My Basic Vitamin Program

“What Vitamins Should I Take?”

Is the most common question I get as a Naturopathic Physician.

I typically believe the average person that doesn’t eat “perfectly” ie:

• Eats the “Basic American Diet” (BAD) of white refined, processed foods
• Doesn’t consume 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies daily
• Eats Fast Food several times a week Read more

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Cheapest Health Foods

By Dr. Nicole Sundene

Eating healthy on the cheap can be tough, but if you stock your kitchen with the healthy cheap essentials it should save a great deal in the long run.

I buy certain staples like organic cheese and organic butter when they are on sale and keep them in the freezer.

Consider buying your organic meats, eggs, and fish in bulk and store in a larger freezer out in the garage.

Remember we have to pay for our health one way or another. Prevention is key. The food that graces your kitchen table is the best disease prevention money can buy. President Obama thinks that we will never fix the National Deficit until we fix the Health Care Crisis, I think we will never fix the Health Care Crisis until we fix the crisis at our kitchen tables.

Here are my favorite cheap health foods:

Read more

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The Tough Economic Times Diet

By Dr. Nicole Sundene

Jay Leno joked last night that “the economy was so bad that women in LA had to resort to diet and exercise to look good.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that one.  Because the REAL dark irony is that a whole food diet and lifestyle will help you look a million times better than anyone botoxed or pumped full of collagen. Trust me, I assisted the dermatologist back in the day.

During these Tough Economic Times (TET) times we can at least laugh because laughter is still free AND it burns calories.

Despite the “Obesity Tax,” politicians have yet to tax us for laughter.  Perhaps I shouldn’t give them any ideas!

Feel free to leave your frugal “TET Diet” tip in the comments section.

As with everything, going with the flow seems to be the most logical cure for this economic crisis.

As we learn to move away from “Unfulfilled Consumerism” and make choices that are healthier for the environment as well as our pocketbooks, we can certainly remind ourselves of some great dieting tips brought on by these “tough economic times.”

Weight Loss Tips We can Learn from these Tough Economic Times:

1.  Drink a cozy warm mug of water in lieu of your expensive latte.  Warm water gives your intestines a bath, aids elimination, while still making you feel like you have a warm drink to comfort you during the traumatic morning time (well for me).  For more detox on the cheap just add a squeeze of fresh lemon.

2.  Eat less. Yes! I am guessing that since 1/3 of America is obese and many of us are overweight that we can just eat less. I love the Swedish Proverb, ““Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours.”

Maybe it is just because I am Swedish, or maybe it’s because it’s great advice.  But longevity studies indicate that the less we eat (within reason) the longer we live.  Never starve yourself as that slows your metabolism down.  Instead try eating five small meals a day.  Focus on whole foods and simply stop  bit before you actually feel full (more on this later).

3.  Chew chew chew your food! If we are eating less we need to be chewing more so that we can spend our time eating and not feeling like we are deprived because we are eating less. Spend the same amount of time eating less food. It works.

4.  Take a break. Everyone needs a break, especially your poor stomach. At the beginning of your meal, visually or physically divide your plate in half.  When you reach that half way point, take a little break.  Let your body digest for a few minutes, it takes about twenty minutes to register that we are even full so give yourself some time to ENJOY your food, and you may as a result spend less time eating.  That is more leftovers for later, remember “The Doggie Bag” is the hot new trend of 2009.

5.  Share your food. Not only will you look cool while you feel generous, but you’ll be reminded of how much you actually have, while secretly saddling those around you with those unnecessary calories.  We all know that the easiest way to look thinner is to fatten up those around us *wink*

6.  Split your food. If you aren’t the sharing type then visually split your food in half and eat the next portion of it the next day. Restaurants have trained us to think that a normal portion size is over 2-3 times of what it truly is.

I try to make three meals out of every restaurant meal.  A habit I got in after waiting tables and throwing pounds and pounds of food away after clearing tables all day. It was such a waste!

