GI sensitivity and your Spine

We’ve all had our moments of over eating, let’s be honest.  Sometimes we do it intentionally, other times we are just so hungry we want to scarf down everything insight.  I’m going to share the epiphany I had during my most current “Cheat Day”. Everyone knows what a cheat day is.  You’ve been making good decisions towards your health so consistently for so long, you’re going to “treat yo-self” to the indulgences you rarely afford when your diet is on point.

I’d been eating a pretty strict diet for almost 6 months at that point and figured I deserved a day to eat the stuff that would typically be my kryptonite.   After the gluttony transpired I found myself:

In a hot sweat,

breathing very shallow, and

still feeling absurdly hungry.

Even worse was the sleep(or lack there of) I had the same night.  It felt like there was no room in my abdominal cavity for anything to move or expand.  It occurred to me then what was really happening.  My body was rejecting the garbage-quality food I ingested and was still seeking proper nutrition, which was why I was still so hungry even after that big meal.   We’ve all heard the gluten sensitivity and lactose intolerant buzz words that have been thrown around, but now I was getting a chance to clearly feel their effects.  There are a number of additional ways the components of these foods can cause cellular breakdown, but we will focus strictly on the cascade of physical, mechanical breakdowns that can happen with a reaction to these foods.

Essentially, when I, or people who are also sensitive to these foods or any other food/chemical compound, ingest the foods that don’t work well with my digestive system I get bloated.

Our gut is basically one really long tube.  Different parts of the tube(small intestine, large intestine, duodenum, colon) that all have different specific responsibilities, but all in all, are part of the tube.    When we eat things that “upset our stomach” what’s really happening is we are creating these air/gas bubbles or pockets that not only slow down the movement of whats in the tube(food:nutrients) but also causes the tube to expand.  With enough air bubbles in the tube, movement of the food inside the tube is dramatically slowed down making me feel…constipated!  The expansion of the tube restricts proper absorption of nutrients because the wall of the tube has very small holes to let good stuff in.  It’s a lot like mesh fabric, when its relaxed, the spaces between are nice and open, allowing nutrients to pass through the wall.  When that mesh is pulled tight or stretched, the openings become MUCH smaller.

That’s what’s happening on a cellular level when we get bloated, gassy, inflamed(whatever you want to call it).  Unfortunately, its effects start to restrict other physiological mechanisms in the body, breathing being the main one we’ll focus on.  There are a few different way to take in a breath.  I like to think of it as two different ways: Belly(diaphragmatic) breathing or Barrel Chested breathing.

To most successfully take a full deep breath using your diaphragm, inhale primarily through the nose and sink the diaphragm towards your feet.  This will cause your lower abdomen to fill with air as well as depress the shoulders.  Your diaphragm is a muscle that also serves as a wall for your internal organs.

For barrel chested breathing, we are typically breathing in through our mouths, primarily, and our chest cavity expands.  This also causes our shoulders to shrug and elevate towards our ears.

When you are feeling bloated or overly stuffed, the tendency is to become more barrel chested of a breather.  When that tube is fully expanded it’s really difficult and uncomfortable to breathe through the diaphragm because the diaphragm will push against the already increased pressure tube(full tummy) in order to create space for the breathe to come in.  When you are bloated/full your body looks for the most comfortable way to take in a breathe and breathing with the chest becomes the outlet.

The problem is that when we want to digest and sleep we ideally want to breathe through our diaphragm.  Taking a deep diaphragm breathe through your nose stimulates the part of your nervous system that is responsible for “wine and dine” actions called your parasympathetic nervous system. When your parasympathetic system is active it helps aid digestion and SLEEP.  The added benefits on digestion when you breathe through you diaphragm is increased muscle contraction around the gut.  This aids a mechanism called peristalsis, which is when the tiny muscles of the gut tube slowly contract to move the inner fillings(food) along the path.

