Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Doctor Knows Best?

My dad is 82 and has been to doctors galore to try and figure out why he is losing weight. He's lost 30 pounds, 17 since April. After a slew of testing, the doctors have decided he doesn't eat enough calories and "prescribed" Ensure twice daily in addition to his regular meals.



I'm a certified biblical health coach and I also discussed with him that perhaps he is not eating as much as he needed to. I ran his meals for that day through the calorie counter book and he was borderline. I had offered to mix together whey protein powder, green food and other healthy ingredients that he would just have to throw into a blender and mix with water to bump up not only the calorie count but the nutrition as well. He refused. The standard answer is: You're not a doctor - you think you know more than the doctor?



Well I looked at the ingredients of Ensure - the first four are water and three different types of sugar. With all the buzz about how unhealthy a high sugar diet is, it amazes me that a doctor would prescribe this. But, you know, I'm not a doctor - what do I know.



It's just disheartening that strangers will listen to me and respect the information I can share - but my own father won't. I realize it's nothing new - the Bible tells us even Jesus couldn't do any miracles in his hometown because they wouldn't take Him seriously! Who am I to complain, then? I have the utmost respect for doctors. However, I don't think most are very well versed in nutrition and that lack of knowledge could be deadly. What do you think?

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