It may not have been cool before to ask for that “to go” box, but it sure is now.  Set the example.  Take the doggie bag, and remember that you can also save money on kibble by feeding your dogs leftover meat, veggies, cottage cheese, yogurt (non-sweetened), potatoes, and rice.  Just don’t give them too many grains, bread, wheat, sweets, etc.

7.  Focus on disease prevention. Staying healthy and eating the basic boring whole foods diet is exactly what prevents disease, and it is cheap!

8.  Walk everywhere. I know gas prices are down but still, it is really fun to challenge yourself with basic exercise errands around your urban area.

9.  Find a walking buddy. If you live in suburbia and can’t challenge yourself with walking to your errands, find a walking buddy (aka free counseling.) Since no one can afford real counseling during these tough economic times, remember that nothing makes people vent their stress like a nice long walk. Walking means burning calories, and spending time that we could be wasting eating.

10. Make it a Gym Date, as Fitness Trainer Bonnie Pfiester reminds us. You will be a cool role model, and for just a ten dollar guest pass, you can keep your date busy for several hours.

11. Drink water and only water. If your only beverage of choice is filtered tap water you will save oodles on both your pocket book and waistline. We never want to drink our calories. Read “One Soda per Day Can Change Your Waistline.”

12. Stressed? That is great, try eating less instead of eating more. It is not normal for us to be “running from the proverbial bear” while we are trying to digest a double bacon cheeseburger, curly fries, and a chocolate shake.

Under stress, our digestive systems essentially shut down while blood and oxygen are shunted to our muscles and cardiovascular system. The more stressed you are, the more you will benefit from a nourishing diet eaten while you are calm and sitting down.  Try a few minutes of breathing exercises before your meal. Over-indulgence is not your friend during TET times.

13. Plant your own food. Spring is the time to start thinking about cheap food you can plant and grow to enjoy later.  I love planting zuchini, squash, potatoes, onions, garlic, and so forth because they are so simple to grow as I mentioned in my article “The Top Eleven Laziest Foods to Grow.” If you don’t want to grow your own, make your kids do it by “Planting an Organic Kids Garden,” and that teaching activity should help kids eat more veggies. Don’t forget to let some “Berries Run Wild” on your property.

14. Grow your own herbs. Do you need to take stock in the tons and tons of supplements you are paying top dollar for in your cupboards, when the herb growing season is about to start? Many healing plants chock full of the antioxidants you are paying top dollar for, literally grow like weeds in your back yard! If you don’t spray your yard with pesticides you can use rosemary, dandelion, stinging nettles, garlic…and if you aren’t sure what to do with an herb growing in your yard…just ask me! If you are stressed you can easily grow lemon balm and lavender as I mentioned in, “The Fifteen Most Fabulous Herbal Sedatives.”

15. Eat at the Kitchen Table! If you can afford to eat out, then by all means please go out and stimulate the economy.  But for everyone on the TET Diet, eating out is bad for our wallets and our waistlines.  When we eat out at poor quality cheap fast food, fried, fatty places we are likely causing disease and not preventing it.

You should at least be eating one meal a day at the kitchen table if not two.  Kitchen Table time is important family bonding time, improves posture, digestion, and saves us in both the long and short run.  If you can make three meals at the kitchen table a day then you get  gold star!

What is your TET Diet tip?

Dr. Nicole

Related Reading:
Best Weight Loss Diet 2008
The Best Long Term Weight Loss Plan

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How to Get Free Drugs

By Dr. Nicole Sundene

During these tough economic times, the last thing you should let go is your health.

You may be thinking, “What?!?!?!? Why would a naturopathic doctor want to help me get free drugs?”

As much as I love the idea of a drug free world, having worked as a triage nurse and medical assistant in Family Practice for eight years, I am fully aware that drugs are necessary on occasion.

