Staying In with a Chronic Illness Video

Impact of Weight Loss on the Drive to Eat

Here's a short statement by Dr. Guyenet recorded at that ASW:


A link to his book released earlier this month: The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat.

McDougall Q&A

Next webinar series - Digestive Tune Up book, but all the info is also already available for free in the 2002 newsletters.

January - Halitosis


February - My Stomach is On Fire and I Can't Put It Out!

March - Don't Burn Holes In Your Stomach


April - A Stone-Free and Happy Gallbladder


May - Die with your Gallstones


June - The Liver - Savior of Our Own Abuses


July - The Pancreas - Under Attack by Cowmilk


August - Bad Farts? Meat Stinks!

September - In Search of the Perfect Bowel Movement


October - Straining for Relief - Damage Everywhere


November - Chained to the Bathroom


December - Colon Polyps and Colon Cancer – The End Result of Daily Dietary Abuse

Jane Esselstyn at the Plant Based Cooking Summit

There's a Plant Based Cooking Summit going on right now, hosted by Kelley Williamson. She's already had such guests as Chef AJ and Wendy Solganick. You can still register and get these Skype talks that already aired.

This morning we received the link to Jane Esselstyn's talk. Lots of great information on how to eat WFPB, especially for families with kids, and all her tips, hints - and meal ideas - are perfect for those following the Engine 2 Seven Day Diet Rescue. Everything is also McDougall-legal, too, of course.

And great news - she's coming out with an Engine 2 Cookbook January 2018! That 10 months is going to DRAG!!

This is Why I Take Vitamin D Supplements

A Sunny Day Can Mean All Sorts of Distress

By LAURA NOVAK

SUMMERTIME is not so easy for people living with certain autoimmune diseases. The sun, heat and even air-conditioning can intensify symptoms and cause problems that linger for months, if not years.

For doctors who manage those diseases, primarily lupus, scleroderma and Raynaud's phenomenon, the challenges of educating their patients about sun avoidance become greater, too.

"These are diseases where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," said Dr. M. Kari Connolly, an associate professor of dermatology and medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, whose practice focuses on patients with autoimmune diseases. "A little bit of overexposure to the sun can present a whole lot of problems, and if we can get patients to be compliant with sun avoidance and protection, we can minimize the chances of their getting additional complications of their disease."

Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes damage to tissue and prolonged episodes of pain. The Lupus Foundation of America says that 500,000 to 1.5 million Americans have received a diagnosis of the systemic form of the disease, known as systemic lupus erythematosus, which affects the skin, joints, tissue, blood and organs. About 25 percent of these patients will also develop skin lesions. Discoid lupus, which affects only the skin, is found in roughly the same number as the systemic kind; 10 percent of these cases, however, progress to the systemic form of the disease.

Lupus is the most common autoimmune disease in which patients are photosensitive, or reactive to both ultraviolet A and B rays from the sun. The foundation says that 75 percent of patients with systemic lupus and 90 percent of discoid lupus patients will suffer flare-ups of symptoms from even brief exposures to sun or heat.

"Photosensitivity can trigger the whole darn disease, including full systemic flare and joint pain and kidney failure," Dr. Connolly said. "The younger patients sometimes say, 'The heck with this, I'm tired of carrying sun block,' and they'll stay out there, and it's not just that they are going to give themselves a bad rash. This is something to take seriously."

The link between the sun and lupus flare-ups is thought to be a set of inflammatory protein molecules called cytokines, which are activated when ultraviolet light hits the skin. The skin inflammation that results can create a chain reaction of other symptoms.

Julianne Lewis, 35, of Santa Rosa, Calif., said she began to show symptoms that were referred to generically as undifferentiated connective tissue disease 13 years ago. When her second son was born four years ago, Ms. Lewis became so sick with stiff, swollen joints, aching skin and lumps on her feet that she couldn't get out of bed. Lupus was confirmed, she said, and since then Ms. Lewis has undergone chemotherapy treatment and taken immunosuppressant drugs to prevent kidney failure. She also takes blood pressure medicine, an antimalarial drug and occasional steroids to keep her symptoms in check.

