Diet

Inflamation and Autoimmune reaction - Everyday Foods that Fan the Flames of Inflammation

I spent a lot of time in the last chapter giving you the rundown of what dangerous things may be coming along with your food. But if you’re like most people, some of the foods you eat may be harmful for your health in and of themselves.

In today’s fad diet world, it’s probably no surprise to hear that what you eat is important to creating homeostasis in the Wellness Model of Health™. The food you consume has far more of an impact on you than just the weight it may add to your frame. Beyond the obvious, certain foods can create an excess of inflammation within the body, triggering pain and ill-health.

The impact of inflammation on the body is enormous. For example, inflammation in joints causes stiffness and pain. Inflammation in the back and muscles results in trigger points. Arterial inflammation is associated with heart disease, and fascia-related inflammation is linked strongly to fibromyalgia. In fact, multiple studies have proven that inflammation is connected to nearly every major disease we suffer from today. And it starts with the food you eat every single day—the third cornerstone of the Complete Healing Formula™,

your diet.

By now, you know that diet has an impact on our physical and mental wellbeing. No matter what kind of pain or illness you’re suffering from, you’re going to make your whole situation and state of homeostasis better by improving your diet. There are specific conditions that many people suffer from—like chronic joint pain—that can be alleviated by following simple

dietary guidelines.

An obvious example, as Dr. Mark Wiley cites in his book, Arthritis Reversed, is that if you are carrying around excess weight, it places a compressive load on your joints that is three times the actual weight. That means for every fifteen pounds you are overweight, your hips and knees are under stress to move a forty-five-pound load. If you are thirty to forty pounds or more overweight,the effects can be staggering.

Changing the way you eat to reduce your level of chronic inflammation will most likely lead to weight loss, which will in turn result in the relief of excess pressure on your body. And this is only one superficial way that inflammation impacts our larger health ecosystem.

In addition to eating well, there are specific foods you can avoid and others you can consume to preserve and improve your body’s defense against inflammation, your natural state of homeostasis, and consequently, your health conditions.

This chapter will review how food causes pain and inflammation, which foods affect inflammation, and how you can ease pain and discomfort with a diet of healthy whole foods.

How Food Causes Pain and Inflammation

When it comes to pain and inflammation, the food you consume plays a key role. Food is a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to controlling energydraining health symptoms.

Unfortunately, the typical American diet consists of excess fat, tons of sugar, loads of factory-farmed red meat, and a frightening amount of processed foods. Is it any wonder there are so many people suffering from chronic pain and illness? These foods cause inflammation, block the bowels, drain the immune system, and deplete the blood of dense nutrients.

“Bad” Foods

When it comes to pain and illness, several categories of food should be avoided, including nightshades, dairy-based products, and high-fructose corn syrup. Dr. Wiley covers a number of these in his book.

Excess nightshade fruits and vegetables are particularly troublesome for those suffering from conditions like chronic joint pain. This family of food includes white potatoes, eggplant, sweet and hot peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, tamarillos, pepinos, pimentos, goji berries, ground cherries, Cape gooseberries, garden huckleberries, and paprika.

These foods can cause calcification, bone spurs, and inflammation. Such side effects are harmful to those suffering pain and illness because they amplify the existing inflammation and joint problems rather than alleviating them.

In cases of people who are sensitive or allergic to nightshades, they can evencause nerve damage, muscle tremors, and impeded digestion. Excess dairy products are also troublesome for those suffering from chronic ailments. They are often high in cholesterol and saturated fat, and can contribute to obesity. And as we learned, being overweight by even fifteen pounds can have disastrous effects on arthritic joints. But the problem with dairy goes a lot deeper than weight issues.

Products like milk, yogurt, ice cream, cheese, cottage cheese, and various sauces can contribute to an increase in phlegm-rheum. Phlegm-rheum is a classification of thick, sticky fluids in the body that include mucus. These thick and sticky fluids pool around joints and collect toxins and bacteria, and become either damp or hot, depending on other factors. This increases inflammation, swelling, bone degeneration, loss of range of motion, and pain.

The sweetener known as high-fructose corn syrup (HFC) has been called the main culprit in the rise in youth obesity in the United States, and obesity is one of the key risks for chronic health issues. High-fructose corn syrup is corn syrup that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert its glucose into fructose. This fructose has then been mixed with regular corn syrup, which is 100 percent glucose, and the result is a sweet liquid known as high-fructose.

