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Hello everyone: Thanks for taking your valuable time to stay informed. Here is an interesting paper that revealed that a better dietary food quality was associated with less body pain. Well, duh. We all know that some foods are a major source of inflammation, such as the Standard American Diet (SAD), and higher consumption of an unprocessed, whole-food plant-based patterns tends to significantly lower inflammation. “Better diet quality is associated with lower bodily pain, irrespective of adiposity. Findings highlight the potential role of diet quality in pain management and function, particularly in women.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027153172400109X “After an exhaustive bibliography search, we designed a 13-item anti-inflammatory dietary guide based on a Mediterranean diet without red meat, gluten, or cow’s milk (the AnMeD-S). We then conducted a pilot study to evaluate the efficacy of this anti-inflammatory diet in patients with CP (Chronic Pain). We found a correlation between increased anti-inflammatory food intake and improved physical characteristics, stress, and pain in the patients we assessed. Moreover, decreased consumption of pro-inflammatory foods was positively correlated with sleep satisfaction. Following the AnMeD-S was associated with improved physical characteristics and quality-of-life in patients with CP.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10381948/ Bottom Line: By combining an anti-inflammatory food plan with eTRF (see last week’s blog) you can seriously lower your inflammatory burden, ease pain, slow aging, improve immune function, feel and look better plus more. Check out this link for some ideas of where to start. It is easier than you might imagine! https://www.healthcentral.com/pain-management/anti-inflammatory-diets-for-pain

Hello everyone: Here are a bunch of papers that show that those with Rheumatoid Arthritis can significantly benefit from fasting followed by a vegetarian dietary plan. When it comes to the benefits of fasting, autoimmune disorders have a good deal of evidence backing up the efficacy. Other disorders related to lifestyle factors, such as overweight, obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and digestive issues also tend to show benefits, i.e., anyone with excess inflammation will probably benefit a lot. “There is clear experimental evidence of a significant anti-inflammatory effect of prolonged fasting. Several clinical studies demonstrated a symptomatic benefit of prolonged modified fasting (therapeutic fasting) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). If fasting is followed by a vegan and vegetarian diet, lasting effects of up to 1 year have been documented. Cardiometabolic but not antirheumatic effects have been proven for intermittent fasting. Nutrition and fasting can be classified as a possible useful addition to conventional treatment but are currently only rarely taken into account in practice.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7747149/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1681264/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7835013/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11252685/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39271484/ Bottom Line: The absolute most critical part of this literature is that the positive effects of fasting were only maintained when the post-fasting diet is vegan or vegetarian. This appears to be related in part to different aspects of an omnivorous food plan that alter essential fatty acid imbalances and gut microbiome changes that foster inflammation. There are many different ways to fast, and I always recommend that you start with eTRF (early Time Restricted Feeding) to re-set and normalize your circadian rhythms before moving on to any type of fasting that may be more demanding or rigorous or require medical monitoring. The benefit of eTRF is that you can move into a vegetarian or vegan diet at the same time as you fast daily. Most of the time, consuming your vegetarian/vegan food plan (or even the Flexitarian food plan from Dr. Joel Furhman) in an eTRF pattern is enough to shift your health where you want it to go. “Here we show that eTRF was more effective than mTRF (mid-day) at improving insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, eTRF, but not mTRF, improved fasting glucose, reduced total body mass and adiposity, ameliorated inflammation, and increased gut microbial diversity. No serious adverse events were reported during the trial. In conclusion, eTRF showed greater benefits for insulin resistance and related metabolic parameters compared with mTRF.