Are you Allergic to your Food?

Having an allergy to food is not uncommon. There are many people who know they can’t eat peanuts or shellfish because of the massive reaction they have afterwards. But, could you be allergic to dairy or maybe just reactive? What about red peppers, corn, soy, gluten? There are tons of foods out there that people can be allergic to, or at least reactive to, but they may never realize this. Why? Because the reactions are small, can result from a cumulative effect (so little is fine, but it adds up), these items are hidden in foods so we can’t always correlate a reaction with a specific food, or because we don’t realize we’re having a reaction. For instance, acne can be an allergic reaction to corn or gluten, your IBS like symptoms that are off and on and never predictable could be a reaction to gluten or dairy, or the headache you always seem to have could be an allergy to soy. These are just some examples, but I think you get the idea.

Another problem with food allergies is that blood tests are extremely unreliable. Again, you may not even be allergic but just reactive/sensitive to a substance which would not show up on blood work. So, how do you know if you are allergic to a food item, and how do you know which item? Answer: with an elimination diet.  If this is something you want to do, I suggest talking to your health care professional, but in general this is how they work: for 30 days you eliminate all possible allergenic foods (like gluten, soy, corn, and dairy) and during this time support your GI system (through probiotics, increased fiber, and some other herbal remedies). Then once the 30 days is up you have ‘splurge’ meals. That is you pick a food item like diary and then you have a dairy heavy meal. You then wait about 2 hours and see how you feel. If you feel fine then you are not allergic to dairy, otherwise dairy may be a substance you are allergic/reactive to. You do this with each allergic food making sure to only add one food back at time.  So, if you are having problems with low energy, headaches, GI issues, or acne doing an elimination diet may be a great tool to see if the problem is something you are eating.  

What does eating healthy even mean?

Do you eat healthy? It seems like a simple questions right? The problem is what is healthy for me may not be healthy for you. So what is healthy then? The answer it typically based on your past experience with food (what you ate growing up and your cultural heritage) and any health concerns you might have.  If you grew up eating McDonalds and other fast-food every night for dinner, you might consider homemade chicken and rice (without any veggies) a healthy choice. But if you grew up in a house that typically ate that, you might consider a salad with grilled chicken a health choice. If you grew up in an Italian household eating pasta with veggies might seem like a healthy choice, but not if you have problems with gluten.  When it comes to a healthy diet, like most things in life it’s all relative. With that being said here are some general advice on what makes a healthy diet (for those without dietary restrictions).

1.       Don’t forget the vegetables! Many people look at their diet and say… It doesn’t have a lot of fat, it’s not fried, it’s high in protein, there’s not butter, ect but forget to ask the most important question… where are the vegetables and other foods that are packed full of nutrients. It’s not enough to not eat ‘bad’ foods; you have to make sure you eat ‘good’ foods that are high in nutrients.

2.       Make sure to eat enough protein. For whatever reason women tend to not get enough protein in their diet. Protein is an essential part of giving the body the energy it needs on a daily basis.

3.       Minimize simple carbs like white bread, high fructose corn syrup, and sugar. In moderation these things are fine (again depending on your health concerns this may not be true), but a lot of American do not realize how high their diet are in these items and the negative health consequences they can have.

4.       Snacking is a good thing. It’s true, eating many small meals throughout the day is one of the best ways to create a high metabolism.

Acne… it’s not just for kids anymore

I was a really lucky teenager, I may have had the occasional blemish but overall I never really had acne. That is until I started my Chiropractic internship and then opened my own business.  Here I thought once I passed my teenage years this would be a problem of the past, FALSE! So, I started to look into all the different causes of acne… and there are several.  This is why it can be really hard to treat acne, you have to first determine the cause.  For those who have acne here are a couple of the causes with some suggestions on how to help. 

1. Oily skin – the best way to treat this type of acne is by keeping it clean, which means always washing your face in the morning and night. Also, there are several oil absorbing products that can help throughout the day, such as oil absorbing sheets and oil absorbing powders.
2. Inflammation – watching your diet will help the most, during outbreaks you’ll want to limit the amount of simple sugars and simple carbs you eat since they will make the outbreak worse. Also, anti-inflammatories like fish-oils could be helpful.
3. Hormones – the best way to help this type of acne is by helping right your hormones. For this you should talk to your health care professional.
4. Stress – that’s right stress. During stressful periods you can get acne breakouts on your face or your back. The best was to treat this type of acne is by finding ways to relax and get out of your own head. Suggestions… yoga, meditation, watching 30 minutes of mindless/funny tv, and singing out loud to music during your commute.

In general, not matter what the cause of your acne you should make sure to have a good cleanser to remove dirt and oil, be careful of heavy moisturizers that can make acne worse, and make sure your cleanser doesn’t strip your skin or it will change the pH and cause more oil to be produced.  Also using primer can help make-up stay longer.

Fitness Motivation

If you’re anything like me, one of the hardest parts about staying healthy is that I am easily distracted away from working out. This is not because I don’t like to go for a run or do yoga, quite the opposite. After working out I feel great! So what is my, and most peoples’, reason for not working out…. We’re lazy. 

Let’s all take a minute and be honest with ourselves, we can have the best intension but at the end of a long work day the desire to just relax becomes very tempting.  You might find yourself searching your mind for reason’s to not go for a run or hit the gym.  Reasons like… I didn’t eat that much for lunch it’s probably best to not workout if I haven’t eat enough, I ate too much for lunch and my stomach isn’t feeling right, I’ve had a long day and I’m just tried, tomorrow is definitely a better day, I don’t have enough time, ect. 

