Foods That Heal: #2: SWEET POTATOES!!!! (and RECIPES!)! Does Your Body Hurt? Do You Feel Sick? Want To Prevent Disease? Start Eating These Foods!!

Well folks its time for spotlighting another awesome anti-inflammatory, antioxidant food!  This time I thought I'd pick a starch that may surprise you!  SWEET POTATOES!!  

Yes, thats right folks, I'm talking about potatoes!  But sweet potatoes aren't really "potatoes" as we think of them!  While doing research for this post, I was surprised to discover that sweet potatoes themselves are actually not part of the "potato family"--they are a root vegetable in their own family completely separate from white potatoes & even yams!  So bring on these "potatoes!"   As I shared last week with KALE, in each post I'll share why each food rocks nutritionally and give you some recipe options to try to prepare it!  Once again, I'd love to hear any recipe ideas that you have to cook/prepare yummy meals with the featured "Food That Heals!"  Please share your ideas in the comments below!

And now:  back to the sweet potatoes!

You'll note that sweet potatoes showed up on all three of the anti-inflammatory/antioxidant lists I've shared on the blog.  Thats because they are full of powerful micronutrients that pack a major punch to fight & prevent pain, cancer & even stabilize blood glucose in diabetics!  Extra bonus--they taste delicious & have a relatively low glycemic index which makes them a perfect food to satisfy a sweet tooth!

I really love sweet potatoes--I have since I was young but when I became vegan and sugar-free I got a bit stumped on how to cook them!  I was so used to having them baked with butter and brown sugar or in a casserole with marshmellows!!  Luckily, the vegan blogger world stood ready to provide me with many tasty recipes to enjoy this nutritious & delicious treat!  I'll share some yummy recipes later in the post but first, why do sweet potatoes rock?  Remember, I'm a doctor but still engaged in my own nutrition education so I'll do the best I can explaining these nutrients!

Antioxidant Value

• Vitamin A (1 cup provides 438% of the RDA!)--as I shared in Kale last week, Vitamin A is one impressive vitamin.  
• It protects cells against cancer and other diseases and is necessary for new cell growth
• It contains Carotenoids: lutein and beta-carotene--studies have demonstrated a cancer-preventive function for prostate cancer and colorectal cancer in particular! 
• The beta-carotene & anthocyanin in the sweet potatoes is what gives them their rich orange color--beta-carotene is a precursor for Vitamin A (which means it is a substance that helps make Vitamin A)!
• Vitamin C--like Kale, according to "Prescription for Nutritional Healing" this vitamin is an "antioxidant that is required for at least three hundred metabolic functions in the body including tissue growth and repair..."
• THE POWER OF PURPLE: 
• In one study, the antioxidant activity in purple sweet potatoes was 3.2 times higher than that of a type of blueberry! This is due to the anthocyanin (discussed in anti-inflammatory value below) which was  found in one study to have the strongest antioxidizing power out of 150 flavonoids
• I haven't been able to find any purple sweet potatoes at my local Whole Foods but I'm going to see if my little organic shop up the street will order me some from these folks that I found via Google!:-)

Anti-Inflammatory Value (some overlap with antioxidant)

• Anthocyanin:  the pigment that makes sweet potatoes orange and sometimes, even purple!
• a class of flavonoids.  As I mentioned last week, flavonoids are extremely beneficial, check out this paper by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.
• Shown in studies to reduce the inflammatory agent  cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) {small informational note: COX-2 inhibitors--things that reduce COX-2--include the drug Celebrex!}

Other fantastic nutritional benefits include:

• Potassium; manganese; Vitamins B6, B3 & B5; copper; tryptophan
• FIBER:  nearly 4 grams per cup!
• and MORE! 

