diet Archives - Damron Chiropractic & Wellness

Removing Obesity Blinders

July 4, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

One would think it is difficult to eat healthy based on the current obesity statistics. In fact, the increase in caloric intake, based on nutritionally poor choices, plays a significant role in this obesity trend. Granted, lack of exercise adds to the problem, but at its core is diet. What is it about healthy food that makes people choose other unhealthy alternatives? Is it the price of healthy food options? What about accessibility? Taste? Ease of preparation? There are numerous theories as to why eating healthy is not happening, the question is can we change this?

Convenience is key to the world we live in today. We live in a fast paced world and this requires options that help to keep it fast. Meals are on the run, snacks are prepackaged, and sugar reigns. However, does convenience mean sacrificing nutritional content? Do we really know what “man-made” means in terms of ingredients? The reality is that eating healthy foods is just as convenient, it just requires a little planning. It is also just as accessible at the grocery store where you shop. As for taste? Taste is acquired, especially when the senses have been dulled with too much salt and sugar.

Changing your taste pallet requires time, typically 21 days to be exact. Ask anyone who has had to give up salt and sugar in their diet or quit smoking. All of a sudden they can actually taste the food they are eating. They never knew how good strawberries were, a sun-ripened tomato, or even lemon water. Once taste has been restored and that person tries a highly processed food item they just can’t eat it. It’s too salty, too sugary.

Preparing healthy foods is easier than one might think. Yes, it requires a few more steps on our behalf from food prep and storage, but the end result is that your body is getting the nutritionally dense food it need to thrive. If we start to think about what our body really needs, perhaps we will help to change our eating habits. Rather than keeping blinders on to the truth. Eating healthy is easy, healthy foods are accessible, and cost-wise are less. No blinders required.

Improving Senior Health Through Exercise

May 26, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

Trends in obesity rates, especially in older adults, suggest a misconception that it’s too late to get healthy. In fact, more than a third of Americans over 65 are obese. There exists a falsehood that it is normal to lose good health as one ages. Perhaps it is due to the fear of falling or other injury, leading to a more sedentary lifestyle. Aches and pains associated with aging, also contribute to a decrease in activity. Unfortunately, this mindset only exasperates the increase in obesity. The truth is senior do benefit from exercise, no matter what their age.

New research is suggesting that overweight and obese senior citizens who want to lose weight should pursue aerobic exercise, strength training, and a healthy diet. A study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine involved older, obese older adults who scored in the “frail” range on a standard test. This group of 141 individuals were broken into three groups. One group did only aerobic exercise such as walking on a treadmill. Another focused on strength training, and the other on doing both. Lastly, there was also a control group that only attended nutrition classes, but did not diet or exercise.

The study ran for six months, with each non-control group exercising three times per week. At the conclusion of the study, all non-control groups lost weight. In fact, the average weight loss was 19 pounds. The most significant finding, however, was the improvement in frailty scores. Follow up testing involved mobility tasks such as walking up stairs, standing up, and picking up a coin. All three non-control groups improved their scores. The most improved was the combination group of aerobic exercise and strength training at 21%. The other two non-control groups averaged a 14% improvement.

So, what’s the lesson learned here? That it is never too late to get healthy. Older individuals can do more to help themselves live independently as they age. Plus, do it safely, without risk of injury. Age does not matter when it comes to living a healthy life.

Combating Cancer With Food

May 19, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

As of January 2016, more than 15.5 million Americans were cancer survivors. The World Cancer Research Fund estimates that 20% of U.S. cancers are the cause of poor lifestyle choices. These choices led to excess weight, sedentary lifestyle, alcohol over-consumption, and poor eating habits. In other words, many cancers are preventable. In our quest for survival after diagnosis, a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry is thriving with drugs that end up destroying the very body we are trying to save.

We trust that the Western diet will feed us yet also be friendly to our wallet. Food that is convenient, fast, and easy is our expectation today. There is a false belief that if the food is available for purchase it must be okay to eat. Doesn’t our government protect us from things that can harm us?

The reality is that cancer a disease where abnormal cells develop and grow out of control. If left unchecked, it results in death. Chemotherapy, surgery and radiation are the three primary means to destroy cancer. All three have debilitating side effects associated with them. But what more can a person do to either prevent it from happening in the first place, or make sure it never returns? Turns out that there are certain foods that can actually help us do just that.

