Dr. Joanne Day, ND

Fall Cleanse

Dr. Joanne Day — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 03:45:57 +0000

We have already talked about what we are trying to remove from our bodies and how we are going to do it but…..we need more details about the diet.

To review, the diet is designed with several key points in mind:

Foods that commonly cause sensitivities and allergies are avoided. These include dairy, sugar, gluten(wheat), potatoes, soy, red meat, peanuts, eggs & chocolate.

Foods that slow down or overburden the liver, kidney and digestive function are avoided. These include bananas, grapefruit, alcohol, salt, coffee, caffeine, & artificial ingredients in food.

Adequate protein is consumed to support production of liver detoxification enzymes and day-to-day bodily functions.

Foods that stimulate detoxification are emphasized. These include garlic, lemons, apple cider vinegar, onions, and spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne peppers.

Anti-oxidants are emphasized. Including lots of vegetables (especially leafy greens), berries, nuts, seeds and fruit.

Fiber is emphasized to facilitate frequent bowel movements. If you do it right, you will get about 40-50g of fiber a day on this cleanse. Your bowels will love you (but be sure to drink enough water)!

For those of you who took part in our group cleans earlier this year, you are familiar with what you can and can not eat. I want to change the foods we are focusing on and including in our daily meal plan to reflect the season. In Chinese Medicine the seasons dictated what types of food are eaten and how they are prepared. Because one of the most important themes of Chinese Medicine is balance, the summer is for eating fresh raw veggies. Cooling foods and spices such as peppermint, lemon, watercress, cucumber and lemon help cool us on a hot day. In the cooler months, stews, soups and baked veggies or meat are emphasized. Our Fall Cleanse will incorporate these types of foods.

Breakfast: Warmed Breakfast Cereal with one cup of thawed frozen or fresh berries. (You can add a little maple syrup or honey if you really need to;)

AM Snack: 1/4 cup almonds and a piece of fruit (remember no bananas)

Lunch: Soup or stew with lots of veggies & protein (beans, lentils or meat). Some ideas; Easy Cauliflower Curry (but omit the yogurt and add 1/2 cup rice milk),

Afternoon Snack: Hummus or any other bean dip with fresh veggies for dipping.

Supper: Lots of roasted, veggies(carrots, sweet potatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms, asparagus, protein (beans, chicken, salmon, cod or any other whitefish) & an unprocessed grain (brown rice or qunoia) – you can get imaginative for supper – maybe combine everything together in a curry or stew – post some good recipes if you have them!

PM Snack: Piece of fruit

There is no need to be hungry. There are lots of good healthy foods to choose from.

Some details about what you can and cannot eat:

Veggies:

At least 10 servings per day (mostly cooked). Each serving is about 1/2 a cup.
Lots of garlic and onions
No canned or jarred veggies
No potatoes

Fruits:

2-3 pieces/day plus unlimited berries
No dried, canned or packaged fruit
No bananas (because they are constipating) nor grapefruit (they disable some liver enzymes)

Grains

2-3 servings (1/2 cup each) of non gluten containing grains: brown rice, millet, qunoia
No gluten containing grains or processed grains: wheat, spelt, rye, oats, barley, pasta, bread, cereal

Legumes

All legumes (beans, chickpeas), lentils & peas (fresh, split, snap)
No soy beans, soy milk or tofu

Nuts & Seeds

Almonds, sesame seeds, brazil nuts, peacans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts ***NO ADDED SALT***
No peanuts

Animal Products

Chicken, turkey, deep water fish (salmon, halibut, cod, mackerel, sardines)
No red meats (beef, pork, buffalo), sandwich meats, hotdogs, sausage, canned meats, smoked meats, shell-fish
No Dairy (milk, cream, sour cream, yogurt, butter)
No Eggs

Condiments/Oils

Olive & flax oil, apple cider vinegar, fresh lemon juice, all spices & herbs, stevia (a natural sweeter)
No salt, refined oils, margarine, butter, shortening, sugar, artificial ingredients

