As an NTP how do we support your goals toward overall health in the body? We do this by supporting the six foundations. What are the six foundations we rely on?
•Nutrient-Dense Diet
•Digestion •Blood Sugar Regulation
•Fatty Acids •Mineral Balance
•Hydration
Let us dig into those foundations a little further.
Nutrient-Dense Diet
We want to help you right down to the cellular level. For the cells to get the necessary nutrients to work and exist, we must absorb or eat them. That is why a nutrient-dense diet is so important. We always suggest nutrient-dense, seasonal, locally sourced, and minimally processed changes. They will always involve *real food* such as beef, poultry, eggs, fish, dairy, healthy fats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and herbs. The quality of those foods, as mentioned, is essential. Remember, we are building those cells. We will help you choose, source, purchase, and prepare those good quality foods.
Digestion
Digestion is important. Every cell we mentioned before depends on the digestive system to work correctly so the cells will have the nutrients they need for proper structure and function.
Digestion is a north-to-south process and starts in your brain. When you think about food and when you smell your food, that is when digestion begins. This is also where dysfunction can begin if we are not slowing our meals down. Chewing food with our teeth breaks down food, mixing it with saliva. Salivary enzymes are what help to break down carbohydrates and fats. Our food then moves thru the esophagus to our stomach. The stomach then disinfects food, breaks down protein, and frees some nutrients from food.
Here is where stomach acid is SUPER important. If we do not have enough stomach acid, there is no signal for the sphincter between the esophagus and stomach to stay shut. This can result in very irritating heartburn. We also need high stomach acid to destroy invaders like harmful bacteria, pathogens, and viruses. Low stomach acid can also lead to nutrient deficiencies.
Your liver and gallbladder need to work optimally. The liver makes bile which helps to emulsify and digest fats. The gallbladder helps store that bile for future use. The pancreas is essential too! It releases more enzymes to break down proteins, carbohydrates, and fat. Moving forward, we think about the small intestines. This is where even more of our nutrient absorption occurs. When we reach the large intestine, the last parts of nutrient absorption occur, such as water and minerals. Throughout it all, optimal digestion needs an excellent hearty microbiome to keep everything in balance.
As you can see, a lot can go wrong from north to south. NTP’s look at symptoms in this area regarding the lack of function that may be underneath. We hope that we can support your digestive process from start to finish.
Blood Sugar Regulation
Carbohydrate quantity and quality are vital in managing blood sugar regulation. Some foods we eat elicit higher glycemic responses. That is to say, foods and meals affect your blood sugar levels. Eating foods that cause your blood sugar to rise too rapidly can cause an overproduction of insulin. This can cause your blood sugar to drop rapidly. In turn, the adrenals release epinephrine and cortisol to increase blood sugar levels again to try and balance things out. You can imagine how this up and down affects your energy and mood. An out-of-balance diet high in carbohydrates and sugar puts continual stress on your pancreas, adrenals, and liver. We can help improve your mood and energy levels by tweaking your meals slightly. Healthy and balanced eating, which includes timing, quality, and quantity of food eaten, is a crucial strategy to help level blood sugar. Besides food, we can help keep your blood sugar in balance by reducing the stress in your life. 4 things can help with that:
mindfulness - be aware of what is happening in the present moment
meditation - focus your attention & eliminate jumbled thoughts that crowd your mind
movement - after a stressful moment, maybe take a brisk walk to release stored energy
sleep - improving sleep quality can improve insulin sensitivity Hopefully, with a few minor changes, you can regain the quality of life you remember.
Fatty Acids
Over the years, fat has gotten a bad rap, and now fatty acid deficiency is an epidemic. What if I told you that adding fats to your diet would benefit you? There are some fats your body can create using amino acids. However, the body cannot create essential fatty acids. It can only get them directly from food sources. Therefore, diverse, good-quality fats are needed for optimal health, nourishing the body, and reducing inflammation. Fats also serve as a protective lining for your organs and building blocks for cell membranes. Fats aid the in absorbing essential vitamins like A, D, E, & K. Thus, fat is needed for proper nutrition. Fats also make you feel full longer, so you won’t always be so hungry! Plus, they just make food taste better! If you lead an active lifestyle, fat is an excellent long-burning fuel source to help you have endurance for all your activities. Many people today suffer from depression and anxiety. This could mean insufficient hormone support. Did you know some hormones have fat as a precursor? A low-fat diet could result in a hormone deficiency.
Speaking of hormones, some kinds of fats inhibit a hormone-like substance called prostaglandin E1 which is an anti-inflammatory. We would want to support that pathway, not inhibit it. Thus, while eating the right fats, we can eat the wrong ones too. Many packaged foods contain trans-fats and also vegetable oils. Eating these foods puts our essential fatty acids out of balance, thus putting those hormones out of balance, increasing pain and inflammation. Inflammation can be effectively managed using nutritional therapy, thereby reducing healing time.
We aim to help improve your mood and overall well-being by altering your meals slightly to include more wonderful fats!
Mineral Balance
Let’s take a look at just one of many crucial minerals, and that is calcium. Did you know that most people get enough calcium in their diet without evening trying? The thing that many people are missing is the cofactors that allow the body to absorb calcium. Cofactors for calcium are things such as: hormone function, hydration, minerals, vitamins, fatty acids, and our digestive system. These areas in your diet are where we can support your goal of fully utilizing the calcium you are ingesting.
Looking at just a few cofactors will help us understand their importance. Did you know that getting just a little more sunshine each day will up your body’s Vitamin D? Vitamin D is one of those cofactors essential for adequately utilizing the calcium you are intaking. Something to think about on this account is that if we do not get enough vitamin D coupled with our calcium, our parathyroid glands compensate by producing too much of their hormone, a condition called hyperparathyroidism. That can lead to bone weakening (osteoporosis) and increased fracture risk.
Hydration
Another easy thing you could do is to up your water intake. Good hydration (water and the electrolytes in water) ensure that blood is fluid enough to transport calcium to other tissues. Minerals in our water ensure the proper transfer of calcium in and out of our cells. As you can see, cofactors are just as crucial as calcium itself. By making a few changes and more, we can ensure your body is getting the calcium it needs. We can apply these principles to other minerals as well. Every mineral has an essential function in your body. Your body is one big beautiful machine, and all the little parts must harmonize. Many people live in a chronic state of dehydration That is bad news for many of us because our cells and body fluid volume are water. We NEED water! Water improves oxygen delivery to our cells, helps absorb shock to our joints and organs, lubricates our joints, transports nutrients, regulates body temperature, improves cell communication, removes cell waste, maintains electrical properties of cells, moistens oxygen for breathing, flushes out toxins, prevents tissues from sticking, enables the digestive process and much, much more! Our body can make a little bit of the water we need, maybe 8%, but the other 92% must be ingested through the foods we eat and beverages we drink. As adults, we need to drink about 75 to 100 ounces of water each day, depending on whether we are male or female and our circumstances. If we do not drink enough water, our body tells us so. We may get muscle cramps, have headaches, and be more tired. When we suffer from chronic dehydration, we may feel more heartburn, joint pain, back pain, constipation, and colitis.
Working with you, we will help you hydrate through baby steps or giant leaps. As you can see, your body is complex yet simple all at the same time. By implementing a nutrient-dense diet, we can support the foundations of the digestive system, blood sugar regulation, fatty acids, mineral balance, and hydration. This way, you can feel better and be your best from top to bottom.
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