You are driving home from work-- your body aches, you're exhausted, and you are counting down the minutes until you can plop down on the couch with a drink and a snack. If this sounds familiar, and you've ever experienced increased fatigue and unusual pain or soreness in your body, there is a possibility that you are suffering from inflammation. While it can be caused by an external factor, such as a car accident, very often the food that you eat can be a leading contributor to this inflammation and its related symptoms. Making small changes in your diet can reduce this inflammation, increase your mood, and put you on track for living a healthier, pain free life.
Foods that we eat every day are silently sneaking an attack on our bodies. Check below to see if you are eating any of these foods so you can become aware of it. A future post will discuss alternatives to these foods.
-processed foods: the preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and trans fats in processed foods all contributed to inflammation.
-dairy products
-meats
-alcohol
-sugar/sweeteners
-sodium (salt)
-gluten
Eliminating all of these foods from your diet is not simple, and for some of us, might not even be possible. While there are a variety of ways to begin phasing these things out of your diet, one solution that is very to the point is a raw food diet. This means all of your food is consumed in the raw, uncooked state--no processing, no pasteurization (as is used with dairy), no cooking/heating above a certain point.
One might find a raw food diet intimidating -- especially the idea of not being able to eat meat and dairy, or commonly eaten processed foods like pasta. Prioritizing raw food in your diet doesn't mean you have to give it up completely to have health benefits. There are a variety of ways to cut back on inflammatory foods, or modify the foods that are often inflammatory, while still enjoying yourself. Future posts will discuss this.
But for now, if you are interested in raw food living, a friend of mine has recently undergone a raw vegan lifestyle, and she has some wonderful insight on the raw vegan lifestyle. She will be updating her blog regularly, but I highly suggest checking it out.
The Raw Foodies
