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Talking Wellness with Peter: Eating a Healthy Breakfast

In this video, Dr. Peter Borten shares a bunch of easy and yummy variations of “jook” (Chinese for porridge) that will send you on your way feeling nourished and full… Read More

Rather than give you a nice cohesive report on a single health topic, I decided this month to write a bit about a number of different trendy foods. If you’re a foodie, a health nut, or shop at natural grocery stores, you’ll undoubtedly be familiar with most of these items. Whether you’ve heard of these things or not, I hope to share with you some important details that will help you make more informed decisions about them.

Himalayan Pink Salt: We’ve been eating it and using it in our footbaths at the Dragontree for years. Pink salt is also an important ingredient in certain Ayurvedic medicines. To me, it is more flavorful than regular table salt. And it’s become popular in large blocks as cutting boards, lamps, and cooking trays (you can, for instance, bake a fish on a slab of pink salt and it imparts a nice flavor).

Salt has unfortunately been demonized due to its occasional ability to raise blood pressure, but it’s quite vital for many of our organs to function optimally. (I'm of the opinion that anyone with normal or low blood pressure who craves salt probably needs more of it.) In terms of its mineral analysis, pink salt supplies all sorts of beneficial minerals that don’t occur in regular table salt (which is just sodium and chloride, and often contains anti-caking chemicals). I also like sea salts for many of the same reasons, although it may be worth considering where it comes from (ideally from unpolluted water, free of mercury, oil, nuclear radiation, etc.).

There’s just one problem with using pink salt as your everyday salt. It doesn’t have much iodine in it, and most people don’t get enough of this important mineral. It has a wide range of functions in the human body - most notably in the formation of thyroid hormone. Commercial table salt is Americans' main source of iodine. It’s added to salt because salt does a good job of masking iodine’s metallic flavor. So, if you’ve switched over to pink salt, consider eating more iodine rich foods, such as seaweeds (kelp, dulse, nori, etc.) and fish, or make sure there’s iodine in your multivitamin. You can also alternate between pink salt and a high quality iodized sea salt (I haven't yet seen iodized pink salt).

Quinoa: Quinoa is so hot right now, you’d think it was more special than it is. Yes, for a grain, it contains about 8 grams of protein per cup, which is kind of a lot. (Some people like to jump in here and point say it’s a seed, not a grain. Whatever.) The main thing is it’s a starchy seed that has a decent amount of protein. It has a slightly bitter and unique flavor that some people quite like and others don’t. It’s not as versatile as rice, in my opinion, but is less of a simple carbohydrate, which makes it significantly healthier. The drawback of our new love affair with this seed is that in the few high altitude places where most of it is grown – such as Peru and Bolivia – and where it has been a dietary staple for centuries, the locals can no longer afford it. We need to cut down on it and/or find some new places to grow it.

Agave Nectar: If you read my articles with any regularity, you’ve probably heard me rant about this stuff. It’s a super popular sweetener, cleverly marketed in a way that makes it appear to be relatively healthy and natural. Surely, it must be better than table sugar – it’s “nectar” after all. Sorry. It’s garbage. Almost always highly processed and quite similar in composition to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), agave nectar actually contains more fructose than HFCS. So often, I’ve been scanning the ingredients of a new product that seems to be otherwise healthy when – doh! – they put agave nectar in there. Back on the shelf.

Therapeutic Drinks: More and more, I see drinks in the supermarket that claim to enhance mental clarity, improve energy, promote calm, stoke libido, balance chakras, and build muscles. These products are virtually all hype. I can barely think of a legal substance that’s capable of enhancing mental focus or energy on a single-serving basis. Except caffeine. And they usually have some of that in there, too. A single dose of B vitamins (and usually a small dose at that) in your very sweet Smart “Water” isn’t going to do anything for you. It definitely isn’t healthy enough to offset the negative impact of all the sugar they put in there. Save your money and stick with real water. Or try some green tea – a fad that’s actually worth the attention.

