Inflammation – Friend or Foe?

May 19, 2011 5:00 am Published by

The fact that illnesses related to chronic inflammation are now affecting over 50% of the American population, just doesn’t sit well with me. What really makes me lose sleep is the fact that these conditions can easily be prevented or improved simply by changing the foods that we choose to eat on a daily basis. We are not victims to these types of diseases; we are simply uneducated and misguided when it comes to how much nutrition plays a role in our health.
Medical research has found that inflammation is an underlying contributor to virtually every chronic disease from rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, depression, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and some silent killers such as heart disease, stroke and cancer. Yikes!
Would you expect your car to run well if you put oil in your gas tank? I don’t think so. So why do we fill our bodies with junk food and then ask, “Why is my body failing me?” when we get sick? Proper nutrition isn’t complicated. Nature provides us with the foods that we are intended to eat such as lean meats, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and fruit. What complicates nutrition is all of the quick and easy options that we have available to us, such as fast foods and processed foods in packages.
To protect yourself from inflammation and the complications that accompany it, I encourage you to eat the natural foods I mentioned above. In addition, start reading food labels to get a good idea of what you’re putting in your body. Be aware that the major inflammatory contributors are refined sugar; flour products like pasta and bread, soybean, cottonseed, corn, safflower and sunflower oils. Omega-6 fatty acids, another key inflammatory agent, have also been abundantly added to processed foods for the last 50 years.

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This post was written by alkiwellness