What diseases are Sweet Potatoes thought to influence, prevent, reduce or improve:

• Reduces Pain
• "In animal studies, reduced inflammation following sweet potato consumption has been shown in brain tissue and nerve tissue throughout the body.
• Once again, check out Dr. Neal Barnard's book: "Foods That Fight Pain"
• Helps improve blood glucose control in diabetic patients
• Recent research has shown that extracts from sweet potatoes can help improve the control of blood glucose levels by improving insulin sensitivity in diabetic patients.  
• "It also has been shown to significantly increase blood levels of adiponectin in persons with type 2 diabetes. Adiponectin is a protein hormone produced by our fat cells, and it serves as an important modifier of insulin metabolism." 
• Helps prevent cancer (like all antioxidant dense foods!) 
• May reduce damage to the aging brain, including reducing cognitive deficits
• May help reduce obesity
• studies have shown that the purple sweet potato's anti-inflammatory effects includes suppressing leptin (the molecule that generates fat tissue in the body)
• Helps fight arthrosclerosis & stabilizes the walls of small  blood vessels which can improve blood flow throughout the body
• Improves cholesterol
• A study shared in Dr. Fuhrman's Disease Proof blog indicated that anthocyanin dense foods reduced LDL cholesterol & increased HDL cholesterol

***Caveat:  If you have kidney or gallbladder problems, check with your doctor before you eat a lot of sweet potatoes--they have oxalates in them which can crystallize.***

Recipes:  SO many great recipes!!  What are YOUR favs?

• Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges and Zippy Yams & Bok Choy from p.9 of Dr. Neal Barnard's "Diabetes Recipes" pdf
• Susan Voisin of Fat Free Vegan Kitchen's Millet Sweet Potato Flat Bread sounds AMAZING!  She uses it to make a "cheese" sandwich!  Going on my list for next week!
• Probably my FAVORITE soup: The Healthy Librarian's version of Robin Robertson's Sweet Potato, Spinach, Fire-Roasted Tomatoes, and a Bit of Peanut Butter Soup
• Ok this looks amazing and I'm so sad that with my soy-free life I can't have it but for the rest of you:  The Vegan Epicurean's Sweet Potato Torta with Dijon Cream
• My New Roots Sweet Potato Hummus:  OK YUMMY!!!
• Sweet potatoes for breakfast?  Oh yes!  Check this out from "Oh She Glows":  Sweet Potato Oatmeal Breakfast Casserole and this other Sweet Potato Breakfast Salad recipe from "Choosing Raw"
• Healthy Girl's Kitchen shared this great looking Sweet Potato Stew recipe from another blog The Jana/Dr. Joel Project 
• When Lindsay Nixon's new book the "Everyday Happy Herbivore" came out, she was kind enough to send me one of the recipes as a preview--yummy Sweet Potato Dal!

Ok thats all folks!  Enjoy!

The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.  Please consult your health care provider before making any healthcare decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition. The Happy Rehab Doc expressly disclaims responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered as a result of your reliance on the information contained in this site.  By visiting this site you agree to the foregoing terms and conditions.

Does Your Body Hurt? Do You Feel Sick? Want To Prevent Disease? Start Eating Foods That Heal: #1: KALE!!!! (and RECIPES!)

As you know I'm a huge fan of the concept of addressing chronic pain issues and other inflammatory diseases (Arthritis, Acute Muscle Strains, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Heart Disease, Diabetes and Cancer) with dietary change to improve healing and reduce pain!  I've written on my own journey with anti-inflammatory foods here and here, as well as shared with you some anti-inflammatory foods for kids AND a list of anti-oxidant foods to promote healthy skin!  


But lets face it, those lists can be really confusing!  Its just too much information sometimes.  So I've decided to start a post series focussing weekly on ONE powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory food that HEALS!  I'll share why each food rocks and give you some recipe options to try to prepare it!  Even better, I'll get feedback (hopefully) in the comments from all of you with other tasty ideas for preparing the "Food That Heals!"


This week the magic food is:  KALE!!!


