 Hi, I'm Chef Robin and today's hands-in-the-kitchen workshop is about inflammation So today we want to discuss Inflammation and how it affects the senior demographic because it's all in the news now You can't really go anywhere without hearing about inflammation But it's kind of a confusing thing that a lot of people don't understand So just to let you know even in my Sunday newspaper and my little parade that came on Sunday There was a short article On fighting inflammation with food so even in this past Sunday paper right there Also at the grocery store on the checkout aisle a nice eating will anti-inflammation magazine and Eating to beat inflammation. So it's definitely something that people are talking about wondering about How to deal with it if they've got it so we're gonna kind of go through some questions and answer them Hopefully and take care of some of that misunderstanding that's out there First we're gonna talk about the two different kinds of inflammation because of course nothing is either or there's always a Group of something to discuss So first there's acute inflammation and what is that actually is it healthy is it unhealthy? Chronic inflammation can kind of tell by that word chronic that that is unhealthy. We're gonna find out why And because it is the unhealthy one. That's the one we're gonna be talking about What are the causative factors of chronic inflammation? inflammation Signs and symptoms of chronic inflammation and then how food hurts or heals How food can help us deal if we have chronic inflammation how food might lead us to a situation of chronic inflammation So that's a control issue that we can deal with food and then because this is a food workshop We're going to talk about many modifications that might meet some of those anti-inflammatory needs So if we go back to the very beginning We're going to talk about Deflamation being the way that the body responds to infection and injury This is a helpful thing that your body does It uses the immune system, which is just like the nervous system or the circulatory system or the skeletal system The immune system is a complex body In our own body that takes it upon itself to help us ward off disease trauma inflammation so The immune system will release white blood cells to fight off invading pathogens an invading pathogen is a little bacteria a micro organism that can cause disease and Infection is the growth of those germs or bacteria in our body So our immune system is helping us deal with those situations In acute inflammation That's a very short-term healing situation That's when you stub your toe or hit your funny bone or take out a splinter your body Immediately starts to deal with that situation. You'll feel a little pain The nerve receptors are going whoo-hoo something happened or stimulated You'll feel a little heat because your blood vessels start to dilate and become Larger with all those white healing blood cells coming in You'll get some redness because of those blood cells dilating and you couldn't see some swelling You may see some bruising along with redness heat and pain but acute inflammation Which is dealing with those kind of issues of slight wounds or strep throats or otherwise Usually occurs in three to five days. You may have a bruise for a month, but the addressing that health addressing by the body is usually taking place in three to five days And it's a healthy thing that happens so The situation when it becomes chronic is when your body misfires those chemical helpful agents those white blood cells and starts mistakenly Trying to heal healthy blood tissue When it tries to heal healthy blood tissue What happens is that it recognizes it as unhealthy Tries to heal it. It's already healthy It traumatizes that healthy blood tissue to where now it is unhealthy and this cycle just keeps happening So it's difficult to understand exactly What that means, but we're gonna go into kind of what the triggers are why it does happen What it means exactly? Why it keeps on happening and it's systemic and chronic and doesn't end so it can last you can have long-term inflammation that's going on for years being this vicious cycle of healthy tissue tissue being mistakenly tried to be healed Turning it into unhealthy tissue That's just going on and on your body is not getting the signal to stop Your body is getting the signal to heal, but it's kind of overflowing with this healing that's just going on and on so You might recognize it as having a persistent pain that won't go away No matter what you do whether you do exercise whether you do being gay You have this persistent pain that just will not be relieved You might recognize it as being tired all the time. These are kind of vague sort of symptoms They can be applied to a lot of different things One thing also is every little bug that's coming around every little virus every little flu Every little 24-hour whatever you're the person that gets it You cannot get your immune system to a place that it's strong enough to battle These frequent illnesses because it's seemingly dealing with this other trauma that's happening in your body It thinks it's doing the right thing, but it's not it's misfiring Also, it can lead to serious digestive issues like irritable bowel syndrome or Crohn's or acid reflex You can have moodiness or anxiety when you have Chronic inflammation you can also gain weight all of these things In addition to being signs they can also be Promptors So if you are overweight that can prompt your body to be in a state where chronic inflammation will happen If you are over stressed that can prompt your body to be in a state where over or Chronic inflammation can happen So it's really hard to know where the beginning and where the end is going to be But we do want to work towards an end We do want to work towards a place where chronic inflammation isn't an assumed process of aging and it is now such an issue with seniors that there's even been a word that's termed Implementing and this was documented by a woman from the University of Florida who is the director of cardiac She is the director of Integrative cardiology and prevention at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and she is Dr. Monica Agarwal and she came up with this term because Seniors seem to be prone candidates for chronic inflammation So let's talk about why that might be It might be that as a senior you have an acute