3 Surprisingly Common Foods That Might Be Causing Your Back Pain
When you hear the word “inflammation” what do you think of? Is it thoughts of your muscles or other tissues swelling, pain, and perhaps even immobility? Inflammation is actually one of the primary reasons for back trouble and sciatica. Inflammation has been associated with other more serious conditions besides back trouble, though, including diabetes, heart conditions, and even cancer in some cases.
The degree to which you experience swelling depends on lots of different things. These might include how much exercise you get, how much sleep you get, how stressed you are in your daily life, and even the food that you eat. That’s right, what you eat may very well be making you experience back trouble and sciatica.
This might be tough to wrap your brain around, there is, however, actually some solid scientific evidence behind this. The everyday American diet, as I am sure that you probably know already isn’t really healthy. It consists of too much beef, sugars, unhealthy fats, and ready-made foods. These four things not only lead directly to fat gain and obesity , but also inflammation.
The three worst things you can eat are saturated fats, trans-fats, and foods with a high glycemic index.
Saturated Fats – These fats are found in foods like bacon, eggs, fatty cuts of meat, and butter. Saturated fats really help contribute to swelling and back issues because, in a way, your body see them as a mild toxic substance. One of your body’s natural reactions to toxic substances is to swell or cause serious inflammation so as to protect the itself. Definitely try to reduce these types of foods in your diet to ease swelling.
Trans-Fats – These fats are very bad for you, and chances are you already know that since they often come in the form of donuts, cakes, muffins, and varied fried fast food. Many cities and nations have even got to the measure of completely banning these fats from being served in restaurants.
Trans-fats contain bad cholesterol which can block your arteries. This restricts blood flow and may lead to your muscle and joints having problems. Trans-fats have not been scientifically studied for long, it is thought that they cause serious inflammation in the same way that saturated fats do.
Foods with High Glycemic Index – The glycemic index (GI) represents how swiftly foods are soaked up by the body after being eaten. The higher the number, the speedier they’re absorbed. Common high GI foods are often considered carbohydrates like pasta, rice, crackers, potatoes, and other “white” foods.
High GI foods cause inflammation, because when we eat them, we get a fast spike in our blood sugar. Our body reacts to this by releasing insulin to control blood sugar levels, but if this occurs too frequently, swelling will result.
Hence if it seems like you’ve tried just about every stretching exercise, painkiller, or other type of treatment out there with limited success, it could be worth it to analyze your diet. Try this personal development trick of removing the 3 worst foods for swelling from your diet and you could be stunned at the results that you get with your back pain or sciatica discomfort.
If you’d like to learn a few sacroiliac joint exercises to help relieve back pain and Piriformis Syndrome symptoms, check out my website.
Filed under Food by on Sep 21st, 2011.