Why would I go to the doctor? I’m not even sick!

“Why would I go to a doctor when I’m not even sick?”

Almost all of our clients ask us a question like, “Why would I pay to go to a doctor? I feel fine”. The sad truth is that you’re probably not as “fine” as you think you are. What I’m going to say next might shock and even amaze you. Statistically you are probably deficient in at least one key nutrient.

Today, more than 92 percent of Americans are deficient in one or more vitamins. That doesn’t mean they are receiving LESS than the amount they need to get for optimal health. That means they receive less than the MINIMUM amount necessary to prevent deficiency diseases.

In a study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers found that 6 percent of those tested had serious vitamin C deficiency and 30 percent were borderline low.

A report in the journal Pediatrics found that obesity and malnutrition can coexist. Obese, overfed, and undernourished children were found to have scurvy and severe vitamin D deficiency or rickets. These deficiencies damaged their brains. You never think of an overweight person as malnourished, but they are!

A USDA survey showed that 37 percent of Americans don’t get enough vitamin C, 70 percent not enough vitamin E, almost 75 percent don’t get enough zinc, and 40 percent don’t get enough iron.

I would say that 100 percent of us don’t have enough of the basic nutrients to create optimal health or give ourselves a metabolic tune up.

I’ll share 5 simple tips to help you optimize your nutrition and achieve vibrant health, but first let me clear up a few misconceptions….

Are you confused about what "good nutrition" is…? You shouldn’t be — we know what works and what doesn’t.

Despite the "conflicting" scientific studies and media reports designed to confound rather than enlighten, there is no confusion about what constitutes good nutrition.If we were to gather the world’s top nutrition scientists and experts — free from food industry influence — there would be very little debate about the essential properties of good nutrition.

Unfortunately, most doctors are nutritionally illiterate. Worse, they don’t know how to use the most powerful preventative and healing medicines available to them: food.

Scientific research, not to mention common sense tells us that if we want healthy bodies, we must put the right raw materials into our bodies: real, whole, local, fresh, unadulterated, unprocessed, and chemical-, hormone-, and antibiotic-free food.

I’m not talking about weird diets or trendy foods that have to be expensive and bought at your local health food store. In fact just imagine what your great-grandmother would have served for dinner, or what might have been on her grocery list. Just food.

There is really no such thing as junk food — there is just food. Anything our great grandparents ate is food, anything that came out of a laboratory is junk. You are what you eat. Enough said. If you want a whole, healthy body, put in whole real food.

Now I’ll explain what constitutes a health diet, and give you some tips to optimize your nutrition.

The Basics of a Healthy Diet

I know I’m dropping bombs in this article but here comes the next shocker … Carbohydrates are the single most important food for long-term health and well-being. This may be surprising given the low-carb movement, and "carbophobia" in our country, but it’s true.

Of course, I don’t mean the over-processed, refined, sugary, white foods we commonly think of as carbohydrates, such as donuts, bread, bagels, muffins, colas, juices, and most junk food. And I don’t mean the cheap, super-sweet, government-subsidized high-fructose corn syrup that is driving our epidemic of obesity and chronic disease. The carbohydrates I am talking about are the real, whole, nourishing plant foods that the human species has thrived on since from the dawn of evolution.

Most of the food consumed by humans since the beginning of time has been carbohydrates. In fact, plant foods are comprised mostly of carbohydrates: vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices. These foods contain slowly released sources of sugar that prevent surges of blood sugar and insulin. Too much insulin causes heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, and even dementia.

Carbohydrates contain almost all the vitamins and minerals our bodies need to operate normally and optimally. They also contain fiber, which helps normalize our digestive function and slows the absorption of sugar and fats into the body, keeping us balanced. The bonuses in plant foods are phytonutrients — colorful healing compounds made by plants to protect themselves, but that also protect us against aging, obesity, brain damage, and more.

For example, did you know:

Broccoli, cabbage, collards, kale, Brussels sprouts, and other vegetables from the cruciferous family contain powerful detoxifying compounds that protect us against environmental toxins.
Green tea contains anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and detoxifying properties.
Resveratrol from red grapes boosts our energy production and protects our cells.

These are just a few examples of the thousands of phytonutrients in the plant foods that should be the foundation of our diet.

Let’s wrap this up. If you want to optimize your health by eating better, its simple.

Eat real whole food as it came from the earth:
Focus on fresh vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices.
Add eggs, and lean animal protein like fish and chicken.

For those of you that like to really delve in deep, here’s a little extra nugget for you.

Whole foods that contain:

phytonutrients,
vitamins,
minerals,
Omega-3 fats
fiber

Directly, immediately, and specifically interact with our genes, controlling moment-to-moment changes in our physiology and biochemistry. Food literally talks to our genes. Food is not just a source of calories; it is also a source of INFORMATION. The key to optimum health is to send the right information to your genes by eating whole, real, food — mostly plants. Specific nutrients or plant compounds bind to receptors in cells, translating messages from the foods we eat or vitamins we take in into instructions that are carried out by our cells through their effect on our DNA.

That is why food can heal or harm. You make that choice every day by what you put on your fork.