Arthritis & Joint Pain
July 24, 2021
Approximately 1 in 4 Americans experience arthritis. If you are one of the 55 million who have arthritis or if you are someone who experienced pain and inflammation frequently, you have to ask yourself, “what am I eating that is causing my pain?” In this show, we cover four food groups to avoid and eight anti-inflammatory food that would be beneficial to add in.
Similar Podcast Episodes:
- Managing Pain & Inflammation with Food
- Food & Supplements to Ease Chronic Pain
- Helpful Supplements for Joint Pain
Transcript:
TERESA: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. Today, Nikki and I will be talking about arthritis and the pain that goes with it. Currently, there are approximately 55 million Americans who have arthritis. That's approximately one in four people who are suffering from arthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. It's the wear and tear arthritis, whereas rheumatoid arthritis is considered an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis is when our own body attacks the healthy joint tissue. And it affects approximately 1.3 million people in the United States. And it occurs more commonly in women than in men. Well, hello everyone. My name is Teresa Wagner and I am a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. I am also a runner, so I really try to make sure that I'm taking care of my joints, especially my knee joints. If you are a runner, I suggest supporting your cartilage with good quality glucosamine and chondroitin combination supplements. There are two supplement options I really like for this. The first is called Chondro-Flx and it's from Ortho Molecular. I like it because it contains glucosamine sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, bromelain, which comes from a pineapple and vitamin C, all of which have a long history of research and use for supporting joint health. I also will recommend Glucosamine Chondroitin Complex with MSM from Source Naturals. It has added MSM to it, which plays a critical role in the integrity of the joints and the connective tissue. So this is an either or; it's not a both, so one or the other. So either the Chondro-Flx or the Glucosamine Chondroitin Complex with MSM. For either of these, you take three capsules per day to ensure you are getting the 1500 milligrams of glucosamine and the 1200 milligrams of chondroitin for the protection of your joints. We need the right amount to support joint health. And many of my clients will say, “I've tried glucosamine and chondroitin supplements and they don't work.” But when we take a closer look at their bottles and see what they're actually taking, it's nowhere near that amount. So we need to take enough of those support nutrients. What was researched and showed positive results in reduction of joint pain was having that 1500 milligrams of glucosamine and 1200 milligrams of chondroitin. So check your bottles, see, see what's in your bottle.
NIKKI: It's so important to make sure that you're getting enough nutrients. I always talk about therapeutic, you know, that you’re supporting your body with those supplements. And, I think of it like this. So I've heard it kind of explained if you take a bucket to water, a bucket of water to a house fire, you have, you've showed up with the right materials. You just don't have enough to put out the flame.
TERESA: Right.
NIKKI: So it's really important to make sure that you're doing the correct amount. So good morning to you Teresa and to our listeners. I'm Nikki Doering. I am a Registered and Licensed Dietitian as well, and I am excited to be co-hosting today. And in many cases, people seem to think that food, food and nutrition as how it is affecting their weight.
TERESA: Right.
NIKKI: Rarely do they think and connect how food affects their joints or the amount of inflammation they may be having in their body. Did you know arthritis discomfort, inflammation pain are actually the leading cause of work disability? That's pretty impactful.
TERESA: Right.
NIKKI: You mentioned running earlier, Teresa. And I can totally relate to the joint pain from running. And I recently started some virtual exercise classes, because I think we're all kind of figuring out how to get back into the gym or you know, how we're going to get some extra exercise in. And so these classes I've found are more strength training. And I noticed that sometimes my joints are a little angry. So I really like to focus the nutrition support for my joints and preventing pain. It may also surprise arthritis sufferers that eating the wrong foods can lead to arthritis flare ups. Here's a question for you: If you knew that eating a certain food would lead to more inflammation and pain, would you be willing to give it up? Teresa, let's start today's show talking about food. Of course, this is a nutrition show. Let's talk about food that is harmful for joints. There are four different food categories we're going to discuss, and these can lead to arthritis flare ups. As dietitians, we encourage our clients to eliminate these four different food categories from their daily eating so they can put an end to their stiffness and joint pain. Actually, this topic reminds me of a client that one of our nutritionists worked with at Nutritional Weight and Wellness. Some of you may have remember, remember hearing us, share her story on past shows. This client said when she stopped eating sugar, the pain in her left knee joint, which felt like shards of glass. I mean ouch, that, not fun; shards of glass, just once she started eating differently disappeared. That's pretty amazing if you ask me. I don't know how you feel about that, Teresa.