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35194047/ Essentially, eTRF is having some type of breakfast before 10:00 am and a lunch before 2 pm, and lunch is essentially the largest meal of the day. The main point is to consume 80% of your total daily calories by 2 pm, and dinner is very light and taken early such that you consume all of your daily calories within 10 hours. Eating this way will correct any abnormal circadian rhythm functions (such as blood sugar control, fat burning, digestive issues, and more) and it can take up to 3 to 4 months to reset your internal clocks. If you have not felt better or lost weight, the next step would be to go Flexitarian or Vegan/Vegetarian with eTRF. These food plans are essentially unprocessed, whole-food, plant-based, lower fat, no sugar, no processed grains or foods. In an earlier blog I addressed resources to assist in this amazing transformation so here they are again! 1. https://simplyplantbasedkitchen.com/ 2. https://thriving.foodrevolution.org/join/?frn_source=blog&frn_medium=link&frn_campaign=ppt&frn_content=menu 3. https://hellonutritarian.com/nutritarian-power-prep-program/ 4. https://cookingcourse.forksoverknives.com/ 5. https://www.drfuhrman.com/blog/210/beginners-guide

Hello friends: Here is some more interesting news that helps us understand how to construct the best food plan for ourselves. Most are aware that the gut houses an incredibly large number of different micro-organisms that are called the microbiome. These gut inhabitants can produce many beneficial health promoting chemicals including vitamins, assist immune function, modulate inflammation, and more. However, the type of chemicals that they produce can be either good or bad, and it depends almost entirely on what they are fed. This means that our diet shapes our health in important ways we might not be thinking about. The study found that the health of the microbiome is influenced by diet, and that the composition of the microbiome influences the risk of health outcomes. The results showed that specific gut microbes were associated with specific nutrients, foods, food groups, and overall diet composition. Health conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and general inflammation appeared to be most impacted by diet-influenced changes to the microbiome. For example, less healthy dietary patterns (dairy desserts, unhealthy meats, processed foods) supported gut species that were associated with measures of blood sugar, cholesterol, and inflammation that are significantly associated with higher risk of cardiac events, strokes, and type 2 diabetes. In contrast, a more diverse gut microbiome was tied to healthy dietary patterns (high-fiber vegetables like spinach and broccoli, nuts, and heathy animal foods such as fish and eggs) and was linked to measurements tied to lower risk of certain chronic diseases. In addition, the study found that polyunsaturated fats (found in fish, walnuts, pumpkin, flax and chia seeds, sunflower, safflower, and un-hydrogenated soybean oils) produce healthy gut species linked to a reduced risk of chronic disease. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/diet-disease-and-the-microbiome-2021042122400 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33432175/ Bottom Line: The authors say it best: So, what do these findings mean for us? First, the study showed that eating more unprocessed plant foods — fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains — allows the gut microbiome to thrive. Some animal foods, such as fish and eggs, are also favorable. Avoiding certain animal foods, such as red meat and bacon, dairy foods, and highly processed foods (even processed plant foods such as sauces, baked beans, juices, or sugar-sweetened drinks and desserts) prevents less-healthy gut species from colonizing the gut. It is important to note that food quality matters; processed or ultra-processed plant-based foods were not associated with heathy clusters of gut microbes. When choosing foods, consider whether they are processed or unprocessed, in addition to whether they are a plant or animal food. Meal patterns that emphasize foods beneficial to the microbiome are the whole-food, plant-based dietary patterns. These include vegan (no animal products) and ovo-vegetarian (vegetarian plus eggs) diets. The pescatarian eating pattern, in which oily and white fish are the meats of choice, is also good for the microbiome. Emphasizing minimally processed plant foods allows the gut microbiome to thrive, providing protection against, or decreasing the risk of, chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, metabolic disease, and obesity.

