Anti-Inflammatory, Pain-Fighting Diet

THE OPTIMUM DIET

The OPTIMUM DIET promotes optimum cellular efficiency which promotes optimum health.

• The meaning of optimum in OPTIMUM DIET is the diet which best supports recovery from illness and maintenance of health. This support also includes optimum energy, athletic performance, mental power and endurance, preventing degenerative disease and staying young. The optimum diet will not accommodate many taste preferences, cultural traditions, official statements, and marketing prejudices although these factors have been the basis for food choices and dietary practices of the majority. The majority will have to adopt a new way of thinking about food in order to benefit from good nutrition.
• Food choices and dietary practices can strongly promote health; but also strongly prevent resolution of disease. For some people, their health condition is urgent and there has to be immediate radical dietary changes; others will have some time to transition into better health. A multitude of seemingly authoritative voices struggle for first place in the current marketplace of ideas; and one can find a voice saying what one wants to hear.
• What is recommend here is supported by epidemiological studies, clinical experience, the organization for LIFESTYLE MEDICINE, biochemical realities, and the conclusions presented in the book THE CHINA STUDY.

THE DIET - in one word is VEGAN.

• But additionally it needs to be Non-Inflammatory, Alkaline residue, Whole food, Plant based (preferably organic and absolutely NON-GMO) diet. Specifically it should include a wide variety of vegetables and fruits with enough complex carbohydrate to maintain weight. Complex carbohydrate foods include beans (all varieties), grains (with the exception of modern wheat), nuts, seeds, winter squash, and tubers such as potatoes and yams. It should be about 80% raw and 20% cooked by volume. It will include plenty of seeds and nuts used in various ways to provide essential fatty acids and calories. It could include a moderate amount of extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil. Never use transfats such as margarine, Crisco, heat extracted oils, or partially hydrogenated oils. Never use refined sugar. Don't use white flour and white flour products. Use very little honey or maple syrup.
• Juicing and blender drinks used daily or in various "cleansing" programs, are very potent for optimizing cellular function. It is not recommended to do a cleanse while tapering or in withdrawal from psych drugs, though. The book JUICING THERAPY by Bernard Jensen is a great resource.

WHY NOT MEAT?

• Very high in phosphorus which must be expelled from the body as Calcium Phosphate - causing calcium loss
• The amino acid mix in meats leaves a metabolic acid burden reducing cellular efficiency
• Rich in long chain fatty acids which stiffen cell membranes and reduce cell membrane voltage and reduce cellular efficiency
• Long chain fatty acids in meat require energy to split them into smaller fatty acids to use as fuel
• The fatty acids in meat also leave an acid residue; decreasing cellular efficiency
• Meat contains too much protein and the body cannot use amino acids for fuel except by changing them into sugar. This process uses energy and is an inefficient way of producing energy. This process releases ammonia which is very toxic and must be detoxified; also depleting energy. This process also results in urea formation which uses up energy to be expelled from the body.
• Meats concentrate environmental toxins up to 200,000 times the concentration found in plants
• The metabolic acid load from eating meats uses calcium from the bones to buffer it - depleting calcium from the bones
• All of the above factors decrease cellular efficiency which results in the person having less energy, less endurance, and prolonged recovery time from injury or exertion.
• It is impossible to cook meat and not make heterocyclic amines; all of which are toxic to the body and carcinogenic.

WHY NO DAIRY?

• All the calcium in milk products is combined with phosphorus and is expelled from your body as calcium phosphate
• The proteins in milk and milk products result in a metabolic acid load which is excreted from the body with calcium - depleting calcium from the bones
• The metabolic acid load decreases cellular efficiency · Milk protein is associated with causing allergies
• The long chain fatty acids in milk cause the same problem as those in meat
• Environmental toxins concentrated in the animal will come out in the milk

GLYCEMIC INDEX?

• Foods which have a stronger tendency to raise blood sugar levels are said to have a higher Glycemic Index; and having higher blood sugar is bad! Many diet plans promoted today are based on keeping a low glycemic index. But, because cellular efficiency is far more important than glycemic index, choosing foods mostly on the basis of glycemic index is a mistake. The proteins and fats in animal source foods often have a relatively low glycemic index but when eaten daily for a couple of weaks severely compromise cellular efficiency resulting in higher blood sugars and insulin resistance; the very problems the low glycemic index is supposed to avoid!

RESOURCES

• Many, many vegan recipe books are available in book stores; look through them to find ones of interest. Most likely most of the recipes will have to be modified to comply with good diet principles.

A couple of good books include:

• THE CHINA STUDY COOKBOOK
•  FIT FOR LIFE VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK by Diamond & Diamond Some recipes can also be found on-line at places such as www.amazinghealth.com

WHEN TO EAT

• Because the hormones stimulating metabolism and energy production are highest in the morning, most of one's caloric intake should be in the morning. The body normally goes through a cleansing/restoration phase at night during sleep if the digestive system is relatively empty then.

COMBINATIONS

• Only combine foods with similar digestive characteristics; generally don't combine fruits with vegetables. Some recipe books include food combination charts.

MAKE GRADUAL CHANGES

• Stopping consumption of sugar, caffeine, meat & dairy "cold turkey" will result in with-drawl symptoms lasting about two weeks. Symptoms will include such things as feeling faint, headaches, food cravings, poor concentration, and mood problems. Some people assume these symptoms mean they must eat meat; their bodies need it. NO, they do not need meat; the symptoms are simply associated with metabolic improvements and will shortly be resolved spontaneously.

ENCOURAGEMENT

• There are no diseases associated with eating healthy plant foods. Meat eating is associated with all degenerative diseases and aging. Dietary habits and food choices are the most important determinants of one's health. To optimize one's health, the diet must be optimized. To continue doing the same things but expect different results doesn't make sense. Take control of your diet and control your health and the life you want.

OTHER SOURCES:

• DVD entitled FAT, SICK, and NEARLY DEAD - the power of juicing
• DVD titled FORKS OVER KNIVES (find on-line) - plant based diet science

A Diet for Patients With Chronic Pain ~ By Forest Tennant, MD, DrPH

• Patients with chronic pain need a high-protein-intake diet, with avoidance of carbohydrate-induced episodes of hypoglycemia and weight gain.
• Many serious conditions and diseases, including hyperlipidemia, obesity, congestive heart failure, and renal failure, have their own recommended diet. Considerable scientific information and clinical observation have accumulated in recent years that chronic pain, particularly the debilitating, severe form that requires opioid treatment, needs a "chronic pain" diet. To date, however, no chronic pain diet has been officially recommended. Therefore, the goal of this article is to provide pain practitioners with a pain diet.
• (Click on the link to read the full article)
  http://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/treatments/complementary/diet-patients-chronic-pain