Are Our Diets Helping Us Stay Healthy?
DARYN KAGAN, GUEST HOST: We are fat -- at least, 55 percent of us are, according to the National Institutes of Health. The epidemic of obesity puts adults at risk for a host of diseases, including diabetes, cancer, respiratory and heart disorders. Yet it seems half the people you know are on some trendy diet-of-the-month program, maxing out on protein, pasta or grapefruit, desperately seeking the magic combination that will fill their stomachs without filling them out. It's time to weigh in, fat or thin: Are our diets helping us stay healthy? Ask Dr. Andrew Weil why your diet doesn't work and how you can "Eat Well for Optimum Health." Welcome to TALKBACK LIVE, everyone. I'm Daryn Kagan. I'm filling in today for Bobbie Battista. Before we start the weekend and go out and eat all that bad food, we're going to try to do it on a correct way. There is an old question that pops up around people who diet: Do you eat to live or do you live to eat? Whichever you do, today we are talking about eating to live a healthy life. And our guide is Dr. Andrew Weil. He is clinical professor of medicine at the University of Arizona. He is the author of several health books. His latest is entitled "Eating Well for Optimum Health: The Essential Guide to Food, Diet and Nutrition." Dr. Weil, welcome to TALKBACK LIVE. Thanks for joining us today.</s>DR. ANDREW WEIL, AUTHOR, EATING WELL FOR OPTIMAL HEALTH: Thanks. Good to be here.</s>KAGAN: Before we get into the good stuff we're supposed to eat and the bad stuff, tell us about you. Do you enjoy eating, or are you one of those nutritionist people who eat bland, boring food all the time.</s>WEIL: No, I love to eat. Food is important to me. I like to cook. I believe that getting pleasure from food is one of the great enjoyment of life. And I think a problem is that many of the people who say they're experts and tell us how to eat are people that really don't get enjoyment from food.</s>KAGAN: Did you used to eat poorly and now you eat better?</s>WEIL: I would say I ate relatively unconsciously up through the time that I finished medical school. And then for a variety of reasons I began to be interested in food and nutrition. I started cooking a lot and I think really educated myself about what a good diet was.</s>KAGAN: And now, even though you have a good diet and you've improved, you have days when you slip up and have to have that candy or that cookie?</s>WEIL: I do, but I don't consider that slipping up. You know, I think that having a cookie or a piece of chocolate once in a while, that can be part of a good diet. That's fine. I have certain rules...</s>KAGAN: That sounds like a good diet to me, Dr. Weil.</s>WEIL: You know, but I do have certain rules. I don't eat junk food. I don't eat food that's made with a lot of chemicals. Even when I'm on the road, I'm pretty careful about what I eat. But I certainly allow myself treats from time to time.</s>KAGAN: So in general, when you look back and you see how America eats, does it make you cringe?</s>WEIL: It does. You know, I see both trends happening at the same time. On the one hand, I think we have better food choices available. There is more kinds of and better produce in our markets. We're seeing more organic food appearing. Restaurant food has increased in quality enormously, and yet at the same time we have more people eating very poor quality food, more people eating fast food. I think the diets of kids has probably gotten worse in recent years.</s>KAGAN: We have a lot of kids in the audience today, so we're definitely going to tackle the topic of kids and food in a bit. But when you look at the way Americans eat, which bothers you more, the way that we pig out or the way that we diet?</s>WEIL: I guess both, because I think it's part of the same problem. You know, diets are things you go off of. That's the definition of a diet. And I think as a nation we're obsessed with weight loss, with dieting. We have a hard time because we're bombarded by messages from the fashion and entertainment industries about ideal body types that most of us are not going to attain. And at the same time, we're subjected to so much commercial pressure to eat unhealthy food, that tends to make us fatter.</s>KAGAN: Now you mentioned diets are something we go off of, but you do use the diet word in your current book and you talk about optimum diets and good diets and bad diets. Very interesting to see, when I was looking in the back of your book, when you break down what's a good diet, especially when you're breaking down what you see in terms of carbohydrates and protein. I want -- we made a graphic like that. Now you say that we should be getting 50-60 percent of our carbohydrates -- calories from carbohydrates...