"The more severe the pain or illness, the more severe will be the critical changes. These may involve breaking bad habits, or acquiring some new and great ones." -Peter McWilliams
You are not helpless in your fight against inflammation! Your diet plays a major role in activating or suppressing a protein called cytokines that causes inflammation. I can't stress this enough. For that and other reasons that will be discussed shortly, I would like you to start reasoning in terms of: "Is what I'm swallowing development me healthier or sicker?" There is little if any neutral ground. It is as if everything that you swallow is sending a signal to your immune principles to whether cause more inflammation or less.
Coffee
The following are groups of foods that you should avoid because they send a signal to your body to furnish more inflammatory cytokines. They are also toxic to your body in manifold ways, polluting the internal terrain of the body and promoting inflammation.
Most Meat, Except Oily Fish
We often hear the phrase "all things in moderation". Meat, especially red meat, is an exception to this rule. Even what most would consider a "moderate" amount of red meat can furnish an intolerable amount of cytokines and bring on autoimmune symptoms.
For some, the "low-carb craze" has meant an increase in meat consumption. If eating the low-carb way means that you are eating a lot of meat, you are development your autoimmune health worse. Protein from meat raises the levels of the toxins uric acid and urea in the blood. The body pumps inordinate amounts of water into the kidneys to help flush out these toxins. The ensue of a high animal-based protein diet is very quick water "weight loss". The downside of this "weight loss" is that it causes the body to lose critical minerals. Mineral deficiencies cause autoimmunity. A great protein option comes from vegetable-based proteins. These proteins improve mineral holding in the body.
One physician has reported that within two weeks of his lupus patients not eating meat, most showed critical correction in their skin lesions.
The Swank Diet calls for giving up red meat for one year. Then, after the first year, allowing yourself four ounces of red meat per week. This diet has made a critical correction in the lives of habitancy with manifold Sclerosis (Ms). Dr. Swank studied more than 150 of his patients with Ms for a thirty-four year period of time. Those who followed the diet died at the rate of 5%, while patients not following his diet had a death rate of about 85% while the same time period.
However, reducing meat intake isn't just about living longer, it is about living well! This suggestion is for everyone, not just those whose range of autoimmune symptoms are called lupus or Ms. No matter where in your body cytokines procure or what they are attacking, eating red meat will increase their numbers. The way that meat is ready also makes a difference. Charbroiled and grilled meats of any kind are much worse for you and should be fully avoided.
Fish is the exception to the meat rule. Fish does not raise cytokine levels. It truly reduces them. The qoute is that much of our fish is contaminated with toxic mercury. Unless you are sure that your fish source is mercury free, you should limit your fish intake to one serving per week and use fish oil supplements instead. Some habitancy will even be sensitive to one contaminated serving of fish. Check your local health food stores for fish farmed in "mercury-free" tested water. Additionally, salmon is a fish that is facilely ready and least likely to be mercury contaminated.
Egg Yolks
Egg yolks and dairy products are high in arachidonic acid. This is the same substance that makes meats so inflammatory. If you are going to eat eggs, you should only eat the whites. On a food label, eggs can be listed as albumin, globulin, ovamucin, or vitellin.
Dairy Products
"...countries with the highest dairy consumption, such as the United States and Sweden, because of their high animal protein diets, have the highest rates of osteoporosis, a disease consuming the weakening and potential breaking of bones."
-Richard Schwartz, Ph.D.
Research published in the Lancet medical Journal described a small group of patients with lasting Fatigue Syndrome (Cfs) in Norway. For four years, they experienced astronomical correction by excluding milk and wheat from their diets. Reintroducing these foods into their diets caused a critical rise in the patients' cytokine levels along with an increase in pain.
Besides increasing cytokines, milk supplementary aggravates asthma because of its casein content. When the protein of other animal is introduced into the human body, the immune principles responds with an allergic reaction. Casein is a milk protein. Eating casein causes your body to furnish histamines, which ensue in excess mucus production.
