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.

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!


****
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!!!


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.

The Beginning: Using Food to Heal: My Journey

Today I was searching on the web for recipes to do some cooking on one of my rare days off.  If I don't cook and get organized today, it'll be another week of the occasional emergency take-out punctuated by leftover soups that my husband and I cooked last week.  Its now or never because during the week, neither of us have any energy to attempt creative cooking!

Don't get me wrong.  I love Green Pea Soup, Lentil Soup, Butternut Squash Soup and the ever outstanding Lentil and Barley Soup.  The Lentil and Barley Soup is a creation of my husband, aka The Happy Nurse, because according to him "anything with barley tastes amazing!"  I totally agree but after two weeks of tupperwared soups with varying veggie options, I need to branch out.  

I decided to start this blog because tonight, as I searched for recipes (and found an AWESOME blog of a librarian who shares my food philosophy: The Healthy Librarian ), I discovered how little organized, easy to access information there is out there on healing yourself with food.  Google searching turns up a lot of options that look good, but then if you read closely, most of the food has things I can't and shouldn't eat if I'm going to feel good!  So I'm going to do my best to provide you with organized resources, recipes and ideas to truly feel healthier!!  I'll also share some snapshots of my life as a rehab doctor and some HIPPA-compliant sketches of some of my patient's experiences.

I realize that most men and women searching for recipes may have some dietary restrictions that limit their options, but my husband and I have a few more restrictions when we eat.  We are getting "radical" and choosing to treat our health issues with food rather than needing cardiac surgery, cancer treatment or a cupboard full of meds in the future.


Huh?  I know, I'm an M.D. talking against the idea of piling on the meds!!  My patients are always surprised to hear that I'm not big on the traditional, let me pull out my prescription pad, cut you off from talking and send you out the door, brand of medicine.  Granted, I'm still in my final stages of training in my specialty: Physcial Medicine and Rehabilitation but I'm a fairly passionate person once I find a cause, so I doubt I'll be changing my medical approach anytime soon! But, stay tuned to this blog and I'll let you know!!  As a side note, I'll share more about my field later, and yes, we are doctors (MD's or DO's), we went to medical school and Physcial Medicine and Rehabilitation is a medical specialty just like cardiology, orthopedic surgery or psychiatry!  

For the last two months my husband and I have been eating a no-oil, plant-based Vegan diet according to the Cleveland Clinic's Dr Caldwell Esselstyn's program from his book, "How to Reverse and Prevent Heart Disease."  Our program is well-supported by clinical and scientific research (including such notables as Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, and more).   We started the plant-based diet because my husband has heart disease--intermittent atrial fibrillation--which lands him in the hospital every other year or so.  We are making a choice to change our lifestyles to prevent disability (stroke, cancer, angina, arrythmias) and to live longer, more active lives.

I add my own twists to the plant-based Vegan diet based on a twelve-step program I have been working for four years to recover from obesity and overeating behaviors.  I also fold in some anti-inflammatory diet practices to treat my chronic low back pain and acute neck pain following a car accident a year ago.


I can hear you now....wait Dr. Cat, no meat???????....(I can hear you wailing from here!)..but give me a chance and keep reading....take what you like and leave the rest.

I truly believe that eating this way has given me a new lease on life.  I've lost nearly 100lbs in the last four years.  I've gotten off all daily anti-inflammatory and pain medications.  I no longer have allergies or sinus infections.  Since transitioning to a no oil, plant-based diet I no longer have the GI issues I struggled with for years.  I have more energy.  I laugh more because I don't hurt as much.  I am a better wife and a better doctor.  

Remember, I'm not your doctor and if you follow any ideas I present on this blog, you understand that I will not be held liable for anything I share or recommend.  That said, I can't wait to get started!  Next post will be on what I eat, why I eat it and how you can too!

A great movie I can recommend that captures the power of the plant-based diet:
Forks Over Knives

Some great resources:

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
Dr. T. Colin Campbell: The China Study
The Anti-Inflammatory Diet by Jessica Black, N.D. (Amazon link)
Dr. John McDougall's Website
Dr. Joel Fuhrman's Blog
Forks Over Knives' Recipe Book (Amazon link)

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.