Dr. Nandi: Be Your Own Health Hero

Then, lastly, I don’t like the word diet at all. It is one of my least favorite words because, to me, it is a synonym of failure. The moment you say you are going on a diet, you have a 90 plus percent chance of failing. Why? It means you are going to do something that you are not going to do for a very long time because a diet implies that you are going to do something different. I would much rather say let’s accept the lifestyle that you can follow. A lifestyle that includes a healthy diet. Because if you have a lifestyle that is balanced, then you can then say you know what? I can follow this and be nutritionally sound. For example, the low carb/high protein diet.

Everybody says I am gaining weight. Let me cut down the carbs. When, in fact, your body needs 40% to 45% of the diet to be carbs. So it is what type of carbs. It is what type of protein. It is what type of fats that your body needs. And the portion size, one of the biggest things we talk about is that if you can eat until you are about 80% full, you will solve so many problems of weight loss, cholesterol and heart disease.

Shawne Duperon: You talk about being your own health hero. Is this what you mean?

Dr. Nandi: People ask me that all the time. Dr. Nandi, you talk about being your own health hero. What is that? To me, being your own health hero is defined as making your health the most important part of your life. Making yourself and your health the hero. Instead of saying it’s the film star, or the sports star is the hero, make your health, your wellbeing, your family’s wellbeing the most important part of your life, the hero in your life. And that, to me, is what being your own health hero is. Empowerment, advocacy and education.