How to Reduce Inflammation and Balance Your Hormone Naturally!
The Rising Problem of Autoimmunity
You’ve likely heard of diseases like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn’s disease described as autoimmune conditions. People are being diagnosed with autoimmune diseases at an ever increasing rate. In the US, there are well over 20 million people with autoimmune conditions and the number could be as high as 50 million. But what exactly is autoimmunity? Simply put, autoimmunity is when the body mistakes part of itself for some kind of invading presence. When a virus like the common cold attacks the body, the body’s immune system responds and does its best to fight off the invading virus. With autoimmunity, the body gets it wrong and starts attacking itself like it would the cold virus. Exactly how this works varies depending on the specific condition, but autoimmunity always includes plenty of harmful inflammation. While autoimmune diseases can’t be cured, there is a lot we can do to treat them and urge them towards remission. One of the best ways to fight autoimmunity is through food.
The Healing Power of Food
All food can be separated into two groups, foods that worsen inflammation and foods that are anti-inflammatory. People with autoimmune conditions who eat inflammatory foods are likely to see their symptoms worsen, and people who eat healing anti-inflammatory foods can see significant improvement in their symptoms. Studies suggest that healing foods influence intestinal bacteria which impacts the body’s tendency towards autoimmune attacks and inflammation. The bottom line is that what you eat has a major impact on how your body functions, and diet is especially important if you are already experiencing an autoimmune condition.
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Some inflammatory foods to avoid:
- grains
- dairy
- soy
- corn
- potatoes
- yeast
- sugars and artificial sweetener
- alcohol
Some healing foods to consume:
- fresh fruits & vegetables
- pasture-raised meat
- eggs
- sweet potatoes
- seafood
- nuts
- healthy oils
- probiotic-rich foods like kimchi & sauerkraut
Hormone Balance
As a kind of bonus, eating an anti-inflammatory diet as described above not only limits inflammation and protects against or heals autoimmunity, it also helps to balance your hormones. Eating unhealthy foods and inflammation-causing foods tends to wreak havoc on our hormones. When our hormones are out of balance, it throws all kinds of things off kilter from skin problems to weight gain to mood. Needless to say, life with unbalanced hormones is not ideal! Unfortunately, those who eat the typical American diet almost certainly have unbalanced hormones. Some studies even suggest that the effect poor diet has on our hormones leads to diseases like breast cancer and prostate cancer. Fixing our hormonal imbalance can usually be done pretty simply – with food! Eating the healing foods and avoiding the inflammatory foods listed above will help to naturally put your body’s hormones back in balance. After eating this way for a while, you’ll see amazing results in your skin, body, mood, and more.
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To sum, our diets are either working for or against us. When we eat anti-inflammatory diets full of fresh, whole foods we are decreasing inflammation, lowering risk of autoimmunity, and helping balance our hormones. When we eat unhealthy foods with inflammatory properties, we are causing rampant inflammation and exacerbating autoimmunity while also ensuring that our hormones remain out of balance. Everything we put in our mouths is either medicinal or harmful. Choose wisely.
