While switching to whole foods, remove wheat and gluten from your diet. By removing all these packaged foods from your life, you will be removing many laboratory made ingredients that are derived from wheat.  Many food additives are made from wheat and therefore contain gluten. You will not read “wheat” on the label but the ingredients with weird, chemical sounding names, more than likely are wheat derived and contain gluten . GMO corn is also a common ingedient in processed food. Corn does not contain gluten, but GMO foods are inflammatory. Eat un-packaged food!

Many people find complete relief from inflammation by getting gluten out of their diets.  This is not as hard as people “groan and moan” it is going to be.  People need to educate themselves around gluten and with this new found knowledge, avoiding gluten is not so difficult.

We have become a culture dependent on processed food products and eating away from home. Food products and food prepared outside of your home are often full of wheat derivatives and GMO ingredients.

Another key step in whole food, gluten-free eating is to avoid gluten-free products.  Most gluten free packaged products are full of filler ingredients that are debilitating to health.  You will be, in essence, trading one debilitating food for another.  Read labels on all foods, gluten-free included, for 100% whole food ingredients.

OK, so why remove gluten?  Because it is very inflammatory in most people’s bodies.  Modern day wheat is extremely high in gluten compared to heritage wheat of days gone by, the wheat that existed before human manipulation.  The high concentrations of gluten in modern wheat disturb metabolism and cellular health; some people notice it more than others.  How gluten affects each person is different.  What is known is that gluten is a huge culprit in inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, psoriasis, fibromyalgia, etc. and many people are relieved of symptoms simply by getting rid of gluten.

Eat completely gluten-free for 2 weeks. See how you feel.  If you have any doubts about whether or not it helps, try this:  after 2 weeks of gluten-free eating, eat plenty of wheat at every meal for a whole day.  Pile on the whole wheat bread, pasta, crackers, and cereal.  Now pay attention to how your body feels!

Gluten is naturally found in wheat, rye, and barley.  Any variety of wheat will contain gluten:  spelt, kamut, einkorn… any wheat that is labeled as a heritage wheat variety.  Yes, heritage wheats have less gluten, but at this point, with an auto immune disease, any amount of gluten will just exacerbate the internal inflammation.

Think lung disease. How many daily cigarettes would you recommend to someone with lung disease?

Think liver disease. How many shots of liquor would you recommend to someone trying to heal liver disease?

Think diabetes. How much sugar would you recommend to someone trying to heal the beta cells in their pancreas and ultimately heal their type II diabetes?

Eliminating the “culprits,” (the cause or causes of the health symptoms) and introducing nourishing healers (food, lifestyle, herbs, etc.) is what will heal your beautiful body, right down to each and every beautiful cell!

Avoid oats unless certified gluten-free. Oats do not naturally contain gluten.  If whole oats, oat flakes, Irish oats, or oat flour are CERTIFIED gluten-free, then they are fine.  Gluten-free certification is essential with oats.  Otherwise, you are consuming oats that have been contaminated with gluten in the grain harvesting and handling processes.  Oats are processed on the same equipment that wheat is processed on. This industry practice contaminates oats with gluten from the wheat.

Get rid of sugar.  A whole food diet will take care of that problem immediately. Sugar, in any form, is inflammatory in your body. Read labels for  sugars:  words that end in “ose”, corn, corn syrup, corn sugar, agave,  any syrup, etc. Get sugar savvy, read up and learn all the forms of sugars used by food manufacturers if you are going to continue to use packaged food.  Remove packaged food from your diet and you are 100% in control of what you put into your body and body cells.

Alkalize the body. The human body likes to function in a slightly alkaline state.  When the body struggles to balance from acidic eating and lifestyle habits, our health suffers from mineral loss causing tooth decay and bone de-mineralization and deterioration of body organs and body cells.

Movement Magic.  Movement is essential.  Move it or lose it.  Try something called dynamic movement which helps to heal the adhesions that settle in from moving body parts in one direction only.

Herbal Healing

Herbs are fabulous whole foods for healing the body.  I would add these in AFTER you have had gluten out of your diet for at least 2 weeks. This way, you can see what the effects are of getting gluten out of your diet has on getting healing into your body! You do want to know what is having the healing effects!

My favorite herb: stinging nettles, I love this green healer!  Her work is truly magic in the human body!  Nettles adds nutrients to every body cell.  This is what you want for your body!

More herbs to add for nourishing the body cells and healing arthritis: ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne, and Devil’s claw. (Please use real Ceylon cinnamon, not the grocery store variety of cinnamon.)

Burdock root and dandelion root nourish the liver and add essential fatty acids to the diet that heals the body.  Both of these roots can be eaten in soups, stir fries, stews, and grated (raw) into a slaw salad or grated to put on top of a green salad.  Make an infusion and drink 3 to 4 cups  daily. This is very healing to inflammation. (An infusion is a medicinal strength herbal tea.  See directions below for creating your own healing herbal infusions.)

Nature’s Path

Find that place outside and get fresh air and sunshine (even on cloudy days) every day.  Visualize a potted plant, shoved in the bottom of a closet, with no fresh air or sunshine.  What do you think will be the outcome for that plant?  Put this common sense in action in your life.  All living beings need fresh air and sunshine!  Embrace it, love it, find time every single day.  I promise, you will not regret it!

Acupuncture

I would be horribly remiss if I did not tell you about the healing powers of acupuncture to reduce inflammation and move healing energy in the body.  In fact, energy healing of any kinds is amazing therapy for inflammation:  reiki, acupressure, massage, healing touch, EFT, polarity, yoga breathing, pranic healing, shamanic healing… the list goes on.  Look up energy healing and find an energy healer in your area.  Ask for recommendations at your local health food store or food cooperative.  Getting recommendations from people who have used the healer helps to find quality practitioners.

Yoga

Yoga does amazing things for healing!  Find a yoga instructor knowledgeable in the health and healing of inflammation.

Bottom Line

1.  Whole foods

2.  Gluten-free eating

3.  Sugar free eating & drinking

4.  Move your body

5.  Fresh air & sunshine

6.  Herbs

7.  Acupuncture and energy healing

8.  Yoga

Source: healingthebody.ca