Day 7
Whooo Hooo.  One week down.
Soap box time again. As I made dinner, I double checked some of the ingredients for sugars. I thought the only thing I needed to eliminate in my coconut curry chicken would be the two tablespoons of brown sugar in the recipe. I was wrong. I will need to be on the look out for sugarless brands of certain items. The brand of chicken broth we had in the cabinet had cane sugar listed. So, I decided I would use bouillon cubes and make my own broth. However, sugar is listed as the second ingredient and corn starch (a substance to avoid during the Whole30) as the third ingredient. Finally, the fish sauce had sugar listed as its third and final ingredient.
Seriously.  I’m not a conspiracy kind of person, but I’m beginning to think our food industry wants us addicted to sugar.   The invasion of sugar in places I would not expect makes it somewhat difficult to keep it out of my diet.

Chapter 7:  Inflammation: No one is immune
The last chapter of It Starts with Food discussed how certain foods can promote chronic disease, hypersensitivities and autoimmune conditions in the body.  This chapter expounds on their impacts on our immune system.  Basically, our immune system is designed to attack foreign invaders and protect our body.  But if our immune system has been conditioned to constantly attack something showing up in our body, like the ingestion of certain foods, then it is consistently on alert, creating chronic inflammation, and becomes ineffective in doing its intended job.   The authors believe this inflammation is linked to a variety of different conditions and diseases, many which are surprising.
Genetics are also addressed, which is of interest to me because, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my family has a history of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke (along with several other conditions I’d like to avoid).  I have always believed these problems to be linked with food, but am beginning to understand more of the why it’s linked and what’s behind the concept of eating healthy (and I am also changing my understanding of what eating healthy means).   Although we might have a genetic predisposition for a certain disease (or diseases), doesn’t mean those genes will be triggered.  Our environment and our lifestyle choices make a difference in whether or not the genes are triggered and the diseases are given an opportunity to develop.  As always, it goes back to the foods we eat and, as I mentioned, I am surprised at how the things we have been conditioned to believe are healthy, are instead, the major culprits.

Overall
Nothing major. Another morning run. A busy and somewhat stressful day. I’m glad the fatigue has lifted somewhat.

7 down, 23 to go.