This liquid is the sweetener found in just about every cold beverage in your local convenience store, including iced tea, sodas, and energy drinks. Not only that, but it is also found in so-called healthy foods like tomato soup and yogurt, as well as less healthful items such as salad dressings and cookies.

The FDA did a thirty-year study and found a correlation between HFC and obesity, stating that it is worse for your health than plain sugar—which isn’t good for those with pain and inflammation either. Worst of all, even as the public begins to awaken to the dangers of HFC, the food industry is now peddling equally dangerous chemical sugar substitutes and all the additional toxins that come with them.

Excess processed or refined grains are also to be avoided. These are found in flour, cereals, breads, baked goods, and snack foods. Usually they’re listed as “enriched” flour or anything other than “whole” grains. In essence, refined grains have been broken down for you, so your body doesn’t have to do the work.

Since the grain then breaks down too quickly in the body and the intestines, it releases hormones that promote inflammation. Even eating “whole” grains can still be problematic for many people. Not only are those whole grains still processed, but many grains—especially wheat—trigger inflammatory responses in the body.

Acidic Foods

Other foods that negatively affect our health include those that are acidic. As strange as it may sound, your body, its fluids, and your blood can become excessively acidic. Just as acidic fruits like lemons can “eat” the enamel off your teeth, and acid can corrode a battery casing, your body can become overly acidic when your natural pH is off kilter.

Even the conventional medical community agrees that the human body was not designed to withstand chronic acidic states. When the body is off-kilter long enough, out of its natural state of homeostasis, it starts to break down. Signs and symptoms of an excessively acidic body can be seen and/ or felt externally, with the onset of headaches, body pain, and skin rashes.

In the acidic range, the immune system is compromised, leading to easily contracted sinus infections, allergies, colds, and the flu, and placing you at risk for progressing autoimmune diseases and rheumatoid arthritis.

Moreover, an excessively acidic interior environment can lead to muscle contraction that can restrict the free flow of blood and inhibit the exchange of nutrients and waste products from muscle cells. This can cause soreness, cramping, fatigue, degenerative cellular diseases, and even cellular death. Dr. Wiley offers a pH balance guide in his book, reproduced here.

Chart 12.1: pH Balance Guide

Acid

0 Battery Acid

1 Stomach Acid

2 Lemon Juice, Vinegar

3 Orange Juice, Soda

4 Tomato Juice, Beer

5 Black Coffee

6 Saliva, Cow’s Milk

Neutral 7 Pure Water

Alkaline

8 Sea Water

9 Baking Soda

10 Antacid

11 Ammonia

12 Soapy Water

13 Bleach, Oven Cleaner

14 Drain Cleaner

Chronic pain is related to pH imbalance and the accumulation of acid deposits in the joints of the neck, hips, wrists, and hands. It is this accumulated acid that damages cartilage. When the cells that produce lubricating synovial fluids and bursa fluids are acidic, this condition causes a dryness that irritates and swells the joints. When uric acid builds up, it tends to deposit in the form of crystals that can feel like broken glass in the feet, hands, knees, and back.

Thankfully, you don’t have to worry about this when your body is kept within the alkaline range of 7.0 - 7.4. In fact, while in this range it is impossible for disease to sustain itself, because the immune system is strong and the acidic environment necessary for diseases like cancer, gout, and arthritis no longer exists. Chart 12.1 will help you see just how the foods you eat and the beverages you drink contribute to an unhealthy internal environment.

Acidity and Stress

An imbalanced pH or acid/alkaline interior environment is one of the hidden causes of disease and one of the states that makes our existing health symptoms worse. So how does the body become too acidic (and thus, unhealthy) and place you at risk for negative health symptoms? Well, excess stress is a big one.

As I discussed in chapter 2, stress, or the effects of being in the “fight or flight” response for too long a period of time, releases stress hormones into the body, flooding the blood stream with protective chemicals. These chemicals, like cortisol, were necessary during the times of our ancestors who had to run for their lives from wild beasts or rival tribes.