TERESA: Yeah, absolutely.
NIKKI: After hearing that testimonial, eliminating sugar sounds like a great place to start. A minute ago I asked you if you knew that if eating a certain food would lead to more inflammation and pain for you, would you be willing to give it up? Can you guess what food we're talking about giving up? Well, we're talking about sugar. So are you willing to eliminate sugar? All sugar from your diet?
TERESA: Wow. Nikki, that's a big ask. All sugar?
NIKKI: Trust me, from a former sugar addict, for sure.
TERESA: Yes, I'm sure many of you listening today can attest to the fact that eliminating sugar is easier said than done. In Michael Moss's book, Hooked: Food, Free Will and How Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions, he described how the big processed food companies were able to shift us as consumers to the idea of convenience ever so smoothly and thoroughly that we didn't even know that it was happening. These big food companies didn't just make our cereal pre-sweetened. They called it more convenient. Consumers didn't have to sprinkle a little sugar on their kids' cereal because it was already done for them. These cereal companies use an arsenal of more than 60 different types of sugar from corn syrup to concentrated fruit juice to sweeten those cereals. Michael Moss went on to say the food companies went through every aisle in the grocery store sweetening products that were not originally sweet. Their goal was to achieve what the food technicians called the bliss point for sugar.They use the amount of sugar that would cause the ‘go’ part of the brain to get arouse so that the break in our brain had no chance to say no. We couldn't stop with one. Then bread was given sugar to achieve at a bliss point for sweetness, as was yogurt and tomato sauce, the pickles and on and on. Pizza became a high sugar food. And people became addicted to pizza. Now three quarters of the items in the grocery store have added sugar. And, you know, we have long thought that being drawn to sugar is because of how sweet foods taste. But more recently it's been discovered that even if your tongue can't taste the sugar, you have nerve cells in your stomach that sense the presence of sugar in your foods, independent of their taste. So think of those pickles, the tomato sauce. These nerve cells signal to the brain via the nervous system to release dopamine, a brain chemical, that makes you want to eat more of that food that you were eating; so the pizza, the pickles, the tomato sauce, whatever, even if you can't perceive the taste of sugar. Isn't that wild?
NIKKI: That’s super wild. I just think, wow, there's a lot of sugar in the grocery store and added foods. And it kind of got me thinking about how much sugar we consume as Americans. So on average, each American consumes about 52 pounds of sugar a year. So, you know, break that down a little bit. It's about three pounds per week or equivalent of six cups. And if you really want to get, you know, break it down even more, 288 teaspoons. So that's important because recommendation of a daily sugar intake is about 13 teaspoons. And really I like clients around 6 spoons.
TERESA: Right, that's what the American Heart Association recommends.
NIKKI: Yeah. In a week we should really only be consuming less than 91 teaspoons. So 288 to 91 is quite a big difference.
TERESA: Yeah, that's quite a jump. Well, on that note, we're, it's time for a break. You are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. Today we are discussing how certain foods you eat increase arthritis pain, and also foods such as olive oil and blueberries that can help to reduce that pain.
BREAK
NIKKI: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. I want to let our listeners know our summer sale on all the Nutrikey supplements ends tomorrow, July 25th. Stop by one of our six locations today, or order online by Sunday to save 15% on your order. If you want to stock up on Nutikey supplements, call us today at (651) 699-3438. We can put together your order and you can either pick it up or we can mail it to you; so super convenient. And before break, we were discussing sugar and kind of how much we're taking in as Americans and how much we really actually need. And after hearing about how much sugar is in all these processed foods, eliminating sugar is easier said than done.
TERESA: Right.
NIKKI: It's not always easy. So with all that added sugar in our food products, we now have the expectation that everything we eat should be sweet. I've had pre-made meatloaf that I was like, this tastes like a cookie. It's just so sweet. It's crazy. Sometimes my clients are not satisfied with eating real foods. So I think of real food as you know, those healthy animal proteins, healthy fats, vegetable carbs, fruit carbs. They are constantly looking for that sweetness and are often a little irritated that they cannot indulge or get that sugar fix. I'm sure you see that too. Teresa.
TERESA: Sure, yeah.