Its one of my favorites--pretty much since I went to the farmers market last summer and kale was on sale for 1 pound for $1.  I had no idea how much kale weighed, so I told the man:  "I'll have 5 lbs!"  Oh boy, thats a lot of kale!!! Wowsers.  So I started cooking it. And liking it!  Then in Dr. Esselstyn's book Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease, Ann Esselstyn also extolled the virtues of kale.  And so on and so forth.  Dr. Joel Fuhrman's nutrition density scale ranks it #1 out of 20,000 foods according to PeerTrainer.


Kale makes it on every anti-inflammatory, antioxidant list because it is chock full of nutrients.  Lets review what those are!  Remember, I'm not a nutritionist.  I'm a doctor learning how food interacts with the body systems I've studied in minute detail! 


A great article in the Huffington post on kale is here.


Kale's Antioxidant value centers on:

• Vitamin C--according to "Prescription for Nutritional Healing" this vitamin is an "antioxidant that is required for at least three hundred metabolic functions in the body including tissue growth and repair..."
• Vitamin A--protects cells against cancer and other diseases and is necessary for new cell growth
• Carotenoids: lutein and beta-carotene--studies have demonstrated a cancer-preventive function for prostate cancer and colorectal cancer in particular! 
• Flavonoids: the big ones in kale are kaempferol & quercitin but there are 45 different flavonoids in kale!  Flavonoids are extremely beneficial, check out this paper by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

Anti-inflammatory power (many antioxidants also double as anti-inflammatory agents):

• Vitamin K: interesting study demonstrated that high Vitamin K status is associated with lower inflammatory markers (the agents of inflammation).  KEY CAUTION:  if you are on coumadin (warfarin) and eat kale or other leafy greens make SURE to talk to your doctor about this to adjust your dose as it can have a dangerous effect on your blood thinners.
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids (ALA) (yes!  Kale has Omega-3's!)
• " It only takes 100 calories of kale to provide us with 25-35% of the National Academy of Sciences' public health recommendation for the most basic omega-3 fatty acid (alpha-linolenic acid, or ALA)."

Other fantastic nutritional benefits include:

• Magnesium, Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), Calcium, copper, potassium, iron, manganese and phosphorus
• FIBER:  5 grams per cup!
• and MORE!  Check out this link for more details!

What diseases is Kale thought to prevent, reduce or improve:

• Reduces Pain significantly if eaten on a regular basis like all cruciferous vegetables.  Check out Dr. Neal Barnard's book: "Foods That Fight Pain"
• Helps lower cholesterol (due to the fiber's effect on bile acids--this effect is maximized when kale is cooked!)
• Helps reduce heart disease (by absorbing fat through the bile acid binding mechanism derived from fiber)
• Helps prevent osteoporosis (through Vitamin K's role in creating osteocalcin, the protein in bone tissue on which calcium crystalizes"
• Helps prevent cancer (excellent source of glucosinlate phytonutrients)
• Studies that show kale & other cruciferous vegetable's role in preventing colon cancer
• Literature supports reductions in prostate cancer & ovarian cancer with kale as well.

IMPORTANT CAVEAT:  Buy Organic Kale whenever possible!!  It is part of the "Dirty Dozen" list of high pesticide foods!!

Here is a sampling of recipes from some of my favorite bloggers and authors:

• Healthy Girl's Kitchen's Sri Lankan Kale (I loved this, you can read about it in my post here)
• My New Roots Blog's Winter Slaw (probably my favorite salad of all time, I talked about it here)
• The Fat Free Vegan Kitchen's "Cosmic Cashew Kale and Chickpeas with Confetti Quinoa"
• The Healthy Librarian's Potato & Kale Enchiladas (YUM!)
• Dr. Fuhrman's California Creamed Kale & Kale Fennel Soup
• Ann Esselstyn's Kale & Lemon Sandwiches (from The Healthy Librarian blog)
• Dr. Andrew Weil's Tuscan Kale Salad
• A few recipes for Kale Chips: 
• "Sour Cream" & Onion Kale Chips from "Oh She Glow's" blog (OMG this sounds SO good!)
• The Happy Herbivore's Oil-Free Kale Chips
• Mrs. McDougall's Baked Kale Chips

Ok!  What is YOUR favorite Kale recipe??!!