Inflammation situation that goes untreated if every morning when you brush your teeth There's some blood in the water. You may have a slight case of gingivitis Not deal with it that can lead to a chronic inflammation situation You may have an ingrown toenail that you don't deal with Initially, it's something that your body through acute inflammation can help you heal But if you don't start the healing process, it can go farther and become chronic Also, if you have an autoimmune disorder like lupus or Lyme's Nobody really has control over getting bitten by a Lyme tick. That's out of our control But if you end up with an autoimmune disorder, which kind of makes your immune system already depressed That leads you to be a candidate for chronic inflammation If you are exposed to toxins on a regular basis Say you lived in Flint, Michigan where the water was so bad and people were drinking lead Or if you were a child that grew up around lead paint or if you had a work experience With a lot of pesticides or chemicals This can also lead you to a situation that toxic or chronic inflammation can occur If you smoke Oh my gosh, that is like such a precursor to chronic inflammation There is chemicals in smoking even with the new lowest tar Zero tar cigarettes. It still triggers this response in your body That leads you to chronic inflammation if you overdo with alcohol All of these things that we know are not good for us Set us up as candidates for chronic inflammation If you are constantly under stress The chemicals that your body sends out when you're constantly under stress are sending also messages to your brain Heal me, heal me and starts this chronic situation of inflation sugar If you mess around with the sugar in your diet and you consume or overload on white sugar Changing that balance of good by gut biome Again, it's going to lead you to being a candidate for chronic inflammation Sleepiness or tiredness also. So so many of these things kind of fall in the same ballpark And then this one right here, which we actually do have a level of control over is One of the biggest culprits for chronic inflammation food With more than four items on the label Five items at the most on the label are usually foods that you should be avoiding Because after the first five you get down to things that were just created in a chemistry lab That your body may recognize as being sweet or salty or really tasty and wanting and wanting and wanting But doesn't recognize as something healthy. And so it charges in to attack that leading to chronic inflammation so We want to talk about this right here that we do have control over and How we can kind of lead ourselves away from a poor food diet to a healthier food diet You're going to see a lot of familiar products up here because I talk about these super foods almost every workshop we do Today, we're going to talk about super foods that specifically address through their chemical agents inflammation so We want to look now At the top 10 anti-inflammatory foods All foods have some Anti-inflammatory agents to them. These are just the top 10 that if I could encourage you to Include them in the diet over and above anything else. I would encourage you to include these foods So olive oil extra virgin olive oil Me if you dark greens, we know they're full of iron. We know they're full of fiber Vitamin C foods are healthy for us As far as anti-inflammatory foods the cruciferous vegetables are healthy for us They also give us a lot of fiber and nutrients Fatty fish with the omega-3s that we were talking about Omega-3s are even in Brussels sprouts and walnuts So there is a food source for omega-3s That's very healthy if you're a vegan or a plant forward person and not really a fish person, but Tuna Pretty inexpensive protein in the grocery store great to have in your cupboard, but also on your salad Green tea if you're a caffeinated drinker green tea is the way to go if you're think you are a candidate for inflammation Include vitamin A foods in your diet nuts and seeds in your diet Zinc containing foods in your diet lentils into food contains zinc all of these agents zinc vitamin A vitamin C the iron and greens The fats in extra virgin olive oil all of these agents have more anti-inflammatory Factors so that when you consume a diet that's scored in these kind of products It tends to leave your balance Greater in the area of anti-inflammatories than pro-inflammatories So unless you are a candidate with lupus or Lyme's disease Chronic inflammation is generally thought of as a lifestyle disease because there are things that are within your ability to address That can combat chronic inflammation and the first management step that anybody is going to recommend to you is eating that rainbow We love that word eating a rainbow. There were studies done on the world's healthiest people They live in Akaria, Greece. They live in Japan. They live in Utah They're Mormons Latter-day Saints and what all of them had in common Not that they were eating the same food Not that they were eating the same food prepared the same way, but they were eating a very plant forward diet They were eating a plant forward diet without addictive foods involved Addictive foods that contain too much sugar contain too much alcohol contain too much caffeine so if we want to think of Eating that plant forward diet and we want to rely on something we can think about the Mediterranean diet Or we can think about the dash diet, which a lot of people are familiar with which is the dietary approach to stop hypertension both really plan forward diets that are easy to follow and Using those diets and using what I knew about the top 10 anti-inflammatory foods I just did a suggestion poster of how you might go through your day with Ideas about what you might want to eat instead of other things that may not be as good for you So say for breakfast Granola and yogurt and berries blueberries. We know super food granola. They usually have oats super food yogurt probiotic food great for you Oatmeal and craisans maple and almonds almonds We know right up there with all the other super foods a bell pepper tofu Scramble if you wanted to be savory don't be afraid of using tofu tofu Scramble is like the easiest thing on earth you dice up some peppers Maybe you throw in some cherry tomatoes Then you just take your tofu and mash it as if you were mashing up or whipping an egg Saute it in a little olive