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The next thing to consider if dealing with a nagging sense of “unwell”, even after doing the basic things (protein, micronutrients, and calories) right for a decent period of time (i.e., months), is to start thinking about the possibility that some of the foods you’re eating are causing a chronic inflammatory response.
What is inflammation and why is it important?
Inflammation is your body’s immune response to insults. The response can be acute and limited to the time and location of the injury (i.e., a sprained ankle swelling) — this is a good thing and a sign that your body is taking care of you! Inflammation is not inherently harmful…it’s just a signal that your body is responding to an insult.
The issue comes when there is a constant state of low-level chronic inflammation that is never resolved. This chronic inflammation process could be triggered by certain foods, poor sleep, excess body fat, environmental toxins…or a combination. This is what is at the root of most modern health issues.
The role of food in chronic inflammation
Food can cause chronic inflammation in the body, especially when you don’t have a healthy gut and food is not digested and processed correctly. This can worsen some inflammatory conditions in the body; for example:
Allergies
Asthma
Autoimmune disease
Chronic joint pain, arthritis
Skin issues
Brain fog and other forms of cognitive disfunction
It’s debatable whether or not food CAUSES these issues, but what’s not up for debate is that food can definitely make things either better or worse. Inflammation induced by dietary triggers could be due to eating the wrong TYPES of food (for you), or simply by overeating.
Foods that may be inflammatory
You might get tired of hearing this, but which foods to avoid will depend on you! As with blood sugar, some people will have an inflammatory response to a food that is perfectly benign for someone else.
With that said, here are some common culprits:
Grains (especially gluten-containing grains, like wheat)
Vegetable or seed oils
Legumes (especially beans and nuts)
Excessive sugar in all of its forms (from “natural sugars” to high fructose corn syrup)
Sometimes, even vegetables (Google “autoimmune Paleo protocol” or “carnivore diet” for examples)
Alcohol
Use an elimination diet to pinpoint dietary sources of inflammation
If you’re noticing lots of symptoms of chronic inflammation, it might be a good idea to do an elimination diet for at least a month. Take out the most common trigger foods (the Whole 30 does a good job of this; if you’re really struggling with health problems you may even consider doing a carnivore diet for a period of time). See if your symptoms improve, then when you’re ready start to reintroduce foods one by one and notice whether or not there is a return of your symptoms.
A good resource for this is It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig (founders of Whole 30).
I did my first elimination diet (a Whole30) when my husband and I were struggling to get pregnant. Nothing else was working, and my health in general wasn’t great, so I thought I had nothing to lose!
The Whole30 didn’t get me pregnant, but it DID drastically improve my asthma symptoms which I’ve had since I was 3 years old. To this day, I can generally keep my asthma under control, with no medication, simply from eating a mostly whole-foods diet. And best of all, it opened my eyes to how much better I could feel on a day-to-day basis just from changing the types of food I ate.
This is the power of nutrition. Everything you eat is either adding to or taking away from your health and vitality. Harness this power by implementing the principles I’ve taught you in these articles, and see how much better you feel!
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