Unfortunately, many Americans are living with pain every day. While everyone's pain is different, with some experiencing chronic lower back pain, arthritis, or headache pain, suffering with pain is without a doubt unwelcome and unpleasant.
Recently, the health and nutrition community has evaluated the typical western American diet and determined that foods can play an important role in the inflammatory response in the human body.
There are types of food that tend to illicit this inflammatory response while others get less of a reaction which allows for the inflammation to settle.
The foods which contain omega-3 fatty acid will help ease inflammation and are included in foods such as salmon, halibut, tuna, flax seeds, canola oil and walnuts. Your diet doesn't have to consist of only these foods but eating tuna or salmon a few times a week in addition to sprinkling flax seeds in your yogurt or bowl of cereal each day can make a considerable difference.
Foods that contain omega-6 fatty acids aren't all bad and neither is this type of fat, but western diets tend to contain a surplus of this element which feeds our existing inflammation. You'll find omega-6 fatty acid in foods such as beef, pork, chicken, whole milk products, egg yolks, vegetable oil and not surprisingly in packaged foods.
It's not hard to get the adequate nutrition you need without feeling deprived. Nutrition specialists recommend 5-8 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. This may seem like in unattainable amount of good foods, but a serving of a fruit could easily be banana, of berries or a small clementine. A serving of vegetables is 1 cup of raw vegetables. You're probably getting 2-3 times that amount in the salad you're eating with your dinner or for lunch. It's really quite easy to get enough nutritious foods.
If you aim to get enough fruits and vegetables each day you're not only getting good nutritious food, you're getting disease fighting and fiber filling food. You'll feel better and likely eat a lot less unhealthy foods because you're finally feeling satisfied and full.
Fighting pain may not be as easy as eating a few extra healthy foods each day, but you'll be setting your body up to fight degeneration and disease while decreasing your inflammatory response. It's a win-win.