Cancer. Type2 diabetes. High cholesterol. High blood pressure. Stroke. There is one single cause for all of these, and it’s called internal inflammation. Make a check list of the causes of inflammation inside you, which could be your precursor to diseases, and eliminate them before it’s too late. Actually, hey, eliminating them at any stage will prevent, manage or reverse your condition! So start here.
High Bad Fat Foods: Especially foods with dairy and animal fats. The right kind of fat is very important, beneficial and anti-inflammatory, like raw fats from nuts, seeds and virgin oils. They will reverse your inflammation, which causes disease.
Processed and cured meats and cheese: hams, sausages, cold cuts, smoked items, all cause internal inflammation. Young girls with high consumption of these get early periods or PCOD. These promote high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high uric acid — all precursors to cardiovascular disease.
Food Allergies: Our allergy levels are increasing because we’re consuming more artificial foods. We need loads of zinc and vitamin C to flush out allergens from our blood, but we are not taking these. Allergies raise inflammation levels and the result is that you have to take anti-allergics to suppress the allergy rather than root it out by going to the root cause.
Insufficient Fibre: Fibre pulls out toxins from the your gut and acts like a broom. Processed and cooked foods have little or no fibre, and hence the food toxins remain in our system, increasing internal inflammation.
Insufficient Phytonutrients: Phytonutrients are primarily found in fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds and act as anti-inflammatories and anti-oxidants. These are rich in cancer fighting properties, and stop growth of cancer cells. The higher the cancer cells in your body, the higher the inflammation.
Insufficient Exercise: Exercise helps reduce adipose tissue (fat), which is pro-inflammatory and it increases lean muscle mass that reduces inflammation by improving insulin sensitivity. Exercise also releases endorphins, chemicals that make you feel better!
Vitamin D Deficiency: It causes inflammation, promotes autoimmune disorders, and accelerates the progression of osteoarthritis since lack of vitamin D means lack of calcium absorption to strengthen the bones.
Fatty Acid Imbalance: Insufficiency in Omega-3 and -6 fats, along with excess of saturated and trans fats lead to inflammation. This simply means that if you’re having even very little oil in your cooked food, but no good fats like raw extra virgin olive oil, nuts, seeds, oily fish, flaxseeds, you will be deficient.
Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency: Magnesium protects against cancer cell growth, and other vitamins and minerals protect the body against toxic substances all around us, which deplete nutrients. Magnesium is naturally present in dark green leafy vegetables, nuts, mackerel and oily fish, apart from whole grains, avocados and figs.
Toxic substances. Chemicals, pesticides, diodes from plastic bottles and food boxes, cigarette smoke (active or passive), pollution etc.
Emotional Stress and Toxic Relationships: High stress has been shown to impair wound healing, weaken the immune system, and promote inflammation inside the body as well as the mind. It is linked to autoimmune disorders getting aggravated.
Go through these categories and circle the ones you need to work on and then get started on them…one step at a time.
Columnist
Rachna Chhachhi is a certified holistic cancer nutrition and yoga expert, and author of four bestselling health books. She treats across 27 countries.
