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- You’ve improved your own health and lost 45 lbs. How hard were these changes?
- Yes, I was there. I lost a lot of weight myself and it’s funny, looking back at it I don’t remember how hard it was, but I know it was. It’s hard to break those habits of grabbing a donut, and the cravings. Food cravings are very strong, hunger can lead you to make some pretty dumb decisions. But after I lost the first 10 lbs and saw, hey I can do this, it became easier. You can see the payoff weekly.
- Do you still grab a donut occasionally?
- Last week somebody brought donuts into the office, and in the past, I would have eaten a whole donut or even two throughout the day. Now, I say, that’s looks good, but I just cut a small piece or a corner and eat it. And afterwards I don’t really feel all that great. My stomach quickly reminds me why I don’t like to eat donuts anymore!
- Can you recommend a healthy shopping list?
- When I do my nutritional lectures, I end it with a list of top 12 foods you should try to get into your family each week, and now I’ve expanded it to 24. If that was your shopping list you could have a really healthy diet.
- What is it about Wild Blueberries that prompted you to give them the top slot?
- A couple of years ago I got interested in blueberries and I went to Google and I put in “blueberries”, “brains”, and “rats”. I read the studies done on the brains of blueberry eaters and non-blueberry eaters, and they show how much quicker the blueberry-eating rats would get through the maze, and the higher level of regenerating cells in their brains. These were things that I would really, really like to have for myself. Since we’re getting older, having a brain that’s regenerating is something I definitely want.
- Wild Blueberries have long been a staple of the Sears family and part of your family’s signature smoothie. Does the tradition continue?
- I have them in my smoothie almost everyday. I usually use frozen, because they keep so well, and I probably use about 1/2 cup. It adds great flavor, texture and color. I add some chocolate protein powder, so it’s usually a chocolatey-blueberry-banana flavor. (Get Dr. Jim’s Smoothie Recipe [link to b].)
- You have also referred to the Wild Blueberry as the “brain berry”. What are these “brainy” benefits?
- The brain uses sugar for energy, and if you are feeding the body unhealthy sugars in the wrong balance, you tend to get the spikes of sugar and then the crashes. You go through half the day on a high and half the day on a low. For instance, a smoothie gives you a nice even release of sugar throughout the body, a slow release throughout the day, and your brain gets a constant level of energy—not too much, not too little.
- Is this because foods like Wild Blueberries have a low glycemic index?
- Exactly.
- Is this also why you refer to Wild Blueberries as a “happy food”?
- The blueberries are so good for the brain and help the brain work better. The brain is very sensitive to nutrition — it’s probably the most sensitive organ in the body to nutrition. So eating blueberries and lots of fruits and vegetables in general, and eating a good source of omega-3 oils are the two best things you can be doing for the brain. (Find out more about Brain Foods at AskDrSears.com)
- Researchers continue to focus on the Wild Blueberry in an effort to discover why it is such a powerful food. How important is knowing the science behind nutrition?
- Whether you know the science or not is less important than just eating lots of fruits and veggies! A good example is Vitamin C. They discovered Vitamin C in the 1930s, but 200 years before that they knew the positive effects of something that was in lemons and limes that helped prevent scurvy. It turned out to be Vitamin C. They didn’t know the science, but people felt better, and they didn’t get scurvy if they ate those things at sea. What’s the reason that blueberries are so healthy? What else is in the blueberries that we haven’t even discovered yet? Who knows. Is it just anthocyanin? Probably not. It’s probably the whole balance of everything. Companies are trying to isolate certain nutrients like lutein, and lycopene, and put them into multivitamins, and they find that they don’t get the same effects as lutein-rich and lycopene-rich fruits and veggies. It’s something that exists in the perfect balance of nature. So, I’m really not that big on knowing the science. I just know that deep-colored fruits and vegetables are good, and the more you eat the healthier you will be.
- You’re referring to anthocyanin, the cancer fighting phytonutrient that gives Wild Blueberries their deep color. Are phytos one of the keys in disease and cancer prevention?
- We know that those who eat the most fruit cut their cancer risk in half. That’s because you have a stronger immune system that gets rid of the tiny cancers before they become tumors. It’s huge in terms of cancer prevention and disease prevention.
- You will be part of a new show called The Doctors which is being produced by Dr. Phil. Can you characterize the show?
- It’s a spinoff of The Dr. Phil Show, and it’s a nationally syndicated show sold across the country and several overseas markets. It’s a daily, hour-long show that will be an entertaining look at health-related issues.
- Is there an increasing demand for health-related information?
- I think so. We’ve had a lot of great responses. There’s five of us in the doctors’ group, and Dr. Phil has had us on his show about a dozen times this year, and there’s always a lot of great responses on his web site afterwards, with people asking questions and commenting. We all feel really good that there’s a big demand for this.
Find out more about the health benefits of Wild Blueberries.
