that you have eaten a lot and as a result you will not feel hungry for hours. But if you juice all that broccoli you will drink about a cup of juice, and in two hours you will start to feel hungry again.

So while juicing allows you to concentrate a lot of good vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, the juice doesn’t provide the bulk that the stomach needs to keep you from being hungry.

The other caution with juicing is this: don’t store the juice too long, and be sure to keep your juicer clean. There are a lot of bacteria that grow in juices – like salmonella and E. Coli, that can cause severe food poisoning. So, keep your juicer clean — and if you store the juice, be sure to drink it within a day or two — and keep it refrigerated.

So if you want weight loss– eat the vegetables and the fruits– they have plenty of bulk to keep you from being hungry – and provide a lot of nutrients for your body.

Tags: missing meals, raw foods, vegetables
Posted in Eating, Lap-Band, Myths, Uncategorized, Weight Loss, healthy eating, skeptical medicine | No Comments »

Salads are the enemy!

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

YourDoctorsOrders.com – Salads are the Enemy! from TweetMeTV on Vimeo.

Posted in Eating, Lap-Band, Myths, Uncategorized, Weight Loss, healthy eating | No Comments »

Raw vs. Cooked veggies – which is better?

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

YourDoctorsOrders.com – Raw vs. Cooked Veggies from McMedia ProducerGirl on Vimeo.

Tags: cooked vegetables, Dr. Terry Simpson, healthy eating habits, raw foods, weightloss, Your Doctors Orders
Posted in Eating, Myths, Podcast, Uncategorized, Weight Loss | 3 Comments »

Thinking of skipping meals? Think again!

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Thinking of skipping meals? Think Again! from McMedia ProducerGirl on Vimeo.

Tags: calories, fat, fruits, gaining weight, good food habits, healthy eating, missing meals, vegetables, weight gain, weightloss
Posted in Eating, Myths, Podcast, Uncategorized, Weight Loss | 1 Comment »

Eating all your calories at once

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Thanksgiving is often a celebration around a meal. But its origins, as the story goes, had to do with Native Americans saving the colonists by showing them how to plant, and how to harvest corn, squash, and other vegetables. But it brings to mind, a habit of patients who gain weight.

The habit of eating all the calories at one meal. Many people do this for the sake of simplicity in life. They will eat nothing for breakfast, have minimal for lunch, then have several thousand calories for supper.

When the body is given excess calories – it stores them. Storage is done in fat– and getting energy out of fat is – well, difficult.

For most of the day your body is in a “starvation” mode — and thus you are telling your brain that you need to preserve your fat stores because of the famine. Then you flood your body with food– and the body says– hey — we got food, lets store it.

You have two bad problems– your body wants to store fat, and you set your body up to store fat.

Instead, split your calories up in two or three meals. Do not make dinner (supper) your main calorie meal– but just another meal. This is different than a lot of people– but if you watch skinny people you will see that dinner isn’t a big meal for them.

Some have advocated six small meals a day– but this often results in eating far too many calories – and encourages grazing.

You want to stimulate your brain – so that it sees bulk in your stomach a couple of times a day. Bulk is fiber- such as vegetables (remember one cup of broccoli is 12 calories).

If you eat two to three meals a day– or two meals and a snack- your body will think it is in a “time of plenty.” It will make it easier for you to utilize your fat stores for energy. This is a hormonal process that is regulated from the hypothalamus (a part of your brain). If your body thinks you are starving it makes it much harder to utilize your fat stores– trying to save your life.

So, quickest way to lose weight – eat two to three meals a day- and divide your calories up evenly. Avoid the highly processed foods, like potatoes, corn, breads, pastas. Have a lot of vegetables –
and have a good Thanksgiving!

Posted in Eating, Uncategorized, Weight Loss | 1 Comment »

Halloween tips

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

This is the holiday season for a lot of weight gain, and our first subject is the trick or treat type.

First- you don’t need to buy candy for the holiday. If you are like me you haven’t purchased the candy for Halloween yet, but that is a good thing. There are a lot of things you can put in kids bags that are not candy — small toys like nerf balls, or small action figures. None of them have any calories – and all of them work well for you and the kids. And if you have any left over they will keep for next year!

Second: If you are set on buying some candy for the kids– get something that you don’t like to eat, so when you are done for the night, you are not tempted to eat it. For some of us this is more of an issue because I love just about all candy that is out there – but there are some that I really like. Avoid those (for me that would be M and M’s). We all have different tastes — find something you don’t like. If it is too late– then pass out the stuff you really like first, and pass out a lot of it. My favorite trick– I give the smallest kids the most candy of the good stuff.

If you have kids and are taking them around- have them eat some dinner first. Worst thing is to send a kid out with an empty stomach and unlimited candy.

The night is over – and you have candy left — throw it out. Really! Get rid of it. All food goes to waste or waist – you get to choose. You don’t have to bring it to the office, you don’t have to keep it at home. If the excuse is that it is for the kids, or grand children- well, do they need that?

If you have some candy- balance it. Have something good to eat with it- like an apple, then the candy. That way you help to balance out the candy with something that will last you a little longer.

Finally remember this: it is a lot easier to put on weight than it is to take it off. Most of the candy that is given out for Halloween isn’t as good as some fine chocolate, or some fine candy. Think before you eat it — is this really worth it? Is what you want now so good that it is worth the weight it will be putting on? That bite size Snickers will take you an hour to work off– you willing to do that?

Always eat slowly, mindfully, and remember– this is just a silly holiday- so enjoy it, and once it is done put it away.

