SavantMD: Health and Wellness » Health & Wellness

Happy Holidays From SavantMD

SavantMD — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 05:00:58 +0000

The Holidays are upon us again and that usually means good food, and lots of it. If you’ve been trying to be good all year you don’t have to feel like it’s all or nothing during the Holidays. You didn’t eat well and exercise all year just to blow it at the end. Here are four simple tips to help you enjoy the festivities without having to loosen your belt. 1. Take small portions. Go ahead. Try the dishes that look interesting. Just take very small amounts. This will slow you down so that you can recognize when you’re satisfied, which happens before you’re full. 2. Keep up the exercise. It’ll help burn off those extra calories and you’ll feel better, too. 3. Watch the alcohol intake. Don’t forget that they have calories, too. A 5 oz glass of wine has about 120 calories and a 4oz Mai Tai can have 350 calories. And 4. Don’t forget to drink your water (you knew I’d have to work that in somehow). A glass or two before eating can fill you up a bit so that you’ll eat less and staying hydrated will help your overall sense of well-being. From all of us at SavantMD, and Happy Holidays.

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Happy Thanksgiving From Everyone At SavantMD

SavantMD — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:00:11 +0000

Learn more about Dr. Savant. Meet our physicians and medical experts.

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Learn How To Avoid Thanksgiving Weight Gain ~ Nutrition & Health Tip

SavantMD — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:00:26 +0000

he winter holiday season is upon us and with all the fun comes all the extra calories.

Every year I get questions from my patients as to how to avoid gaining weight while still being able to enjoy all the parties and family gatherings. So, over the years, I’ve come up with a few suggestions to keep off those extra pounds.

Watch the video below or Read More.

Portion control is the single most important factor in controlling weight gain. There’s no way around it. One way to help your will power is to not eat too fast. Most parties are either mostly hors d’oeuvres or a dinner served family style or by buffet. When serving yourself always start with small enough portions that allow you to see the plate around and among the servings of food. You can always go back for seconds but just choose small amounts of the foods that you really want. Spacing out your eating in this way will help you to recognize that you will be satisfied before you’re full. Also, try drinking one or two glasses of water before the party to curb your appetite a little.

Another thing to remember is to make healthy choices. Always include vegetables and fruit and choose complex carbohydrates like whole grains such as brown rice, whole wheat, or oats. Limit your sweet intake to one small serving. This can be difficult and I know. I like sweets, too, but try your best.

Alcohol is usually a prominent part of many parties and with it comes many empty calories, or calories without nutrients. Limit your intake to two servings of alcohol per day if you drink and, I know I sound like a commercial but certainly, don’t drink and drive. Have a designated driver or take a cab. To avoid the dehydrating effects of alcohol I always recommend to my patients to drink two cups of water for each serving of alcohol.

Helpful Resources
• Healthy-eating ideas for your holiday parties (from the Mayo Clinic)

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It is also important to remember to maintain your regular exercise regimen or, if you don’t have one, to walk for at least 30 minutes straight three times per week. Do your best to get seven to nine hours of sleep a night and drink at least eight 8 oz glasses of water daily.

The goal is to have fun without having to suffer the consequences of eating or drinking too much. Please have a safe and happy holiday season. • About Dr. Savant

10 Halloween Safety Tips ~ Health & Wellness

SavantMD — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 05:00:27 +0000

Halloween is a fun Fall ritual that both children and adults enjoy. But traipsing around in a costume in the dark brings with it some risk.

Here are some tips to keep Halloween safe for you and your children.

Watch the video below, or Read More.

When choosing a costume, pick something that is flame retardant and short enough to avoid tripping. Wear natural masks drawn or painted on from cosmetics rather than a loose fitting mask or other eyewear that could obstruct vision or breathing. Remove the cosmetic mask at bedtime with cold cream to avoid skin irritation from too long of an exposure and from soap. Avoid sharp objects that could be a hazard to eyes and other body parts. All accessories like knives and swords should be made from soft materials.

Since there will be lots more people on streets there are some important things to remember regarding road safety. Use reflective tape on costumes and carry a flashlight. Wear well-fitting shoes. High heels would not be a good choice if you will be walking a lot. Look both ways before crossing the street and, if you are expecting trick-or-treaters keep your entryway free of obstructions.

Helpful Resources
• Prevent Blindness America: Halloween Safety
• Toxins Make Halloween Face Paints Scary
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Halloween Health and Safety Tips
• Famous Fall Fruit: 10 Amazing Apple Recipes (delish.com)

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Treats are always one of the most fun parts of Halloween for kids and who hasn’t experienced a post trick-or-treating stomachache. So, with that in mind, parents should inspect all treats and limit the number a child consumes. Think about offering healthy alternatives to candy such as packs of raisins, trail mix, or pretzels. If you have party guests serve a selection of fruit, vegetables, or even cheese.

And finally, use common sense. Small children should trick-or-treat while it’s still light out and always be accompanied by an adult. Don’t dart into the street from between parked cars or hidden alleys. Following these guidelines and those in the attached links will help to ensure that you have a fun and safe Halloween. • About Dr. Savant

Learn How to Prevent Smartphone Injuries ~ Health & Wellness Tip

SavantMD — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:00:43 +0000

Love your iphone? Addicted to your blackberry? In this video we will discuss strategies to take care of our body as we feed our addiction to our handheld devices.

Watch the video below or Read More.