NIKKI: If they want to lose weight, reduce their blood sugars and their triglyceride numbers, decrease their aches and pains…
TERESA: Which we're talking about today.
NIKKI: Exactly; arthritis. Hello. They need to eliminate the high sugar foods and all the processed carbs. If they don't, they will continue to crave that sugar. So like we talked about the dopamine response, it's that craving that wanting of that neurotransmitter firing of that happy brain chemical.
TERESA: Yeah, it feels good.
NIKKI: Yeah. Sadly, these big food companies have given us an addiction to sugar. And you're not alone out there. I've been there. You know, I ate a lot, a lot of sugar before I found Nutritional Weight and Wellness and I'm a dietitian. So it wasn't before I got all that education. It was during and after. So if we want to break that addiction, we actually need to eliminate processed foods and really only eat foods from our gardens or the produce aisle or farmer's market; great time for that right now; meat from farms that raise grass fed animals and natural, non refined oils and fats. In time when our clients follow that Weight and Wellness real food eating plan, their sugar cravings become controllable and their arthritis pain is reduced and becomes manageable. Pain reduction is probably one of the biggest body signs I see with my clients, especially newer clients that start eating this way. They're like, oh, I don't have that ache in my knee or my legs don't hurt or my shoulder, whatever is ailing them. I don't know if you can relate to that, Teresa, with your clients.
TERESA: Oh absolutely. I hear that all the time. And it's sort of an unexpected thing.
NIKKI: Yeah.
TERESA: Okay. So sugar was the number one food of the four we're going to talk about today to consider when talking about arthritis. Now we're going to tackle another food that causes pain and inflammation. Well, if you guess that we were going to suggest eliminating gluten, you are correct. To eliminate or reduce inflammation or pain, we suggest that you eliminate bagels, muffins, pasta, bread, pizza, even things like beer, soy sauce, or those rice mixes that come with the flavoring. These all contain gluten. And, and they're all refined carbohydrates. So they're high in sugar. Gluten is highly inflammatory and the inflammation causes chronic pain. If you are one of the 55 million Americans who have arthritis, or if you are someone who experiences pain and inflammation frequently, you have to ask yourself, “What am I eating that's causing this pain?” A good place to start is to eliminate gluten containing foods and foods high in sugar.
NIKKI: So now you're probably wondering, “How does gluten cause inflammation?” I think that's a valid question. Basically, it starts in your gut. Now some of you are going, “What? What does gut health have to do with my joints?” Well, the job of your intestinal track or intestinal lining is to protect the bloodstream from bacteria and viruses. Researchers have found that gluten damages the intestinal lining, allowing gluten particles, bacteria, and viruses to leak through, hence the tick condition called leaky gut. Dr. Jeffrey Bland, the father of functional medicine, described leaky gut 30 years ago. So, you know, a few years.
TERESA: Yeah, it’s been around awhile.
NIKKI: Gluten is highly inflammatory and causes chronic pain.
TERESA: When we're working with clients, we have a graphic of the intestinal tract to show our clients how the barriers or the junctions protect the bloodstream from foreign objects, such as gluten particles, like you're saying from undigested food, from undigested food particles as well; also from bacteria or viruses and, and keeping them inside the intestinal tract rather than leaking through into the bloodstream where they don't belong. When gluten gets into your bloodstream, it can trigger inflammation in your blood vessels throughout your body. And I always tell people, it just hits you wherever your body tends to be weak. So for some people it's their knees. For other people, it's hips or elbows or wrists or their fingers, their neck. And of course we can't forget the lower back.
NIKKI: Yep. I, yeah, when I eat gluten, I get headaches, but joint pain is a part of it too. So yeah. Think of it, think outside the box. Could this be triggering that? Your arthritic condition is not just from getting older or from your genetics despite, you know what you may have heard from other medical professionals. I hear that a lot with clients: “Well, my doctor said this is just a part of aging.” Well, let's, you know, let's…
TERESA: Let’s see what we can do.
NIKKI: Yeah, food’s not that hard.
TERESA: Yes. There's no side effect to eliminating gluten and sugar, except for feeling better. You can always bring it back in.
NIKKI: Exactly. And what we believe, what you are eating can also cause serious inflammation. When your immune system sees gluten bacteria or virus, it calls on an army of white blood cells. I see them like marching in. We're going to take care of that inflammation. And they will attack these foreign objects, which then results in inflammation.
