HEALING | FOOD: Friend or Foe?

               Eat your way to feeling good...

If you’ve been on my table, you’ve probably heard me talk about acid and alkaline foods that can help or hinder how you feel in so many ways. But, today we’re talking specifically about inflammation in your joints and muscles. It’s not always intuitive which foods produce acid or alkaline conditions in your body, so when you have a chance, take a look at this great chart HERE from Greenopedia.com that helps you make both smart and delicious choices every time you put food in your mouth. Most of us need to increase the alkaline part (think: anti-inflammation) and reduce the acid part.  We need both.

The inflammation response and how good we feel due to the foods we eat, are intimately connected. Check out this blog from greenopedia.com on alkaline diets HERE. You can even find cookbooks that help you cook more alkaline and get some good ideas for easy ways to shift your thinking about what you purchase at the market.

Simply put, high beef + carb/high sugar diets pretty much, reliably produce chronic inflammation throughout your body. "Oh no!  Does that mean I can’t eat beef, bread, pasta, chips, rice, sugar/honey/etc and potatoes?" Well, yes, kind of but you needn’t give them up altogether. Just reduce them a lot… start by choosing a few foods that are friendly to you and help you feel good, think more clearly, get sick less often and a whole bunch of other benefits. Drop a couple that are clearly not helping you. You'll probably like the results you feel/see to keep serious about the changes you're making. No need to make dramatic changes. Keep doing the do-able ones and add as you go. Over time, you will see the difference.

Inflammation can present in many different ways. How do you know if you have inflammation? The list below are some symptoms which can be associated with low grade chronic inflammation:

•        Skin outbreaks
•        Diarrhea
•        Shortness of breath
•        Body aches and pains
•        Weight gain
•        Swelling
•        Dry eyes
•        Stiffness
•        Congestion
•        Frequent infections
•        Fuzzy thinking

There's lots to ferret out about how alkaline foods can create more sparkling health for you, but here are a few links I like. CLICK on the orange part. I hope this helps give you a leg up on this timely information as we move in to the holidays, which I hope you really enjoy!  

•        Is Your Body Acid? |Food + Joint Pain

•        Huffington Post  | Food As Medicine

•        Acid/pH - Details | Tech Talk about pH

Let me know what you think!