“When I eat grains, I have more aches and pains”
January 2012
Last Monday, the first person on my adjusting table was a woman who has been battling cancer for the past five years. She is deeply invested in changing her lifestyle habits so that her body is better equipped to fight the cancer. For the past few months, I have been working with her to help relieve some hip and knee pain that she was experiencing. Her first comment to me this particular morning was “So I know you already know this, Dr. Mindy, but I am starting to realize that when I eat grains, I have more aches & pains”. We chuckled a bit at the rhyming nature of her comment, but then I went on to discuss with her why this happens.
There are many foods in our diet that initiate an inflammatory reaction in our body. What this means is that when you eat these foods, your body inflames. In my experience the place that people feel that inflammation first is the weakest, most traumatized, spot in their body. If they have an overuse carpal tunnel condition, they will feel it their wrist. If they have low back pain, they will feel it in their low back. If they have digestive complaints, they will notice more bloating & irritation in their stomach. I had a patient one time that had a mysterious thumb pain that would not go away no matter what we did, the minute we got her off of wheat, the pain was gone.
What are those foods that cause inflammation? Some of foods you want to avoid to keep inflammation down are white and wheat flour, white sugar, white and wheat pastas, cereals, cookies, crackers, chips, hydrogenated vegetable oils, margarine, corn oil, soybean oil, and safflower oil. One of the most important foods to stay away from if you are experiencing chronic pain is anything with wheat. Wheat contains a protein called gluten that will promote inflammation in the body, causing the gut to become leaky. Gluten increases a chemical called Zonulin, which opens the gaps between cells in the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. The more wheat a person eats, the leakier their gut becomes. When the gut is in stress the body will initiate the inflammatory response to try and heal it. Just like your body would inflame after spraining your ankle. A leaky gut also predisposes the body to develop all sorts of problems from bacterial imbalances, yeast overgrowth, food allergies, suppressed immune system, and can lead to the development of several autoimmune diseases. Bottom line is wheat promotes inflammation, and when you are trying to heal the body from diseases that are caused by inflammation, this is counterproductive.
One of the best explanations of why wheat is harmful for us was recently explained in an interview with William Davis, a preventive cardiologist who has a new book out called “Wheat Belly”. He does an excellent job giving us a simple explanation why recently we are seeing more people suffering from wheat intolerance. According to Dr. Davis wheat is so bad for your health, that it should carry a surgeon general’s warning. Check out the link to below to see his interview.
My recommendation to you is that the next time you find yourself dealing with chronic pain, get off the grains for two weeks and see if it goes away. It may seem like a difficult task, but it could be the one thing that gives your body that little bit of love it needs to heal itself and allow you a pain free day. Whenever I am looking to make a change in my diet to improve my health, I always think of Tony Robbins quote: “Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels”
Cheers to a healthier and happier you!
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