New Orleans Chiropractor - Dr Nick Thompson, Good Nutrition for Wellness

It is my goal to educate my patients on the important role nutrition plays in their health. By making small changes in the foods we buy, prepare and eat, we can drastically decrease the amount of systemic inflammation and promote health throughout our body. Obviously with less inflammation, we will have less pain and improved function while potentially healing from injuries in a quicker manner.

What is an anti-inflammatory diet?

"The best way to start looking at the anti-inflammatory diet is from the perspective of fatty acid balance. Research has clearly demonstrated that an imbalance in omega-6 (n-6) and omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids is pro-inflammatory, and a promoter of heart disease; all types of cancer; pain; neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's; and most other degenerative diseases.

Both n-6 and n-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fatty acids. Research suggests that through the ages, man subsisted on a diet that contained a 1:1 ratio of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids. The goal should be to consume a ratio that is less than 4:1; however, today the intake ratios range from 10:1 to 30:1, which promotes inflammation and disease.

In the past several thousand years, the human diet has shifted from a food-foraging, hunter-gatherer approach, which largely involved the consumption of greens; wild game; fruits; roots; etc., to one that heavily emphasizes the consumption of grains. This shift changes the ratio of fatty acids to which our genes and cells are exposed, favoring n-6 fatty acids. This is because corn, grains, seeds and their oils contain only n-6 fatty acids, which are ultimately pro-inflammatory. So an anti-inflammatory diet is basically low in n-6-rich grains, and starches are high in n-3-rich green vegetables and olive oil (for cooking and salad dressings)." Dr. David Seaman

Foods that are considered to increase inflammation:

American cheese, bacon, bologna, bratwurst, brownies, (white) breads - including buns, rolls and bagels, butter, cake, candy, cereals,* cheese (American, cheddar, creamed, gouda, jack, mozzarella, provolone, Swiss) cookies, corn chips, corn syrup, crackers*, cream, croissants, corn chips, Danish, doughnuts, egg rolls, French fries, French toast, (deep) fried foods, fruit juices, granola,* hamburgers, hash browns, honey, hot dogs, ice cream, jam/jelly, margarine, molasses, muffins, noodles,* onion rings, pancakes, pastrami, pepperoni, pie, pickles, pita bread,* pizza, pasta,* popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, puddings, relish, ribs (beef or pork), rice (white), salami, sausage, sherbet, shortening, sodas/soft drinks, syrup, tortillas (flour), tortilla chips, waffles, whipped cream, whole dairy.

*Unless 100% whole grain and high fiber

Foods that are considered to decrease inflammation:

Acai, amaranth, anchovies, apples, apricots, arugula, artichokes, asparagus, avocado, bananas, beans (green beans, black beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, pinto beans, lima beans, soy beans), bean sprouts, beets, berries (blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, goji berries gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries) bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, canola oil, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cherries, cranberries, cucumbers, dairy (nonfat), eggplant, endive, gooseberries, grapes, grapefruit, herring, honeydew, kale, lemons, lentils, mackerel, mango, mangosteen, millet, mushrooms, mustard greens, nectarines, noni, nuts - raw (almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, chestnuts, filberts, hazelnuts, macadamia, pecans, peanuts, walnuts), oats, okra, olive oil, onions, oranges, papaya, parsnips, pears, peas, peaches, peppers (bell and hot), persimmons, pineapple, pomegranate, plums, poultry (no skin), prunes, pumpkin, quinoa, rhubarb,

rutabaga, salmon, sardines, scallions, seeds (flax, poppy, pumpkin, sesame, sunflower), spices (cinnamon, cayenne, garlic, ginger, green tea, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, oregano, rosemary, turmeric), spinach, squash (butternut, crook neck, summer, winter, zucchini), sweet potatoes, tomatoes, trout, tuna (water-packed), turnips, water chestnuts, watermelon, wild game, yams.

Why would we need to take vitamins if food contains the nutrients necessary to build body tissue and keep it healthy?

"Most people are willing to admit that the foundation of health is adequate nutrition. Few people, however, have studied the subject of nutrition sufficiently to recognize the fact that most of our ill health today is directly the result of malnutrition, by which we are actually starving to death among plentiful supplies of supposedly good foods." Dr. Royal Lee

Easily said, our highly processed food typically bought in convenient supermarkets and fast food stops do not contain the nutrient rich building blocks of health that our bodies need. In the past it was more common to cook simple meals at home from produce grown in our own garden or bought locally. Understandably so, we are all not able to grow our own fresh garden produce and we are supplementing with high calorie, preservative spiked, nutrient devoid food.

