Fight Inflammation Naturally

I've spoken before about the importance of managing inflammation in your body, through eating whole foods: vegetables, meats, seafood, fruits, some nuts and seeds. You want to reduce inflammation since it seems to be the root of many diseases – so an easy way to stay healthy is to reduce inflammation. You can reduce inflammation by NOT putting inflammatory things into your body like gluten and lectins, which means removing certain foods from your diet. Another thing you can do is put good things into your body that are anti-inflammatory. Spring is in the air and so are the beautiful cherry blossoms, and cherries have a lot of great nutritional properties and are something that you should consider including in your diet as part of your plan to reduce inflammation.

 
Cherries are a rich source of:


• Vitamin C
• Potassium
• Boron, a mineral that plays an essential role in bone health, especially for women

...and help control inflammation


 One way to use cherries is to think of them as a great post workout tool, like taking extra fish oil after a heavy lifting day, you can incorporate cherries and natural unsweetened cherry juice into your post workout recovery routine. According to this article by Leo Galland, MD through the Huffington post cherries may be as effective as aspirin, are great for workout recovery, and may even be able to help with gout. He quotes a study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition that states that consuming cherries “before and after strenuous work” (Crossfit anyone?) “may have a protective effect to reduce muscle damage and pain.” My additional two cents, try cherries but make sure you’re checking for added sugars and be careful how much fruit you're eating, espeically if it's dried fruit. Munch on dried cherries on a long run, experiment with the concentrated unsweetened cherry juice as a post workout recovery tool, and once they come in season grab some from your local farmer’s market and enjoy as a recovery tool and delicious snack!

Why go Grass Fed?

My last post talked about the 1/8th of a cow I got through Philly Cow Share. You may be wondering why go grass fed? To start, there is some truth that you are what you eat, and as I mentioned in the Optimal not Tolerable post. What I didn't mention is that you also are what you eat, eats. When you eat conventionally raised meats and farmed fish which are fed lots of corn, soy, antibiotics, hormones, and questionable feed (mixed in animal products in some cases) that food is what is being used as the building blocks for that animal's fat and muscles. So when you eat conventionally raised meats and fish, they have a higher amount of Omega 6 fats (that cause inflammation) from eating all of the corn (Corn oil's Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio is 46:1). Not to mention any antibiotic or additional growth hormone that may also be there.


Grass fed meats are healthier because the animal is eating what it was evolved to eat, so it has a more complete nutrition profile and doesn't have industrial by products. When your animals are eating grass, seeds, grubs, insects, etc (depending on what the animal is) it has a healthier profile, grows at a natural rate and has less Omega 6 fats since it's not eating any corn. You naturally are getting a some amount of Omega 3's since cows are eating a diet that is natural to them along with some other good stuff like CLAs. When you eat higher quality meats you are fueling your body with more optimal sources. Starting to be concerned about quality is the next level of optimizing your food choices, after you've changed your food choices to primarily whole foods - focusing on meats, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.


Where can you find grass fed or pastured meats, the first step is to start asking and looking for it. Often times it's in with the Organic meats. But if something says vegetarian fed or organic that doesn't mean that it's grass fed or pastured. Be careful what you are buying and decide for yourself what is worth the additional money. Check out farmer's markets in your area, try to find a local farm, look for resources like Philly Cow Share and Farm to City that serve the Philadelphia area. Other great resources for high quality meats are: EatWild and US Wellness Meats where you can order meat that is delivered right to you door.


Are you ready to make a commitment to improve the quality of what you're eating?

For a more depth description of the differences between grass fed and grain fed, check out this post by Mark Sisson on Mark's Daily Apple.

Are you sensitive to gluten?

One of the foods that I choose to exclude from my diet are grains, primarily because they contain "anti-nutrients" which your body reacts negatively to when you consume them.  The most well known of the grain anti-nutrients is gluten.  Going gluten free has been pretty trendy lately, and there is a reason why - when people are cutting it out of their food choices generally people feel better.  You don't have to be diagnosed with Celiac Disease to see that your body runs better when it's gluten free.  Each person's gluten sensitivity varies, and some common health ailments that you have: headaches, allergies, stuffiness, bloating, etc could be related to gluten.  The thing is that most people have been eating gluten since they were able to eat solid foods, so its difficult to know how much better you would feel without gluten until you cut it out.  The chart shows 3 levels of gluten intolerance: sensitivity, wheat allergy, and celiac disease.

