Virtually on a daily basis, I am asked by patients if whole wheat is better than wheat.

Here’s my thoughts on this question:

First, wheat and grains in general are in fact a large supply of starch. This starch decomposes into sugar in the intestines in a 2-phase process. Thus, they are very hard to digest properly. The problem is that the human body is not fit for this job and a part of the starch is not absorbed and descends into the large intestines, feeding critters, causing inflammation, gasses, damage to the wall of the intestines, among other problems. Over time, one will develop insulin resistance, hypoglycemia, diabetes type 2, obesity, heart problems, and osteoporosis.

Second, whole grains, like whole wheat, contain anti-nutrients. These molecules bind to essential vitamins and minerals, making them worthless or impossible to absorb for the digestive tract. Therefore, people develop nutritional deficiencies, like a lack of iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium, among others.

By the way, carbohydrates are not essential. The body can make some from fats and proteins. Therefore, you can survive and feel perfectly well on a very low or no carb diet. In addition, there is no nutrients in wheat that you can’t find in other food.

Hope this answer the question. If you have any comments, please feel free to contact me.

yours in health,
Dr Serge

Almost on a daily basis, I have patients asking me why my blood work shows that my thyroid is fine but I still have thyroid symptoms.

There are a few key points to this question:

1. When you go see your doctor, he will order a blood work to measure TSH, the primary hormone that regulates the thyroid. And then you obtain your number for the thyroid. Doctors use we call a “functional” range as a reference number for TSH. Usually, when the number falls between 1.0-5.0, the doctor would consider that the thyroid is fine. However, this reference number is an average of all patients who have done this blood work in the past. You can see that this is a problem. You have people who are healthy, people who have some issues and people who are very sick. This average is very broad. Clinically the reference number should be tighter, around 1.5-3.0. Using this new definition, many people will be considered as either hypo or hyper.

2. The second problem with this measurement is that the doctor does not consider all the other hormones that are known to interact with the thyroid. They only measure TSH and missing a lot of information. They should order the full thyroid panel in order to have a good idea of the situation.

Because of this broad definition, many people who suffered from thyroid symptoms like fatigue, hair loss, brittle nails, weight gain, extremities cold, bowel issues, muscle pain, etc. are considered to have normal thyroid by their doctors.

Nutrition Response Testing analysis is a great tool that we use to determine the actual cause of thyroid symptoms. We only use natural products. We don’t use drugs, medications or any types of cream. We believe that by give the body the right nutrition, it will heal itself.

yours in health,
Dr Serge

We have been hearing more about sugar lately. In the 80s, scientists and doctors recommended to cut down our fat intake in order to avoid heart disease. Consequently, this led to an increase in the consumption of sugar and carbs. Nowadays, scientists are starting to realize that they may have made a mistake and that sugar is the actual culprit behind the epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis and several other chronic issues.

Refined sugar is empty calorie. There is no nutrients in it, it is just 100% sugar. As a consequence, the body recognizes and processes sugar as it is a toxin. It depletes the tissues from calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc and a variety of other minerals. This leads to the issues mentioned in the first paragraph.

Sugar may or may not include refined table sugar, grains like wheat, corn, rice, etc. and fruits in some cases. How strict you have to be about sugar depends on the severity of your conditions and how long what you have been struggling with them.

After saying this, there is some options out there to sweeten our foods. Stevia is the best sweetener. Then we have coconut sugar, dates, and honey. These are highly rich in vitamins and minerals which help the body in processing and assimilating these sweeteners. The negative impact on the body is greatly reduced.

If you have any comments, please feel free to contact me.

yours in health,
Dr Serge

This week I wanted to touch upon a topic that we do not hear a lot about: the cruciferous vegetables and the thyroid health.

The cruciferous family of vegetables include cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, cress, bok choy, kale, collard greens, among others.

These vegetables are “goitrogens” meaning they can act as antithyroid molecules, slowing down the thyroid function, and ultimately causing thyroid dysfunction. Thus, if you have thyroid issues, you may want to look at your cruciferous intake and figuring out which ones may be part of your situation.

Clinically, these are the foods that I regularly see to be a problem for some patients:

African cassava
Babassu (a palm-tree coconut fruit found in Brazil and Africa)
Bod Choy
Broccoli
Broccolini
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Chinese Broccoli
Collards
Daikon
Kale
Kohlrabi
Millet
Mustard
Peaches
Peanuts
Pine nuts
Radishes
Red Radish
Rutabaga
Spinach
Strawberries
Turnips
Watercress

Cruciferous vegetables are great for healthy people. They provides anti-cancer molecules for examples. But when we are handling the underlying causes of your problems, abstaining eating them may be very beneficial. Each cause is different and that is why an individualized approach is recommended.

Yous in health,
Dr Serge