Wellness Diet? I've tried diets before! Diets don't work!

A wellness diet is much more than trying to lose weight. Fad diets do not work, but choosing an eating plan that adds to your overall wellness plan, does. If you have symptoms such as weight gain, food allergies, IBS, low energy, etc.. perhaps your diet is hurting you rather than helping you.

I see a lot of people in my practice that are frustrated with their health, but after analyzing their diet, it seems their eating choices are the biggest part of their problem. The food you choose should give you energy, boost your immunity, give you healthy weight loss, and make you feel great! Think of children. How many times have you watched children play and thought "where do they get their energy?!" They get their energy from food, and so can you.

Lets first cover some basics. You need to first understand what a BMR Basal Metabolic Rate is. Your BMR is how many calories your body burns just to do the basic body functions. You can raise and lower this figure, mostly by increasing or decreasing muscle mass. Most people believe your metabolism slows with age, but thats not really true. If you don't exercise, your muscle mass decreases and therefore your metabolism decrease. This figure is important because if you are eating below your BMR, your body has to get the calories from some where. I know you would like it to "choose" fat stores for this task, and at first it does, but then it turns on the muscle and bone and the body to make up for dietary short comings. The scale will show you lost weight, but you most likely really lost muscle and kept the fat. This is not the goal, and should be avoided.

Many people suffer from a disorder that, until recently, was never even heard of yet, it is reportedly the second most common reason for absenteeism from work. The disorder is called IBS or irritable bowel syndrome. IBS is thought to be a result of "modern living." A combination of stress, refined foods, drugs and chemicals that we ingest. A wellness diet, or more specifically an IBS diet, can help repair the intestines and restore balance.

The same could be said for Celiac disease which is another disorder of the intestines. Sufferers of this disorder can help balance their body with a specific Celiac's Diet. Is it any wonder with all of the processed foods we eat, there are so many intestinal disorders? One that is only recently gaining attention in western medicine circles is called Leaky Gut Syndrome where the irritation of the intestinal walls become inflamed and allow passage of bacteria and food particles into the blood stream.

A danger that reflects the inflammatory nature of our modern food, can also be seen in the rise of food allergies and auto immune disorders such as arthritis. Food Allergy Treatments include avoiding inflammatory foods, and processed foods, as well as detoxifying the body. Many believe the inflammatory nature of our food may also lead to thyroid problems. It is an all too common ailment that I see in clinic. There are things you can do, and foods that you can eat to act as a thyroid helper.

It is difficult to give you a personalized wellness diet plan without performing any diagnostic tests or patient intake. If you would like a personalized wellness diet plan, please click on the one-on-one consultation button to the left. There are, however some basic guidelines to follow to get more from your food, and help your body regain balance.

Try and keep your foods whole. Unprocessed foods tend to have higher nutritional value. Dr Walford, author of "The 120 year Diet Plan" (http://www.walford.com/nutrition.htm) advocates nutritionally dense food choices for longevity and good health. You can only achieve this through whole foods.

Eat more often. Many people eat only 1-2/day. This makes it difficult for your body to maintain a consistent metabolism. Eat 6 times per day if possible, just eat smaller meals. If you are eating unprocessed, whole foods, and eating at least your BMR in calories, you will find out, it can be A LOT of food. Much different, much healthier and much easier to do than a restrictive starvation diet. A wellness diet is not hard to follow and won't leave you feeling starved.

Eat organic as much as possible. You can include "regular" grocery store food as part of your wellness diet, but start adding in organic foods as well. Organic food is more nurturing to the body. There is a difference. Vine ripened tomatoes, according to Paul Pitchford, author of "Healing with Whole Foods," can help with high blood pressure, relieve liver heat (a Chinese medicine term), treat stagnant blood in the body, purify the blood and clean the liver. While a tomato that has been picked green (many are ripened with Ethylene), can be weakening to the kidney adrenal functions.

Stay away from artificial sweeteners such as apartame, and splenda. They are not safe and there is more and more research proving this fact. Splenda is said to be made from sugar, a point proven to be untrue. It is a synthetic compound made with CHLORINE. Check out truthaboutsplenda.com for more information. You may find this site useful for information on aspartame. http://blpublications.com/html/body_aspartame.html If you are concerned about caloric intake of sweeteners, or if you are diabetic, I suggest looking at stevia or agave syrup instead. Both are sweeter than sugar and have a much lower glycemic index than sugar, without adding toxins to your body. Aspartame and Splenda shoudl not be part of any wellness diet plan since they take away from health rather than add to it.

Eat for your life. If you are very active, you need more calories. Maybe a lot more. So adjust for that, and add that to your BMR. If you have a more sedentary lifestyle, meaning less physical activity, then again, adjust for that. More physical activity requires different fuel than a day full of intellectual type stress. Both make demands on the body, but in different ways.

Disorders such as arthritis or gout can be managed with dietary changes. Even if your symptoms are so severe that you need prescription medications, adjusting your lifestyle and dietary intake for these disorders will lessen your need for drugs, and make your treatments more effective as well as give you better quality of life.

If you would like a more personalized program, please contact us. Using a combination of chinese medicine diagnostic tools and western urinalysis, we can create a wellness diet just for you. Just by following some of these basics you will see an increase in energy, and a decrease in inflammation. There are many people who ignored their symptoms or masked their symptoms with drugs, and now they need more than just simple dietary changes to rebalance their body. Although, this can still be beneficial. Do not wait for your symptoms to get worse. Whether is weight gain, allergies, or an auto immune disorder, your body is trying to tell you an adjustment is needed. Your body is like a 2 yr old child. If you ignore it, it will get your attention by kicking and screaming until you can no longer ignore it. Its much easier to adjust than to correct. Getting and using a wellness diet is easier than you may think, and requires very little sacrifice.