Inflammation Free – Reset Your Body Mechanics
Feeling bloated? Constipated? Moody? Does your face appear swollen? Guess what? Inflammation might be the culprit. Often we overlook our diets and head to the Dr for a prescription when indeed we can treat this without running to load up on meds.
Inflammation requires serious consideration as it’s the gateway to other illnesses. When the body is not fueling and eliminating properly this can cause internal imbalances. A prolonged exposure to this behavior can really be harmful. Try to gauge causes as soon as you can, to address them.
First, let’s take a look at food:
- Avoid processed foods and when possible, eat organic. Why? To avoid pathogens, people, that’s why. These are gut instigators such as herbicides, gluten grains, and genetically modified foods create an imbalance in our gut. Why? Because our DNA is accustomed to eating naturally grown foods, not the franken food we find on shelves today. This imbalance promotes intestinal permeability, changes in our intestinal flora that facilitate the growth of pathogenic bacteria, yeast, and fungus which keep our immune systems in a state of alarm. This causes inflammation.
- Avoid sugar. Everyone hears this but often struggle to understand what this actually means. No candy? No chocolate? Not exactly. Sugar is in a lot of the foods you normally consume. Ketchup, for instance, has sugar. Fruit juices are often riddled with it. Flavored coffees, low-fat yogurts and even “protein bars” at the market. Most canned foods have added sugar and breakfast cereal is the main culprit. This is important to note because that’s how a lot of America kicks off their day. You must check your food labels and in the ingredient section, normally the top 3-4 ingredients indicate 90% of the food composition. Keynote: cane crystals are sugar as is molasses. Be wary of food with these ingredients.
For a list of surprising foods that contain sugar, click here.
One way to determine what foods might be causing you inflammation would be to try the Whole30 program, an elimination diet tailored to educate people to understand food groups that may unknowingly affect their health.
The way the program works is by strategically eliminating foods such as: sugar, avoid alcohol, no grains, no legumes, no dairy, no baked goods/junk foods and no MSG, or sulfites. For a complete program, click here Once these are eliminated for 30 days, the program encourages to trickle some of these into your diet. When your body is re-exposed to these elements, you will be able to detect how it affects your body. In many instances, inflammation, constipation and mood swings begin to happen. The program does not ask you to weigh yourself at all but rather monitor how you feel.
If you continue to feel bloated, see a physician. It’s best to seek medical advice as soon as possible when you are ill.