Artificial sweeteners are worse than sugar because of the way they affect the microbiome in the gut, Dr. John Principe told about 40 physicians and medical students recently during a day-long workshop at Spence Farm in Fairbury.
Principe tells his patients who can’t kick the soda habit that if they took a glass of water and mixed in 15 to 17 teaspoons of sugar, that would be equivalent to a can of soda.
He was the keynote speaker at “Spence Farm Tour: Healthy Soils, Healthy Plants, Healthy Animals = Healthy Humans.” The workshop was the first in an upcoming series “Cook Well, Eat Well, Live Well” devised by Kathy Corso and Anne Patterson with Dr. John Leman, UnityPointHealth Methodist.
Principe was one of the first physicians in the country to incorporate a teaching kitchen in his practice. He is co-founder of WellBeingMD, www.wellbeingmd.com.
He practices in Palos Heights with 400 patients and a waiting list.
“Office visits are educational, rarely involving prescriptions,” he said. “A prescription will just manage. Food can prevent and reverse. I get very few diabetics I can’t get under control with food. When I tell patients ‘Come down to my kitchen,’ they love it.”
Food is critical to health, he said, noting that the gastrointestinal system makes more immunological decisions in one day than the rest of the body makes in a year.
He favors a vegetarian and vegan diet though he is a flexitarian, meaning he consumes some meat and fish, however, he will not eat any farm-raised fish. He favors use of fresh herbs to enhance flavor without added salt and sugar.
Transformation from highly processed food and the typical American diet to a wholesome diet based on fresh food (don’t buy anything with a label) can take effort, Principe said.
“It will require a revolution in thought and a renaissance of good motives to bring about change,” he said. “The government is not going to do this. It must be a grass roots movement to demand real food.”
The program at Spence Farm was supported by Spence Farm Foundation, Department of Family Practice at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, Methodist Foundation and the Illinois Central College Culinary Arts Institute.