Did you know that the root cause of virtually EVERY disease is inflammation? In fact, words ending in ‘itis is nothing but a fancy way of saying ‘you have inflammation of the <insert body part>. Colitis = inflammation of the colon.   Arthritis = inflammation of the arteries. Although inflammation has long been known to play a role in allergic diseases like asthma, arthritis and Crohn’s disease, other symptoms and conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, Parkinson’s and other auto immune diseases are all related to chronic inflammation in the body.

90% + of Depression cases are caused by Physical Body Inflammation 

The root cause of it is inflammation caused by toxins, environmental chemicals and pseudo foods humans weren't designed to digest!  The majority of depression cases are not clinical and hence 80% + should not be medicated they should be treated at root cause with it nutrition and lifestyle as well as being part of something so they feel connected. This statistic and more was shared in THIS INTERVIEW I did with world Top Functional Medicine Doctor and Mood/Medication/Hormones Expert, Dr Dan Kalish for my ‘Meditation not Meditation', Heart to Happiness Summit in 2016.

95% of disease today can be attributed to inflammation be it mental, chemical, physical, environmental, emotional…

We're MOST familiar with injuries being rooted in inflammation…be them new and acute or nagging old pains, the ‘inflammation reducing nutrition tips’ I’m going to share with you today are likely to help EVERYONE in their quest to reduce symptoms, disease, and recovery time. These are the same tips and solutions I’ve provided to friends and clients for years, as well as have perfected over the last 15 years as a pro soccer player and nutritionist. In fact, the reason I’m so passionate about this protocol, is because of the RAVE reviews I’ve heard from my coaches, clients, clients doctors and physical therapists which is ‘HOW DID YOU DO IT? Your recovery rate has been 3 times faster than what we normally see’.

If it’s that fast for injury recovery, how fast do you think it will be to help you reduce your auto immune disease, drop the excess weight you’ve been struggling to lose or ditch that debilitating pain you’ve tried to numb with NSAID’s for years … that stick with me til the end – is probably making it WORSE.

So today, we’re going to focus on Food and Food Based Supplements to fight your flames of pain. Because, the key causes for inflammation today are the WRONG foods the average American commonly eats daily; and on the other hand the RIGHT foods can be our best medicine, bringing us back to our optimal state and dream body.

Ok, so what are they?

Let’s go over the TOP … FIVE things you can switch up in your diet to reduce inflammation:

FISH and FISH OIL

Why?  Because they’re super high in OMEGA 3’s, which are the firefighter to pain flames. Omega 6 fats START OR STOKE the fire. Studies show that a lower ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s is more desirable to reduce the risk of disease. The problem is that the typical American diet tends to contain significantly more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3’s, particularly because omega-6 is in a lot of junk foods, like salad dressings, potato chips, pizza, pasta dishes, processed meats like sausage, and just a lot of meat in general which is high in omega-6, though grass-fed beef has more omega-3. The average Omega 6:3 ratio in America is said to be 25+ to 1, vs ideal which is closer to 2-5:1. The Mediterranean’s are a KEY example of how to do it RIGHT as an example of reducing inflammation with food like fresh fruits and vegetables, high fiber, fish, olive oil, garlic, and moderate wine consumption, all of which help balance the fatty acid ratio. So how do we be more like them? …. implementing this is 2 fold:

Decrease Omega 6 consumption like the junk food we just talked about. Things that are cooked in or contain inflammatory modified cooking oils such as VEGETABLE which sounds healthy right? Think again – soy, wheat germ, cottonseed, grapeseed, poppyseed, canola, sunflower and safflower oil which are pretty what EVERY restaurant and fast food joint uses, as well as are the cheap oils used for baked goods, cookies, pastries and the things I personally can SEE more puff, let alone feel inflamed after I eat them. Gluten and soy are HUGE triggers for me, so if I eat something I always ask the place I’m buying the foods from ‘what is this cooked in?’ and if it’s vegetable oil, I ask them to use coconut or olive oil instead, which is an easy swap most places are happy to accommodate.   Increase Omega 3’s to 4 G PER DAY, of which 1g should come from EPA/DHA or ALA (plant based Omega 3’s). I like 3 times that for friends who are recovering from surgery or injuries, so perhaps that’s where the ‘recovering 3 times faster testimonial statistic comes from’. the easiest way to give yourself insurance that you get enough is to get the 1g per day from supplements and the other from the richest sources of Omega 3’s.

FLAVANOIDS

I remember it with ‘flavor – noids’ because these are the yummies that add color to our plates. they’re antioxidants that are big players in reducing inflammation and are Found in cocoa, tea, red wine, fruits, vegetables, and legumes.

• The VIP is turmeric, which is one of the most powerful healing spices studied to date. It’s SUPER rich with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties that have been shown in tons of studies to protect and nourish virtually every organ in the body. There’s a YUMMY sauce I use to put on my eggs which is just as anti inflammatory IN the body as it is ON the body so you can use it as a face mask too which contains avocado oil, turmeric and honey.
• Pineapple – enzymes from fruits like papaya and pineapple, which are papain and bromelain respectively are HUGELY powerful not only to aid in digestion which reduces inflammation in and of itself but it also helps to repair damaged tissues, which is not only a natural pain reliever, but is also anti aging, as your hair and skin is tissue too. As well as gut lining, which when that’s damaged, is the gateway to auto immune disease and other immune system fails like cancer, virus related diseases and super bugs, which warrant entire body inflaming antibiotics. Speaking of, I’ll have a tip for you at the end on that one.
• Others are Cocoa, Tea, garlic and Blueberries

FITNESS RECOVERY agents

Replace sports drinks LOADED WITH not much other than inflammatory GMO sugar with more natural recovery ingredient drinks. There’s a few I liked at the store that I dared try to replicate at home which is SO easy to do. I made up one myself called CHIA-AID, which is high fiber, high Omega 3 chia seeds & fruits such as cranberry, blueberry OR pineapple. Cranberry for Urinary health, blueberries or pineapple to get your flame fighting flavanoids in there.. Add some glutamine, BCAA’s and liver cleansing, inflammation fighting lemon to it, even better.