</s>WEIL: Right.</s>KAGAN: ... thirty percent from fat and 10-20 percent from protein. That is so different than the...</s>WEIL: Right. I...</s>KAGAN: ... fad diets that are out there right now.</s>WEIL: That's very different from the ultra low-fat diets which tell people to eat under 20 percent fat and even 10 percent fat, and it's very different from the very low carbohydrates diets, which are telling people to eat, say, only 30 percent of calories as carbohydrates. And some of those diets are also telling people to eat very great amounts of protein, 30, 40, even 50 percent of calories.</s>KAGAN: The diet you're talking about is to be healthy, but you know most people go on diets because they want to be thin. Does your diet...</s>WEIL: Yes...</s>KAGAN: ... make people thin?</s>WEIL: I think if you eat right, that is, if you eat the right proportions of the right kinds of foods, you choose the right kinds of carbohydrates, the right kinds of fat, over time your weight will tend to normalize. You know, this is not a weight-loss diet. I want people to look at how you eat as a way of maintaining and promoting health, which includes feeling good, having all the energy you want. And I think weight will tend to normalize eating this way.</s>KAGAN: Does that mean that people just kind of have their weight that they're supposed to be, and if you eat for health you'll just be where you're supposed to be?</s>WEIL: Yes, I think our body size is largely determined genetically. And, you know, we don't think we can control our height, and in a lot of ways we don't have much more control over our body size. I think whatever body size your genes keep you at, you can be optimally healthy if you eat the right food and if you get the right kind of activity.</s>KAGAN: Tell me about the carbohydrates, because...</s>WEIL: Sure.</s>KAGAN: ... when I was looking in your book -- I mean, a good carbohydrate might be a nice piece of chocolate cake or that pizza- pizza that I have to admit that I did have for lunch today. But I don't think that's what you're talking about.</s>WEIL: You know, I think that the kernel of truth in these low- carbohydrate diets is calling attention to a new measure of carbohydrate foods called the glycemic index. This is the rate at which carbohydrates turn into blood sugar and affect insulin levels. In general, the more refined the carbohydrate, the higher the glycemic index, the greater the impact on blood sugar, on insulin secretion. Some of us, maybe as many as 30 percent of our population, are carbohydrate sensitive, meaning that if they eat too many carbohydrates, especially of these very refined kinds, they'll tend to gain weight in the abdomen, have a tendency to have high blood pressure, have high levels of blood fats, and in extreme cases develop adult onset diabetes. If you are carbohydrate sensitive, you know, if these conditions run in your family, I think it's important to learn about which kinds of carbohydrates you can have and in what quantities. In general, fruits, like berries, cherries, apples, plums, all of those things, have relatively low impact on blood sugar. In general, dense, chewy breads with cracked grains in them are much healthier than the fluffy white stuff. Drinks that are all high fructose corn syrup, all the sodas and fruit drinks that are out there, these have a terrible impact on blood sugar. So I think this is important information to learn which carbohydrates are better and which are worse.</s>KAGAN: I'm being reminded by my crew and also by my producers in the control room to be truthful. It was not one piece of pizza, it was two pieces of pizza that I had for lunch. So at least I have reported truthfully, and now we're all clean on the record there. You also talk in your book about refined foods and how, boy, we are just eating way too many of those.</s>WEIL: Yes, you know, I think that what I've learned over the years in my studies of nutrition is that with almost any category of food, whether it's a vegetable oil or a grain, the more that we tamper with it, the more that we refine and process it, the greater the likelihood that we will reduce its nutritional value and increase potential harm. And I think there is a disturbing trend in America in recent decades in that more and more of us are eating more and more of these highly processed, highly refined foods. If you just look at the grain products we eat, for example, instead of eating whole-grain porridges and dense peasant bread, as our recent ancestors did, you know, we're eating products made almost entirely from white flour, white sugar, things that are of this white fluffy sort. And those kinds of carbohydrate foods, I think, are major culprits in putting weight on people.