Eating to Reduce Inflammation

Hope: [00:00:00] Do you want to wake up feeling like you are stepping into who you are meant to be? Into the best possible version of you? What if I told you that the key to your best life, health, and happiness are all around you? You just have to find what works for you. I’m Hope Pedraza, and I believe that there isn’t just one way to live a healthy and meaningful life.

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Hey y’all and welcome to Hopeful and Wholesome. I wanted to do a little solo episode today to talk a little bit about eating for lowering inflammation and boosting immunity. I think these are all really popular, pertinent, and really relevant topics right now. Obviously, this has been quite a year for health and public health in general, right?

And it’s got a lot of us thinking and talking about our own health. Which I think, you know, we try to look for the [00:01:00] silver linings and things. And I think this is definitely a silver lining in this whole situation. This whole pandemic is. I think for many of us, we are looking a little closer at our health and kind of taking control of our health.

So when we’re looking at our health, it’s important to look at the big picture, which in my opinion starts with lowering inflammation. Inflammation in our bodies is a response to some sort of stress, whether it be internal or external. So there are two different kinds of inflammation. There’s acute inflammation, which this is a good thing because this is what helps us heal from wounds.

and kind of heal our bodies, but it’s when it becomes chronic that it becomes a problem. And most researchers and functional medicine doctors now are saying that inflammation is really the root cause of pretty much every disease and ailment that we have. So this is what’s causing us to be sick, it’s inflammation.

And much of the inflammation that we have comes from the food that we eat and the stress that we put on ourselves. We could go a bunch of different directions on this conversation, but for our purposes today I want to talk [00:02:00] about lowering inflammation with food and removing some foods that cause inflammation and then adding some foods that are anti inflammatory.

So when you lower inflammation, you actually boost your immunity. The opposite, obviously, of inflammation is anti inflammation, anti inflammatory and that’s what we’re going for. That’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking to eat all the types of foods that are as anti inflammatory as you can get and we want to boost our immunity.

And really, this is the best time to boost your immunity, right? We’re all trying to stay healthy and kind of dodge this until, until it’s over. So, what can we eat for, to lower inflammation? First, let’s look at what we drink. First, we should be drinking ample amounts of water, tons of water. My general recommendation for the average person is at least 3 liters a day, so that’s around 100 ounces or so.

Now this doesn’t take into account your activity level, your body size. The amount you sweat, or anything like that. This is a very general recommendation. So, if you want a more personal recommendation, I can give you that. [00:03:00] But this is just in general. I recommend that the average person drink about 3 liters a day.

Drinking ample amounts of water will not only help improve the quality of all of your bodily processes. We’re talking digestion, all of those things. But it will also help with your body’s natural detoxification process, which helps ease inflammation. You want to get rid of all the gunk and the bad stuff that comes into our system, whether it’s from food or environmental or wherever we get it from.

We want to get rid of that as much and as quickly as possible. So when we’re drinking water, this kind of naturally helps us get rid of that gunk that’s kind of stuck. Now, when we’re looking at the top foods we should be eating, we want to look at those foods that are high in vitamins and minerals, and that fight free radicals.

Now, free radicals, you’ve probably heard the term before, these are unstable atoms that can cause damage to cells. And this is really what causes illness and what causes aging, are these free radicals that just kind of run rampant in our bodies. Now, free radicals are started [00:04:00] either from pollution, from poor dietary choices.

from oxidative stress, which can happen from our lifestyle. So that’s stress from oxygen and from intense extended workouts. So those really intense workouts that we think we need multiple hours a day, multiple times a week actually can be causing more harm than good, which is another topic for another day.

But just keep that in mind that when you’re working out intensely, really intensely for, you know, extended periods of time, it is creating stress on the body. And this can be a bad thing. And, um, there have been multiple stories of people who have gone too hard at certain methods of exercise, and I’m not, like, condemning just one specific type of exercise, because it can be, I mean, it really can be from anything.

But we’re looking at, you know, those HIIT workouts, CrossFit style workouts, they can be too stressful on your body. So keep that in mind, that these intense extended workouts can create oxidative stress, which damages our cells, and it can cause, it can cause inflammation. But, [00:05:00] going back to foods, we’re looking at foods to fight free radicals.

We’re looking at foods that are high in antioxidants. The biggest ones we’re looking at here, the big players, are vitamins A, C, and E. Now there, there are others, but these are the big players that research has found that really works hard to fight free radicals and kind of rebuild those healthy cells and then blocks the bad things from getting inside of our cells.

Now, there are a ton of foods and there’s quite an extensive list that I can make here, but I’m kind of narrowing it down to the heavy hitters. So if you’re a note taking person, you can jot these down or just make mental notes for yourself of, you know, what to get next when you’re at the grocery store, when we’re looking at fighting inflammation and getting foods that are going to be high in these antioxidants that we’re looking for.

