At Biggers Family Medicine in Brandon, FL, your primary care physician can help you maintain a healthy diet as part of your overall health and wellness. Things like heart disease and diabetes are leading causes of death in the US, and, alongside routine visits to your doctor, proper nutrition can treat and even prevent these conditions. By proactively taking charge of your health, you can steer clear of these preventable illnesses.
During your doctor’s appointment, we can take a look at your specific nutrition to identify any risk factors or current issues. From there, we can give you tailor-made recommendations to lower the risk of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and more. By taking a proactive approach to your health, you can learn how best to avoid preventable illnesses.
How Nutrition Affects Your Overall Health
A healthy weight, body type, and aesthetic vary from person to person. There’s no universal “right” way to look. Instead of focusing on looking “fit”, your primary care physician in Brandon, FL can help you focus on healthy habits to develop a positive relationship with food and exercise.
For example, eating too much fast food, processed foods, and sugar can negatively impact your health. For one, most of those foods are missing out on important nutrients like fiber, good fats, and lean protein. And if you fill up on nutrient-sparse food, you’re not only missing necessary ingredients in your diet, but you run the risk of metabolic issues across the body.
If you eat too much sugar and processed foods, your body can stop responding to insulin as it should. With continually elevated blood sugar, the pancreas continues to pump out more and more insulin, and the body essentially reads it like crying wolf. That excess sugar needs somewhere to go, however, so it gets stored as fat. The more you continue this cycle, the higher the likelihood of metabolic syndrome, dysfunction of the body’s ability to use energy properly, elevated cholesterol, stroke, and heart disease.
In contrast, things like good fats help our bodies fight inflammation, build healthy cell membranes, cover neurons, and stop bleeding. Proteins contain vital amino acids that help build muscles, repair injuries, and fight age-related decline. Finally, fibrous carbs, fruits, and vegetables are packed with vitamins and minerals that we need for hormones, neurological function, metabolism, and more.
Get in touch with your primary care physician today
Ready to take charge of your nutrition? Contact Biggers Family Medicine at (813) 655-4646 and schedule an appointment with your primary care physician in Brandon, FL.