Hi I’m Dr. Lisa Schwartz.  Today I want to let you in on a little secret.  There may be sugar hiding in your food and you don’t even know it.  Whether you are trying to watch your waistline or just being mindful of consuming more natural and whole foods, you need to know if you are being sabotaged by hidden sugars.

Consuming added sugar in a food can lead to extra calories and an increase in insulin secretion which in some cases increases your risk for breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.  So this is important. 

It would be really helpful if food ingredient labels had to say “sugar” when they added sugar, but the truth is that sugar has many, many different names.  And you may not recognize it in spite of your diligent label reading.

In my last post, I talked about processed foods, what they are, and why we should be avoiding them.  One of the big reasons to avoid processed foods is that they...

Hi there!  I’m Dr. Lisa Schwartz and today I would like to discuss what is probably the single most important dietary change you can make for your health.  And that is cutting out processed food.  So in this short video I am going to teach you how to recognize processed food, and you’ll find out why you want to avoid it.

So let’s start with what is meant by “processed food”.  Well, it will probably help to contrast processed foods with what I consider to be their opposite.  And that is a whole food.  Whole foods are things like fruits and vegetables that you find in the produce aisle, whole meats without added sauces, flavoring, or chopped up into something that doesn’t look like it came from nature at all like bologna or hot dogs.

If you do any grocery shopping at all, you will see that grocery stores are laid out with fresh meats and produce on the outer edges of the store.  That’s generally...

Hi there!  I’m Dr. Lisa Schwartz.  I often get asked about the wisdom of eating red meat.  So many people love it but have been told they should limit what they eat.  They also wonder about the difference between organic meat, grass fed beef, and grain fed beef.  So let me address those questions

First, is red meat healthy?

If you were to rate protein sources according to the value they add to the diet, red meat would not be at the top of the list.  That would be where vegetable proteins and wild caught, non-predatory, high content omega-3 fish come in.  Some examples would be soy, salmon, sardines, herring, and anchovies.

Next on the list would be white meats like chicken and turkey.  And yes, in last place, red meats like beef.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t have it.  You just need to limit how much of it you enjoy.  Red meats are considered less healthy than the other options because...

I've got a very special treat for you with this week's post.

If you have been following along with me for a little while and have read a few of these posts, then you know that my goal as a physician is to help patients get to wellness.

That will surely be defined differently for everyone, but it has at least these components: eating well to nourish your body, some physical activity to strengthen your body, and some mental practice to grow your mind.

I have done a little extra training to learn about these components of wellness. I've had the privilege of completing a fellowship in Integrative Medicine under Dr. Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona. That experience completely changed my practice and my approach to patient care.

One of the many lessons I took away from that training was how important it is for everyone to have some sort of relaxation practice. You may have heard people talk about meditation or mindfulness and wondered if their feet were firmly planted on the...

Summary

There has been so much in the news about the benefits of vitamin D that you might believe it's the cure all for any ailment.
Well, it's not quite that, but it may be very important to breast cancer patients (or those who don't want to be breast cancer patients). 

Transcript

Hi there!  I’m Dr. Lisa Schwartz and today I wanted to answer some questions about vitamin D and breast cancer.

First, why is vitamin D important, anyhow?  Well, it plays a role in hundreds of metabolic reactions in the body.  Our bodies can actually make vitamin D when our skin is exposed to the sun.  Vitamin D helps us absorb calcium from the gut, it helps keep normal amounts of calcium in the blood, and it helps us use that calcium to build bones.  Along with calcium, vitamin D helps protect older adults from osteoporosis and fractures.

What happens when you don’t have enough vitamin D?  Well, severe deficiency in children causes a condition...

Summary:

One of the things that bothers most breast cancer patients at some point in their journey is a feeling of anxiety.  For some this is pretty persistent and can interfere with relationships, sleep, the ability to focus, and most importantly the ability to just feel well.  Here's a simple technique to fix all of that.

Transcript:

Hi there! One of the things that bothers most breast cancer patients at some point in their journey is a feeling of anxiety.  For some this is pretty persistent and can interfere with relationships, sleep, the ability to focus, and most importantly the ability to just feel well.

In the program that I’m going to be introducing in a few weeks, I will give you a detailed plan of many techniques that you can use to get over your anxiety.  For now though I wanted to give you something simple that you can use today and use many times a day.  And that is a simple breathing exercise.

I can hear some of you...

Summary

Some folks who want to lose a little weight switch from sugared drinks and sodas to diet sodas. Healthy change, right? Wrong. In this video I discuss some disturbing research on diet sodas and a myriad of health problems including cancer. And...did you know they may be addictive??!!

Transcript

Hi there!  I’m Dr. Lisa Schwartz and today I wanted to discuss a product that many people turn to when they try to lose weight.  That product is diet soda.  They assume that because it has no calories but can still satisfy their need for a sweet taste, that ultimately they may lose weight by drinking diet sodas.  Unfortunately, just the opposite is true.  And there are other significant health risks that go along with diet soda consumption as well.

First let’s define what we are talking about.  When I say diet soda I am actually including any beverage that is sweetened with a low or no calorie sweetener.  Most commonly this is seen...

Summary:

In this short video, I'm going to talk about cruciferous vegetables (the broccoli family of veggies) and some supplements that come from broccoli metabolites. Some women are using these supplements to prevent breast cancer and I'll discuss the wisdom of that choice.

Transcript:

Hi there, it’s Dr. Lisa Schwartz and today I’m going to be discussing the role that cruciferous vegetables play in breast cancer prevention.

 We all know that eating vegetables is a healthy thing to do and can help prevent a lot of diseases including cancer.  But are there some vegetables that are better than others at preventing cancer, and are some of these vegetables better at preventing breast cancer specifically?

 Well, broccoli is one of those veggies that has been promoted as preventing breast cancer as a member of the cruciferous vegetable family.

 This group of vegetables has been looked at for cancer prevention because some of the compounds in these veggies...

Summary:

There is a lot of controversy surrounding dairy, but most of the "facts" being thrown around are not grounded in truth. Learn about the pros and cons of milk, how the hormones in milk might affect you, and whether or not it is related to breast cancer.

Transcript:

Hi everyone!  It’s Dr. Lisa Schwartz and today I want to talk about the controversies around dairy –how it relates to breast cancer and other issues.

There’s something about cow’s milk that ignites a passion on the order of religious zealotry as to whether it is a protein and calcium filled goodness that has been consumed as a healthy beverage for centuries or the one animal product that for sure will give you cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and cause you to grow extra limbs where they shouldn’t be. 

 Usually, neither side of that debate is well equipped with facts in these discussions.  So, let’s start with some facts…

...

Summary:

One of the most distressing things about going through breast cancer treatment can be the onset of menopause and the hot flashes that go with it. In this video I'll give you some helpful tips on dealing with hot flashes and avoiding triggers.

Transcript:

Welcome to this week’s Inside Edge to living well beyond breast cancer.  I am Dr. Lisa Schwartz and I will be talking about hot flashes today:  what are they and how can breast cancer patients manage them.

 So, let’s start at the beginning.  What exactly are hot flashes?

 If you have had a hot flash then I don’t have to tell you what they feel like.  But for some of you, they are something you still have to look forward to, so let me explain what they feel like.  Most women describe a sudden feeling of warmth in their face, neck and chest associated with intense sweating and sometimes chills.  Your heart rate can increase and you can feel tingling in your fingers or...