I was listening to NPR at work a few weeks ago and they had a very interesting segment high lighting a Physician named Daphne Miller, M.D. She is a family practitioner that was trained in the states and saw something seriously lacking in the US medical profession. She saw the lack of research and connection of diet, health and disease.
Dr. Miller noticed that Doctors listen to symptoms and touch on what you have been doing to cause these symptoms and then prescribed a antibiotic or a pill. I see this all the time. When I am at the Doctor's office I see fancy, well dressed, luxury car driving, Drug Sales reps foaming at the mouth to brain wash these Doctors into carrying and pushing these drugs.
I have a friend that has awful monthly cycles and headaches and goes for a yearly physical and the Doctor always gives her a clean bill of health even know she is a smoker, drinks no water and eats food with no nutritional value. Yet, she tells her physician she has these heavy flows and these head aches and he chalks it up to age and genetics. It just makes me crazy that he does not look at her diet. She is a dear friend and I don't want her to have a short lived life because her Doctor is not looking deeper then a blood test.
I am always the girl that questions what my Doctor's say, actually I play them against each other. I will give the same symptoms to my GYN then to my Internist then to my GI and see what each says. This is my body and I would never take the advice of just one health professional, ever. I learned this from the most far off person, Fran Drescher the actress. She went to several Doctors before she was diagnosed with cancer. So many Doctors told her she was fine, but she wasn't and she knew something was not right. Now she is a survivor of Uterine Cancer.
Dr. Miller wanted to look further into her patients lives and look at diet. I don't know why Doctors don't look at this more. From what came out on the news last week with Harvard Medical Students protesting the Harvard medical school because there professors are being wooed by the drug companies and noticed there learning environment was more about drugs then the Art of practice and caring for patients. I can see why Dr.Miller would be propelled into research and writing a book that takes Medicine a step further.
When I was dating I dated a Physician and I remember sitting on his couch and he asked me "would like some tea?" I said sure do you have green? he said "no I have black, what is green tea?" Now I was floored that he had no clue what green tea was. I told him why I preferred it, and he jumped on the Internet. He was shocked by all the research conducted and was going to recommend it to his patients. I was just so floored because this research had been around for awhile and he had no clue. He said I probably got something about it in a journal, but I have no time to read between my patients, charts and the meetings I have with Drug reps I just don't have the time. WOW!
Dr. Miller has written a great book that I consider more of a tool then just a Diet Book. She wants people to see how these diets from around the world where cancer levels are pretty much non-existent, consists of and how you can bring them into your daily life.
I am all about eating well and making it taste good without processed additives and fake food flavoring and coloring. These things go into your body and just lurk waiting to make you ill and lower you immune system and damage this wonderful body that you have been given. I see people everyday in my life eating so poorly. I don't understand how they can put bad food into there bodies, and I am glad a Doctor has stepped up and written a book that proves that nutrition is the most important thing you can do for your body.
Dr. Miller divided the book into regions, with recipes and grocery shopping list. This is a very well written book. I think you could probably read the book in a few hours or over a week long period and reading a section every night. So please pick this book up and read from cover to cover you will not be disappointed.
All the best,
Shara
