“The more severe the pain or illness, the more severe will be
the necessary changes. These may involve breaking bad habits, or acquiring some new and better ones.” –Peter McWilliams
You are not helpless in your fight against inflammation! Your diet plays a major
role in activating or suppressing a protein called cytokines that causes inflammation. I can't stress this enough. For that
and other reasons that will be discussed shortly, I would like you to start thinking in terms of: “Is what I'm swallowing
making me healthier or sicker?” There is little if any neutral ground. It is as if everything that you swallow is sending
a signal to your immune system to either cause more inflammation or less.
The following are groups of foods that you should avoid because they send a signal
to your body to produce more inflammatory cytokines. They are also toxic to your body in multiple ways, polluting the internal
terrain of the body and promoting inflammation.
Most Meat, Except Oily Fish
We often hear the phrase “all things in moderation”. Meat, especially
red meat, is an exception to this rule. Even what most would consider a “moderate” amount of red meat can produce
an intolerable number of cytokines and bring on autoimmune symptoms.
For some, the “low-carb craze” has meant an increase in meat consumption.
If eating the low-carb way means that you are eating a lot of meat, you are making your autoimmune condition worse. Protein
from meat raises the levels of the toxins uric acid and urea in the blood. The body pumps excessive amounts of water into
the kidneys to help flush out these toxins. The result of a high animal-based protein diet is very quick water “weight
loss”. The downside of this “weight loss” is that it causes the body to lose essential minerals. Mineral
deficiencies cause autoimmunity. A better protein choice comes from vegetable-based proteins. These proteins improve mineral
retention in the body.
One doctor has reported that within two weeks of his lupus patients not eating
meat, most showed significant improvement in their skin lesions.
The Swank Diet calls for giving up red meat for one year. Then, after the first
year, allowing yourself four ounces of red meat per week. This diet has made a significant improvement in the lives of people
with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Dr. Swank studied more than 150 of his patients with MS for a thirty-four year period
of time. Those who followed the diet died at the rate of 5%, while patients not following his diet had a death rate
of about 85% during the same time period.
However, reducing meat intake isn’t just about living longer, it is about
living well! This recommendation is for everyone, not just those whose collection of autoimmune symptoms are called lupus
or MS. No matter where in your body cytokines gather or what they are attacking, eating red meat will increase their
numbers. The way that meat is prepared also makes a difference. Charbroiled and grilled meats of any kind are much worse for
you and should be completely avoided.
Fish is the exception to the meat rule. Fish does not raise cytokine levels. It
actually reduces them. The problem is that much of our fish is contaminated with toxic mercury. Unless you are sure that your
fish source is mercury free, you should limit your fish intake to one serving per week and use fish oil supplements instead.
Some people will even be sensitive to one contaminated serving of fish. Check your local health food stores for fish farmed
in “mercury-free” tested water. Additionally, salmon is a fish that is readily available and least likely to be
mercury contaminated.
Egg Yolks
Egg yolks and dairy products are high in arachidonic acid. This is the same
substance that makes meats so inflammatory. If you are going to eat eggs, you should only eat the whites. On a food
label, eggs can be listed as albumin, globulin, ovamucin, or vitellin.
Dairy Products
“…countries with the highest dairy consumption, such as
the United States and Sweden, because of their high animal protein diets, have the highest rates of osteoporosis, a disease
involving the weakening and potential breaking of bones.”
–Richard Schwartz, Ph.D.
Research published in the Lancet Medical Journal described a small group of patients
with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) in Norway. For four years, they experienced substantial improvement by excluding milk
and wheat from their diets. Reintroducing these foods into their diets caused a significant rise in the patients' cytokine
levels along with an increase in pain.
Besides increasing cytokines, milk further aggravates asthma because of its casein
content. When the protein of another animal is introduced into the human body, the immune system responds with an allergic
reaction. Casein is a milk protein. Eating casein causes your body to produce histamines, which result in excess mucus
production.
Those with CFS and asthma are not alone in their sensitivity to milk. According
to the New England Journal of Medicine, July 30, 1992, studies suggest that a certain milk protein is responsible for the
onset of diabetes because patients produce antibodies to cow milk proteins.
Milk’s vices are many. As strange as it may sound, the digestion of milk
proteins can create an addictive substance that acts like endorphins, our own personal narcotics. The same can be true of
gluten and wheat. These endorphins have the ability to disrupt brain chemistry and cause addiction.
Gluten
Gluten is a component of grains such as wheat, oats, barley, and rye. Besides being
inflammatory, doctors have reported a higher than average number of people with autoimmune disorders are allergic to gluten.
They suggest complete avoidance for at least one month to see if benefits will occur.
Studies have also shown that wheat and corn can irritate patients with Rheumatoid
Arthritis and raise cytokine production in the colon and rectum of those with celiac disease.
Corn, Corn Oil, Corn Syrup (Fructose)
Corn, besides promoting cytokines, has been called the leading cause of chronic
food addiction in this century. To give you an idea of how powerful the addiction can be, all cigarettes made in the U.S.
since World War I have contained added sugars, usually from corn. Do you think the cigarette companies chose corn syrup for
the great taste it adds to their products?
Corn syrup (fructose) is cheap and twice as sweet as cane sugar. In 1994, the average
person ate 83 pounds of fructose. Corn syrup causes an increase in blood lactic acid, especially in people with diabetes.
Fructose from corn syrup inhibits copper metabolism and decreases mineral availability, two factors in autoimmunity. Fructose
also breaks down into a substance that weakens your body’s natural anti-inflammatory molecules. The body does not metabolize
fructose the same as other sugars. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. Corn fructose certainly isn’t
the diabetic-friendly and harmless sugar substitute that it is advertised to be.