FIBER

First off, it’s not enough anymore to say, ‘stop eating sugar’. I’ve tested and surveyed big populations of various groups of people and it’s pretty unanimous that we are STARVING for advice to control our sugar and starch CRAVINGS. If these carbs are THE most inflammatory foods, what can we do instead? Because I know…they’re EVERYWHERE, they’re tempting and taste SO good ‘says the taste buds, feel good brain chemicals and pathogens that eat them and release trash in our body that inflame us even MORE’. If I gave you 1 tip that would not only decrease your cravings, but would ALSO reduce your inflammation and hence extra weight and aches and pains, would you do it? PROMISE…

Ok here it is – as you’ve heard, potassium is an important mineral to reduce muscle cramps by improving muscle build and function. So we need about 5k mg per day of it. That’s 12 bananas, which is a lot of…YES, sugar. And I mean, unless you’re a monkey…haha…so another way is to eat 7 cups of leafy greens a day. That’s a couple plates of salad, you can TOTALLY do that.

FATS

1. Salmon which also has OMEGA 3’s
2. Trans fats like corn and soy bean = replace with olive or avocado oil
3. Morning coffee = replace with bone broth…collagen, proteins to build tissues and here’s why else:

• Caffeine is a DISASTER to an unhealthy body, which I would define as ‘anyone who has symptoms, disease or lack of wellness’. It CAN BE fat burning aid to a) someone who is optimally healthy and b) exercises immediately after consuming it. But the majority of us DON’T. We drink it instead of breakfast, which not only adds more stress to the liver with it’s acidic nature, which plays a HUGE role in acid reflux and whole body inflammation starting from the digestive track, it also dehydrates us, which is one of the BIGGEST contributors to inflammation today. The THIRD downfall is that it robs your body of anti-inflammatory minerals, like calcium which when low breaks down our bone tissue (osteoporosis), magnesium which constipates us (toxins back up in the body and cause weight gain and inflammation, which 5 pounds of fat on the body is the equivalent to 4 times that, or 20 pounds on the joints), and potassium that can cause muscle cramping to name a few.
• It also tells your body to store fat and so when it needs energy, instead of burning fat, it will break down muscles and connective tissues that hold our joints together.
• Then, for many the next step is adrenal failure (if you’re tired AND in pain most of the time, this is probably you), the next step is dangerous corticosteroid prescriptions such as prednisone to calm the inflammation that healthy adrenals could have put out in the first place.

So what that looks like in a day might be this

STEP 1: Trash and don’t buy at the grocery store to prevent temptation the following ‘flammatory foods:

• Corn and Soybean oils
• Pasteurized dairy
• Refined carbohydrates
• Conventional meat
• Sugars – I recommend no more than 50 grams of sugar per day. Double that if you’re pretty active. Ideally from FRUIT.
• Trans fats

STEP 2: REPLACE your former ‘flammatory ‘eating out’, coffee first thing in the morning, skip breakfast, eat everything in sight at lunch, crash blood sugar, get tired at 2pm, drink more coffee cycle routine, with something that looks more like this:

1. BREAKFAST = this is the best shake I’ve ever seen to combat inflammation and support hormone balance. CLICK HERE and it will be emailed to you.
2. 1 8oz cup of BONE BROTH (instead of coffee) with 2 hard boiled eggs (or fried with turmeric sauce recipe)
3. SNACK = banana
4. LUNCH = heaping plate of salad with 2-3 cups leafy greens like spinach, blueberries and 4-6 oz salmon on top
5. WORKOUT RECOVERY/DRINK REFRESHER = 16 oz Chia Aid after your work out
6. SNACK = seaweed strips or banana with nuts of choice (organic/raw preferred, avoid peanuts)
7. DINNER = 1 cup brussel sprouts sautéed in walnuts and olive oil with grass fed beef bun-less burgers cooked in fresh garlic cloves.
8. DESSERT = a couple squares 70% + cacao bar.
9. EVENING DRINK = cup of Chamomile or Caffeine free Green tea.  OR small glass of Organic Red wine from FITVINE (low or no sulfites).  This is what I drink.  Other alcohol super inflammes me and I've found most of my clients. CLICK HERE to read more.  For a 10% discount, use warrior10

Top 3 SUPPLEMENTS

1. 1g EPA/DHA
2. 1-2 tsp Turmeric use SAUCE recipe over eggs OR – 400-600mg in supplement form
3. Probiotics (spore based have highest survivability to gut, as can be found in my favorite Megaspore)

With supplements, it's important to understand that it's harder to find the therapeutic doses I referred to above at just any health foods store.  Most companies don't sell high dose supplements and vitamins because it comes at a higher risk to them.  The kind most of us need, in higher doses, made with clean ingredients are found in a stronger form referred to as nutraceuticals, which you'll mainly find through practitioners like myself.  You can find the ones I use myself, and recommend to clients for Omega 3's, turmeric/natural anti-inflammatories, and probiotics on my Online Dispensary below.  All you have to do is create an account (FREE, no Spam), then you'll have access to my Top 3 Picks and online Health Favorites under ‘Categories).  There are 3 amazing ones under Top 3 Anti Inflammatories, but I recommend you also have your Top 3 STAPLES (Foundational Herbs such as Probiotics, Adrenals and Liver Cleansers) first, in addition to a diet, mindset and fitness lifestyle I teach in The Warrior Cleanse.