I am not the sort of woman who runs around saying “I told you so,” or trying to impress people with how clever I am.
However, I am clever.
It’s no secret – a lot of people know it. Read more on The Worst Family To Get Involved With…
Filed under Nutrition, weight by on May 4th, 2012. Comment. 
Have you been told that you have high cholesterol? Or at least that you have to watch what you eat so you don’t get high cholesterol?
Of course you have! This is like a mantra – every health care professional and the writers who cover healthcare join in the party line. Everywhere you turn, it seems like everybody is on the “low-cholesterol” bandwagon.
Everybody? Hmm … (looking around) Well, there are exceptions.
Pardon me while I clear my throat and say in a loud, confident voice (and – might I add – a well-informed, scientifically and medically educated voice) – Bunk. Read more on ‘Tis The Season For Bad Dietary Advice…
Filed under Uncategorized by on Dec 2nd, 2011. Comment.
I recently initiated what I call “The Renegade Doctor’s Massive Weight Loss” support group for people who must lose 100 lbs or more for health reasons.
Registration is free and I will be sending regular messages by email about how I achieved my 160-lb weight loss withough diet, exercise, drugs or surgery, as well as recent research, myth-busting facts, nutritional supplement news,and general encouragement and support for those who are undertaking a major weight loss.
Most diet articles, books and programs are for people who want to lose ten or twenty or maybe as much as 50 lbs. However, the majority of obese Americans are well over that. Carrying around 100 lbs or more of extra weight is often called “The American Disease,” and foreigners make jokes about fat Americans and their cheeseburger-culture of overeating and obesity.
It’s terrible to be shamed and made to feel guilty because of your weight. It’s not only cruel strangers, but family members and even doctors who perpetrate such behavior.
Nothing is simple if you do it alone, and massive weight loss is a difficult project. In fact, it’s generally considered hopeless and overweight people are advised to get surgery or take drugs that have harmful side effects.
I’m making my support group available to anyone who is interested, and to make sure that you aren’t getting spammed, I’m making it by subscription only.
Of course, like my subscription newsletter, it is free to sign-up and you can discontinue at any time.
With so much focus on weight and body image in our culture, it is no wonder that people who are heavy get depressed and develop all kinds of physical and emotional symptoms.
Here is the web page where you can read what the support group is all about and sign up for the mailing list.
There will also be free phone conferences, brochures and other support material to help you.
I know how difficult it is — I know how painful living as an obese person can be. And I know the solution.
Take care and be happy — and healthy.
Estelle Toby Goldstein, MD
The Renegade Doctor
Filed under weight by on Jul 20th, 2011. 1 Comment.
The death rate is down and the life expectancy is up. “Nothing but good news,” says the statistician.
Perhaps our prevention programs and treatments are working. Statistics are unwieldy things, but these are so general, the news of less death and more life can only be seductive. I want to look at it closer. I want to look at the differentiations among groups, which I doubt have changed. If you ever wondered about women living longer than men, both in the African-American race and the Euro-American races, you should have seen my waiting room the day I encountered a soft spoken and personable but physically-challenged African-American man. He was surrounded by obviously smitten females bearing gifts. Two of the three young ladies offered him homemade baked goods and made a point of telling the third she did not have a chance because she only had a dozen store-bought doughnuts. Read more on Why Do Some People Live Longer Than Others?…
My psychopharmacology preceptor told me a long time ago that the best and most efficient way to know what is happening in pharmacology is to check out the business news. He was right.
I want to applaud the FDA for doing something perhaps a bit audacious, surely without precedent, but something I consider correct and appropriate.
They declined acceptance of Contrave, a pill for obesity, and requested a longer term and larger study.Bravo. It’s rare that I give the FDA a “standing O.” The folks at Orexigen pharmaceuticals concocted Contrave — an amalgam of 400mg. of Wellbutrin sustained release and a couple of different doses of naltrexone, 48 and 16 mg. Here is the clinical trials record if you are interested. Read more on Prescription Diet Drug Makes Food Taste Horrible…
Filed under News, prescription drugs, weight by on Mar 29th, 2011. Comment.
Research is something that many people find suspicious. The mass public doesn’t know what makes “good” research and what is just plain manipulation.
Most people know that studying a lot of cases gives a more accurate picture than studying a single case – or just a few cases. But speaking as a formally trained and professional researcher, let me tell you that – contrary to conventional wisdom — it is really hard to make any sense of any kind of statistics that study a big-lot-much-HUGE number of human people.
Read more on Beware Of Governments Bearing Statistics…
Filed under politics, Research by on Jan 19th, 2011. Comment.
One of the major stories of 2010 was the move toward health care reform — “Obamacare.”
Although the name should be “Obama insurance”, there were several instances where the government made efforts — or made noises that there would be efforts — at controlling what they perceive as an obesity epidemic.
This included removing soda and candy machines from schools, major warnings against high-fructose corn syrup (neither of which I have a problem with) and making it mandatory for calorie counts to be listed on menus in several states (which left me scratching my head).
Read more on Politically Correct Dieting and The Obama Children…
The Notorious KFC Double Down
“Forbidden fruit” has become forbidden meat. At least, I think, in California. I remember when my husband and I first came here, I heard some people call it the “Granola State.”
KFC’s “Double Down” is already out there. Sounds like the nutritional pundits are weighing in on this one. I never would have believed, in my earlier lifetime, that anyone from Yale would have anything to say about KFC. Read more on The Fattest Food…
Filed under weight by on Aug 5th, 2010. Comment.
I started wondering when I first heard that the First Lady, Michelle Obama, was out to conquer childhood obesity. I am not obsessive about a lot of things — such as fashion and politics — that seem to ignite public passions like a match nearby a gas jet.
Journalist Jane Fryer with the 3 1/2 lb burger at Hillbilly Hotdogs in Huntington, WV
I suppose I can forgive Mrs. Obama for sublimating her true identity as a Harvard-trained lawyer who probably could have been some kind of a government official in her own rite. After all, a lot of people call themselves conservatives and suffer some kind of painful convulsions with any evidence that the world has changed since their own childhoods. They want the comfort of mother’s breast from their First Lady, although they want that breast to be glamorous enough to fit into some kind of designer dress. Read more on Childhood Obesity Initiative — Misguided But Politically Correct…
Filed under weight by on Mar 15th, 2010. Comment.