Happy Thankful Thursday!  

Today, we’re in for a wonderful interview with Dr. Adriana Cervantes,

who received her M.D. from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia,

completed her training in internal medicine at Boston University Medical Center in Boston, MA.

 

What led you to study medicine?

At the time I thought “I wanted to help people.”  Very cliché, I know!

Looking back now I have to say that it was my love for learning & for teaching others,

which led me down this path.

As a biology student I learned about the human body & how it works when it is healthy.

Being inquisitive led me to ask what happens when things aren’t healthy,

when things go wrong.

In medical school I learned about pathophysiology,

the physiology of the human body when it is not healthy.

The more I learned, the more I wanted to know.

Almost in parallel my role as a teacher grew with me at every stage.

In college I tutored other college students.

In medical school and residency I taught medical students.

Now as a physician I teach patients every single day.

I empower patients with knowledge about their condition,

how to stay healthy or become healthier,

how to improve quality of life after chronic disease has set in, etc.

Will you share more about your specialties or certificates you’ve earned?

Currently I practice Internal Medicine in Orange County.

I see patients both in the clinic and hospital setting.

I specialize in primary care and management of chronic disease in adults 18 years and older.

My focus is always on health maintenance & disease prevention;

however a large segment of my patient population suffers from diseases such as Diabetes Mellitus,

chronic heart disease and/or chronic kidney disease.

As a doctor, what is your experience with diabetes /heart disease with your patients?

Diabetes Type II and heart disease are what we refer to as my bread and butter.

I see this all the time.

With the rise in obesity we are seeing more and more cases and at a younger age.

Talk a bit about your son’s allergies and how it changed you and your eating habits.

I thought I was a healthy eater and I thought I knew what I was eating.

Well, when my son was 5 weeks old he started having bloody stools.

We didn’t know right away what was happening.

My baby’s doctor concluded it was something he was eating and

since I was breastfeeding him at the time, something I was eating that was making him ill.

I worked with the pediatrician, a pediatric gastroenterologist, a pediatric allergist,

a nutritionist and numerous wonderful lactation nurses.  I started what is called an elimination diet.

Meaning I eliminated any food from my diet that could possibly be causing the problem.

I had to start reading labels really carefully.  This is when everything changed.

I was shocked and surprised by what I learned about how food is prepared and processed,

how shelf life is extended so that it can sit in warehouses for  many months

sometimes even years before it ever reaches the grocery stores.

After a few months of this and an endoscopy and colon biopsy on my son,

the final diagnosis was Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance which is very common

and benign lymphoid hyperplasia of the colon which is not so common.

I remained on a strict diet until he was 1 year old and was weaned off breast milk.

We eventually re-introduced cow’s milk protein into his diet

and he seems to tolerate it now in small quantities.

My diet included no processed or pre-prepared foods

because non-dairy foods contain traces of cow’s milk protein.

I made all his baby food –

we have never purchased any prepared baby food for any of my children.

(I have 3 kids now.)  We learned how to make bread and pizza dough from scratch.

I was introduced to rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk and even goat’s milk.

I had to avoid soy milk and other soy products because the soy protein is very similar to milk protein.

Most of the foods I was able to consume were certified organic and/or vegan.

I am not a vegan now by any means, but I do buy certified organic most of the time.

Even though now I don’t have to be militant about what I put into my mouth, what I learned has stayed with me.

I read all food labels. 

We still make our own breads and pizza dough, pizza and pasta sauces.

I cook during the week and my husband cooks weekends.

We go to the farmer’s market on Saturday to stock up on all fresh ingredients for the week.

We don’t eat fast food and we never bring it home for a meal.

We go out to restaurants rarely and when we do we try to stay away from restaurant chains.

Recently my son has really gotten into broccoli.

My husband likes to make several pizzas on the weekends

so the kids will have left over cheese-less peperoni pizza for lunch during the week.

(The pizza is made from homemade pizza dough, homemade pizza sauce.)

Dinner is a family fare.  We all sit down together as a family.

I will make homemade pasta sauce or parmesan chicken tenders, chicken soup with farm fresh veggies.

Basil or parsley or cilantro pesto sauce with pasta

(whichever herb is available at the market on Saturdays).

We eat a lot of chicken and fish dishes.

If you could give my readers 3 solid tips

for a healthier lifestyle, what would they be?   

1. Become a conscious eater.  Know what you are eating and putting into your body.

2.  Healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle doesn’t just happen so plan out your meals for the week and shop from a list.

3.  Stay ACTIVE, turn off the TV and get outside.

Here’s a recipe for Spinach Pasta Fagioi  Dr. Cervantes shared:

ingredients: 1 1/2 cup dry Great Northern Beans 1 tbsp olive oil 2 medium onions 2 cloves garlic 1(28 oz) can plum tomatoes (LOW SODIUM) 3 1/2 cups chicken broth  (or VEGGIE BROTH-LOW SODIUM) 6 ounces of ditalini or tubetti pasta (can use GLUTEN FREE) 2 cups spinach chopped place beans in 8 cups of boiling water for 5 minutes then remove from heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour.  Drain and rinse beans. transfer beans to saucepan and cover with water. simmer for 40 minutes to 1 hour or until beans are tender.  stir occasionally. heat olive oil and cook onions until tender and golden, approx 10 minutes. add garlic and cook for 1 minute. add tomatoes with their juice, using a slotted spoon to break up the tomatoes. add broth and beans; cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Cook pasta separately; drain pasta and set aside. just before serving stir in spinach and cooked pasta. Optional:  serve with grated parmesan cheese.