Arthritis Intolerances and Allergies
Chronic joint pain of arthritis maybe due to or triggered by allergies or intolerances. The pain and inflammation can be a direct consequence of a health problem or a symptom of another condition. Allergies can be misunderstood or confused with intolerances. Anyone can suffer chronic joint pain and inflammation but generally rarer in children, people can be young but are more likely to be middle aged or elderly adults. Arthritis in its many forms is the main cause of chronic joint pain and inflammation. It cannot be ignored just hoping the condition will simply improve on its own. There is much that can be done to protect yourself from further degeneration.
As you have probably read there are a whole host of treatments that can be prescribed for the relief of chronic joint pain, and they include not only traditional medication but herbal and mineral supplements as well as stress management techniques, special physical therapy, massage, suitable exercise and diet. For extreme conditions there are numerous types of braces and supports that are meant to reduce osteo-skeletal pressure and thus relieve chronic joint pain.
Read MoreSupport orgainic if you can – help your Arthritis
By supporting the organic movement, we help to minimize chemical damage which poses a real threat to the future of humanity. We need to think hard before choosing an intensively produced product over an organic product simply because of the small extra cost.
Organic food is free from insecticides, pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, fertilisers and a whole host of other toxic artificial additives, flavourings, colourings and preservatives. The combination of these residues may be more toxic than you realize due to the synergistic effects of multiple residues on foods that can accumulate in human tissue. The health effect of all of this pollution is slowly becoming clear.
Agro-chemicals were not developed with nutrition, health or the environment in mind.So what we get is a cheap but inferior product with a cocktail of up to 40 different chemicals, waxes and insecticides.
Organic farmers are committed to fine food, and they will have left the trees in a meadow with healthy soil, filled with a diversity of butterflies, lady birds, birds and wildlife in general.
There are many hidden costs to intensive farming and spraying especially to the workers that have to handle the chemicals often without safety clothing, suffering all sorts of diseases.
Organic produce may well cost a bit more but this is no comparison to the possible cost if we don’t try to support organic foods. There is the cost to the tax payer for the subsidies to agro-chemical farming. The cost of cleaning up the environment as the chemicals end up in our water-ways killing fish and then there is the possible cost of healthcare as an indirect and direct result of the cocktail of chemicals. Then there is the cost to the wildlife, whose natural habitats are being systematically destroyed.
“The UK pesticide market is currently worth about £500 million every year. It is extraordinary that the cost of removing pesticides from drinking water amounts to a huge £120 million annually,” says Professor Pretty. In Britain subsidies on normally grown food works out at about 40 pence in every pound spent on food. This cost is paid through the taxation system.
Organic farmers earn lower subsidies because they grow rotation crops so they are unable to maximise subsidy income. They cost society about 25 pence in every pound. When you cost in the real cost of industrial agriculture and take away the subsidies that favour the wrong use of resources, you end up with a situation where, organic food would actually cost less than conventional! The situation is also very much like this in the USA.
More and more people are going organic and prices for organic foods have been falling over the last five years as more and more organic food is bought. It is vital that we safeguard the future of organic farming by paying a little bit extra to keep organic farmers in business.
Organic farming is generally smaller scale and more labour intensive, sometimes with smaller crop yields. Farmers also have to convert their land to organic production over a period of years, and as organic farming relies on crop rotation, up to 25% of land may be left to lie fallow at any one time to increase natural soil fertility.
Organic food’s strength lies in what it doesn’t contain. There is, in fact, only food in organic food as regulations prohibit hydrogenated fat that can cause of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity, aspartame thought to be a neurotoxin – affecting the nervous system, phosphoric acid found in many soda drinks causing osteoporosis, antibiotics which interfere with our immune system, hormones that are causing feminization of wild life, low sperm count, obesity, various cancers, pesticides causing or encouraging mutagenic, carcinogenic effects,GM foods – who knows what the long term effects will be, linked to IBS, Crohn’s disease, autism, other gut-based disease, or any of the 7000 artificial colourings, flavourings, preservatives and processing aids that are permitted in conventional food that have been linked to cancer, liver disease, gut problems. These are chemicals, food additives and processes that are not allowed in organic foods.
