6 Most Inflammatory Foods to AVOID At All Costs

are you tired of doctors dismissing your symptoms or Worse even making you feel crazy even if your blood work comes back normal it doesn't mean your health is where it should be think of your blood like a delivery truck carrying nutrients and hormones but the real payoff happens when your cells open the package and use what's inside if your cells are stuck in what's called cell danger response triggered by stress toxins or infections they go into protective mode in this state cells close off and don't properly take in or utilize the hormones or nutrients they

need from the bloodstream now this makes the blood work often appear normal so doctors often miss the deeper issue leaving you feeling tired gaining weight experiencing mood swings and dealing with other symptoms while other cells remain in a state of limbo visit Beyond bloodwork tocom to learn how you can start changing this in as little as 30 days hey everyone welcome to Dr Josh action show I'm your host Dr Axe and each and every week on this podcast we explore the science and principles behind how to grow and Body Mind spirit and take your health

and your life to the next level on today's episode I'll be talking about inflammation listen it's your body's natural response to injury and infection and it should be helping us heal however if inflammation turns chronic it can trigger responses over time causing leaky gut syndrome hormone imbalance major pain and a number of other health issues including autoimmune disease and cancer and today I'll be walking through the six most inflammatory food groups we're consuming on a regular basis and I guarantee a couple of them will likely surprise you some of these are even found in health

food stores and are labeled organic and natural and so today I'll be going through the six inflammatory food groups you've got to get out of your diet as soon as possible in order to decrease inflammation and help your body heal and reverse disease and promote longevity make sure to subscribe to my podcast and sign up for my Weekly Newsletter at the link in the show notes now here's the food group that's most inflammatory and it's fried foods in seed oils specifically foods like french fries now why is this inflammatory or here's the reason deep fried

foods in refined oils they tend to be high in trans fats and loaded with a high amount of iodized salt and high cooking temperatures create something called Advanced glycation end products known as ages and it's appropriate because these cause your cells and body to age more quickly and these compounds promote inflammation let me ask you have you ever seen anybody who was likely in their 40s but they looked like they were in their 60s now this happens with two groups of people I see primarily it's smokers and it's people that eat a lot of fast

food a lot of McDonald's a lot of Burger King a lot of these fried foods in seed oils or vegetable oils these are the people I see age the fastest because it actually activates a process in the body called again ages Advanced glycation and products and literally cause your cells to age more quickly which then will cause your heart to age more quickly in your lungs and your in your entire body and so fried food at fast food restaurants like french fries specifically are the most inflammatory food and it's not just the oils it's also

the added salt it's also tends to be the carbohydrates you know another example of this would be Donuts from a place like Dunkin Donuts right they actually fry white flour and they add a bunch of sugar as well and so I would say that those are even worse for you than french fries because it not only has the seed oils it also has sugar and it also has refined carbohydrates but number one food you got to get out of your diet generally speaking are going to be these fried donuts it's going to be french fries

it's going to be the fast food that that's the most inflammatory number two group is sugary Foods it's added sugar especially sodas and sugary beverages now why are these inflammatory because they contain high fructose corn syrup and added sugar this leads to spikes in your blood sugar which then impacts insulin levels which are linked to inflammation remember this when insulin gets thrown off it then impacts cortisol it impacts gin in your gut it impacts your thyroid hormones testosterone starts to drop in men and progesterone and estrogen get thrown off in women so when you're doing

sugar and sugary beverages it throws off so many things in your body especially insulin and in addition it really disrupts the gut microbiome what happens is pathogenic bacteria and viruses and parasites those start to grow and feed off of this form of sugar and so you tend to get issues like candida overgrowth as we talked about in Western medicine or fleem and mucus accumulation or dampness as they talk about in eastern medicine but again the big thing here is insulin issues and destroying the gut microbiome causing inflammation of across the gut lining candida buildup which

will also eventually lead to issues like leaky gut now there's a study published on this in consuming sugary drinks like soda and its risk regarding type 2 diabetes and a metaanalysis by the way that's not one study that's many studies pulled together was published in the Journal of Diabetes Care and they found that individuals consuming just one to two servings a day of sugar sweetened beverages had a 206 % greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those who consume less than one serving per month so think about it it's really just one serving