Gluten Sensitivity: Gluten sensitivity can manifest itself in the form of an "IBS-like stomach problems, headaches, fatigue, numbness and depression, but more than 100 symptoms have been loosely linked to gluten intake."  Diagnosing gluten sensitivity is difficult, since there isn't a targeted set of symptoms, but "some experts think as many as 1 in 20 Americans may have some form of [gluten sensitivity]" so if you experience any of the issues listed above, it may be worth going gluten free to see if you feel better.

Wheat Allergy: If you have a wheat allergy it may be related to the gluten in wheat, but could be realted to something else.  A wheat allergy is rare in adults and children, and most children that do have this allergy outgrow it by the age of 5. 

Celiac Disease: The most extreme reaction to gluten is seen in the diagnosis of Celiac disease, once rarely diagnosed, is now estimated the "1 in 133 Americans" has celiac.  Celiac is a condition where your body attacks gluten, can as a result creates chronic inflammation and can lead to malnutrition in extreme cases.  To read more about celiac, gluten allergies, and gluten sensitivity read this article from the Wall Street Journal, Clues to Gluten Sensitivity. 

The bottom line, many people are sensitive to gluten and although they are hard to diagnose, the symptoms that they experience are real and can be avoided by avoiding gluten.

Food as Medicine

"Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be thy food" Hippocrates

The idea of food as medicine has been around since ancient times, its funny how today we've completely disassociated the idea that food makes you feel good or bad, and that food has a direct impact on our health and how we feel everyday. 

Have you considered how foods make you feel - does caffeine perk you up but then make you jittery?  When you eat a donut or a big bowl of pasta do you feel good afterwards? How about more subtle things, like when you eat dairy do you experience that your skin breaks out a few days later, or that you wake up the next morning and are more congested than usual?  Food directly impacts how we feel and directly impacts our health.  Experimenting with how foods impact your body is a great way to determine what you want to eat for your optimal health.  Personally I think that whole foods make me feel best, and I've found that I operate and feel much better when I eat clean.

Check out this article, Spices and herbs that promote longevity on how spices and herbs can help improve your health.  One of my goals is health and longevity - e.g. to live a long time and be healthy for that time.  I'm always looking for ways to increase my longevity, like reducing stress and inflammation and varying my workouts.  I know that food directing impacts how you feel, but hadn't thought about things like spices and how they can help.  A few I found interesting in the article are that cinnamon can help lower blood sugar and that in addition to anti-nausea properties, "ginger is also thought to relieve the aches and pains of arthritis, headaches, sore muscles, and menstrual cramps." 

What new spice or spices are you going to add to your food? 

Supplements

Nutritional supplements are a hot topic, and are constantly covered in health related news.  Deciding what supplements you should be taking is important, because supplements cost money (sometimes a lot of money!) and are not "real food" so you need to be careful what you're adding to your food and body and understand WHY you're doing it.  When you are eating real and whole foods you are getting a large variety of vitamins and minerals so the standard multi-vitamin is something that is probably useless.  Take the money that you've been spending on that, and invest it in a few other things and you'll improve your health and how you feel. 

The following list is what I take from a supplement perspective and what I take reflects what I think is actually worth taking.  Take my recommendations and reasoning into account when you're deciding what supplements are worth your time and money.

Fish Oil

Fish oil contains DHA and EPA omega 3 fatty acids which are anti-inflammatory.  If inflammation = disease, than something that is anti-inflammatory is a good thing for your health.  Many processed foods, nuts, seeds and grains are high in omega 6 fatty acids, if you're eating a Standard American Diet (SAD) - note the irony in the acronym - you probably have a very high ratio of Omega 6's to Omega 3's.  In order to manage inflammation and promote health and longevity you want your ratio to be as close to 1:1 as possible.  To achieve this you can reduce the amount of  Omega 6's that you consume and take supplemental fish oil to help you reach that 1:1 balance.

One thing to keep in mind, for those that eat fairly clean, is that you also need to account for what your protein sources eat when you're thinking about what your 3:6 ratio looks like.  If you eat pastured/grass fed meats, eggs and butter, wild caught fish, and limit your nuts and seeds you may not need to supplement with fish oil at all.  However, most people probably eat some conventionally raised meats and eggs along with nuts and seeds, so keeping fish oil in your repertoire is a good idea if you're that person.

