Stay healthier by limiting these 6 white foods

While everyone will not agree on the following 6 foods, it has been my experience as a chiropractor in Salt Lake City, Utah that eliminating or at least avoiding the following foods can improve your health – sometimes dramatically. Here’s my list:

Flour

White Flour is one of the biggest non-food culprits in our diets here in Utah.  I call it a non-food because it is a great imitator of real food and has lead to many health problems and disease. Flour starts as a whole grain which is first stripped of its outer bran layer which contains the nutritious fiber. The remaining portion is ground and chemically bleached, refined, and processed. At this point it is little more than simple carbohydrates that the body digests quickly and easily.  Commercial white flour eliminates all vitamins and most minerals. This is why it needs to be enriched.  This enriching process is the addition of chemical vitamin substitutes, anti-caking agents, and sometimes leaving agents.  The remaining white flour bears little resemblance to the original wheat.

Sugar

White sugars (and the many variations of simple carbohydrates such as high fructose corn syrup) are found in many commercial foods.  Refined carbs are high in calories and less satisfying than good carbs. The body absorbs processed sugars relatively quickly causing spikes in insulin. In an hour or two, you’re hungry again. Sugar is as addictive as heroin and leads to cravings.

Salt

White salt is not good for you in excess. Your body needs some salt to maintain electrolyte (fluid) balance. Nevertheless, a standard Utah diet is too high in salt. The American Heart Association states that excess salt can contribute to high blood pressure. If you read the ingredients of most commercial food, you’ll find salt or at least a salt component listed.

Milk

White milk is not good for you. Now this comes as a surprise to most of my patients in Salt Lake City. After all, doesn’t milk promote strong bones and bodies? Well, no; not really. Many scientific studies have shown the detrimental health effects directly linked to milk consumption.  Milk assays high in calcium, however we barely absorb the calcium especially if the milk has been pasteurized. To make matters worse, commercial milk consumption actually increases calcium loss from your bones by altering the blood PH balance. But it doesn’t end there. The homogenization process breaks up the fats in milk so the cream doesn’t float to the top. This is good, right? Well, once again, no!  By breaking up the fats so small that they don’t separate in the milk, when we consume the milk, the fats bypass the normal digestion process and enter the bloodstream as foreign particles causing an inflammatory immune response.

Rice

White rice like white flour has also been refined by the removal of the outer bran layer. “Quick” rice has been pre-cooked and is nothing more than dehydrated carbohydrates. Very little nutritional value is left.

Potatoes

White potatoes are a high glycemic food, and eating too many may increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.  Potatoes may be particularly hard to avoid for Utah residents, but the health risks of overconsumption are real. Many fast foods are potato based, such as potato chips, french fries, hash browns, mashed potatoes.

Do I eat the above foods? Yes - occasionally. But I do try to avoid them as much as possible. A good rule of thumb is, “If God didn’t make it – limit your consumption” and “if it won’t spoil – don’t eat it.” Bon Appétit!

-Michael Lindstrom, D.C.

  Chiropractic Physician

Do you Adjust Children?

Remember the childhood story of a Native American Indian going through the forest and bending a young sapling to mark his path? And how years later, that same sapling grew into a tree that was all twisted and bent? If our children have uncorrected structural neck and back problems, doesn’t it make sense that they can grow up “twisted and bent?” As a chiropractor of many years, I can’t count the number of times a young adult has come to me with “lifelong” scoliosis, having suffered for years, thinking nothing could be done. Did you know that both the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) and the International Chiropractic Association (ICA) endorse chiropractic care for children? There are even child chiropractic physician specialists called DICCP’s or Diplomats’ in Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics.

Is your Salt Lake City, Utah home often dominated by the cries of a child that may have back problems? Did you know that there has been an increase in public support for adjusting children? In fact, an American Chiropractic Association press release in January of 2009 stated, “Survey data indicates that the percentage of chiropractic patients under 17 years of age has increased at least 8.5 percent since 1991.” In the American Academy of Pediatrics January 2007 issue of Pediatrics (an official M.D. journal) chiropractic was described as the most common complementary and alternative medicine practice used by children. It was estimated that there were thirty million visits to U.S. chiropractors in 1997. And in 1998, children and adolescents constituted 11 percent of patient visits to chiropractors.

Do we adjust children with back problems at The Joint in Sugar House? A resounding yes! Chiropractic adjustments reduce many physical stressors children endure throughout life. Our child-friendly clinic is located in the heart of the Salt Lake City, Utah metro area.

The youngest child I’ve ever adjusted was 2 minutes old; the oldest is about 98 years old. However, keep in mind that a child (or elderly patient) is NOT adjusted the same way as an adult. There are some significant differences. Beginning at birth, children go through many different micro-traumas and frequent falls as they learn to crawl, walk and run. A child’s spine is developing rapidly in the first 10 years of life. Apparently innocent events, such as wearing backpacks, increasing use of the computer, having poor posture and getting injured playing sports, can create spinal misalignments in the child’s back. Subluxations (misalignments) can put pressure on the child’s nervous system and cause musculoskeletal system (bio-mechanical) changes. When the nerve isn’t functioning correctly, it can result in symptoms related to organs, muscles and various systems of the body. Chiropractic adjustments are also often used in conjunction with traditional medical care.

Chiropractic care is an excellent choice when looking for a noninvasive, drug-free approach for children and families in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. Many people do choose chiropractic care for their children to address acute and chronic back problems, as well as a preventive approach to many health challenges.

-Michael Lindstrom, D.C.
Chiropractic Physician