Below is sane totally practical fallout of my readings. I treat a lot of stroke patients and my other medical colleagues turn the latest technologies on consumers of the American, more properly, the industrial diet in hopes of saving them.  The industrial diet contains huge amounts of simple carbohydrates (sugars) such as is contained in a soda can. Your pancreas is presented with glucose from sodas, juices, and donuts and is desperately trying to keep up by secreting insulin. Most of us are carry high insulin levels in attempt to store all these calories.  Insulin is the hormone of caloric storage so we become fat.  Any neurologist knows when you have high levels of any hormone or transmitter, you become resistant, here insulin resistant which is the basis of diabetes.  Your glucostat, manager of glucose levels, starts to let these levels wobble much more than they ought to, so you’re seeing high and low levels.  You have increased hunger along the way and you are grabbing things and bingeing but are still hungry.

Don’t worry. There is more than enough of this high calorie food wherever you go. You are still hungry hungry hungry but increasingly fat. You are eating a lot which is great for consumption of the food product of our American factories and restaurant purveyors. You are starved after work and love nothing more than to go out to a restaurant. They serve either sugary or alcoholic drinks. Everyone is happy. Food, food food delicious sweet and salty food. You can’t get enough. Your pancreas (beta cells) is working overtime and but finally it is going to have trouble keeping up. That is especially true if you come from an ethnic group that has been only recently industrialized, maybe native American, Indian, African whose bodies are efficient users of scant calories.

Maybe you have some borderline diabetes by this time and doctors can give you medicines to make your insulin even more effective, either that or whip your pancreas into producing even more insulin. All is fine because you are still eating all the foods our manufacturers make and now you’re supporting our pharmaceutical houses as well, since you need their effective drugs. You will have a cholesterol problem by this time, hypertension and even gout. And I didn’t even mention salt and ingredient that magnifies tastes and make food palatable, not that you need it because you are always hungry. The above is gross oversimplification even exaggeration, but you have the general idea. I also failed to mention how our animal food factories have their chickens and cows wallow in antibiotics to kill bacteria which has been found to be a far more potent source of antibiotic resistance than even our hospitals. No matter. We are using these products, now food, drugs, antibiotics, in ever greater quantities giving the managers and financial industries great wealth.

I personally didn’t know a lot about our American industrial or factory diet based largely on corn until I had read books by Michael Pollen. He also recommends we stay away from the inner core of the supermarket, concentrating as much as possible in the periphery where you many find foods closer to nature and with less artificial ingredients.  We are blessed with food in great abundance, but it is factory food whose purveyors make it in great quantities, freely using sugars and salts with  the advertising industry to give their product appeal such as marketing sugary cereals directly to the smallest children.  The foods we eat, aren’t the ones that are nutritious for us as evolved hunter gatherers.

We have a factories of medical care. The hospital is a closely managed factory floor always striving to improve patient throughput and where the productivity of every nurse, physician and healthcare worker is carefully watched and controlled. Healthcare employees are workers on at a conveyor belt who are taught to smile. At all events we aim to please the consumer which is you. Consuming patients and families may give the nurses and doctors grades.  Hospital carpets and superficial trimmings are kept attractive and steaks are served on the cardiac wards.They want you to say good things about us.

Insurers and government agencies are buying the healthcare so we need to please them too. We strive to create markets which will find a consumer, the desperately sick persons seeking health care.  Healthcare is a  business and is run by accountants and managers trained to maximize financial gain. Food producers are helpful to the health industry in creating more and sicker health consumers. Isn’t it wonderful to see our corporate selves all working for the same goal. Colas, doughnuts, salty burgers are sure to give us a steady stream of health consumers for a long time to come.

I like capitalism as much as the next guy. But the Mediterranean diet below has been found scientifically to be a great way to break the above cycle.  I am infatuated with high tech medical care but over the years I have appreciated its very limited effect. I started out in health care desperately seeking improve the lot of humankind by slaying disease, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.  So I am a strong proponent because there is good scientific evidence of that the best diets will prevent disease. I like nothing better than the in-hospital medical save. Preventing an illness is much less sexy, but it also means a person will not have to suffer from a disease in the first place.

This diet is slightly modified from a simplified form given to patients in a New England Journal of Medicine study that found, even over the short term, such a diet to be highly preventive  for atherosclerotic disease, stroke and heart attacks. There are many such studies.

I wanted to keep things simple but am not a dietitian or food expert and would be grateful for any comments/criticisms. I simply placed this on a laminated card to give to patients and families.

Heart and Brain Healthy “Mediterranean Diet”

Avoid Sugars, Salt, Unhealthy Fats

Recommended:

Olive Oil:                                                                                                                                       4 Tbsp per day

Tree Nuts + Peanuts:                                                                                                            3 servings per week

Fish, especially Fatty Fish, Salmon Sardines, Seafood:                                                         3 servings per week

Fresh Fruit:                                                                                                                              3 Servings per day

Vegetables:                                                                                                                              2 servings per day

Legumes:                                                                                                                              3 servings per week

White Meat Instead of red meat

Wine with meals is optional for persons who use wine.

Garlic, Spices Instead of Salt

 

Avoid: 

Consult:  Glycemic Index Charts:  Foods with high glycemic index cause insulin secretion:

Sweetened drinks especially sodas, sugar containing drinks

Sugary Foods: Bakery Items, Pastries, Doughnuts

High Fructose Corn Syrup

White Foods: Potatoes, Starches, White bread

Spread Fats

Salt

Red and Processed meat