When we breathe through our mouth it physiologically puts our body in an amped up state ready to attack or act.  What it also does is inhibits blood from going to the digestive tract and instead allows more blood into your muscle tissue.   This is typically very useful when we are doing high intensity workouts or training.  It helps us get a lot of oxygen to our system but does so at a cost of using extra energy.  Breathing through your diaphragm is a lot less work on the body, from an energy expenditure perspective, because you don’t have to engage nearly as many muscles in order to accomplish the full breathe.

So, getting bloated not only slows down nutrient absorption but it also can stimulate barrel chested breathing, leaving our bodies more SYMPATHETICALLY driven, making it even harder to breathe, sleep and digest.    But the dysfunction doesn’t stop there.  When we take a diaphragmatic breathe we also allow proper pumping of Cerebral Spinal Fluid(CSF) via proper, unison motion of the tailbone(sacrum) and skull.   CSF is the “blood” of the nervous system.  It helps nutrients get to the brain and other parts of the spinal column as well as move wastes out of the area for proper removal.

Conversely, barrel chested breathing disrupts that natural CSF pumping motion created by the spine.  When joints of the body stop moving properly they cause joints to compensate by moving more than they were made to.  This, overtime, is what leads to arthritis and other signs of dysfunction.  A principled chiropractor aims at re-establishing proper joint motion in the spine to restore nervous system function.  If this example sounds like you or someone you know, you can bet your bottom dollar there are areas in their spine that are no longer moving/functioning well which impedes on the brain’s ability to signal and adequately heal the body.

Something to keep in mind is that I felt these negative effects more intensely after giving my body a chance to cleanse.  I was working with a pretty clean slate.  How drastically would I react if i consistently ate these foods? I would feel a more consistent, subtle effect that, chances are, I’d get used to and never think twice about the daily headaches or chronic joint pain that they are causing.

Long story short- Eat your organic meats, veggies and fruits.  The cleaner you eat the higher your body can function on all levels.  Every 7 years or so, every cell of the 50 trillion in our body is regenerated except for the cells of the nervous system.  Therefore, you are indeed what you eat so don’t be cheap and you only get one nervous system, TAKE CARE OF IT!

Dr. Asad is a chiropractor and functional movement specialist in Walnut Creek and Concord, CA.  For additional info, FHSchiro.com.

 

 

Shin Splints – The solution

It’s always frustrating to feel like you missed an opportunity.  One of these instances in my life was when i was playing high school football.  The weird thing about it was that i never realized it was a missed opportunity until i grew older.  The opportunity or potential that i missed was due to severe lower leg pain on the front side of my legs other wise known as shin splints.  Shin splints can often be a chronic nagging injury for most and the biggest problem is that most people don’t get the proper rehab and care to resolve the problem.

Any activity that involves running at any pace can result in the pulling and strain of the muscles of the shin.  The reason for this is mainly thought to be because of tight calves.  Which is true and i agree with, in part.  The calf muscles(on the back of the lower legs) are used primarily during the “step off” part of our run or walk, meaning they are the muscles that help point your toes towards the ground, help you lift off when you jump, or even when you push-off the pedal of your bicycle.  We can typically get a good stretch to those muscles by dorsiflexing(bringing the top of the foot towards the leg).

But why does it hurt at the front of the legs if the calves are the issue?

The answer to that is simple.  Every muscle has what is called its antagonist muscle or another muscle that opposes its movement. I.e. the Triceps straighten the arm and they’re antagonist, the Biceps, bend the arm.  The antagonist to the calves are the shin muscles(anterior tibialis mm, peroneal mm).    The problem is that most people have severely underdeveloped shin muscles.  In order for the muscle to properly oppose its antagonist, its gotta be able to keep up with it!  The calves become much stronger than the shin muscles, constantly forcing the shin muscles into over working beyond their limits.  This leads to muscle spasms in the shin muscles causing all sorts of pain, especially when you walk, run or jump.