"I have to avoid the sun because I developed the butterfly rash," Ms. Lewis said, referring to the telltale rash that afflicts 40 percent of lupus patients. "It develops across my nose and cheeks. I get it pretty severely, and mine will go on my chest and arms. I have scars on my arms where the rash blistered so badly my skin was burned."

Ms. Lewis said she had suffered flulike aches and fatigue from even a short time in the sun. She has given up swimming outside with her younger child, she said. Reading a book on the grass is also out of the question. And while Ms. Lewis says she still plays softball occasionally, she wears a hat, long sleeves and wraps a handkerchief around her face.

"It freaks people out because I look so funny trying to cover up," she said. "I have been slow to come around to the hat and sunscreen thing. And I've probably made myself sicker longer because I don't want to accept it."

Doctors say a UVA and UVB sunscreen is just one component of a multiprong approach to limit the extent of her symptoms. Other strategies include sun-protection clothing, applying a sun-protection coating to car windows and staying indoors from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

But for patients with scleroderma and its most common symptom, Raynaud's phenomenon, the solution can sometimes be as painful as the problem.

Scleroderma is a chronic autoimmune disease of the connective tissue that causes the skin to become so thick and leathery from inflammation that hair stops growing and sweat glands strangulate and die. The disease often begins in the fingertips before it works up the arms and throughout the rest of the body. In 90 percent of patients, it is accompanied by Raynaud's phenomenon, where blood vessels become thickened, too, shutting off the flow to the extremities.

The Scleroderma Foundation estimates that of the 300,000 Americans with the disease, nearly a third have the systemic, or diffused, form. The rest have a form limited to a certain place on the body.

That is how the disease began in Dolores McCausland of Cape May, N.J. Two years ago, Mrs. McCausland, 75, had a biopsy taken of a sore on her arm. Doctors confirmed scleroderma as well as pulmonary hypertension, a common result of the disease's affect on the kidneys, she said. She takes a combination of medicines to treat her blood pressure as well as an antihistamine and gabapentin to treat the pain and itching. She is also treated with oral chemotherapy and an immunosuppressant.

Mrs. McCausland said that covering her arms while driving to avoid exposure to sunlight or using her backyard pool was nearly impossible because the sores on her arms make them sensitive to touching.

"If you saw my arms, you would say, 'Oh, my God, there's something wrong with her,' " Mrs. McCausland said. "You know when you put a blood pressure cuff on your arm? My arms look like they have been squeezed, and it's forcing the muscle out to my elbow and shoulder. It's very painful and itchy."

Covering the entire body, even in the heat, is critical for scleroderma patients because they have greater susceptibility to skin cancer. And since the blood vessels can also become sclerotic, or thickened, full coverage helps protect people from the shock of entering an air-conditioned environment.

"The problem is that in the summer these patients go from dramatic warm to cold, and they can become very symptomatic from that," said Dr. Chris T. Derk, an assistant professor of medicine in the rheumatology division at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. "It's exceedingly rare, but we have people with Raynaud's of the heart vessels, and they can go into spasms and give you a small heart attack. You have to cover the whole body because if they can't rewarm the hand, they can break it."

Mrs. McCausland said she coped by keeping her house temperature warm and wearing Isotoner gloves to the grocery store, even during the summer months.

"People think I'm some kind of nut," she said. "I have never been sick a day in my life, and I had to come up with this. "

30 Ways to Eat Sweet Potatoes

A little while back I wrote a post with a link to Jill McKeever's list in PDF format of 30 Ways to Eat Sweet Potatoes. I just discovered she also did a video and a whole write up of it back in 2014! Now how did I miss that?

Be prepared - Jill is up to her usual shenanigans as she reads off the list, using a different hat, costume or camera filter as she read off each one.