Beverages

Water: at least 2-3L/day, 100% fruit juice (max 4 oz/day), herbal teas, green tea, rice milk, almond milk
No caffeinated beverages (coffee, black tea), soda, alcohol, dairy, soy milk, sweetened fruit juice or vegetable drinks high in salt

The most important thing about doing a detox is to always be prepared and have food that you can eat with you. Be at least a day ahead in your meal planning – when you are eating supper, plan what you are going to have the next evening. None of this food is quick or easy – if you don’t have something at least half prepared before mealtimes, you will end up breaking the detox.

Good luck getting prepared. Let me know if you have any questions. And please share your ideas and recipes.

Breakfast Cereal

Dr. Joanne Day — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 03:24:18 +0000

This cereal is the perfect blend of carbs, protein & fibre. Oatmeal on its own is not high enough in either protein or fibre for a complete breakfast. It is metabolized too quickly to tide most people over until lunch. I feel like I am hungry about an hour after finishing a good sized bowl of oatmeal!

1 ½ cups slow-cooking oatmeal
½ cup ground flax seeds
½ cup ground almonds
½ cup ground sunflower seeds

Mix ingredients and store in an airtight container. Before bed, mix 1/3 cup of dry cereal mixture with 1/3 cup water. Cereal is ready to eat in the morning, no cooking necessary, but can be heated if you prefer a warm breakfast. Serve with fresh or frozen fruit, milk, maple syrup or honey.

Natural Flavors: Good, bad or somewhere in between?

Dr. Joanne Day — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:21:55 +0000

Today in my office, I gave the mother of a patient a copy of my food additives ‘green & red’ list. It is a list of many items you will see on food ingredient lists which is color coded in red(avoid) and green(ok for daily consumption). She was surprised to see “Natural Flavors” in red. I have to admit that like most people, I thought ‘natural flavors’ were fairly benign until I looked into them further. The info I found was not what I was hoping for and my kids had to say bye-bye to several of their favorite snacks!

The Canada Food Inspection Agecny’s definition of a natural flavor is the following; ‘Substances which impart flavours which have been derived from a plant or animal source, may be claimed to be “natural”‘. Many associate natural with harmless or even worse “heatlhy”. However, there are many things that originate from plants and animals that I wouldn’t want to eat. Trans fats, nitrates, and high fructose corn syrup to name a few.

I have a few other issues with natural flavors. They tend to be in processed foods which ideally, isn’t your go-to, every day fare. I see it mainly in foods that are masquerading as healthy – fruit cups, juice, fruit snacks, crackers, and granola bars.

Natural Flavors are compounds isolated from vegetables and meats, then highly concentrated. We know that increased exposure to a food makes a person more likely to develop a sensitivity to that food. Concentrating a portion of that food will make sensitivities more likely. And because natural flavors can be virtually anything, the detective work involved in identifying food sensitivities becomes even harder.

Many advocates of artificial flavoring point to the fact that many natural flavors and artificial flavors are identical when viewed under a microscope. Both are made in a lab, the only difference is that artificial flavors are made from individual components mixed together, whereas natural ingredients start as a real food that is processed down to its individual components. I have to agree with them that the differences are more about semantics.

Listing natural flavoring as an ingredient is another way for the food industry to hide behind ambiguous labeling and not really tell us what is in our foods. Please, just tell it what it is! (Don’t get me started about the whole “modified milk ingredients” issue.) I bet some natural flavors are harmless, and some are downright dangerous, but how are we suppose to tell the difference?

Probably my biggest beef about natural flavorings is that it is a tough competitor for ‘real’ food. How is a lowly apple (with the peel) suppose to compete with a natural-flavor-enhanced, concentrated-juice-sweetened fruit cup? It’s like food on ‘flavor’ steroids. When kids and adults get used to the intensified, pungent tastes of processed foods, it’s hard to appreciate the subtle naturally occurring flavors of real, unadulterated food.

