Food is medicine.
Hippocrates (maybe)
Food is critically important to our well-being. It’s our source of nutrients, fuel for activities, and energy to get through the day! Our organs, muscles, and nervous system all require a balance of nutrients in order to function correctly, and if you knew exactly what your body needed to function optimally, would you eat it?
The short answer: is yes.
The longer more complicated answer is: we try.
Most of us had one, maybe two classes on nutrition growing up. Those in the healthcare field may have received a little more training. Registered dieticians by far get the most education and are the most knowledgeable when it comes to nutrition and medical conditions. If you look up RD’s online you can see that many have specialties as well, such as geriatric, bariatric, pediatric, pregnancy & postpartum.
A great place to begin is to understand where you are now in your needs. This can be done by having a consult with your health coach, getting bloodwork done at your doctor’s office, or seeing a functional medicine doctor.
However, if you are not able to find someone to work with, or maybe you cannot afford it. There are some simple steps you can try at home to help clean up your diet and reduce inflammatory foods!
Nutrition is vitally important to how well your organs and muscles operate on a daily basis. If you can get a few key points from this blog, please get these:
- Dehydration causes poor muscle function and bladder irritation
- Inflammation causes increased period symptoms and headaches
- Sugar is an inflammatory food and adversely affects diabetics, can cause tooth decay, and increased period symptoms.
- Decreased vitamins & minerals can lead to symptoms such as headaches, brain fog, difficulty focusing, memory loss, fatigue, and poor quality of life.
- High blood sugar & high cholesterol are risk factors for Type 2 Diabetes
- High blood pressure can follow those symptoms, and then your risk for a cardiovascular event increases
The bulk demographic of people who read this blog are 25-40 year old women. Mostly likely you’ve had a child, or two, and still consistently exercise. Have you noticed any trouble losing weight postpartum? Do you feel that heavy brain fog like you haven’t slept in years?
During your traditional medical visit, have they said that your bloodwork looks “fine” and they recommend supplements or increased exercise to decrease your BMI?
Those are ALL very common interviews I’ve had with women & with myself. If you are honestly trying every route- but seeing no results, then you don’t need to try “harder”.
There is likely an underlying reason why you are not getting the results you desire. My honest opinion is to GET HELP. Do not try and do it alone, it is so much easier with an accountability coach or functional medicine doctor. Below are my favorite resources here in Knoxville, but the first three listed serve Nationwide virtually! Please check them out, and until next time. 😉
Local Knoxville Resources: (some of these resources also work nationwide!)
Jill Hahn Health – private health coaching
Full disclaimer: if you need to take medication for a disease or condition that you may have – the discussion of this post is NOT to make you feel like you are wrong for taking medication. Modern medicine is incredible with the results we can achieve. So please continue taking your medication as prescribed by your medical doctor.
