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Why Chiropractic Patients Should Avoid Diets

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The statistics are sobering. The typical Canadian diet far exceeds the daily recommended intake levels in calories from sugars and solid fats, sodium, refined grains, and saturated fat. It is also lacking in the recommended amounts of fruits, vegetables, dairy, whole grains, and oils. The result is obesity and experts project that by 2030, in Canada alone, half of all adults will be obese.

That’s when people start dieting – and that is what gets them into trouble.

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4 Nutritional Tips Every Chiropractic Patient Should Follow

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Chiropractic care effectively and naturally treats a multitude of conditions and diseases. The overall premise is to return the body to its natural alignment by removing subluxations, which takes care of the root cause of many problems.

Spinal adjustments, however, aren’t necessarily the Holy Grail for total health. It’s essential for chiropractic patients to also make adjustments in their everyday lives. By doing so, they’ll maximize the effects of their chiropractic treatments, and experience better overall health in general.

Nutrition is one of the biggest factors and plays a large role in a patient’s recovery. The old adage "you are what you eat" is true. Feeding the body with vital vitamins and minerals promotes growth and healing. Filling up on fried, fatty foods does the opposite.

Let’s look at four nutritional tips every chiropractic patient should follow:

Watch your calories

Individuals recovering from spinal or other injuries heal quicker when they avoid carrying excess weight. This is especially true if the injury has sidelined them from normal physical exercise.

Choose lean cuts of meat and fresh fruits and vegetables, and practice portion control. A diet with few excess calories offers the dual benefit of helping you avoid packing on the pounds, and helping you heal faster.

Pay attention to calcium intake

Bones need calcium for strength, so it should be a priority to consume foods that are rich with it. According to healthconsciousness.com, the four most calcium-rich foods are dark leafy greens, low-fat cheese, milk, and yogurt.

If you are visiting a chiropractor for issues or conditions concerning your bones or nerves, he or she may recommend that you introduce these foods into your diet as soon as possible.

Make protein a priority

Muscle injuries are one of the most popular reasons for chiropractic visits. Protein helps build and heal muscle tissue, helping it to renew itself back to a pre-injury state.

If your daily intake of protein is low, it can hinder the healing process and stand in the way of chiropractic visits giving you the maximum results. Fish and lean meats are the foods that offer the highest protein.

Other vegetarian options are tofu, soy beans, eggs, milk, and nuts. Help your muscles rebuild and heal by adding high protein foods into every meal menu.

Stay hydrated

Why do most of us view water drinking with dread? Its not that bad! If you wish to promote healing, it’s imperative to drink enough water every day.

Water provides an entire slew of benefits, from transporting those important nutrients to where they need to be, to flushing harmful toxins out of the body. Aim for eight glasses of water a day, and try to drink it throughout the day.

Getting into this habit will boost overall health, and promote healing of injuries and other medical conditions.

While it’s a smart goal to try to ingest all the nutrients you need through food and drink, supplements are available to bridge the gap. Before beginning a supplement regimen, talk to you chiropractor for recommendations on the type and dosage that will aid and improve your unique situation.

You may also want to download a smartphone app to track your daily intake of calories, calcium, protein and liquid. There are many available, one being My Fitness Pal.

Easy and free to use, this is a powerful tool to keep you on the right nutritional track.

Making the commitment to chiropractic treatment is a big step in the right direction for your overall health and well-being. Incorporate these nutritional tips to your daily routine in order to get the most out of your chiropractic care.

To book an appointment with one of our experienced chiropractors or holistic nutritionist, call 780-455-2112 and we’ll be happy to help you get started

3 Nutritional Tips To Help You Boost Your Immune System

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In today’s fast-paced society, we’re bombarded with various forms of stress that can wreck havoc on our immune systems. Chiropractors are particularly interested in helping their chiropractic patients overcome these stressors in order to maintain a healthy and balanced life. Outside of the chiropractic adjustment, let’s take a look at three nutritional tips that will help chiropractic patients boost their immune system.

Chiropractic patients’ immune systems run their best when subluxations, also know as vertebral misalignments, are corrected. However, a proper diet can’t be ignored. By combining both forces, your immune system is better equipped to ward off many contaminants that try to invade the body through normal day-to-day activity.

Nutritional Tip #1 — Get Your Vitamin D

Vitamin D is known for strengthening bones and teeth by helping the body absorb calcium. People who get too little vitamin D may develop soft, thin, and brittle bones, a condition known as rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.