TERESA: Yes. And then excess fibrin, which fibrin is a fibrous protein that helps with blood clotting. Well, this excess fibrin builds up and your red blood cells cannot deliver sufficient oxygen to the joint cells for healing. The real cause of pain is excess fibrin and inflammation. Depending on what you eat, your body should make and release proteolytic enzymes, which are chemicals that break down those proteins. The job of these enzymes is to dissolve the fibrin before it gets out of control. So when you're eating bread, bagels and other gluten containing foods, your immune system is always switched on and you have inflammation raging in your body all day and night. When inflammation occurs, fibrin builds up and then the red blood cells cannot deliver oxygen to the joints and muscles. Fibrin and inflammation are the real cause of pain. You know, this is a very complicated biochemical process. And fibrin can either be a friend, you know, it has certainly has an important role in the body, or it can be a foe depending on many aspects of your health. Well you are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. And in an effort to lower inflammation, cooking from home really helps because you get to control the ingredients. You can avoid sugar, excess sugar, you can avoid gluten and you can avoid those refined oils much easier when you're cooking at home. Well to help you, we're offering cooking classes. Our Zoom cooking classes have been really popular. We just finished up with Cooking Heart Healthy Meals. And in the month of August, we are featuring another new class Creating Healing Foods for Your Gut. Much of our immune system lives in our digestive track. We can strengthen our immunity and lower inflammation when we cook and eat foods that support our gut. When we come back from break, Nikki, will tell you how to sign up for one of our cooking classes.
BREAK
NIKKI: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Before break Teresa mentioned our cooking classes. All of our cooking classes are Zoom friendly. Marianne, our culinary and nutrition educator will be teaching Creating Healing Foods for Your Gut twice next month on August 10th and August 12th. To reserve your spot, give us a call at 651-699-3438 or go to weightandwellness.com to sign up. The class is only $25 and it will be the best money and time spent for your health. Healing starts in the kitchen. How else to reduce sugar, right?
TERESA: Yes. And I have taken her classes and I am signed up for, I can't remember if I'm in the 10th or the 12th class; August 10th or 12th class, but I'm looking forward to it. So it's going to be exciting.
NIKKI: I’ve heard great things for my clients that have taken the cooking class.
TERESA: In the heart-healthy class, we did a pesto recipe. It was so good and she had so many versions of pesto; just was like I can't wait to find some, some fronds to put in my pesto this next time, so it’ll be good. You learn all these really interesting tips from her and so it's really fun.
NIKKI: Great. Before break, we were talking about sugar and gluten and how inflammatory it is. Basically what I was hearing about gluten was gluten consumption causes inflammation, which can become chronic and cause pain, especially for those arthritis suffers, which is our main topic today to reduce pain from arthritis. So you really don't need to understand that actual science behind it, behind that pain and that inflammation; just keep it simple by changing your food choices. We have covered so far two of the most inflammatory foods, sugar and gluten. So let's now move on to the next food on our list. The third inflammatory food is refined oils. They're found mostly in, you know, fast foods and processed foods. We encourage our clients to eliminate soybean oil, canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil. These oils are all inflammatory for our body.
TERESA: And I just want people, if you have some vegetable oil in your cupboard or pantry, please throw it away and replace it with, with avocado oil or olive oil or something else. They're so inflammatory for your body.
NIKKI: Yeah. So a lot of people, I mean, vegetable sounds really healthy, right? But really it's a blend of these oils I just mentioned.
TERESA: Exactly.
NIKKI: By contrast olive oil and omega-3 oils are anti-inflammatory, as well as the other oils that we just mentioned too; the avocado, the coconut. Many clients start their day with adding two teaspoons of olive oil to their breakfast. So I think, you know, adding it to eggs, adding it to maybe to their vegetables or eating, yes, you can eat vegetables in the morning for breakfast; might be a little strange to get used to, but I guarantee you're going to feel really good that day. And remember too, if you get pasture raised eggs, those are a source of omega3s as well. So I've actually added olive oil to protein shakes.
TERESA: Oh yeah.
NIKKI: Because you don't taste it; so very anti-inflammatory there. And then they also too, for part of their anti-inflammatory program, they're taking 4,000 to 6,000 milligrams of omega-3 fish oils daily to control their inflammation. And that's a lot higher than what most people are taking.
