May 7, 2015 by Pat Brinkman
Feeling stressed? What are you eating? Most of us reach for comfort foods when we are stressed, such as cookies, cake, candy and other high sugar, low fiber foods. These foods are not good choices to prevent chronic inflammation from developing and affecting our body. High levels of chronic inflammation are believed to cause rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, asthma and inflammatory bowel disease. Even low amounts of inflammation can increase your risk of obesity and the effects of aging. Prolonged chronic inflammation increases our risk of cancer, heart disease and other diseases. One study on postmenopausal women found that those eating a healthier diet reduced their risk of death from any cause by 60% and had an 88% reduced risk of death from breast cancer.
What should we eat to avoid inflammation building up in our body? Three eating patterns provide reliable assistance along with allowing individual choices of food. Those three eating patterns are the USDA Dietary Guidelines, the Mediterranean Diet and DASH Diet. Each of these has some differences but all three emphasize certain patterns.
All three eating patterns encourage us to eat: • Plenty of vegetables and fruit. • whole grains • Low-fat or Fat-free Dairy
• Seafood and plant proteins
They also encourage us to reduce eating: • Empty calories including foods with added sugar, or drinking excess alcohol • Refined grains • Saturated fat foods
• High sodium food
What would a daily eating plan include? • Vegetables – 2 to 4 cups • Fruits – at least 2 cups a day • Whole grains – 3 to 4 ounces a day • Fish/Seafood – 8-16 ounces a week for Omega-3 • Nuts and soy – 4-6 ounces a week • Olive oil – 1 -2 Tablespoons a day. • Dairy (1% or skim) – 1-3 cups a day
• Alcohol – 0-1 drink a day
Limit the amount of red and processed meats you eat to less than 12 ounces a week and keep added sugars to less than 6 teaspoons for women and 9 teaspoons for men a day.
Make it a goal to eat lots of fiber by eating vegetables, fruits, whole grains and nuts. This will increase the anti-inflammatory properties from these foods. Add some garlic, onion, pepper and other herbs for additional anti-inflammatory properties.
Author: Pat Brinkman, Extension Educator Family and Consumer Sciences, Ohio State University Extension
Reviewer: Cheryl Barber Spires, R.D., L.D., West Region Program Specialist, SNAP-Ed
OSU Extension
References:
Orchard, T. [2015]. Eating healthy under stress: improving diet quality to lower chronic inflammation. webinar for Your Plan for Health, Ohio State University
September 24, 2020
Food Allergy or Sensitivity? | Live Healthy Live Well
maximios Blog
April 1, 2016 by marilynrabe
There are many people who will tell you that they have a food allergy when they might really have food sensitivity.
What is the difference? While food allergies and food sensitivities can both leave you feeling terrible, a true food allergy can be fatal.
They may have similar symptoms – nausea, stomach pain, diarrhea and vomiting, but there are differences. Food allergies affect our immune system and affect the whole body, not just your stomach. Food sensitivity occurs when your body cannot properly digest a particular food. Food allergy symptoms usually come on suddenly, a small amount of the food can trigger the reaction, it happens every time you eat the food, and it can be life threatening. On the other hand, food sensitivities usually come on gradually, it may only cause symptoms when you eat a large amount of the food and is not life threatening.
There are some general differences between allergy and sensitivity.
Food Allergy symptoms:
Food Sensitivity symptoms:
There are eight common foods that cause 90% of food allergy reactions: peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, milk, eggs, soy, and wheat. The two most common foods that cause sensitivity are lactose in milk and gluten although we can be sensitive to a wide variety of foods including some of the ones that cause allergies!
How can you prevent or treat food allergies or sensitivities? It is best to visit your doctor or health practitioner if you have experienced any of the above symptoms after eating. Your doctor can do testing but may also recommend that you keep a food diary or stop eating some foods that you suspect may be causing the problems.
If you have a true food allergy, you will have to totally avoid the food. If it is food sensitivity, you may be able to eat small amounts of the food without causing a problem.
References:
Food Allergies. Clemson Cooperative Extension. http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/food/nutrition/nutrition/special_needs/hgic4158.html
Food Allergies and Sensitivities. http://food.unl.edu/allergy/allergy-sensitivity
Food Allergy, or Something Else? http://www.webmd.com/allergies/foods-allergy-intolerance?
Written by: Marilyn Rabe, Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, Ohio State University Extension, Franklin County.
Reviewed by: Tammy Jones, Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, Ohio State University Extension, Pike County.