Guess which has more salt: bread or chips?

Bread, rolls and deli meats are the top contributors of sodium to the average person's diet, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

In the ongoing public health campaign to get people to cut back on sodium, foods such as chips, popcorn and pretzels have unfairly shouldered a heavy burden of blame.

As it turns out, we should have declared war on the sandwich.

Bread, rolls and deli meats are the top contributors of sodium to the average person's diet, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bread and rolls account for more than 7 per cent of daily sodium consumption, while cold cuts and cured meats amount to about 5 per cent.

The report also found that almost two-thirds of sodium consumed comes from processed food purchased in stores, while 25 per cent comes from restaurant meals. The rest is added by consumers with a salt shaker.

CDC experts set out to analyze the top contributors of sodium to the American diet in order to help figure out where sodium reduction efforts could be most effective.

They determined that 10 foods, including bread, pizza, poultry (often injected with a sodium solution, according to the CDC), soup and pasta are responsible for nearly half of all sodium consumption. Number 10 on the list are savoury snacks, such as potato chips and pretzels, which account for only about 3 per cent of the sodium adults consume each day.

"Excess sodium increases blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for both heart disease and stroke as well as other health problems," said Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, in a briefing with the media. "Reducing the sodium content of the 10 leading sodium sources by just 25 per cent would lower total dietary sodium by more than 10 per cent and prevent an estimated 28,000 deaths per year."

The average American consumes about 3,400 milligrams of sodium a day, more than double the recommended amount of 1,500 milligrams and far above the maximum recommended amount of 2,300 milligrams, above which the risk of health problems starts to rise.

While salty snacks, such as potato chips, contribute to high sodium levels, health experts say the seemingly innocuous foods we consume larger amounts of on a daily basis, such as soups, sauces, bread and cereal, are the real issue.

Despite a national report from a federally-appointed working group that called for maximum limits on salt added to foods sold in America, little has been done to address the problem of excessive sodium intake.

Yoni Freedhoff, an expert on nutrition issues and medical director of the New York University , said there's no doubt high amounts of sodium consumption is a clear indication something is wrong with our diets.

But he wonders if sodium is the real villain, or if health problems result from regularly consuming processed foods with artificial ingredients and preservatives that also happen to contain plenty of salt.

"I think what we really need to be looking at is the quality of our diets as a whole," Dr. Freedhoff said. "I do wonder whether the bigger deal is to start buying foods without labels,...transforming raw ingredients into dinner."

Dr. Frieden at the CDC also highlighted the importance of consuming more fruits and vegetables in order to cut back on salt and improve overall health. But he also noted how difficult it can be for consumers to stick to low-sodium plans, given that even seemingly healthy foods, such as breakfast cereals, can pack a punch in terms of salt content. He urged consumers to read labels, compare brands and choose companies that have the least-salty products.

"I think the key here is to find lower-sodium options of the foods you love," Dr. Frieden said.

The top 10 sources of sodium in the average person's diet, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• Bread and rolls
• Cold cuts and cured meats
• Pizza
• Poultry (often injected with a sodium solution, according to the CDC)
• Soups
• Cheeseburgers and other prepared sandwiches
• Cheese
• Pasta dishes (such as spaghetti with meat sauce)
• Meat dishes (such as meat loaf with tomato sauce)
• Snacks (such as chips, pretzels and popcorn)

Use Chiropractic Care to Enhance Your Brain Function


Chiropractic care enhancing brain function!?  Not a common reference right?  Well, believe it or not chiropractic care is one of the most effective ways to enhance your brain function.  In order to understand how this is so, we must briefly discuss Chiropractic care and its effect on the Nervous System.  

The Chiropractic effect on human performance, especially aiding in the healing process is widely misunderstood.  Chiropractors are one of the few health care professionals that directly alter Nervous System function, without the use of drugs or other artificial interventions.  We work with the innate ability of the Nervous System to heal and repair the body.  So why is this so important?  

The Nervous System, divided into the Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System, controls and moderates all human function.  This complex system is the control center for your thoughts, motivations, focus, sensations, movements, and posture, just to name a few.  Any changes in this system could be detrimental to your health.  So, how can you tell if your nervous system is functioning well?  

Changes in Nervous System function could manifest in 4 common ways.  

1. Changes in Sensation -     Pain, Tingling, Numbness, Dizziness, and Vertigo
2. Changes in Movement -   Balance/Coordination issues and Tremors (resting or intention)
3. Changes in Thoughts -  Depression, OCD, ADHD, and Anxiety
4. Changes in Posture -  Slouched posture, Scoliosis, and Flexed posture from Stroke      

Do your parents have a Chronic Illness? Why “It runs in the family” is not as significant anymore.