According to the therapeutic order that naturopaths such as myself follow, we start with diet and lifestyle, work our way up to herbs and nutritional supplements, and then resort to drugs, surgery, and radiation as the highest form of intervention.

As much as I would love to live in a prescription drug free world, that is just not a reality, and during these rough economic times we lose our jobs, or we lose our insurance, or we lose our jobs and lose our insurance and then lose the ability to pay for our anti-depressants because it was already bad enough before we lost our job and then our insurance.

Now we can’t afford our anti-depressants and our world just seems to spiral down from there! I’m sure many people have been in this frustrating boat.

Just don’t give up hope. Prescription drugs are really dirt cheap to manufacture and both manufacturers and doctors want to see you stay on your medications.

First thing to do when prescription costs are running high is to make an appointment with your doctor or call your nurse and ask that all your brand name scripts be translated to generic. This should not be an emergency to your doctor, it should be something they should understandably be happy to help you with in their spare time. Just be patient and give them a few days to work it all out.

If this is still too expensive for you to manage each month then try using mail order systems that reward you for planning ahead and buying 90 days worth of the generic prescriptions at a time.

If you can’t even afford generics then you need to resort to either of the following three tips:

#1 Ask your doctor for free samples. I’ve worked at doctor offices that do and don’t provide free samples and trust me, there are advantages to both. If your doc doesn’t provide free samples don’t hold it against them, but if you are really down and out you should check with your insurance company (if you have one) or call around to make an appointment and get those free samples.  You may even ask your doctor.  Personally, I would not be offended if a patient had to discontinue care due to financial reasons.  I would want whatever is best for them, and would likely have a recommendation that could help.

#2 Find a community health center. Some “free clinics” can actually write off the cost of your prescriptions, or offer a reduced rate on a sliding scale. Again Google “community clinic Seattle” or wherever you live, make a few calls and see if you qualify for free drugs from their pharmacy, or at the very least sliding scale.

#3 Ask the drug manufacturer to give it to you for free. I know this sounds crazy, but if all else fails, call the manufacturer and ask to participate in their economic hardship program. This makes them happy because it keeps you as their customer as well as serves as a nice tax write off, so please don’t feel too shameless to approach your drug company for some free prescriptions to get you through these tough economic times.

It may just take some extra paperwork through your doctor, so don’t expect it to happen over night. It is not the drug that costs the pharmaceutical industry, it is the research and FDA approval process that skyrockets the price of prescription drugs.

So, for the people advertising their product during the Super Bowl, giving you free drugs is feasible because it means keeping a loyal customer and providing a tax write off. Google the name of your BRAND NAME drug, not generic and find the manufacturer that way. If all else fails, call your pharmacist for help. I know for a fact that many of these companies have economic hardship programs, and when I worked as a medical assistant I helped many patients qualify for these programs.

After all, they do want to keep you as a customer…right?

Again, your doctor will likely have to fill out a form so please be kind and give them a few days to complete the necessary paperwork.  We are stressed out too!

Obviously the best option, if it pertains to your health condition, is to get your system in optimal condition through diet and exercise.

Aren’t I sneaky?

The need for pharmaceuticals will gradually drop off and your doc can wean you down from your prescription drugs. I am always inspired when I watch “The Biggest Loser” and see a contestant be removed from all their diabetes, cholesterol, and high blood pressure meds just through weight loss. Amazing!

Whatever you do during these rough economic times, never suddenly withdraw from taking a prescription medication that you can no longer afford without checking with your doctor FIRST. The side effects may be extremely hazardous to your health.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen table,

Dr. Nicole Sundene
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Dairy Free Banana Ice Cream Recipe

If I can make this easy whole foods recipe then anyone can!

This recipe for dairy free banana “ice cream” is a piece of dairy free cake to make for those that are allergic or intolerant to dairy. If you long for something cold and creamy, banana ice cream should surely satisfy.

Eating bananas instead of fattening ice cream is also a healthy whole foods way to lose weight and feel better.