</s>KAGAN: Before we went on the air, we were having a kind of sharing, bonding session here in the audience. And we were confessing -- I shared my pizza. I talked about that. And some other members of the audience were talking about the bad things they ate today. OK, Laverne, we're going to put you on the spot here. Share with the world what you had.</s>LAVERNE: I had delicious chocolate cake with yellow insides, chocolate about yea thick.</s>KAGAN: And how was that? How did that taste?</s>LAVERNE: It was so delicious that my toes just twitched as I ate that.</s>KAGAN: Dr. Weil, we had a similar question on the Internet. The question, why is the stuff that's so bad for us, why does it taste so good? There's Steven Kyle. He wants to know the same thing.</s>WEIL: That is an -- that's an important question, and actually there is great sense to it. And I think that the answer is found in evolution, that when we were evolving, a taste for sweet things was a great advantage, because there wasn't much sugar in the world. There was an occasional honey comb or a piece of ripe fruit, and if you developed the sense to hone in on those things, you were going to get extra energy to outrun the sabretooth tiger and pass on your genes. And in the same, in an age where calories were scarce, the fat on meat on a killed animal, which was not an everyday event, if that tasted good to you and you homed in on that, you were the one that was going to store up reserve energy and be able to pass on your genes. So I think we've inherited tastes for sugar, for fat, for example, and that these tastes now don't serve us because we've changed the environment in a way to make these foods available all the time. If you eat these things as treat foods, as occasional feast foods, that's one thing. If you're eating them every day or at every meal, they cause trouble.</s>KAGAN: We're going to learn more about how we can eat in a more healthy manner, and we're also going to talk more about diets. A lot of folks in our audience, I know, out there at home are interested in that. I want you to go online and look at our TALKBACK LIVE poll today. We're going to ask folks, when they diet, what do they try to avoid: Is it carbs, fat, sugar, or they don't diet at all? We'll monitor that and we'll give you the numbers later in the hour. We'll be back with more of Dr. Weil. And during the break we're going to talk to Lavone and find out more about that chocolate cake.</s>KAGAN: Carbonate soft drinks account for more than 27 percent of Americans' beverage consumption. Almost half of all children between six and 11 drink soda, with an average consumption of 15 ounces per day. Welcome back to TALKBACK LIVE. We're trying to kick off the weekend, learning how we can be better eaters with Dr. Andrew Weil, who's joining us by satellite from Tucson. Dr. Weil, it's just not easy trying to do everything you're supposed to do to stay healthy, and to prove that we have David on the phone. He's with us from Colorado. David, what's your question or comment for Dr. Weil?</s>DAVID: Dr. Weil, I quit smoking and I gained 22 pounds. I went from a 34 waist to a 42 waist. I eat the same thing. I eat one meal a day. I usually eat chicken breasts, corn, fried potatoes, and a glass of milk.</s>WEIL: Well, you know what happened to you is that you removed nicotine, which is a stimulant and an appetite suppressant. So this slowed your metabolism, increased your appetite, and you may also have removed of oral pleasure that had to be made up in some way. So I think what you've experienced is common. At the same time I think that quitting smoking is probably more important to your health. The only remedy that you've got there I think is to really increase your physical activity. So you want to get into a really good exercise regimen to make up for that change in your metabolism from cutting out the cigarettes.</s>KAGAN: But is he better off with the extra pounds than smoking?</s>WEIL: You know, I would have to say he's better off with the extra pounds, and if he now starts to exercise and keeps himself generally healthy, I think his health risks are much better than they were before.</s>KAGAN: So he's on his way.</s>WEIL: Yes.</s>KAGAN: So we'll just support him in at least getting off the cigarettes. Good for him.</s>WEIL: Yes, so good work.</s>KAGAN: Dr. Weil, we were telling you that we have a lot of kids in the audience today, and they're getting in the spirit of things and telling us kind of the bad things that they eat sometimes.</s>WEIL: Right.</s>KAGAN: Ami (ph) over here from New Jersey share with us. Ami, tell us what you had last night.</s>AMI: Milky Way ice cream. It was chocolate, vanilla and caramel. I've been bad.</s>WEIL: Well, you know...