Chew On This: Bite-Sized Stories about Nutrition

By Brooke Bussard, M.D.

A fun and refreshing approach to learning how food choices impact our health.

Confusion around nutrition leads consumers down a variety of paths in search of optimal health. Dr. Brooke Bussard presents information with clarity and a new down-to-earth approach. Using entertaining and imaginative characters, she illuminates the effect of food choices on a person's well-being. Readers finish the book with the pertinent knowledge needed to eat for improved health.

Dr. Bussard guides the reader with medical knowledge and nutritional facts that both amaze and enlighten. She specializes in healthy eating and she's written this "not-your-typical" book on nutrition to help others break free from common misconceptions.

With 12 entertaining chapters, readers are educated on important nutritional topics. From protein to carbs, and from fruits to leafy greens, current information is shared through conversations among the interesting characters.
Chew On This will inspire you to try a new way of eating, with no pressure or preaching, just good old-fashioned common sense and up-to-date information.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798987741016

Book preview

Introduction

After two years sitting in lecture halls listening to professors teach the knowledge needed to practice medicine, the time came. I began my third year of medical school at the University of Virginia ready and eager to see patients.

As the clinic charts piled up, it seemed most of them described patients with type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and other chronic illnesses. These diagnoses were daunting for the patients as well as for me; they meant lifelong management with prescription drugs and medical procedures.

Some patients were alarmed to hear they had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. They would leave the clinic with a handful of prescriptions they anticipated taking for the rest of their lives.

Other patients were devastated by news they had developed a disease like diabetes. We would talk about ways to slow the progression to avoid the dialysis or amputations they witnessed with their relatives. Others took their diagnosis as a done deal, as if they had awaited its arrival, thinking, It’s in my genes.

Whether it was heart disease, diabetes, or another chronic illness, each diagnosis indicated a downhill slide toward worsening health. Of course, we talked about getting exercise, quitting smoking, and eating healthier. But most in the medical community had no idea eating poorly could actually trigger these conditions.

That was then. Now the scientific evidence is clear — a poor diet is the leading cause of these diseases. We either consume foods that hinder health and invite disease, or we choose foods that promote health and prevent disease.

My hope in writing this book is to provide information that maximizes the health of readers. By educating ourselves and our loved ones, we find out how our bodies use food to survive and thrive. Armed with this knowledge, we can keep our health on the right track, or steer it back on course when necessary.

This is not a book that tells you how to diet. The shelves are already overflowing with them. This book helps you understand how the human body processes food, thereby uncovering the link between food choices and optimal well-being.

With hopes of good health for everyone,

Brooke

How We Got Into

This Mess

Hunting and Gathering

Food was Scarce.

Gardening and Harvesting

Food was Whole.

Refining and Processing

Food became Broken.

Bottling and Bagging

Real Food is Scarce.

Farmers and gardeners who grow their own food tend to understand the impact of food on health. In civilizations where agriculture is still revered, people live longer and healthier by eating more whole, unprocessed foods.

In contrast, there are places on the planet where residents do not take the time to cook. Their reliance on packaged and processed foods invites illness. In a quest to reclaim health, many are confused and frustrated.

Education is key to solving this problem.

1

PROTEIN

A big misunderstanding

Despondent Donna: Ugh, it’s so hard to get enough protein.

Blissful Brenda: Really? How much protein are you trying to get?

Donna: I’m not sure, but definitely more than I’m getting now.

Brenda: Why?

Donna: I’m just so tired all the time and I can’t seem to lose weight. My doctor said I should eat better, so I figure more protein is a good idea.

Brenda: Don’t bodybuilders take protein to gain weight? How can protein be helpful for losing weight and gaining weight at the same time?

Donna: Huh, I guess they do. I’m so confused.

Brenda decides to help her friend, Donna, learn about protein. Having studied food, fitness, and health over the past few years, Brenda knows how frustrating it can be to put all the pieces together.

Donna: So, should I eat more protein or not?

Brenda: I would worry less about the protein and focus more on the food itself.

Donna: I thought protein IS food.

Brenda: No, protein is a nutrient found IN food.

Brenda, seeing Donna’s look of distress, tries to lighten the mood: I guess you were writing love notes to Dave during Mrs. Hill’s biology class.

Donna smiles, then Brenda continues: Anyway, nutrients are things like protein, carbs, and fats. Since they are found in all living things, we consume them when we eat, unless we are eating junk food and then all bets are off.

Donna: What do you mean when you say they are in ALL LIVING THINGS? So even when I eat a salad, I’m getting protein?

Brenda: Yeah, you are getting protein along with carbs and fats, as well as vitamins and minerals. All these nutrients are in plants that become food in salad — greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, and so on. Does your daughter Devon have a biology book? You could peek in there and see that both plant and animal cells are made up of all these nutrients.

Intrigued by this new information, Donna pulls a protein bar from her purse.

Donna: So, what do you think about this bar I’ve been eating every day? It says it has collagen, which helps keep my skin and hair looking good and should help my joints feel better.

Brenda is aware of the current craze to consume collagen, the most abundant protein in humans. Collagen creates part of the structure of our bodies the way scaffolding is used to construct buildings. Unfortunately, production of collagen decreases as we age.

Brenda looks at Donna: I hate to tell you this, but we can’t just eat collagen to increase the collagen in our body. We have to make it from the inside.

Donna: So, what happens to collagen after I eat it? How does it NOT go into my body?

Brenda: When you swallow, it gets broken down in your stomach.

Donna is slightly perplexed, but still intrigued: Broken down into what?

Brenda: "Amino acids…the building blocks of proteins. Imagine protein as a string of pearls, and each pearl is an amino acid. It’s kind of like that. The stomach snaps the strand, and the pearls are all loose in the stomach. The amino