And as always, there are many more recommendations in the comments below the video on YouTube, so be sure to check those out, too.

Quickie Advice from Dr. Doug Lisle

Webinar - The Latest Scams from the Diabetic Industry

Published on Feb 16, 2017

This webinar is based on Dr. McDougall's Newsletter from January 2017. Please download this free newsletter at : https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/newsletter/current-newsletter/

You can watch Dr. McDougall's full lecture on The Latest Scams from the Diabetic Industry at: https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/videos/free-electures/the-latest-scams-from-the-diabetic-industry/

For free recipes, please visit https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/recipes/mcdougall-recipes/

Simple Care for Diabetes Newsletter: https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2009nl/dec/diabetes.htm

More resources for Diabetes:

Mary Speaks - Advanced Study Weekend Lectures Now On-Line for Free

Dr. McDougall has done it again - released some of the (paid) ASW lectures for free on his YouTube channel. His two talks on diabetes are up, as well as these two talks by Mary McDougall.

Here's the one I was raving about the other day:



This one, about eating outside the home, I haven't gotten a chance to see it yet, thanks to the windy days messing up my Internet connection:

First Wonderslim, now Lighter Bake

During Mary McDougall's ASW presentation, one of the things she mentioned was that Lighter Bake, the fat replacer product she had been recommending since the demise of Wonderslim Fat Replacer, is also no longer being made. Since I don't really bake any more I never noticed. Oh, well. Sorry if I ever recommended that product to you here or the McDougall Friends FaceBook.

She did say that there's a fat replacer recipe in the McDougall Newsletter Archives, November 2008. Just ignore the Lighter Bake recommendation.

Fat Replacers
Now that Wonderslim Fat & Egg Replacer is no longer being manufactured, I have received many questions about what to use instead of that product in baked goods.
There is still one product available that is quite similar, Sunsweet Lighter Bake.  If you can’t find this in your local markets, it may be purchased online at www.sunsweet.com.
(Click on Store, then go to Gourmet Pantry, then to Baking Mixes where you will see Lighter Bake.)
Baby food prunes also make a good substitute.  Or you can make your own Prune Puree for use in baked goods.  Place a 12 ounce package of pitted prunes in a food processor and add about ¼ cup of water. Process and slowly add more water while processing to reach the desired consistency (between 1 and 1½ cups).  It should be about the consistency of soft applesauce.  This can be stored in the refrigerator for several weeks.
Other possible substitutes for oil in baking are applesauce, pureed tofu or ground flaxseeds (remember that tofu and flaxseeds do contain some fat, however).  

She did add in the lecture to use half the amount of the prunes as the amount of oil called for in a recipe, so if it reads to use a half cup of oil, use 1/4 cup of prune puree. Got it? Will you remember when the time comes? I know I won't. LOL

The Advanced Study Weekend Replays

Sometimes it sucks living on the East Coast instead of the West. Here in my part of NJ we have Dr. Fuhrman about a 90 minute ride away, but you California people have Santa Rosa, with Dr. Goldhamer and, my WFBP hero, Dr. John McDougall.

Because there's no way my ears would ever let me take a plane ride (I get dizzy and have ear pain on elevators!), the only way I will ever see Dr. McDougall or his Advance Study Weekends is on-line. The first few years he aired them we were broke, and there was no way we could afford $150 splurge to watch videos, no matter how informative they were. I missed a lot of really great speakers because of that.

But once we did have enough money and could breathe a little, financially, my husband told me to go ahead and rent them, if I want. Now, I haven't seen all of them since 2011, but most. Luckily, Dr. McD sometimes puts a speaker or 2 on YouTube for free.

