Eating healthy

I often field questions about dietary supplements and vitamins. What do I think about co-enzyme q10 or high dose vitamin E or beta carotene? Flax seed? Ginkgo? Tons of stuff like that. For the most part, we don't know a lot about dietary supplements. No one has studied these things in any really meaningful way. But in reality, eating healthy is such an easy task that it doesn't require much thought.

If everyone simply did two things, then we as a country would be much healthier. If we (1) ate less, and (2) ate less packaged and prepared foods, we would be miles healthier, diabetes would be far less prevalent, and we would stop being the fattest country in the world.

...but at the same time I'm telling patients this, I have a cheeseburger with fries for lunch waiting for me in my office.

Lush

So, I keep hearing from various sources that a small amount of daily alcohol (whatever the source may be) is actually good for cardiovascular health. Although we don't recommend people drink, if you're going to drink, one or two a day may help. The problem is that one or two turns into eight.

In any case, I'm drinking one or two a day now, and rediscovering my love of beer. And wine. And scotch. And gin. And cognac. And martinis. And... hmm... I'm thinking that maybe I'm in trouble.

AHA Nutrition Committee et al. Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations Revision 2006: A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee. Circulation. 2006; 114(1):82-96.