Hello everyone: By now you are aware that what we eat will shape our health, either good or bad. You also know that this has everything to do with the inflammatory potential of the overall dietary pattern. And did you know that WHEN you eat also shapes your total inflammatory burden significantly! This has to do with aligning your circadian rhythms. These rhythms optimize certain functions at certain times of the day…in all of us. A lifestyle that coordinates food intake with our circadian rhythms has significant benefits. Studies in mice and humans have shown that TRE can help with weight loss and result in metabolic improvement. TRE can be categorized into various subtypes based on different time windows for restricting food intake. Early TRE (eTRE) means starting the first meal in the early morning (before 10:00 a.m.), while late TRE (lateTRE) involves limiting mealtimes to the afternoon or evening. Based on the duration of fasting time, eTRE includes formats such as 16:08, 14:10, and 18:06 (F:E). Studies on circadian rhythms have confirmed that the thermal effect, insulin sensitivity and ꞵ-cell (pancreas insulin) function are better in the morning. eTRE is now widely proposed to be more in line with the circadian rhythm than lateTRE. Furthermore, skipping breakfast and late eating have been linked to T2D (type 2 diabetes), MetS (Metabolic syndrome), and obesity in various studies, and they may influence gut microbiome composition. eTRE (early Time Restricted Eating) resulted in improved FM (Fat Mass), abdominal obesity, inflammation, and blood pressure and prevented FFM (Fat Free Mass = muscles) loss compared with non-TRE, especially in the 16:08 F:E strategy. It also had better metabolic effects on body weight, FBG (Fasting Blood Glucose) and HOMA-IR (Insulin Resistance) than non-TRE or lateTRE. Adherence-related outcomes were not affected. eTRE appears to be an effective strategy for the early prevention and treatment of MetS (pre-diabetes, high cholesterol, inflammation) and sarcopenic (muscle loss) obesity. Furthermore, we found that eTRE resulted in reduced abdominal fat measures, such as WC (Waist Circumference) and VFA (Visceral Adipose Tissue), reduced inflammatory states via the lowering, and improved metabolic markers…” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871402124000134 Bottom Line: Please notice that eTRF lowers inflammation. What the papers do not mention is the positive effects that eTRF has on immune function and longevity, which are also significant. For most of us, the 14 hours of fasting and 10 hours of eating works very well and is very easily done. 

Hello everyone: You may have heard recently that too much omega-6 essential fatty acids can be bad for our health. There is truth to this emerging information, so let’s run this down. First of all, overheating of any oil is bad news as it creates a series of inflammatory chemicals that are harmful. This is one of the problems with ready-made processed foods…the oils have been heated and de-natured and offer few benefits and some harm. But as the science emerges, it is the imbalance of the optimal Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio that is the primary concern. The chronic over consumption of Omega-6 oils leads to problems. While it is known that Omega-6 oils are essential and have a host of beneficial effects, the loss of the proper dietary ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 is a significant issue. “…there is also evidence that a high omega-6 fatty acid diet inhibits the anti-inflammatory and inflammation-resolving effect of the omega-3 fatty acids.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29610056/ “Up until about 100 years ago, the omega-6/3 ratio has been around 4:1 or less. However, the typical Western diet now provides an omega-6/3 ratio of approximately 20:1 in favor of omega-6. This predisposes to supraphysiologic inflammatory responses and perpetuates chronic low-grade inflammation. The overconsumption of linoleic acid, mainly from industrial omega-6 seed oils, and the lack of long-chain omega-3s in the diet creates a pro-inflammatory, pro-allergic, pro-thrombotic state. Reducing the omega-6/3 ratio, particularly through reductions in the intake of refined omega-6 seed oil, and increasing the intake of marine omega-3s, either through dietary means or supplementation, may be an effective strategy for reducing inflammation, allergies, and autoimmune reactions.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8504498/ Bottom Line: Avoid using high heat on any oil when cooking. Unfortunately, almost all processed foods are loaded with Omega-6 oils that have suffered some type of heat or other chemical processes that damage them and lend toward an inflammatory reaction, and they also contain virtually no Omega-3’s. Thus, avoid or massively reduce processed foods that contain the following oils: cottonseed, sunflower, soy, grapeseed, canola. Reduce your Omega-6 intake from added oils…get what you need from food. Unprocessed, whole plant-based foods have plenty of Omega-6’s in their natural and unprocessed, health building state. Increase dietary sources of Omega-3’s and do not over-heat them. Have a blood test to look at your levels of Essential Fatty Acids to determine if a supplement of Omega-3’s would be beneficial.