Seattle Chiropractor | Seattle chiropractic care | WA | So What Should I Eat?

“Alright, so what exactly should I eat"?  I cannot even begin to tell you how often I am asked about diet and nutrition. Ask anyone who has ever been into any book/video store or numerous online sites. They will tell you that there are no lack of experts telling you what to eat, how to eat and when to eat. Frankly, it can sometimes be quite overwhelming. There is probably no one perfect way to achieve optimum health; but, it is very obvious that many of us are not doing something correctly, as evidenced by the health and obesity crisis/epidemic sweeping the U.S. and other industrialized/civilized countries. There is no one size fits all formula, but I promise you if you follow a few of my suggestions, you will be the better for it.  O.K., enough preamble, let’s get to it.

Many in my practice have heard me make the statement,” that if the caveman wasn't eating it”, then you probably shouldn't be either.  Luckily, what to eat doesn't have to be too difficult to learn.

It means that we want to eat Whole/Real Food- Grass fed/Free range meat, Wild caught fish, Pasture raised/cage free eggs, LOTS OF ORGANIC VEGETABLES, some organic fruit, raw nuts and seeds and plenty of good fats.  Unfortunately, our grocery stores are full of products that have evolved into what is now the Standard American Diet (SAD for short) and the very things that   we should not be eating. Such as what you may ask? Ok, here we go:

·         Do not eat processed foods of any kind. These are prepackaged foods usually found in a box, bag, or freezer section for your microwave or conventional oven.  This is not real food and as for all the chemicals, preservatives, rancid fats, artificial colorings and flavorings, High fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil and genetically modified organisms in these products, if you can't pronounce the names in the ingredient list, don't eat it. Avoid canned foods when possible. The cans are all lined with Bisphenol-A (Yes even the organic ones unless otherwise specified) and really no progress for government regulation of removing this chemical from canned foods in the foreseeable future.

·         Do not consume sugar. Let me repeat that last sentence, DO NOT EAT SUGAR! This goes for both real and artificial(Sweet n Low, Equal, Splenda)  Remember that sugar/High fructose corn syrup gets put into everything and one must become an adept label reader when buying prepackaged food products. Even though a better choice, try to somewhat limit even raw organic honey and organic maple syrup (Don't go near Agave). Better yet, try to buy real/whole foods that don't require an ingredient list. 

·         Eliminate or vastly reduce the amount of grains in your diet. There are a myriad of reasons to eliminate grains from your diet and this subject alone is worthy of its own article, which I will get to work on as soon as I finish this one.  Obviously two of the biggest grain offenders are wheat and corn, and trust me, just like sugar, these two are added to every-thing. Once again read your labels. Refined and enriched/processed grains are worse offenders. If you must eat grains, they should be organic whole grains that are soaked, fermented or in sprouted form. You don't have to believe me, test it for yourself.  Give them up for a month or two and see how your body reacts to life without them.

·         Do not eat or drink pasteurized/homogenized dairy. Here again this is another subject worthy of its own article. Pasteurization is a process where milk is heated to a high enough temperature to kill off harmful bacteria (and actually in commercially/industrial raised cow farms this is quite common and a necessity due to unsanitary living environment, living conditions and unnatural diets). These lots are called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's for short).  This pasteurization renders the milk a shadow of its former self. It denatures the protein, destroys the good bacteria and enzymes and makes the natural vitamins and calcium all but useless because the body is now unable to even absorb them. The homogenization process breaks up the fat components of milk into smaller molecules and does so by overly processing the milk. These fat molecules are now damaged and foreign to the body and promote inflammation; and more likely to turn rancid in the body. This inflammation affects the arteries throughout the body, and especially the heart. Homogenization allows the fats then to not separate in the milk and thus leads to a longer shelf life (pasteurization also allows for a longer shelf life). It's all about the money, not health.

·         Eliminate or at least reduce the white baked potatoes. Very carbohydrate dense and can turn to sugar very quickly in the body. 