Studies have shown that corn can irritate patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
and the National Fibromyalgia Association (NFA) suggests corn should be avoided because it can aggravate Fibromyalgia.
Remember that if corn products can increase cytokine levels in those with RA and
Fibromyalgia, it can increase cytokine levels for anyone.
Sugar
We Americans are eating an average of 153 pounds of sugar a year. Refined
white sugar makes it more difficult for your body to absorb vitamins and minerals, a major contributor to the cause of autoimmunity.
Sugar also suppresses immune function, leaving us open to infection. Just eight tablespoons of sugar, which is the equivalent
to the sugar in less than one 12-ounce can of soda, can reduce the ability of your immune system to kill germs by up to 40%.
Like salt, sugar is dehydrating to the body. Dehydration increases histamine, which
can worsen asthma and any other autoimmune disease because histamine increases cytokine production. As recommend by the National
Fibromyalgia Association (NFA), sugars should be avoided because they can worsen the condition. Sugar feeds Lyme-causing bacteria
and Candida yeast, the significance of which will be discussed later. Eating sugar also causes an insulin surge, which contributes
to chronic inflammation.
Honey is sugar. It may be “all natural”, but it is still sugar. It
is higher in calories than table sugar and can be contaminated by pesticides. Consuming “all natural” delicious
tasting pesticides is not what you want to be doing.
A good non-toxic substitute for sugar is the nutritional supplement stevia. Stevia
has been used by millions of people without reported side effects. In Japan, stevia sweetened products represent 41% of the
market share of sweet substances consumed.
Stevia is an herb originally from Paraguay. South Americans use it as a sweetener
and also for medicinal purposes. This herb is anywhere from 30 to 100 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia does not affect the
blood sugar levels of most diabetics. Stevia also does not feed fungus in the intestines like sugars do.
Stevia has a strong, sweet flavor that can overwhelm a recipe, so it should be
used sparingly. Because you only use such a small amount at a time, recipes must be adjusted for the lack of bulk. Stevia
can often be purchased with helpful inulin added to it for bulk. Also, cakes and cookies sweetened with stevia do not brown
as much as their sugar-sweetened counterparts.
Flour/Processed Foods
For you simple carbohydrate-lovers (addicts), the next sentence is going to be
one of the most painful ones in the book. If you want to get rid of cytokine inflammation, you must give up processed foods
and junk foods. They tend to be full of everything you shouldn’t eat. This list includes most breakfast cereals, muffins,
breads, crackers, cookies, and doughnuts.
White flour contains alloxan, which is the chemical used to make flour look clean
and white. Alloxan destroys the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. It does so by initiating free radical damage
to the DNA in the pancreas.
Researchers believe that some people have weak defenses to free radicals in these
beta cells. Alloxan is so potent that researchers who study diabetes use it to give diabetes to lab animals. While not everyone
who eats white breads and processed foods will get diabetes, the connection is clear: Alloxan causes diabetes in those genetically
susceptible to the disease.
The Nightshade Family
Vegetables in the nightshade family include white potatoes, tomatoes, all peppers,
cherries, tobacco, and eggplants. Research indicates that these vegetables produce pain and inflammation in arthritis patients
and aggravate Fibromyalgia according to the National Fibromyalgia Association (NFA). However, not everyone will be sensitive
to nightshade foods. The only way to know for sure is to avoid them for a period of weeks then reintroduce them into your
diet.
Everyone should avoid tobacco, which is a toxic member of the nightshade family,
permanently.
Coffee
Despite being inflammatory, coffee has had its medicinal purposes. My own ancestors
used it to treat asthma. I have friends outside the U.S., who are still dependent upon coffee to treat asthma. Certain caffeine-type
chemicals in coffee have been proven effective at stimulating bronchial dilation in people diagnosed with specific types of
asthma. Some modern day asthma medications are even made from chemicals in the caffeine family.
For those using coffee as a natural asthma medication, you should keep in mind
that caffeine is a toxic chemical. Its purpose in plant life is to act as an insecticide. In people, caffeine suppresses the
enzymes needed for memory making. It also raises both blood sugar and insulin levels, causing cytokine production and aggravating
diabetes.
Simply drinking decaffeinated coffee isn’t the answer either. Women who drink
more than one cup a day of decaffeinated coffee are considered at a much higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. The
theory is that chemically decaffeinated products are causing the increased risk of autoimmunity. If you are going to drink
decaffeinated coffee anyway, be sure that it uses a non-chemical based decaffeinating method and that the coffee was organically
grown. Those who do not drink organic coffee, are exposed to too many man-made pesticides.
Alcohol
The wine industry has America convinced that a glass or two a day is good for your
heart. However, John Folts, Ph.D of the University of Wisconsin, has done studies, which show that to receive those heart-healthy
benefits, you would have to consume enough wine to be declared legally drunk. Grape juice is a healthier alternative. Dr.
Folt’s study also found that only ten to twelve ounces of purple grape juice was associated with lower blood clotting,
thus a lower risk of heart disease than promised by red wine.
Besides being pro-inflammatory and addictive, alcohol breaks down to a toxin in
the body called aldehyde. Toxins are dangerous chemicals that the liver does not recognize as useful. Toxins attack and destroy
cells and attract germs. Aldehyde accumulates in the brain, spinal cord, joints, muscles and tissues, where it causes muscle
weakness, irritation, and pain.
Conclusion
“Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and
sickness … It is we who control these, and not another.”
–Richard Bach
It is up to us as individuals to read labels and avoid those foods that are causing
inflammation in the body and making us sick. With many of these foods, because you consume them on a daily basis, you don’t
even recognize they are causing you symptoms. Unless you totally give them up for a month or so, you won’t know how
these inflammatory foods have been affecting you.