Food for Thought
I recently attended the South Carolina Chiropractic Convention for some continuing education classes. It consists of 4 days of different speakers that give talks on chiropractic topics from insurance issues to chronic inflammation. I noticed that this year a lot of the speakers I listened to discussed chronic inflammation and pain. It is always nice to have a tune up on this information but I found it interesting that this year they talked a lot more about food and how it has a HUGE impact on increasing the inflammation and pain throughout the body. Most people don’t realize what we are consuming can do to us. Think of this, that donut you ate this morning, any nutritional value? How about the 6 sugars you just dumped in your coffee? The potato chips you snacked on before lunch? You were too busy so you ran out to grab some pizza for lunch. Have you taken a drink of water yet today? (Ice tea is NOT water y’all) You get home late and throw on some spaghetti with sauce because it is quick and easy to fix. Now let’s wrap our heads around this. Any lean meats in this meal today? How about a vegetable or even a piece of fruit? Water intake? Seems silly right? Well in case you didn’t know everything you just ate that day increased inflammation in your body-whether it be your joints, your gut, your muscles, your heart, and your brain. This is a really good read from Dr. Mercola in more detail explaining exactly what I am saying and is worth the read----
Don’t believe me? Well then, I recommend trying this-do a food diary for a solid week and write down EVERYTHING you eat or drink. With everything you consume, put how you feel afterwards. Are you sleepy, feeling more discomfort in the lower back region, did a headache just come on out of nowhere? Go back through at the end of the day and see what you consumed and how it made you feel.
I am by no means perfect when it comes to eating but I do my very best to stick to a healthy, non-inflammatory diet. I have cheat days where I will eat pizza or ice cream as well, but I keep them in moderation. I will tell you when I do this, I can tell a big difference with how I feel throughout my entire body (bloating is by far the WORST of them all). I stay healthy by choice, I was not blessed with a perfect body but I am blessed with the knowledge and ability to make the right choices to keep my body as healthy as I can. I think a lot of my patients think that I just wake up and eat everything I want and don’t exercise. If I ate like crap for 5 days straight I would gain 8-10 lbs, easily. If I stopped working out completely I would gain even more weight, lose muscle tone, and feel like absolute garbage. I may be little but I work very hard at it and consider it a part of my job as a chiropractor to be as healthy as I tell my patients to be!
If you want more information on diet or even a nutritional consult, don’t hesitate to call the office and set something up.
To your health,
Dr. Katie