Whole Food Nutrition: You Are What You Eat
It’s clique but, simply put you are only able to do something with whatever raw ingredients you have at hand. For the human body the raw ingredients are the things you eat and drink.
Food Is Fuel!
Food is fuel for everyday life sustaining body processes that we don’t even realize are happening, and also fuel for the energy/strength/stamina to perform. Everyone’s body can benefit from figuring out how to optimally fuel their system, and everyone’s body is different. Let us help you figure out how to optimally fuel your body for your needs. Are you looking to build muscle? Are you looking to lose weight? Looking to gain weight? Do you have a complicated medical history or food sensitivities? Are you looking to live a long healthy pain free life? You can benefit from optimizing your nutrition.
We cannot treating, cure, or diagnose any visceral conditions (diabetes, hashimoto’s, hormonal imbalances), but we can educate you on how your body works and help you understand the raw material your body needs to work optimally and efficiently. The interesting thing is, most of the time, if your body has the tools it needs it will run smoothly with less problems. Symptoms can decrease or go into remission. The solution is getting to the root of the problem, and not just treating the symptoms.
Eating right is an essential part of taking care of your body. But what does eating “right” mean? Eating whole foods is the practice of eating foods with as little processing as possible; think eating a potato instead of a potato chip. Whole foods include nuts, seeds, berries, tubers, legumes, whole grain, quinoa, beans, fruits, and veggies. In Whole Food Nutrition we layer on the idea of eating specifically for your body needs, your specific macro and micro nutrient needs.
For example pregnant or lactating females need more B vitamins than other females or males, but instead of synthetic B vitamins, Whole Food Nutrition is adding food sources to your diet that contain the vitamins you specifically need, or supplementing vitamins that are made from food sources instead of synthetic sources. A specialized area of Whole Food Nutrition that interests is Dr. Ellora and Dr. Joe is drug induced nutrient depletions (DINDs). Sometimes how over the counter (OTC) and prescription medications complete their task can reduce certain nutrients. It is essential that you address what nutrients are reduced by taking medications. Filling these gaps can even help avoid some side effects associated with some medicines. For example women on hormonal birth control are more prone to B vitamin deficiencies and Magnesium deficiencies because of known DINDs with hormonal contraceptive use. DINDs are also caused by over the counter medications like acetaminophen or ibuprofen. There are many medicines that cause DINDs; Dr. Ellora and Dr. Joe can discuss with you what DINDs you may have based on what medications you take. The first line of defense is what food sources are high in these nutrients to fill in the gaps, or whole food supplements
Conditions that improve with optimal nutrition:
- Diabetes
- Hypothyroidism
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Obesity
- Acne
- IBS
- IBD
- PMS
- Fibromyalgia
- and more…
Optimizing your nutritional needs can help decrease your chances of:
- Stroke
- Heart Attack
- COPD
- Kidney disease
- Cancer
- Liver disease
- Dementia
- Alzheimer’s disease
- and more…
If you’re looking to learn more about how nutritional counseling and functional medicine can help you; give us a call at Catalyst Chiropractic and Nutrition at 724-402-1230. If you’re concerned that you may be experiencing a nutrition deficiency we can help you get blood work ordered to see if your body has the optimal levels of various micro/macro nutrients, as well as hormones. If these levels can be altered through diet and lifestyle changes we can help guide you, if your blood work suggests a pharmaceutical intervention is needed we’ll know who to send you too.