The Foundation

If you want to get healthy and stay that way, there are some foundational nutritional protocols I recommend. If you're sick, I'd wast no time, but even if you're well, these suggestions can help you feel, um, well-er. Prevention is always easier. The good part--most of these suggestions are inexpensive to implement. Pay now, or pay later, and if you pay later it could be a cost far greater than you can fathom right now when everything seems cool. And I promise you won't start looking like the guy in the picture.

First up--and this won't shock anyone who knows me or any regular reader of this blog--take vitamin D. 5,000 IU a day for your average adult should do the trick. You can always get a blood test to see where your levels are, which I do every 6 months, but don't let the lack of knowledge of your level enable you to put off supplementing.

When in chiro school in Florida, a friend of mine, who was about my height, weight and build, got his levels tested around the same time I tested mine for the first time. He was a big golfer, and I was commonly found in the ocean with my surfboard, so we were both getting a lot of sunshine. The results? His was 19 Ng/Ml of blood, and mine was 38. 40 is the bottom end of optimum. I was taking 2,000 IU a day at the time and was getting what he was getting from the sun. The literature suggests that you can take up to 2,000 per pound of body weight if you feel the funk coming on. Yesterday I woke feeling a bit like Bootsy Collins (very funky), so during the course of the day I consumed approximately 150,000 IU. I woke up today feeling mostly normal.

Take D.

Next up--take some fish oil. You want around a gram of EPA/DHA. Some brands are more concentrated than others, so do the math and make sure you're getting enough. EPA/DHA is anti-inflammatory and neuro protective. It will help lower your triglycerides, too.

Take a deep breath before you read the next sentence: Stop eating grain products. I know, this is the hardest part. For some of you this may mean eating thin crust pizza instead of thick, and for others you may start experimenting with almond flour or other no-grain alternatives. See my previous grains post for details.

And finally--take probiotics. There are approximately 10 trillion bacteria in your colon. This means that there are far more of them in you than there is you in you, if you count up all your cells to compare. The type of bacteria in your gut has been found to influence brain function, systemic inflammation, and general health in a big way. If you get too much of the wrong ratio you can get sick. The literature is starting to suggest that virtually all autoimmune disorders begin in the gut, so it behooves us to make our gut work for us.

This is the foundation. There are other recommendations I'd make for specific conditions. Athletes could use a good anti-oxidant regimen. I take everything listed here, avoid grains like the plague, and take CoQ10 along with the other stuff. Insurance. I haven't been full blown sick enough to miss work since December 20. 2006. It's our wish here at Green Chiropractic that you get equally healthy. And if you have any back or neck pain, we'd love to help you with that as well.

Agave Nectar--A Warning

Just a short post today on one of the latest so called "healthy trends" in the world of  sweeteners. Agave nectar is a very expensive alternative to table sugar and is often called for in recipes for diabetics and others who aspire to a low carb treat on occasion. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not against low carb. Low carb is the way to go for general health. Keeping your insulin levels low is the key to keeping slim and reducing systemic inflammation. Keeping your total carbohydrate intake below 100 grams a day will help you gradually lose weight without trying too hard, and under 50 grams a day will enable you to lose weight effortlessly.

This is the appeal of agave nectar--it's primary sweetener is fructose, which doesn't spike insulin like sucrose (table sugar). The downside is that fructose in high concentrations screws up your liver, which has to process fructose the same way it processes alcohol, except without the buzz.

The Sugar Busters diet is chock full of fructose for that reason. Controlling insulin controls the hormonal push to fat storage, so eating things sweetened with fructose seems to make sense to that end. Of course, these things never work out like we'd like them to, and this is the case with fructose.

You may be thinking, "Hey, isn't fructose found in fruit?" And if you are, you're thinking correctly. Small doses of fructose with the accompanying enzymes found in the fruit are fine. Drinking it by the quart like some people do in diet soda is another thing all together. Diet soda? That doesn't have agave nectar, does it?

No. It has high fructose corn syrup, which is about 55% fructose. Agave nectar is about 90% fructose. So stop using it!

I recommend some good maple syrup as a substitute for baking. The almond flour biscuits we have at Casa De Verde are a fine example of that substitution working perfectly.