When i went to the school’s physical therapist, they gave me shin muscle strengthening exercises, an appropriate remedy to the help balance the muscle tension, the only issue: The muscles i was trying to strengthen were already overactive and worn out!! You cannot build overactive muscles into strong muscles without first rehabilitating the muscle.  When a muscle spasms it creates stagnant blood flow in the muscle.  Blood flow is crucial to normal body function because it is what sends nutrients to areas of our body as well as removes wastes from those same areas.  Just as if you were re-building a house, the blood flow would represent bringing the lumber and other supplies in as well as disposing the used/old supplies.

Before we strengthen we must first reset the muscle’s function.  How do we do this?  We start first and foremost with restoring proper nerve impulse to the muscles and cardiovascular system through chiropractic care.  The nervous system is the master controller of the body including, but not limited to, the musculo-skeletal and cardiovascular system .   Then we retrain the muscles using compressive therapies such as foam rolling techniques, myofascial and trigger point release.  After we accomplished normal flow to the muscles we strengthen the appropriate muscles to achieve true balance and tension within the lower legs as well as the rest of the body.  If that imbalance is being caused by improper running form (true for most people suffering from shin splints) then…GET COACHED!! Yes, there is a LOT of technique associated with running and if you’re putting all your weight on your heels then you will engage some muscles(calves/anterior tibialis) more than others.   Also, you will be putting up to 3x your body weight worth of stress on your heels.

Using this protocol, you will RESOLVE the problem and feel long-lasting results allowing you to be more concerned with progressing your skills as opposed to frantically “dealing with pain”.  If you are in the East San Francisco Bay area and would like more info, visit us at http://www.functionalhealthspecialists.com or give us a call at 925-289-8011.

Move Better, Feel Better, Live Life!!

Inflammation, pH Balance, and Cancer

We now are finding out that people with chronic problems- from Fibromyalgia to heart disease – all have one thing in common.  Their body’s environment is in an acidic state.  What does that actually mean?

For those of us who are unfamiliar with the pH scale, it stands for potential hydrogen.  Hydrogen itself is considered an acidic ion, based on its charge.  The more hydrogen in the system the more acidic the environment.  The pH scale runs from 1-14, with the 1 being most acidic and the 14 being the most basic or alkaline.  A pH of 7 is neutral.  Our blood should normally be around a pH of 7.3.

A lot of processed foods, whether they be natural or unnatural, cause our body to dive into an acidic state.  Why you ask? because they contain toxins the human body cannot handle.  Let’s define what I mean by toxin: A substance, synthetic or natural, that is foreign to the human body’s evolutionary system and cannot be properly digested or disposed of.  So yea that includes tar and the other 598 chemicals found in cigarettes, but it also includes:

• Pesticides used on conventionally grown vegetables and fruits
• Any medication that is not a direct form of natural herbs (ibuprofen, aspirin, lipitor etc)
• Mercury found in amalgam fillings and fish
• Aluminum in cookware, sodas, toothpaste, deodorant, canned foods etc.
• Environment pollutants in the air we breathe i.e. exhaust, smoke, fumes, plastics, industrial chemicals etc.
• Water – chemicals, synthetic fluoride, chlorine, polluted lakes, rivers, streams, often bottled water absorbs toxins from the plastic bottle itself!Most bottled water is ACIDIC!!
• Food – herbicides, pesticides, food additives, preservatives, hydrologized vegetable protein (aka msg, vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil,) etc.
• Pesticides and fertilizers we use at home
• any foods you can be allergic too-Dairy, gluten, etc.

YES, toxins are all around us.  These substances are difficult to impossible for our bodies to digest or process.  What typically happens is they put stress on the liver (the organ responsible for your body’s detoxification) then the liver will typically store those toxins into our FAT CELLS!  This is the reason, if you have ever tried losing fat, you start to bloat and feel even worse at the beginning of a new diet or exercise regimen.  When you start to take those fat cells and burn them as energy, you release those toxins back into the system which then leads to inflammation.

