If you have ever seen my daughter scouring the shelves in a grocery store intensely reading ingredient labels, don't let the interest fool you....... she's most likely searching for the least healthy food made that doesn't have something in it from my forbidden list, because according to her I make her eat completely abnormal. When I share this story with people the first question they ask is what is a forbidden food list?
It is my own list of things I refuse to purchase from a grocery store. I realize that when we eat out we will be exposed to these products our society refers to as food, but for the health of anyone eating in my household I do not purchase these foods. I refuse to support the companies who make these products by purchasing them. In my opinion if our country really wanted health care reform these items would be eliminated from our food supply.
The next thing people always want to know is what is on your 'forbidden food list'? I could do an entire blog on each item on my list but in effort to keep this simple I'll just give you the list:
*msg (this includes autolyzed or hydrolyzed anything, as well as 'spices' since companies commonly sneak msg into their foods using these terms)
*hydrogenated fat (this includes partially hydrogenated fats)
*aspartame, sucralose, or any artificial sugar
*high fructose corn syrup
*any artificial food colorings or dyes (ie. Red 40)
I could make a much longer list but just ask my daughter..... it is very difficult to find really unhealthy things that don't contain at least one of these items. Of course I prefer organic foods for many reasons but do not have non-organic on my forbidden list.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
What is this pH, alkaline, acid thing everyone talks about?
Back in basic chemistry classes I learned pH was all about whether something was acid, neutral, or alkaline based on whether it was positively or negatively charged (how many hydrogen molecules were attached). Then all the sudden in chiropractic school people were talking about how our body's pH affects our health without ever connecting the dots for me. I wondered what does pH have to do with our health? I am pretty sure based on the answers I got, that very few people ever connected the dots.
Basically I was told that the healthier a person is, the more neutral their pH is. I thought "OK that makes sense, but what causes a person's pH to shift and how do you know what your pH is?" That's when I was told I could use pH test strips to test my saliva and urine to see how close to neutral my pH was. When I did this, my pH ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other. When I asked why I was told my results were not possible, that I had to be doing something wrong. So I tried again and again with the same results. Nobody could explain this, nobody could connect the dots for me. I concluded the entire pH theory was useless.
Then a few weeks ago, I had one of those 'ah ha' moments. Positive and negative charges are what cause things change in pH (become acid or alkaline). The positive and negative charges we consume through water, food and our environment are minerals and toxic chemicals. Therefore when we are exposed to toxins in many ways like by eating foods with extra hydrogen attached (hydrogenated), our body will become more acid or alkaline. Minerals (ions, hydrogen, water) become out of balance in specific patterns with specific disease processes. This is how in my last blog I explained that a person can be dehydrated even when they drink enough water.
If you are mineral deficient (dehydrated), your pH will become acidic. A low pH (acidic) is unhealthy and is referred to as acidosis. If you continue to become more and more acidic due to a poor diet or mineral imbalances your body will start to pull minerals from your bones (eventually causing osteoporosis) to balance your pH, which can lead to alkalosis. Eventually acidosis or alkalosis causes digestive issues leading to malabsorbtion of nutrients which can result in any number of health issues which then results in greater mineral imbalances leading to a vicous cycle that becomes more difficult to break the longer it is present. If you test your pH and it is swinging back and forth like mine was, your body is most likely trying to find a balance in this manner.
Surely a nuteral pH is the healthiest, but since there are so many things that can shift a person's pH that I find checking a saliva pH with lithmus paper interesting but hardly diagnostic. If you are a practioner reading this who does believe this type of testing to be diagnostic, I would love to hear from you.
Basically I was told that the healthier a person is, the more neutral their pH is. I thought "OK that makes sense, but what causes a person's pH to shift and how do you know what your pH is?" That's when I was told I could use pH test strips to test my saliva and urine to see how close to neutral my pH was. When I did this, my pH ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other. When I asked why I was told my results were not possible, that I had to be doing something wrong. So I tried again and again with the same results. Nobody could explain this, nobody could connect the dots for me. I concluded the entire pH theory was useless.
Then a few weeks ago, I had one of those 'ah ha' moments. Positive and negative charges are what cause things change in pH (become acid or alkaline). The positive and negative charges we consume through water, food and our environment are minerals and toxic chemicals. Therefore when we are exposed to toxins in many ways like by eating foods with extra hydrogen attached (hydrogenated), our body will become more acid or alkaline. Minerals (ions, hydrogen, water) become out of balance in specific patterns with specific disease processes. This is how in my last blog I explained that a person can be dehydrated even when they drink enough water.
If you are mineral deficient (dehydrated), your pH will become acidic. A low pH (acidic) is unhealthy and is referred to as acidosis. If you continue to become more and more acidic due to a poor diet or mineral imbalances your body will start to pull minerals from your bones (eventually causing osteoporosis) to balance your pH, which can lead to alkalosis. Eventually acidosis or alkalosis causes digestive issues leading to malabsorbtion of nutrients which can result in any number of health issues which then results in greater mineral imbalances leading to a vicous cycle that becomes more difficult to break the longer it is present. If you test your pH and it is swinging back and forth like mine was, your body is most likely trying to find a balance in this manner.
Surely a nuteral pH is the healthiest, but since there are so many things that can shift a person's pH that I find checking a saliva pH with lithmus paper interesting but hardly diagnostic. If you are a practioner reading this who does believe this type of testing to be diagnostic, I would love to hear from you.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Do you need electrolytes?