Any requests for foods for next time?:-)

The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.  Please consult your health care provider before making any healthcare decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition. The Happy Rehab Doc expressly disclaims responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered as a result of your reliance on the information contained in this site.  By visiting this site you agree to the foregoing terms and conditions.

Best of the Blogosphere From the Last Week!! Tons of PARTY RECIPES for The Super Bowl Party, Diabetes & Vitamin D, Small Town Living & MORE!

Well it looks like everyone in the blogosphere is gearing up for the big day:  The Super Bowl!!  We're off to Florida for vacation next week (thank goodness!!!) and Sunday is my husband's birthday so the Super Bowl action has been a bit off my radar!  Still, any party is a challenge food-wise if you are a compulsive overeater OR someone with food restrictions (i.e. vegan, gluten, sugar, etc).  So thank you thank you thank you fellow bloggers for giving us all some fantastic healthy ideas to make a party weekend fun and delicious!!  Below, I have a list of some great Super Bowl or snack related blog posts, but first, a caveat:

If you are worried about maintaining your healthy eating habits during a social event, I encourage you to check out my blog post Holiday Survival Tips.  Here are the party tips in a nutshell (I explain the tips in the post):

1) Use the "One Plate Method" of eating at all events involving food

2) Call ahead to events so you can plan your food strategy & if appropriate, offer to bring a dish

3) Talk about "allergies"

4) Make sure to have a lot of yummy meals on hand at home (your FAVORITES) throughout this season so you never feel deprived.

5)  Eat at home before food events and eat the foods from Tip #4!

6) Become willing to believe that there is NO SUCH THING as "one bite" or "just a little taste" or "just this one time" or "I don't want to offend anyone by not eating this lovely meal."

7)  Use your resources

8)  Remember the point of a party

9)  Leave

10) If you slip once, get right back up and march on as if it didn't happen!

11) Make new traditions that don't involve food

12) Be realistic

OK, moving on.....

The Best of the Vegan Super Bowl Party Blogosphere:

• Susan Voisin from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen shares a fantastic CHILI recipe and some wonderful tips on staying healthy during the Big Game :-)
• Angela Liddon from Oh She Glows shares a yummy recipe for Easy Black Bean Chili Dip!
• Forks Over Knives shared this recipe for "Dirty Rice" by Meg Wolff in the Huffington Post.  Sounds delicious!
• The Happy Herbivore shared this great "Super Bowl Party" menu!
• Robin Robertson's book "Party Vegan" has an awesome Super Bowl menu in it, but here is her blog post on it.  She also has a fantastic selection of vegan dips on this blog post about the Super Bowl!  
• This isn't a Super Bowl specific post but Post Punk Kitchen posted a yummy looking recipe for "Baked Garlic Curry Fries" that sounds like some awesome Super Bowl finger food to me!

and now non-Super Bowl, my favorite blog posts for the week:

• Awesome post from The Healthy Librarian on Type 2 Diabetes:  How Exercise Intensity, Meat & Fat Consumption, Vitamin D, Body Weight, & Muscles All Affect Type-2 Diabetes. Vitamin D is my research area--I just completed a study Vitamin D's effect on falls--many people are not aware how important this Vitamin is for a number of body functions.  I feel the current RDA for Vitamin D is incorrectly low--for folks over the age of 65, 2000IU daily is a much better dose (if you don't have hypercalcemia or renal disease).  That said, I do not believe loading folks with high dose Vitamin D (50,000 units etc) is safe with regards to bone metabolism!  And on a funnier note, OH MY GOSH I SOOOOO want to put this cartoon that she shared in the story on a t-shirt and wear it every day!  
• Ok this is technically from last week but its too good to pass up mentioning!  This blog post on the Nutrition Facts blog is a fantastic way to learn more about which foods are dense in anti-oxidants:  Acai to Zucchini: antioxidant food rankings
• If you live in a small town than definitely don't pass up this Engine 2 Diet blog "The Daily Beet" post:  5 Tips for Small Town Living.  I did part of my medical training in a very rural area and we are considering returning to a rural area to practice in the next few years so I found this post to be an awesome guide!