So how much fish oil should you be taking?  Now that is a tricky question...I go by the Robb Wolf Fish Oil Calculator hosted by Whole 9 for dosing recommendations.  I do increase my fish oil consumption after hard workouts or when I'm feeling really sore and run down.  I might also skip my fish oil for the day if I eat omega-3 enriched eggs and grass-fed meats for a day.  Try it out and see how you feel, and if you are getting blood work check your c-reactive protein and shoot for a value below 1 to see where your overall level of systemic inflammation is.  Note if this is high fish oil may help reduce it, but it could be high for other reasons, like hidden gut irritation, high stress, bad sleep, etc.  When you are buying fish oil look at what's in it, many less expensive varieties have a lot of filler in those giant pills.  Take a look at the EPA and DHA values listed on the back and use the calculator.  Right now I actually take the Nordic Naturals Lemon flavored liquid Omega 3 version - and remember you want only Omega 3 - not Omega 6's!  Flax is also another place you may find omega fats, but there is some science behind the way your body has to break down the ALA's that are found in flax seed that shows that its inefficient to try to get your omega 3's from flax.  Just get over your fear of the large pills or try the liquid out - I promise its really not as bad as you think if its flavored it tastes mostly like lemon.

Vitamin D

I read in a NY Times article that Vitamin D is the "it" supplement of 2010 and I agree that there should be an increased focus on your Vitamin D consumption.  Your body has the ability to create Vitamin D from sunlight, but in our now sun-phobic society that is terrified of skin cancer many of us are blocking our bodies ability to turn UVB rays from sunlight into Vitamin D.  Vitamin D isn't commonly found in most foods (primary food source is in fish like herring, mackerel, catfish, salmon...) which is why its added to some foods like milk.  When you cut dairy out, you need to make sure that you're getting vitamin D from somewhere since clothes and sunscreen block our bodies ability to make it from the sun.  Another way to take a Vitamin D3 supplement, I take between 1,000 and 2,000 IUs per day based on how much I'm outside that day.  In my last blood test, even taking some Vitamin D and being conscious about getting some sun exposure without sunscreen, my Vitamin D levels were just barely above the recommended lower threshold.  Vitamin D is vital to your health and is something that is difficult to get from food - unless you eat herring everyday - so should be something that you consider supplementing with.  It's commented that the current RDA for Vitamin D, even through just updated (and increased) is still very low compared to the amount that is most likely needed for optimal health.  Adding the Vitamin D test to your next set of blood work is inexpensive and worth it to help monitor where you are and how much you should be taking.  This is especially important on the east coast as we're entering the cloudy winter season, I'm planning on upping my Vitamin D dosage another 1,000 IUs for the winter months - this should also help keep any seasonal depression at bay.

Magnesium

I recently started taking a magnesium supplement around bedtime, specifically Natural Calm (pictured).  You're probably thinking, magnesium I've never heard of anyone taking magnesium before, why do you need magnesium and what does that do for you?  Magnesium is a mild muscle relaxant and also works in tandem in your body with calcium and it is  important to have a balance of both for strong healthy bones.  Along with calcium, magnesium also helps to prevent osteoporosis by allowing your body to absorb the calcium you take in through dietary sources, as well as supporting your immune system and muscles. I take magnesium - specifically the fizzy kind as recommended by Robb Wolf - and have noticed that it has dramatically increased the quality of my sleep.  Another quality of Magnesium is that it helps reduce stress and helps me feel more rested when I wake up in the morning.  Personally it doesn't make me drowsy, but allows me to relax and calm down - as a go-go-go Type A person this is a big deal. 
Magnesium, like Vitamin D, is not found in notable amounts in many food sources, which makes supplemention worth considering.  The magnesium supplement is a little costly compared to Vitamin D, but worth experimenting with, especially if you're a person that doesn't have great sleep quality.  It could also help ease adrenal fatigue by helping you slow down and maybe even improve restless leg syndrome for anyone that has that need to move constantly even when you're supposed to be sleeping!

There you have it 3 supplements that I think are worth taking and you thought this was going to be a long list.  When you're eating clean you get more than enough vitamins and minerals through your food so supplementing becomes just that, assistance in areas where real foods fall short.  That being said, regardless of what you decide to take from a supplement perspective, your body is most able to use vitamins and minerals directly from the source - from food and sunlight - verses in pill form.  So as much as possible shoot for eating a wide variety of colors in your vegetables, good quality patured meats and eggs, and shoot for 20 minutes of sunlight a day and you should be covered for your body's nutritional needs. 

Sugar, its not that sweet...

