Interview with Steve Fox, MD - UT Family Practice, Erlanger Health System
written by Elizabeth Hall, MS, RDN, LDN, Food City Registered Dietitian

September is National Family Meals Month! We sat down with Steve Fox MD, a physician at UT Family Practice in Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga, to learn all about how to keep your family healthy starting with healthy meals at home. 

Q: Do parents need to take back the kitchen?
A: I love this question. Home cooked meals tend to be healthier that what you can buy from restaurants, so yes, if you can increase meals at home, it is a great idea.  This provides another opportunity for the family to spend time together and pass down family knowledge and recipes.  If families are not teaching each other about how to cook, the information and life skill of preparing food is easily lost.  You can save time by buying frozen vegetables which are easily added to multiple dishes.  Frozen vegetables tend to be cheaper than fresh and have a much longer shelf life and no loss in nutritional value.  Try to add as many colors of the rainbow as possible to your dishes.
 

Q: What about healthy snacks?
A: I’m glad you brought this topic up. Parents need to teach their kids all about Mother Nature’s fast foods. Things like unsalted nuts, fresh fruit, carrots and granola just to name a few. When it comes to processed foods, we could miss out on a lot of the nutrients. Healthy snacking can be a great source of fuel and can give you important nutrients. It’s also the correct way for healthy weight gain. Adding nutrients into food are not as effective as just eating food in its natural state.

Q: How does being outside in nature help to improve health?
A: There are multiple benefits to being outside including getting vitamin D to support bone and hormonal health, improved brain function, and improved resilience by decreasing our stress hormones.  Most major health organizations recommend at least 30 minutes or 1-2 miles a day of moderate exercise such as walking at a pace where you can talk but not sing comfortably.  The more you move the better. Anything is better than nothing. If you can even get outside for just 5 minutes, do it.  Being outside is a great way to unplug and spend time together as a family. It’s also a great way to get away from all of those distractions that life throws our way.
 

Q: What are the benefits of a family medicine doctor?
A: Being a family doctor, I’m slightly biased here. But one of the most powerful things about using the same doctor for the entire family is we get to know people a lot better. This can be a very powerful tool. In medical school, we are all taught about how to diagnose and treat diagnoses, but in Family Medicine we get to see how that diagnosis affects a person and their family over time. Many of the chronic illnesses we encounter are related to how people are living on a daily basis like what they are eating, how they are moving, and how they are sleeping. Overtime, we get to find out about how to improve people's health by focusing on these foundational issues instead of just managing their disease with medications and periodic testing. We see everyone from birth to death and can help manage any medical problem that walks through our doors.