Standard American Diet SAD
What is the standard American diet? Well it’s called SAD for a reason. It is not healthy. The average American’s diet has 63% of it’s calories from refined and processed foods. This processing introduces chemicals to the food and removes needed vitamins and other nutrients. Examples of these processed food included high fructose syrup drinks like pop, potato chips and packaged meals. Only 12% of the SAD consists of plant foods. Unfortunately, half of the plant based foods come from french fries. 25% comes from animal based food. That leaves only 6% of SAD coming from fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. SAD indeed!
You are what you eat.
The standard American diet causes the standard American diseases. The SAD has been linked to a host of medical conditions. Diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, auto immune conditions, cancer and obesity are direct results of the SAD. This type of eating has other effects long before a person is diagnosed with one of the above conditions. Digestive issues, food allergies, fatigue, brain fog, mood disorders and many other conditions are a result of poor diet. After years of eating SAD changing your diet is certainly necessary but may not be enough to counteract years of a bad diet. More is needed. After years of a bad diet food allergies are common. You may change your diet and think you are eating foods that are good for you. However, you could be having an allergic reaction to that food even though under normal circumstances that food is healthy.
In addition, leaky gut syndrome develops. If the gut is not healed nothing else will function properly. Health begins in the gut.
Another problem with years of the standard American diet is nutrient deficiencies develop. B6, B12, Vitamin C and many mineral deficiencies affect metabolic pathways such as how efficient your body is mat making energy. These have to be tested for and targeted nutritional supplements supplied. Certainly, a comprehensive approach is necessary to restore health.
We often see patients that are having chronic health problems that have made changes their diet and although they may feel better they still don’t feel good. Don’t give up! Don’t start eating bad again saying “I tried a good diet and it didn’t work”. You are missing a piece of the puzzle. Comprehensive testing helps to discover the missing piece of the puzzle. However a good diet is always necessary to have good health.