Although bananas have been given a bad rap by dieters when you weigh in the average 100 calories in a banana next to a large fattening bowl of ice cream, the banana is going to win hands down! Plus bananas have all the fiber, potassium, vitamins, and minerals that ice cream can’t compete with.

Ingredients: Frozen Bananas

Directions: Peel, chop in large chunks, and freeze overly ripe (not brown) bananas. Place in Cuisinart food processor. Blend until smooth and creamy. Enjoy alone or add some organic chocolate sauce for garnish! If you are dairy intolerant be sure to use dairy free chocolate sauce or other alternative topping.

Variations: If you are lazy (er… efficient and REALLY busy) like me, or don’t have a Cuisinart then you can just chop the frozen bananas up and enjoy with some organic chocolate sauce, raspberries, or strawberries. See what other kinds of frozen fruits can easily be made in to “ice cream”. If you have a child that is allergic to dairy, giving them fresh fruit “ice cream” is a fun way to get more whole foods in to your kids. Be sure to call it “ice cream” so they are excited to eat this whole foods treat!

To save money I purchase bunches of bananas when they are on sale and then chop in thirds and freeze for smoothies and other healthy treats.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen table!

~Dr. Nicole

Naturopathic Physician

www.KitchenTableMedicine.com

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The Top Eleven Easiest Foods to Grow

With the rising cost of gas, the price of food is just going to continue to rise as well.

For those of us in Washington experiencing “Juneuary” the yield of crops in this area may also be rather disappointing, and therefore result in an additional increase in local produce costs this summer.

Growing food that doesn’t require a great deal of maintenance is a simple way to cut organic costs in your kitchen.

Whether you are lazy or you are simply very busy and searching for “efficient” gardening tips, choosing the easiest fruits and vegetables to grow will save you time and money in the long run.

The key to starting your first garden is to choose foods that practically grow on their own. Pick a sunny patch, water daily, and sit back and watch them grow. Really, if I can grow this stuff- then anyone can grow this stuff!

The Eleven Laziest (er… efficient) Foods to Grow:

• Garlic-Grows as easy in a sunny pot garden as the ground. A renowned antimicrobial agent and cardiovascular herb, garlic has a multitude of medicinal properties.
• Carrots-The beta carotene in carrots is best absorbed when they are cooked. Eating cooked carrots is therefore a better form of antioxidants than in their raw form. Research shows that beta carotene may be protective for those with cataracts and macular degeneration. Beta Carotene may also prevent healthy people from developing these visual disturbances.
• Tomatoes-Enjoy fresh off the vine or canned in to your own homemade organic spaghetti sauce. The lycopene in tomatoes actually become more bioavailable with cooking, or processing.
• Potatoes- Harvest fresh as needed. Be sure to eat the peel of these organic potatoes! The peel contains vitamins and fiber to balance your blood sugar and keep your energy stable.
• Strawberries-Best to grow these yourself as non-organic strawberries are on the dirty dozen, the notorious top twelve dirtiest produce that should be purchased organically.
• Radishes- Not just for rabbits! Radishes are essentially a “free food” meaning they have almost no calories. So go ahead-enjoy them with a little home made organic cucumber ranch dip! I won’t tell anyone.
• Cucumbers- Are sure to keep you cool this summer. Mix up some refreshing ice water with fresh slices of cucumbers, mint, and lemon.
• Beets-A liver cleansing, blood building food. Enjoy as your carbohydrate side dish in lieu of bread and more fattening carbohydrate choices. Grate in to salads, roast with olive oil, or juice with carrots for an invigorating pick me up.
• Nasturtiums-The flowers and leaves add a beautiful and spicy addition to summer salads. Plant in hangers on your decks for décor and to protect the leaves from slugs.
• Green beans- You can easily train these to grow anywhere! If you have a small back patio train them to grow up your fence using bean stakes, or make a green bean teepee!
• Squash the #1 laziest food to grow! Vegetables like zucchinis, pumpkins, and other summer squashes practically grow themselves! Watch out and make sure they have plenty of room to spread out! Root vegetables and squash make great side dishes for your meals. A fabulous way to keep weight down is to avoid eating empty calories like bread and fill up on healthier sources of carbohydrates like these starchy vegetables.

