The 5 Most Inflammatory Foods To Avoid

Introduction: Why Inflammation Matters 0:00

Hey, today we're talking about the five most inflammatory foods that you want to avoid. These foods drive up inflammation. We know that inflammation is at the root. Chronic inflammation is at the root of all chronic degenerative diseases. We're talking about things like dementia, Alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, autoimmune conditions. All of them at the root have chronic inflammation. And much of that can be avoided because it comes from our diet. And so we've got to get our diet, our nutrition right in order to keep inflammation down so we can think better, feel better, and really thrive in life.

And so these are the foods we want to make sure we avoid. Number one, processed sugar and high fructose corn sirup. So if you see sugar as an ingredient most of the time it's not a good thing.

1. Processed Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup 0:58

Sometimes in some cases, maybe like a fermented coconut water or something like that, possibly could be good. But in general, if you see sugar as an ingredient in something, it's not good. It's going to be processed sugar. And also, if you see high fructose corn sirup or any type of corn sirup, you want to make sure you avoid that super high glycemic impact, which drives up your blood sugar and drives up your insulin levels, drives up inflammation in the body, causes weight gain, causes, blood sugar imbalances, and again, drives up inflammation.

So got to avoid that. Number two processed seed oils and trans fats. So what does that mean. What is a seed oil. So we take a seed for example. Let's say corn actually is considered a seed. So we take the corn the kernel of it and we press it to get oil. There's not actually a whole lot of oil in there. And so we have to press it. You have to take a lot of corn, right. In fact, to create one ounce of corn oil, you have to take a thousand bushels of corn. And so you would never get that in nature.

However, it's really easy to do, you know, with because our government subsidized it subsidizes the production of corn. It's easy for manufacturers to get really cheap for them so they able to produce it. And you can get some some salad dressing that uses corn oil as their base. Pour it on your salad and you get an ounce of corn oil. And that corn oil is really high in omega six fats. It's damaged fats. It's prone flat materi fats that are unstable and drive up

2. Seed Oils and Trans Fats 2:25

oxidative stress and inflammation in the body. So we want to make sure we're avoiding these seed oils. Corn oil, soybean, safflower, cottonseed, peanut oil, sunflower oil, canola I mentioned peanut oil. I think I mentioned most of them cotton seed. So we want to make sure that we're avoiding those. And also anything that says partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oil that is a trans fat, highly reactive in the body, highly inflammatory. And what happens is these denatured fats, these denatured polyunsaturated fats and trans fats get into the cell membrane of all the cells of our body, and they will literally sit there for six months to a year sometimes.

So it takes you roughly six months, sometimes a year, to actually detoxify these out of your cell membrane to get the inflammation under control. So you want to do everything you can to reduce your exposure to them, to reduce any level of consumption of those seed oils. Number three is gluten. And you may have heard of gluten free and and gluten, but you may not know what it is. Gluten is a protein that's found in wheat, barley, rye and spelt. Those are the main grains that have gluten. However, there's families.

There's families of the actual gliadin, compound that are found in all grains. And gluten can be problematic because some people have a major sensitivity or an allergy basically to it, and they create a strong antibody response. And they may be prone to things like celiac disease, where the villi in the small intestine get completely destroyed. The villi are important. There little pockets in the small intestine that are essential for our body to be able to really deliver and absorb nutrients into the bloodstream.

When those pockets get destroyed, we're not able to extract nutrients from the food that we consume as effectively. There's brush border enzymes and all different types of mechanisms that allow us to utilize those villi to maximize nutrient absorption. So people with celiac disease, they right from the start, have more trouble getting nutrients from their food. And there are a lot of people that have an allergy to gluten that is not even, you know, it doesn't even affect their digestive system. We call it non celiac gluten sensitivity.

So they have a sensitivity to gluten that primarily affects maybe their skin.

3. Gluten and Gut Inflammation 4:46

Maybe they when they eat gluten they have more eczema or they have more joint pain where they have brain fog depression anxiety different issues like that. And so non celiac gluten sensitivity is a big issue as well. So and then even if you feel like you tolerate gluten well we know that gluten the molecule will actually stimulate the production of zon in in your intestine. And Zainudin is this protein that helps with the integrity of the tight junctions in between the intestinal cells called inteiro sites.

And the more zonal in that's produced, the looser those tight junctions become. So gluten has been shown even in people that don't have a gluten sensitivity or gluten allergy. And it's actually been shown to increase zenia levels pretty dramatically, to the point where the tight junctions in the gut become incredibly permeable. Right? So the tight junctions, they become very, very loose and weak. And that increases the permeability and allows large undigested food molecules, as well as bacteria and bacterial waste things, things like LPs, which we call endotoxin in, as well as yeast parasites and all the different microbial waste to seep out into the bloodstream.

