Got Inflammation?

If you are like most Americans chances are you have inflammation in your body.  Two main causes of inflammation are stress and the food you eat.  Stress can be either emotional or physical.  You may not think it but emotional stress is actually more harmful on your body than physical stress.  Stress inflames your body weakening your immune system causing you to get sick, tired, and fat.  This is why daily mediation and getting outside into nature on a daily basis are good things to do to help reduce the amount of stress on your body. 

A lot of people may not think it, but most of their health issues come from what they eat.  When you eat food that that irritates your body and causes inflammation it will lead to other problems such as leaky gut, arthritis, insomnia, weight gain, depression, fatigue, and the list goes on.  This is why it is important to always make your gut health a number one priority.  If you are not healthy on inside then it does not matter what you do on the outside because it will have no effect until your inside is healthy first.  Now here is another problem and that is most people have no clue what foods are bad for them personally other than junk food and processed junk.  The main foods that cause inflammation in your body are sugar, corn, eggs, gluten, and alcohol.  This is not the same for everyone though as different people react different to the food they eat.  

So how does one go about finding out which foods are bad for them?  Well there are few things you can do.  One is an elimination diet where you completely remove a certain food from your diet for a length of time at least 7 days or more.  If you notice changes in your body and start to feel better and have more energy, then chances are your body cannot tolerate the food you eliminated.  You will know for sure if that food you eliminated is bad for you by slowing reintroducing it back into your body.   If you start to feel bad again then you know for sure that it is a food you want to avoid.  Another option is to do a poop test (that’s right a poop test) and what this will do is tell you which nutrients you are deficient in and also what kind of bacteria you have in your body.  From the results one can make recommendations on what to eat and which supplements to take to get your body back into working order.

Why is any of this stuff important?  After all stress and eating what you want is all a part of life right?  Your body has the ability to heal it’s self from just about anything if it is in proper working order. Imagine getting more sleep at night without going to the bathroom in the middle night.  Imagine having more energy throughout the entire day.  Imagine having full range of motion in your joints with no aches or pain.  Imagine never getting sick because your gut health is superior and have an impenetrable immune system.  Imagine getting stronger in all your lifts and reducing your body fat to cover page material.  This is what life will be like if you remove the inflammation from your body!

Here are two books to read about with more information about inflammation on how to heal your body with what you eat.

“The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease and Heal your Body”                                                            by: Sarah Ballantyne

“The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook: An Allergen-Free Approach to Managing Chronic Illiness”                   by: Mickey Trescott

Below is a chart that can help you pick foods to an inflammation free body.