a day if you drink one sugary beverage per day that's going to be soda but it could also be processed fruit juice like orange juice in the morning now if it's cold pressed and it's organic and natural it's not going to have quite the same effect but any processed sugar or soda or sugary beverage is going to increase your risk of type 2 diabetes if you do it regularly by 26% are greater and have other major side effects so stay away from added sugar and basically what you're looking for in the label is added sugar

so high fructose corn syrup and added sugar you want to stay away from those completely the number three most inflammatory food group you want to stay away from is white bread and other refined carbohydrates now why are these inflammatory well basically it's this they're high glycemic which means they are going to turn into sugar into your body very quickly which will spike your blood sugar imbalance insulin levels and that's going to cause inflammation over time now there's another issue as well so you've got the carbs breaking down into sugar and most of these products like

wheat bread and white flour products as well you also have gluten you have the refined carbs and the gluten together causing major inflammation throughout the body now I remember growing up we would buy whole wheat bread now I remember years ago going going into the grocery store looking on the back of that package you know what it said it was basically white bleach flour with caramel color added to it so it wasn't even whole wheat flour but really whole wheat flour if it's not fermented into a sourdough or sprouted it it also has major issues

there I also want to mention most of these breads if they're not organic these grains are highly sprayed with glyphosate and other pesticides so if you're eating white bread and even if they dress it up in some sort of French bread like a baguette and you might think well this is this is healthier it's you know the type of bread they make in France it still tends to be again the sort of carbs that break down into sugar IM immediately high in gluten and high in glyphosate and other chemicals so the number three most inflammatory

food you might be eating regularly is white bread and wheat bread products or those white flour that's bleach in wheat flour products are very damaging to your health now here's the reality you can go and buy real sourdough bread that's organic and they almost look identical and the sourdough actually tastes better but actually has benefits to your body for reducing inflammation and supporting gut bacteria growth and even detoxifying your body with some of the bacteria in there so sometimes the shifts you need to make are so minor of going from white bread to a true

organic sourdough bread made with a whole grain flour or I corn we or some sort of ancient or natural grain almost tastes the same and the health benefits are radically different in terms of one being highly inflammatory and the other having a slight anti-inflammatory effect on the body now the number four food group you've got to get out of your diet are processed Meats such as bacon hot conventional hot dogs conventional sausages and then charred meat as well now why are these inflammatory well the reason is they contain high levels of preservatives nitrates saturated fats

omega-6 fatty acids and a lot of chemical residue from pesticides and growth hormones so organic processed meat is terrible for your body and there was a study published on this in regards to its increasing the risk of colar cancer the international agency of research on cancer classified processed Meats as carcinogenic to humans so cancer causing and an analysis of multiple studies estimated that consuming a 50 g portion of processed meat daily increases the risk of coloral cancer by approximately 18% and it's not just the processed conventional Meats it's also processed conventional dairy products and there's

actually something called the law of bioaccumulation and it's this we tend to think that um our greatest toxins might come from plants sprayed with glyphosate or grains but here's the reality think about this cows and pigs eat tons and tons and tons of sprayed grains with glyphosate and with chemicals and often times they're given uh different types of hormones as well to make them grow more quickly well when you're eating specifically cows and pigs which are the worst fenders um you are then getting all of those chemicals and so did you know that 80% of

antibiotics today are given to livestock and so when they have those antibiotics in their tissues and then you eat their tissues well you're now getting all of those chemicals plus they were grain Fed so now they have more omega-6 fats so that's inflammatory and then we're adding preservatives and nitrates and then pork is actually worse than cow's meat because the way that a pig's digestive system works is they tend to store to especially parasites so you're also often times getting parasitic residue or actual parasites when you're consuming foods like shrimp and pig meat on a

regular basis and so again the number four inflammatory food group you want to get out of your diet is conventional non-organic processed Meats cows being the worst offender and then also shrimp and then along with that um cows and chickens after that in terms of Highly inflammatory food groups the number five inflammatory food group you want to stay away from is margarine and other processed spreads now I remember growing up my mom once brought home margarine and my dad is an old military guy he was like meat and potatoes every single meal and butter on