TERESA: It sure is. And I know with some of my clients with osteoarthritis, we go up as high as 9,000 milligrams, which is quite a bit so, but it can really be helpful to oil up those joints. Okay. The fourth inflammatory food, or should I say beverage is alcohol. Alcohol is very inflammatory. So the best choice is to eliminate it. So here's a challenge for you: eliminate all alcohol for six weeks and just measure your level of inflammation; see how you feel. And I would say keep sort of a record, give, you know, maybe put it on a scale of one to five so that you can see because when things go well, we don't notice. We notice it when they're not going well. All right, and if you have cancer or arthritis or heart disease or Alzheimer's or any autoimmune disease, no alcohol is recommended because these are all diseases of inflammation. So…
NIKKI: Yeah, I have a great story about alcohol like personally. Before I started at Nutritional Weight and Wellness, I definitely had my wine a few times a week. And I remember after starting working here, I remember like hearing about the pain and inflammation and alcohol. And I realized that after I drank a glass of wine, I would feel really a lot of joint pain in my hips. And it felt like I was much older than I really am. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I actually saw it. So that, you know, keep taking, you know, inventory is really important.
TERESA: Absolutely.
NIKKI: Now that, oh yeah.
TERESA: I was going to say, so we said the things to avoid. Nikki, do you have some ideas or we should talk about the ideas that we should include?
NIKKI: Yes. Because let's be real. Let's what do we want to eat?
TERESA: We can't just not eat.
NIKKI: So let's share those anti-inflammatory foods to add into your diet. Here's some of the top eight foods that are, will help reduce your inflammation. Number one: broccoli.
TERESA: Yes; broccoli.
NIKKI: I mean, that's such a dietitian thing to say.
TERESA: We all love it.
NIKKI: So broccoli is anti-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory when cooked or when you eat it raw. So the reason why, we're going to talk about some antioxidants coming up. Broccoli is one of the best sources of the antioxidant, sulforaphane.
TERESA: Sulforaphane.
NIKKI: Thank you, Teresa. Sulforaphane; which has powerful anti-inflammatory effects.
TERESA: Yes. Okay. And so number two on our list is olive oil, which contains an antioxidant called oleocanthal, which affects, which, excuse me, which its effects, that oleocanthal, have been compared to anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen. So we always want to buy a good quality olive oil. And those are found in dark colored bottles. Number three on our list is blueberries. Start your day with blueberries. Perhaps you even put it in your morning protein shake. Blueberries have anthocyanin antioxidants, which not only have anti-inflammatory benefits, so reduce that pain and inflammation, but they also support your immune system by increasing the number of natural killer cells that you produce. These natural killer cells, our white blood cells that help protect you from viruses, from cancer.
NIKKI: That, I love blueberries, especially I like that idea of putting them in your protein shake.
TERESA: Yes.
NIKKI: So number four anti-inflammatory food: fish. So wild caught salmon is really high in omega-3s. I really like on our website, the Salmon Bake Recipe. It's super simple. And I think right now summertime, people don't want to turn on the oven so that air fryer can be your friend. You can cook salmon from frozen in an air fryer or even grill it.
TERESA: Yes. I grill all the time; salmon all the time. If you leave the skin on it helps.
NIKKI: Yes. And the reason why those omega-threes are important is they inhibit inflammation by interfering with our body's immune response, which is an inflammatory response. We talked about the white blood cells coming into action and causing inflammation; a very needed and important part of our body's function, but we don't want that to chronically happen.
TERESA: Right.
NIKKI: And, number five food: nuts are, you know, really good for anti-inflammatory properties. You can eat them raw or even slow roasted in your own kitchen. So that's probably the best way to do them. And nuts are high in alpha-linoleic acid, which is another omega three that doesn't get talked about a lot. They also are high in magnesium and vitamin E and all of these are anti-inflammatory.
