What Makes Us Healthy? With Dr. Mary Dagen, MD

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 im