Welcome back to another episode of Fresh Focus. I’m Nancy White Registered Dietitian and Integrative and Fuctional Nutrition Certified Practitioner. I work at the Phoenix VA Chronic Pain Wellness Center and specialize in anti-inflammatory nutrition.

This series we hope you have learned the connection of chronic pain and chronic inflammation and in todays episode we are going to dive a bit further in the nutrition connection of that equation.

Chronic inflammation damages our bodies on a cellular level causing our body’s cells to stop functioning as designed.
Consider insulin resistance as an example, cells in your muscles, fat, and liver no longer respond to insulin appropriately as an example. Inflammation can cause organs to stop functioning appropriately such as in chronic kidney disease or heart disease. This process occurs over time with silent inflammation, (silent inflammation is inflammation that we can’t feel or see) it can behappening for many years before we have strong symptoms in our organ system. With chronic pain we can feel the inflammation happening with our joints and muscles but we don’t feel the impacts that inflammation has on our organ systems and overall health.

Food also effects inflammation on a cellular levels. Foods can increase inflammation and worsen chronic pain. So for more information on that go back and check out episode 42 to hear about more foods that cause an increase in inflammation.
But what we want to focus on in the next episode are that foods that can also protect, heal, and improve functioning on a cellular level and therefore improve our overall health and fight inflammation.

Antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals and other nutrients all have roles in how our cells function. From brain cells, neurotransmitters, energy production, digestive processes, and the health of every organ in our body – nutrients have many, many roles. If we are not getting a balanced, healthy intake we start to have cellular dysfunction. If we are not eating to manage inflammation that cellular dysfunction will worsen over time. If we have other inflammatory lifestyle habits like smoking or poorly managed stress its also going to worsen that cellular inflammation. Food can protect us and heal a lot of damage from inflammation.

Ok so you are listening and I know you are wondering what types of foods. I want you to remember way back when on episode 1-6 we discussed building a healthy plate? if not you can always go back another time to review how to build a healthy plate. Now we want you to learn the basics for creating an anti inflammatory plan and what your plate would look like following an anti inflammatory nutrition plan.

So If you have a plate handy or if you are listening away from home just imagine a plate. Just a regularly ordinary 9 inch dinner plate. Imagine picturing that plate in sections. We want half of that plate with a variety of non starchy vegetables… looking at adding in more color reds/ oranges/purples/greens and adding in more variety of types of vegetables so all all vegetables fall into the anti inflammatory nutrition plan so which ever vegetables you like start there but we want you to add in some more try adding in dark green leafy veggies such as spinach kale swiss chard, mustard greens, theres a lot of different greens try adding in some cruciferous ones like cabbage broccoli and cauliflower all good choices. Or if you are thinking you maybe aren’t sure start with something you are more familiar with you can totally add more green beans, summer squash, carrots and asparagus. All good choices There is no unhealthy vegetable unless maybe you are allergic to it but all vegetables are anti inflammatory half of our plate should be non starchy vegetables.

I like to encourage folks to add in veggies to what they are already eating like add a vegetable to their morning eggs or add a salad to lunch. Maybe even adding in bell peppers dipped in guacamole for snack.
For dinner you could try adding more of a stir fry vegetable or roasting veggies in the oven next to your baked chicken or adding vegetable kabobs on the grill. Think of your meal and ask what is one vegetable I could add and then add it.

While starchy vegetables such as peas, corn and potatoes are in fact vegetables they don’t count as the vegetable portion of the plate they would go in the starchy carbohydrate portion of the plate that is about ¼ or 25% of your plate. So if you have a baked potato with dinner you absolutely can but still need a non-starchy vegetable broccoli cauliflower carrot you still need a non starchy veggie to balance out your plate. And we want to choose starchy vegetable instead of other starchy carbohyrates you wouldn’t want to have Baked potato and rice at same meal pick one starchy carbohydrate or small portion like peas and corn together be mindful of total portion of starchy carbohydrate is about 25% of your meal.