Have you ever repeated a story so much you believed it as fact– only later to realize that the story was not true?  Remember how shocked you were?

It’s disturbing because you start to become aware that you may have other beliefs concerning your health that are not accurate. Imagine the surprise when we realized the earth wasn’t flat.  I don’t know the whole story—but I’ll bet they thought the person who proved it was round was called a heretic.

When I went to school, we were taught to ask our patients about family history.  I’m sure you remember when I asked about the history of illness in your family.  Reason being—if your parents have an illness—then it’s in your genes and your probability will be high as well.

Because of these beliefs, some people have gone so far as to have surgeries without any illness—just as a precaution—like removing their breasts because breast cancer “runs in the family”.

What if I told you we’re discovering these old-school beliefs about cancer and other chronic illnesses caused by “faulty genes” are today’s version of “flat earth”?

 The truth is—we are now discovering this paradigm is not true.  Your genes are not your destiny.  Read Time magazine’s article “Why your DNA is not your Destiny”. (Jan 2010).

The “Central Dogma Theory” taught in medical schools.

The “Central Dogma” – that is taught in schools (simply stated) is that your DNA gets transcribed to create proteins, which are the foundation of all the physiological functions of your life– and this process is irreversible.   In other words, your DNA controls your life, and there is little to nothing you can do to change that.

The funny thing is that it’s actually called “The Central Dogma” of Biology.  Funny that in a paradigm that prides itself on being scientific, we have a “Dogma” which can be defined as “a religious doctrine that is proclaimed as true without proof.”

I have some earth shattering news for you.  New research is now challenging the belief of “it runs in the family so I have a higher chance of getting it”.

I’m also going to explain why this old belief is not only outdated—but it can be hazardous to your health to believe it to be true.

3 paradigm-changing studies that have been published about Genetics and susceptibility to illness.

1)  The first study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was from Denmark, a country where they for some reason keep an extremely detailed register of genetic origin for their citizens.  Researchers looked at 960 families—more than a thousand children who were adopted—meaning they had NO GENETIC CONNECTION between parent and child, and they evaluated causes of death.

What they found was that when one of those adoptive parents died of cancer before the age of 50, the risk of the child of these parents dying of cancer increased by 500 percent.

But how can that be? You might ask.  There’s no genetic connection!

I’m glad you asked—because the answer is that family environment plays a huge role in your health, regardless of your “strong” or “weak” genes.  The authors conclude

…death from cancer, and possibly also from vascular causes, appears to be influenced by the family environment. (N Engl J Med 1988; 318:727–32.)”

2)  The Second study, again from the New England Journal of Medicine, conducted at a prestigious institute in Sweden where they select Nobel Prize candidates looked at (genetically) identical twins.  They studied whether or not these twins got the same illnesses because they shared IDENTICAL GENES.

Can you take a wild guess what the results were?

The author’s state

Inherited genetic factors make a minor contribution to susceptibility to most types of neoplasms (cancers)….We conclude that the overwhelming contributor to the causation of cancer in the populations of twins that we studied was the environment”.

3) The third amazing study from the Journal “Cell” was on cancer in mice.  A researcher named Cao and his colleagues decided that they were going to  inject some mice with a substance that produces melanoma and intestinal cancer.

Then they put these cancer-ridden mice in different groups with different environments and in a nutshell–found that the groups in healthier environments (mice that got nurturing, socialization, and opportunity for normal exercise and mental stimulation) actually SHRUNK THE CANCER TUMORS.

“Dr. Gold, are you teling me that even if I have cancer, I can shrink cancer by changing my lifestyle?”

You tell me.  This is what the researchers say:

“We show here that an enriched environment leads to a remarkable suppression of cancer proliferation in all three models tested, even when delayed until the tumor was well established”. (Cao et al. Environmental and Genetic Activation of a brain-Adipocyte BDNF/Leptin Axis Causes Cancer Remission and Inhibition.  Cell 2010 July 9, 142(1):52-64.

Even though it’s controversial for me to say— THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I’M SAYING.  Chronic illness is multi-factorial. Medicine is concerned with isolating the genes and coming up with an outside-in “cure”.  Unfortunately most clinicians are too busy to keep up with the latest research.  Just because your doctor doesn’t know doesn’t mean it’s not true.

There are many campaigns, runs, walks, fundraisers that we all get behind for this noble purpose of treating chronic diseases and cancer. I believe we need to spend more money and research on the above studies.

 I might be so bold as to say that maybe disease can then be looked at as a wake-up call. You need to get yourself in the right environment which means proper nutrition, exercise, and rest. Create a mindset of gratitude, high self esteem and social interaction in your community.  Oh, and chiropractic spinal care  to restore balance so that your spine can move properly.

At least that is what the research is starting to point out.