Well thats a sample of MY favorites!  What were YOUR favorite posts this week?!

The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.  Please consult your health care provider before making any healthcare decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition. The Happy Rehab Doc expressly disclaims responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered as a result of your reliance on the information contained in this site.  By visiting this site you agree to the foregoing terms and conditions.

Build a Healthy Immune System with FOOD! ~Part 2~ SuperImmunity for KIDS!!

Yup that's me as a little girl!:-)

What a perfect time of year to make a change in the way your family eats!  Remember that YOU have the power to influence your kids' health destinies by changing what they eat!  So, if you have any children in your life--this second post in my kids series is for you!!!   And before you stop reading my non-parent readers, children in many ways are biochemically little adults so pretty much everything in this post is relevant to all of us adults as well! So you might find some good information here after all!  


I have been featuring Dr. Leo Galland's outstanding book: "SuperImmunity for Kids" and last time I talked about nutritional assessment when treating common childhood ailments.  Now lets continue with Part 2--my best effort at a condensed summary of some key points in the book.


After reading Dr. Galland's book "SuperImmunity for Kids" from cover to cover multiple times I have gleaned the following random pearls of Dr. Galland's wisdom to make kids as healthy as possible:


1) Chronic yeast or mold in children's bodies can weaken their immune system significantly and cause recurrent infections that never completely resolve.  If your kids go on antibiotics or if they have had recurrent infections after going on antibiotics in the past, ask your pediatrician about whether treating them with a prolonged course of Nystatin (yeast eliminator) is appropriate.  Dr. Galland appears to recommend a yeast-elimination diet + anti-yeast medication after all antibiotic use in kids.


2) As much as possible, kids should not eat sugar.  It causes significant behavior & medical problems and sets kids up for a lifetime of health issues.  Toxicity from sugar can mimic ADHD, can prolong bacterial infections, and cause kids not to absorb other nutrients in their diet.  Dr. Galland suggests that kids who crave sweets are nutrient-poor and need a more nutrient-dense diet with antioxidants and EFAs (Essential Fatty Acids).  This is not to mention the other effects of sugar on kids' immune systems and inflammatory states--childhood obesity is massively on the rise and I've seen way too many kids under the age of 12 with Type 2 Diabetes!!!  Now I know all you parents out there are rolling your eyes right now saying "Yeah, right, how am I ever going to get my kid to not eat sugar!" Well next time I'll post Dr. Galland's advice on how to encourage nutrient-dense eating in kids along with a few suggestions of my own & other blogs to reference that may be helpful! 


3) Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are the magic missing ingredient in diagnosing a LARGE variety of illnesses in toddlerhood and childhood.  Dr. Galland recommends the following daily flaxseed oil dose regimen for kids to boost their immune system's ability to function: 

1 to 2 years old	1 teaspoon daily
2 to 3 years old	2 teaspoons daily
3 and up	1 Tablespoon daily

Instead of flaxseed oil he notes that you can use walnut oil as well.  Per Dr. Galland, whole food plant-based EFA sources include walnuts, beans (especially soy, kidney and navy), tofu and freshly ground flaxseed meal.

4) Providing kids with a nutrient-rich diverse diet with a focus on anti-oxidant foods is the KEY to improving their immune system!  Now you know I am a fan of anti-inflammatory eating and using anti-oxidant foods to your best advantage as adults.  Well the same applies to kids.  Here is a list of whole food plant-based sources for the anti-oxidant building block vitamins and minerals kids desperately need!  (Of note, Dr. Galland's list in his book SuperImmunity does include animal sources of these vitamins/minerals.  I have chosen to exclude those since I only eat a plant-based diet and supplement his list with other plant-based sources, but if you do have your children eating meat,etc, then you can get this information in his book!)

