Transitioning from eating an unhealthy diet full of bad carbohydrates, greasy fried foods, sugary snack, sodas, and other bad food choices to eating a healthy balanced diet of lean meats, fruits, and vegetables, as well as just a more natural / simple / raw diet can greatly reduce inflammation.
As inflammation is the largest cause of health issues that we deal with as individuals and as a society, we’ve worked hard to improve the way that we fight inflammation and reduce the stress load on our bodies. However, many people still resort to taking a pill like Tylenol or Advil to suppress inflammation rather than solving the problem at the source. One of the greatest choices you can make to help reduce inflammation is by choosing wisely what you put in your body on a daily basis.
What Causes Inflammation
Inflammation is the process by which your body’s immune system activates the white blood cells to protect you from external invaders such as bacteria and viruses. Many people struggle with autoimmune conditions that make this worse, but some also feel that our body’s autoimmune reactions, even the chronic ones, are due to a inflammation trigger even when your body has nothing to fight.
Inflammation causes pain in throughout our nervous system letting us know something is wrong. The body creates chemical that causes the inflammation in response to the invader causing pain, irritating the nerves. Because of this, many people take medication to reduce the pain caused by inflammation. However, our diet can make a greater difference, and it’s best to try eliminating different foods from your diet to see if something in specific is causing your inflammation. Let’s look at inflammation and what causes it.
Ways to Reduce Inflammation
- Water: Water is the natural way our body cleanses itself of toxins and harmful substances and thus is the primary way that we can dilute and eliminate the bad chemicals within our body. By avoiding coffee, tea, soda, alcohol and other harmful substances your body can eliminate the negative chemicals quicker and more efficiently. Getting sufficient water to be considered hydrated is harder than it seems, but it will help reduce injuries and detox your body.
- Oil: Including essential fatty acids in your body from foods like nuts and avocados can help reduce inflammation through prostaglandins. Others can increase inflammation and should be avoided. Taking an omega-3 fatty acid supplement can also support your body’s ability to fight inflammation.
- Stay away from refined sugar and gluten/white flour. Insulin increases inflammation and eating sugar and starchy foods will cause your body to increase insulin production and directly increase inflammation as well. Soda, sweets, and sugary snacks will help to keep you in pain.
- Eat brightly colored produce: The bright colors in fruits and vegetables are from bioflavonoids—these are wonderful antioxidants. They protect the cells of the plant from sun and from photosynthesis (which involves oxidation). When we eat them they protect our cells. There is a lot of research that demonstrates that antioxidants help to reduce pain and inflammation.
- Eat raw food: If that produce you are eating is raw, so much the better. Raw food contains enzymes and enzymes help your body to chemically clean up inflammation.
Keep in mind that pain medications cause much more harm than good, especially over time. Avoid the damage and visit the chiropractor in Southlake, TX to get the proper care your body needs and to get the answers you need to reduce inflammation in your body.
