If you have been living with a diagnosis of arthritis then you have likely been advised of the problem with inflammation.
What much of this advice lacks, though, is better “next step” counseling, which involves the reason for widespread, chronic inflammation in the first place: inflammatory foods in the diet.
We hear a lot about inflammation when the topic of arthritis and other inflammatory process conditions come up. It is widely known that conditions which fall under the umbrella of arthritis, are caused by our body’s immune system attacking itself.
Kind of like a fire brigade putting out a fire, but then hanging around after the threat is gone and continuing to tear down walls and knock things over.
What tells the brigade to stick around? Chemicals in the blood provided by diet that tell our immune system to wreak havoc on our joints, organs, even blood vessels.
How do we stop the chemicals? Easy- stop eating and drinking them.
Today we’ll look at the top 4 offenders on the inflammation-causing list of what you must avoid at all cost:
1) Alcohol and tobacco products
This doesn’t mean the occasional 1 glass of red wine with a meal. This refers to the chronic consumption of hard liquor or higher volumes of any alcohol. Tobacco causes NOTHING but damage system-wide and provides zero benefit. The other problem with alcoholic beverages? They’re all (especially beer) loaded with simple carbs…
2) Refined carbohydrates and sugar
Countless studies have warned of the dangers of excess sugars and too many carbohydrates. The body just doesn’t need this excess sugar and to try and deal with the flood of garbage, it compensates by storing it as fat, taxing the kidneys, and attacking the beta cells in the pancreas (type 2 diabetes, anyone?). This is the hardest to purge because it’s EVERYWHERE, especially in…
3) Packaged and processed food
Excess sugar isn’t the only problem with processed food that’s been tinkered with to give it a shelf life. Chemicals and preservatives have been long known to cause widespread inflammation and often are the source of oxidative stress and free radicals.
An overdose of Omega 6 fatty acids that unbalances the healthy Omega 3 relationship is the most common example. Foods processed with Omega 6-rich vegetable oils are an invasive threat. Go natural and raw when you can and leave the processed foods on the shelf.
4) Advanced Glycation End Product, or AGE
This happens to food that is pasteurized or heated to excess, like steaks on the >500 degree grill. People with type 2 diabetes are now routinely warned to steer clear of high-temp grilled foods, because of the AGE problem. Same should be true for arthritis. AGEs damage critical proteins in the body (an assault), which triggers the inflammatory response of sending cytokines to break up the AGEs (the brigade).
The result is an unnecessary but predictable inflammation response. The fix is to stop the love affair with steaks grilled at high temps (red meat in excess is a problem, anyway) and limit dairy consumption because to make it safe to consume, dairy has to be pasteurized. Get your protein from quinoa, egg whites, fish, or safer sources.
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