Vitamin A	carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash, red peppers, pumpkins, broccoli
Vitamin C	citrus fruits, tomatoes, strawberries, red peppers and broccoli
Vitamin E	oatmeal, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, almonds and unrefined EFA-rich oils
Vitamin B-3 (Niacin)	whole grains (except corn), beets, nutritional yeast, sunflower seeds, cayenne peppers, peanuts
Copper	sesame seeds, tofu and kidney beans
Manganese	brown rice, oatmeal, split peas, almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts and blackberries
Selenium	oatmeal
Sulfur	high-protein foods like legumes
Vitamin B-2 (Riboflavin)	mushrooms, soybeans, almonds
Zinc	avocados, raspberries, apricots, blackberries, dates, longan berries, and pomegranates, asparagus, brussels sprouts, peas, pumpkin, and chard

Ok, so thats all for now!  Next week I'll share Dr. Galland's advice on HOW to actually get your kids to eat healthy!  He talks in his book "SuperImmunity for Kids" about how to protect your kids and fight the "junk-food junkies" in our world of processed food so I'll share that with you along with a few Mom & Dad written blogs to help support you parents along the way!

Coming Up:

• How I Deal With Temptation!
• The Clear Skin Diet and My New Soy-Free Life!
• Treating Pain with Food--more thoughts
• Foods That Make You Feel Good (A New Series Featuring Individual Foods & Their Nutrient Power)

The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.  Please consult your health care provider before making any healthcare decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition. The Happy Rehab Doc expressly disclaims responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered as a result of your reliance on the information contained in this site.  By visiting this site you agree to the foregoing terms and conditions.

Using Food to Heal PAIN: Part 2: What Did I Do? Also, Effects on Arthritis, Acute Muscle Strains, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain, Chronic Fatigue, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Cancer!!

Ok, the question you might be asking is what did I ACTUALLY do to treat my neck and back pain with food instead of NSAIDs (Mobic, Ibuprofen, etc)? As you saw in my last post on the power of the anti-inflammatory diet to reduce or reverse pain there is a very long list of both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory foods.   Discussing the literature is one thing, but what did I do in real life?

Well, basically, I used that Anti-Inflammatory Book as a Bible but made a few tweaks of my own (me, doing it "my" way--shocking?!).  


I first gave up all dairy (which actually wasn't that hard because I already wasn't eating cheese & I hadn't drank milk since I was a teenager because it caused recurent sinus infections).  I didn't notice a massive difference in my pain at that point, but it improved enough to make me a believer.  Then I gave up sugar & gluten--holy cow--HUGE improvement!  


Sugar as an agent of inflammation wasn't a huge surprise to me.  Prior to these dietary changes, whenever I started to feel a cold coming on, I would immediately eliminate all sugar from my diet (including fruit) and eat a ton of nutrient-rich vegetables (SPINACH! Kale, broccoli, green beans, collard greens, etc).  If I did that the very first day I started to feel bad (as well as take 1 day dose of 50mg of Zinc & 1000mg Vitamin C), I rarely every progressed to getting the cold or sinus infection I was heading towards.  I honestly can't tell you why I made this choice--I think that probably about 10 years ago I read about improving children's immune systems in Dr. Leo Galland's book "Superimmunity for Kids" & some of that removing sugar to improve the immune system advice was in there!  Either way, it works like clockwork for me despite the fact that I work in a hospital and get exposed to nasty germs every day!  


