Inflammation is ruining your life, like it almost did my life.
As someone who suffers from IBD – Inflammatory Bowel Disease (thankfully now in remission), inflammation has been at the forefront of my life for the last few years. I think it about it daily, and every time I pick up something to eat. I will spare the gory details but IBD is not fun, it is horrendously painful and will tear you apart physically and emotionally.
I want to preface this blog post by saying that IBD is a highly complex condition with many different varieties, symptoms, severity. There are multiple ways to deal with it as we are all genetically different as it affects us all differently. What worked for me may not work for you, and vice versa as I have found out the hard way through my journey. What I will speak about will be my personal experiences, I always urge you to do your own research and seek help from a medical professional as I am a bro scientist.
The modern diet is truly terrible for us. Ultra processed foods are to blame in my opinion. Every time I do the weekly big shop, I always like to glance at what other people are buying and it seems to be a reflection of their physical state. I see so many trolleys filled with processed foods, sugary snacks, fizzy drinks, being pushed by people who are clearly really inflamed internally with giant distended bellies, struggling to breathe with their equally suffering children in tow. The number of children with some form of disorder such as ADHD in on the increase, which in my opinion is aggravated by the poor diets and the heavily processed foods being given to children.
The way I see most of these ultra processed foods are that they are being a sold as solution to the busy modern lifestyle where time is becoming scarce to actually provide nutritious meals. When I mean ultra processed foods, I mean foods that have been manufactured to have a certain texture, consistency, shelf life, taste, and certain profit margin for the company. Not to be confused with processed foods which are done to make the foods easier to digest or eat altogether such as pickles, kimchi, yogurt, penut butter, cooked vegetables, etc. Technically when you cook fresh meat you are processing it to make it digestible.
Back to the ultra processed foods. You know they are ultra processed foods because they have that soft or crunchy texture, that strong flavour, the endless ingredient list, and leaves you wanting more and more. My favourite quote about ultra processed foods which finally put me off them was from the book Ultra Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken:
“Most UPF is not food, Chris. It’s an industrially produced edible substance.”
That quote alone changed my whole perspective on how I viewed the food from the supermarkets. For years I had no issue with eating mountains of ultra processed foods. Years ago my cupboards were filled with the stuff, endless packets of long shelf life items, which I thought were healthy. Until my health rapidly declined and IBD suddenly became centre of my life like a bull in the proverbial china shop several times in the past few years. It took me a few years to figure out that it was inexplicably linked to my diet and whatever I was putting into my mouth. I thought it was a medical condition that my doctor could help fix and I could carry on on my merry way having my several packets of pickled onion monster munch every day (they tasted so damn good).
My doctor was not that helpful, but I do not really blame him at all. With the state of the NHS in the UK and the continuously growing number of people suffering from this because of the state of people’s diets, his ability to really provide individual care diminishes as again every persons’ condition is slightly different and he doesn’t have the time to sit down for an hour when probably over 1000 people need the same attention if not more urgent attention. The doctor generally deals with statistics and his tools are the broad range of medicines available to alleviate the immediate and short term symptoms. What I had come to realise is that modern medicine relied on dealing with the short term symptoms, the healing is done by the body.
Even more starkly is that the body NEEDS the right macro and micro nutrients to heal, and of course to function properly. Me continuously feeding myself ultra processed foods hoping I would get better was like me trying to fix a leaking copper pipe by duct taping it and telling myself its all sorted geeze. The danger of ultra processed foods is that it strips the food down to it’s constituent molecule, all the good bits, the fibre, the micro nutrients are gone to leave just what the manufacturer needs. Then they will mix in the emulsifiers, binding agents, artificial flavors to meet their specifications on taste, texture, and cost. Deep down you still think you are getting the benefits of the whole food which is not the case. Instead you are eating a edible substance which resembled food but provided very little nutritionally in return, and in my opinion with a side serving of inflammation with all the extra ingredients which are not natural.
I always liked to use the term food is power, especially when I would wolf down loads of ultra processed foods. But once I went to a whole foods diet I really understood the power of food as mother nature intended. It wasn’t until I started wolfing down 1.5L shakes everyday made from blueberries, bananas and avocados during a flare up as I couldn’t eat anything which was too rough on my system. I was able to feel the huge difference in energy levels as my flare started to subside over the coming weeks, it was only then I was able to really understand and feel the difference in my physical and mental state when I was on a whole food diet. The contrast was like night and day. I was more energetic, I was more alert, sharper, and I wasn’t tired after a long day at work. I could carry on until the evening and not have to nap on the train home, which I now attribute to the inflammation as I have been taking careful mental notes of what I eat during the day.
As I kept eating the more wholesome foods in their unprocessed states did my physical and mental state improve. I had thought for years that this is it, I’m 30 and its going to be slower and foggier from here. Boy was I wrong, I had never felt so alive before, even as a teenager!
This was a two fold improvement in my overall being:
- I reduced my inflammation
- I improved my overall gut health
In my endless research both of the above points go hand in hand, especially for IBD. The correlation with gut dysbiosis and IBD can be find in many peer reviewed articles. Gut health is now at the forefront of many new health products, YouTube videos, and podcasts. Research has pointed that gut health is linked not only to physical health, but also to mental health. I have seen a few places quote the gut as “The Second Brain.” As I increased the variability of whole foods and plant based foods I found my IBD symptoms began to reduce, my inflammation go down (calprotectin), my bloating but the shocker was the uplift in my mental health.
The changes in my mental health was shocking to say the least. I spent years trying to figure out why I was so miserable, negative, why I procrastinated so much, and I did not cope with stress well. Along with the constant fatigue and brain fog. It all makes sense now when you look back, but when you’re stuck in the moment you can’t see woods for the trees and you carry on without the forethought that your student diet of protein shakes, fast food, and junk food was the root cause of it all! For the first time in my life I feel uplifted, I have clarity of thought, I feel happier and more fulfilled than I have ever been, and you can too!
For me my diet is now very simple. Fruit, Veg, Meat, Fermented foods, Nuts, and minimally processed foods like peanut butter, hummus etc. I drink peppermint tea, and water. That’s it. Nothing ultra processed anymore. Of course I still have a drink now and then but I have found that I can spring back quicker than ever the next day, even after a heavy night thanks to improving my health. My worst foods are 85% dark chocolate, and rice cakes. For me I found out that the inflammatory foods were diary, alcohol, wheat, red meat in heavy doses, and generally anything ultra processed. Oh and of course it goes without saying smoking; the inhalation of the products of combustion is causing an inflammatory response not just in your lungs but the rest of your body.
You need to keep a food diary and really take count of what you are eating to understand what gives you an inflammatory response. Even better there are now services where you can have reagent tests carried out which can detail your bodies inflammatory response to foods based on a blood sample or stool sample. It has never been easier to take control of your health, but the hard part is starting, and you have to take the first step. The question you must ask yourself is this:
“Can I continue down this path of inflammation and suffering for the next 20/30/40/50 years?”
In my opinion the cause of many late stage health ailments which people face in their later years is combination of their genetics, lifestyle, and dietary choices. There is one thing you can take control of, and if controlled properly will give you many years trouble free health. Your diet. Its up to you to make the changes now so that your future self will thank you.
See you next time
Faz