I was reluctant to order them this time around. Aside from Dr. and Mary McDougall, and of course, Dr Doug Lisle, I never heard of the other speakers, and one of them is supposed to be a low-carb guy who presented at the obesity conference that rescinded their invitation to Dr. McDougall last year. But my husband talked me into it, and Friday afternoon I signed up. When I handed my husband the receipt so he could file it, he handed it back to me, and said Happy Valentine's Day. I gave him a playful smack (Hey, after 39 years, he deserved it!), and filed it away myself, which I'm sure was his intention in the first place. We haven't exchanged Valentine's Day gifts in a few decades now. :)

Anyway, I usually record them and eventually burn them to DVDs so I always have them, since the streams are only available for 6 months, not forever. Right now our cable has been wonky and the Internet freezes frequently so I haven't been able to do any copying (It's already taken me more than an hour to get through this post!), but yesterday afternoon I did get to watch about half of Mary McDougall's first presentation on meal planning.

I had seen Mary do this presentation before on the old VHS to DVD series Total Health Solution for the 21st. Century, filmed back in the 1990's, if I got that right. She also did a meal planning segment on the McDougall's Medicine: Fighting the Big Fat Lies with Fad-Free Truths DVD set. You can see her spot from that one here on YouTube:



I only got through about 45 minutes before my Internet decided to conk out again, and I'll pick it up later this morning, but the 45 minutes I've already seen has been almost worth the price of the entire ASW viewing already! And anyone can download the meal planning/pantry stocking handouts from the ASW web page, too.

Remember, I've been doing this - eating the McDougall way - since 1992, and I can still use all the help I can get. Sometimes I make things too complicated (E2L, UWL, Esselstyn heart protocols, Engine 2 Seven Day, etc.).

Sometimes all you need is a plate of mashed potatoes and gravy.

We all need Mary McDougall to remind us of that now and then.

Finally - Dr. Lisle Q&A Webinar

After 2 months of technical difficulties - and about 5 minutes of problems before they actually got this working - Dr. Tolosa and Dr Lisle have their monthly sit-down, and this one is the promised Q&A.

Sometimes It Gets So Darn Confusing - And Depressing!

Free Mastering Diabetes Summit

This summit has been going on for a week now, but I only found out about it when someone posted that Dr. McDougall is going to appear. Well, I found the registration page and signed up.

Many of the big names in WFPB living are here, not just Dr. McDougall. There's Dr. Barnard, Dr. Fuhrman, Dr. Klaper, all the Esselstyns - over 25 of your heroes in one summit!

Here's the schedule of who and when they're appearing.

Have fun!

Healthy Taste of Sacramento Now Available as Webinars

It was announced that the Healthy Taste of Sacramento, scheduled for Sunday February 19th, 2017,  will also be offered as webinars, with unlimited replays.

The lineup:

• Dr. John McDougall, MD
• Mary McDougall
• Dr. Craig McDougall, MD
• Dr. Garth Davis, MD
• Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD
• Dr. Rosane Oliveira, PhD
• Chef Ramses Bravo
• Cathy Fisher
• Chef AJ

The price for the webinars is $49 - not bad for all these speakers. 

This is offered through WebinarJam. If you've ever purchased one of Chef AJ's cooking webinars you already know how to do it. If you're new to the WebinarJam *pay* webinars, be sure to follow all the instructions. After making your payment you MUST CLICK THE "RETURN TO MERCHANT" BUTTON to complete the transaction!! If you don't do that, then you're still not registered and won't be allowed in when live or get the replay links afterwards.

I can't find a schedule of who speaks when except for the general times of 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, nor what subjects they're each covering. I'm sure it'll all be interesting, no matter what.

Gustavo and Dr. McDougall in a Noise Hawaiian Dining room

Another Blogger Bites the Dust

Looks like Wendy Solganick is going to get rid of her old blog: http://www.healthygirlskitchen.com/ . I know I sent a lot of people there for info on the UWL food plan, and she has some great UWL- and McDougall-safe recipes there, too (That salad dressing list!!). So, I strongly advise people here who haven't saved their favorite posts from that site to go now and grab them while you can, before they all disappear forever.