Let’s Talk Nutrition Takes Its Message to CBS

Michael Garko, Ph.D.
Host – Let’s Talk Nutrition

Beginning on June 4th, 2007, Let’s Talk Nutrition (LTN) will be featured in a special segment Monday mornings on Studio-10, at 10:00 on CBS Channel 10.

Taking LTN’s message of Listen. Learn. Live Healthier to television and altering it a bit to Watch. Learn. Live Healthier will give members of the Tampa Bay Community another way to become informed about health and nutrition so that they can take charge of their health. Watching LTN’s segment on Studio-10 will also help viewers get off to a healthy start each week with practical and proven advice on how to stay healthy and power through the week with more energy and a better sense of well-being.

During LTN’s segment on Studio-10, viewers will be able to learn what the experts have learned about whole food, herbs and spices, phytochemicals and other nutrients, along with principles of nutrition, exercise and dietary supplementation to fight against disease and modulate the effects of aging.

One of my primary messages on Studio-10 will be that people need to take charge of their health. Giving viewers the worn out cliché of “eat good and exercise” is not very instructive or inspiring. Therefore, my intention will be to provide viewers with practical and proven ways for them to create health and wellness based on the most up-to-date scientific research and thousands of years of evidence from cultures around the world. Along the way, they will be put in touch with traditional, complimentary and integrative medicine approaches to staying healthy in mind, body and spirit.

In a word, viewers of Studio-10 will learn about a holistic approach to health and wellness. Most importantly they will learn how to put that approach into practice in their everyday life to help them lose and manage weight, lower their blood pressure and cholesterol, boost energy levels, fight against inflammation (the basis of chronic diseases), sleep better, manage stress, reduce joint pain from arthritis, among other health and nutrition related issues.

Principles To Practice Good Health

Beyond saying, eat a good a diet and exercise regularly, what can a person do to practice good health?  It takes more than clichés to help health consumers achieve good health.

During the first show on Studio-10, viewers will learn about seven principles which I follow and encourage health consumers to adopt in their effort to practice good health on a day-to-day basis.

Take Personal Responsibility

Personal responsibility underscores the point that we need to take charge of our health. Each of us is responsible for his/her health.

Just because there are fire fighters does not mean that we do not have personal responsibility to make sure we do not burn down our house. Similarly, just because there are doctors does not mean that we do not have personal responsibility in preventing our health from burning down, so to speak.

Do not wait until you become sick and expect a health care professional or the health care system to put out the fires of disease and aging and make you healthy again.

Practice Makes Perfect

If you do not practice you lose interest in that which you are trying to become proficient, whether that be in learning a musical instrument, playing a particular sport or becoming healthier. 
 
The more you practice something the better you get at it. Therefore, the more you practice good health the better you will get at it and the better your health will become.

If viewers tune in to LTN they can learn specific, useful and proven ways to practice good health.

Set Goals

It is not enough just to want to stay or become healthy.
In practicing good health, create a set of realistic, measurable, action-based goals. For example, if you want to lose weight or lower your blood pressure or cholesterol, then create a set of goals that outlines how much weight you want to lower your weight, blood pressure or cholesterol and the specific nutritional, exercise, medical and lifestyle strategies you might want to use to accomplish your goals.

Viewers can listen to LTN and read my newsletter, Healthful Hints, to learn more about strategies to accomplish specific health goals.

Be Consistent

Practice good health each and every day, even if it is just one thing that you do, whether that is exercising, eating right, getting enough rest, drinking water, taking supplements or anything else that keeps you practicing good health. Remember, practice helps create and maintain interest.

Let Food Be Your Medicine 

This principle emphasizes what Hippocrates, the Father of modern medicine said in 400 B.C., “Let food be your medicine and medicine your food.”

As it turns out, diet is a double-edged nutritional sword in that food can heal and food can harm.

For example, on the one hand, eating a diet characterized by the following features leads to nutritional deficiencies, metabolic dysfunction and disease, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and arthritis, among other chronic diseases:

• Surplus calories
• Stripped-down, refined, processed white sugar, white flour products & white rice
• Saturated and trans-fats
• Sodium

These four unhealthy dietary habits are part of my list of The Seven Deadly Health & Nutritional Sins. The remaining three are:

• Stimulants & suppressants
• Stress
• Sedentary life style

In contrast, a diet based on calorie restriction, fresh vegetables and fruits rich in vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, along with essential fatty acids from fish and vegetables and a diet based on a balance of complex macronutrients (i.e., carbohydrates, protein and fat) and micronutrients (i.e., vitamins & minerals) improves nutritional status, and thereby, contributes in large measure to improved and sustained health status.

Strive for Balance
 
The concept of balance is important to understanding practicing good health. The principle of Yin and Yang serves as a useful way to help achieve balance. Yin Yang represents the principle of natural and complementary (opposite) forces and patterns which are defined by one another and only having meaning in combination with and not in isolation from one another and things that depend on one another and do not make sense on their own. Here are some examples of opposites that are in complementary harmony with one another and have a bearing on a person’s health status:

• A balance between moderation and excess
• A balance between mind and body
• A balance between movement and stability
• A balance between the internal and external (i.e., what is inside our bodies and what is outside our bodies)
• A balance between physical fitness and spiritual fitness

Be Optimistic

My personal mantra is, Think Positive, Feel Positive and  Behave Positive, especially when it comes to health matters and living in physical, psychological and spiritual wellness. Admittedly, this is easy to say but far more challenging to accomplish.

Nevertheless, studies on the effects of optimism and pessimism show that optimism contributes to overall physical and psychological health, while pessimism contributes to illness and depression. For example, when placed under stress optimists tend to have better and healthier immune systems.

Conclusion

Beginning on June 4th, 2007 Let’s Talk Nutrition (LTN) will be featured in a special segment Monday mornings on Studio-10, at 10:00 on CBS Channel 10.

Now you can watch LTN on television and learn how to take charge of your health by putting into practice the scientific and long standing cultural evidence on how to achieve health and wellness with nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.

Taking personal responsibility for your health, practicing good health daily, setting health goals, being consistent, letting food be your medicine, striving for balance and being optimistic are seven principles which can assist in achieving and sustaining good health.

Just as doctors practice medicine, health consumers need to practice staying healthy. Watching LTN on Studio-10 is one thing that can help in the practice of good health.