Dr. Katina Kennedy is a psychiatric and family nurse practitioner who specializes in primary care, mental health, gynecology, and sexual health. She has dedicated herself to addressing community health issues such as high blood pressure and diabetes, offering solutions to those affected, and advocating for prevention efforts.
Dr. Kennedy spoke with rolling out about what food to avoid for better health, and regular checkups that people should be partaking in at the doctor and home.
What are some checkups that people should regularly be getting?
Some of those health screenings are your physical exams, which are bloodwork, getting your thyroid checked, getting your prostate level checked, getting mammograms, Pap smears, and ultrasounds. For males, you have to do your self-testicular exam once a month, and for women, we have to do our breast self-exam once a month. Going for your eye exam and your dental cleanings…those are things that can affect us in the long run, especially if we don’t get our dental cleaning. It can affect our heart.
A lot of people don’t floss how they should, and you really have to make sure. Gum health is so important, especially your tongue health as well because if you don’t get this done, you can pass on certain bacteria or yeast infections to your partner during oral sex. It’s just so many different things that you know could be passed on if you don’t know. A lot of times, we hear about knowing your STD status. Knowing your STD status is important, but knowing your health status is key, as well.
What are some foods to avoid eating for better health?
My patients know to avoid the whites. White bread, white rice, white pasta, that’s the bad, bad carbs. That’s the carbs that turn into simple sugars. Carbs are good for us. We need energy, but we need healthy carbs. The brown rice, the whole grain bread, your sweet potato, your quinoa, your wheat, your protein pasta versus your white pasta. Stay away from the whites and stop skipping your meals and stay away from the whites. Watch your sugar intake if you’re drinking a lot of juices or sodas because sugar turns into fat.
My weight loss patients come in to see me and they say “I’m on a juicing diet” or “I’m juicing” and I say what kind of juice and what kind of fruit are you putting in there because some fruits are naturally high in sugar, such as your mangoes, your watermelon and your pineapple. Too much sugar in the blood is just not healthy. It’ll raise the blood sugar. When it comes to high blood pressure, you have to watch your sodium intake. Stay away from pork because it’s naturally high in salt and it draws a lot of water weight inside of us. If you have high blood pressure, you’re not supposed to be taking or drinking caffeine.
What caffeine does is it causes vasoconstriction of the vessels throughout the body and that just makes it hard for the blood to flow through. It also can increase the heart rate as well which elevates the blood pressure. If you like fried foods, use your air fryer. Stop using the flour. If you do want to do fried foods, then don’t use vegetable oil. Use your olive oil, sunflower oil, and your healthier oils. Stop using those options that will raise the cholesterol.
