The Typical Western Diet May Be Causing Your Pain

Random pain, phantom pain… maybe you woke up one morning, and you just don't know why your knee or shoulder hurts. You probably just brushed it off as sleeping wrong.

You might even blame aging.

But, pain is a sign that something is wrong in your body. And if you're eating Western diet, your pain might be directly linked to your diet.

Why You Have Random Pain

painThroughout a lifetime, you develop injuries and all sorts of habits that put strains on your body. But, most of the time, your body heals itself. It can repair and fix things quite quickly.

Sometimes, your body will heal, but not completely. A last lingering trace can develop into arthritis, weakness, or sometimes pain with changing weather patterns.

But, you can explain that. You know if you injured your knee in high school, that's probably why it's aching now.

And then there's the pain that comes and goes and you don't have an explanation.

Your diet could be causing some of this pain, causing inflammation and wrenching within your gut that's traveling through your whole body. There's aspects of your diet causing inflammation and achiness throughout your body and you'll see in a little bit what that is.

When you have inflammation, that's your body trying to heal an injury. But, in the process of bringing extra blood and swelling to the area, it causes other problems.

In your joints, inflaming the cartilage or tendons causes pain and stiffness. In your gut, it causes heartburn and indigestion. And in your brain, it causes foggy thinking and memory loss.

Fortunately, there is something you can do.

What's In the Western Diet That Causes Inflammation and Pain

painThe typical Western diet focuses itself on convenience and longevity. What is doesn't focus on is nutrition and freshness.

Lots of things cause inflammation, including:

  • Gluten
  • Dairy
  • Preservatives
  • Added Flavor And Color
  • Sugar

You don't have to be allergic to these things to find yourself reacting to them. Food sensitivity is your body’s reaction to being injured by these proteins, chemicals, and tiny unwanted molecules over and over. Some estimates put people experience some sort of food sensitivities at anywhere from 30 to 90% of the population.

Fortunately, it's pretty easy to test yourself. Simply cut out a particular trigger and see how you feel. Many people start with gluten or preservatives. They're the two big ones.

What you do is very carefully eliminate one particular trigger from your diet at a time. It requires reading food labels very carefully and learning the different ways manufacturers hide their ingredients.

Once you eliminate one particular trigger, you can test yourself after two weeks. Have a meal that contains that trigger in large quantity. Then, see how you feel.

If you feel good without the trigger food, but suddenly feel tired, sick, pain, or simply out of sorts when you try it again, that's a trigger for you. If not, then you move onto the next potential trigger.

Most of the time, people know which foods are the worst for them.

How To Get Rid of The Triggers For Your Pain

painThe hard part is cutting out some of the foods you often eat if they are a trigger.

For example, wheat is a widespread trigger because of gluten. But, people are addicted to bread.

Cutting out gluten means cutting out the breakfast cereal in the morning, sandwiches, pasta, danishes, most snack foods, and many processed foods (many manufacturers add wheat gluten as a thickening agent).

So, what do you do instead?

It's not as easy as just looking for a direct replacement. You're bound to find yourself disappointed if you're looking for something that looks, tastes, and acts like the wheat and gluten product.

Yes, they do have gluten-free bread, pasta, and snack foods. These can tide you over while you make the switch.

Your body can help you. For example, moving more towards fruit and vegetables to replace some of the snacks and treats you're used to can help provide nutrition that breaks your desire for bread. With more vitamins and minerals, your body craves the unhealthy stuff less.

As you feel healthier, your body will be able to tolerate having your trigger occasionally. You'll be able to enjoy bread and pasta sometimes and treat it more like a special occasion than and everyday staple.

Disciplining yourself to have healthy food that does not trigger pain takes work, but it can be rewarding. Aside from being free of pain, this type of diet helps you reduce the chances of many problems later in life, including cancer, heart disease, and memory loss.

Fortunately, this is not a true allergy, which means you do get to have some of these trigger foods, just use them sparingly.