In 2007, a book was published titled, “Anticancer: A New Way of Life” by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, a two time brain cancer survivor. After his second diagnosis he began his quest to determine how foods can help our body fight cancer. As not only a doctor but a researcher as well, he used science to uncover the truth. A truth that explains why the traditional American diet aids in creating the ideal conditions for disease. How and why stress and sugar fuel cancer. Plus the foods that reduce the risk of developing certain cancers. For example, leafy greens reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer by 75% or green tea reduces the risk of colorectal by 57%. Additionally, the book explains how certain foods affect the body and why we either want to eat them or not.

No one wants to hear the words “you have cancer.” But whether you have or haven’t there are steps you can take to protect yourself and your family with not only the food choices you make but how you life your life each day. Nutrition plays a much larger role in our lives than we think.

Surprise Junk Foods You Didn’t Know Were Junk Foods

April 27, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

You’re finally ready. Finally ready to change your eating habits, join a gym, all to lose weight and get healthy. You start by researching different diets online, looking at supplements, and various nutritional products. In the end, you determine you are going to stay away from junk food, anything highly processed, eat more fruit, vegetables, and lean protein like chicken. You’re thinking, how hard can this be? Staying away from junk food is easy. Or is it?

If we walk through a grocery store we can easily spot junk food – donuts, cakes, chips, pizza, ice cream, and candy. It seems to be everywhere. In fact, we may be unintentionally eating junk food, without even knowing it.

The weight loss industry is worth $60 billion dollars (2016), with a lot of repeat customers. And try as we might to eat as healthy as possible, junk food might still be sneaking into our daily diet. Here are the most common offenders that most people don’t realize are not as nutritious for us as we think:

Peanut Butter – While peanut butter is a good source of protein and low in carbohydrates, it can also contain sugar and salt. Check labels before adding it to your cart to be sure it contains only peanuts.
Yogurt – Many brands are loaded with sugar and artificial colors.
Soy Meat – Soy contains potentially disruptive endocrines that can cause bloating and skin irritation.
Veggie Chips – Similar to potato chips with high sodium and trans fats.
Whole Wheat Bread – Many varieties contain high fructose corn syrup.
Dried Fruit – Producers add sugar and preservatives to the dried fruit to make it more tasty.
Electrolyte Drinks – Most are loaded with artificial colors and sweeteners.
Gluten-free Snacks – Gluten-free does not equal losing weight.
Deli Meats – Stay away from the deli!
Egg Substitutes – This is not a whole food. It is man-made and filled with artificial everything.
Tri-Color Pasta – The vegetable portion is not enough to justify calling it healthy. Tri-color pasta is still loaded with carbohydrates.
Low-Fat Salad Dressing – Just because something is low-fat does not mean it is good for you. Many of these dressings contain sugar, preservatives, artificial colors and salt. It’s easier to make your own dressing from scratch.
Fruit Cocktail – Loads of syrup and sugar. Plus the BPA lining of the cans is dangerous to our health.
Margarine – Is nothing more than fake butter. Not a whole food.
Spinach Tortillas – Same as whole wheat bread and tri-color pasta. Virtually similar to regular tortillas from fiber to carbohydrates.
Couscous – Made from wheat, therefor a form of pasta.
Honey Roasted Nuts – Can you say “sugar coated candy”?
White Rice Sushi – White rice is not as nutritionally dense as the brown rice. Plus, many varieties of sushi contain creamy sauces or fried toppings, both which are not healthy.
Frozen Diet Meals – Check the ingredients. Most contain a lot of salt, sugar, and preservatives.
Granola Bars – Most contain sugar or high fructose corn syrup.

You can make better choices when it comes to losing weight when you know the truth.

Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

January 12, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

According to a 2015 study by The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), nearly 50% of Americans have type 2 diabetes or elevated blood sugar which increases a person’s risk for developing it. Insulin resistance is associated with type 2 diabetes and lack of production with type 1. This resistance is typically the result of three things: genetics, lack of exercise, poor eating habits, and excess weight. Recently, studies are indicating that by incorporating certain lifestyle changes, a person can reverse their diabetes where medications may no longer be necessary.

The average person with type 2 diabetes spends approximately $85,000 over their lifetime treating their disease and its complications. With almost 50% of the U.S. population is affected by type 2 diabetes, the economic burden on our healthcare system is substantial. We have experienced a 41% increase in healthcare costs from 2007 to 2012. However, there now hope that this trend can be reversed.

Taking proactive steps with one’s lifestyle can positively impact the effects of type 2 diabetes. A small clinical trial of 30 individuals in England revealed that a strict liquid diet put nearly half into remission for 6 months. This select group had lived with the disease for up to 23 years! CNN highlighted a New Yorker recently diagnosed with type 2 who chose to bypass medications and “do it himself.” Through diet and exercise, he was able to lose 40 pounds and keep his glucose numbers below the diabetic range for 2 years (at the time the article was published in 2011). Unfortunately, people do not realize the devastating impact type 2 diabetes has on your health. It causes nerve and kidney damage, loss of vision, heart attack and stroke.