TERESA: Number six: we recommend you add fermented foods to your daily routine; full fat plain yogurt, sauerkraut, or kimchi. On the label it should say live and active cultures. They're in the refrigerated section. Fermented foods: these increase the amount and variety of beneficial bacteria in our gut. And we know that what's good for the gut is usually good for the entire body. Number seven is papaya. Papaya is high in papain, which helps to break down proteins into peptides and amino acids. So think back to our conversation about fibrin, that protein buildup in the joints that blocks the oxygen to the cells and increases pain. Well papain can help with that breakdown of those proteins. And number eight: green tea. It's rich in polyphenols, which fight free radicals that can damage your cells. Now, this is not an exhaustive list. We didn't mention the lycopenes in tomatoes or the curcumin in tumeric or the quercetin in onions and peppers. The list can go on and on with those beautiful, colorful, natural plant foods. They have these components to them that are so anti-inflammatory, so eating a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables. And that does not, not include white foods like jicama and cauliflower so colorful, but even white.
NIKKI: Yes. Yeah.
TERESA: These are all real foods that help to reduce inflammation. In addition to adding these anti-inflammatory foods, we encourage you to have an adequate level of vitamin D. Research studies have linked low blood levels of vitamin D with an increased risk of both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Research has also found when you have an insufficient level of vitamin D, osteoarthritis gets worse at a rate of three times faster. So we recommend you have your vitamin D level checked and having that level between 60 and 80 for best pain management. If your vitamin D level is low, we suggest you add a vitamin D supplement to your daily routine. I know that I take vitamin D almost every day. I am tanner than I normally am, so I am assuming I am getting some vitamin D from the sun these days. So I don't do quite as much. Sometimes I skip a day if I know I'm going to be out in the sun for the most part. But otherwise, yeah, I take 5,000 IUs of vitamin D every day because it is such an important part of being healthy on so many levels.
NIKKI: Yup. I was just going to say it does so much in our bodies and we really like to talk about how important that vitamin D is.
TERESA: Yes, we do. Well, you are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. You may be wondering, “What are some of the supplements we suggest to reduce inflammation?” Well, this is a new one that I don't think that we've talked about before on the radio show. It's kind of a hidden gem. We recommend proteolytic enzymes. Remember proteolytic enzymes are the enzymes that break down proteins. These enzymes have been available and effective since the 1930s, but they're not very well known by consumers. Many clients have found this particular supplement, it’s called Vitalzym, to be very effective in reducing that fibrin and reducing inflammation. This supplement should be taken on an empty stomach. So no food in your stomach. It is not an enzyme to digest food. It is to be used to digest you basically, that, that fibrin buildup, and it helps to reduce inflammation.
BREAK
NIKKI: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Another natural anti-inflammatory supplement is a widely used herb from India called boswellia. I'm going to actually spell that because that's maybe a new word for people.
TERESA: We're doing all kinds of new supplements today.
NIKKI: Yes! So it's spelled b o s w e l l i a; boswellia. Clients take three to six tablets per day of Boswellia Extract for pain management. And I actually have another supplement recommendation. And it's really well known for its anti-inflammatory effects. And it's called curcumin. So today you can get the 15% off our Nutrikey Curcumin 400. Our recommendation for taking that for anti-inflammatory properties is taking two capsules daily. And we recognize that you cannot out supplement a poor diet. Eat real food first is our motto.
TERESA: Right. And yes, and that's what we say too. Baseline foundational; it's what you're eating. You cannot out supplement a diet that's not working for you. So if you have inflammation because you're eating too much sugar, there's not enough turmeric in the world to undo that.
NIKKI: Exactly.
TERESA: So, or if gluten is not working for you, you cannot just take Boswellia Extract and expect that that's going to undo that. You have to have the diet in order first. Yes.
NIKKI: So, before break, we were talking about all the awesome foods you should eat for anti-inflammation and we actually had some calls come in, just for some questions. So, the first caller asked about the sugar facts that I had mentioned earlier in the show. So I wanted to just review those. So, the average American today eats about 152 pounds of sugar. So that's the added sugar we find in the grocery store that we were talking about.
TERESA: Ok, 152 pounds. That's the equivalent of an adult.
NIKKI: Yeah. That's a lot one year. So that breaks down. This is the math part. So that breaks down to about three pounds per week or the equivalent of six cups per week. And I broke it down to teaspoons. Because a lot of times we talk about how many teaspoons of sugar are in foods. So in a week, the average American consumes about 288 teaspoons of sugar. Now then we switched gears and talked about what's recommended. And what's recommended is no more than approximately 13 teaspoons of added sugar daily. Well that's, but that's high for what we would recommend. We recommend closer to six or less.
TERESA: And that's that added sugar you're talking about. So that's not the sugar that's within the fruit, not the sugar that's in the potato or the sweet potato. That is the extra sugar that you're when you're baking bread. That's the sugar that goes in there.