The easiest way to learn about what grows well in your area is to start visiting your local farmers market. Ask questions (and of course buy something while you are there). You can then learn to grow your garden accordingly. Farmer’s Markets are a great teaching opportunity to share with your kids!

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen table. Feel free to share you favorite lazy foods to grow in the comments.

~Dr. Nicole

Naturopathic Physician

www.KitchenTableMedicine.com

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Recipe: Organic Sports Drinks

Most sports drinks are just pollutionfests chock full of Kitchen Table Villains such as High Fructose Corn Syrup, food colorings, additives, preservatives, and artificial flavorings and colorings. With just a few simple kitchen ingredients, you can make your own homemade sports drinks.

The two widely available sports drinks I commonly recommend for athletes and those that are at risk of dehydration are Emergen-C and Recharge.

If you do not have these readily on hand, you can also easily make your own sports drinks at home.

Making your own sports drinks is fun, cost effective, and MUCH healthier than most alternatives.

Ingredients for Homemade Organic Sports Drinks:

• Pure Organic Fruit Juice (No High Fructose Corn Syrup!)
• Water or Green Tea
• Organic Sea Salt

Directions: Fill your sports bottle with half juice and half water. Add a pinch of organic sea salt, shake, and enjoy!

Sports Drink Variations and Information:

• You can use table salt, but organic sea salt is best to use as an electrolyte source as the minerals of the sea are very similar to our own electrolyte composition in our blood. Sea salt contains 84 minerals. Aside from sodium, you are receiving potassium, iodine, magnesium, calcium, zinc, manganese, and more!
• A small pinch of sea salt is sufficient for most, a larger pinch should be used for endurance athletes, and convalescent care to stave off hyponatremia, the dangerous condition of low sodium levels that can cause muscle weakness, confusion, slurred speech, and more.
• The RDA for sodium depending on your age, ranges between 1200-1500mg daily.
• Most athletes lose around 1000mg of sodium per hour, depending on how much they sweat, you do not have to replete all of this at once though, doing so may result in gastrointestinal distress such as nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.
• Most sports drinks contain around 20-60mg of sodium per 100 mL.
• One teaspoon of salt contains 2400mg of sodium. For hard core endurance athletes such as Ironman triathletes, that are in need of strict sodium regulation, I would aim for about 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt an hour for starters. If you get cramps or weakness in your muscles then you probably need more sodium and magnesium. If you get an upset stomach, chances are you need less sugar and electrolytes. These are just basic guidelines, the best formula is the one that works for you!
• Soups like chicken and vegetable broth can also be enjoyed as electrolyte sources.
• Green tea can be used for athletes wanting a little bit of a fat burning or energetic edge.
• Honey and sea salt can be added to green tea or your favorite herbal tea if fruit juice is unavailable. Enjoy hot or chilled.
• Try adding an Emergen-C packet to your room temperature green tea for an energizing, fat burning sports drink! Let the tea cool a bit because vitamin C is heat sensitive.
• Herbal teas can also be used in this formula as a simple way to deliver herbal medicine to sick children.
• Hydrating foods such as watermelon, cucumbers, honeydew, cantaloupe, and other such water packed fruits and vegetables are also excellent sources of water, sugar, and electrolytes. They are “Nature’s Sports Drinks”! Keep them in your refrigerator and serve them up cold to kids that have been actively playing in the warm summer sun.

Reference: Exercise Associated Hyponatremia, Cape Town, South Africa 2005. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. 15(4):208-213, July 2005.

Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by my kitchen table!

~Dr. Nicole

Naturopathic Physician

www.KitchenTableMedicine.com

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