Sweets and Inflammation
"For most people, high-carb, low-protein diets are inflammatory. We’ve seen repeatedly that low-carb diets reduce inflammation for most women. But you will need to listen to your own body and carefully observe which foods fuel inflammation for you. (You may also want to consider our tips for following an anti-inflammatory diet.)
"Refined sugar and other foods with high glycemic values jack up insulin levels and put the immune system on high alert. (The glycemic index measures the immediate impact of a food on blood sugar levels; surges of blood sugar trigger the release of insulin.) Short-lived hormones inside our cells called eicosanoids act as pro- or anti-inflammatory compounds depending on their type. Eicosanoids become imbalanced — that is, skewed toward pro-inflammatory — when insulin levels are high. As if this weren’t enough, high insulin levels activate enzymes that raise levels of arachidonic acid in our blood."
There is a great deal more helpful knowledge on this website: www.womentowomen.com
Causes of inflammation Explains the causes of chronic inflammation and why inflammation is increasingly common.
I have felt a great deal of benefit, personally, from virtually removing sweets from my diet. Chronic inflammation = chronic pain, no doubt about it.
Sticking with a diet that limits sweets is difficult because they are everywhere in our social world. From early childhood we are conditioned to make ourselves "feel better" with a lollipop or a chocolate bar, and over the decades it seems that treats have increased in size and frequency; they are everywhere!
Meanwhile, Energy Medicine and Energy Psychology can help in several ways:
Tapping can interrupt the urge to eat sweets (if you catch yourself before it's too late)
Tapping can release feelings of shame that come from having been "weak." This way, the 'slip' remains a slip and not a downward spiral of binge-eating and despair.
With Energy Psychology, you can "tap in" positive self-image - of your body and of your capacities - and this prevents the need to "feel better NOW" from arising.
With Eden Method, you can manage your hormones safely and easily.
Eden Method provides several ways of supporting Spleen meridian, which governs the pancreas and spleen, and thereby your metabolism.
Eden Method and tapping methods can help with stress management.
Contact me if you are interested in joining a health-based study circle, online or in person in Victoria.
Update: Since writing this post, I have added Intermittent Fasting to my regime, and found it spectacularly effective and sometimes even easy. I have fasted 48 hours several times and 72 hours once or twice. Learn more at The Fasting Method, organized by Dr Jason Fung and his colleagues, who have supported thousands of people in safe and dramatic weight loss, reversed long-standing Type 2 Diabetes in many patients, and watched as their patients also lost a plethora of inflammation-related symptoms.