So first and foremost, best of all of them are going to be greens. Now greens is a pretty general term and there are Multiple kinds of greens that you can get especially if you ever go to the farmer’s [00:06:00] market I just feel like there’s greens that you’ve never even heard of that are being grown at these little small organic farms Which is really awesome, but The big ones that you, they’re the most common ones that you’ll find are things like spinach, kale, romaine, arugula.

These are fairly common, so you can get them pretty much anywhere, but all of these are high in vitamins A, C, and E, like I talked about, and these antioxidants, these vitamins are going to help promote youthful skin, it’s going to protect against damaging free radicals, it’s going to help clear your skin from vitamin A, that helps kind of keep your skin blemish free.

And these are all considered alkaline, so greens, again, another topic for another day, but just a brief overview here. When we’re looking at greens, at green leafy vegetables, these are considered alkaline. When you’re eating something that is alkaline, you’re helping clean out acidic waste out of your body.

So when you eat things, your body is either going to build up an acidic or an alkaline ash. It’s like the remnants of what’s left behind after your [00:07:00] body digests the food. And when there’s too much acidic waste in the body, this is what causes inflammation and disease. And so this is actually one of the primary causes of inflammation is just too much acidic waste in the body.

So when you’re eating greens, They are promoting this alkaline environment and it’s really a lot of it has to do with the chlorophyll That’s in the greens and this is it kind of attaches to that acidic Waste that we want to get out of the body and it helps eliminate it So, spinach, romaine, arugula, kale, those are all really big players when we’re looking at high in antioxidants and then helping kind of promote that alkaline environment in the body to reduce inflammation.

Now, some other ones you can look at, cabbage is also really great. And I’m talking regular cabbage, and I know this isn’t necessarily a green vegetable because it’s not green at all, but red cabbage is also really good for you and it’s also really high in antioxidants. Thanks. But cabbage is high in those same three big players, A, C, and E, and actually has over 11 percent more vitamin C than an [00:08:00] orange by weight, which is a really interesting statistic.

So cabbage is also high in sulfur, which is really good, it kind of promotes an anti cancer environment in the body. It helps. Studies have shown that it can help fight cancer, it can help heal wounds, it helps detoxify the body, it helps promote healthy tissues, there’s a lot of great things that are, that can be done with foods high in sulfur.

And then another green you can look at are collards, collard greens. These are also really high in chlorophyll, and then another vitamin besides those big antioxidants, A, C, and E, is magnesium, which helps ease the stress on the body. So this is kind of the feel good vitamin that we all need, and most of us actually don’t get enough of it.

70 80 percent of us don’t get enough magnesium, so here is a good source. And then another benefit of collards is that it’s also a good source of iron So it’s a good plant based sources source of iron, which most of the time people are getting it from meat from animal foods So another good source is collards.

So moving on down the list. So those are your greens So greens are going to be the real heavy hitters [00:09:00] These are going to be the ones highest and the antioxidants the chlorophyll that we’re looking for to help get rid of the gunk and help promote Anti inflammation in the body. All right, another another good one to eat are sweet potatoes these are really high in vitamins A and C, which we, a lot of people know because of the bright orange color.

They’re high in vitamin A. It’s good for your eyes and all that, but it also helps with your skin and fights for radicals. So that vitamin A we’re looking for, that’s a really good antioxidant that we need. And they’re also high in fiber, which helps detoxify the body. So remember I talked about that detoxification we’re looking for with water.

Fiber is the other way that you’re going to help detoxify the body, eliminate waste, and also a pro, you’re going to help maintain stable blood sugar. So sweet potatoes are another great source of anti inflammatory vitamins. So moving on, going back to fruits, bananas are a great source. Now these have a ton of other vitamins and minerals and some essential amino acids in it.

It’s really [00:10:00] how they’re really high in fiber and vitamin C. Both of these help with digestion and actually vitamin C can help you Metabolize other vitamins better and so when you’re taking vitamin C with other vitamins that your body can absorb them better Which is another pro here in our whole antioxidant anti inflammatory scenario that we’re looking at Let’s see the next one.

We’re gonna look at our lemons Lemons are great actually really high in vitamin C, especially compared to other fruits. They help with digestion. They help promote a healthy liver and then going back to that little mini lesson. I gave on Alkalinity and acidity this lemons, although they are acidic to the taste they metabolize as alkaline And so it’s a really good way to kind of alkalize your body, especially for drinking like, you know Warm water with lemon in the morning it kind of promote that alkaline environment when you first wake up So they’re really high in vitamin c which helps just destroy free radicals It’s a really good blood purifier and it can clean out bacteria and toxins.

