Are you easily inflamed?

Inflammation is a much maligned term just the same as cholesterol is. The reality is both are vital for survival. However too much of either of them can be a recipe for disaster. Focusing on inflammation there are diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, joint health, cancer, Alzheimer's, rheumatoid arthritis, and much more related to excess inflammation. Another important factor is it may be playing a role in you holding onto that stubborn hard to remove body fat.

There are two types of inflammation.

• Acute: Vital in the recovery from illness, injury and healing wounds

• Chronic: This is the dangerous one type that is the underlying issue in a lot of the conditions mentioned earlier and holding onto excess body fat stores. To reduce Chronic Inflammation you should be focusing on removing white flour products from your diet. Increasing the quality of your calories not just focusing on the number of calories consumed. Eat a wide range of coloured natural foods and consume good quality fats (that's right research tells us good oils can make us leaner and healthier).

Good oils aren't found in any of these items and will definitely contribute to chronic inflammation

In a nutshell cleaning up your diet will not only reduce dangerous inflammation but also improve your physique. Follow these steps to stave off chronic inflammation.

1. Eat a coloured diet: Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables will increase the colour and quality of your diet. Not to mention the fibre quantity.
2. Eat more omega 3 fats: As a reminder, omega 3 fats are found in fish, tuna, anchovies, nuts, seeds and others. The American Heart Association recommends eating at least regular servings of cold water fish each week. And consider a high quality, pure fish oil supplement. The healthy fats in fish oil act like Draino for your blood vessels; they keep your blood flowing smoothly and don’t allow them to become sticky, like other unhealthy fats do.
3. Eat less omega 6 fats: Decrease your unhealthy fats, like those found in fried foods, pastries, French fries and the like…but also decrease the vegetable oils in your diet. Adding omega-3’s without decreasing inflammatory omega-6’s is like simply putting a band aid on the problem. The fats found in these foods can be compared to putting sludge in your gas tank; probably not something that would be too wise.
4. Keep moving: You would of heard the term move it or lose it. Same applies here if you aren't keeping active there is no chance you can keep joints lubricated, metabolism firing and removing metabolic wastes from your system. Staying inactive is a great way to attract inflammation and in turn disease and sickness.
   

We all have some level of inflammation regardless of how well we eat; the key is to control it to the best of your ability, which comes from living a clean lifestyle, exercising regularly, and simply taking care of your body in every way possible