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Healthy Indian Recipes: Kitcheri

4/23/2012

A tasty recipe from my part of India. Whether you believe the Ayurvedic school of thought or not, you can't go wrong with kitcheri.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/ayurvedic-diet-kitcheri-vatas

Ingredients
1 cup Basmati rice
2 cups Mung Dahl (split yellow lentils)
7 cups (approx) water
Pinch of salt
1 tsp freshly cut ginger root
2 tbsp ghee

Click "read more" to see the rest of the recipe.

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NY Times: Doctors are learning nutrition

4/13/2012

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Let's call this progress! The NY Times covers a growing trend of physicians taking nutrition classes, then changing their practices, focusing more of their time on teaching patients how to eat better for improved health. I feel in my bones that the dictum "Food is Medicine" will soon influence how many doctors including your own doc treat people. Let's hope the trend also improves hospital food!

Here's the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/dining/doctors-learn-to-cook-healthy-crave-able-foods.html

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Interview with Dr. Latha Palaniappan, researcher of Indian-Americans & chronic disease

4/10/2012

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Last month I had the pleasure of speaking with Latha Palaniappan, M.D., M.S., a Stanford physician doing interesting research on whether and why Asian Indian-Americans are so susceptible to coronary heart disease and diabetes even though the group has a lower rate of obesity.

In a 2011 academic op/ed piece titled "Incorporation of whole, ancient grains into a modern Asian Indian diet to reduce the burden of chronic disease," Dr. Palaniappan and her co-authors concluded that a big reason for this phenomenon is that too many refined grain products have infiltrated all kinds of Indian dishes. They argue that to reclaim our healthy traditional diets, we must reclaim the whole grains of our heritage. I was gladdened when she agreed to answer a few questions by e-mail.

Without further ado, our Q&A.

Dr. Niraj "Raj" Patel: What made you interested in studying chronic disease in Asian Indian-Americans?
Dr. Latha Palaniappan: I became interested in studying chronic disease in Asian Indians because they are one of the highest-risk groups for chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. I experienced this personally, as my dad died of a heart attack, at the age of 39. In addition to research, I believe that it is also important to put research into practice by implementing culturally tailored healthcare and education to increase patient and provider awareness surrounding these health issues.

NRP: Was it surprising that Asian Indians have among the highest rates of heart disease and diabetes in California?

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Is sugar a toxin? More experts think so. Here's why

4/2/2012

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta's words at the opening of his "60 Minutes" feature stunned me: "New research coming out of some of America's most respected institutions is starting to find that sugar, the way many people are eating it today, is a toxin and could be the leading force behind some of today's leading killers."

Why did I find his words stunning? Well, it is the first time I have heard a mainstream health expert calling plain ol white sugar a toxin. Of course, he isn't the first. Last year, I watched Dr. Robert H. Lustig's lecture on YouTube, which is titled "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM ). Last time I checked, the lecture had been viewed over 2 million times.

Lustig is an UCSF endocrinologist who gained his insights on sugar's role in disease by working with children who were obese and sick with diabetes. While he admitted to worrying that his theory may be perceived as crazy even by fellow doctors, he firmly believes sugar is a toxin. Furthermore, Lustig tells Gupta that 75% of chronic diseases are preventable! Anyway, much of the 60 Minutes feature has Gupta explain how Lustig's anti-sugar campaign has gone from the margins of medical thought toward mainstream thinking because of newer research.

You can watch the 60 Minutes feature on sugar right here. Just click on the Play button below. If you'd rather open another browswer, please follow this link: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403942n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel. And click on "Read More" if you want to see why new research suggests that too much sugar is indeed toxic to our bodies.

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Healthy Indian Recipes: Kitcheri

NY Times: Doctors are learning nutrition

Interview with Dr. Latha Palaniappan, researcher of Indian-Americans & chronic disease

Is sugar a toxin? More experts think so. Here's why

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