Those with Cfs and asthma are not alone in their sensitivity to milk. Agreeing to the New England Journal of Medicine, July 30, 1992, studies propose that a definite milk protein is responsible for the onset of diabetes because patients furnish antibodies to cow milk proteins.
Milk's vices are many. As strange as it may sound, the digestion of milk proteins can create an addictive substance that acts like endorphins, our own personal narcotics. The same can be true of gluten and wheat. These endorphins have the ability to disrupt brain chemistry and cause addiction.
I am sorry, but this has to be said: Last year, the median liter of milk in America contained 323 million pus cells. Sick and infected cows have cell counts above 200 million. A count of 323 million is not even salutary by dairy commerce standards. Drinking pus is a bad idea for anyone. It is a terrible idea for someone with a tendency towards immune dysfunction.
Gluten
Gluten is a component of grains such as wheat, oats, barley, and rye. Besides being inflammatory, doctors have reported a higher than median amount of habitancy with autoimmune disorders are allergic to gluten. They propose complete avoidance for at least one month to see if benefits will occur.
Studies have also shown that wheat and corn can irritate patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and raise cytokine output in the colon and rectum of those with celiac disease.
Corn, Corn Oil, Corn Syrup (Fructose)
Corn, Besides promoting cytokines, has been called the important cause of lasting food addiction in this century. To give you an idea of how suited the addiction can be, all cigarettes made in the U.S. Since World War I have contained added sugars, regularly from corn. Do you think the cigarette associates chose corn syrup for the great taste it adds to their products?
Corn syrup (fructose) is cheap and twice as sweet as cane sugar. In 1994, the median someone ate 83 pounds of fructose. Corn syrup causes an increase in blood lactic acid, especially in habitancy with diabetes. Fructose from corn syrup inhibits copper metabolism and decreases mineral availability, two factors in autoimmunity. Fructose also breaks down into a substance that weakens your body's natural anti-inflammatory molecules. The body does not metabolize fructose the same as other sugars. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. Corn fructose truly isn't the diabetic-friendly and mild sugar substitute that it is advertised to be.
Studies have shown that corn can irritate patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (Ra) and the National Fibromyalgia connection (Nfa) suggests corn should be avoided because it can aggravate Fibromyalgia.
Remember that if corn products can increase cytokine levels in those with Ra and Fibromyalgia, it can increase cytokine levels for anyone.
Sugar
We Americans are eating an median of 153 pounds of sugar a year. Refined white sugar makes
it more difficult for your body to discharge vitamins and minerals, a major contributor to the cause of autoimmunity. Sugar also suppresses immune function, leaving us open to infection. Just eight tablespoons of sugar, which is the equivalent to the sugar in less than one 12-ounce can of soda, can sacrifice the ability of your immune principles to kill germs by up to 40%.
Like salt, sugar is dehydrating to the body. Dehydration increases histamine, which can
worsen asthma and any other autoimmune disease because histamine increases cytokine production. As propose by the National Fibromyalgia connection (Nfa), sugars should be avoided because they can worsen the condition. Sugar feeds Lyme-causing bacteria and Candida yeast, the point of which will be discussed later. Eating sugar also causes an insulin surge, which contributes to lasting inflammation.
Honey is sugar. It may be "all natural", but it is still sugar. It is higher in calories than table sugar and can be contaminated by pesticides. consuming "all natural" appetizing tasting pesticides is not what you want to be doing.
A good non-toxic substitute for sugar is the nutritional supplement stevia. Stevia has been used by millions of habitancy without reported side effects. In Japan, stevia sweetened products represent 41% of the store share of sweet substances consumed.
Stevia is an herb originally from Paraguay. South Americans use it as a sweetener and also for restorative purposes. This herb is in any place from 30 to 100 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia does not work on the blood sugar levels of most diabetics. Stevia also does not feed fungus in the intestines like sugars do.
