Get more energy, a flatter tummy and a healthier future by reducing the impact of inflammation
- Discover the signs that continuous inflammation is damaging your body
- Find out where free radicals actually come from and how to avoid them!
- Eat foods rich in these incredible helper compounds
Inflammation is an important part of your body’s healing process, but problems occur when we’re triggering inflammation all the time and it never goes away completely.
Ongoing inflammation is at the root of many diseases that can develop as we age, so it’s important to get it under control now!
Inflammation is triggered by sources of free radicals – unstable compounds that whizz around our bodies causing damage to tissues.
FREE RADICALS COME FROM
- Burning fuel for energy inside our bodies – e.g. in strenuous exercise.
- Polluted air or smoke that we breathe, especially in the city.
- Chemical exposure from non-organic food that contains pesticides, preservatives, additives like artificial sweeteners and colours.
- Microbes like bacteria and viruses, which trigger an immune response in our bodies, our immune system produces A LOT of free radicals when it’s on overdrive.
- Injuries: when you damage your tissues, the area becomes inflamed because (as with the point above) the immune system kicks in.
*TIP: Stress causes us to produce stress hormones. One of these is cortisol, which should switch off inflammation, but when you’re very stressed you get resistant to it and end up with a constant low-grade inflammation, wounds are slow to heal and you deposit more fat around the middle.
Read on to find out if inflammation is affecting you.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE INFLAMMATION?
There are some clear-cut signs that your body has some inflammation going on. These include:
- Pain - headaches, muscle aches, period pain.
- Redness, swelling – this can be anywhere in the body from big joints like your hips to the skin on your face, your gums, or rashes and spots anywhere on your body.
- Abdominal bloating, puffiness, water retention. This is because gaps between cells widen to let through big immune cells to where they’re needed so you end up with more fluid. If you’re eating something that triggers an immune response then you’ll get the bloating in your tummy but it could also be all over - you may notice it in your face.
- When the immune system is constantly switched on, the rest of the body suffers:
- - It’s expensive on energy, so you’ll feel tired all the time.
- - Your immune system is under pressure, so you’re more likely to catch coughs, colds, flu,
- - It increases your risk of chronic diseases later on – IBS, IBD (Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s), insulin resistance, hypothyroid, diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancer, heart disease.
HOW TO REDUCE INFLAMMATION
You can take a huge load off your immune system and calm down inflammation by reducing your exposure to free radicals and counteracting them with anti-inflammatory foods.
Here’s how:
1. Add plants rich in polyphenols
- Polyphenols are phytochemicals that have antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are compounds that neutralize free radicals in our bodies.
- Some of the highest sources of polyphenols are: black olives, raw cacao, blueberries, blackcurrants, pecans and hazelnuts.
- Organic Burst Acai Berry has 10x more antioxidants than blueberries (measured by the ORAC score) with an incredible 1960umol antioxidants per 1 teaspoon. It also contains antioxidant Vitamin E that helps reduce oxidative damage.
- Herbs and spices are another great source of antioxidants, particularly rosemary, cinnamon, turmeric, chilli – yum!
- In order to be well absorbed polyphenols (the compounds mentioned above that come from fruit, vegetables, nuts and spices) need the presence of fats. Eating a diet rich in good quality fats will make those healthy compounds more bio-available.
- Improve your balance of omega-6 (inflammatory) and omega-3 (anti-inflammatory) fatty acids by cutting down on vegetable oils and eating more rich sources of omega-3.
- Rich sources of omega-3 are: chia, flax seeds, oily fish, high quality krill and fish oil capsules.
*TIP: Chia is the perfect omega-3 food. It's the richest plant source of omega-3 and it contains zinc, magnesium and iron that all help the conversion in the body from ALA to important EPA and DHA. Have 1 serving daily in your bottle of water or a delicious Chia Pudding.
*TIP: take x4 Organic Burst Acai Berry capsules with your fish or fish oil capsules to give you all the benefits of its powerful antioxidant at the same time!
- Add more microalgae like Organic Burst Spirulina(take 1 teaspoon per day in lemon water or smoothies). An algae oil supplement may also be helpful - remember to choose carefully and go organic!
- Reduce your exposure to pollutants and chemicals – from busy traffic, toxic household cleaning products, processed food, and non-organic skincare.
- Cut out sugar and refined carbs – they trigger insulin and the immune response.
- Avoid foods that are known to irritate the gut lining like all gluten-containing flours (wheat, rye, barley), oats and cows milk.
- Avoid burnt food, which is chock full of free radicals!
* TIP: Try a simple breathing exercise to help relax you – breathe in for a count of 4, hold for 4 and breathe out slowly for a count of 6. Repeat 5 times.
Take a few easy steps to calm your body, feel better right now, plus you’ll help to protect yourself for a happy, healthy future!