</s>KAGAN: Been a bad boy.</s>WEIL: Let me say something, though. You know, this idea of thinking about how we eat these bad foods, this is peculiarly American. And people in other countries, especially in Europe, look at us and say we're just a nation of crazed health nuts, that food is to be enjoyed, that we shouldn't divide it into good and bad. You know, I don't think it's good to be obsessed with this idea that we're eating bad things, that we're eating junk things. You know, I think there are better foods, and if we eat things that we like, that give us pleasure, that aren't up to our usual standards, you don't want to do that all the time or you want to make up for it by eating better at your next meal.</s>KAGAN: Well, that's an interesting thing, because anybody who's traveled over to Europe can come back so frustrated, because you look and you see the French and the Italians. They drink all this wine, they eat these big meals. It seems like they're enjoying all the things we want to enjoy, and yet they're staying so thin. How does that work?</s>WEIL: Yes, I think there's a real lesson there. You know, my guess is that if you really analyze this, that French people are eating less than we are.</s>KAGAN: You mean of portions?</s>WEIL: They're not snacking all day, their portions are smaller. And I think most importantly they're enjoying it more. You know, the French are not hung up about getting pleasure from food. They see that as a good thing. They devote time to it. They don't eat on the run. They're really devoting their full attention to the pleasurable experience of eating. I think in America we're eating it more and more, and enjoying it less and less. So I don't think there's a real mystery there. I think actually that the French and Italians are eating less in terms of portion size and frequency. They're eating higher quality food and they're enjoying it more.</s>KAGAN: Let's get back to the topic again of the kids, because we do have so many kids, and especially teenagers in the audience. What can you tell them so that they can get on the right path right now. They're just coming into that time of their life...</s>WEIL: Yes.</s>KAGAN: ... when they're making their food choices. Maybe their parents are working. It won't be that long before they're out of the house. Now is the time is to set those habits.</s>WEIL: You know, absolutely. First of all, the whole philosophy that I've tried to present in eating well for optimum health is that laying this foundation of good nutrition is going to work for you for your whole life. The earlier in life you learn to begin applying these principles, the better you are. It's the more time your body gets to enjoy it. You reduce disease risks. You absolutely can get all the pleasure you want from healthy food. So you want to inform yourself. And it's especially important for kids, because you're exposed to so many commercial pressures to make unhealthy food choices. And if you learn about what really is better food and worse food, you can be resistant to that kind of commercial pressure. So I would urge you to just learn, inform yourselves about the facts of human nutrition.</s>KAGAN: Speaking of commercial pressure, Simon from New York has a question, and it's not even for kids. It's not just about what they eat. There's more to it, too. Simon, what's your question to Dr. Weil?</s>SIMON: What do you feel about supplementary pills that give you all the nutrients you need in a day.</s>WEIL: You need I recommend some supplementary vitamins and minerals, but I do as insurance against gaps in your diet. I don't think you should look at these as substitutes for the food sources, because for one thing, the foods contain terrifically large numbers of these compounds, and the supplements just have isolated compounds taken out. And the benefits may be are these whole families of compounds as they occur in nature. So OK to take these things as insurance, but don't use them as substitutes for the foods that contain them.</s>KAGAN: And on that note, it's a good time to take a break. We will do that, and we'll be back right after this.</s>KAGAN: Even traditional hospitals are getting into the alternative medicine business. Beth Israel Medical Center opened a special last month in Manhattan. It offers services like acupuncture, yoga, massage, biofeedback, herbal medicine and self hypnosis. Welcome back to TALKBACK LIVE. We're talking to Dr. Andrew Weil, trying to figure out how to eat better and be more healthy. Dr. Weil, going back to that one, OK, maybe two pieces of pizza I had for lunch, as I was sticking it in the microwave, one of the staff of TALKBACK LIVE was talking about what happens, is it bad to put things in the microwave? And does it matter what you cook things on? Does that ultimately get mixed up in your good food?