Inflammation Kills - Foods that reduce inflammation, part 1

What Inflammation Is and How You Know You Have It - And what healing foods can help reduce inflammation right away

So what is inflammation? Well, it's a reaction locally within your body - and adverse reaction that can manifest either in one place or several at the time time. Inflammation can occur due to injury, or an infection - and can even occur from an irritation such as (you may not want to hear this) too much sugar, processed food, coffee and some teas. It can, and does, occur when you're not feeding your body enough healing foods. Often we think of inflammation in regards to what we can see with our eyes: a swollen ankle, red areas about the skin, and painful arthritis for example. Inflammation can, and will, often cause loss of mobility to the affected area. No fun. If you've experienced any of symptoms just mentioned then you've experienced inflammation.

But inflammation isn't always so obvious, or painful, and all too often we're not even aware of its presence until its too late. Inflammation inside the body can start off as a soft whisper - but by the time its run its course and done its damage by compromising your vital organs - inflammation sounds more like a roar than a whisper. We all need to be educated on inflammation so that we can reduce it as much as possible. Did you know that asthma, digestive disorders, hormone imbalance and cancer are linked to the whisper of inflammation? These common diseases, recent research is finding, are linked with, yes you guessed correctly: inflammation.

Those of you who have been around 40 years or so might remember going into your family doctor's office for a routine checkup and being asked to stick out your tongue. It was commonplace for a doctor to look at your tongue and ask "So what are you eating"? In my own experience with my HMO, I haven't even heard the question asked recently, let alone be asked to stick out my tongue. Why bother looking at a tongue? Because the condition of the tongue can give immediate clues into our body and what's really going on in there. The signs of inflammation and stress manifest there too.

Sadly, these days some HMOs, in particular, simply rely upon volume of patients while the 1 on 1 intimate relationship between doctor and patient takes a back seat.

Be your own advocate in the fight against inflammation - Modifying your diet may be your biggest weapon against disease

A few important questions you can ask yourself, when no one else will, are:


What Am I Eating? Am I eating too much junk, sugar, processed foods, sodas, or "health foods" packed with sugars and hidden ingredients? Am I eating healing foods? Am I drinking enough water? What kind of water am I drinking? Is it quality water? Is it alkaline ionized water?

How's My Stress Level? Is work stressed? Are my family obligations overwhelming me? Am I able, and educated, to effectively face the stresses I'm under?


Take a moment and take stock of your answers because they're begging you to be heard. You matter. Your health matters. Your diet - recent research has found, and finally medical experts are conceeding - is a key factor when addressing inflammation at any and every stage.

The Main Inflammation Causing culprits

In no particular order - really, they're all bad for you on a very basic level

Candies, Cookies, Cakes (The Three C's. Yummy, yes. Inflammation causing culprits? Yes again)

Soda - Even "healthy" sodas often contain too much sugar or, eek, aspartame!

Chips - Yes, even those "healthy" chips should be closely scrutinized for alarming sodium levels, and certain spices, which can give inflammation a leg up!



Do you love Salads? A big green salad chock full of life giving, anti-inflammation foods such as Cauliflower, Chopped Leaks, Olives, Garlic, and Spinach leaves can be injected with inflammation causing foods simply by drenching it with the wrong kind of -

Salad Dressing - check that label - does your salad dressing contain inflammation causing ingredients like sugar or refined or hydrogenated vegetable oil?


A delicious and surprisingly simple time saving alternative is chopped garlic added to some virgin olive oil with a slight dash of sea salt. Very tasty!

Other foods that can reduce inflammation are healing foods you probably already eat - but perhaps are unknowingly adding stuff to that doesn't belong, such as margarine (loaded with the wrong kind of oil!) or sauces that may also be loaded with the wrong oils or ingredients. Sauces - can we live without them? I think not! But we can start to pay attention to what's inside them. Modifying your diet may be your most powerful weapon against disease.


A big plate of lightly steamed green veggies like red bell peppers and broccoli can be appreciated with a drizzle of organice Garlic Gold olive oil and sea salt.


We'll be talking more about inflammation in our next post. I realize that this information can be overwhelming. When I started my quest to reduce the inflammation plaguing me like a stalker I was overwhelmed - with a Capital O. I slowly began to take notice of what's inside that food? Is it a healing food or an inflammation culprit? Is it going to alkalize my body or send it into an acidic state, perfect for...no I won't say the word; I think you get it. One of the easiest changes I made, and saw quick results from (a matter of weeks) was drinking alkaline ionized water. The taste is amazing so it just goes down so smoothly that I don't even think about it. For those of you who might be going "Water, no thanks! I don't like how it tastes" - well, you haven't tasted Our Water.


We invite you to come to our office and try our water. As always, the information we'll give you is free and we provide water classes to the surrounding community to educate on the benefits of healing foods and alkaline ionized water. Visit healingwatermachines.com for more information. If you're in the Southern California area feel free to drop by and pick up a few gallons of our alkaline ionized water.

How to Choose a Healing Diet

We hear a lot about food that are bad for us, but you can choose a healing diet that will restore your health without the use of drugs. Here are some ideas for a diet that will enhance your well-being.

INSTRUCTIONS

STEP 1 Know what foods are bad. Avoid aspartame, salt, additives, refined sugar, processed foods and soft drinks. Read labels for any processed foods that you buy to ensure you are getting quality ingredients before you eat. Better still, avoid processed foods whenever possible.

STEP 2 Take stock of detoxification diets that may be good for you. Choose a healing diet that will help you eat foods that will purge the toxins you have ingested. Some diets that can be helpful are a Macrobiotic diet, metabolic typing diet, the Alkaline diet and a Ayurvedic diet.

STEP 3 Understand allergies and problems digesting certain foods. If you are allergic to dairy, avoid yogurt and cheeses. If you are allergic to wheat, get your carbs from fruits, legumes and vegetables. Undergo a food allergy test to eliminate harmful foods from your diet.

STEP 4 Fill out quizzes and questionnaires or talk to a nutritionist to help you focus on the right diet. The Metabolic Typing Diet directs you to healing diets based on your genes. A screening quiz can help you find a detox diet. A nutritionist can inform you which foods heal which ailments.

STEP 5 Review your diet with your physician so he can determine if it may exacerbate any health issues you might have.

STEP 6 Consider your lifestyle before you choose a healing diet. If you don't have enough time to properly prepare the foods, it will be difficult to follow some healing diets. However, you can buy prepared meals at your local health food store and organic market.

Becoming Alkaline

This is not as difficult or as technical as it sounds. When we talk about eating alkaline foods or starting an alkaline diet we are referring to consuming those foods and drink which have an alkaline effect on the body. This effect is based upon the mineral content of the food and therefore the ash residue that remains after our foods are consumed. Some foods leave an acid ash, whereas others leave an alkaline ash.

Conveniently for us, it just so happens that the foods that contain alkaline minerals (and leave an alkaline ash) are all the foods we already know are good for us: low sugar foods, fresh vegetables etc. And the foods that contain minerals that leave an acid ash? You guessed it, sweets, alcohol, saturated fats, meats, dairy etc.

Of course, everybody is different - but most of us should aim to eat 70-80% alkaline foods and a maximum of 20-30% acid forming foods.This does not have to be measured in calories, grams or anything technical, just look at your plate! Is 70% of the food on it alkalising? And for the other 30%? You can do with this what you like (how acid is up to you - dependent upon the results you want), but feel free to go for some oily fish, wholemeal pasta or wild rice for example. A great head start for your self alkalizing journey would be to buy a water ionizer and start consuming alkaline water.