Smartphones and other small handheld devices place unique stresses on our hands and wrists. It is common to see people complaining of thumb pain when they type on their small keyboards, and wrist pain that coincides with use of keyboards, various computer mouses, and touchpads. Also as we bend over our devices, our necks get strained.

When using a smart phone or mp3 player, we tend to hold it close to our stomach and look down. Change your posture and bring the phone up to a level that allows your neck to be more upright. Lock your elbows into your sides to reduce strain.

If you use a real keyboard with your thumbs, stretch your thumbs out and massage the muscles between your thumb and second finger. If you are using a virtual keyboard, stretch all your fingers out, and make attempts to alternate the fingers that you are typing with.

For all smartphone users, please practice all the stretches the in Office Stretches posting on savant.com.

Helpful Resources
• Injuries evolve along with new gadgets (SFGate)

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Smartphones are fun, handy devices and we want to make sure that you can keep using them, and keep your body healthy at the same time!

• About Deanna Savant

Learn About A Gluten Free Diet ~ Nutrition & Health Tip

SavantMD — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 05:00:46 +0000

A gluten free diet can be a challenge, here are some helpful hints.

• About Dr. Savant

Watch the video below, or Read More.

So you think you might have celiac disease because you’ve got recurrent diarrhea, you’re losing weight, and you’ve got abdominal bloating and distension. The first thing to try is to cut out gluten from your diet. Easier said than done. That means no wheat, rye, or barley. Yikes! No pasta or bread. There’s even wheat in soy sauce. But fear not. Now that there’s a lot more awareness of people with gluten sensitivities there are a lot more options in the supermarkets and even in restaurants. There are a number of websites as well that will tell you where you can find gluten-free products, even things like coffee cake and pizza dough. Of course, oats make a great alternative as do some of the nut flours. Quinoa is also a good grain-like substitute.

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Flu Season Update ~ Health & Wellness Tip

SavantMD — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 05:00:06 +0000

This is a quick tip to remind you that flu season runs through March so if you haven’t gotten your flu shot yet, there’s still time. You can get it at your primary care physician’s office and many pharmacies offer it as well. Just remember that the flu shot is only good for this season and, come October, it’ll be a new flu season and you’ll need to get another shot.

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You are What You Eat!! ~ Health & Nutrition Blog

SavantMD — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 05:00:27 +0000

There’s a lot being said about food these days, where it comes from, what’s in it, how does it affect me. My patients will often ask me about what supplements to take, if this or that vitamin will help them, should everything be organic. At the grocery store you’ll see many foods labeled organic, grass fed, free range and whole grain. How do you sift through all this to eat a healthy diet and what is that healthy diet. Certainly, with the rising numbers of younger people suffering from diabetes and obesity and the advent of books such as “Fast Food Nation” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and films like “Food Inc.” the importance of the food we eat has never seemed to be more central a topic. In fact, for generations eating what was in season and getting your eggs, meat and vegetables from the farm down the road was taken for granted. Now, we’re beginning to rediscover that that more simple, straightforward, more connected way of eating was a lot better for us than eating inexpensive, quickly prepared, more processed food. You might say that good food is good medicine.

But I don’t like to think of food as medicine. Medicine is given to repair something but the body, for the most part, repairs itself and uses the nutrients from food to help it function properly. We can decipher how the body uses the different vitamins and minerals for normal function and do, on occasion, recommend supplements to fill in the gaps but there is no substitute for getting your nutrients from the food you eat. So you might think, then, that food is the fuel for the body but that, too, does not give the full picture.

At the risk of harkening back too much to the hippie roots of my Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, food is nourishment rather than just fuel. It invokes memory and connects us to one another and the earth. Who can’t wait for those special dishes around the Holidays or those other gatherings of family and friends that make up much of our photo albums. In these celebrations lie the seeds of, not only our good physical health, but our mental and social health as well. Again, what we eat also connects us to the earth in a very literal way. The cells and molecules of what we eat get digested and converted into usable forms that are then used and incorporated into us. (So if you eat like crap, you’ll feel like crap.) The Slow Food Movement that started in Northern Italy and which has been championed in the US by local chef and author Alice Waters has been trying to reconnect us to the food we eat so that school children will know that chickens do not come wrapped in plastic naturally.

A simple way to connect yourself to your nourishment is to try to eat most of your food from local sources and, in so doing, you will be living by the seasons. You will not be eating peaches and watermelon in winter but will be anxiously awaiting their arrival in summer. Locally grown fruits and vegetables will not have to travel as far to reach you, will be fresher when you buy them and be less likely lose their nutritional value by the time you eat them. Even locally raised meats will be more likely to be grass fed and more healthfully raised and thus better for us. As a kid my family used to drive up to a small butcher shop just outside Sonoma where the cows were grazing in the back to buy half a cow to split with my Aunt and Uncle. The meat would last us at least half a year in the freezer and it was an economical way to feed a family of five children. Now I’ve started taking my kids up to Terra Firma Farm in Petaluma where they can see the chickens and cows and rows of vegetables and we can come home with fresh produce, eggs, and meat.

In France, a restaurant is judged by how well it uses its local products, not by how exotic its food is. Here in the Bay Area we have food products that are second to none and, so, ample opportunity to eat nutritious, healthy food throughout the year. As I like to tell my patients, “You really don’t want to see much of me.” And so to do that be part of your local scene and visit your local farmer’s market more often and live by the seasons. Taste, savor and enjoy your food with good company. You really are what you eat.

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Happy Holidays

SavantMD — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 09:00:21 +0000

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Happy Thanksgiving

SavantMD — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:00:23 +0000

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