Natural flavorings seem to be cropping up in more and more foods. I saw butter with natural flavorings the other day. Really, as if butter isn’t tasty enough! I challenge you to take a look in your cupboard and fridge to see just how much natural flavorings are in there. Try and go a whole day (or week) without any foods with natural flavorings!

The End of Illness? Dr. David Angus, MD

Dr. Joanne Day — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:29:46 +0000

Dr. David Angus has written a book entitled The End of Illness and is busy promoting it. First, a disclaimer, I haven’t read the book. I don’t think I will either. His ideas are interesting but like most health oriented books, I think the reviews tell the main points and the rest of the book just repeats them over and over. If you do read The End of Illness and this isn’t true – please let me know. I have however, read the McLean’s review of the book and listened to Dr. Angus on The Current. So this article is a review of those, not the book.

I really like the way Dr. Angus describes our body as a system and that health and disease (specifically cancer, he is an Oncologist) are dynamic states. He goes on to talk about how cancer is in all of us and it takes the right environment to make it replicate and become a problem. This is totally in line with my belief that health is a spectrum and that the absence of disease doesn’t necessarily mean you are healthy or not in a state of health that will more likely promote disease in the future.

I also agree with Dr. Angus’s emphasis on individuals being responsible for their own health. I think personal responsibility for our health is lost in a world of advanced testing, breakthrough medical procedures and super drugs becoming available. While I am all for medical advances, I sometimes feel it makes people take their health for granted – that all medical conditions can be ‘fixed’ by a drug or medical procedure, with little or no effort on the patient’s part. He encourages people to know their numbers and what they mean, to ask more questions and to pay attention to their bodies. For example, how has your blood pressure and cholesterol ratio changed over the past 10 years? Or, how has your waist circumference changed?

The End of Illness also discusses the importance of the basics: proper nutrition, good sleep and staying active. Who can argue with those?

There are, however some inconsistencies in his message. He is all for “off label” uses of drugs but requires ‘double-blind, placebo-controlled’ studies on minerals and vitamins. This is double standard I encounter frequently.

He briefly talks about how everyone is an individual but thinks most people over 50 should be on statin drugs and aspirin. He is ignoring the potentially serious side effects of these drugs which, for a lot of people, would far outweigh the benefits. There are other ways to combat inflammation which have far less potential to cause side effects and address it in a way that doesn’t hijack your bodies inflammatory response. Fish oil for example.

Dr. Angus supports the hypothesizes of Paul Patterson that inflammation caused by the influenza of 1918 was the cause of health concerns later in life for people in utero at the time. While I agree that a pregnant woman’s health strongly affects a baby’s health throughout his or her lifetime, it is more than a bit of a stretch to use this data to promote the flu vaccine. There is no data or studies to support his hypothesis that flu vaccines prevent cardiovascular disease or cancer. Instead, this is his train of thought: people with inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or colitis get cancer more often—–>the flu causes inflammation——>the flu shot is ‘suppose’ to prevent the flu——>the flu shot prevents cancer. Even if the flu vaccine was shown to decrease the incidence of flu in our population (which it isn’t) this would be faulty reasoning and have potentially many compounding factors. Kind of like when we thought coffee caused lung cancer back in the smokin’ 60′s . He is in favor of using epidemiological data(populations studies) to support the flu shot but totally dismisses all the epidemiological data (and double-blind, placebo-controlled studies) supporting Vitamin D. You can hand pick data to say anything you want and I feel like this is happening a lot with Dr. Angus.

I respect Dr. Angus for challenging our beliefs, even if I don’t agree with everything he has to say. Like I said at the beginning of this article, if you read the book and there is a lot more information and interesting ideas, let me know.

Detoxing: The diet details

Dr. Joanne Day — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:15:49 +0000

We have already talked about what we are trying to remove from our bodies and how we are going to do it but…..we need more details about the diet.