We know inflammation to be the reason our ankles swell when we sprain them and this is very helpful for us because it stops us from further injury as well as letting us know there is a problem that needs to be addressed.  But inflammation can be affecting the rest of your system as well, it’s just a lot harder to recognize it when it’s in your gut or the vessels of your heart(until of course, it’s too late).  Inflammation is the key factor, we now know, in the underlying reason for heart disease!!  Not cholesterol or natural fat you get in your diet!  Our bodies need fat and cholesterol!  Cholesterol is the base for every hormone in your body, without proper hormone regulation you can suffer from any and every ailment known to man!  Hormones dictate the way we sleep, the way we eat, the way we regulate our blood pressure, the way we build muscle and so much more.   Cholesterol and fats are absolutely essential to a human’s well-being.

The interesting fact is that most other countries don’t have a lot of these same issues because of one main principle-they keep things natural!  From the way they raise their food, the air they breath, and the purity of the water they drink.  We eat so much processed food in the US and UK that our bodies are being bludgeoned with toxins on a consistent basis, which leads to chronic breakdown and chronic disease like diabetes and cancer!  We fail to see that conventionally grown crops or genetically modified crops can all be considered processed!!

Cancer patients and people with other chronic illnesses all have acidic systems.  We much often focus too heavily on the “cure” for cancer instead of the prevention.  Why? because there is a lot more money to be made in finding a cure and much more work in preventing it from happening in the first place.  The higher the pH reading, the more alkaline and oxygen rich the fluid you are testing will be. At a pH of 7.4 cancer cells become dormant and at pH of 8.5 cancer cells die.  So how do we fight cancer?  with proper nutrition, exercise and a fully functioning signaling system in the body.

The Brain is the master controller of the body, every health profession knows this, but i am one of the few health professionals that actually practices with this as the main concept and driving force.  In its essence, cancer is uncontrolled cell growth.  Whether that growth is in one spot(benign) or within the blood(blood runs through all parts of the body, when cancerous cells are in the blood they can travel ANYWHERE, we classify that as Malignant). We have cancerous cells growing in our bodies on a daily basis, all of us!!  Our immune system and signaling system can typically program those bad cells to apoptosis(cell death), thus curing us of cancer.  This is known and is our body’s default mechanism.   When the brain cannot connect to a particular part of the body, it is unable to signal those bad cells to die.  Those cells keep growing and growing until we feel it affect us.  That’s when we go to our MD and are taken by surprise when we learn we have CANCER.   So what changed?  What did we do wrong to allow those cells to keep growing?  What did we not do to allow those cells to keep growing?

Like any other monster, cancer needs the appropriate environment to live in – an acidic one where its enemy(our immune system) is unaware of the lurking danger.  We can change the acidic environment with our diet.  We can improve the signaling by making sure the brain and rest of the nervous system is communication full force, 100%, on all levels.

The diet part can be fixed with the help of someone educated in Metabolic Typing, my guru, Nathan Brammeier(nathan@crossfitadventure.com), is awesome.  For someone near your neck of the woods, contact us and we will help you find someone.

The signaling part is what i SPECIALIZE in! I make sure your nervous system is 100% in tact and free of any block or interference to allow your body to connect the signal from Brain to Body and Body to Brain.  Just like any other bodily system, it’s a two-way street.  I perform a non invasive procedure to allow your Brain to communicate to the rest of your body so you can function at 100% and tackle anything that comes your way.

For more on how call or contact us at 925-289-8011 or http://www.functionalhealthspecialists.com.

My Food Journey

I’ve had trouble controlling my weight for a long time, especially recently with the transition from being a full time student for 20+ years to opening my own practice.  So stress is certainly a constant factor.  In addition to the stress of running a business i have dealt with depression since i was a child.  I have also been pre-diabetic for some time now.  I have been able to manage those variables by modifying multiple areas of my life.  I will elaborate on one of those facets today.

The BIGGEST key was and is my diet.  When I say diet I mean the way I habitually eat, not something I do for a month or a few weeks.  No master cleanses or any other cleanses either.  The biggest change in my diet was the almost elimination of sugars.  Sugar is now known to be highly addictive (see the attached on sugar’s effects above pages 2&3, do you see something on there that you are suffering or dealing with?).  We never learn enough about nutrition growing up so it’s not our fault we don’t know a lot of this info.  These 3 pages worth of info are a great way to start.  After implementing these points I found that I didn’t have to exercise tirelessly to keep weight off.   I also didn’t have to work nearly as hard to build muscle.

