What is a healthy diet? Many patients have questions about eating healthy.  There is a lot of confusing information available.  We are all familiar with the government published food pyramids while other nutritional sources have their own opinions.  There are numerous books available on the market today on this topic.  How do you know what is important? Why is eating healthy important? Food is not only a fuel source but it should provide the many vitamins, minerals and building blocks that our body requires to run the millions of chemical reactions that are needed to maintain our bodies.  These chemical reactions are required for building muscle, dige...

One of the most frequently asked question by my patients is “Are vitamins important?”  Every day patients ask questions about nutrition and vitamins.  Let me take this opportunity to address a few of these questions and concerns.  Why do we need to take vitamins? Vitamins were discovered in the middle of the nineteenth century.  Sailors found that a lack of certain foods would result in disease.  It was understood that small amounts of particular organic molecules were essential for good health.  The list began to grow as they learned to purify these molecules from foods.  The term “Vitamine” was coined in 1911 when thiamine was isolat...

Cholesterol is in the news, you hear about it on TV commercials.  People are asking their doctor about their cholesterol and many people are being treated for elevated cholesterol levels.  Why all the concern about lipids?  Heart disease and stroke are the two most common health concerns in the US today. The percent of obese people in the US has risen sharply over the last twenty years. Fifteen years ago doctors were checking lipids for adults but were not aggressively treating elevated levels. Now we know lipids should be monitored from early adulthood.  With childhood obesity becoming more prevalent, we are seeing high cholesterol even in the...