So really good way to detoxify, add lemon to your water, to your [00:11:00] smoothies, to your juice, whatever you’re drinking, squeeze some lemon in for some good extra vitamins. Another vegetable that you want to look for is broccoli. Now going back to that information I was talking to you about cabbage, that are high in sulfur, this is another one here.

Broccoli and kind of the same thing. It’s that it can help with detoxification. It can help Kind of clean the body. It helps with food metabolism, but broccoli is also high in a and c So it can help repair cellular damage and it can help eliminate toxins Now, there are other foods that are high in antioxidants, these are kind of what we would call superfoods.

So these are things that you might find on that health food aisle that you not, aren’t necessarily going to find in the regular section of your grocery store. We’re talking about acai berries, about flax seeds, goji berries, foods like that that are super high in antioxidants. Acai berries actually have 500 percent more antioxidants than blueberries and blueberries are a heavy hitter.

That one is also my top list here. But there it’s going to help keep your skin clean fight [00:12:00] soft disease and infections Helps protect against free radicals. So with these super foods, not only are you helping, you know, build healthy cells But they’re actually fighting off free radicals. So they’re just they’re blocking free radicals from attacking the cells, which is pretty cool So you can find acai berries a lot of times you can find it in powder You can find it in the freezer section.

You can find it online But if you’re looking for something a little more common, you can go with just your everyday blueberry and side note here for all of these vegetables and fruits, go for organic when you can. We want to kind of eliminate toxins and we can and a conventional vegetables and fruits, especially those with kind of a soft outer skin are really gonna withhold.

They’re going to hold onto a lot of the, you know, pesticides or whatever the farmers are using to keep the pests and stuff away. So if we can eliminate that as much as possible, Then these antioxidants that you’re eating have you know That’s going to be less work for those guys to eliminate the toxins in the waste that’s in your body So anyway going back to our and our super foods [00:13:00] here So blueberries super high in ac and e full of antioxidants and they’re also really high in fiber and are good for digestion So remember digestion is going to be good for detoxifying the body Blueberries are super high in fiber.

And then one more superfood I want to talk about, well two I guess really, they kind of go together because you can kind of toss them in anything, flax seeds and chia seeds. I love flax seeds. These are really great plant based source of omega 3s. And there is some, you know, there’s some controversy around omega 3s, which are really important for anti inflammation and anti inflammatory diet.

And a lot of people say you can only get these from, you know, fish and eggs and some not plant based sources. But actually you can! Flax seeds are a great source of omega 3s. And they’re also a great source of calcium, magnesium, really great source of fiber. They can help lower cholesterol They can help with the healthy metabolism flax seeds are awesome So you can buy the whole flax seed you can buy the ground flax seed and just toss them in anything You can toss them in your [00:14:00] smoothies and your oatmeal and your cereal whatever sprinkled over the top It’s really easy way to add just those omega 3s and those really Anti inflammatory vitamins to your diet and then chia seeds are the same chia seeds super high in fiber Another great source of omega 3s And i’m just an easy way to add some extra antioxidants to what you’re already eating You can again toss it in your smoothies You can put it in your cereal, sprinkle it over your oatmeal, whatever.

It’s really easy to add those. Again, we want to look for organic when we can, so that we’re not putting any additional waste or chemicals in our bodies. But that is kind of my list there. Now, obviously, I didn’t say all of them here. There are a ton. of things that you can eat to ease inflammation. But really, these are some of the heaviest hitters.

And just keep in mind, we’re looking for foods to help fight inflammation and build a healthy immune system. We’re looking for foods that are highest in A, C, and E, and foods that are going to help [00:15:00] detoxify the body. So anything that’s also high in fiber, chlorophyll, which are going to be all of your green vegetables, all of these are going to be a great way to get rid of waste, to clean out the gunk, and to just provide a healthy environment in your body.

So hopefully you got some takeaways from this, you can get some, some new veggies and fruit the next time you head to the grocery store, but I really hope you take this to heart, I mean this really is the best time to be thinking and talking about our health and how we can be more preventative and less reactive when it comes to viruses and illnesses and just preventing all of that. So I think if we can stick to more of these anti inflammatory foods It’s really going to help us through You know kind of the the cold and flu season that’s coming up and kind of help just keep our bodies running and tip top shape So that we don’t have to worry about if or when we get sick because we know that we can fight it off So Let me know if you have any questions about any of these that I’ve talked about and I’ll see y’all in the next one Thanks for listening to hopeful and wholesome y’all [00:16:00] if you found value in this week’s episode Please subscribe on itunes wherever you get your podcast and leave a review to let me know what you thought I love to know what you find useful in these episodes So I know how I can provide the most value I can to my listeners And if you have topics that you want to know more about i’d love to hear those as well So shoot me a message on instagram facebook or linkedin It’s at the hope pedraza or visit my website hopeful and wholesome Thanks y’all.