The Top 10 Inflammatory Foods To Stop Eating
Rid Your Kitchen of These Foods and See the Results
As mentioned in our previous articles, inflammation isn’t a bad thing. It's our body’s natural response to fighting intruders or to heal injuries. However, if left unchecked, inflammation that lingers for longer than is required can cause harm to the body. It can disrupt hormone balance, gut health, leaving you exhausted, bloated, unable to lose weight and most of all, miserable.
1. Sugar - causes insulin spikes that lead to excessive fat storage and also affects cortisol levels.
2. Sugar Substitutes - although less in calories and “not sugar” these are toxic chemically laden and unnatural ingredients that can affect your gut, brain, liver and more.
3. Grains and Corn - both increase gut inflammation, which contribute to leaky gut, irritable bowel and other digestive issues.
4. Gluten - this particularly increases the inflammatory response in your gut, brain and thyroid.
5. Caffeine - this will rev up your sympathetic (survival mode) response as well as stress hormones that will take a toll on your body over time.
6. Dairy - can cause inflammation in your body and exacerbate existing issues, especially if you’re already sensitive to lactose or casein.
7. Nightshades - new findings say that these can cause digestive issues, acne, and joint pain in people who cannot digest them well.
8. Processed Foods - basically all processed foods are loaded with imposter ingredients, for example hormone substitutes, creating estrogen dominant state in your body.
9. Processed Meats - these contain many preservatives and “fake” fillers that harm your digestive system and sabotage hormone balance.
10. Red Meat - this gets the most push back. When consumed regularly this can increase estrogen dominance and cause the growth of “bad” bacteria in the gut. More red meat protein is often associated with consuming less fiber (veggies) which is necessary for detoxing estrogen and gut health.
I understand if this list seems like a lot and can feel daunting to eliminate a lot of your “go to” foods, but imagine if removing some or most of these foods would help restore your energy, give you a more restful sleep, boost your metabolism, balance your hormones, or help you shed those extra few pounds. It would make everything worth it. Especially if you’ve been having a long-term issue, this is an inexpensive and temporary sacrifice that may change your life and state of health!
Remember, this doesn’t mean you can never eat these foods again. All food is okay within moderation. The important thing to do is listen to your body and make food choices based on what your body needs and how it feels. Try keeping a food journal and track what you eat and how it makes you feel! Identify patterns and figure out what foods positively impact you as an individual.
