Jonny Bowden, PhD, C.N.S. is a board-certified nutrition specialist and a nationally known expert on weight loss and nutrition.

His book “Living the Low-Carb Life: Choosing the Diet that's Right for You from Atkins to Zone” won “Consumer Nutrition Book of the Year” from the Carbohydrate Awareness Council, and has over 100,000 copies in print. His most recent book, “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The surprising truth about what to eat” has been endorsed by a virtual who’s who in the world of integrative medicine and nutrition including Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Barry Sears (who calls him “one of the best”) and Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman, (who calls him “the personal health coach I would want in my corner no matter what”).

Dr. Bowden has a Master’s Degree in psychology and counseling and a PhD in nutrition, and has earned six national certifications in personal training and exercise. He is board certified by the American College of Nutrition.

His latest book, “The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth” will be published by Fair Winds Press in January 2008.

Name: Jonny Bowden, PhD,  C.N.S.

Birthday: 11/29

Location: New York City- born and raised- now live in Los Angeles

Website: http://www.jonnybowden.com/

Diet Detective: Hello Jonny, thanks so much for agreeing to do this interview. You are a busy man, CDs, books, radio, etc…so I will try not to take up too much of your time.  I guess my first question would be how you got into the field of nutrition. And why?

Jonny Bowden: Well, health and nutrition were a second career for me. For the first part of my professional life, I was a musician, and I was as typical as they come- I smoked, drank, stayed up late, and couldn’t run around the block without getting winded. I looked twenty years older than I do now, and that was twenty years ago! The actors I worked with were all in shape, and I started hanging out with them and copying some of what they were doing. They began teaching me how to lift weights, and before long I was “bitten by the bug”. I started devouring everything I could find on the subject of health, fitness and nutrition. Before long, I decided to get certified as a personal trainer, and from then on my education has never stopped. I collected six national certifications as a personal trainer, went on to get a Masters in Psychology, a PhD in nutrition, and became board certified by the Certifying Board of Nutrition Specialists (American College of Nutrition). 

Diet Detective: What was the most interesting nutrition concept you’ve found in the last few years that would surprise us?

Jonny Bowden: Well, I’m not sure there’s much that’s surprising anymore, but there are some basics that continue to be true no matter what fads happen to be popular. The first and foremost one is that our genetics are about 99.99 percent the same as they were 50,000 years ago when our Paleolithic ancestors roamed the earth, and we’re pretty much adapted to the same diet: foods we could hunt for, fish for, pluck or gather. Most of our health problems- at least those that have a nutritional component, which includes an awful lot of them- come from deviations from that diet, which I call our “factory specified fuel”. We just weren’t meant to eat a lot of foods with bar codes.

Beyond that, we’ve suffered at the hands of an awful lot of crappy information, much of it brought to us courtesy of the moribound American Dietetic Association. For example: the percentage of fat in the diet isn’t related to any major health outcome whatsoever, and that’s a direct quote from Walter Willett, MD, Chairman of the Nutrition Dept of the Harvard School of Public Health and director of two of the most important on-going nutrition studies in the world, the Nurses Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow Up Study. But the type of fat- trans fats in particular- and the type of carbohydrate eaten- most definitely are related to health outcomes!

Diet Detective: At some point in your career you were a low carb advocate, and even wrote a book called “Living The Low Carb Life:  Choosing the diet that’s right for you from Atkins to Zone”(Sterling Books, 2004). How have your thoughts changed on low-carb dieting?  Are you still a strong advocate? 

Jonny Bowden: I’ve revised a lot of my thinking since then, which I think everyone who reads and learns with an open mind over the years should be able to do! I still believe that low-sugar (or low glycemic load) eating is the healthiest way to eat, but I’m beginning to think that the quality of our food matters probably more than the exact proportions of carbs fats and proteins. And I no longer believe it’s necessary to obsessively measure every gram of carbohydrate.

Diet Detective:   You have a new book coming out this January called The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth What Treatments Work and Why, what are some of the most impressive “cures” that we should know about. Basically, I would like a preview.