The whole gluten thing was a surprise to me though...so I had to do a little research.  One of my medical school classmates (and dear friend) had eliminated gluten from her diet because she was getting recurrent sore throats that stopped when she stopped eating it, so I knew that eliminating gluten from my diet would have some effects.  But, since I didn't have celiac disease (a disease that causes the body to reject gluten & cause severe intestinal & other dysfunction), I couldn't quite figure out why I got such a big bump in pain relief with the gluten elimination.  After researching it,  I now just think that maybe it is because wheat gluten isn't what it used to be.  What do I mean by that?  Well, briefly--if I was eating wheat about 50 years ago I wouldn't recognize the wheat we eat today.  Compared to farmer's products in the past, todays wheat is extremely genetically modified--with many natural nutrients depleted over time.  So my body obviously doesn't like our wheat!  I'll be happy to share more about that research in a future post, but I could go on forever about that so lets focus on the PAIN stuff some more.


Around the time I stopped sugar and gluten I also stopped caffeine!!  I cannot believe that I forgot to mention this in my earlier posts!  It was seriously one of the HARDEST things I've ever done.  I felt horrible stopping the caffeine--a headache that didn't budge for a week was so painful to work through.  But once again, on the other side--less pain, more alert brain.  Crazy how this all works!  I should note that the majority of my caffeine consumption was tea.  I didn't really drink much coffee or sodas even before giving up caffeine.  My "no coffee rule" was because back when I was obese I constantly had GERD (reflux/heartburn) and I eventually gave myself a severe case of gastritis that forced me to eliminate the coffee that kept me awake for most of med school!  My "no soda rule" was because sodas actually contain phosphorus which leaches the calcium out of your bones putting you at much higher risk for osteoporosis as you age.  Yup, its true folks--but sometimes its hard to get that message out about such a profitable product!  I'll write in a future post about why diet sodas are particularly bad (they damage your bones AND they change the way you store your fat so it makes it harder to lose weight)!


Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn & Citrus fruits didn't really seem to alter my pain levels so I kept them in.  I already don't drink b/c we're 12 steppers so no alcohol to eliminate!  


So I marched along without sugar, gluten or caffeine while consciously eating more Omega-3's, nutrient rich veggies on that anti-inflammatory list, berries, garlic, Roobios team (no caffeine), quinoa (my fav) and other grains.  I did this while maintaining a daily professional traction machine & exercise regimen prescribed by my PT for my neck.  I was doing all those PT directed activities before the food changes so I believe I can isolate the food changes as an independent variable (science speak).  In other words, I think I can safely say that the food was the main thing that changed, and after that change, the pain improved enough to get off the daily anti-inflammatory meds (normal people speak)!  

THEN, comes the Vegan thing.  Literally about 2 weeks after giving up meat of all kinds (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish etc)--I was pain-free nearly all the time.  I even noticed that in the weeks prior to the initiation of the Vegan program we had been cooking out a lot on the grill (with delicious meat from a local beef farm of course--support local farmers!) & my pain seemed to be a bit higher in those weeks despite the lack of sugar, gluten or caffeine.  Then BOOM--goodbye meat, goodbye pain.


So there you go--thats my story!  Remember of course, my repetitive caveat to read my medical disclaimer below!!! 


Here are a few comments on specific ailments: Arthritis, Acute Muscle Strains, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain, Chronic Fatigue, Heart Disease, Diabetes and Cancer.  Please remember that the majority of the findings discussed below are still deemed "inconclusive as effective" in large scale peer-reviewed research studies--however, I believe there is enough quality data (even in small studies) to support at least considering dietary changes for treating or supplementing treatment of the following conditions.  The arthritis data however ARE very well supported in the literature (see the link below).


1) Arthritis:  eliminating anti-inflammatory foods obviously has a major and rapid impact on this inflammatory condition.  There should be no such thing as "I'm growing old at 50 and my joints hurt"--seriously--I mean it--seriously!  I spent over an hour with a patient a few weeks ago who could barely walk due to his arthritis--he committed to making dietary changes & I can't wait to see him walk into the office in a few months.  I am that big a believer in this! 