And all of that microbial waste and large undigested food particles will stimulate the immune system to drive up inflammation in the body. So we know gluten is a major and a potent trigger of inflammation for some people more than others. But for all of us, at some level it's going to drive up inflammation. So gluten is something we want to avoid. Number four is corn starch. So why is corn starch an issue? Very high glycemic impact, high glycemic index meaning that it causes our blood sugar to to raise substantially.

And then on top of that it also keeps our blood sugar elevated for a long period of time as a high glycemic load. So when we have that blood sugar spike in that blood sugar rise, that stays, it causes us to produce more and more insulin, which can over time cause insulin resistance. And that drives up inflammation in the body. So we want to avoid most of these corn products, you know, maybe once or twice a year you have a corn on the cob. But other than that, you know, these corn based ingredients really not good with their, their ingredients.

We want to avoid, for the most part, number five, additives and preservatives. You're going to find these in a lot of different things. And these are things we definitely want to make sure we're avoiding MSG or monosodium glutamate right. This is something we want to avoid. You'll also see it labeled under other ingredients glutamates sometimes or authorized yeast idolized yeast extract soy protein oftentimes is actually MSG monosodium glutamate.

4. Corn Starch and Blood Sugar Spikes 7:29

These other additives and preservatives. These the reason why manufacturers use additives and preservatives and other sweeteners, artificial sweeteners is to make the food taste better. Last longer, and to kind of impact the texture of it. So they use benzoate, sodium benzoate, potassium benzoate, benzoic acid. Those benzoate are linked with an increased risk of cancer. We want to avoid anything that has benzoic acid or sodium benzoate in it. Nitrates. You're going to see a sodium nitrate, for example, in things.

You're going to see for example, you know, if you find a healthy quote unquote healthy lunch meat or healthy bacon, I should say nitrate free, right? Doesn't have those preservatives. Those nitrates are really, really unhealthy for the body. A lot of times they use them in cured meat. They're in a lot of canned goods, baked goods. So we want to avoid the nitrates. Sulfites are another one. We're going to see things like potassium sorbate as well. So a lot of times these are combined with some sort of salt, some sort of electrolyte.

So you'll see sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, you'll see different things like that. And then as far as artificial sweeteners,

5. Additives, Preservatives, and Artificial Sweeteners 8:37

they're not good. So A17 potassium is one that you might see. Aspartame is another one, Splenda. We want to do our best to avoid those when it comes to sweeteners. The best sweeteners to use are going to be stevia monk fruit, or if your body is able to tolerate it, a sugar alcohol. Now some people say, well, I don't do well with stevia and there's about 3% of the population that has a ragweed sensitivity. And stevia is in the ragweed family, so you may if you have that, you may notice more inflammation when you consume stevia.

In general. Steve's good. It's a much better sweetener has actually great health benefits to it. However, again you might have the ragweed sensitivity. Also, sometimes stevia combine and with either a bad sweetener or something like a sugar alcohol. And some people don't do well with sugar alcohols. It gives them bloating, cramping. They notice a major changes in their digestive health and that can also drive up inflammation. So if you don't do well with a sugar alcohol like erythritol or xylitol, and it's combined with the stevia, you may have problems with that particular product.

But if you try like a pure stevia, you may notice you feel better. So you could try that out. One that I find that most people do pretty good with is monk fruit. It's more expensive, but you'll find it, you know, you know, you can find it in a store or on Amazon.com. Monk fruit, monk fruit extract A lot of times it's combined with sugar alcohols as well. So you got to look out for that. It might be combined with a Aristotle. And again, if you do well with the berries are all great. But if you don't you want to make sure you avoid it.

And just get a pure monk fruit as well. So those are going to be your better sweetener alternatives. Of course you might use some honey or some maple sirup or something like that. Ideally getting organic and using as little as possible because those will really impact your blood sugar. And they could increase inflammation in your system. Depending on how active you are and your overall lifestyle. So those are things to remember. Again, five things you want to make sure you avoid processed sugar high fructose corn sirup.

Processed seed oils and trans fats, gluten, corn starch and additives and preservatives like MSG, benzoate, nitrates, sulfites, sorbate, and aspartame. If you avoid those things, you're well on your way to reducing inflammation

Better Sweetener and Diet Alternatives 10:50

in your body. Using a whole food, ideally as organic as possible. Diet is really powerful. I recommend getting really prioritizing animal based protein and healthy fats. Things like extra virgin olive oil, avocados, avocado oil, grass fed butter, pasture raised eggs, wild caught fish. Right? Eating a lot of foods like that, a lot of colorful fruits and vegetables. Getting a lot of colors in your diet is really powerful. There's unique polyphenols in each one of those colors. So you know, whether it's reds, red bell peppers, tomatoes, greens, you know, obviously utilizing green foods, purple.

So you've got berries, you've got red onions trying to get a lot of these different colors into your diet can be really powerful for reducing inflammation. But also combining that, again, with healthy proteins and healthy fats, that's really are the best ways to do it when it comes to keeping inflammation down in your diet. So hopefully you guys got a lot out of this video training.