Intervening to prevent, delay, or even reverse this debilitating disease requires commitments.

Exercising regularly.
Eating a nutritionally dense diet.
Maintaining a healthy weight for your height.
Getting sufficient sleep each night.
Lowering your daily stress levels.

Remember, you are not a statistic. Never underestimate the power you have to change your destiny!

Avoid the “Perfect Storm” of Disease-Care

January 5, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

In 2000, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg starred in the movie “The Perfect Storm”. It is based on the true story of a commercial fishing vessel lost at sea during a storm. This storm was exceedingly rare due to the combination of adverse weather factors. In the chiropractic world, we see a lot of people who got caught in a perfect storm. Negative and unpredictable factors affect their lives in such a way that their quality of life is significantly diminished. Factors such as:

a sedentary lifestyle
car accident
work related injury
smoking
poor diet
diabetes
obesity
chronic pain

Some factors can be self-made, others can be simply bad luck or hereditary. Either way, these factors can create a perfect storm that equates to illness. At Damron Chiropractic & Wellness our goal is wellness for life. We take a person’s perfect storm and work with them utilizing chiropractic, rehabilitation, massage and nutrition.

We hear a lot about disease care with people suffering from chronic conditions. Rarely is there any press on wellness. Wellness means that a person is feeling good and looking good. In our world, being well means the perfect storm is over and that person can get back to doing what they love with a higher quality of life.

Life can give us lemons, and lots of them. But we do have a choice. We can choose to settle for what life hands us or decide to seek help. This does not mean using a band-aid approach either, as tempting as that might be. Rather, it means finding a resolution once and for all by ignoring disease-care. Disease-care actually cares for the disease and not finding out what is causing it in the first place. The presenting symptoms may appear to be coming from the leg, but it is really nerve interference in the spine. Treating the leg pain with disease-care does not address the nerve interference in the spine. Consequently, the leg pain will return. That is not wellness.

If you suspect a perfect storm in your life there is a solution. Life happens, but wellness does not, unless you decide to seek it out.

Good Health Does Not Equal a Diet

December 29, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

One of the most successful women in the world is Oprah Winfrey. From her early days as a talk show host to a producer and actress later. As her career evolved so did her weight. On the television screen we have seen Oprah’s weight fluctuate between the extremes as she tried different diets. Most recently, this legendary woman has done something we can all learn from. She has let go of the hold food has had on her and instead uses it to nourish and sustain her. But, most importantly, she uses it to connect herself with others.

As we approach the new year and the habitual pull of the need to commit to a resolution, perhaps it’s time to change it up. The top resolution for last year, according to Statistic Brain, was to lose weight. While that may not be surprising, what is is the failure rate. Only 8% of those surveyed who made a resolution succeeded. We learned from Oprah’s visibility that a special diet simply does not work in the long run. While weight loss is initially achieved, it is simply not sustainable. Why? Because life happens.

Even our best intentions cannot stop life from happening. Our schedules change at the last minute, we get sick, sustain an injury, travel for business. Non-sustainable diets reveal themselves because we don’t have what we need when we need it, leaving us to find something else to eat. We cannot live in a vacuum. Oprah teaches us that our relationship with our wellness is an intimate one. Food is an essential piece of our overall health. It is the fuel that sustains us, ideally for the long haul.

However, probably even more important than Oprah’s food message is her new perspective on her own health. Being healthy is not about being skinny. It is not about losing weight for the sake of losing weight. Rather, it is about honoring you. Honoring your uniqueness and not trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Being active, eating a healthy diet, getting sufficient sleep, being joyful, not smoking and drinking in moderation are all important steps in living well. Healthy does not equal skinny. It actually equals a lifestyle.

In this new year, change your perspective on what it means to thrive. Feed your soul, nourish your body. Treat it as the temple it really is. With honor and respect.

Has Obesity Made You a Spectator In Life?

November 8, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

No matter what the season, there is always plenty of sports to watch from the professionals to little league. We love being spectators, too. Unless, of course, our team loses. As a result, we somehow believe that as a spectator we can change the outcome of a game. Cheering intensifies in a close game, rally hats come on when our team is down, and booing erupts in an attempt to change a bad call. Even fights erupt between rival fans over something they are powerless to change.