Gluten Free Snacks and Treats: There is nothing intrinsically healthier about a gluten free food versus one with gluten in it, unless you have a known problem digesting gluten. Unfortunately, since the awareness of gluten sensitivity has risen mainly in the health-nut community, many people have come to assume that gluten free means healthy. A vegan, gluten free cookie is still a cookie and likely has way more sugar than your body needs or wants (the unhealthiest part of a cookie is the sweetener, not the gluten). Gluten-free macaroni and cheese is still just a bunch of salty starch with close to zero nutritional value. Gluten free pretzels or crackers are just empty calories. So, if you need to avoid gluten and you must have macaroni, crackers, and cookies, by all means, get the gluten free kind. Just remember you’re still eating cookies, crackers, and macaroni.

Greek Yogurt: Real Greek yogurt is made by repeatedly straining yogurt to maximize the protein content, which makes it thicker and creamier. Some “Greek style” yogurts are thickened instead with pectin or other gels, and I consider these fake Greek yogurts. The Greek Gods brand is the most popular fake Greek “style” yogurt. If you consume Greek Yogurt for the extra protein, read the label. Look for high protein (like 20 or more grams per cup). A nice benefit of Greek yogurt is, where regular yogurt that has no milk fat tends not to be very creamy, even the fat free Greek yogurt is quite creamy.

I don't advocate avoiding fat, but some fats are better than others. Pasteurized milkfat from grain-fed cows is not the best, and in many people it tends to promote phlegm production. I'm one of those people, but for me, fat-free Greek yogurt suits my body rather well. If they both taste good to you, I recommend the fat-free kind (get your good fats from other sources). Also, make sure it’s either organic or at least free of bovine growth hormone (rBst / rBGH).

Goat: Goat is consumed by 70% of the meat-eating world. It’s the world's most popular meat! And it’s now becoming a more popular option in the U.S. Good quality goat (also known as chevon or mutton, and the young meat is cabrito or capretto) tastes like premium lamb. It’s a nice lean and healthy meat.

It's also a good alternative to beef. Unlike mass produced beef, goats are generally allowed to graze on grass, which means healthier, tastier meat (cows usually eat corn and soybeans, which is not just unnatural, but bad for the animal and the final product). In addition, our appetite for beef has been quite destructive to the world, through the razing of rainforest for pasture land, the pesticide- and resource-heavy production of corn for their feed, and the ozone depleting effect of cow flatulence (seriously!), so it’s worth embracing any palatable alternative.

Finally, remember this: just because it’s over-priced and on the shelves of Whole Foods, doesn’t make it good for you. There is plenty of unhealthy stuff even at “health food” stores, including nearly everything in the bakery section. Be a wise consumer, especially when it comes to selecting things you’ll put in (or on) your body.