But did you know that it is also known to offer sufficient protection against a wide range of illnesses and chronic diseases like cancer? In addition, it improve’s the body’s natural response to bacterial infections like tuberculosis and helps to increase the production of antimicrobial peptides which are very important in boosting the immunity.

Since each patient’s health situation is different, ask your chiropractor how much vitamin D you need for optimal health.

Nutritional Tip #2 — Get Your Veggies

In culinary terms, vegetables are edible plants or their parts, intended for cooking or eating raw. You can quickly find what foods are in the vegetable group by visiting ChooseMyPlate.gov.

Vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli and Brussels (all from the brassica family) produce chemicals that are know to inhibit the growth of cancer cells and boost the body’s immune system. One great way to make sure you’re getting all of your vegetables for the day is through juicing. If you’re new to juicing, check out this great resource on juicing vegetables.

Nutritional Tip #3 — Avoid Alcohol

Most chiropractic patients are health-conscious. However, new chiropractic patients may be oblivious to the entire concept since our society is geared more toward sickness care instead of true healthcare. Regardless, maintaining a healthy diet is absolutely essential to maintaining a strong immune system. One way to do this is by avoiding or reducing alcohol consumption.

Why? Because research has proven that alcohol can cause immunodeficiencies that, in return, can make you more susceptible to tuberculosis, bacterial pneumonia and many other communicable diseases.

In addition, the use of alcohol is linked to cancer. Although many people in our society consume it for recreational purposes, it is important to note that alcohol is a drug that can poison your body and deplete you of essentials vitamins and minerals. Therefore, zero alcohol consumption translates into a super strong immune system.

If you need even more convincing, simply visit the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s website to learn more about alcohol facts and statistics.

To discover more nutritional tips that will help you build a stronger immune system, make sure you talk to your chiropractor. If you’ve never been to one, give us a call. We’d love to help guide you toward a more healthy lifestyle through safe and effective chiropractic care!

This article is copyrighted by Blogging Chiros LLC for its Doctor of Chiropractic members and may not be copied or duplicated in any manner including printed or electronic media, regardless of whether for a fee or gratis without the prior written permission of Blogging Chiros, LLC.

Why portion control matters in weight loss

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At the beginning of the year, you may have made weight loss one of your main goals. You probably even went ahead and bought clothes two sizes smaller, to serve as motivation for your weight loss goal.

When it comes to losing weight, managing your dietary habits will likely have the greatest impact. One of the simplest things you can do is practice portion control. It’s been said time and again that weight-loss battles are won in the kitchen.

 Ways To Control Your Portions:

  • Do not skip your meals
    If you ate three meals in a day with a snack in between, you would significantly reduce your chances of overfeeding. Skipping a meal means that you may be more prone to indulge in a large meal to satisfy your hunger. Eating regularly also speeds up your metabolism, and you end up storing less fat. Start your day with a healthy breakfast. Consider a protein shake mixed with vegetables and fruit; or a boiled egg served with mixed vegetables and fruit. For snack time, a handful nuts or trail mix are great options that will allow you to eat your lunch and dinner in controlled quantities.
  • More Protein
    The quality of what you have on your plate makes all the difference. Complexcarbsand protein keep you fuller for longer. If your hunger pains are toned down, you are less likely to eat all the time. Additionally, proteins in your diet help to build muscle which increases your ability to lose those extra pounds. Excellent sources of protein include black beans, lentils, eggs, and lean cuts of meat.
  • Make Use of a Kitchen Scale
    You may be as guilty of trusting your eyes’ judgment as I am. Aren’t we all? While you may believe your eyes know what a half ounce of an ingredient looks like; there is the possibility of being inaccurate. In some cases greatly inaccurate. So it may be best to make use of a kitchen scale. When you weigh your food, you reduce the chances of overestimating the quantity. Now, I know this sounds tedious. Consider the fact that you may not use the scale all the time once you begin to better understand your portions. It’s a just a good place to start.

Weight loss may not be as difficult as we make it out to be. However, it only becomes easy when you become the master of the portion and quality of food that makes it to your plate. When you learn the art of curbing your cravings and eating less food, you gain control of your body.

Weight loss will require efforts in dietary habits, exercise and physical activity as well as removing self-limiting thoughts. At Oliver Chiropractic Wellness Clinic our services are aimed at supporting you in reaching your goals. Book an apointment at [sc name=”tel-ocwc”]