Ironically, there is a parallel between this spectator phenomenon and our approach to health and wellness. The evidence rests in the most recent health statistics from the American Public Health Association:

29.6% of the population is obese
10% of the population has diabetes
there has been a 4% increase in drug deaths

Almost a third of the U.S. population seems to be sitting on the sidelines with obesity as a spectator. This passive approach to life has a domino affect on our life as obesity leads to other health conditions such as heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, some cancers, and osteoarthritis. However, many cases of obesity are preventable and treatable.

Sitting on the sidelines is like sitting in the passenger seat of a car, because we are simply along for the ride with no control over which direction the car goes, how fast or slow, or its destination. Why would we consciously choose to be a passenger, especially in life? Taking ownership of ourselves means we want a say, that we care about the journey. Having an active role in the game of life elevates our quality of life because we are living on our terms, not limited by external forces. Ironically, these outside forces are something we subject ourselves to voluntarily by:

Eating fast food.
Living a sedentary lifestyle.
Relying on medications to relieve symptoms.
Consuming too many highly processed foods.
Limiting fresh fruit and vegetables in our diet.
Making countless excuses to not exercise regularly.
Not holding ourselves accountable to a healthy weight.

If you are one of the almost 30% who are sitting on the sidelines acting like a spectator to your own life, perhaps it’s time to change that. The first step is deciding to join the game. Commit to yourself.

Do You Have Metabolic Syndrome?

October 14, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

You know there’s a problem when a new syndrome is created because of the society you live in. In other words, a particular lifestyle makes a person more prone to developing a life threatening disease. One such syndrome with this association is metabolic syndrome which is found right here in the U.S.

Living in the Western world offers tremendous advantages from individual freedoms in speech, religion, and race, to opportunities in education, work, and healthcare. However, with these freedoms also comes choices in how we live our life. Modern day conveniences offer countless benefits in terms of time, effort, and cost, but the trade-off can be at the expense of our health. So, what exactly is metabolic syndrome?

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines metabolic syndrome as, “a group of risk factors that raises your risk for heart disease and other health problems, such as diabetes and stroke.” These risk factors can be traits, conditions or habits that increase your chance for developing these diseases. The Western diet and a sedentary lifestyle play a significant role in the development of metabolic syndrome, which requires three risk factors to be diagnosed with it. These risk factors include:

Excess fat in the stomach area.
High levels of triglycerides which is essentially fat in your blood.
Low levels of the good cholesterol (HDL).
High blood pressure.
High blood sugar, especially while fasting.

The good news is that metabolic syndrome is preventable with a commitment to a healthy diet and an active lifestyle. Working with a team of healthcare professionals can help treat this condition effectively, too. Treatment begins with education to fully understand the implications of this disease, then a structured plan to achieve weight loss through diet and exercise. Many times the assistance of a rehabilitation specialist is needed as well. Other steps include re-balancing the gut bacteria by eating probiotics and supplementation.

Have You Settled With Your Health?

January 28, 2016 By Pam Rezai

There’s a great commercial out there from DirecTV, poking fun at people who settle for cable television. While it is quite entertaining and a clever way to market their product, it can also shed some light into other areas of our lives as well. It seems that society at large has decided to settle, or accept, less in life. It starts in our youth where we may settle for less than straight A’s. We may settle and not push ourselves academically in high school and beyond, instead opting for a primed social life. We may continue to settle later in life with jobs that don’t give us purpose, settle with friends who take us for granted, or settle with a less than desirable weight or diet. We simply decide at some point to not put for the effort it takes to have it better. Choices such as these have long-term ramifications to our overall success in life. However, it is never to late to expect more out of yourself. You can decide to never settle in life again, especially with your health.

Making the decision to expect more can change the landscape of your life. Prioritizing your health and wellness by actively choosing to lose weight through diet and exercise has a positive ripple effect with your self-confidence, energy level, self-image, and lifestyle. We may not even realize that we have settled for anything because we are content. However, contentment can sometimes be seen as settling for less than, too.

Take an inventory of your life. Stop and really think about ways you can raise the bar in your own life and expect more from yourself. Not settling can push you out of your comfort zone, but staying where you are can have far greater consequences. Making better health a priority now can give you years of a higher quality of life much later. Pushing yourself to take an active role in overall wellness can change the trajectory of your life in amazing ways. Deep down, you know if you have been settling for less with your health. Maybe it’s time to listen to that small voice and tell it you are ready to begin.

Removing Obesity Blinders

Improving Senior Health Through Exercise

Combating Cancer With Food

Surprise Junk Foods You Didn’t Know Were Junk Foods

Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

Avoid the “Perfect Storm” of Disease-Care

Good Health Does Not Equal a Diet

Has Obesity Made You a Spectator In Life?

Do You Have Metabolic Syndrome?

Have You Settled With Your Health?

Dr. Andrew Damron, Chiropractor

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