A body with a normal balance of anti- and pro-inflammatory chemicals enjoys a healthy state known as homeostasis. Unfortunately, the typical western diet consisting of 60 per cent refined sugar, refined grain products, trans fats and oils from soybean, sunflower, corn and peanut produce too many pro-swelling chemicals.
These chemicals, once in our bodies, wreak havoc on our health. They swell our muscles and joints, inflame and bloat our stomachs and narrow our blood vessels while increasing fat storage and weight gain.
Sadly, there are armies of well-paid food scientists that make it their mission to come up with recipes that appeal to our taste buds, even if this causes havoc to our health.
And if we take an honest glance into our past, we’ll admit that eating healthy was not, for most of us, our focus. As a teen, we felt invincible. We consumed large amounts of white sugar, flour and omega-6 oils without thinking twice.
We enjoyed pastries, doughnuts, cookies, cakes, chips, pretzels, breads, French fries, pasta, crackers, and salad dressings along with packaged and processed foods without really feeling any serious, negative effects. We might have gained a bit of fat and weight and lost a bit of energy, but muscle aches and pains were usually the worst of it.
At least that’s what we thought. Because chronic inflammation takes 20 to 30 years before serious symptoms rear their ugly head, the real consequences of a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle don’t catch up with most of us until our 40s roll around.
That’s when “the piper expects to be paid.” Even though we did not see or feel its effects in our youth, the unhealthy foods we consumed for all those years were silently triggering chemical processes in our body that turned on pro-inflammatory, hormonal-like substances called eicosanoids, cytokines, growth factors and adhesion molecules.
In other words, “consuming unhealthy doses of sugar and flour, stimulated and set in motion, the same immune or inflammatory response as an infection would.”
Chronic inflammation is at the heart of life-threatening diseases – the ones we fear the most. Cancer, heart attacks, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. Even aching knees and degenerating joints and muscles are the results of the damaging effects of chronic inflammation.
Furthermore, research has discovered a complex link between inflammation, insulin and fat – either in our diet or in the large folds under our skin. It seems fat cells behave a lot like immune cells, spewing out inflammatory chemicals, particularly as we gain weight.
As for coronary artery disease and the narrowing of the vessels carrying blood flow to the heart? We now understand that it is not fat clogging the arteries but inflammatory changes along the arterial wall turned on by increased circulating inflammatory chemicals from, you guessed it, diets high in sugar, processed foods and fats, and unhealthy levels of stress.
And guess what? When our arteries close and there is no blood supply and thus no oxygen to our heart muscle, only one result is assured: we experience a heart attack.
Meditation, communing with nature, soaking up the sunshine and incorporating proper and challenging exercise into our lives helps to reduce stress levels that could otherwise lead to chronic inflammation.
Reducing toxins by choosing foods (a plant-based diet is a shining star) and cleaning products wisely has a hugely positive effect on reducing inflammation and restoring the immune system. Drinking plenty of water is important too because it supports our digestive system and lowers inflammation as well.
Inflammation is not something to be ignored and should be taken seriously no matter what age or physical condition we are in, because, like it or not, what we do with our body either turns on the pro-inflammatory chemicals or turns them off.
The choice to eat healthily, exercise regularly, monitor stress levels and avoid life-threatening habits like smoking are all critical players towards keeping inflammation in check and fighting the war against weight gain, chronic pain and chronic disease.
– Carolyn Hansen is co-owner of Anytime Fitness