·         Eliminate or at least reduce the white baked potatoes. Very carbohydrate dense and can turn to sugar very quickly in the body. 

·         Eliminate or vastly reduce the amount of legumes in the diet. Beans, Peas, Peanuts (yes sorry that goes for peanut butter as well) and all forms of Soy(some forms of fermented soy allowed - atto, miso, tempeh) Another topic that is worthy of its own separate article.  For a myriad of reasons avoid soy and especially soy milk. When you do choose to partake, make sure that you soak the legumes for at least 24 hours before cooking and consuming. Also, try to purchase only organic dry legumes. Do not buy canned.

Ok, so what's left for me to eat?  Once again, let’s go over it.

·         Real meat (Wild Game, 100% grass fed, range free, Organic) Wild caught fish, Pasture raised/free range Organic chickens and eggs.

·         Lots of organic vegetables (lightly steamed, raw, juiced).  This does not include corn, peas or white potatoes. Load up on things you know to be good like broccoli, greens of all kinds, cauliflower, asparagus, brussel sprouts...I think you see where I am going with this.  Google Cruciferous vegetables. Those with inflammatory/autoimmune conditions want to be wary of nightshade vegetables, as they will aggravate this condition (white potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers).   If you do not have this condition, then eat all but the white potatoes.

·         Some organic Fruit. One should try for a ratio of 70-75% vegetables to 25-30% fruit in the diet. Unfortunately today's fruit is not your great grandfather's fruit. It has been bred to have a lot more sugar than in the same amount of fruit as yesteryear. Eat whole fruits (not dried fruits or fruit juice). Dried fruits can be used in trail mix but only eat in small quantities, very sugar dense. Berries of all sorts are usually a great choice. I do not wish to get down on fruit but too much can be a lot of extra sugar in the body. Those who are overweight and already experiencing some obvious blood sugar/insulin resistance problems should definitely go easy on fruit and go more vegetables.  Remember in general, Fruit was mostly a summer seasonal food for most climates.

·         Raw nuts and seeds.  Almonds, Walnuts, pecans, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, hemp (no peanuts or dried/roasted soybeans). Almond butter is a healthier choice for your nut butter. Unfortunately, with peanuts ‘you are darned if you do and darned if you don't’. The problem is that conventionally raised peanuts are highly sprayed to keep aflotoxin from growing on them, so no toxin per say, but lot of pesticides and chemicals. The organic peanuts have not been sprayed but now you will potentially be eating the mold from the aflotoxin and that is also not a good thing. Yeah, I hear you. I agree it's a real bummer; I was raised on peanut butter, but made the switch. You can also try Sunflower Sun butter or Pecan butter. See which suits you best. As always read labels for hidden sugar and trans fats/added oils. Nuts can be made even easier to digest by soaking them in water for 6-8 hours and then putting them in a dehydrator at low heat until dry and crispy.

·         Drink real pure water. Unfortunately that no longer is the definition of municipal/city tap water. The Tap water is full of chemicals, prescription drugs and industrial waste. Some of the worse toxins in our water are added by cities and municipalities, such as chlorine and fluoride, both of which are known to be toxic to the body (once again another topic worthy of it's on write up). Fluoride is a known thyroid depressor and used to be used to treat hyper active thyroids.  Your best choices are a reverse osmosis filter for your home; a good source to buy purified water (which also has removed the fluoride and chlorine) or a good source of pure, clean spring water. 

·         Get sources of good fats in your diet. Olive oil, Coconut oil, Animal fat (Lard, Tallow), Eggs, Cod liver oil, nuts and seeds, the skin on the chicken you bake, Organic pasture raised butter.  The body does much better with good dietary sources of fat, then the Standard American Diet (SAD for short) of high amounts of sugar, carbohydrates, bad fats and relatively little in the way of good/essential fats. We have been following this model for fifty years and it really seems to be working (NOT!). I will not even go into all of the ways this country is falling apart physically. OK what are the bad fats: trans fats, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, margarines, Crisco, highly processed and often rancid polyunsaturated oils (Corn, Canola, Safflower and Soybean).