Until a few years ago I NEVER ate breakfast and pick the excuse- no time in the morning, not hungry in the morning, almost nauseous in the morning.  Then I learned that the brain uses glucose (sugar) as its main food source.  When we get hungry our brains know which foods will give us the fastest source of glucose to allow for proper brain function (you remember the brain, that lump of fat in our heads that runs every single bodily function, kinda important).  This made a ton of sense as to why when I got REALLY hungry I wanted and desperately craved a Kit Kat or cinnabun instead of a nice steak.   Our hunger and satiety or feeling of being full is all run by our…you guessed it – HORMONAL SYSTEM.  Yes this system is more than sex and “that time of the month”.  Our hormonal system dictates the way our body functions, from how we sleep to how we break down foods to how we regulate our body temperature and soooooo much more!

In today’s world we get hung up on nomenclature and labeling.  Diabetes, anxiety, depression to name a few are now used as diagnoses when in fact they are symptoms.  Symptoms are signs that your body gives you to say “HEY!! Something’s not working right!! Fix it!” I will take it a step further and say that gaining weight is a symptom.  Not being able to put on weight is a symptom.  They are both signs that our bodies aren’t functioning the way they can and SHOULD.

Epigenetics has recently been a hot topic that emerged in 2010.   Epigenetics is the study of how genes can be turned off and on via environmental triggers.   So when people say “oh, well my mom had ______ so I will end up having _______ too.”  Epigenetics says “ahhh, not so much.”  We can’t directly turn genes on/off (at least not yet, or not that the general public knows of) but we can make healthy choices and be aware of the toxins in our environment (Pharmaceuticals, synthetic fluoride in our water supplies, pollutants in the air we breathe, food that has been grown in soil littered with waste like birth control and pesticides).    These toxins put stress on our liver (the organ of the body that filters the crap we put in) and are one of the main reasons our bodies are so INFLAMED.   So the next time I thot “oh well my whole family has diabetes I will have diabetes too” I quickly checked myself and realized that I will go down that route only if I did what they did, ate what they ate.

For the last 8 years i haven’t taken any medications beyond the occasional ibuprofen or benadryl, and when i do its once in a blue moon.  The side effects and byproducts that our bodies are forced to deal with when we litter our system with medications is an area that is typically overlooked by most of the medical community.  Look for our “Pharmaceuticals” post in a week or so.  One point to keep in mind is that if pharmaceuticals made people healthy then it would hold true that the healthiest person in our society is the one on the most meds.  Think of the healthiest person you know and ask them how many medications they are on…NONE!

Inflammation is the number one cause of any chronic illness.  We typically know of inflammation as the reason we swell up if we sprain our ankle.  Well, inflammation can effect every part of the body- the gut(preventing proper absorption), our blood vessels, our lungs to name a few.  We now have world renowned heart surgeons (http://www.nutrientrich.com/1/heart-surgeon-speaks-out-on-what-really-causes-heart-disease-almost.html) that are speaking up and saying that heart disease is not due to cholesterol or fat.  It’s due to inflammation of the arteries that supplies the heart with blood.

We already said the brain is made of fat, how can fat be bad for our body?  And cholesterol? That’s the basic element of any hormone, which we established are essential for proper bodily function.

“So what can cause inflammation??”

It would be easier to talk about what DOESN’T cause inflammation.  In today’s world we have so many inflammatory agents like the toxins we spoke of earlier as well as genetically modified foods like corn and wheat.  Wheat used to be a very healthy grain until the 1950’s when a Norman Borlaug(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug) discovered how to modify the genes of the wheat plant in order to make it more resilient.  At first this was a great concept because we could grow it easier, he even won the Nobel Peace Prize for discovering this.   The downside was something we wouldn’t learn until years down the line because it wasn’t the direct effect this newly modified substance has on our system within the first year or two.  It took years to see the long term effect.  A great reason to be hesitant of these new crazes in food and pharmaceuticals, we don’t know right away what effect it will have on us 20+ years down the line.

