Organic Chicken Is All You Need, Right?:
For awhile now, at least since the “Margarine is groovy!” 1970s, we’ve all been told to eat healthier.
We then made up for all the hydrogenated oils with a new addiction to Olive Oil in the pasta-fantastic Big 80’s.
And despite the recent ethical-sourcing commercials at Chipotle & Panera, it turns out we neglected one thing: Literally & Figuratively, Your Heart.
Because no matter how healthy you eat, what you put the Figurative one through could be a real problem for everything else…
Inflammation Is The Killer:
And one special person interested in the mind/emotion-body connection is food psychology researcher Janice Kiecolt-Glaser.
So, when your body is going through lots of system-wide Inflammation, it’s bad for all kinds of things: Heart Disease, Diabetes, Arthritis, etc.
And one of the main things that can trigger that inflammation is Big Stress, and all the chemicals it makes your body put out.
But to test for any protective-effects of a good diet, Dr. Janice needed to come up with some good food, bad food, and find some big ‘ole stress.
Bad Food Causes Inflammation, Right?…:
What they did was to find a group of volunteers and feed them at-random a different version of the same meal on different days. There was either a healthy-fat version or a bad saturated-fat version.
They then tested their blood for 4 different kinds of inflammation-markers that are linked to many of the blood-chemicals that are bad for you at high-levels.
These were C-Reactive Protein, Amyloid A (related to the Dreaded Alzheimer’s Amyloid B), and 2 Chemicals related to Atherosclerosis.
And sure-enough, after the high saturated-fat version, the subjects were full of all kinds of inflammation, including the stuff that makes hardening of the arteries happen.
But as you might have guessed, with the healthier-fat version, the average person had much less inflammation.
Your Health Is What Your Brain-Chemistry Says It Is:
And now the kicker:
Once they added Very Significant non-stubbed-toelike Stress to the equation, something very interesting happened:
The subjects’ inflammation shot WAY up.
-It was even still present in their bodies the Next Day after the event!
The effects of Big Stress on their blood-chemistry were so bad, that it made the people who ate the Healthy-Fat breakfast look like they’d eaten the Bad-Fat Breakfast!
The effect was even worse on people who’d experienced Major Depression in the past.
This Means Something For Everyone:
So, maybe teasing OSU’s conclusions out a bit…
-Even though the study was conducted on Women aged an average of 53,
There is nothing to say that these results don’t hold true for Men,
or even people younger than middle-age.
But either way, being as much in-control of your mental-state, and allowing yourself to only stress up to a certain point and no more, is a VERY healthy habit to have.
It’s Been Said Before, But A Healthy Mind Helps A Lot!:
Because as shocking as it sounds, Janice’s group proves that even a healthy diet can only do so much in the face of massive stress. It’s better than the opposite, but not all-powerful. Only Vodka is all-powerful.
And even though we’ve previously told you that Inflammation is depressing, it’s strange how these things seem to bite each other on the tail and exaggerate things.
Depression can be caused by inflammation, which can trigger stress-hormones, and exaggerate whole-body inflammation, causing you to reach for foods that cause more inflammation…
We Have To Break The Cycle Somehow, -With An Exercycle?:
So somehow between present-moment-mediation, relaxation techniques, and reducing our saturated fats & Omega-6 oils, we’ve got to get on top of our game & break the Mind-Body-Stress-Cycle.
Maybe another key is Exercise?
As a matter-of-fact, the next test Janice’s group should really do is to see how much 30 minutes of low-moderate cardiovascular exercise can do to change those exact 4 chemicals.
-Maybe they’d even find something along the same lines as Dr. Mike Evans.
Check out the rest of the details in the Links:
Photo Credits: “Old Gauge 3”, by Keran McKenzie
Links:
• Source: OSU
• via: USNews
• Source Study: MolPsy-Depression, daily stressors and inflammatory responses to high-fat meals: when stress overrides healthier food choices | Nature-Full Study [PDF]
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