All fruits are anti-inflammatory, some great choices include berries, blueberries strawberries all good choices melons, stone fruits (big seed in middle like peaches nectarines plums all good choices ) mango, and lemon and limes other citrus fruits. Again whatever fruit you like great they are anti inflammatory choices now when we eat fruit it can be helpful to fruit with a protein think apple and peanut butter. Or pear and handful of nuts having some protein with that fruit is going to be helpful in keeping us satisfied although fruit is anti inflammatory it is still best to eat small amounts at a time. Remember a cup of berries is a serving so you could eat as a side dish or top your yogurt with some berries or oatmeal with some berries even add to a summer salad. Or thinking of the grill again you could even grill peaches or pineapple right along chicken or fish for a tasty meal. Lots of ways to use fruit in our intake and thinking of our meal add to what you are already doing. We talked about fruit for a minute. Going back to that quarter of the plate with starchy carbohydrates try adding in more legumes such as black beans chickpeas or edamame, all good choices there so try to have a legume 2-3 days each week maybe even trial out some other whole grains quinoa, basmati rice or try using steel cut oats for breakfast. Maybe this week you could do a lunch bowl with brown or black rice some chicken and veggies makes a nice little lunch bowl and adding in some seasonings and onions and peppers if you wanted. We want to choose whole, unmilled grains at least 50% of the time.

Thinking of a delicious lunch bowl you’ll want to throw in that protein or when you are thinking of your plate that is the ¼ or 25% of your meal a key protein point is eating some at every meal and every snack. This is going to help you feel full its going to help regulate your blood sugars its also going to help get you the amount of protein you need spread throughout the day for building muscle and staying satisfied.
Plant based proteins include things like edamame black beans pinto beans nuts and seeds. All good choices omega 3 fatty acid rich seafood is also a great protein source salmon saradines and its ideal to fit that seafood in 2-4 times per week you can also choose lean animal proteins so skinless chicken lean cuts like pork loin or sirloin red meats other proteins include lamb or wild game or Eggs there are some really great protein sources out there, try to have a small amount of protein with every meal.

Dairy may be anti inflammatory or inflammatory depending on the person their health concerns and other factors.
Some items like Greek yogurt could be used as balanced breakfast or a snacks you could also try dairy free alternatives unsweetened coconut milk or almond milk or yogurt made from soy or almond.

We do want to limit animal fats and fried foods. When thinking of fats, not all fats are created equal. And fat is not the enemy we do want some healthy fat cooking with olive oil or avocado oil is a great example or adding in some flax seeds chia seeds or pumpkin seeds to our meals or snacks so we definitely want some healthy fat we could add avocado to sandwiches or salads. You can definitely go back and check out previous series on more on herbs and spices but adding in some flavor garlic pepper onion this is can also be really helpful when you are learning a new way to cook in addition to that turmeric ginger are great anti inflammatory herbs and spices we definitely want to flavor our foods with healthy fats and herbs and spices. You can think of herbs as tiny vegetables they do have vitamins and antioxidants that help reduce our inflammation.

I do get asked this often on how to add these healthier ideas into some of the typical recipes we fix at home and the answer is lets get creative… it doesn’t have to be difficult for example if you are having enchiladas or taco night add some black beans and or add peppers or tomators to your tacos or enchiladas or you can use corn tortillas. Bake a sweet potato for a side dish, maybe making potato salad chop up some celery onions and other veggies added to it. Or trying a lentil sloppy joe there are a lot of options it takes some creativity and some practice and some fun try something new be adventurous.

It can take some time to see benefits of an anti-inflammatory nutrition plan. Unfortunately You can’t just eat salmon and a salad and wake up feeling better and with less pain the next day. But over time, 2-4 weeks or in some cases longer periods of time such as 2-3 months, you can see lots of reduction in chronic pain levels. Many times chronic pain wont go away completely but it can reduce drastically from that 7 or 8 on the 0-10 scale down to a 2-3 where you are feeling a lot better and you are able to engage in life you can do more things that are important to you. I like the 80/20 approach where you eat anti-inflammatory foods 80% of the time and you have 20% of your food choices as less healthy, but enjoyable foods that are important to you as an individual. Pie at thanksgiving or desserts with the family 80% of the time healthy choices 20% of the time have your favorites. Remember to follow up with your local VA Dietitian for more tips on planning your very own anti inflammatory nutrition plate to help reduce inflammation and chronic pain. Stay tuned for more episodes. Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast rate the series and leave a review. We appreciate each and everyone of you.