A healthy diet and proper nutrition are essential for the body’s overall health and physical wellness. Improper nutrition can lead to the body’s inability to repair muscle, affect muscle density, affect fluid levels in the cells, organ function, and nerve function. Individuals who receive chiropractic treatment regularly tend to experience fewer colds and illnesses, reduced aches and pains, and improved mood overall. There are nutritional options and certain foods individuals are recommended to follow to get the most benefits from the chiropractic treatment. A healthy diet, proper hydration, exercise, and rest can help keep the body on the road to optimal health.

Poor Diet Inflammation

A poor diet and bad eating habits cause the body not to operate efficiently. The body becomes weary and tired, causing it to break down. Those who favor processed foods, sugar, and empty calories that have no nutritional value put their bodies at risk for inflammation. Inflammation can lead to muscle pain, joint pain, and other health conditions. Chronic inflammation over time can lead to:

• DNA damage
• Tissue death
• Internal scarring
• All are linked to the development of several diseases, including cancer.

Physical Wellness Foods

Individuals begin to feel much better and healthier when eating whole foods. It can be hard to make the switch for those that have been eating poorly for years, but once begun, most individuals feel better almost immediately.

Steamed Vegetables

• Eat a variety of tolerable vegetables.
• Steaming improves the utilization/availability of the food substances and reduces the irritating residue in the gut, allowing it to restore itself.
• For anti-inflammation, it is recommended to avoid tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and bell peppers.

Nuts

• Any nut that is tolerable except peanuts, like almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, and walnuts are all recommended.

Legumes

• Any legumes tolerable like split peas, lentils, kidney beans, pinto beans, soybeans, mung beans, garbanzo beans, and adzuki beans.

Grains

• It is recommended to eat one to two cups of cooked grains per day.
• These include millet, basmati or brown rice, quinoa, barley, buckwheat, oatmeal, and amaranth.
• It is recommended not to eat wheat, whole grain, or otherwise.
• No bread, plan meals so that bread is not required, as bread can raise sugar levels and increase an inflammatory marker.

Fish

• Deep-sea fish is preferred that includes salmon, halibut, cod, sardines, tuna, mackerel.
• The fish should be poached, baked, steamed, or broiled.
• No shellfish or swordfish.

Chicken and Turkey

• Eat only white meat and do not eat the skin.
• The chicken should be baked, broiled, or steamed.
• Free-range or organic chicken is preferable.

Fruit

• Raw is best, can be baked at a low temp and made into juice.
• Apples, avocadoes, blueberries, cherries, fresh pineapple, guavas, lemons, limes, oranges, papaya, raspberries, strawberries.

Sweeteners

• One of the essential things that chiropractors recommend is to cut out artificial sweeteners and excess sugar.
• Small amounts of maple syrup, rice syrup, barley syrup, and honey can be used.
• Sugar cravings can be avoided by eating protein with each meal.

Water and Herbal Teas

• Drink 8 to 10 glasses of water every day.
• Drink 2 to 4 cups of herbal tea, sipped slowly in the evening.

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Body Composition

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Antibiotics

Antibiotics are designed to cure bacterial infections by killing invading bacteria. However, antibiotics don’t separate the good bacteria from the bad. As a result, antibiotic therapy of only three to four days can alter gut microbe population and diversity. Studies have shown that children are particularly at risk as reduced gut bacteria diversity has been linked with childhood obesity. For this reason, make sure to follow a physician’s instructions when using antibiotics. Spending time outdoors regularly can help increase the body’s exposure to microbial diversity. Gardening is a great way to get dirty with soil to reacquaint the gut flora and maintain the body’s physical wellness.

References

Fritsche, Kevin L. “The science of fatty acids and inflammation.” Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) vol. 6,3 293S-301S. 15 May. 2015, doi:10.3945/an.114.006940

Kapczuk, Patrycja et al. “Żywność wysokoprzetworzona i jej wpływ na zdrowie dzieci i osób dorosłych” [Highly processed food and its effect on health of children and adults]. Postepy biochemii vol. 66,1 23-29. 23 Mar. 2020, doi:10.18388/pb.2020_309

Ricker, Mari Anoushka, and William Christian Haas. “Anti-Inflammatory Diet in Clinical Practice: A Review.” Nutrition in clinical practice: official publication of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition vol. 32,3 (2017): 318-325. doi:10.1177/0884533617700353

Serafini, Mauro, and Ilaria Peluso. “Functional Foods for Health: The Interrelated Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Role of Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs, Spices and Cocoa in Humans.” Current pharmaceutical design vol. 22,44 (2016): 6701-6715. doi:10.2174/1381612823666161123094235

Wahlqvist, Mark L. “Food structure is critical for optimal health.” Food & function vol. 7,3 (2016): 1245-50. doi:10.1039/c5fo01285f