Stevia has a strong, sweet flavor that can overwhelm a recipe, so it should be used sparingly. Because you only use such a small amount at a time, recipes must be adjusted for the lack of bulk. Stevia can often be purchased with helpful inulin added to it for bulk. Also, cakes and cookies sweetened with stevia do not brown as much as their sugar-sweetened counterparts.
Flour/Processed Foods
For you uncomplicated carbohydrate-lovers (addicts), the next sentence is going to be one of the most painful ones in the book. If you want to get rid of cytokine inflammation, you must give up processed foods and junk foods. They tend to be full of everything you shouldn't eat. This list includes most morning meal cereals, muffins, breads, crackers, cookies, and doughnuts.
White flour contains alloxan, which is the chemical used to make flour look clean and white. Alloxan destroys the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. It does so by initiating free radical damage to the Dna in the pancreas. Researchers believe that some habitancy have weak defenses to free radicals in these beta cells. Alloxan is so potent that researchers who study diabetes use it to give diabetes to lab animals. While not every person who eats white breads and processed foods will get diabetes, the connection is clear: Alloxan causes diabetes in those genetically susceptible to the disease.
The Nightshade Family
Vegetables in the nightshade house consist of white potatoes, tomatoes, all peppers, cherries, tobacco, and eggplants. Study indicates that these vegetables furnish pain and inflammation in arthritis patients and aggravate Fibromyalgia Agreeing to the National Fibromyalgia connection (Nfa). However, not every person will be sensitive to nightshade foods. The only way to know for sure is to avoid them for a period of weeks then reintroduce them into your diet.
Everyone should avoid tobacco, which is a toxic member of the nightshade family, permanently.
Coffee
Despite being inflammatory, coffee has had its restorative purposes. My own ancestors used it to treat asthma. I have friends surface the U.S., who are still dependent upon coffee to treat asthma. definite caffeine-type chemicals in coffee have been proven sufficient at stimulating bronchial dilation in habitancy diagnosed with specific types of asthma. Some contemporary day asthma medications are even made from chemicals in the caffeine family.
For those using coffee as a natural asthma medication, you should keep in mind that caffeine is a toxic chemical. Its purpose in plant life is to act as an insecticide. In people, caffeine suppresses the enzymes needed for memory making. It also raises both blood sugar and insulin levels, causing cytokine output and aggravating diabetes.
Simply drinking decaffeinated coffee isn't the talk either. Women who drink more than one cup a day of decaffeinated coffee are determined at a much higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. The principles is that chemically decaffeinated products are causing the increased risk of autoimmunity. If you are going to drink decaffeinated coffee anyway, be sure that it uses a non-chemical based decaffeinating formula and that the coffee was organically grown. Those who do not drink organic coffee, are exposed to too many man-made pesticides.
Alcohol
The wine commerce has America convinced that a glass or two a day is good for your heart. However, John Folts, Ph.D of the University of Wisconsin, has done studies, which show that to receive those heart-healthy benefits, you would have to consume enough wine to be declared legally drunk. Grape juice is a healthier alternative. Dr. Folt's study also found that only ten to twelve ounces of purple grape juice was linked with lower blood clotting, thus a lower risk of heart disease than promised by red wine.
Besides being pro-inflammatory and addictive, alcohol breaks down to a toxin in the body called aldehyde. Toxins are hazardous chemicals that the liver does not identify as useful. Toxins assault and destroy cells and attract germs. Aldehyde accumulates in the brain, spinal cord, joints, muscles and tissues, where it causes muscle weakness, irritation, and pain.
Conclusion
"Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and sickness ... It is we who control these, and not another."
-Richard Bach
It is up to us as individuals to read labels and avoid those foods that are causing inflammation in the body and development us sick. With many of these foods, because you consume them on a daily basis, you don't even identify they are causing you symptoms. Unless you totally give them up for a month or so, you won't know how these inflammatory foods have been affecting you.
Foods that Promote Inflammation