Jonny Bowden: Indeed! Well, let’s see… I guess it’s no surprise that there’s good research on St. Johns Wort for depression, or lysine for herpes… but how about folic acid for hearing loss, or Reflexology for PMS, or a particular Midwestern program for alcoholism and addiction using amino acids, vitamins and other natural treatments that has better recovery rates than any 30 grand a month program in Malibu ever dreamed of?

Diet Detective: You recommend supplements, however, there has been much controversy surrounding the taking of supplements in the last few years. Shouldn’t you get your nutrients through food?

Jonny Bowden: Sorry, but I think that’s nonsense. Supplements are merely a delivery system for nutrients and offer them in therapeutic doses that are frequently unavailable in food- for example, what natural source of alpha lipoic acid do you know of? There are practically none, at least not in any meaningful dose. And you’d have to practically drink a quart of cold pressed oil to get a good dose of vitamin E. In a perfect world, where people lived in clean non-toxic air, got enough sleep, grew their own food on organic farms and cooked or ate it raw the same day, sure, the food supply would be loaded with nutrients AND our needs for them would be less. But add up the needs caused by stress, pregnancy, aging, toxins, carcinogens, pesticides, toxic relationships and city life and add to that the fact that most of the food most of us eat is horribly bankrupt when it comes to nutrients, and tell me how people are supposed to get ideal amounts of healing nutrients? I argue that you should do both- eat the best whole food you possibly can AND take supplements. What’s wrong with that?

And if I may just add to that: I also don’t buy the “expensive urine” theory. The fact that stuff comes out in urine hardly means that it wasn’t used by the body- just think of a urine test for steroids or cocaine. The guy taking that got plenty of use out of it, even if traces show up in his urine. I’d like to have the most “expensive urine” in the world, thank you very much! Let my body decide how much it needs and it can excrete the rest quite nicely.

Diet Detective:  You’ve been known to say that people should use butter. Isn’t that high in saturated fat, and calories? Can you explain?

Jonny Bowden: The fear of saturated fat is one of the most misguided idiocies of the past twenty years. All saturated fat isn’t bad for you. The body makes it naturally, and needs it for a number of things including stability in the cell membranes. The point is not to eat DAMAGED fat, like that from refried vegetable oils! Or trans fats in any form (except the natural form of CLA). SOME saturated fat from whole food sources like eggs are perfectly fine, and some saturated fat- like the medium chain triglycerides in coconut oil- are downright health promoting. Margarine- which was the industry’s “answer” to the “problem” of saturated fat in butter was one of the most idiotic ill-advised nutritional mistakes of the last two decades.

Diet Detective: Now a few more personal questions so readers can get to know about you. If you could eat one unhealthy food (candy, cakes, etc..) whenever you wanted without gaining weight, what would it be?

Jonny Bowden: Without a doubt ice cream. I’m a complete sucker.

Diet Detective: What’s your favorite breakfast?

Jonny Bowden: It varies a lot. These days we’re on a juicing kick at my house, using a Vita-Mix which liquefies and saves everything in the food (including the pit from the avocado we put in!). Sometimes I like eggs, scrambled in butter or coconut oil with a bunch of vegetables added in. Sometimes we go for raw foods- raw oats, some berries, nuts, that kind of thing.

Diet Detective: Do you have time to exercise? What do you do?

Jonny Bowden: I make time. True, not like back in the “day” when I was in the gym five times a week. But now I do some combination of the Xiser (on my website under shopping) a very well designed high-intensity short burst exercise; hiking; circuit training at the gym; and tennis at least three times a week (I’m in a league)

Diet Detective: What’s your favorite healthy ingredient? What’s the one thing you’d suggest people keep in their kitchen if they want to cook healthy meals?

Jonny Bowden: There are so many, but I’m really hot on the spice TUMERIC right now. After writing the 150 healthiest foods on earth, I’m just blown away by the multitude of health benefits this one spice offers- anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, you name it.

Diet Detective: What’s the one kitchen utensil or tool that you can’t live without?

Jonny Bowden: Hmm… I don’t really cook. The blender or the juicer?