</s>WEIL: Yes, it does. I think the two big concerns about microwaving I see are, first of all, you should never microwave in plastic. You want to only microwave in glass or ceramic dishes, because microwaves can actually drive plastic molecules into the food. And secondly, there is some concern about whether microwaves change the chemistry of food. If you cook foods for more than about 10 minutes or so in a microwave, you can actually change protein chemistry. That might be healthy. I think microwaving is very useful for rapid heating or defrosting, and I don't recommend it as a cooking method, and the results aren't great anyway, and I think there is this concern about changing the chemistry of food.</s>KAGAN: OK, here's a question for Maria.</s>MARIA: Yes, I would like to know what you think about Dean Ornish's diet plan, or diet thoughts?</s>WEIL: Yes, I think the Ornish Diet, which is one of these ultra low fat diets, has proved useful for reversing coronary disease, combined with moderate exercise, stress reduction, group support. I wonder whether you could get the same results or better if you allowed more fat in the diet but made sure it was the right kind of fat. That is monounsaturated fat, like oil olive and Omega III fatty acids. I think for the general public, this diet is not very acceptable, because when you get fat calories down below about 20 percent of total calories, food rapidly becomes uninteresting. And if you get it in the range of 10 percent, I think it's very difficult to maintain that unless you have professional chef on your payroll or live at a spa. And you know, what I argue in "Eating Well for Optimum Health," is that if we make the right choices of fats, particularly if you use olive oil as a primary oil in your diet, and really emphasize these Omega III fatty acids, that are in salmon, sardines, some of these new eggs that are on the market, walnuts, flak seeds, you can let -- allow more fat in the diet, up to 30 percent, which I recommend, and still get all protection against coronary disease, as well as against cancer.</s>KAGAN: We have another diet question from Robert in Texas.</s>ROBERT: Diet for about a month and a half. My question is, how can you get operative without gaining the weight back or doubling the weight?</s>WEIL: Well, that is the million-dollar question. And this is the problem with dieting, that diets, as I said, are things that end. And unless you are very careful about how you transition back to a way you can eat long term, the chances are overwhelming that you'll gain all the weight back, and maybe even a little more, and that's not a good pattern, and that's the cycle that most Americans are caught up in. So this is an argument for maybe not going on a diet in the first place. Maybe instead of dieting what you want to think about is changing long-term eating habits in the direction that I suggest, for example, of proportions of carbohydrates, fat and protein that I suggested, making sure you're eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, cutting down on animal foods, eating more fish, adding some soy foods to the diet, making sure you're getting omega III fatty acids. If you do all those things and increase your activity level to match the calories you're taking in, weight is going to tend to normalize, and you don't run this risk of having a rebound weight gain when you stop a regiment of eating that you can't follow long term.</s>KAGAN: On that point of activity, and staying active and getting good exercise, we have a question that came to us from the Internet, and basically, I think you were talking to David and saying, you know, get out, and walk, and exercise and do your things, but what if you aren't in a position where you can do that, perhaps you have a disability?</s>WEIL: I think whatever your level of ability, you can find a form of physical activity that works. Disabled people are often very good at doing water activity, whether that's water aerobics or modified water aerobics, or using some kind of stationary piece of exercise equipment. You may want to consult with a trainer or with an exercise physiologist to design a program for you if you have a disability. But I still think it is possible to increase activity in a way to match your caloric intake.</s>KAGAN: Carol, we have one minute left in this segment. Get your question in.</s>CAROL: Hi. I'd hike to know what Dr. Weil things about the Kitogenic Diet in controlling seizures.