A statistic that always blew my mind was that approx. 97% of the average American’s carbon atoms (they make up all of our cells) are corn derivatives!! That is because corn is in every processed food we eat and yes that includes genetically modified fruits and vegetables.  Cows, chickens and other animals we raise for food consumption are fed corn instead of what they have evolved from eating, grass.  Why? Because corn grows faster than grass.  The good news is that we literally regenerate ourselves.  Every 35 days our skin regenerates every cell, every month or so your liver regenerates every single cell and every 7 years we regenerate every cell in our body, except for the brain and central nervous system.  So we literally are what we eat.  It is up to US to decide what we become.

So much how we eat and what we crave is decided by psychological connections to particular foods.  This is important because over-eating can be a symptom of emotional hunger.  Emotional hunger is when you feel a sudden craving that is specific (rocky road ice cream and Carls Jr are mine).  You tend to eat more than you normally would and feel guilty as hell after.  The opposite would be Physical Hunger which typically comes in gradually and is easy to put off.  With physical hunger most foods will satisfy the urge, you will stop when you are full(not when you FEEL full), and you feel good about yourself after.

With this new information in mind, the idea that I have read before on Gary Taubes’ “good Calories, Bad calories” and the information that my good friends Nathan Brammeier and Dr. Marc Papantonio have been giving me for years started to really click.  The information they gave me is what I will give you now.  This has been the most crucial part to my well-being.  It’s the fundamental concept of circulating your diet around proteins and fats, instead of the typical food model given to us in grade school that emphasized grains and dairy.

If you think of it simply, the human body is made of water, fiber, protein and fat.  Why not consistently give it what it’s made of?   So that’s what I’ve been doing.  I no longer crave sugars the way I used to.  When I do crave sugars, I have a slice of lemon.  Lemons are technically a fruit so they have sugar and will give your body that sugar fix, but the great thing is that after having a slice of lemon, you typically kill the urge to eat sugar after.  Works like a charm.

Let’s clarify what I mean by “good fats”-

Avocados, butter, fatty cuts of beef, bacon, coconut, fish, nuts, olive oil.  Butter is great for cooking in high heats (>180⁰F), olive oil is great for fresh food and cooking in low heats (<180⁰ F).

Let’s clarify what I DON’T mean by fats-

Margarine, Trans fats, shortening, canola oil aka Rape Seed oil (it is literally derived from what’s called the “rape seed” a plant found in Canada that is poisonous to animals!!!), vegetable oil, soy oil (soy has been shown to increase estrogen levels in males, estrogen is the “female” hormone), hydrogenated oils.

I will still have alcohol in small amounts once every couple weeks.  I try to stick to tequila because it is derived from the agave plant and has the least amount of processing compared to any other alcohol.  I will also still have a Pepsi once every month or so if I am out at dinner.  The same with chocolate.  I never really liked coffee and caffeinated tea so that wasn’t an issue for me to “let go” of but if you are a caffeine addict i would start by trying to switch to decaf.  The biggest change was NOT BRINGING THEM INTO MY HOME!!!  Don’t keep that crap around me, out of sight out of mind.

To quit cold turkey like that is hard.  But it is the following that allows me to not feel like I DONT NEED sugar.

