September 15, 2017
Breathing Difficulties and your Diet
Do you have respiratory symptoms? Wheezing, coughing, breathing difficulties, sinus congestion, asthma, allergies? These symptoms are signs of inflammation – which in and of itself is not a bad thing because we need to inflame in order to heal. However, our symptoms should not be chronic – meaning they should not be persistent or continually reoccurring. Symptoms are what our body uses to communicate with us. They are our body’s warming signs that thing are not quite right,and if our symptoms are chronic, we need to listen. Studies have shown that diets high in processed fats are prone, not only to obesity, but also to inflammatory diseases. In contrast, diets high in good quality fats including Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats are less prone to inflammatory disease. So if you are suffering from these symptoms chronically here is how your diet can help. Remove your stressors From a nutritional perspective chemical preservatives and flavourings are a major stressor on the body. Also, highly processed foods, sugar and damaged fats, such as trans fats are hugely inflammatory for the body. These kinds of foods perpetuate conditions in our bodies, making it harder for us to properly recover from them. Strengthen your defenses Eat a good, whole foods diet. By putting foods into your body that are nourishing and healing, you are strengthening your bodies defenses against disease and infection, while also boosting your healing and recovery time. Include nutrient dense foods into your diet, such as vegetables, fruits, grass fed meats, pastured chicken and eggs and wild caught fish. Healthy fats are also good for us so include good quality fats in your diet, including Omega-3 fats. And include bone broth – bone broth is a fabulous healing food as it heals the gut and boosts the immune system. My son suffered from chronic asthma – his attacks were unpredictable, severe and terrifying. We had many emergency trips to the hospital, and I am so grateful to the amazing Doctors and nurses who helped us. Managing his symptoms kept him alive, but it was not until we changed his diet and focused on healing his gut that he got well. The hospital trips stopped, the attacks stopped, we had a healthy little boy. Functional Nutrition is about getting to the underlying cause of our symptoms, rather than only using a band-aide approach to suppress the symptom. Remove the stressful foods from your diet and replace them with the foods that will strengthen you and you will notice a difference in how you feel.
