Natural Cures For Dummies. Joe KraynakЧитать онлайн книгу.
are responsible for triggering most cases of inflammation and numerous autoimmune disorders in humans: wheat, soy, dairy, sugar, corn, eggs, peanuts, artificial sweeteners, and trans fats. To find out whether any of the items on this list ails you, I encourage you to get tested for food allergies and sensitivities, as explained in Chapter 13, or perform a modified elimination diet. Table 2-1 lists the most common culprits to test.
You can do an elimination diet in a couple of different ways.
✔ Remove a suspect food from your diet for 28 days. If you feel better without it, you can eliminate that food from your diet for good, reintroduce it to see whether it really does cause problems, or get tested to confirm or rule out your suspicions. If you notice no difference whether you eat or abstain from eating the food, you can add it back into your diet.
✔ Eliminate for 28 days foods that are most likely to cause problems and then slowly re-introduce them, one every two to three weeks, until your symptoms return. Then eliminate any food(s) that triggered symptoms.
Table 2-1 Performing a Modified Elimination Diet
Read on to discover more about the foods that commonly trigger inflammation, autoimmune illnesses, and other disorders and why each one is a trigger for illness in a large portion of the population.
Wheat and gluten
Today’s wheat isn’t the wheat your ancestors ate. It doesn’t even resemble the wheat consumed during the 1980s. Modern wheat is grown and processed in ways that strip out vital nutrients and produce a high-starch flour that spikes blood sugar and insulin levels and triggers inflammation and immune reactions in many people.
Although you may be immune to the nasty side effects of consuming modern wheat, people with celiac disease can’t consume a single morsel of wheat without experiencing a severe reaction resulting in abdominal pain, bloating, gas, diarrhea, cramps, malabsorption of nutrients, and weight loss. And for every person who has celiac disease, at least eight others suffer from nonceliac gluten sensitivity, which is often linked to inflammation, migraines, allergic reactions, eczema, cardiovascular events, and neurological disorders.
Regardless of whether you’re experiencing symptoms, eliminate wheat/gluten from your diet for the next 28 days and take note of how you feel. I’d bet dollars to those donuts you’re no longer eating that you’ll feel better, eat less, and achieve a healthier, stable weight with lower body fat.
Soy
Soy is so abundant in “health foods” that most people actually think it’s healthy. However, 90 percent of all soy in the United States is derived from genetically modified organism (GMO) crops and is overly processed. Soy messes with your hormones and often triggers thyroid disorders. If your thyroid antibodies are high, eliminating soy from your diet can bring them down into normal range. Soy is also rich in phytic acid, which blocks absorption of key minerals, including calcium, magnesium, and zinc. It also blocks trypsin, an important enzyme for digesting protein.
Dairy
Regardless of how they’re manufactured, all dairy products contain hormones and other potentially harmful substances, such as D-galactose, a carbohydrate associated with inflammation, oxidative stress, and neurodegeneration. Dairy can make you fat and may contribute to insulin resistance and osteoporosis (weak, porous bones). In addition, dairy is highly allergenic and addictive. Contrary to the ads, it doesn’t do a body good.
Replace dairy with high-calcium foods that are actually good for you: Brazil nuts, broccoli, flaxseeds, kale, sardines, spinach, walnuts, and wild Alaskan salmon. Replace cow milk with unsweetened, fortified oat, almond, hemp, or rice milk. Try dairy-free coconut yogurt and kefir; look for products with less sugar and additives. Switch to vegan-style rice milk cheeses as substitutes.
Eggs
Eggs may be good or bad for you. To find out, take a break from eggs for 28 days and then start eating them again once or twice a week. (Be sure to read labels carefully, because many food products contain eggs.) Journal how well you feel on and off eggs. If you feel better without eggs, you may have an egg allergy or sensitivity and may want to avoid them entirely.
However, don’t be too eager to eliminate eggs altogether from your diet. Eggs are a super food. The yolks, which many anti-egg people suggest you throw away, are a nutritional gold mine. And contrary to popular belief, eggs aren’t the prime culprit in raising serum cholesterol or increasing the risk of heart disease.
Corn
Nearly 90 percent of all corn is genetically modified. The DNA in the corn marries the DNA of gut flora, contributing to microbial imbalance and leaky gut (see Chapter 13).
Corn also contains aflatoxin, a known carcinogen (cancer-causing agent); lectins, which can cause inflammation and interfere with absorption of nutrients; and zein, a kind of gluten that is okay for people with celiac disease but is still inflammatory to many and may also contribute to autoimmune and gut-related health issues.