1.  Eating Breakfast
   1. I precook sausages and kale just in case I don’t have enough time to make breakfast in the morning, I can scarf those down quick and go!
   2. Breakfast doesn’t have to be different from the other meals of the day!! Don’t get caught up in feeling like you have to have certain foods in the morning.  Again circulate every meal around fat and protein.
   3. Pre-cooking my meals
      1. I take 2-3 hours every Sunday and make meals that I can take with me to work as well as having some back up meals for dinner in case I come home and am too lazy to cook!
      2. I enjoy cooking so this is the fun part; people who complain healthy food is boring don’t understand how to use herbs and spices.
   4. I mainly consume organic meats, eggs, and cheese
   5. I try and buy produce grown organically and locally to reduce the pesticide and toxin factor as well as help stimulate the local businesses and farmers.  CSA is a great company that will deliver organic produce and eggs to your DOOR!!  You can also shop for groceries on line now!!
   6. Cook those veggies at a low heat!!! We typically cook 50-90% of the nutritional value of a vegetable OUT of the vegetable due to high heats making it rather worthless to eat in the first place.  This is a great reason why Raw Food diets work so well is because most Americans suffer from Malnutrition and eating raw veggies gives you the highest nutritional value.  Also genetically modified veggies and fruits, although may look perfect have much less nutritional composition to them.
   7. I try to eat a piece of fermented (pickled) food with every meal- Homemade pickles and gardinera are SUPER easy to make.   It will take you 10 minutes to prep a couple months’ worth of fermented foods.  This really helps stimulate the GI tract and digestion.
   8. The carbs I do eat are mainly leafy greens because they have high amounts of protein, fiber, anti-oxidants.  Vs. potatoes which are extremely high in sugar and starch.
   9. IM spoiled!!! I have unbelievable resources at my disposal that I can ask the minutest of questions and will always get a great response.  You can have that too!!!

“It’s hard to find something you aren’t looking for”, now that you are looking for these particular people as your support groups; you WILL find them, guaranteed.  Email us or call and we can help!!  functionalhealthspecialists@gmail.com, 925-289-8011, http://www.functionalhealthspecialists.com

1. What do I mean by sugar?

i.      Complex Carbohydrates

1. Fruits
2. Veggies
3. Beans

ii.      Simple Carbohydrates

1. Any processed food with sugar
   1. ALL pasta, bread, tortillas, chips
   2. Candy
   3. Any Juice (even the 100%), Soda, energy drink, vitamin water, etc.
   4. If it says sugar or High fructose corn syrup on the label, it doesn’t go in my body

Rules of thumb

Ask for nutritional information from people who are qualified to give it!!!  Asking your MD for advice on your diet is like asking your mechanic for relationship advice.  Most MD’s have 2 of their 400+ units in nutrition as opposed to an RD, chiro with advanced training in nutrition.

When buying produce look at the sticker or tag.  If the number on the tag is a four digit number it means its conventionally grown.  A five digit number starting with a “9″ means it is certified organically grown, a five digit number starting with “8″ is a genetically modified fruit or veggie.

If it isn’t found in nature, don’t put it in your body.

Circulate meals around fats and proteins

Cook your own meals!!! At least you know what’s going into it!

If you do buy something processed-if there are more than 5 ingredients it’s probably not good.

Drink Water!!! recommended half ounce for every pound of your body weight.  Drinking water in the morning helps jumpstart your digestive tract.  Also drinking water before a meal will help you digest better as well.  In addition to the nutritional benefits, it is crucial for your spine’s mobility which is directly related to your nervous system function(you remember that fatty brain and the wires that come down from it called the central and peripheral nervous system)  but we’ll talk more about that in our next installment .  I fill my water jugs at Harvest House in Concord, CA.  They have a reverse osmosis filtration system that gets you as clean of water as possible.  Ideally, if you own your residence then the way to go is to install a reverse osmosis system for your whole house’s water supply.  Although it is a bit of an investment at first, its a great payoff over time.  I’ve been drinking reverse osmotic filtered water for the past 6 months now and its amazing how you can really taste the difference from bottled and tap water.

“Good Fat doesn’t make you fat!!”

I am also taking body length pictures of myself and will post them in a month or two.

Supplements-Good, bad, necessary?

The business of supplements had become a HUGE industry.  But are they really effective?They can be.  My stance on supplementation is this:  If you have the right diet for you, supplements are obsolete. Something i have argued with some of my good friends about on end!

Remember when you come down with an illness or symptom, look to the Farm-acy before the Pharmacy

The only caveat is that most people are terrified of cleaning up their diet so the only way to get essential nutrients and minerals is to have supplements that help fulfill those needs.  So into the world of supplements.  A lot like how pharmaceutical companies will infiltrate medical schools to gain relationships with future doctors that can help increase that company’s profits, the same is partially true in my experience with supplement companies and chiropractic.  After all they are a company, and companies have 1 main goal-Make Money!  So there is some bias.

