Nutrition In Treating and Managing Chronic Pain

“I GAVE UP MY LIFE FOR THIS ILLNESS. I’M NOT GIVING UP MY FOOD!”

Healing from pain is like healing from any other malady, and nutrition plays a significant role in that process. After all, we build our bodies in the kitchen, not the gym. Also, when we consider the relationship between food and healing, there are three rules to live by:

• Do not put poison into your body.
• Give your body the best octane to run.
• Provide your body with the best raw materials to build new parts and repair old parts.

SOME FOODS ARE POISON

Perhaps the most critical advice I give patients is never to put poisons into their bodies. One such poison is margarine. This food product has hydrogenated fat, which increases your “bad” cholesterol and your risk of heart disease and other chronic conditions.

Another prevalent poison is aspartame, an artificial sweetener in diet sodas and other low-fat or low-calorie foods and beverages. Once inside the body, aspartame transforms into formaldehyde and methanol. Formaldehyde is an embalming fluid and has been linked to cancer. Methanol can cause pain and even brain injury. Drinking more than two diet sodas per week may lead to more methanol in your body than you can eliminate, causing this substance to build up in your system. From the moment you stop ingesting aspartame, it may take your body two months to detoxify completely.

OUR BODIES NEED HIGH-OCTANE FUEL

The human body is a high-performance, biochemical Ferarri that needs high-quality running fuel. Ideally, a Ferarri performs like a healthy 10-year-old baseball or softball player. They can take off from a dead stop at the crack of a bat, corner hard at each base, and wear out their tires. Like a Ferarri, we are built to run on 100-octane fuel at any age.

However, too many of us try to run on budget 20-octane fuel. Consequently, we end up running out of energy and wonder why. The three most prevalent low-energy, low-octane foods are:

• Sugar
• Wheat
• Potatoes

The worst of these are sugar and white flour. If you can avoid these and other low-energy foods, you will function better, have less fatigue, experience reduced pain, and have fewer irritable bowel symptoms.

WE ALSO NEED RACING OIL

In addition to high-octane fuel, a Ferrari uses racing oil. We also need racing oil for our bodies to run, climb several flights of stairs, or do anything else that requires lots of energy. The oil or fat we consume is the most important of the raw materials our bodies use to build new parts and repair damaged ones.

Believe it or not, fat does not make people fat or cause heart attacks. It is about identifying good fat. For example, macadamia nuts are very high in fat, but eating them has been shown to lower bad cholesterol. Other healthy fats include

• Nuts like almonds, macadamia nuts, cashews, or pecans
• Olive and other vegetable oils
• Avocados
• Almond butter

On the contrary, people are more likely to gain unhealthy amounts of weight because they eat bad kinds of fats, like margarine and shortening. These fats serve as low-octane fuels.

Among other things, the fats we eat become the raw materials making cell membranes, the outer layers that let the good things in and send bad things out. For example, white blood cells have cell membranes that support your body’s immune system, which you rely on to kill invading organisms.

Our bodies depend on high-quality fuel and oil to move, function, and live healthy lives. Including healthy fats and fuels in your diet can go a long way to managing pain and reducing your risk of chronic illness.

Maintaining a healthy diet may be difficult for some people without professional help. If you have difficulty incorporating proper nutrition into your lifestyle, a local holistic nutrition specialist at Blatman Health and Wellness Center can offer guidance and treatment options.