Diet Detective: What do you consider the world’s most perfect food?

Jonny Bowden: First thing that comes to mind is whole eggs from free-range chickens. Although blueberries and kale are way up there, if I had to be on a desert island for 30 days, you could survive quite nicely on eggs (though who would want to?). Your body needs protein and fat to live, but doesn’t actually need dietary carbohydrate. Hey you can add that to the “most suprising fact” about nutrition, in the question above. The actual DIETARY need for carbohydrate in the human diet is zero.

Diet Detective: What person do you respect most, or who motivates you? And why?

Jonny Bowden: My life partner Anja Christy continues to inspire and motivate me on a daily basis. In terms of people in the world you might know, I’m a huge fan of Bill Clinton and Barak Obama. I’m also a huge fan of Henry Rollins, for entirely different reasons. Go figure.

Diet Detective: What do you do to reduce stress/relax/center your mind? Do you participate in an organized relaxation activity such as yoga, meditation or tai chi?

Jonny Bowden: Ah, if only. I try to do some deep breathing relaxation stuff- too informal to call meditation- on a semi-daily basis. My partner, Anja, does it all the time, we’re working on it for me to do a more serious and regular practice. I have no doubt in my mind about how important it is and even wrote about it in the forthcoming “The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth”

Diet Detective: If you had to pick one healthy cook book to recommend (or two) which would you choose? 

Jonny Bowden:  “The Healthiest Meals on Earth” – my companion book to “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth”. It will be out in June 2008!

Diet Detective: What’s your favorite healthy recipe? Will you share it with our readers?

Jonny Bowden: OK, here’s one that isn’t even in “the healthiest meals on earth”.. it’s one of the few things I know how to cook! Melt some coconut oil or butter in a skillet (I use Barlean’s extra-virgin coconut oil, it’s the best). Sautee some thinly sliced apples. Add in two scrambled eggs. Finally throw in a couple handfuls of spinach for the last couple of minutes till it wilts. Mix it all up. Season with tumeric and lemon pepper.

Diet Detective: Do you have a Calorie Bargain?

Jonny Bowden: In “the Healthiest Meals on Earth” my recipe developer came up with an unbelievable substitute for mashed potatoes based on cauliflower. But here’s one I came up with myself- buy a bag of frozen cherries (Cascade Farms makes them, also Whole Foods). Put them directly from the freezer into a bowl. Lightly cover with some yogurt or raw milk. Lightly. The milk or yogurt freezes on contact with the cherries, and you have one of the best most delicious substitutes for Cherry Garcia. You can sprinkle some slivered almonds on as well. It’s amazing and also quite addictive.

Diet Detective: What's the most bodacious chance you've ever taken?

Jonny Bowden: Hmmm….. no comment!

Diet Detective: What was your worst summer job?

Jonny Bowden: I was a professional musician so I didn’t really have summer jobs, I played in bands. None were bad. (The jobs that is, not the bands.)

Diet Detective:  What did you want to be at the age of 5? (as far as a career)?

Jonny Bowden: A fireman. Or a rock and roll singer. Go figure.

Thanks, Jonny. Great Interview!!!!

Bookmark:

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

...
written by Barbara, January 16, 2008

I went to a website to learn the rules of scoring tennis and I found this article written by you. Please look at the 5th point I think it is written wrong!!! I don't know tennis but according to your guidelines the score should be 30-40.

Tennis Scoring

By: Jonny Bowden

Here's an imaginary game played between two players, John and Susan:

(John serves) 1st point: John wins score: 15-Love
2nd point: John wins score: 30-Love
3rd point: Susan wins score: 30-15
4th point: Susan wins score: 30-30
5th point: Susan wins score: 40-30
6th point: John wins score: deuce (40-40)
7th point: John wins score: advantage John (since John is the server, this is called "advantage in")
8th point: Susan wins score: deuce
9th point: Susan wins score: advantage Susan (since John is the server, this is called "advantage out")
10th point: Susan wins score: game (Susan has won by the two points necessary to win the game)< br>
At this point, Susan would become the server, and the second game would proceed.