Category Preventative Health

The Value Of Having A Meal Prep Service

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As a competitor and fitness professional, I follow a clean meal plan throughout the year, regardless of whether I am training for a competition or just going through an off-season maintenance or growth plan. I am very familiar with the hassle of earmarking an entire Sunday afternoon to prep all my food for the week. For the past few years, it had become such a ritual that I planned my weekend around it, despite the fact that it cut into my time significantly.

Thankfully, there are meal prep services which do all the prep, freeing people from the shackles of the kitchen. Some people complain that such services are expensive, but when the costs of buying pre-measured and prepared food from one of these companies is compared to the costs of buying all the ingredients and spending half a day cooking them, the difference isn’t that significant. Ordering from a meal prep service takes the guesswork out of planning clean, healthy meals, and it is an incredible timesaver!

Check out MAW Nutrition Inc. for a completely clean meal prep service which offers protein, carb and veggie options a la carte so that you can fully customize your meals! This is great if you carb cycle or practice a certain degree of variation within your meal plan. For example, I will alternate between turkey loin and beef loin for one of my meals, and I have two days during the week when I spike my carb intake.

When ordering, enter the code NAITO10 at checkout for 10% off your order!

http://www.MAWnutritioninc.com

Who Turned Up The Heat?

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If you have ever awakened in the middle of the night with the feeling that you are burning up, and find yourself drenched in sweat, you have experienced night sweats. Though night sweats can be aggravated by spicy foods or alcohol, or sleeping in an overheated room, the true culprit in night sweats for the majority of peri-menopausal and menopausal women is fluctuating estrogen levels. Such fluctuations falsely signal the hypothalamus to cool down the body by triggering perspiration and blood vessel dilation. For those of you who have experienced this phenomenon, you know how much it interferes with normal sleep patterns!

What can you do to minimize night sweats? Regular exercise can reduce the severity of symptoms. I have also seen a marked improvement in night sweat symptoms in my patients after they have introduced maca root into their daily regimens. On a personal note, maca has been helpful in reducing the intensity of my night sweats so that I don’t wake up completely drenched in sweat in the middle of the night. If you have severe symptoms, you might want to consider being evaluated for bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. I strongly advocate the use of bio-identical hormones for individuals who suffer from the symptoms of hormonal decline or imbalance.

The battle to eradicate my night sweats has not ended. I had a nice little break from them for about five months, then they crept back into my nightly patterns. To combat this, I decided that my comforter needed to be put in storage until the winter, and I purchased a cotton coverlet set. I also purchased a special mattress protector which is comprised of a cooling material, and though it was a bit pricey (about $100 for a Cal King), it was a godsend for me. Here are a couple of brands which are great:

http://www.amazon.com/Sleep-Better-Iso-Cool-11-ounce-Mattress/dp/B000ZK4QBY?tag=hotflashwebsite-20

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Weave-Outlast-Temperature-Mattress/dp/B003J371E8?tag=hotflashwebsite-20

Another thing I highly recommend is to put a fan in your bedroom. I have a ceiling fan in my bedroom, and I almost always sleep with it on so that I can keep cool air circulating over the bed. Make sure the thermostat in your home is set to a cooler temperature so that you don’t overheat during the night, or open a window to allow a cool night breeze drift into your bedroom.

Hopefully these suggestions will have you sleeping more comfortably this summer!

Surrounded By Soy

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Soy is so ubiquitous that it has become extremely difficult to avoid this substance completely. I am extremely bothered by the fact that there are so many soy-based products on the market, especially since the majority of them are touted as “health” foods. I am half Japanese and grew up eating soy products, but I consumed the fermented forms, such as soy sauce and miso ( I could never stomach natto, which is another fermented soy product). The fermented forms of soy based foods are safe because the fermentation process destroys the antinutrients which are present in soybeans. In stark contrast, unfermented soy products, including soy milk and tofu, have high concentrations of these antinutrients, including phytates, phytoestrogens, MSG, saponins, trypsin inhibitors, and goitrogens. These substances have multiple deleterious effects on the body, such as impaired absorption of vitamins and minerals, interference with pancreatic and thyroid function, disruption of endocrine function, and damage to the nervous system.

For these reasons, I am strongly opposed to the consumption of soy-based products and eliminate them from patient and client diets whenever possible. If you are vegan, or if you are intolerant of whey or casein, look for other forms of protein, such as pea, quinoa, hemp and amaranth, which cause less inflammation when consumed and have a more benign side effect profile. One popular alternative protein source, Raw Life Protein (http://www.gardenoflife.com/Products-for-Life/Foundational-Nutrition/RAW-Protein.aspx), contains fermented soy, which does not have negative effects on the body, but if you have a soy allergy, you will not be able to consume this product.

