Food Could be a Cause of Inflammation in the Body

I've been researching a lot lately about inflammation in the body due to certain foods. One of my patients (I'm a Dental Hygienist) came in last week and responded happily to my "any change in you're health" question. It seems that she had been suffering from pain and swelling in her joints, and general malaise. She had gone to a Rheumatologist thinking she had some sort of arthritis, but they found no sign. She eventually was at her Chiropractor and he recommended a blood test to check for "inflammation." Turns out she had a LOT of inflammation. He recommended a diet of mainly vegetables, fruits, legumes, certain grains and lean meats. The exception though, was no gluten and very limited dairy. He feels that gluten and dairy may be the cause of her inflammation even though she had never before been told to avoid them, or had any reaction to them.

After being on this "diet" she says she has never felt better, lost 17 pound (in two months) all her pain is gone and her energy has never been higher. I was amazed. Here was this woman who I've been seeing for years looking so happy and energetic. It gave me pause. Could there be any merit to these claims of gluten and dairy generating an inflammatory response in the body?

I've since been looking at foods and inflammation. The movie "Food Matters" (available on Netflix) talks about the body's reaction to non-raw foods (any food that has been denatured by some process, either cooking, chemical, acid, etc) It says that when the body is given denatured (I'm paraphrasing, they said cooked) your body sees it as a foreign substance and creates white blood cells to "attack" it. I could see this being possible. If you think about it, we're animals. What other animal, besides humans, cooks their food? Our bodies are "wired" to recognize food in a certain form. After cooking, the proteins are denatured and "look" different. How can the body be expected to know that it is the same food, just cooked.

The movie went on to explain that a study found that eating 51% of your daily intake of food as raw food, will keep your body from fully launching an "attack" on the other 49%.

I've decided to do this more easily than actually "eating" these raw foods, by adding 2-4 whole vegetable/fruit juices daily to my diet. I cram a ton of fresh superfood type veggies and fruits into my diet that way (and my kids get it too now). We also bought a Vitamix which allows me to make these amazing, highly nutritive smoothies with added seeds/nuts for protein and flax seed for omega 3, and fiber to help make us feel full. I've also cut out dairy (except for the occasional cheese, since I couldn't live without a little tiny bit of cheese on occasion..:) I've got Coconut Milk and Almond Milk instead of cow's milk (and NO Soy) and they are delicious in smoothies.

I don't know if all this is true, but it really does sound possible. I'm working on researching it more right now. I just wanted to share with you what I had found. If inflammation IS being caused in your body due to foods, perhaps limiting certain things will help you.

Maybe you coud research it more yourself. Also, I'd recommend seeing that movie. It's eye opening for a LOT of reasons.

Another thing, make sure you avoid soy products. If you are wondering why, search "dangers of soy" and especially see what Dr. Mercola has to say about the subject. Absolutely should be avoided completely by anyone with a thyroid condition (hypothyroidism) and also, it is very high in an estrogen like substance that could possibly trigger female related cancers. This is another scary thing, since it is touted to be a HEALTH food...

After starting my blog www.juicingjuice.com and having to research for it to write it's content, I'm absolutely amazed (and a little worried) about all I'm finding out.

If you ever want more information, or have any questions, I'd love to help. Just contact me.