</s>WEIL: Yes, this is a very interesting high-fat diet that has been used successfully to control intractable seizures in kids, even very young kids, that have been resistant to the drugs that we use to control seizures. It is not an easy regiment to follow for either the children or the parents, but I think it is a great advantage over doing brain surgery or maintaining kids on very high levels of toxic drugs. So it's an interesting approach to epilepsy, and we're just beginning to understand why it might work.</s>KAGAN: And we'll talk some more about how a good diet can help you prevent further medical problems just ahead after this break on TALKBACK LIVE.</s>KAGAN: Welcome back to TALKBACK LIVE on this Friday afternoon. We are talking with Dr. Andrew Weil about eating well for optimum health, which happens to be the title of his new book -- how convenient. And there are a lot of good tips in there. Dr. Weil, though, we live such busy lives, and the things in your book take time. We have a caller now, Sharon from -- I think she's from Colorado -- oh, she's actually from South Dakota. Sharon from South Dakota, what is your question for Dr. Weil? Is Sharon there? Well she -- she was in a big hurry -- Sharon.</s>CALLER: Hello.</s>KAGAN: Hello, you're on TALKBACK LIVE. What's your question for Dr. Weil.</s>CALLER: I lost 100 pounds, and then after I had my baby I gained 100 pounds within a year. And I was on a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. And then I just started recently started the carbohydrate Atkins (ph) diet and I've lost, like, 30 pounds. But that has been, like, that's it.</s>WEIL: OK, again, I would say, you know, that it's great that you've lost some weight again. You want to increase your physical activity. I would urge you to read my book and follow the diet plan in there. I mean, it's not a diet, just follow the eating plan in there. And as for things that you said about things in there taking time, there are about 80 recipes in the book that are designed to be quick and easy to make and produce results that are delicious and healthy. But, you know, also, there are more and more convenience foods that are available that are healthy, as well, and you can find frozen meals, meals in a cup that you just add hot water to. The trick is just to learn to read labels. And in the book also, I give a chapter on how to read labels. We're lucky to live in a culture where ingredients are on the food products that we buy. You don't want to waste that. You want to learn how to read that and interpret it. And if you do, you can find more and more healthy convenience foods.</s>KAGAN: Dr. Weil, we have a man in our audience, Dan, he's a man that is after my own heart, I have to say. He loves ice cream. We share that.</s>DAN: Yes, doc, I just love ice cream. And what I want...</s>WEIL: OK, yes?</s>DAN: ... and want I want to know is, are we fooling ourselves when we eat low-fat or no-fat ice cream with artificial ice creams?</s>WEIL: Yes, I think you are, because, you know, often -- well, if you're eating low-fat ice creams, you may be eating a tremendous amount of refined carbohydrate, which is going to still get you in a lot of trouble in terms of weight. If you're eating ice creams that have artificial sweeteners as well, and you read the ingredients on there, there are a lot of unhealthful ingredients. I personally think you're better off eating occasional, moderate amounts of high-quality ice cream that really satisfy you. You know, you get all the pleasure you want from eating ice cream as a treat, but don't do it all the time.</s>KAGAN: Here, here. That's a diet tip that I am very much in favor of. As I mentioned, we have a lot of kids in the audience. Tiffany had a good question for Dr. Weil. Tell us the exact question like you said it in the break.</s>TIFFANY: OK, I was wondering about young athletes. What do you recommend? What type of vitamins and protein drinks and stuff do you recommend to keep us on top of our game?</s>KAGAN: And take a good look at Tiffany, because she's going to be a future soccer star.</s>WEIL: All right. Good question, Tiffany. You know, in general, I would really recommend, again, that you follow the general plan of eating that I've outlined in "Eating Well for Optimum Health" rather than relying on protein drinks and supplements. I think you can get all the nutrition you need from whole foods. And actually, most people, even athletes, don't need increased amounts of protein. And the protein drinks that many people take in on top of a diet that's already protein heavy is too much protein. And this lowers your energy levels, it puts a strain on liver and kidneys. So I would still say follow the general proportions of fat, carbohydrates and protein that I recommend. If you want to take a good multivitamin as insurance, that's finer with me. But you should be able to get all the nutrition you want, all the energy you want from eating high-quality foods.