I have been practicing in the field of clinical nutrition for over 20 years and I wanted to share some of the top 10 secrets that I’ve learned while helping patients to attain more optimal health. Many of these you can do on your own but for others, you’ll need the assistance of a clinician. We are happy to assist you!

The Top 10 Reasons People Aren’t Healthy & the Solution For Each

1. Dying of Thirst?
Most people are dehydrated. It may sound incredible in our country of plenty, but it’s a real problem. Being dehydrated can cause you to gain weight and retain toxins, not a prescription for health.

Solution: Drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day. Only consume 8 oz (1 cup) per hour. You may have to ramp up to this, but your body will love it once you do and you will actually start to ‘crave’ water – a good craving!

2. Do you have a Sugar Monkey on your Back?
Sugar cravings cause people to make bad dietary choices and excess sugar consumption leads to obesity, diabetes, and poor digestive health. Being driven to eat sugar by intense cravings is close to impossible to ignore.

Solution: You cannot ignore the cravings, it’s just too difficult. Instead, you need to get to the root cause of them so the ‘sugar monkey’ who keeps telling you to eat sugar disappears completely. Once that is done the cravings literally go away, within just a few days.

This is one you’ll need some assistance with the help of clinical nutrition, but suffice to say that the root cause is most typically a food sensitivity and/or a hormonal imbalance. Patients who were convinced they could never get past their sugar cravings have been delighted to discover how easy it actually was.

3. The ‘False’ Energy Provided by Caffeine
Caffeine and energy drinks actually cause you to be, in the long run, more tired and less mentally ‘clear’. Yes, initially they do give a great boost to energy levels and mental focus, but that benefit wears off as they begin to cause stress and strain to the very part of the body that is naturally designed to provide those benefits.

Solution: Those that ‘need’ caffeine or stimulants are not truly healthy. The underlying problem is the body’s inability to effectively turn food into fuel, thereby providing natural energy and mental focus. There are several reasons for this that include such things as food reactions, adrenal fatigue, and a weakened digestive system, but once corrected, the natural energy and mental clarity that is created, far exceeds any that caffeine ever provided. I say this from two decades of experience and the testimonials of my patients.

4. Is Exercise REALLY Necessary?
Your body needs some exercise, at least 5 times per week. It’s just the truth.

One caution: If you exercise and feel worse afterward or the day following, that means that you need some assistance to get healthier before exercise will actually benefit you. If you are in this category, try simply taking a gentle walk for a short period of time until you no longer feel worse afterward. Under a clinician’s advice, you can then slowly build up as you get healthier.

Second caution: If you exercise and you don’t sweat it means that your body is quite toxic. It would be best to get to a qualified clinician who knows what to do to address this. If you are in this category follow the guidelines under ‘caution one’ above and exercise very mildly.

Solution: Whether it’s taking a brisk walk outside, exercising to a DVD in front of your television, or playing a team sport, you truly need to find something that you will do on a regular basis that will increase your heart rate and involve stretching and strengthening. If you find an exercise that you like and you do it regularly, your body will be stronger and healthier as a result.

5. You’re Not Eating Enough Fruits & Vegetables
Almost no one gets enough vegetable and fruit servings per day in their diet. With adult women requiring 7 servings (4 veggie and 3 fruit) and adult men requiring 9 servings (5 veggie and 4 fruit), it is little wonder that we fall short of this goal when you observe the typical American diet.

The special nutrients that high-quality fruits and vegetables provide are found nowhere else and their ability to help the body detoxify and control inflammation (a precursor to most major diseases) is truly amazing.

Solution: I have written an in-depth post on this very topic. Please read it here.

6. Fast Weight Loss? Only in Your Dreams
Crash diets don’t work – not now, not ever. There are certain ‘fantasies’ that we hold on to, despite knowing in our heart of hearts that they have no basis in fact. Crash diets that provide ‘instant’ weight loss fall within this category. I’m not saying that weight cannot be dropped on crash diets, but the facts are that it is going to come back on, typically in greater amounts than before you began the diet.

Additionally, the more times you have engaged in such drastic attempts, the less able the body is to lose weight in the future. The sad truth is that crash diets ‘mess up’ the metabolic rate such that even correct weight loss on a ‘sane’ program can be difficult to achieve. There are doctors out there that will offer you the ‘quick fix’ – my recommendation is to walk away.

Solution: It’s not fast, but discovering why your body’s metabolic rate is too slow or why your body’s ability to turn food into fuel is inefficient, will go a long way to discovering the actual underlying problem that is causing you to gain weight. It may be slower than you’d like, but it’s healthy and stable.

We have had more than one patient lose 100 pounds in 10 months to a year. And these individuals have maintained their weight while enjoying excellent health. Seek out the help of a clinician savvy in the field of clinical nutrition to assist you to find a program that really works, safely and stably.

7. Undiagnosed Food Sensitivities Can Shorten Your Life
Failing to diagnose a food sensitivity (e.g. gluten, dairy) will prevent good health. If you cannot nourish your cells properly, or you feed them something they consider to be a toxin, it makes sense that they won’t be healthy. If your cells aren’t healthy, your body won’t be healthy. Often patients ask to be given a pill or vitamin that will make them well while they refuse to change their diet. Unfortunately, that does not work.

Solution: We find food sensitivities to be very prevalent in our society. The first step is to diagnose if one is present and then change one’s diet accordingly. It may not be fun to think about, but most patients agree that the good health and feeling of well-being that results is well worth the dietary change.

8. Artificial Sweeteners Make You Gain Weight
Diet sweeteners are dangerous and you won’t lose weight using them. Research has shown that those who consume diet sweeteners are twice as likely to gain weight as those who eschew such products. These chemicals are also dangerous in that they create imbalances that can affect many systems in the body, chief amongst them the nervous system.

Solution: I wrote a long post on this that you can read here.

9. You Truly Are What You Eat
Food is information – if the body is fed ‘garbage’ it will feel like ‘garbage’. Unfortunately, we live in a society that encourages us to eat on the go and simply ‘drive-thru’ any fast food restaurant that happens to be nearby when hunger strikes. We put things in our body (and those of our children) without much thought as to the information such ‘food’ is providing.

Solution: Learn what food ‘means’ for your body. Watch the documentary “Food.Inc” and learn where our food comes from. It may take more effort to cook a meal at home, but the advantage that ‘real food’ provides in terms of health benefits is immeasurable.

We are happy to assist you in getting more information on this. The only way to turn around our current weakening health environment is to pay attention to this vital area of food consumption.

10. Anti-Aging is a Reality
While you will continue to chronologically age, you CAN actually reverse the aging process by getting biologically younger! The human body is an incredible machine that is able to repair and heal itself when the correct stressors are removed. Time and time again patients report that they had no idea that they could feel as good as they currently feel. Often they state that they feel two or more decades younger!

Solution: Learn what stressors are affecting your body. Some have been touched upon above, but there’s nothing better than a comprehensive look at the body as a whole to discover what area needs assistance.

In a nutshell, it is what we do here in our clinical nutrition department. Testing is available to determine which system or systems require the most help. The exciting thing is that most treatment programs require no drugs nor surgery in order to be successful. They do however require some lifestyle changes, but we will assist you to make those as easy as possible.