What is the Most Inflammatory Food You Can Eat ?
As we move in to the holiday season it is a good time to be reminded of foods to avoid. I know its a special time of year, and we are bombarded with high sugar foods. These are the most unhealthy foods on the planet. Sugar is Pro-Inflammatory. What this means is when you eat high sugar foods you are upregulating all sorts of inflammation pathways. Inflammation is the root cause of all illness from heart disease to cancer. We should be far more concerned about avoiding sugar than bio-identical hormones for cancer risk.
Basically sugar raises insulin. Insulin is an Anti-Cortisol hormone. Cortisol is the body’s natural anti inflammatory hormone. When cortisol is suppressed inflammation rises. This can appear as anything from allergic reactions to abdomenal cramps.
Obviously there are many other reasons to avoid sugar but the inflammation connection is the most significant.
When you pass by the table this holiday season with all the desserts on it, stop and think a minute about what that high sugar will be doing inside your body. Remember our bodies were genetically designed 80,000 years ago. Sugar as we know it did not exist. Our bodies were never designed to metabolize concentrated sugar as we have it now. I consider it one of the four primary toxins SNAC :
S-sugar
N-nicotine
A-alcohol
C-caffeine
All of these are available in over abundance during the holidays.
Have a wonderful holiday season, but at the same time be “Nice to your body” !
After all, it’s the only one you have.
All my Best in Radiant Health,
Howard Liebowitz,MD