Take care,

Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => Tidbits on Trends [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => tidbits-on-trends [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2013-09-05 15:47:26 [post_modified_gmt] => 2013-09-05 15:47:26 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=3142 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 3643 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2014-01-21 10:15:09 [post_date_gmt] => 2014-01-21 18:15:09 [post_content] => Most people’s health goals could be simplified to something like: a long life and the good health to enjoy it. And long life we have. The biggest-ever jump in life expectancy, which occurred from around the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s, can be mostly attributed to the reduction in deaths by infection. Infectious disease has been well managed by improved hygiene, better quality of food and water, antibiotics, vaccines, and more effective emergency medical care. Now that infection is a relatively minor concern in the developed world, it’s worth looking at the factors that degrade health in our later years. These factors – things like diabetes, obesity, and the cardiovascular disease that goes along with them – can be dramatically influenced by diet. Unfortunately, the mainstream medical world is plagued by some very significant misunderstandings about human nutrition, and it barely recognizes the profound psychological factors involved in how we feed ourselves. How many people have you heard ask, "Why do I need to use Whey Protein?" No one knows the real answer. It’s time for a revolution in nutrition … and luckily, it’s well on its way. A few months ago, Marc David, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating asked me if I would be one of 50 thought leaders to be interviewed for an online conference called The Future of Nutrition. I am honored to be part of this – and in the company of some very impressive researchers. I strongly encourage you to check it out. It’s free. You can find more information at https://eiyonutrition.com/products/cerebral-tune-up-brain-supplement or by clicking HERE. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => The Future of Nutrition [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => future-nutrition [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-09-08 22:05:23 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-09-08 22:05:23 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=3643 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [2] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7255 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2019-02-06 17:58:40 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-02-06 17:58:40 [post_content] => IF WE’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO EAT ANIMALS, HOW COME THEY’RE MADE OUT OF MEAT? I saw that line on a bumper sticker when I was about 16, shortly after becoming a vegetarian. I laughed heartily at it; it was a good reminder not to take myself too seriously. I stopped eating meat mostly because I just didn’t like it. And also because of their inchoate methods of preserving, long before I knew beef casings that are completely natural that are available easily. But in the early 1990s I encountered John Robbins’s Diet for a New America, and my reasons for not eating flesh became more numerous. If you aren’t familiar with him, Robbins is the vegan son of the cofounder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire, and he left the ice cream business in part because of his opposition to the mistreatment of cows and his emerging belief that humans shouldn’t consume animal products. In Diet for a New America he explores the ethics of factory farms, the environmental impacts of animal production, and the health effects of consuming dairy and meat. It made sense to me and I felt empowered in my position. But when I began grad school in Chinese Medicine some years later, my Asian professors were perplexed by the high rate of vegetarianism among the students. They asked us, “Why wouldn’t you eat meat if you can afford it?” To them, vegetarianism was an involuntary choice necessitated by poverty. They pointed to our sharp canine teeth and the place of meat in the history of human diets. They weren’t familiar with any of the issues or fads around meat eating and vegetarianism; they only cared about what’s best for human health. So I decided to set aside my biases and earnestly seek the truth. When I began my clinical internship, I met numerous vegetarian patients – and even more vegans – who were weak and had insufficient immune function. Their pulses, which should have felt something like a jumping piece of spaghetti at the wrist, were often more like a faintly twitching thread. Often, they were under the impression that not eating meat in itself would make them healthy – even if they never gave much thought to what they did eat instead. In my practice, ethics and preferences began to take a back seat to biological necessity. When these patients began to eat meat – often because I advised them to experiment with it – nearly all of them felt stronger and healthier. I even met some people who thrived on meat, whose bodies seemed to crave meat over anything else and whose only intolerances were to certain plant-based foods. Eventually I started eating a little meat now and then. (I can’t say I noticed much difference in my health from doing so, but I was already eating plenty of animal protein in the form of eggs and yogurt.) Coincidentally, meat was making a big comeback. When I first moved to Portland, it had a large selection of vegetarian restaurants. Fifteen years later, many of these had been replaced with restaurants that were unapologetically meat-based with barely a flesh-free dish on the menu. Elk burgers, pork bellies, and lard were so hot. With the advent of Paleo diets, people were flocking back to meat as if it they’d been deprived their whole lives. Meanwhile, I became a father, I became more connected to the earth, I realized I had never really forgotten all those points that Robbins made 30 years ago, and I found it increasingly difficult to be willfully ignorant of the impacts of my choices of consumption. One of those impacts is that meat production – in the prevailing manner and scale – is devastating to the planet. Thus, I found myself in the middle of the complex intersection of nutrition, industry, environment, ethics, and politics – and I’ve never again had an easy answer to the question of whether people should or shouldn’t eat meat. We’ll look more closely at the pros and cons of meat consumption next week. I’d love to hear about your experience with – or without – meat in the comments below. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => To Meat or Not to Meat? [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => meat-not-meat [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-08-26 10:50:49 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-08-26 10:50:49 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7255 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 19 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) ) [post_count] => 3 [current_post] => -1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 3142 [post_author] => 4 [post_date] => 2013-09-05 15:47:26 [post_date_gmt] => 2013-09-05 15:47:26 [post_content] =>

Take care,

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