#1. don’t jump on the hostess first thing with questions. The hostesses job is to seat you and I’ve rarely found them to know the menu much less diet options. It can also cause protracted discomfort for your dining partners as you go through the who explanation of GF with the hostess.

#2. the BEST time to ask for the GF optlions is when the wait person comes to take your drink order. They are already getting prepped to bring you drinks and picking up a gf menu or asking the chef for options is within their workflow so it usually causes minimal fuss

#3. if they don’t have gf menus then ask the wait person to check with the manager or the chef. If THEY don’t know of any choices then be very careful-the kitchen most likely doesn’t segregate the gluten from other items- even a salad could pose a gluten exposure risk.

#4. the WORST time to ask for the gf options is when the wait person comes to take the order. In almost every case it creates a delay for everyone in that the person will usually need to leave your table to get the menu/chef/answer. I’ve seen cases where the wait person will just verbally give one or two choices instead of providing the full menu in order to not delay the ordering.

The main approach should be to ask the wait person, at a good time in the serving cycle, with minimum disruption to your companions.

Having a good start with a healthy, balanced breakfast is critical to getting the blood sugar levels on the right path for the day. One of the tips that Dr. Mehmet Oz has in his book, Your Diet and You, is the concept of eating two of the same meals every day and then only varying the third. I have a variation on that which I use for breakfast. Here it is:

Day 1:

Cheese and Mushroom omelette
side of ham
black beans

Day 2:

Two eggs scrambled with cheese
side of bacon
black beans

Day 3:

Two eggs over medium
side of ham
black beans

I then rotate back to the top of the list. This is hugely helpful for getting your day started right. I then do a small snack (equal carbs and protein) at about 10:30am to set me up for lunch.

On the few days that I have not followed this menu routine I have noticed a MAJOR difference in my ability to make it through the day. Just a thought.

Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, America’s most trusted doctor team and authors of the bestselling YOU series, are now translating this cutting-edge information to help you shave inches off your waist. They’re going to do it by giving you the best weapon against fat: knowledge. By understanding how your body’s fat-storing and fat-burning systems work, you’re going to learn how to crack the code on true and lifelong waist management…. 

This is a fantastic book that takes you through the physiology of how your body processes.  It explains many of the core reasons why you are hungry, what makes you feel full, and what the signs are that your body gives you about what it needs.  The big ‘ah-ha’ for me was that I have very little subcutaneous fat but a large abdominal section.  For a long time I have wondered why this is and thought that I may just have very large intestinal organs.  The book explained about Omentum Fat and how the Omentum is BEHIND the muscles of the abdomen.  It also talks about how the omentum works as a fat storing engine and how to tune your eating to readjust your body processing to optimal efficiency.

I highly recommend this book.  It’s a New York Times bestseller and a fun read.

Buy on Amazon

Here is a screen shot of what you the registration page looks like:

The website is: www.thedailyplate.com.

Definitely worth checking out.

Tags: diet, info

Given my schedule I frequently find myself needing a quick meal. Today, for example, I was out by myself doing errands and I realized that it had been five hours since I had last eaten and I needed to get some food. The really good news is that three weeks ago I would have been hungry in two hours. Now it’s more like 4-5 hours. I didn’t have time to go to a sit-down restaurant and I was struggling with what to do. There was a Wendy’s on the corner and I pulled over and typed in ‘Wendy’s Gluten-Free’ on my web-enabled phone. Sure enough, a list of gluten free offerings came up. I pulled in and got a double cheeseburger (no bun) and small side of Chili. Obnoxiously I told the cashier that I had a gluten allergy, but i did it to ensure that they didn’t just pull a bun off of another hamburger and give it to me. The food was good, filling, and inexpensive. I was wondering what other choices there are. Turns out, not much – but here is a link to another article on eating gluten free at fast food places. If you find other good ideas please comment on them here.

Jennie-O has a large line of products that are gluten-free. Their prepared meats and sausages are excellent and many of them are gluten-free. The list of products that are listed on their website are:

Jennie-O has a complete Turkey Q&A on their website and many great recipes. Their products can be used as a healthy replacement to beef and processed meats (ground turkey, sausages, honey cured turkey, etc). Before choosing any of these products remember to check the labels to ensure that they are the gluten free products.

