‘Healthy’ Foods that cause Inflammation
Our bodies can cause us havoc, they can go against us at any time. So many of us are constantly battling a weight problem, we’re tired and lethargic all the time, skin issues, tummy cramps and constipated.Uncomfortable and downright embarrassing at times.
We associate the word inflammation with something that we can see; redness around a scar or cut, swollen fingers or ankles after a sprain, or painful arthritic joints in older people.
But Chronic Inflammation can affect all of us and probably hits most of us at some stage throughout our lives. It occurs when our immune systems get stuck in ‘full steam ahead’ mode. Its then like World War 3 inside your body. You pill on the weight, your energy is zapped and ultimately you feel like crap. You can try all the creams and potions in the world to fix this but i believe the real fix lies in the food we eat. What is my food might be your poison, we are all so different.
Anti-inflammatory foods like good healthy fats, green veg, some fruits, high quality proteins, bone broth, nourish your body. You want lots of these!
Sugar is one of the main inflammatory foods you can put into your body. Plus a number of others, they hide everywhere! We need to rid them from our daily diets.
Diet drinks
Trying to lose weight and think diet soda will be better for you than the full-sugar variety? Think again. Really, you are just swapping one inflammatory food (sugar) for another (chemical sweeteners).
I’ve seen it with my friends, its probably one of the hardest things to quit (there are also links between diet drinks and osteoporosis in women!) Why not try sparkling water and add your own natural flavours like lime and mint, or berries!
Non-fat or low-fat yogurt
Oh where do I start with this one! There are many issues with this not-so-healthy snack food. For one, most people (including many of my clients) do not tolerate dairy very well. That means that dairy, and in this case yogurt, is seen as an intruder, leading to inflammation. Think you don’t have an issue with dairy? Try eliminating it for a few weeks and add it back in. That’s when you will notice it!
If something is low-or-non-fat, it likely is polluted with additives and thickeners to make it creamy and smooth. Your body cannot recognise these things and so you guessed it – The battle of the immune continues, inflammation!
Lastly, this stuff generally has terrible fake sugars added to it because they want to boast that its only 99 calories! Who cares about calories? The fake sugar is just a bunch of chemicals and the “fresh blueberries” claim? Probably a minuscule amount, if any, real fruit.
I suggest you try to cut it from your diet entirely or perhaps learn to make your own with added kefir and other great probiotics to look after your gut.
Granola
I used to live on this stuff until I educated myself! I then started to make my own breakfast ‘concoction’. You need to be very careful when shopping for granola, most of the commercial brands are filled with lots inflammation-causing sugar because food manufacturers want you to LOVE their products, so obviously the only way you’ll LOVE it is to sweeten it! Yes, they’ve been fooling us since the invention of supermarkets!
Instead, make your own, select your favourite seeds, soak them overnight, add berries (or if you’re not watching your weight, a banana) and a spoon of your favourite nut butter and you’ve set yourself up for the day with one delicious, healthy breakfast!
Whole wheat bread
“I got a sandwich, but it was on whole wheat bread.” I hear this a lot. Whole wheat bread only sounds healthy because the lovely world of advertising tricks you into thinking it is! It still contains gluten. Even if you don’t suffer from celiac disease, the modern day gluten is seen as an intruder in the body. Try avoiding gluten for a few weeks and see how you feel. That is the true test! If you must do bread, try switching to sourdough, and I am not talking about the type in the vaccum packaging in the supermarket, I mean go to your bakery and source it from there – it is more expensive but so is petrol and we buy that every week for our cars! I usually freeze the sourdough when I get home and use it as I need it as the loaves are big.