everything real butter we'd pick up from Amish farmers sometimes in Ohio and my dad just I mean credit to him you know would not change and so he refused to eat it so growing up we had it in our house maybe a couple times and then my dad's like we're not eating that crap and we got it out and so we ate real butter and thank God again for my dad sticking to his guns there in his stubbornness but uh you know margarine and I'd love to hear how many of you growing up had that

switch right all of the sudden the commercial started coming out about how bad saturated fat was and how bad butter was and coconut oil and those sort of things and everybody starts switching to vegetable oils and margarine and I'd love to hear if that went over in your household how long you stuck with margarine when you made the switch back to butter which is so much better but the reality is this margarine and other processed spreads many of which have seed oils are inflammatory because they have artificial trans fats which significantly Elevate inflammation and have

actually been linked to in medical studies heart attacks and strokes now there's also risk of other issues there but again heart attack stroke high cholesterol high blood blood pressure and heart disease are the biggest issues with margarine and other process spreads and then number six the most damaging inflammatory food group along with these others we talked about is candy and sweets okay why are these inflammatory what we talked about earlier very similar to soda is it's loaded with refined sugar causing rapid blood sugar fluctuations which can then lead to an inflammatory response in the body

and here's the reality we're living in a world today where there are so many natural swaps you can do instead of the things we've talked about French fries you know what you can do is you can actually make sweet potato fries or french fries using white potatoes at home and fry them up in an air fryer covering them in coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil so you can still eat french fries we do we make them at home in our home using something like coconut oil extra virgin olive oil and some people also love

using beef Tallow as or duck fat as another good option we talked about soda and sugary beverages listen you can do things like tart cherry juice and some pomegranate juice or sweeten your green tea with Organic local honey you can still have some natural sweeteners or use monk fruit or allulose or a little bit of stevia again honey is probably my favorite but you can use those in small amounts and not increase your risk of type 2 diabetes listen you don't have to keep eating white bread and refined carbs instead do real sourdough bread which

tastes even better you know my wife now for three years has been making sourdough bread she did sourdough fasha this week we did sourdough cinnamon rolls sourdough cookies sourdough pancakes sourdough everything my wife got turned on to this by Carrie Underwood you guys probably know Carrie she's a a well-known musician uh who's got a great Homestead here in the Nashville area and so Chelsea started making it it's been such a gift to our family we love doing sourdough and there are so many studies showing the benefits but listen it's a simple swap it's a simple

change you could buy sourdough at some great health food stores or make it at home we talked about the processed Meats do organic grass-fed meat instead we talked about the margarine go back to real butter do butter and coconut oil and ghee and beef Tallow those are better options and then rather than the candy or sweets there are all natural forms of candy and sweets that might have a little bit of added cane sugar or honey or things along those lines but if you're just doing it on occasion it's not an issue you know I

still get to eat all my favorite foods Chelsea this week made pumpkin pie and she replaced in the uh recipe uh that that was more of a traditional recipe she added in Honey and a little monk fruit instead and then she did coconut oil in the crust and used pecans uh and some other um an oat flour and we used pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice and it actually is healing to our body because of the ingredients so we still have sweets we still have candy we still drink uh you know even things that are sweet

on occasion we just use all natural sweeteners instead and you can do the very same thing now here's the reality almost every health problem today has an inflammatory component okay heart disease that's inflammation building up in your arteries and cell walls in your heart increasing your risk of a heart attack diabetes that's inflammation of the pancreas and the in the cells that in interrupt insulin signaling leading to pre-diabetes insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes cancer that's caused by chronic inflammation that's damaging your cellular DNA your liver and your immune system that's what causes cancer and

arthritis by the way did you know anything that says itis at the end I in Latin that means inflammation so arthritis is inflammation of your joints ulcer of kitis that's inflammation of your colon right almost every health problem today is inflammatory in nature so if you can reduce inflammation with your diet by the way the ideal diet to reduce inflammation is a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids and other healthy fats from things like wild CAU salmon flax seeds walnuts chia seeds hemp seeds also other healthy fats like coconut extra virgin olive oil avocados and