oil add a little salt and pepper to basco if you like and there you have a beautiful Bright savory breakfast. That's very healthy great way to start the day For those of you that are able to drink orange juice tolerate citrus if orange juice is too sweet Dilute it down with a little water. It's still going to give you that vitamin C punch. It's still going to enjoy it Lunchtime think about changing out your hamburger With a lot of fat saturated fat or any red meat for a lentil burger or a black bean burger You can buy them now in the freezer section. They're not that expensive really truly It's not that expensive to eat healthy now. The grocery stores want your dollars They're working hard to make it easier for you to do so Kale chips are fun If that's the way you want to have your kale or include kale and your salad or dark leafy green Have some tuna fish tomato soup avocado toast Budabos Budabos are a really fun thing a really fun name for a bowl that has a grain Usually some type of bean and then some raw things going with it. Maybe a little salad dressing of your choice Seriously, these are not difficult things to put together now because every grocery store has vegetables that are already cut up and diced for you microwaveable or five-minute Rises Keen was Of all varieties, you can even get brown rice Basmati rice that will cook in five minutes If you can boil water, you can make a grain It's really not difficult to do and I am a big proponent of canned beans canned beans usually have canned beans and Sometimes they have soft to items and I always rinse mine under running water in the sink Because I don't want any more salt in them, but they're already cooked chickpeas garbanzo beans Black beans kidney beans you can find all of them often they're 10 for 10 on sale So it's not an issue of cost. It's not an issue of preparing lots of seniors have Can openers that they all they have to do is put the camera there Goes around for them. There you got it complete protein with a grain and a bead If we move on to dinner dinner is definitely not hard either. Okay Fatty fishes are there already prepared at the grocery store sometimes for you. You could buy a Four ounce filet of salmon Have part of it for dinner flake the rest of it into an omelette the next morning or on top of your salad Any kind of fish cod Mackerel any of the fatty fishes hearing sardines You could put yourself some chicken Have it with some cruciferous vegetables You can make yourself a basmati rice and chickpea bowl or white bean and tomato fennel salad And remembering these orange vegetables remembering these green vegetables eating a rainbow Not that hard guys. That's what you want to do. So Just to finish up one of the reasons you want to go plant forward in directing your management against inflation inflate Inflation inflammation. Sorry is that plants are a key source of antioxidants Inflammation is an oxidizing situation in your body We could go into all the chemistry of that, but just know that plants are anti that So and plants are the source of antioxidants You're not going to buy a pound of hamburger meat and see on there that it says it's an antioxidant because it's not You're also not going to buy hamburger meat and see that you're getting fiber. It's not going to have that on there It's not a source of fiber. Plants are the sole source You can have for soluble and non soluble fiber and why is fiber so important in addressing inflammation? because Fiber rich diets have lower inflammatory factors the lower you can keep your balanced sheet of Inflammatory factors the better Fiber is going to help you do that fiber also supports that healthier gut biome Which we all want so that we don't get led down the road to Crohn's or irritable bowel syndrome Fiber also helps to cut this Connection the obesity and the inflammation connection Fiber helps us slow down our digestion So that it's easier to fill fuller for a longer period of time Also foods with fiber also tend to make us feel like we have eaten a Nice amount of food rather than Overloading on something like a bag of chips all of a sudden you're at the end because it feels like you ate nothing at all So fiber is really seriously important in this battle and then omega-3 Which also can be plant-based like we talked about walnuts and Brussels sprouts Slows the production of substances that are released in the inflammatory response So there's a lot of stuff going on in your body Food is one way that we can kind of have a little bit of a control of what goes on in our body And we want to remember that and take that to heart So you always want to seek balance in all parts of your life, but balance definitely in your diet You want to compare the personal stressors that you have to your personal resources So if you're personally stressed Say you're an insomniac Who smokes and eats poorly? What are the personal resources that you can bring that are going to kind of balance that out? one could be to try and Once a week eat Healthier twice a week eat healthier until it becomes more of a pattern of the way to eat one could become more Exercise before you have a bedtime routine Maybe you need to take an evening stroll if you use a walker Maybe it's just walking down the hallway before you get ready for bed Somehow or other exercising if you're totally under stress and that's why you're smoking Maybe you need to consider yoga. Maybe you need to consider meditation Maybe you need to consider just listening to a tape of nature sounds and I know that sounds kind of cliche and like not really productive, but Just try it Challenge yourself to just try it to take out some of those stressors and replace them with healthier Resources that you can do and try to come to balance. It's not that difficult You are in control. Nobody's going to put up a stop sign and say you can't eat healthier Or you can't walk more or you can't do this or you can't do that We want to be able to kind of be part of Being healthy. We don't want it just to be laid at the feet of our Physician or our caretakers. We actually want to be in charge ourselves so Hopefully this cleared up a little bit of confusion about inflammation It is one of those kind of things that isn't really that easy to muddle through but more often than not if We want to sort of address these issues. It isn't our power to do so We just have to make a conscious and clear decision about it You