A diet will never make you healthy, stop dieting and start eating for health and for your body!
How many diets have you tried or read about? How well did you do on your diet? Did you lose weight and at what expense to your body? Through the years how many diets have you heard about? The promoters of these diets give all the reasons on why you need to do it and how healthy it is for you, only to learn that it was a complete disaster for your health.
The low-fat diet comes to mind when I think about a diet that has completely destroyed people’s health. Changing from natural butter to artificial margarine, avoiding eggs, avocados and nuts is NUTS! Fat was demonized and you were told “fat makes you fat,” which is so far from the truth. This is just one example of a diet disaster but the list of terrible diets is limitless.
Why are we less healthy and why did we stop eating for health? LIFESTYLE!
Our lifestyle is killing us as it creates a long list of illnesses and conditions. It causes cardiovascular disease, hormone imbalances, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune conditions, chronic inflammation, sleep issues and the list goes on and on.
How have things changed over the years?
Think of the way your grandparents grew up eating, the way your parents eat, the way you grew up eating and compare the differences. There have been so many changes over the last 50 years. Fast food before the 1980’s was a rare thing and eating at home was the norm. When you went to work or school you packed a lunch. Eating out late nights was never an option. Meals were cooked at home with fresh nutritional foods. The portion size was smaller because your body was able to get the nutrients needed to feel full. Today, we are OVERFED and UNDERNOURISHED with highly proceed foods that hold little nutritional value and high calories. To make matters worse we are doing it multiple times a day and late at night. Eating out for breakfast, lunch, dinner and then a midnight snack at a 24-hour fast-food restaurant was unheard of 50 years ago but sadly it’s all too common today.
So how do we break this cycle?
By changing our lifestyle with a healthy mindset. We need to learn how to eat foods high in nutrition with our health in mind. We need to get back to century long basics that our body knows and understands in order to fight illnesses and avoid chronic sicknesses.
How do we start to change our lifestyle and improve our health?
Here at Alta Mountain Chiropractic, we will first determine what your body is screaming out for. Those are your health concerns. Your symptoms are the body’s way of calling you to action and telling you to change your behavior. Are you fatigued and can’t get moving in the morning? That’s possibly a hormone imbalance. Are you in constant pain that won’t go away with any type of treatments? You are very likely chronically inflamed. Do you feel terrible after eating? It’s very likely you have a digestion issue.
Once we determine your symptoms then Dr. Nathan Eldredge will advise which tests would be best to determine the root cause of your symptoms. This is frequently done through lab testing. Fatigue for example, is an important symptom that requires lab testing. Fatigue can include a list of issues such as hormone imbalance, anemia, poor immune system, cardiovascular issues, thyroid dysfunction and the list goes on. Lab work helps us to pinpoint the root cause.
After symptoms and lab work is completed then Dr. Nathan Eldredge will put together a very in-depth analysis of your lab findings that you’ll review together. The report is upward of 80-100 pages and will take about an hour to review. After that hour consultation, you will have a good idea of how your body is functioning and where you need improvement with a change in lifestyle. At this time Dr. Eldredge will recommend simple step-by step lifestyle changes and therapies along with a nutritional food plan designed specifically for you.
What is a nutritional food plan?
A nutritional food plan will address the needs that your body is craving. They are designed to rebalance hormones, put out chronic inflammation, address cardiovascular issues, treat the thyroid, support healthy weight loss, and a number of other things based on your specific needs.
How does a nutritional food plan work?
Once your nutritional food plan has been selected based on your blood work. We will schedule a call with a registered dietitian who will assess your current eating habits. Your dietitian will discuss the program with you and give you helpful hints on how to best achieve maximal benefit with the program.
What do I get with the nutritional food plan?
The most important thing that you get from the nutritional food plan is, one on one training on how to change your lifestyle to create a health centered eating plan with no dieting. This is done by simple meal plans (30 minutes or less) for everyday of the month that includes simple recipes (7 food items or less). In conjunction with grocery lists, weekly calls with a health coach and unlimited chat messaging with a nutritional coach through the Nutrevo body app. In addition you will have access to a number of very important health tracking tools through the app such as; tracking your symptoms, hydration, stool, fitness activity, body composition, weight and a nutritional report.