Tags: gluten-free, diet

Julie C. on YELP! gave me a great tip about a magazine that specializes in people with food allergies and dietary needs called Living Without Magazine. Looks like a winner! I’ll be getting my subscription this week.

Male Hormone Therapy – Symptoms, Treatment

Rejuvalife Vitality Institute

Anti-Aging Medicine is an emerging field of specialty that focuses on the fact that prevention of the effects of aging is the greatest cure. It’s not just a concern to women; as they age men also report a loss of energy, negative moods, feelings of anxiety and feeling over-stressed, loss of memory or concentration, drops in their sex drive or libido, and more.

While life’s stresses can often make these physical and emotional changes worse, stress is no longer universally accepted as the cause of the loss of male vitality and virility. Often the signs and symptoms are that of Male Menopause, or Andropause.

Andropause doesn’t have to be accepted as an inevitable result of aging. Lots of research collected since the first study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (1944; d126 [8]:472-7) demonstrates a direct connection between the variety of symptoms described below, and an imbalance of hormones.

Symptoms of Male Menopause, Andropause

Mental and emotional changes that result from the Andropause symptoms include increased negativity, loss of focus, loss of drive at play and work, and a questioning of one’s values, accomplishments, goals and directions in life. Physical changes can include loss of strength, muscle atrophy, loss of energy, and stiffness and aching of muscles and joints.

Candidates for Testosterone Therapy or Hormone Therapy Programs

Potentially every individual is a candidate for a medically supervised hormone growth hormone (HGH) therapy, testosterone therapy, or any other bio-identical hormone therapy program. Whether you are new to the hormone therapy process or looking to advance your current therapy, we will customize a program and hormone treatment plan tailored to fit your personal needs and budget.

Many men suffer needlessly because their testosterone is never checked or the wrong test is ordered. Men as young as 25 to 30 years in age are presenting with low levels of testosterone, which was not the case 10 or 20 years ago. This is possibly a result of environmental toxins, plastics, pesticides, pollutants and/or xenoestrogens in the environment.

Men who have been told their testosterone is fine may actually have low testosterone. Often the total amount of testosterone is read as adequate, but the amount of usable testosterone is low. Men with low testosterone may have subtle to profound symptoms, ranging form poor motivation, anxiety, weight gain, and loss sense of well being to profound depression, and loss of sex drive (see a more complete list of symptoms below). Men with low testosterone cannot only enjoy an improved quality of life with testosterone supplementation, but it will also provide a significant decreased risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Too Little Testosterone? Too Much Estrogen?

Simply stated, the imbalance is one of too little testosterone and too much estrogen, but this is far from a simple matter and it needs to be noted that testosterone is much more than a sex hormone. With receptor cites in the brain and heart, and in fact throughout the entire body, testosterone is critical in maintaining healthy bone density, lean muscle, red blood cell production, and safeguarding the immune system. It is also vital for proper cardiac output and neurological function. There is a body of literature that supports the thesis that testosterone helps control blood sugar, regulates proper cholesterol levels, and control blood pressure.

As men age, the testosterone they produce diminishes and is increasingly converted to estrogen. The most dangerous effect of too much estrogen and too little testosterone is the increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Estrogen (estradiol) is actually made from testosterone in the cells of every male’s body but when there is too much, no matter what the level of testosterone, they will suffer negative consequences. Furthermore, when a male is experiencing high estradiol levels, he is also producing more sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), a protein that binds to testosterone and prevents it from doing its work.

Since typically about 98 percent of the testosterone in the male’s bloodstream is bound to proteins, only approximately 1 to 2.7 percent is free and available for assimilation into the cells of the body. As SHBG increases the amount of testosterone freely available to act on cells diminishes.

Declining Hormone Levels During Andropause

There are a number of factors that can cause the testosterone-estrogen imbalance in men. These include excess “aromatase” enzyme (the enzyme that converts testosterone into estradiol), impaired liver function (often caused by excessive alcohol or certain drug interactions), obesity (which increase aromatase enzyme), and zinc deficiency (zinc is a natural aromatase enzyme inhibitor). To complicate matters even more, there is a wide range of “normality” in the testosterone/estradiol reference range that requires expert interpretation.

In addition to declining levels of Testosterone, Growth Hormone and DHEA levels are also falling during Andropause. As these levels decline, profound changes begin to occur with growth and metabolism that affect men both physically and mentally.