These days, this stress response is caused by different types of stressors, like emotional upset, physically demanding work, and overwhelming psychological issues that we deal with at home and at work. There are too many of these happening throughout the day. It is no wonder we are under chronic states of stress, are not well, and are in a constant acidic state. Our modern diet is also a huge contributor to our chronic acidic interior environment. When food reaches your digestive tract, it is broken down and either leaves an alkaline or an acidic residue behind. If you eat foods that are organic, whole, and fresh, and drink plenty of pure water, the body can easily maintain an alkaline state.

However, consuming excess sugar, refined grains, preservatives, pesticides, dairy products (like cow’s milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream), red meat, chocolate, coffee, soda and alcohol turns the body acidic. One of the main effects of a poor diet is inflammation, which is also the main symptom of chronic pain and illness.

Ph is a measure of the potential hydrogen or residue a food leaves behind, as being either alkaline or acidic. And this is not directly related to the acidic nature of a food before it is digested. Lemons, for example, are highly acidic.

If you squeeze the juice of a lemon on an open wound, it will burn. However, when ingested and digested, lemon is very alkalizing for the body, and lemon juice can help reduce acidic levels. A diet that is low in acidic foods and packed full of nutrient-dense alkalizing foods will make you healthier, while also reducing the symptoms of your chronic pain or illness.

If you have pain or chronic disease, you more than likely have a predisposition to infection, and it is likely that a pH imbalance is present in your body. To be sure, you can purchase pH testing strips or rolls in your local drug store.

These are thin paper items that gauge your pH level when dipped either into your saliva or urine stream, first thing in the morning before anything is eaten or drunk. You should strive to have your pH in in the alkaline range, and if you aren’t at that level, you should try to move closer to it each day.

Good Foods

Now for the good news. There are plenty of foods that you can add to your daily diet to make you strong and keep you in homeostatic balance. A diet high in fiber and whole foods, low in preservatives and unhealthy fat, and infused with blood-invigorating aromatic spices can help reduce pain and inflammation.

It is essential to any healthful diet that you consume as many fresh, organic, whole foods as possible. Eating foods in or close to their original state is one of the keys to being healthy, preventing self-induced diet-based inflammation, and reducing the inflammation you are experiencing as a result of your pain or illness.

Dr. Wiley’s book, Arthritis Reversed, gives a concise list of the best foods known to prevent and help reduce inflammation and pain. These should be eaten throughout the day as part of balanced wholesome meals.

<ul>

<li>Wild fish (example: Alaskan salmon)</li>

<li>Fresh whole fruits</li>

<li>Bright colored vegetables (except nightshades)</li>

<li>Green and white tea</li>

<li>Purified and distilled water</li>

<li>Healthy oils (coconut, olive, flax, hemp, safflower, hazelnut)</li>

<li>Beef and poultry that is certified organic, grass fed, soy free, and free range</li>

<li>Nuts, legumes, and seeds</li>

<li>Dark green leafy vegetables</li>

<li>Organic oatmeal (regular, not instant)</li>

<li>Aromatic spices (turmeric, ginger, cloves, garlic, onion, coriander,</li>

</ul>

and ground mustard seed)

I want to stress the importance of making sure your meat comes from animals that are grass fed, soy free, free range, and certified organic. It is a sad truth that a lot of the meat that is commercially available today comes from sick animals, who are kept in awful, unhealthy, and cruel conditions.

These animals are usually stuffed and packed into barns so tightly they can barely move and they get little to no natural light. They are also often given growth hormones and overfed with foods they wouldn’t eat normally, like corn for cows and, in some cases, even dead, sick animals. These conditions obviously make the animals sick, and then they need antibiotics. At the end of this cycle, the unhealthy, antibiotic-ridden, hormone-laced meat from a sick animal finds its way into our bodies. That’s why it’s so important to choose your meat with care.

As you can see, a diet high in whole foods and low in preservatives and unhealthy fat is an essential part of any pain and illness relief plan. Not only do the above-listed foods actually work to reduce pain and inflammation, but they also support proper nerve function, and muscle and bone health.

Remember, the acid/alkaline or pH level of your body (which can cause or prevent inflammation), is related to the foods you consume. Using the chart reproduced from Dr. Wiley’s Arthritis Reversed below, see how what you consume on a daily or monthly basis may be contributing to the worsening of your chronic health condition.

) Inflamation and Autoimmune reaction - Everyday Foods that Fan the Flames of Inflammation