What is your best Halloween tip to keep the weight off?

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Why you should get the H1N1 vaccine

Monday, October 12th, 2009

“What is the bid deal about swine flu?” a number of people have asked — “and why get vaccinated?”

One only has to look at history to see what happened in the 1917-1918 Spanish Flu to find the answer.  The initial round of “Spanish flu” was mild– those who became ill had a typical mild flu.   Then the virus mutated, to where 3% or more who were infected died. Those who had been infected with the milder version had immunity against the more virulent flu that came later.

Still there are those anti-vaccination types who insist that the H1N1 vaccine has side effects (true, all vaccines do) – and that the current virus isn’t that bad anyway – and all you need to do is wash your hands. They are wrong — while hand-washing is a good thing, it does not prevent you from being in proximity to someone who sneezes.

The full impact of the Spanish flu has been lost because few read history.  In one village in Alaska 85% of the villagers died from the Spanish Flu,  It was from one village, called Brevig Mission – that a body was recently exhumed to obtain samples of the virus that were used to determine its genetic map.  In another village of Alaska, Knik, a village that had as many people as Anchorage (over 10,000 at the time), all but three villagers died.

The ability of the virus to mutate is what makes it deadly.  It can mutate in one host – a person gets the virus, it mutates and the next people receive the deadlier form of the virus. There is a viral protein that determines its ability to infect human cells – there are a number of influenza virus types that infect only animals- birds or swine, and do not infect humans. Once their is a mutation, this can cause enough of a shift that the virus can not only infect humans, but can become deadly.

The exact numbers of  death is difficult to determine- some say 25 million in the first 25 weeks (the population of the earth at this time was estimated to be one billion people) — and the estimates of fatalities go up from there.

Influenza is typically fatal to elderly, chronically ill, or very young people- but the Spanish flu killed young, healthy adults in their 20’s and 30’s.  The typical flu will kill 0.1 % of those it infects, while the Spanish flu killed anywhere from 3% to 20% of those infected. This last global epidemic is why so many are concerned about this particular flu.  The same type of influenza virus is now a seemingly mild Swine flu is the type that years ago became a deadly epidemic killing young people.

The concern with the current H1N1 flu is that it is the same type of flu as the Spanish flu (H5N1 was its designation) and that like the Spanish flu, it could mutate to something that would be deadly. There is some concern this has already happened. In one school in Ireland two of the students who contracted this virus have died. Many worry that this is the evidence that the flu may have made its deadly transformation.

Vaccination offers immunity – so should the flu mutate quickly – those vaccinated would have an immunity. Those who have come down with the mild case of Swine flu would also have immunity. But remember – your neighbor who just coughed on you may have had the mild case, but the virus may have already transformed.

When the vaccine becomes available-  I am going to get it. You should contact your physician to see about your risk.

Posted in Uncategorized, skeptical medicine | 5 Comments »

Anti oxidants – do we need them

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

Oxidation is something that most of us see in life– when we leave some iron out and it rusts – that is oxidation. There is a theory that the stress of oxidation leads to many diseases including heart disease, cancer, and even aging. As a result, there has been a rush of studies examing the role of anti-oxidants and to see if diets rich in anti-oxidants will show a decrease in those disease.

But before we rush to buy the latest anti-oxidant capsule, berry, fish, or whatever – think about some of the things that are positive about oxidants. Ok – yes, you need the oxidants to wash your clothes. Nothing like some oxy-clean to whiten the stains. But, the body uses oxidation in a variety of ways that are useful.

When a bacteria is encountered by white blood cells (poly morphonuclear leukocytes) they use oxidation to destroy the microbe. When the body encounters a cell that isn’t behaving quite right – oxidation is used to get rid of it.

The gray hair so many color– it is gray because of the “bleaching” effect of anti-oxidants. Ok- maybe that isn’t a great example, but it does provide protection for the scalp – in spite of whatever toxic materials people put on their head to make it pretty.

Then there is the matter of ingesting the anti-oxidant.  Did you ever wonder how long it takes the stomach to inactivate it? About a nano-second. So you are eating something you think is good for you – -and in a nano-second is inactivated by your wonderful stomach trying to protect you from doing yourself harm.

We have a balance in our bodies– those things that can help us- oxidation against bacteria and cancer – -can harm us if it runs wild. Just like our immune system can turn against us.

So before you buy the Pom-Wow, drink it because you like it – not because it might help you.

You want your body to oxidize some things (my hair, now the true platinum color) – you want to kill invading bacteria, cells that go wild (unlike the teenage daughter who wants to go to Mexico for spring break – although oxidizing the boys in Mexico might be a good thing).

Want to learn more nerdy stuff about anti-oxidants– well, I could do that, but it is Saturday morning and I am a bit tired. Suffice to say – here are a few simple facts:

(a) oxidation is a part of the cycle of life and if we don’t have it basic chemical process that keep us alive will not work

(b) oxidation is good for your bodies protection

(c) people who sell you this fad stuff are usually in some pyramid scheme, or not giving you all the facts

(d) most of the anti-oxidants you ingest will not survive past your stomach and if they could you may change the balance of your body in a way that you would not intend

(e) all of the studies done so far show that the addition of anti-oxidants do not have a beneficial effect for your heart, to prevent cancer, or to increase lifespan.

So, if you like Pom-wow – drink it. But don’t think you really need it otherwise. I like Pom-Wow, but I also like red wine. I wonder if the cops will stop me for driving under the influence of anti-oxidants?

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

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