How to Balance out a Junk-Heavy Diet

^Water is critical for keeping your body balanced. If you don’t like it plain, try adding a splash of flavor! 

How to balance out a diet heavy in junk

With an on-the-go lifestyle, maintaining a perfect diet can be flat out impossible. Constraints on our time force us to skip out on a full morning meal and pay visits to fast food joints at lunchtime; running errands have us running to the drive-thrus; worst of all are weekends, the time when we want our diets to be at their most relaxed. Eating all this processed food can leave us low on nutrition and subsequently make us feel low, so it is important to be proactive about fitting in some junk-fighting ingredients whenever you can!

Here are a list of ways to balance the damage that is caused by poor eating habits. 

• Fluids! Water is critical for flushing out the junk. Keeping yourself optimally hydrated (between 64-100 ounces of water a day) will help your body stay on top.
• Focus on anti-inflammatory: poor eating and processed foods are linked to a raise in inflammation which causes all kinds of havoc in the body. You can fight inflammation by consuming omega-3, whether in food or supplement form. Spices such as turmeric, cloves and ginger are other great sources of anti-inflammatory properties. 
• High-water and high-fiber foods to clean the gut: get ready for the vegetables, including artichokes, peas and spinach, and fruits, including strawberries, grapefruit and melon! 
• Focus on healthy starches: vegetables and grains are good sources of healthy starches, which are the opposite of the processed starch we are eating at the drive-thru; they actually have some health benefit for us! Whole grains including oatmeal, whole-wheat bread and pasta; legumes such as beans; and vegetables such as corn, squash and yams offer more health benefits for your dollar. 

Being honest about your diet

If you know you are going to eat junk-food at some point during the week (or more often), try to maintain a balance by choosing food and drink that supports your immune system at least as often. We can help you identify patterns in your life that leave you short on nutrition and turn them around into healthy choices.  At our office in Houston, we help your body with chiropractic adjustment and attention to muscle dysfunction to alleviate pain and make focusing on healthy choices all the easier! Give our office a call to schedule an appointment today. 

Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.