So, how can you motivate yourself to work out? Here are some tips that might help.

1.       Stop making excuses.  Every time you find yourself trying to come up with a reason to not go to the gym, replace it with a reason you should go to the gym. For instance replace “I can go tomorrow” with “I didn’t go yesterday” or “tomorrow I can relax, today I workout”.

2.       Get a workout buddy. Most people know of this one, it’s a classic, but make sure your workout buddy is someone who regularly works out. If not, then you will just help each other find excuses why not to work out.

3.       Schedule it in your calendar. Pick a date and time and schedule it like any other appointment, write it down or put it in your phone. This will increase your chances of working out.

4.       Find your inner motivation. Why are you going to the gym? To lose weight? To be healthy? To increase your endurance? Whatever your ‘true’ motivation is for working out you need to find it and remember it. This way working out is not about something you have to do, but rather something that you want to do to get you where you want to be. Write your ‘why’ down and put it somewhere you can see it every day as a reminder.

5.       Change up your activities. If you always do the same 3 or 4 things it can get really boring. Try coming up with various type of workouts, different paths to run on, ect to keep yourself interested and entertained. You can even try creating cards with different types of work outs and ‘pull one’ randomly and that is what you do for the day.

Stay Healthy While Everyone Else is Sick!

There is a horrible feeling of dread when it seems like everyone around you is getting sick. Whether it’s your spouse, half of your co-works or that random person in the elevator who keeps coughing; suddenly you start seeing sick people everywhere. So with the world around you succumbing to ‘that cold’ how do you avoid its tyranny?  

The obvious and easy answer is to have a good healthy immune system; the hard answer is how you get a good healthy immune system.  There is no one thing (or combination of things) that works for everyone.  With that being said, here are some general tips and tricks I have found that keep me healthy.

1.       Eat right – this is one of those general statements for being healthy, but making sure that your body gets all the nutrients it needs is an important part of having a healthy immune system. Specifically make sure to get enough magnesium, Vitamin B, and Vitamin D (ok you don’t eat Vitamin D, you get it from the sun but it’s still an important part of your immune system).

2.       Treat your gastrointestinal system well.  90% of our immune system lives in our GI tract.

3.       Reduce stress- those who are constantly feeling the effects of stress are much more likely to get sick. This is just one of the reasons it’s important to find an outlet to release your daily stress.

4.       Wash your hand before you eat.  Everyone (well hopefully everyone) washes their hands after they use the restroom, but rarely right before they eat. But, if you work in an office and you are typing on the keyboard and then eat a sandwich….. I think you can fill in the gaps. The trick is not to Lysol the whole office (there are a lot of toxic chemicals that get released into the air when you do) but simply to wash your hands with soap and water.  Anti-bacteria soap is fine if you’re out and about, but it’s always best to use actual soap and water if you get the chance.

5.       If I feel something coming on… sleep, sleep, and get some more sleep!! When we sleep it’s a chance for our body to focus a lot of its energy on healing. So, if you feel that tickle in the back of your throat, go to bed early that night.

6.       I get adjusted on a regular basis. This helps keep my body, and my nervous system, at its peak health so that is I come into contact with a cold I am able to fight it quickly.

An Excuse to Eat Chocolate.

What woman (and a good chunk of men) don’t love a good piece of chocolate?  It might seem like a stereotype but there is always a little truth in the rumors. There is actually a chemical reason why we, and especially women love chocolate. One reason is that it can cause women to release a hormone (endorphins) that makes them happy. Sorry men, this is a women specific thing, but also explains why women might crave this delicious treat once a month. Another reason for those chocolate cravings is because our body is actually craving some of the nutrients they hold.  Dark chocolate contains magnesium and is rich in flavanols which are a great anti-oxidant.  For those who are unfamiliar, anti-oxidants are important for removing free radicals that can make you prematurely age and damage your heart.  Sometimes when our body is low on a specific nutrient, like iron or magnesium, we will crave the foods that are high in that nutrient. It’s a primitive survival instinct that we’ve managed to hold onto. So the next time you are staring longingly at a bar of chocolate, perhaps your body is just telling you it needs something and who are we to deny it a little chocolate? Just remember, all good things should come in moderation.

It’s Valentine’s Day so Indulge a Little

What are your plans for tomorrow? (For those that are really behind, tomorrow is Valentine’s day.)  Food for thought, making a homemade dessert together can be very romantic.  Now, you can enjoy the time spent together making the treat, and then the pleasure of indulging in them. Here are some ideas… chocolate covered strawberries, truffles, even chocolate chip cookies (whatever the both of you will enjoy) it should just been something that takes more than 2 minutes to make. Get creative, be inventive and add new ingredients, experiment.  Decorate them for each other. The idea is just to have fun with each other.  Personally, I like to make truffles. It’s actually pretty easy and allows you to be really creative. Also, it’s kind of fun to get your hands all chocolaty. Here is a good recipe if you’re interested in trying to make them for yourself. 

Looking to make your dessert a little healthier? Here is some advice.

1. If using chocolate, go for dark chocolate. It has more nutrients and you’ll want to eat less of it, but costs the same as milk chocolate.

2. If you’re vegan or just looking to cut out the cream, you can turn cashews into a cream like substance by letting them soak in water overnight and then blending them (here is a recipe).

3.  Try desserts that include fruit, such as chocolate covered strawberries, which allow you to indulge but not go overboard.

The trick is to remember that moderation is key. There is nothing wrong with enjoy a delicious desert every now and then, especially on valentine’s day, so long as you don’t go overboard with the portion size.