How You Get Inflammation and What You Can Do

“Inflammation has gained recognition as an underlying contributor to virtually every chronic disease—a list that, besides obvious culprits such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease, includes diabetes and depression, along with major killers such as heart disease and stroke.” – Gary Stix, Scientific American, Is Chronic Inflammation the Key to Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer?

Inflammation is a natural response from the body to contain the possibility of getting sick.  We all remember the image when we were young of “bad viruses” being surrounded by our “good immune system” and ferreting it away to our lymphatic system.    This is a good thing!  

We get inflammation from a number of sources:  

1. Not drinking enough water. We need to drink about a gallon of water a day, and not cold water.  I drink about 2 liters of warm tea in the morning before breakfast in the biggest glasses I can find. Nalgene has been making some nice glass containers. Sometimes I steep the tea stronger and then add it to tap water.  Then, throughout the rest of the day I carry a Nalgene with super lightly flavored water (mint, strawberry, green tea, lemon, etc). Try to get 4 liters in, but stop drinking water after 6 PM so you aren’t taking out your electrolytes.
2. Stress raises cortisol levels in the body and makes us tired, fat, grouchy and ill.  It makes us much more likely to get sick and then stay sick. The idea that we can continue to run high stress, high paced lives and live with any quality of life is like trying to run a car through a desert race and never letting the engine have a break, or offer it any maintenance. 
3. Underlying medical issues that may be known or unknown to us. 
4. High inflammatory foods that create mucus in the body.  These include:
   

   -Nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers and eggplant)

   -Gluten (Except for 100% rye bread)

   -Dairy

   -Meat and Fish

   -Garlic and Onions

   -Curry Spice blend

   -Rice (Brown, White and Jasmine)

5. Lack of regular exercise that moves the circulatory system (to flush out the lymphatic system)
6. Non moderate behaviors that tax the body like over eating, heavy alcohol or drug use.

Of course you can’t just can’t live on air, so there are some quick trades you can do. 

For where you normally eat meat – look for tasty soy products out there like Beyond Chicken, Tofu, Butler Soy Curls, and Tempeh.   Beans and lentils can be spiced in infinite ways, jack fruit when prepared tastes like pulled pork. Hummus and other pates often take the place of meat in tacos and burritos and have that comforting full feeling after you eat and can be flavored just like meat. 

For dairy – you can prepare cheeses made out of cashews, tofu, nutritional yeast, etc.  Some people are really starting to create some artisan cheeses out there that are becoming rockstars in their field and even the die hard cheese lovers can’t tell. Daiya™ makes a very good melty cheese in lots of flavors and even comes in slices.   Cream cheese by Daiya™ is to die(ah) for and is good for cracker spreads and making desserts. 

Where you normally eat nightshades – you can eat sweet potatoes, yams, Japanese yams, taro root, yucca root, and so forth.  The yams and sweet potatoes are part of the morning glory family.  For the bell peppers, sometimes I cut up Anaheim (mild)  or poblano (even more mild) peppers.  But in severe cases, these are not a good idea. I also use all the hard squashes here to great effect:  acorn, butternut, delicata, etc. 

Garlic and Onions – Believe me, I used to cut up a whole bulb of garlic and an onion and saute that up for almost every dish.  As we need to reset your palate, our old standbys need to go.  Also, garlic is a very common allergen and should be used as medicine in special occasions, not as a regular feature.  Fresh ginger root and fennel bulb caramelize very nicely in most foods, just like our buddies garlic and onions. Trader Joes® has a Healthy 8 Veggie Mix™ that works really well as a base for your regular stir frying endeavors.

Where you normally Gluten and Rice – There are many grains out there that are gluten and rice free that are also a treat to eat.  These include Amaranth, Buckwheat (not actually wheat), red, black and yellow Quinoa, Coixseed, and Millet. Millet should be stored in the fridge to stay fresh after opening.  

For breads –  many paleo breads offer very good options.  I like the Bavaria Breads brand myself but I find it isn’t necessarily great for holding together. Making bread at home I find to be very reliable.  An exception for gluten in bread are  100% Rye Breads. Corn is yummy, so I often stock Mexican corn chips, sweet potato chips, Terra brand make awesome chips out of foods like carrots, yams, taro, sweet potato, and so forth in many flavors! 

For burrito shells and wraps –  there are tapioca sheets, nori sheets, paleo coconut wraps and corn tortillas. Chinese markets stock lots of fun options.  

For pastas –  there is quinoa, edamame, corn, Japanese buckwheat soba noodles, mung bean glass noodles (AKA Woon Sen noodles) and sweet potato noodles.  

Very important!! 

First, take a B12 Methylcobalamin sublingual vitamin. This is just smart.

Second, while it isn’t an inflammation issue, I would recommend orienting your foods towards the higher carb food as the foundation of your diet (yams, squashes, beans, corn and grains), with veggies as the next layer (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, spinach), then fruit (all!), then processed breads and chips, and then sugars and oils at the smallest amount.  

Eat enough!

One issue that some people experience is that they don’t eat enough and then start to run out of energy. We are culturally accustomed to getting a LOT of calories from meat.  Veganism just doesn’t have the calories, so you need to be diligent.   So you cannot really be low carb and vegan and be healthy.You will run out of gas if you try.  If you eat with this pyramid in mind, you should feel adequately filled and have enough calories for your body to heal itself.  

Another important point is that the thalamus in the body takes *about* 10 days to change from processing animal proteins to vegetable proteins.  It even changes color from yellow to white.  So if you are eating high fiber, heavier foods, this will help out and after a little over a week your body will have shifted over entirely to a plant-based diet.

If you have questions feel free to ask.  Also I would check out the book: Ancient Wisdom for Total Vitality,  and here is a short video on it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKAAgcHyNZg.