Using Food as Medicine to Stay Out of Pain

We all overindulge at times, and eat unhealthily especially when busy and stressed up, I know I do. Especially with the run up to intense work deadlines. A recent feeling of exhaustion combined with an expanding waist line sent me hurtling into the greenhouse this May Bank weekend, to gather up some fresh greens to recommence a more rigid juicing schedule.

These low ebbs are the times when we all suffer from allergies and catch colds. Actually, in the months of February, March and April, we have more colds and achy joints than ever in the UK, as our immune system is suffering from our rich diet, as well as our lack of raw fresh fruit, vegetables, and sunshine.

The problem here lies in the fact that for the majority of us, the health risks associated with a very rich and acid diet are not known and are therefore no more ‘common sense’ than fire is to polar bears. However, at least a bear can learn very quickly that fire is dangerous and would be very wary the next time he came across it. The implications of poor diet – and more importantly, a far too acidic diet – are not immediately apparent. Even worse, the fact that ‘everybody else’in an individual’s social group is doing the same thing, means that it doesn’t’t even register that a diet may be poor in the first place.

No better example of this can be given than a highly publicised TV

Programme shown a few years ago, which monitored the health implications

Of junk food by getting a volunteer to live on nothing other than junk.

He actually had to be taken off the diet because his health plummeted so

Rapidly. What impact has this had? Very little, if you look at the explosion of junk food outlets. So, this Spring don’t waste money on fad diets, just do a little reading about healthy food, drink more water, and use natural pain killing foods with natural anti-inflammatories.

The Wrong Food Feeds Pain

Most of us eat too much of the food that enhances pain, and too little of the food that reduces pain. Soil nutrients are not what they used to be, as they have more additives, more are being processed, and more have a longer

shelf life. Our cells depend on food and water for creating healing, energy

and cleansing, but because of the poor food we eat (which has additives

and is heavily processed), we have persistent inflammation contributing

to musculoskeletal pain, arthritis, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, cancer…you name it. Refined grains, omega 6 fats, too much sugar, and too much dairy – especially milk – all stress the system out, and pain due to too much inflammation damages nerves beyond any injury, and also causes tissue pain in the tendons, ligaments, and joints.

Our ancestors were hunters and gatherers who lived on a planet with a

relatively low population, where the soil was rich in nutrients with hardly

any toxic chemicals. They ate a little fresh meat, fish, and lots of berries, roots (therefore, a lot of healthy omega 3 oils), and fruit and vegetables high in antioxidants. They had no processed foods, no wheat, no trans fats, no excess sugar or omega 6 and no processed dairy. Even if you eat some of these foods yourself, pulling some fresh vegetables out of your garden – from well fertilised soil – is a small start. For our ancestors, their healthy diet helped to control chronic inflammation, something which pervades the modern day Western lifestyle.

We are becoming increasingly obese, including our children. We are a

fat nation, and because of this, we find ourselves in a major health crisis.

This extra fat not only strains our joints, but these engorged fat cells fire off inflammation. Organ fat is crawling with immune cells, prolonging

inflammation and damaging the surrounding tissue. Living longer means

that these days, a lot more of us are over 35, and around this age, our

natural pain blocking anti-inflammatories (proteolytic enzymes) dry up.

We are, essentially, rotting, as these are the guys that usually help to shut the pain gate in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Our next generation is not going to live longer than us, and this is the first time in history that this has happened – it says a lot, doesn’t’t it? Due to needing more help in order to control our body and not getting it, we make too much fibrin, causing too much scar tissue in our tendons, skin, and joints. This then causes arthritis, fibromyalgia, artery narrowing, and poor healing all round.

I will be sharing healthy eating with you in future blogs;  #www.painreliefclinic.co.uk.