Also look out for wild crafted, hydroponic, bio-dynamic and eco-friendly grown foods.
Your food shopping list – to ease Arthritis Pain and Inflammation
Sonia Jones ND from the Haven Spa and Health Clinic
A shopping list to simplify things for you -
PROTEIN SECTION
Avoid pork – very acid forming
Free-range or organic if possible
Beef is second to pork, in the acid forming stakes then
Lamb
Chicken
Duck
Venison
Turkey
_________eat less of the protein foods above this line_____________
Fish
Tofu – organic
Eggs
Goat’s cheese
Natural plain yogurt
Beans or lentils mixed with whole grains (for complete protein) – least acid forming
Nuts and seeds
Raw nuts and seeds – good source of ‘essential fatty acids’ and protein
Almonds
Walnuts
Sesame seeds
Flaxseeds (Linseeds)
Hemp seeds
Cashews
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Other raw un-salted nuts
FRESH FRUIT and VEGETABLES
Lots of them, in as big a variety as possible
If you want to get rid of your pain – no oranges and no tomatoes (fresh or canned)
Secondly – cut down drastically on potatoes, eggplants and bell peppers
GRAINS and seeds – only whole grains
Oats
Millet
Quinoa
Brown rice
Spelt
Kamut
Buckwheat
Amaranth
Corn
To a lesser extent Barley,
Avoid wheat and rye (white or wholemeal) these are extremely acid forming.
SWEETNESS – in moderation or better still educate your taste buds so you don’t need these sweeteners
Dried fruit
Honey
Molasses
Stevia
DRINKS
Water
Herbal teas
Smoothies – made with fruit, some protein powder, and a plain yogurt
Green tea (contain low levels of caffeine)
White tea
Rooibos tea (red tea)
Home made vegetable juices
Alcohol in strict moderation
PASTA
Rice noodles occasionally
Soba noodles made from 100% buckwheat
GENERAL
Organic apple cider vinegar
Low-Salt
Black Pepper
All Herbs
All Spices
All Beans
All Lentils
Goat’s Milk
Rice Milk
Oat Milk
Brown Rice
Tamari (soy sauce without wheat)
Tahini (sesame paste/butter)
Butter (no margarine)
Ghee
SPROUTING
Mung beans
Lentils
All whole grains
All beans – except red beans and soy beans
OILS – extra virgin, cold pressed, expelled or first pressed
Olive oil
Sesame oil
Coconut oil
Walnut oil
Hemp oil
Flax seed oil (never heat)
TREATS
70% or more cocoa chocolate bar
Dried fruit
Natural popcorn, made yourself
Natural nut butters, buy in glass jars or make yourself
Fresh fruit
Raw nuts and seeds
Read MoreYuca (Cassava) root can help arthritis
Locus eating yuca plant
I love 99.99% of fruits and vegetables, but this one is in the 00.01% for me. However, I do know a lot of people who really enjoy this vegetable, each to their own. It is a good source of B3 (helps to lower cholesterol), plus iron and calcium. Yuca is a root vegetable with a rough hard thick brown covering, a little like bark. The inside is hard, white and dense, it’s quite heavy. Similar to the potato in that it must be cooked before you eat it. It is quite a lot starchier than the potato and a tad sweeter.
This is not to be confused with the yucca plant – yuccas are widely grown as an ornamental plant in gardens or indoor house plants in cooler climates. Some will bear edible parts – like fruits, seeds, and flowers or stems , but not the edible roots we are talking about here. The yucca plant has long blade like leaves growing from a central point from the ground, similar in configuration as the aloe vera plant (but with softer leaves). The yucca plant is like a small tree, with three medium oval shape blades on each small stem.
The yuca root contains high levels of a phyto-compound, called saponins which acts as a natural steroid. When the compound is extracted from the yuca it makes a perfect natural soap or shampoo.
