Plants vs. Pain, Round 1

 

By: Jonathan Tait, D.O.

Stuffing yourself with a wide variety of vegetables is the quickest way to better health for just about any ailment, including pain. There are not many instances where this is not true, nor “experts” that will challenge this advice.

Incorporating tons of seasonal, colorful vegetables on a daily basis will insure you are covered with vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and other essential micronutrients, with very little need for supplemental vitamins.

The reasons vegetables are so valuable and worth investing in for long term health are many but let us focus on a few:

#1 – High in antioxidants

Probably the most important reason for pounding the veggies on a regular basis.

Antioxidants help combat the daily “exhaust products”, (otherwise known as free radicals) produced from normal functioning of our body’s cellular machinery, environmental exposure to toxins, and stress.

Free radicals trigger oxidation reactions that slowly damage tissues. Oxidation is what makes metal rust, so think about highly oxidative reactions rusting out the parts of your body.

The ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) unit or “ORAC score” is a method of measuring the antioxidant capacity of different foods and supplements.

ORAC values are expressed in micromoles of Trolox Equivalents per 100 grams of sample, or μmol TE/100gm.¹

Developed by scientists at the National Institutes of Health, it is believed that foods with a higher ORAC value offset free radical damage caused by oxidation reactions. High-value ORAC foods can minimize some aspect of age-related changes within the tissues of the body, including joint tissues.

To keep your joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments and other important organs from rusting away like a car put through years of Michigan winters, aim to get about 50% of your daily intake from vegetables.

#2 – Low in fat

This is probably self-explanatory. Overconsumption of unhealthy fats (in addition to piles of highly refined carbohydrates) is the number one reason for the declining health and exploding obesity rates in those following the Standard American Diet (SAD).

Certainly the diet of many Americans is a sad state of affairs, mainly because they are consuming highly refined and processed foods containing trans fat that are highly inflammatory and guaranteed to stoke the inflammatory fire within the body.

What you may not know is that overconsumption of even healthier fats from high-quality meats, nuts or even olive oil can kick up the inflammation, and in turn bring the pain.

If you moderate how much healthy fats you eat, and balance these foods with a hearty helping of vegetables at each meal, then you should have no problem keeping your body in a more anti-inflammatory state, and with time moving it towards a more pain free state.

#3 – High in fiber – If you look at any fat loss diet, there are usually two things recommended no matter how the program is put together:

1) Consume more foods high in fiber

2) Consume more foods low in refined sugars.

Diets high in fiber help to keep your gastrointestinal tract (GI) functioning optimally to allow maximal extraction of vital nutrients and lead to timely and regular elimination of those toxic “exhaust products”.

#4 – Low Glycemic Index (GI)

The Glycemic Index (GI) of a food rates the relative sugar content of the food, and in turn how fast and how much that food will elevate blood sugars when consumed.

Lower GI foods, whether natural or refined, are less likely to spike blood sugar. Maintaining a fairly constant blood sugar without huge peaks and troughs over the course of a day is key to successful aging.

At the cellular level, there are many reasons why you age. One particular reason is the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). This is a reaction where excess circulating sugars crosslink, or glycate, fats and proteins causing molecular rearrangements.

With molecular rearrangements, this leads to deterioration and decreased function of the tissue, the release of free radicals known to promote inflammation, and in turn you guessed it – more pain.

AGEs can also be consumed in the diet, and has to do with the amount of processing, preparation, packaging, as well as how you cook the food. The SAD is loaded with AGEs due to the significant amount of processing of the whole foods they are made from, and due to the high sugar content of refined foods.

AGEs are strongly linked to metabolic disorders, such as diabetes and hyperlipidemia. They are also known to promote inflammation and contribute to tendon, ligament, and joint damage.

Bottom line – next time you’re in the grocery store, make sure a minimum of 50% of what you plan to prepare comes from plant-based sources.

In the next email I’ll tell you what veggies are on the top of my grocery list each week.

References

1. Cao G, Alessio HM, Cutler RG. Oxygen-radical absorbance capacity assay for antioxidants. Free Radic Biol Med. Mar 1993;14(3):303-311.

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