Food Journals and the Ketogenic Diet
The Armor Men’s Health Hour is brought to you by NAU Urology Specialists.
For questions during the week, call us at 512-238-0762, or visit our website.
The Armor Men’s Health Hour is a show dedicated to providing information on a variety of medical topics, some of which may include sensitive subject material about penises. All cases discussed have been done with the permission of the people involved and their penises.
We’re so excited about being able to bring a variety of men’s health topics to you. Dr. Mistry is a board-certified urologist practitioner who treats men widely for a variety of conditions. And Donna Lee is our practice manager. We also have our very own special guest today: Robert Mendiola, our registered dietitian.
How Does Nutrition Play An Important Role In Urology Conditions?
Throughout the year, we’re going to talk very much in-depth about all the different things that we deal with in our practice. Kidney stones, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, low testosterone, ED and more. One of the central things that we’ll focus on today, however, is the role that nutrition and weight loss plays in all of these conditions. And then we’ll talk about what kinds of tools we give patients to help them lose weight better.
Many Conditions Can Be Improved With Weight Loss—But Not All
Across the board, a lot of conditions do get improvement with weight loss. Things like low testosterone are going to be very responsive to changes in way higher cholesterol prediabetes, which are really common things that come tied in with these different urologic conditions, including erectile dysfunction. When you see urologic conditions, there are sometimes other medical issues going on there as well. We offer that whole program, including diet, which helps connect the dots. It can be really insightful for people and really help kind of get their health back on track. A lot of people are surprised, too.
If you are 350 lb and 5’10”, diagnosed with prostate cancer, however, and you also have diabetes, high blood pressure and obstructive sleep apnea, my decision to operate on you is going to be significantly altered. As opposed to you being 260 lb and 5’8” with only one medical condition. It’s a different animal.
How Does Having A Health Coach Help?
As a health coach, I’m able to provide accountability. We have check-ins and talk about what’s working and what’s not. How are you feeling? And how do we get the ball moving? It’s about an individual practice, an individual program, depending on your disease process. Kidney stones or cancer can be different than something specifically related to low testosterone. Not everybody has to lose weight, but a lot of people do.
What Have You Learned Working With Our Patients?
I’ve learned that people are really curious about nutrition and diet and lifestyle, and there are still so many unknowns. And I think that’s really kind of a fun part of working in nutrition and a science field is, there are so many unknowns still. We can find evidence to support almost anything that we wanted to support. Right now, we could find a study that says, “eating candy for breakfast every day is really good for you.”
But people are very curious, you know, and they are well informed that they come in with really good questions. I’m seeing more and more younger men who are taking charge of their health. Even when nothing is in labs, nothing is out of normal limits, they still want to know if they’re taking care of their health correctly. And I think that’s really cool—I think that’s really changed. I think men in particular and young men. I mean, historically, people only went to the doctor when they were sick, right? So, to see younger people doing that is really impressive.
As physicians, we’ve been so jaded by the fact that our patients don’t listen to us every time that I think a lot of the opportunity to educate patients on just basic nutrition has kind of gone away.
They really are curious, and you don’t fix everyone. But that’s really not the goal. I mean, I guess that’s our goal to fix everybody, but it’s not. It’s not the metric by which we judge ourselves successful. We want to help people change their habits into healthier habits. I love the fact that we have so many patients that are healthier, that are looking to make changes in their health because that’ll keep them healthier.
How Do You Keep People Motivated?
We do a number of things. I just kind of do a check-in. And then we use whatever accountability tool we’ve kind of started or educated or going went over, and maybe our initial visit that might be something like a food journal we get to review together. I know a lot of people are not very big on tracking food.
I usually tell people if you give me 2 to 3 days of eating track, that’s a really great glimpse into your life. And then we can make some changes based off of that. You don’t exactly. Yeah. And some people don’t want to tell you how much alcohol do exactly as I tell people. You know, Don’t be well behaved on this. Be your real actual 100% self. If you eat a pizza and 12 beers, please put that in the app so we could talk about it.
Some people that are maybe not tech-savvy. I try to put them on paper. So, it’s something they can still feel like they are accountable for. And even if they’re not comfortable using their phone like that, um, and then just kind of navigating some of those speed bumps in the road bumps that come up with a busy life and still trying to be healthy. And sometimes the solution is something that that is very medically managed.
The Ideal Protein Program
We are very happy to be able to provide ideal protein here. It’s a medically managed program. It’s strict, but I myself have done ideal protein, and I did achieve the 5 to £7 weight loss. This program is basically a medically managed ketogenic diet. We get our body using fat for fuel. It is lower calorie as well, and it is moderate and protein and pretty low in carbs. One of the great things that it does take the guesswork out of the diet. Which we all have a lot of questions on, and a lot of people don’t have time to answer all those questions before making changes.
It’s a really great way to have some accountability, set up some weekly appointments with the health coach and navigate some of the program. It’s okay. Well, how’s our weight trending and have we had our goal and what’s working. And if you’re a man out there and you’re looking lose about 40 to 50 lb in 12 weeks, I think it’s definitely a very achievable goal.
What Does The Ideal Protein Program Cost?
It would be $300 at the initial visit on that kind of start, you start off with supplements, a week’s worth of food kit, and kind of the whole deal. We go over in the office in the program, and then after that it would be your weeks’ worth of food. So, about $90 a week after that. When you think about how much how much you might spend eating out or things like that, it can balance out really well.
The transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the original episode on The Armor Men’s Health Hour podcast.
To make an appointment, call us at 512-238-0762, or visit our website.