Progress Pictures Of One Of My Clients

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I had recently gotten an email from this client, lamenting what she felt was a lack of progress after ten months. Since she has a significant medical issue, I have been extremely cautious with her nutrition and supplements. Thankfully, she has had no issues with weight training, so I have been more aggressive with her lifting regimen. Upon receiving her email, I pulled up her baseline images from last summer, and WOW. I am very impressed by her progress and so proud of her! The images on the left are from mid-June of last year, and the ones on the right are from April of this year.

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6.15.14 back ML 4.24.15 back ML

Yes I AM A Doctor!

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doctor-bag2It appears to be a lifelong curse for me to have to deal with people who never seem to take the fact that I am a bona fide medical doctor seriously. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard friends exclaim, “Oh wow, you’re like a DOCTOR doctor? I had no idea!”, as if my medical training and career are somehow not supposed to be taken seriously by those near and dear to me. I want to yell, “YES, I am a doctor! Why didn’t you believe me the first time I told you? Why do I have to somehow prove it to you?” What irks me is that I don’t see these people doubting the abilities of their friends who work in any other industry, be it certified public accounting, law enforcement, or any other respected profession. I honestly resent the insinuation that my credentials somehow don’t count because I don’t wear a white coat all the time (by the way, I can’t STAND wearing those polyester nightmares) or flaunt my professional title like a badge.

For those of you in the group which questions what my credentials are, I will be very clear. I completed four years of medical school which culminated in my medical diploma. After that, I completed my internship year (which was also my first year of family practice residency training) and became licensed as a physician. Two more years of residency training in family practice followed, then I sat for my specialty boards and became board-certified in family practice. I am not a nurse or a physician’s assistant (though those professions are highly respectable and draw some of the smartest and most compassionate people on the planet). Degreed. Licensed. Board-certified. Physician a.k.a. Medical Doctor. Yessir.

I may not be conservative or conventional, but I expect the same amount of respect as a physician who chooses to fit the mold and wear conservative attire and a white coat. My patients refer to me as Dr. Naito, not as Dr. Stacey or Stacey. I have worked VERY hard to become a physician, and I also recognize how hard my colleagues work as well. That is why when I am around other physicians, I err on the side of caution and refer to them as DOCTOR and not by their first names unless they specifically ask me to refer to them on a first name basis.

Beware Of Soy Based Products

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Soy has become so ubiquitous in American packaged food products that it can be challenging to find products that are soy free. What I find so misleading and frustrating is that the majority of them are touted as “health” foods. I am half Japanese and grew up eating soy products, but I consumed the fermented forms, such as soy sauce, miso and tempeh ( I could never stomach natto, which is another fermented soy product). The fermented forms of soy based foods are safe because the fermentation process destroys the antinutrients which are present in soybeans.

In stark contrast, unfermented soy products, including soy milk and tofu, have high concentrations of these antinutrients, including phytates, phytoestrogens, MSG, saponins, trypsin inhibitors, and goitrogens. These substances have multiple deleterious effects on the body, such as impaired absorption of vitamins and minerals, interference with pancreatic and thyroid function, disruption of endocrine function, and damage to the nervous system.

For these reasons, I am strongly opposed to the consumption of soy-based products and eliminate them from patient and client diets whenever possible. If you are vegan, or if you are intolerant of whey or casein, look for other forms of protein, such as pea, quinoa, hemp and amaranth, which cause less inflammation when consumed and have a more benign side effect profile. Make sure to read ingredient labels too, since many products you wouldn’t even think of as having soy often do.

Deceptively “Healthy” Granola

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I used to purchase Bear Naked 100% Natural Granola Honey Almond variety to have on hand for rare mini-cheats because it had 10 grams of protein per serving and had ingredients (aside from the soy) which were relatively benign. I had resolved my issues with all the soy in this product by reminding myself that I would only consume this several times a year. However, I had ALCAT Food Intolerance testing done (https://www.alcat.com/) which demonstrated that I had a mild intolerance to soy and honey, a moderate intolerance to malt and canola oil, and a severe intolerance to barley. I guess that would explain the bloating and increased aching in my joints that I would experience the day after eating this granola!

Here are the ingredients in Bear Naked 100% Natural Granola Honey Almond:
whole grain oats, soy protein concentrate, honey, expeller pressed canola oil, soy protein isolate, almonds, soy nuts (roasted soybeans), natural flavor, whole grain crisp rice (whole grain rice, barley malt)

Just because a food product is deemed “natural” doesn’t mean that it is something you should eat. You may be intolerant of specific foods or ingredients which are in many so-called healthy products. How can you tell if you are intolerant without getting an expensive blood test? Simply be aware of how your body reacts when you eat certain foods, and avoid any foods which trigger bloating, abdominal cramps, skin rashes, cough, headaches, runny nose, hives and changes in bowel habits.

Bottom line: read ingredient labels on the foods you buy and avoid any ingredient which is making you sick!

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