Today I’m thinking about “junk food.” So called junk food, that is. In my mind there’s junk and then there’s food; there’s no such thing as junk food. It it’s junk then it can’t be food. If it’s food, it’s not junk. Junk food? Really? Who put this one over on the American family? Junk food? What a joke. There’s some kind of logic to this. It’s fairly obvious: it’s one or the other, and if it’s junk, then it can’t be food.

Here in my virtual reality corner of the internet, I’m working to create a quiet storm around this concept. I post week in and week out about the differences between real food and manufactured calories. My commitment to this blog is so great that I post even when I’m on vacation, which makes it a working vacation. What’s that? Okay, I’ll cut back on those.

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Last week my friend Dana mentioned that her blood sugars have been rising, but I could see she didn’t realize the significance of what she was saying. Her doctor said her Hemoglobin A1c (HgA1c) was 6.1 or maybe 6.3, but, as she reported, “he was pretty cavalier about it,” so she took her cue from her doctor and didn’t worry about it. Continue reading →

Have you ever thought about the fact that white flour and corn starch look remarkably similar? Potato starch, too. A big pile of fluffy white powder. Why might that be? What each of these examples has in common is that we have processed away its unique original character until all that remains, in each case, is dry starch. You can’t see corn kernels in corn starch because there are none. There are no grains in white flour. And there are no potatoes in potato starch.

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On Friday afternoon I stopped at the grocery store for a few last-minute items, mostly just more veggies and salad greens to get us through the snowy weekend. I was thinking long-and-skinny, along the lines of asparagus and carrots, but changed my mind abruptly when I saw the mountain of Brussels sprouts at the entrance to the produce section. Next thing I knew, the woman behind me in the checkout line was tapping my shoulder. “Excuse me,” she said, “But what do you do with those? I’ve always thought they looked so great, but I have no idea what to do with them.” Continue reading →

A few years ago a patient came into my office complaining of migraines. He said, “You might think I’m crazy, doc, but I only get these headaches when I eat certain vegetables.” Which ones? It was hard to be sure. Salads gave him a headache only sometimes, and usually only in restaurants. Cole slaw gave him a headache no matter where he ate it. The list seemed completely random, and included Brussels sprouts, watercress, broccoli, and radishes. I grinned like an amateur holding a royal flush. The patient was naming only cruciferous vegetables. Continue reading →