</s>KAGAN: A lot of pressure on the kids who are athletes, they watch some of the professional athletes that are using supplements -- this kind of follows Simon's questions from earlier -- does it scare you when kids start getting into those supplements that might be...</s>WEIL: It does, it does. And, you know, a lot of this is used especially to change body appearance. You know, many of the people that do this are -- get into body building. And the whole emphasis there is on bulking up, on developing a certain look. You know, first of all, I think it's interesting that when people stop doing that, they deflate like balloons. You know, in a way it's not a natural state. And often the kinds of supplements that people take to bulk up are very high in protein. They're full of things that may not be terrific to take long term, they may harmful effects, they may put a strain on the liver. So often these are not the healthiest regimens that people get into. They so scare me.</s>KAGAN: Andrea has a question for you, Dr. Weil.</s>ANDREA: Hi, I wanted to know if kosher meat and kosher products are really cleaner and healthier than non-kosher products.</s>WEIL: That is a difficult question. I suppose in an ideal world, the slaughtering practices for animals that are certified to be kosher may be somewhat cleaner and healthier than those of general practices that are done. But personally, I think we'd all be better off by reducing the amounts of animal foods that we eat, whether kosher or non-kosher, and replacing some of those animal foods with fish and especially with vegetable protein such as soy protein. I think most Americans would benefit by reducing the percentage of animal foods in the diet.</s>KAGAN: We're going to hear more about soy. I want to ask you more about that. Also, we've also heard from one reformed smoker so far. I want to find out when we come back, can eating well help you beat other addictions, perhaps like alcoholism or caffeine addiction? We'll talk with Dr. Weil more when we come back.</s>KAGAN: Last year, Americans spent more than $2 billion on multivitamins and $12 billion on other vitamins and dietary supplements. An estimated 60 percent of adults take supplements. And welcome back to TALKBACK LIVE. We're going to start with our question from the Internet from Timothy. "Can diet help beat addictions to things like alcoholism or caffeine?" Dr. Andrew Weil, tackling that subject for us today.</s>WEIL: Yes, I think it can be a useful adjunct in a program of addiction recovery, and often it's neglected. I think anyone trying to deal with addictions to substances needs to be on a healthy lifestyle, which means getting the right kind of exercise, getting the right kind of rest, getting enough sleep. And certainly good nutrition, eating satisfying food that's nourishing is part of that. I don't know that there are any specific foods that will help break addictions. I think motivation is really the key there. But following a program of good nutrition while you are trying to kick a habit is very important.</s>KAGAN: Because isn't there the danger, like we were just hearing from that former smoker, you go from one addiction to another?</s>WEIL: That is certainly possible...</s>KAGAN: Meaning addiction to food.</s>WEIL: But I think smoking is a particular case, because the pharmacological effect of nicotine really acts as an appetite suppressant and metabolic stimulant. So I think people that quit smoking have a special problem there that when those things are removed, that there is a tendency for metabolism to slow, appetite to go up.</s>KAGAN: And you know there are folks out there that don't want to stop smoking because they're afraid they're going to gain weight. What do you say to them?</s>WEIL: Well, in fact, I think a major motivation for young women smoking has always been as a means of controlling weight. And that -- and I think that's even been subtly present in cigarette advertising as well.</s>KAGAN: What do you say to those folks, though?</s>WEIL: I think what you say to them is that you are mortgaging future health, that it is better to learn other ways of controlling weight, such as by exercising adequately and sensibly, and making better food choices.</s>KAGAN: We have a question in our audience from -- I think that's Mary...</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From Mary. Mary's from Arkansas.</s>MARY: Yes, Dr. Weil, I'd like to know about what you think about the pyramid group, and if we ate everything on there, if our diets would lose weight. And also if you should eat six meals a day, you know, small meals, instead of eating small meals?