olives getting more protein in your diet espe especially via bone broth getting wild caught fish and grass-fed beef and organic chicken and turkey and pastured eggs and getting more fruit that's anti-inflammatory like pineapple and kiwi and figs and pomegranates and berries all highly anti-inflammatory fruits as well and vegetables as well are highly anti-inflammatory so if you can follow an anti-inflammatory diet you can heal your cells you can heal your organs you can reverse disease and increase your lifespan now I want to give you some warning signs that your body is in a state of inflammation

I also want to tell you inflammation is not just caused from eating a poor diet it's also caused from emotional stress and not getting enough sleep and working out in an unhealthy way for instance if you're doing a lot of marathon training or CrossFit or things where you're tearing up your joints going to failure you're actually aging your body causing too much inflammation especially things like longdistance triathlons Mar Marathon running uh and and things like doing CrossFit for hours a day you're actually aging yourself not getting enough sleep that causes inflammation because your body can't

now recover and reduce inflammation enough and again emotional stress what happens when cortisol goes up insulin now is thrown off so then that's going to cause inflammation in your blood and your cells causing you to also age more quickly but here are the biggest warning signs your body might be inflamed number one is Pain any sort of joint pain stiffness discomfort any pain whatsoever that's inflammation number two digestive issues could be gas bloating constipation any sort of issue regarding your digestive system that's caused by inflammation if if you got a lot of fatigue and you're

constantly tired your body probably can't recover enough that's inflammation skin problems rashes and acne that's actually topical inflammation coming from either your liver your lungs or your gut in most cases and so that's also tied to inflam and these symptoms can often be subtle but you don't want to overlook them now in closing I want to cover the top herbs supplements foods and lifestyle practices to reduce inflammation fast number one as we talked about eat an anti-inflammatory diet that includes a lot of omega-3 fatty acids a lot of healthy fats lots of good protein fruits

vegetables that's the ideal for reducing inflammation next is you want to stay hydrated drink lots of water and maybe a little bit of electrolytes especially things high in potassium that helps flush out toxins out of your cell the other thing would be regular exercise walking is tremendous for inflammation the more you can walk and move the more your body can cycle through these inflammatory compounds getting them out of your system so good movement especially swimming and cycling are very very good for inflammation because they're also easy on your joints but I'd say swimming cycling walking

uh mini rebounders those sort of things very good for reducing inflammation and getting proper sleep as we talked about and in terms of supplements that reduce inflammation number one is going to be an omega-3 fatty acid supplement or a fish oil number two turmeric and other anti-inflammatory herbs as along with turmeric that are relatives of it like galangal and ginger so those herbs as well Rosemary cat's claw skull cap lesser known but in eastern medicine those are used also very anti-in inflammatory and then in addition to those getting more collagen and bone broth in your

diet those contain especially chicken collagen our chicken bone broth is going to have glucosamine croid and hyaluronic acid that's also going to reduce inflammation but generally if you want to reduce inflammation your top two are going to be an omega-3 fatty acid supplement along with turmeric are going to have the biggest bang for your buck benefits on reducing inflammation so here's what you need to be conscious of become more aware of the inflammat foods and their effects on your body and the body of your family by opting for anti-inflammatory foods and adopting healthy habits you

can reduce inflammation reverse disease and actually get physiologically younger in your biological age and this is something I can tell you that I've been very conscious of as I went through a house scare a few years ago and I said I want to be as young as possible I did an age test not too long ago and I was 10 years younger than my than my chronological age my biological age and and a big part of that was being very focused on reducing inflammation in my body and you can do the same thing following these

practical tips and remember it doesn't need to be overwhelming simply follow good swaps rather than the white bread do the sourdough bread rather than the process sugar do the honey and Stevie and monk fruit rather than doing processed seed oils do coconut oil butter and extra virgin olive oil making those simple swaps is going to radically improve your health and decrease inflammation and want to say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr Josh a show where each and every week we explore how to grow and improve your health physically mentally spiritually and

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