Did you know that chronic inflammation has been found to be a precursor to almost every chronic disease and chronic disease? And that it affects 133 million Americans?
Right now, that may look like slow and steady weight gain, sleep disturbances, joint pain, migraines, brain fog, and fatigue, and over time these symptoms will get worse.And you may not even realize that the food you’re putting in your body is causing acute inflammation now that can lead to serious problems later.
The problem is that a lot of people don’t even realize that they have signs of chronic inflammation or if they do, they don’t know what the long term effects are or what they can do to fix it now.
Today, we’re going to talk about the signs of inflammation and what you should be doing about it to help prevent some serious chronic conditions and to just help you feel better on a daily basis because if you’re bloated and tired all of the time you’re not going to feel your best.
What is inflammation? It isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Inflammation is how your body tries to protect itself. It’s your body’s way of protecting itself.
Think back on the last time you stubbed your toe or got a tiny paper cut. Your skin puffs up and it turns pink. What you’re seeing is fluid rushing to that location to try to heal the tissue. Or Have you ever tried a new workout and then the next day everything is sore and hurts? You have muscles you didn’t even realize you had. You probably noticed that your body felt kind of tight, swollen, achy, and sore. Well, that is inflammation. It’s a good thing. It’s healing your tissues.
Bodily inflammation is weight in fluids that you may have been carrying around for years simply because you’re eating foods that are inflammatory for YOU.
Basically anything that stresses your body out is a cue for your body to protect itself. It’s our first line of defense. I mean, we’re pretty good at taking care of ourselves. When your body gets the message that it needs to heal, it sends inflammation to that area. Now, there’s two different types of inflammation. You’re going to know these. The first one is what we call acute inflammation. If you’ve ever rolled your ankle, stubbed your toe, or got a sliver in your finger, the inflammation comes on suddenly. The second type of inflammation is what we call chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation builds up over time slowly, over days, weeks, months, decades. We often don’t even notice it. It’s also the root cause of so many diseases.
Chronic inflammation is what happens when we’re repeatedly exposed to something that our body sees as foreign, even though we might not see it as foreign.
In other words, you can go into the grocery store and see a bag of chips that looks familiar to you, but it’s filled with chemicals and fake ingredients. Even though you can eat it and you’re not going to get sick, your body still, because of evolution, sees it as a foreign object, the result of which, consuming fake foods for years and years, is the buildup of chronic inflammation.
Chronic inflammation is the cause of almost all disease. Chronic inflammation can cause diseases such as: rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, IBS, heart disease, and so many more. Just about any disease of the brain or the immune system can be directly linked back to chronic inflammation.
Then, it’s really easy to pack on the pounds even when you’re like, “I don’t get it. I’m exercising like crazy. I’m eating the right foods and I’m counting calories.”
Inflammation can also be caused by an infection or a food sensitivity, even a food sensitivity to something that should be healthy.
So what types of food cause inflammation?
Some are obvious like high fructose corn syrup and processed crap, like artificial trans fats, vegetable and seed oils, refined carbohydrates and processed meat.
But some aren’t as obvious like seasoning mixes, agave and peanuts.
Plus, you will notice that some foods aren’t on a list, but they seem to affect you and that’s because food affects people differently.
That’s why it’s so important to make notes about how you feel after eating so that you can cut out the food that is causing inflammation for you and start eliminating that food from your diet.
Now let me clear, does this mean that you can never have a cupcake or ice cream again? Definitely not, because that’s not realistic, but it’s going to make you much more aware. It’s going to make you stop and think about if it’s really worth it and the goal is to limit it to special occasions or when you’re truly craving it not as a dessert every night.
So, first thing you need to do to eliminate inflammation is keep a food diary for a few days, write down everything you eat and how you feel afterwards.
Second, start adding more anti-inflammatory food like berries (strawberries, blueberries, etc.), fatty fish like salmon. Avocado and broccoli are great superfoods that have tons of other benefits too! Also, drink green tea or add turmeric to your meals to help with inflammation.
Keep a food diary for the next 3 days. Write down everything that you eat and how you feel afterwards and then let us know what you learned. Let us know what foods leave you feeling bloated or tired or in a brain fog so that you can cut them out of your diet and prevent inflammation!
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