The average sugar consumption of an American has been steadily rising; the average American consumes 20 teaspoons of added sugar EVERY DAY and 120 pounds of sugar a year, approximately 25% of total calories consumed.

Going Paleo means changing your food and eliminating processed foods as well as other food categories primarily grains, legumes, and dairy from your diet - which to a person eating the typical American diet can seem pretty extreme. I didn't change my diet overnight to Paleo, and actually started with a No Sugar challenge. I'm urging you to try a No Sugar challenge on your own and by excluding sugar from your diet I'm not just talking about sugar that you add into things like coffee and rice crispy cereal or switching from Coke to Diet Coke, I'm talking about cutting out ALL added sugar that isn't found naturally in food. So don't worry about the sugar that occurs naturally in the apple that you're eating, as long as you're eating the whole apple or the lactose content of the glass of whole milk you just drank - the sugars in those foods are not the sugars that I'm worried about you over consuming since its hard to eat 15 apples in one sitting or to drink an entire gallon of whole milk in a day (Warnek excluded).

Sugar is pretty sneaky, especially added sugar. It goes by many names like our friend High Fructose Corn Syrup, Honey, Agave, Cane Sugar, Cane Syrup, Tapioca Syrup, Maple Syrup, Brown Sugar, and Sugar Alcohols: sorbitol, maltitol, xylitol, and mannitol.

Milk, Does the Body Good?

There are conflicting opinions when it comes to dairy; I mean, Milk does the body good right?  We live in a country that eats more calcium than any other population yet also as the highest occurrence of osteoporosis.  Something doesn't seem to add up in this scenario.  So let's break it down, do you need to have diary in your diet?  And if you remove it how do you get enough calcium and other vitamins - like Vitamin D that most milk is fortified with?

Milk and dairy products are made up of carbohydrates, fat, and protein like most other foods.  The carbohydrate in milk is Lactose, the protein is Casein, and the fat is Saturated fat.  Now that you know that eating fat doesn't make you fat, I hope you're reconsidering all the skim milk you've been consuming.  Even though I don't include dairy in my diet, I think that dairy is something that can be included in a paleo/primal lifestyle in moderation and from the right sources if it works for you - that's the most important point.  Ideally a Paleo diet that still included dairy would be raw milk straight off a farm.  A general rule of thumb is that the closer the dairy products are to their original state and the aninimals were to eating and living in their natural state the better quality of the product you're eating.

Whole Gains = Wholesome Goodness?

What we think we know about grains based on everything you've heard and been told by your friends, family, doctors, the food pyramid, your health teacher, and the media is that whole grains are healthy and good for you and should be a staple in your diet.  Whole grains are included "as part of a complete breakfast" and to help fulfill you RDA, Recommended Daily Amount, of vitamins and minerals as well as fiber. Americans regularly eat bagels, donuts, pastries, cereal, muffins, toast - all grain based breakfast foods in addition to sandwiches, pizza, rice and pasta at lunch or dinner.

So why did I change my diet and go from eating a loaf of bread a week as a high carb/low fat believer in whole grains to going Paleo and no longer eating grains at all? I started to learn more about grains and found that grains aren't as much good as 'they' say.

First, lets define what is a grain?

Wheat, Rye, Barley, Flour (made from any grain), Oats, Cereals, Corn...yes corn is a grain, Rice, Quinoa*, Couscous

Why I don't eat Grains:

Grains contain Lectins that cause inflammation and cause auto-immune responses:

Lectins = Proteins found in grains (Gluten is one of them) that cause an inflammatory response and break down and actually attack your intestinal lining because your stomach acid is unable to break them down.  When they attack the lining of your gut, it creates small holes that enable both lectins and other things to 'leak' outside of your digestive system and into your blood stream.  When this happens both harmful and non-harmful particles can enter your body, so your body attacks them causing an inflammatory response often associated with auto-immune diseases (like Multiple Sclerosis, Celiac Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis).  In addition to the inflammatory response your body is attacking itself and diverting attention away from being able to attack other things.  With constant re-exposure to grains your gut never has time to heal, and therefore the damage persists and gets worse each time you eat more grains.

Celiac Disease = extreme form of reaction to the lectin gluten, so for people that are gluten intolerant the attacking of the gut lining and response is extremely bad. Robb Wolf, a former research biochemist turned Paleolithic Nutrition and Strength & Conditioning coach, states that all people are gluten intolerant to some degree; try taking grains (especially ones containing gluten) out of your diet and see what clears up...allergies, colds, energy spikes and lows, stuffy nose in the morning, headaches and more.