</s>WEIL: Let me take that second one first. I think everybody's different, and it's important experiment to see what pattern of eating works best for you. Some people definitely do better eating smaller meals more frequently. I think some of us are meant to be grazers. We sort of do best nibbling all day long. In terms of the food pyramid, I think the conventional food pyramid that's put out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture has gotten better in recent years. But I think an even better pyramid and one that I urge you to look at is the Mediterranean diet food pyramid. I've reproduced this in "Eating Well for Optimum Health." In this one, animal foods -- red meat and poultry -- are way at the top in very tiny amounts. There's enough olive oil in this diet to make food interesting. Lots of fruits and vegetables. A base of grainy carbohydrates, the dense, chewy breads, pasta that's cooked al dente rather than the fluffy stuff. Relatively little sugar, some dairy products in the form of cheese and yogurt. I recommend -- take a look at that Mediterranean diet pyramid. I think you'll find it very enlightening.</s>KAGAN: Doctor, a question that's been e-mailed in from Tricia in Florida. She wonders: "How can it be that our doctors are not thoroughly trained in nutrition?" What we...</s>WEIL: Oh, I am so glad -- I am so glad you asked that question.</s>KAGAN: Thank you, Tricia, in Florida.</s>WEIL: The -- the total instruction that I got in nutrition in four years at Harvard Medical School and a year of internship was 30 minutes...</s>KAGAN: You are kidding?</s>WEIL: ... which were -- which were grudgingly allowed to a dietitian at one hospital I worked at in Boston to tell us about special diets we could order for patients. That has not changed substantially since I've been out of medical school, believe it or not. At the University of Arizona, where I teach, in our program for integrative medicine, we train our doctors in nutrition. We are developing a nutritional curriculum module that we hope will be ready to put in place as medical schools open up to this. But this is a glaring defect. The reason I think is simply that eating, along with other aspects of lifestyle, tends to be viewed as soft information. It's not the real stuff like pharmacology and giving people drugs. So it has tended to get short shrift. It's been slighted. The fact is that a great many disease conditions can be prevented or effectively treated by making dietary changes, and I think it's vital for physicians to have this information, at the least in order to be able to advise patients about such things as dietary supplements, about how to make better food choices. Your doctor should be your adviser here, but at the moment, he or she can't be because they didn't learn this in their training.</s>KAGAN: And on that point, we'll take a break. More questions from the audience and from you at home when we come back on TALKBACK LIVE. Americans spend $33 billion annually on weight-loss products and services. About 25 percent of adults claim they do no physical activity at all in their leisure time.</s>KAGAN: OK, let's check out our poll from online. If folks are going to diet, when they diet, they try to avoid it seems the most of our viewers fat, 27 percent, carbs, 20 percent, sugar, 17 percent, and 36 percent of our audience say they don't diet. Dr. Weil, some members of our audience were very taken with your comment about how little you learned in medical school about nutrition, which means that most of us out there are going to doctor that haven't been trained. So what is your message to folks about being aggressive consumers of information for themselves?</s>WEIL: Well, I think you really want to seek out reliable sources of information and inform yourself, and also to doctors that you get up to speed in this area, and one thing you can do is to write to deans of medical schools in your area and tell them that you'd like to see doctors trained in nutrition. That's a vital part of good medical education.</s>KAGAN: And if there is one thing, as we go out into the weekend and face all those potentially bad health choices, if there's one thing that we do this weekend, what would it be?</s>WEIL: I would say read labels and teach yourself to read labels and try to phase out some of these highly refined, processed foods, foods with all of these additives. They're not good for your health.</s>KAGAN: Sounds like a good place to start. Dr. Andrew Weil, the book, "Eating Well for Optimum Health. Thank you very much for joining us. We enjoyed the hour.</s>WEIL: Thank you.</s>KAGAN: We are out of time. Our thanks to Dr. Weil, our audience, and to you at home for joining us today. I'm Daryn Kagan. Bobbie Battista will be be back on Monday. Join us again at 3:00 p.m. for more of TALKBACK LIVE.