Most supplement companies will publish research on the efficacy and purity of their supplements.  The proverbial pill to swallow here is that most companies will highlight their benefits, there’s an obvious bias there.  So try to find a supplement company with independent research done.  Even in some of those situations, the supplement company and research companies are actually under the same corporate umbrella.  the same concept works for pharmaceutical companies and some agriculture companies as well.

But nonetheless supplements can be a great way for some people to get those needs fulfilled.  Vitamins and minerals are completely essential to the body.  There have been numerous studies that show extremely high doses(100k+ iu’s) of vitamin c, given intravenously, to cure cancerous tumors in human beings!! This is not the same as oral vitamin c supplements, which most of us end up sending down the toilet.  It always struck me odd that my father, who has been a diabetic for 30+ years, would finish “dropping the kids off at the pool” and after the flush i would find a pill, in its complete form, at the bottom of the toilet bowl.  Clearly it was not serving its purpose.  Whats the point in taking a daily vitamin if your body is not absorbing it?  It’s a sign that the gut is not absorbing nutrients properly.  So the problem wasn’t that he didn’t get enough of a particular vitamin or mineral in his diet, but rather his body wasn’t absorbing it properly.  A problem that many of us unknowingly suffer from with one vitamin/mineral or another.

These chronic deficiencies can cause longstanding issues.  On the flip side, having too much of a particular vitamin/mineral can have an equally deleterious effect.  This link is a good start to seeing the connection.  http://itoldyouiwassick.info/2011/03/06/common-causes-of-mystery-symptoms-%E2%80%93-part-3-%E2%80%93-vitamin-and-mineral-deficiencies/

Many vitamins need certain other minerals or components in order to properly digest or absorb.  For instance, vitamins A, D, E and K are all fat soluble vitamins.  If you take these separately or in a multivitamin and you aren’t eating fats, you wont absorb them very well.  Vitamin D is essential for proper calcium absorption, so if you are taking a calcium supplement without vitamin D3, you’re not helping your situation.

Fish oils are a huge craze now as well.  Why? They provide the body with essential fats called Omega 3 fatty acids(FA).  Omega 3′s help promote proper brain function and are anti-inflammatory among other things.  There are also Omega 6 and Omega 9 fatty acids.  Omega 6 FA are typically found in just about every processed food and oil(canola, vegetable, soy, corn etc.).  Omega 6 FA promote inflammatory pathways of the body(see “My food journey” to learn more about the damage caused by inflammation).  The typical ratio found in the average American living in the early 1900′s was anywhere from 1-4:1  omega 6:omega 3.  Nowadays the average American’s ratio is anywhere from 17-24:1 overwhelmingly in favor of the Omega 6 FA.  So how do we change that?  Not only by increasing the omega 3′s, but DECREASING omega 6′s!! Someone with the proper Diet can achieve the 1:1 ratio in today’s world, WITHOUT SUPPLEMENTS!  But for those who can’t, supplements surely help.  The main concept is again to find a pure supplement.  We recommend anywhere from 1-4 grams of combined EPA and DHA-the active ingredients in fish oils, varying on your lifestyle.  Also making sure that the source of the fish oil is from a small fish(mackerel, sardines) because smaller fish consume less toxins than bigger fish(remember the food chain, big fish eat a lot of smaller fish, making them much more toxic.)  To find your ratio of omega 6:omega 3′s and for more information on what supplements are right for YOU contact your local functional medicine specialist.  My specialist is Nathan Brammeier in Concord, CA. Nathan@crossfitadventure.com.

All in all the only way to find out what you’re deficient in is to get tested for it.  The next question is why you are deficient in that particular nutrient?  Is it not in your diet or is your body not absorbing it?  This is how you fix the problem instead of putting a bucket under the leak in the roof, if you catch my drift.