DrCarney.com Blog

PCRM (Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine) offers a "21-day Vegan Kick Start Program" that begins the first day of every month. However, you may register for it at anytime during the month.

Research indicates that eating red meat increases the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. This is consistent with the results from the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up study, that involved 120,000 people. It was estimated that "each serving (100 grams) of red meat raises the risk of cardiovascular death by 18 percent." The...

Many years ago, it was once thought that vegetarians had to combine certain foods in order to make a "complete protein." This is just a dietary myth that has been disproved. It originally surfaced in 1971 in the book Diet for a Small Planet, written by Frances Moore Lappe. By the 10th edition in 1981, Lappe renounced the myth as follows: "In 1971 I stressed protein complementarity because I assumed that the only way to get enough protein ... was to create a protein as usable by the body as animal protein. In combating the myth that meat is the only way to get high-quality protein, I reinforced another myth. I gave the impression that in order to get enough protein without meat, considerable care was needed in choosing foods. Actually, it is much easier than I thought."

Why do highly processed foods give us so much pleasure, while at the same time being so harmful? Dr. Doug Lisle says that the "answer is related to a system called the motivational triad." "This is a trio of biological mechanisms that nature has designed into every creature on planet earth so that they can...

Environmental estrogens (Xenoestrogens) appear to play a role in the reduction of male fertility. These estronens are man-made and primarily enter our food supply though the consumption of fish. Man-made chemicals such as PCBs and pesticides have the ability to disrupt endocrine hormones, which affets male fertility. Dr. Michael Greger explains in this short video...

Scrambled, fried, hard boiled, or poached - there seems to be a way to prepare eggs to satisfy even the pickiest of eaters. I'm sure many of you have fond memories of eating bacon and eggs for breakfast with your families on weekend mornings. Eggs are a comfort food. When asked what is wrong with eggs I sometimes flippantly reply "besides the yolk, the whites and the shell?" But, seriously, let's delve a little deeper...

As parents, we have the enormous privilege of shaping our children's future. This is also true for their future health outcome. What we feed our children the first ten years of their lives has a tremendous impact on whether they will suffer from chronic disease later in adulthood. Modeling good eating habits and providing a diet rich in whole, plant foods builds a strong foundation for a life time of healthy living. Many times, though, children need a little encouragement to eat those green vegetables.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is deficient in whole plant foods. I encourage my patients to greatly increase their consumption of vegetables and fruits many of which are delicious without being cooked. Some patients believe that they NEED to eat only raw foods in order to be healthy. This is simply not true. Raw foods are good but unfortunately many raw foodists have been found to be deficient in several nutrients, such as lycopene. In fact studies show that cooked tomatoes contain four times the amount of lycopene than raw tomatoes.Additionally, a study conducted on three different types of diets showed that even though the raw food group consumed significantly more servings of plant foods, their blood beta carotene levels were equal to those that ate the typical Western diet.

The World Health Organization, (WHO) attributes over 3 million deaths per year to "inadequate fruit and vegetable intake - a risk factor almost as deadly as tobacco use or unsafe sex." Why haven't you heard this from most family physicians? You'll be surprised to find out that less than 25% of medical schools offer a single course dedicated for nutrition and some graduating physicians have had no formal nutritional training at all. Out of thousands of clinical instruction hours, some may receive as little as three hours.

If you enjoyed my blog posts regarding food addictions and how dieting doesn't work, you'll also enjoy the below ten minute video clip featuring Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Dr. Fuhrman discusses in detail why eating less and exercising more doesn't work. Most people try dieting, only to fail after a few weeks. After several attempts and numerous weight loss strategies, many people feel hopeless and give up.

After making the transition to a plant-based diet, it's only natural to want to rush out and buy an expensive juicer to make our own juice. However, before you start searching on Amazon for the best kind, watch this six minute video clip from Jeff Novick's "Fast Food - Shopping School" dvd.

Jeff explains how fruit juice is not a natural state of the whole fruit, but actually a highly processed, refined food that should be used very sparingly, as a condiment for extra flavor. A whole fruit contains fiber, is low in calorie-density, and high in satiety, whereas fruit juice has had its fiber and many nutrients removed, is calorie-dense, and is low in satiety. Jeff refers to juice as "liquid calories" that can quickly add unwanted pounds and elevate blood sugar levels as well as triglycerides.

The "Paleo" diet or "Caveman" diet has recently become a popular diet, especially among some fitness groups such as CrossFit.  The Paleo diet is a modern day diet based on the presumed ancient diet of early man during the Paleolithic Era.

There are many aspects of this diet which are health promoting, such as the addition of fruits, vegetables, and nuts and seeds.  Other beneficial attributes include the avoidance of dairy products, processed snack foods, and alcohol.  However, legumes, grains, and starchy vegetables have also been eliminated which are beneficial and are a significant part of a whole-food, Starch-Smart® diet.  The Paleo diet centers its meals around animal products, much like the typical American diet, and is high in saturated fat and low in carbohydrates.  Advocates state that the high percentage of animal products to whole plant food is a key feature of this diet with sausage, bacon, lard and tallow being acceptable.