How do nutritional food plans help me with my condition?
Nutritional food plans help by giving your body support where it’s needed the most. Let’s take a poor immune system for example. To improve a poor immune system there are a number of things that need to be addressed. Inflammation needs to be slowed and controlled. This is the pain generator that makes people feel achy, stiff and sore but even worse, is that inflammation leads to a number of other serious illnesses or immune related conditions. Other things that need to be addressed for the immune system to work properly is gut health and the microbiome environment. Detoxification needs to occur as well as improving the health of the red and white blood cells. Antioxidant levels need to be raised for protection against cell mutations, cellular damage and cell death.
This kind of detail is designed into every nutritional plan based on the most important needs for you.
What if I have a number of conditions that I need to take care of?
This is not an uncommon occurrence, many patients have more than one type of health dysfunction or condition at a time. Some patients may be experiencing two, three or even more different conditions. However, very often they are conditions that are related to each other, Dr. Eldredge calls these “echo” conditions. It’s common to see someone with a blood sugar or weight issue that has a thyroid or testosterone imbalance. The lab tests used helps us determine your primary concern. Often, by resolving one issue the “echo” issue(s) will either greatly lessen or resolve as well. In the case that additional issues don’t resolve, then we can change the nutritional plan to address the secondary concern and so on.
Can I change from one nutritional plan to another?
Yes, in some cases this will be recommended. There are some instances that we will need to create an environment of healing before we put you on your primary plan. For instance, a patient that has digestion issues that may have started from a virus, bacteria or parasite will likely have a taxed and weakened immune system. In this event we would want to first start the Immune nutritional food plan for a period, then transition to the nutritional plan designed to improve gut digestion. All nutritional plans are designed for a 30-day period, so the immune system plan would be a minimum of 30-days before changing to the digestion plan.
How long do I have to be on a plan?
That is solely up to you. This is a tool to promote and teach a lifestyle change. The goal of this program and the treatments that Dr. Nathan Eldredge recommends is to improve your health and lifestyle, so that you can control and manage your health without a long list of supplements and medications. The minimum time for the nutritional plan includes 30 days with no contract and no commitments. Dr. Nathan Eldredge does recommend that you stay with the program for a minimum of 60 days in order to start to see changes take place. If you have had a condition or a nutritional deficiency for years, you cannot balance it in a short period of time. When you feel you have had sufficient change and have learned what you need to live a healthy whole food lifestyle that will continue to improve your health, you are free to cancel the nutritional meal plan. However, many patients that use the nutritional plans will find that the grocery lists, recipes and other helpful tools are so beneficial they may choose to be on it long-term. Again, this is based on your individual needs, like all aspects of this program.
What if I have allergies?
This is not a problem, just let the registered dietitian know what allergies you have on your initial consultation and the nutritional food plan can be altered to suit your needs.
What if I don’t want to do blood work and I just want to lose weight or just want to improve my fitness?
The lab work is not required for this program, you can select a plan that you feel fits your needs best. This may occur more commonly with people that are doing well but are looking to improve their health even further. If you do have symptoms or a condition that is bothering you, then it’s highly recommended to do the lab work so you don’t waste money or time going down the wrong path. Finding the root cause is always most important for an easier and timely recovery.
What nutritional food plans are available?
There are a number of plans available based on your specific needs.
- Blood sugar
- Digestion
- Fatigue/Energy
- Heart Health
- Hormone imbalance
- Immune
- Pain (Inflammation, Headaches, Arthritis, Nerve, etc.)
- Thyroid
- Weight loss
- Fitness Performance
- Mood
- Skin
If you have any other questions or concerns that we didn’t cover, please feel free to call our office and ask about or Nutritional food plans and clinical nutrition program at (801) 523-2582.