·         Sweet potatoes are a good substitute for white potatoes, when eaten somewhat in moderation.

·         Raw milk dairy from pasture raised/grass fed cows, Organic raw milk cheese, raw milk kefir. A couple of exceptions are some pasteurized whipping cream (not ultra pasteurized or homogenized) and organic/grass fed butter (best choices are Organic Valley Pasture raised butter, Kerrygold butter). Obviously, if you can ever find the cream or butter in raw form great, it's just a little harder to do.

Now let’s discuss the problems with non organic, or as it is commonly known, conventionally/commercially grown produce/food. All conventionally grown produce is heavily sprayed with pesticides and loaded with petro-chemical fertilizers. These chemicals run off into the soil and actually some are even injected into the ground itself. So when you get these conventional fruits and vegetables, it is no longer a simple matter of just washing the produce before you eat it.  Now these chemicals have become ingrained in the foods themselves. Not to mention, what happens to all these chemicals when they run off into the ground water?  The conventional crops are planted over and over, year after year in the same fields, which is a practice known as mono-cropping. This is the very reason the strong petro-chemical fertilizers are needed in the first place, due to this overplanting and depletion of the soil.  This practice vastly depletes the soil of its mineral content and other vital nutrients, which leaves a much less nutritionally dense product.  Also Organic products by law cannot contain Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's for short).

How about industrially/conventionally (remember CAFO's or Concentrate Animal Feeding Operations) raised Animals? These animals are packed together in huge feed lots under very unsanitary/inhumane conditions eating very unnatural diets. These animals are often given various drugs (antibiotics, hormones) and fed a grain diet of corn and soy (which by the way are now a couple of the most prevalent genetically modified crops out there). Here are some ratios that might make you think; 85% of corn, 93% soybeans, 76% of Canola crops, and 76% Cottonseed are all genetically modified.  (That means you will be affected by any product in which any of these ingredients are found or anything that eats these products and then you ingest, i.e. meat and milk).  Which brings me back to an earlier point on grains; grains are used by the CAFO's to put weight on livestock quickly. Imagine what they do to us when we eat grains (esp. note the put the weight on quickly part), or eat animals that have been raised on grains. These animals are not healthy, the meat is not near as nutritious, plus is often toxic (which can then be passed on to us).

Now to commercially processed foods(remember, things in a box, a bag, freezer section, fast foods, processed meats...), these things are so full of preservatives, synthetic chemicals, food colorings and so forth, they cannot even be considered food. You want to perform a cool experiment? Go buy a Meal at your nearest fast food place and, as is, simply set it aside somewhere/anywhere.  Then check in on it in about 6 weeks, 6 months, 1 year. It will look almost exactly the same as the day you bought it. Wait we are on a roll here. Want to have some more fun? Then Google the ingredients of a famous local company's chicken nuggets. What should be chicken and a little breading, instead has almost 40 ingredients of which 46% of the nugget is corn. Remember this is not just fast food we are talking about but all processed foods including your local grocer’s freezers and shelves.  Do you really want this going into your body?

I think you now get my reasoning on why I often say that, all in all, if the caveman did not have access to it, then you should not be eating it either. So let’s start cutting the calorie dense/nutritionally deficient, inflammatory, insulin spiking foods from our diet. Let’s get back to real foods and begin to let your body detox, heal and recover from the effect the non foods you have been eating may have caused. You can begin this life changing journey piece meal, feet first or slowly work your way into it. Better yet, make the jump for 30-45 days and see how much better you will feel and look. Either way, give yourself and your body a chance and the time to see how much improved it can be from its current condition. The effects it will have on your day to day life and long term health will be astounding. The decision is ultimately up to you. Good luck and yes you can do it! 

The only person who is going to fix you is you!