Controlling Inflammation with Diet: Part 2

As we learned in Part 1 of this article, there are down-sides to taking anti-inflammatory medications. Today I want to discuss what I consider to be the single most powerful way to allow your body to re-gain control of its natural anti-inflammatory pathways.

Yes! You guessed it! Decrease SUGAR in your diet. In my opinion, the most effective way to control inflammation in your body is to decrease (and if possible ELIMINATE) all processed sugars from your diet. Simple-right?? Well, maybe not....

The problem is that SUGAR is everywhere!!

Yes, it hides in places that are obvious (like cookies and candies) as well as in supposed "healthy foods"- even ones that you buy at the health-food stores!! You will find that sugar is added to many foods that don't even taste sweet!

The first thing that you should do is read all labels!!

Sugars have many names:

Sugars: Brown sugar, powdered sugar, turbinado sugar, white sugar, cane sugar, date sugar, maple sugar, and alcohol.

Hidden Names for Sugar: Look for the suffix: "ose" or "ol". High Fructose Corn Syrup, corn syrup, disaccharides, molasses, succanat, polysaccharides, sucrose, fructose, dextrose, lactose, sorbitol, mannitol, malt, malt extract, maltose, brown rice syrup, karo syrup

The reason that you need to be concerned about Sugars:

Any time you consume sweets (which contain sucrose) or simple carbohydrate foods such as bagels, pastas, and breads, your body must respond to a rise in blood sugar.

Your body does this by releasing insulin into your blood stream which travels to your cell membranes and allows the sugar to pass into your cells. (Once the sugars are safely inside the cell membranes, then we can get rid of the insulin by sending it to our liver for disposal). Unfortunately, the release of insulin has a temporary negative effect on your natural anti-inflammatory prostaglandin pathways (remember them? see part 1) turning them into inflammatory pathways instead. Therefore, if you are eating a lot of carbohydrates at all of your meals and for snacks, it means that you are continually blocking your natural anti-inflammatory pathways and slowing your progress towards healing.

So what can you eat that will be helpful? Proceed to Part 3.....!

(Heres a hint!)

#chronicinflammation #Inflammation #sugar #HighfructoseCornsyrup