How do these compounds affect our health when we consume them? These saponins are similar to steroids. They help to reduce inflammation of the joints particularly and in the body in general. Yuca is often included in formulas for inflammatory conditions like arthritic and rheumatoid conditions. It has been reported that yuca has the ability to break up mineral and inorganic deposits. What does this mean? It helps to break down or prevent the built up of calcification of kidney stones, gall bladder stones or calcification of joints. And due to its anti-inflammatory properties it can also help conditions like an inflamed prostate. However, no one plant should be seen as the be all and end all – it should be consumed along with a whole host of other plants.
Yuca has a positive affect on encouraging the action of the ‘good guys’ the friendly intestinal bacteria, which in turn aids the proper digestion of food and prevents the ‘bad guys’ from flourishing. In research it has been shown that the high content of saponins in this plant when ingested stay in the intestines and act on the intestinal flora helping to regulate the balance, stimulating the friendly normal flora and inhibiting others.
In the US much research is being carried out on the use of saponins from the yuca on its use in sewage treatment plants to breakdown organic waste faster, also on farm and factory waste.
When we eat foods (beans and lentils) or herbs (alfalfa, fenugreek, garlic or tribulus) that are high in saponins they stimulate better absorption of vitamins and minerals and decrease the amount of toxins we absorb. This helps to put less of a strain on our already over worked detoxification organs. So with more nutrients absorbed, an increased action of anti-inflammation, improved immune system, better functioning organs – conditions like arthritis and other degenerative diseases improve. The saponins provide a more alkaline environment (most people’s systems are too acidic these days) aiding the digestive tract improving digestion, reducing incomplete digestion and decomposition in the colon which causes unpleasant smelling gases.
The common potato has the opposite effect to yuca, the potato is part of the Solanaceae family, and contains plant compounds that encourages pain and inflammation, another main member of this infamous family is the tomato! Many people have found their aches and pains have improved by eliminating tomatoes, a long with eating healthier. The other attribute yuca has, is its rich source of absorb-able manganese, this helps in the process of repairing joints. Researchers have looked closely at this plants action and its affect on joints and cartilage, the amazing steroid like saponins strengthen the bowel flora of the intestines, breaking down organic body wastes like uric acid (which causes pain) and cleansing mineral deposits that might exist in the joints.
Native Americans used the soapy leaves from yuca for numerous conditions. Poultices or baths were used for skin sores and other diseases as well as for sprains. Certainly used in all sorts of inflammatory conditions.
Other uses – it acts as an astringent so will help to reduce bleeding. Some people find it extremely helpful as a mild laxative, encouraging bowel movements.
How to use yuca? Any recipe that calls for potatoes you can be substituted with yucca, just needs more cooking. First, peel of the rough brown skin, cut open and remove the hard core.
Boquete Bash
2lbs fresh yuca
Milk or you can use rice or soy milk
1 garlic clove, minced or crushed
½ cup of chopped cilantro
A squeeze of lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
A little extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil (optional)
Peel the yuca, cut into thick chunks. Cooking time is longer than for potatoes – cover with water and boil until soft. Drain completely (save the boiled water for soups etc) and add milk, garlic, cilantro, the squeeze of lemon, oil (optional), pepper, and salt. Mash and combine all the ingredients, add more milk if you need to, and serve with your favorite meat stew.
Read MoreWhy are people so resistant to changing their diets?
According to surveys there are many reasons or excuses people have why they can’t change their diet to help relieve their suffering.
1 Taste According to the research taste is the number one reason. We are such creatures of habit very reluctant to try new things. My mother is a typical example of this, many times after much persuasion she might try something new and actually like it. There are even times when she doesn’t dislike a food enough that she actually continues to consume that food and she eventually likes it. Our taste buds need time to adjust, and we need to be open to new things.
2 Convenience If it’s not convenient people won’t do it. That is why the food industry has made a huge fortune on convenience foods. The answer might be easy foods that are assembled so to speak.
Read More