This is a true statement.  According to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report dated July 10th, 2015 American’s just aren’t eating enough to maximize their health.  In fact of all of the states, only 17% of Californians eat enough according to the CDC.  And they were the top dogs.  Here in Colorado, just barely 14% of us eat enough.  That is a little tough to swallow for such a health conscious state.

Okay, for real now.  The report is specifically targeting vegetable and fruit consumption.  I know, it was a bit misleading and you thought you were off the hook for your buffet assault tonight.  But this is a huge deal because of what is says and because of what it implies.

Mom, dad, grandma and grandpa all demanded that we eat our vegetables.  Fruit was a whole lot easier to get down, but dark greens?  We know that we need a ton of veggies and fruit in our diet for optimal health.  The article points out, that as a whole country, we are not getting it done.

So what I infer from that is that most people are eating a whole lot of processed foods.  They are yummy, there is a ton of variety and they have a marketing machine behind them that brussel sprouts just can’t compete with.  Plus they are loaded with sugar, that is why they taste sooooo good.  They have lots of food additives, that’s why they never parish and look photoshopped.  And its these last two pieces that really concern me because we are loading the system with stuff we really can’t use.  That’s right, just about everything on the package label that your college degree doesn’t qualify you to pronounce clogs the system.  All of that sugar pushes you toward Metabolic Syndrome.  That means, high blood pressure, health disease, diabetes, obesity and so on.  Sugar really causes a ton of inflammation in your body and that pretty much means disease on some level.  Cancer even feeds on the stuff.  So you can see why I would cringe a bit when thinking about a majority of people trying to thrive on engineered food.

The other part is that you are constantly in a state of repair on your body from the stresses and traumas of life.  Maybe you feel like your body is in a state of needing repair as you have aches and pains that just aren’t going away.  Well, if we are trying to make a life by living on packaged and processed food, we are not replenishing the necessary replacement parts. Let me explain.

This body is a healing machine.  We have a brain and nerve system that coordinates the function of everything including the repair of our bodies so that we are not rusted out every morning.  To make that happen we have to have two things; good nerve supply and the replacement parts.  We make those replacement cells form the food that we eat.  So if we are eating processed garbage, you guessed it.  You are going to make garbage cells.  I’m no mathematician but to me that would equal declining health.

As a Fort Collins chiropractor I don’t do a lot of nutritional counseling but I do ask about it with every patient.  Hands down there is a correlation to those who eat their veggies and those who recover faster.  It’s because they have the good stuff to replace the damaged stuff.

Perhaps the argument is that it is more expensive to each veggies and fruit.  That could be true.  But think about the cost of disease in your life and what that could take away.  I’m talking more than you hard earned money.  Health is that great asset that if we take care of it, will pay high dividends in the long run.

Dr. Jeremy D Overholt DC

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