Episode 25. This week I talk to Dr. Mary Dagen. Dr. Dagen is a board-certified family medicine physician and has been practicing as a medical Bariatrician for the past two years. Dr. Dagen became a certified culinary medicine specialist in 2018 and is currently serving a 3-year term as a board member for Ottawa Food, whose mission is to ensure affordable access to nutritious food. Away from the office, she enjoys running, gardening, and wildlife photography. Her favorite time is spent with her husband, two kitties, and their bunny.

Want to get some background on what this podcast is ALL about? Check out the Foundational Episodes of the Motivation Made Podcast here!

Introduction: What is this podcast all about?Episode 1: Want to Get & Stay Motivated? A Crash Course on Motivation, Weight Loss, and HealthEpisode 2: How Dieting Steals Our MotivationEpisode 3: How To Get Motivated To Improve Your Health (Motivation 101)Episode 4: How to Transform Health Fears Into Forward Progress

What to Expect from this Interview:

Discussion of the pros and cons of considering obesity a diseaseSome of the barriers physicians face with regards to measurement of weight and health markersWays to understand your health beyond just the number on the scaleThe importance of working with a health care professional who seeks additional training in something like lifestyle medicine and not believing everything you learn on the internetWhy you should never worry about eating fruit again!The importance of taking a wholistic view of health, all from the physician's perspectiveA physician's take on her introduction to the Health at Every Size movement

Beyond Body Mass Index (BMI)

There are many ways to measure your health besides the body mass index. Dr. Dagen and I discuss why the BMI is problematic and some of the other ways she tries to measure health. She states:

"I'm pretty honest with patients. I put it [BMI] on the chart because I have to put it on the chart, but it really doesn't define anything so we're working to improve other health conditions that they are coming to see me for."Dr. Mary Dagen, MD

Culinary Medicine: Using Food to Prevent or Reverse Disease

Dr. Dagen talks about her certification in Culinary Medicine and how she learned in that program about using food to prevent or reverse disease.

The culinary medicine classes typically involve a chef, a physician, and a dietitian. As someone who has taken these classes, we reflect on how these classes are typically the opposite of diet mentality, and instead teach people to enjoy cooking, build mastery, while also creating a sense of community.

The hope and the plan is to build in this type of education on a larger scale over time, given how effective this would be over counting your calories for the millionth time in a row.

The culinary medicine specialty falls under a bigger umbrella of Lifestyle Medicine.

What is Lifestyle Medicine?

We talked about the field of Lifestyle Medicine and how it incorporates many aspects of health beyond just what we eat. This field talks about the importance of:

SleepStressEmotional well-beingMovement

Dr. Dagen talks about how even though she already had specialty training in obesity medicine and culinary medicine she has learned an immense amount within the process of studying for Lifestyle Medicine board certification.

We discuss the fact that most physicians don't get any of this training unless they specifically seek it out, and even when they do there is a LOT to learn in this field, given how complex it is. Dr. Dagen talks about the fact that even though she is board certified in family medicine, she did not get any of this training at all. Though the training in medicine in this area is shifting, it's a very slow and gradual process.

That said, if you are seeking out a different way to look at weight loss and dieting, you are very likely to come across physicians who have views that are uninformed an...