A few excellent resources on food as medicine for Arthritis include an outstanding article written by Dr. Neal Barnard from the Physicians for Responsible Medicine.  You can read it here: http://www.pcrm.org/health/health-topics/foods-and-arthritis


2) Back strain, sprained ankles, tendonitis etc--all of these are examples of injuries with acute or chronic inflammation.  Basically the body has a very smart response to injury--in non-medical speak: it draws on its own resources to infiltrate the damaged areas, heat them to protect them from bacteria & stimulate the tissue to heal.  So inflammation is a good thing actually.  But when you pile on a bunch of additional sources of inflammation like food and chronic inflammatory diseases like Diabetes or Heart Disease, the inflammation can get out of control & healing can be prolonged.  


When I face those situations, I recommend eliminating every inflammatory food on that list immediately and starting to consume as many of the anti-inflammatory foods as possible.  Watch for yourself and see what happens.  Of course, the foods can only do so much to overcome the power of inflammatory diseases like Diabetes or Heart Disease but if you aren't severely ill with a chronic disease, I'll bet you'll be surprised with how quickly the injury heals and the pain goes away! That is at least my own experience.


3) Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain Syndrome:  Both of these illnesses trap patients in a body that is extremely hypersensitive to normal stimuli.  What this basically means is that, if you touch a fibromyalgia patient during a flare, they are exceptionally sensitive to touch in particular areas of their bodies that occur in a very specific pattern.  They also are overwhelmed with fatigue (and in most cases, depression).  Chronic Pain patients feel pain when normal people do not--their nerve endings are so damaged that they are hyperactive, creating a seemingly "fake" response on physical exam.  True Chronic Pain Syndrome is very very real, and more common than I would like.  It is also accompanied by fatigue and depression.  


Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain patients are two of the most common patient groups in my specialty AND I believe they are two of the main groups that would benefit greatly from dietary treatment of their disease.  Many of these patients are as obese as I once was, and their bodies are in an overwhelming state of inflammation from the obesity ON TOP of the inflammation from the painful diseases!  I would love to see more doctors treating these patients with an anti-inflammatory, vegan diet before doing anything else (such as add narcotic medications to allow these people to function)!


3) Diabetes, Chronic Fatigue, Heart Disease:   These are all diseases of chronic inflammation.  There is a particular marker of inflammation that the body puts out, its called C-reactive Protein (CRP).  When you measure the CRP in people, the result can be predictive of future heart dysfunction if the measurement is done when the patient is not in an acute state of illness. Once again, inflammatory disease, eliminate inflammatory foods (including  oils & fats according to Dr. Esselstyn) & add anti-inflammatory foods!


4) Cancer:  I will devote a whole post to cancer in the future with regards to prevention & how to use foods for healing in conjunction with treatment by traditional Western Medicine.  I need to do some more research to supplement what I know but I can tell you this much.  First, significant studies have been done that demonstrate a reduction in cancer risk with adoption of an anti-inflammatory diet such as a vegan diet.  Second, any patient going through chemotherapy or radiation can tell you how exhausting and depleted the body feels.  They also do not feel like eating due to severe nausea, even though eating is the one thing that can boost their tolerance of the treatments!  They could possibly benefit a great deal by optimizing their intake of anti-inflammatory foods and eliminating inflammatory foods:

1. to reduce the activation of cancer cells (as demonstrated in rat models with casein (found in animal products)-- Dr. Colin Campbell's original research)
2. to provide them with the extra boost they need to manage the chemo and radiation process.  

Ok!  That about wraps it up for this post!  Hope this information is helpful and looking forward to writing more about this in the future!


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After I wrote this I found some awesome posts from other bloggers on this topic!  Here are a few excellent ones:  


1)  Healthy Librarian: Using Medical Journals to Guide Your Cooking!
2) Vegan Epicurean (scroll down to the bottom to see her comments on a recent JHU conference!)
3) Healthy Girl's Kitchen: great post on sugar!!!


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