To review, the diet is designed with several key points in mind:

Foods that commonly cause sensitivities and allergies are avoided. These include dairy, sugar, gluten(wheat), potatoes, soy, red meat, peanuts, eggs & chocolate.

Foods that slow down or overburden the liver, kidney and digestive function are avoided. These include bananas, grapefruit, alcohol, salt, coffee, caffeine, & artificial ingredients in food.

Adequate protein is consumed to support production of liver detoxification enzymes and day-to-day bodily functions.

Foods that stimulate detoxification are emphasized. These include garlic, lemons, apple cider vinegar, onions, and spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne peppers.

Anti-oxidants are emphasized. Including lots of vegetables (especially leafy greens), berries, nuts, seeds and fruit.

Fiber is emphasized to facilitate frequent bowel movements. If you do it right, you will get about 40-50g of fiber a day on this cleanse. Your bowels will love you (but be sure to drink enough water)!

But what exactly are we going to eat? Here’s what your day will look like:

Breakfast Smoothie: 1.5 cups of frozen berries, 2 cups (packed) salad greens, 3 tablespoons of ground flax or pumpkin seeds, water. Optional for flavor: 4 oz unsweetened juice &/or rice or almond milk

AM Snack: 1/4 cup almonds and a piece of fruit (remember no bananas)

Lunch: Big salad with lots of veggies(don’t forget the onions!) & a source of protein (chicken breast, salmon, lentils, or chickpeas). Dressing: apple cider vinegar, olive oil, fresh garlic and lots of herbs (& a little juice if you like it sweet)

Afternoon Snack: Hummus or any other bean dip with fresh veggies for dipping.

Supper: Lots of roasted, steamed or steam-fried veggies, protein (beans, chicken, salmon, cod or any other whitefish) & an unprocessed grain (brown rice or qunoia) – you can get imaginative for supper – maybe combine everything together in a curry or stew – post some good recipes if you have them!

PM Snack: Piece of fruit

There is no need to be hungry. If you find the lunch too light, add some nuts or seeds to the salad.

Some details about what you can and cannot eat:

Veggies:

At least 10 servings per day (some cooked, some raw). Each serving is about 1/2 a cup. 4 servings should be leafy greens.
Lots of garlic and onions
No canned or jarred veggies
No potatoes

Fruits:

2-3 pieces/day plus unlimited berries
No dried, canned or packaged fruit
No bananas (because they are constipating) nor grapefruit (they disable some liver enzymes)

Grains

2-3 servings (1/2 cup each) of non gluten containing grains: brown rice, millet, qunoia
No gluten containing grains or processed grains: wheat, spelt, rye, oats, barley, pasta, bread, cereal

Legumes

All legumes (beans, chickpeas), lentils & peas (fresh, split, snap)
No soy beans, soy milk or tofu

Nuts & Seeds

Almonds, sesame seeds, brazil nuts, peacans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts ***NO ADDED SALT***
No peanuts

Animal Products

Chicken, turkey, deep water fish (salmon, halibut, cod, mackerel, sardines)
No red meats (beef, pork, buffalo), sandwich meats, hotdogs, sausage, canned meats, smoked meats, shell-fish
No Dairy (milk, cream, sour cream, yogurt, butter)
No Eggs

Condiments/Oils

Olive & flax oil, apple cider vinegar, fresh lemon juice, all spices & herbs, stevia (a natural sweeter)
No salt, refined oils, margarine, butter, shortening, sugar, artificial ingredients

Beverages

Water: at least 2-3L/day, 100% fruit juice (max 4 oz/day), herbal teas, green tea, rice milk, almond milk
No caffeinated beverages (coffee, black tea), soda, alcohol, dairy, soy milk, sweetened fruit juice or vegetable drinks high in salt

Good luck getting prepared. Remember start date is Thursday, January 26, 2012. Let me know if you have any questions. And please share your ideas and recipes.