Electrolytes are minerals. And when you start researching nutrition and minerals you are likely to come accross an array of conflicting information. Some articles will talk about toxicity caused by minerals and the next article will tell you about the diseases caused by mineral deficiencies. The marathon runner who passes out at the end of the race because of dehydration caused by mineral depletion, knows for sure that minerals are essential.
Minerals help hold water in our bodies. That's why people who have edema are told not to eat salt (probably the most common mineral in our diets today). I have many patients who drink the recommended half their weight in ounces everyday who show signs of dehydration with muscle cramping, constipation, decreased skin elasticity, and in their functional bloodwork analysis. Obviously their body is unable to hold onto the water they are consuming - simply a mineral imbalance.
There are long, expensive metal and mineral hair, blood, or urinalysis studies you can order that will tell you if you have too much or too little of certain minerals compared to the averages (which seem to vary a lot from lab to lab). I used to run these expensive panels on patients because certain deficiency/ toxicity patterns are consistent with certain disease processes. However I have come to realize that (with the exception of overconsuming isolated minerals like with salt, supplements, sodas and processed foods) it is not the mineral imbalance that causes the disease but the disease that causes the mineral imbalance. So I rarely run these panels anymore because I think if you heal the body, the mineral imbalance will correct itself.
Almost everyone has some level of adrenal stress, which causes mineral imbalances because your adrenals make mineralcorticoids which help to balance your minerals. When the adrenals are overused (stressed) for a long period of time you can develop thyroid or any number of other hormone imbalances. The best way to improve adrenal function is NOT to eat or eliminate minerals that show up deficient or excessive on some lab, but to eliminate processed sugar, develop healthy sleep patterns, decrease emotional stress levels, and have a regular aerobic exercise routine.
In the case of taking mineral supplements, taking too much of any mineral like iron or calcium can cause toxicity and health problems because it can create a mineral imbalance. The reason for this is that your body is designed to eat food, not dirt. When minerals are consumed in a natural food source, nature naturally balances the ratios for you. Consuming sodas and many processed foods will cause increased levels of phosphorous in your blood which causes your body to leech the calcium out of your bones to maintain a proper calcium/phosphorous balance. Therefore osteoporosis isn't necessarily caused by not consuming enough calcium.
It is rare that I recommend an isolated mineral, and if I do it is only for a temporary treatment of a specific condition. There are many whole food supplements like Juice Plus that work well for general nutrition and mineral supplementation. However if you are suffering with symptoms like muscle cramping I would suggest one of the several targeted whole food mineral supplements from Standard Process. Unless you are running a marathon, or sweating profusely on a regular basis it is unlikely you need to supplement with electrolyte drinks. However if you do I would suggest avoiding any drinks that contain chemicals that harm your body like aspartame, sucralose, and food colorings (such as most Gatorade and Powerade drinks).
Minerals help hold water in our bodies. That's why people who have edema are told not to eat salt (probably the most common mineral in our diets today). I have many patients who drink the recommended half their weight in ounces everyday who show signs of dehydration with muscle cramping, constipation, decreased skin elasticity, and in their functional bloodwork analysis. Obviously their body is unable to hold onto the water they are consuming - simply a mineral imbalance.
There are long, expensive metal and mineral hair, blood, or urinalysis studies you can order that will tell you if you have too much or too little of certain minerals compared to the averages (which seem to vary a lot from lab to lab). I used to run these expensive panels on patients because certain deficiency/ toxicity patterns are consistent with certain disease processes. However I have come to realize that (with the exception of overconsuming isolated minerals like with salt, supplements, sodas and processed foods) it is not the mineral imbalance that causes the disease but the disease that causes the mineral imbalance. So I rarely run these panels anymore because I think if you heal the body, the mineral imbalance will correct itself.
Almost everyone has some level of adrenal stress, which causes mineral imbalances because your adrenals make mineralcorticoids which help to balance your minerals. When the adrenals are overused (stressed) for a long period of time you can develop thyroid or any number of other hormone imbalances. The best way to improve adrenal function is NOT to eat or eliminate minerals that show up deficient or excessive on some lab, but to eliminate processed sugar, develop healthy sleep patterns, decrease emotional stress levels, and have a regular aerobic exercise routine.
In the case of taking mineral supplements, taking too much of any mineral like iron or calcium can cause toxicity and health problems because it can create a mineral imbalance. The reason for this is that your body is designed to eat food, not dirt. When minerals are consumed in a natural food source, nature naturally balances the ratios for you. Consuming sodas and many processed foods will cause increased levels of phosphorous in your blood which causes your body to leech the calcium out of your bones to maintain a proper calcium/phosphorous balance. Therefore osteoporosis isn't necessarily caused by not consuming enough calcium.
It is rare that I recommend an isolated mineral, and if I do it is only for a temporary treatment of a specific condition. There are many whole food supplements like Juice Plus that work well for general nutrition and mineral supplementation. However if you are suffering with symptoms like muscle cramping I would suggest one of the several targeted whole food mineral supplements from Standard Process. Unless you are running a marathon, or sweating profusely on a regular basis it is unlikely you need to supplement with electrolyte drinks. However if you do I would suggest avoiding any drinks that contain chemicals that harm your body like aspartame, sucralose, and food colorings (such as most Gatorade and Powerade drinks).
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