DrCarney.com Blog

Making healthy and delicious meals just got easier! Download the mobile phone apps from Forks Over Knives and/or Dr. John McDougall. These apps will simplify your daily meal planning for you and your family. Dr. John McDougall's Mobile Cookbook "Mobile Cookbook is now available for Android devices. This robust app gives you access to over...

Switching to a whole-food, plant-based diet not only improves our health and prevents disease; we are also changing the world for the better.  What we choose to eat no longer has just a local impact on our environment, our choices are seen globally. Plant-based diets reduce pollution, combat world hunger, prevent animal suffering, and saves precious natural resources. Even some governmental agencies are speaking out much to the chagrin of the meat and dairy industries. 

Dr. Michael Greger discusses the results of the "Daniel Diet" eaten as seen in the book of Daniel, Chapter 1, Verses 8-16 of the Bible. In Chapter 1, the prophet Daniel himself takes on a challenge of eating an all natural, plant-based diet. He says, in verses 12-13: "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see."

We are greatly saddened by the increasing obesity trends in America knowing that obesity is a precursor to unnecessary disease, suffering and premature death. Millions of people are effected! After clicking through the Obesity Trends slides from the CDC one can only wonder where we will be ten years from now. It is scary to think about. That, coupled with the increasing tendency for medical care to be rushed, if available at all, and we can see a time of great suffering coming on the United States that will be unprecedented. When we lose our health we have pretty much lost everything.

This is a great article by Lindsay Nixon from Happy Herbivore! In response to her question, her readers shared their stories when making the transition to a whole-foods, plant-based diet. Many times we will experience withdrawal symptoms, as mentioned in her article. These symptoms can be mistakenly interpreted as "not getting enough protein, or nutrients." So it's important that we know about the detox symptoms before we start a nutrient-rich, plant-centered diet.

High protein diets such as the Atkins or Paleo diet may result in initial rapid weight loss, however, there are numerous adverse health consequences associated with these types of diets. So, while the weight may be decreasing other serious health risks are increasing. Is it worth the risk to lose weight in this way? In a nutshell: No! 

Dr. Michael Greger has two videos that suggest some of the research behind plants' power to help stabilize our mood. In Improving Mood Through Diet, Dr. Greger explains that unlike animal products, plants have no arachidonic acid, a substance that produces inflammatory compounds. These compounds have been postulated to inflame our brain, contributing to stress,...

The 7 glass beakers represent what the stomach looks like when it's filled with 500 calories. The beakers contain butter or oil, meat, cheese, rice, corn, potatoes and candy. One way in which we satisfy the hunger drive is to fill the stomach completely. This triggers the stretch receptors in the stomach. As the stomach becomes...

If someone were to offer you a plain baked potato or a bag of potato chips, which would you choose? If you chose the plain baked potato, hooray for you! Most people however, would gobble down the entire bag of potato chips, lick their fingers, and look for more. The popular 1960's potato chip advertising slogan, "Betcha can't eat just one" was right; we can't eat just one. Many of us have probably tried, but failed. What compels us to gulp down the entire bag of chips, instead of the baked potato? Dr. Joel Fuhrman has the answer:

"The science on food addiction has now established that highly palatable foods (low-nutrient, high-calorie, intensely sweet, salty, and/or fatty foods - those that make up the majority of the Standard American Diet) produces the exact biochemical effects in the brain that are characteristic of substance abuse."
According to Dr. Fuhrman, "Junk food is ubiquitously available, legal, cheap, and socially accepted; therefore, it becomes the drug of choice for many of us."

Summer is a great time of year for family and friends to gather for fun outdoor activities including back yard cook outs. But before you light up the grill, you may want to read about the dangers associated with barbecued meat. The 2009 Meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research discussed how consuming barbecued meat...

Going to bed two hours before midnight offers numerous health benefits. One benefit of getting adequate sleep is that it can help us to maintain a healthy weight. Dr. Joel Fuhrman's article, Can lack of sleep actually cause me to gain weight? highlights a study which concluded that sleep deprivation alters hormones which can lead to an...

A fascinating study showed that, "During sleep, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain increases dramatically, washing away harmful waste proteins that build up between brain cells during waking hours."

Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Rochester, along with a team of scientists, discovered this "washing away" process when they studied the brains of mice that were sleeping. Dr. Nedergaard states that the scientists noted that during sleep, cerebrospinal fluid circulated through the brain and nervous system at a "very rapid pace." They believed this to be partly due to the brain cells of the mice actually shrinking when they fell asleep, making it easier for the cerebrospinal fluid to circulate. She goes on to say, "The process is important because what's getting washed away during sleep are waste proteins that are toxic to brain cells. This could explain why we don't think clearly after a sleepless night and why a prolonged lack of sleep can actually kill an animal or a person."