"We have drifted into this deplorable position of national malnutrition quite inadvertently. It is the result of scientific research with the objective of finding the best ways to create foods that are non-perishable that can be made by mass production methods in central factories, and distributed so cheaply that they can sweep all competition from the market. Then, after there develops a suspicion that these "foods" are inadequate to support life, modern advertising steps in to propagandize the people into believing that there is nothing wrong with them, and that they are products of scientific research intended to afford a food that is the last word in nutritive value, and the confused public is totally unable to arrive at any conclusion of fact, and continues to blindly buy the rubbish that is killing them off years ahead of their time." Dr. Royal Lee

Take a look at the changes in food consumption in America from 1900 to 1980:

Fresh fruit and vegetable consumption decreased from 40% to less than 5%

Butter consumption decreased 75%

Lard consumption decreased 66%

Unprocessed potato and sweet potato consumption decreased 40%

Processed potatoes comprise 33% of all white potatoes consumed, primarily french fries.

Whole grain consumption decreased 50%

Beef consumption increased 75%

Dairy product consumption (other than butter) increased 25%

Cheese consumption increased 400%

Fat and oil consumption increased 150%

Margarine consumption increased 800%

Corn syrup consumption increased 400%

Sugar consumption increased 50% (the average person consumes 150 lbs. of refined white sugar per year)

In addition to our consumption changes, our industrial farming practices have also changed dramatically without benefiting the environment nor our own health.

"The soil must be in good health if the animal is to remain in good health. The same is true of man. Soil science is the foundation of protective medicine, the medicine of tomorrow." Andre Voisin

It was the advent of soil chemistry that set agriculture on its industrial path. Crucial to plant growth are three chemical nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - commonly known as fertilizer. Initially, it was thought that the science of soil fertility was figured out: feed NPK into the soil and get yields of wheat or corn. However, it naturally isn't this simple. Soil is also composed of many other organisms such as humas, bacteria, fungi, phages, earthworms . . . All responsible for providing nutrients, binding the small particles in soil together (so that rainfall remains instead of sweeping away with soil run off) and the decomposition of other organic matter. In addition to not providing necessary substance to the soil, synthetic nitrogen makes the crops/plants more attractive to insects and vulnerable to disease. It is then seen as necessary to turn to chemical pesticides to fix the broken industrial path. As you will read later in

regard to synthetic vitamins, science has reduced a complex system to a few isolated elements/variables.

"Artificial manures lead inevitably to artificial nutrition, artificial animals and finally to artificial men and women" Sir Albert Howard

Recently it has been reported that plants grown in synthetically fertilized soils are less nourishing than ones grown in composted soils; such plants are more vulnerable to disease and insect pests; polycultures(growing more than one plant) are more productive and less prone to disease than monocultures; and civilizations that abuse their soil eventually collapse. We can easily see the symptomatic state of health our soils and fields are in by taking a look at the run-off of the Mississippi River. Nutrients from fertilizers create water-quality problems in the river itself and contribute to an annual oxygen-dificient "dead zone" in the northern Gulf of Mexico, our backyard. The zone this past summer of 2007 grew to 7900 square miles. This can be caused by pollution from farm fertilizer, soil erosion and discharge from sewerage treatment plants, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Excess nutrients can spur the growth of algae, and when the algae die,

their decay consumes oxygen faster than it can be brought down from the surface. As a result, fish, shrimp and crabs can be forced to move or die. This is another example of how or health is directly related to the health or dis-ease of our soil, fields and waterways.

Is there a difference between synthetic and natural vitamins?

"In a laboratory, chemists can duplicate sea water that is chemically identical to natural sea water, but if you put fish in this synthetic water they will die. Obviously, there is a life-supporting difference between natural and synthetic." Jerry Morrison, N.D.

Synthetic vitamins are isolated vitamin fractions manufactured in chemically 'pure' form in high concentrations - "high potency". Natural vitamins are complex and come with other substances in a synergistic nature. If taken apart they cannot operate in their intended organized and functional manner. Whole food supplements contain the total complex family of micro-nutrients (known and unknown) just as they are found in nature. Synthetic vitamins (isolates) lack this wonderfully marvelous supporting family. Anyone qualified in nutrition who uses isolated vitamins/minerals will tell you that giving a single vitamin for long-periods is not recommended as it causes imbalances and deficiencies of other vitamins/minerals. When you combine a single vitamin with a vitamin/mineral complex, the risk of overdose symptoms is reduced. Over 70 university studies have concluded that supplements containing natural food complex nutrients are better than USP isolates.

These studies have concluded that natural food complex nutrients may be better absorbed, utilized, and/or retained than isolated USP vitamins and minerals. In addition, chemically pure vitamins taken in the body have to be recombined, if possible, with the other components missing from the chemically pure vitamins. This could lead to "using up" the bodies reserves of those missing natural factors.

In conclusion: the majority of Americans have very poor diets; processing removes most of the nutrients of the base food; nutrients that are added back in to "fortify" the now depleted product are synthetic fractions of the originals; a certain amount of the whole foods we do eat are also nutrient depleted from being grown on nutrient depleted soils. In addition, eating an anti-inflammatory diet can dramatically decrease pain, improve function and promote health in our bodies for the entirety of our lives.

For more information about New Orleans Chiropractor, Dr. Nick Thompson, email him at drnick@drnickthompson.com or call 861-7167.