NIKKI: Yeah. The processed carbs, the yes; refined carbs.
TERESA: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So added sugars are everywhere. They're in everything. Like I was saying, there's sugar in your pickles. It's just crazy. We actually had two more callers too. So Christie called and asked if eating olives for breakfast is the same thing as having olive oil. And so our recommendation for olives or olive oil is we really want to get about 10 grams of fat from that olive or olive oil. So the equivalent would be six to 10 olives. Now this, olives come in all kinds of different shapes and sizes. And so if it is a large like the queen olives, probably more on the six side. And if it is the smaller olives, more on the 10 side, so you want the equivalent of 10 grams of fat of olives or two teaspoons of olive oil is also 10 grams of fat. So, if you're doing olives, six to 10 of those and olive oil, two teaspoons is what we recommend per meal. That's not a day. That's per meal.
NIKKI: And it's important thing is it doesn't matter what olive. You can do any olive.
TERESA: Any olive. Yeah; green, kalamata, black; whatever you like. They're great. And then Monica called in and asked if, she asked about blueberries. Now blueberries are tricky because sometimes they get a bad rap because they have sugar in them, but this is…
NIKKI: Naturally.
TERESA: Yes. That's why they taste sweet. This sugar though grew in them naturally. You know? So when it grew on that bush, the blueberries just got carbohydrates actually from, from this soil and the carbon in the soil and things. And, and I don’t know, photosynthesis, let's just go with. I'm not sure. But the sugar is just natural. Right? It came from nature. So this is not the added sugar that Nikki was talking about. However, for inflammation, we don't want to have too much carbohydrate in our diet because it does have an effect on our blood sugar because all sugar, all carbohydrates are broken down into sugar in digestion. So if we're thinking about blueberries, yes, they’re a natural sugar and yes they're anti-inflammatory and yes, you should eat them. We probably shouldn't eat the entire container of them. So what we typically recommend for people is to have about the equivalent of 15 grams of carbohydrate from blueberries, which is usually about three quarters of a cup. I mean, you can check my math on that one. I'm pretty sure one cup has 21 grams of carbohydrate. So about three quarters of a cup will get you to that 15 grams of carbohydrate from blueberries. And this also has fiber in it. So that's so good for you too. It helps to reduce or blunt better effect on your blood sugar. So yes, eat, eat the blueberries. And a great way to eat the blueberries is in a protein shake that we have on our website. And I think Nikki has the recipe there that she can tell us about.
NIKKI: Yes, I pulled this from the website just for helpful; so it's free. Just go to our website, weightandwellness.com and type in Blueberry Lemon Smoothie Recipe. And it'll pop up.
TERESA: It's so good.
NIKKI: It’s so good. And so you can get those blueberries in easily; anti-inflammatory. It tells you, you know, it has frozen blueberries in which is nice for those smoothies, but you can use fresh as well. And then it also includes a scoop of the Key Greens and Fruit, which I think, okay, that's a bunch of servings; antioxidants from 20 I think it is.
TERESA: Yeah, the equivalent of 20 servings of, of fruits and vegetables, the antioxidant equivalent of 20 servings, which if you know, all those things that we talked about before, if you read the label on it, you'll, you'll have a hard time reading it because it is all those words that we struggled, you know, the anthocyanins.
NIKKI: So this recipe calls for the pink lemonade flavor of those Key Greens and Fruits, and then a quarter cup of full fat coconut milk. So that's the healthy fat added into there. And then you add your scoop of protein powder, which is just tasty. I mean, that sounds just refreshing that, that protein shake.
TERESA: Yeah. And not to sound too commercially, but those, if that sounds really good to you, they're on sale right now; the Key Greens are on sale. So this is a really fun time to, to try those, some of those things that maybe, maybe you don't already have.
NIKKI: So thanks for the questions.
TERESA: Yeah, that was really fun. Thank you.
NIKKI: That was really fun to review. So, you know, we talked a lot about those healthy foods, you know, broccoli, olive oil, blueberries, all of, you know, nuts and seeds, all those anti-inflammatory properties. Let's just do a quick review of the ones to avoid. So think of, you know, these foods you're avoiding to avoid pain. They can be harmful to our joints. So think of sugar, added sugar, processed foods, those contain, that contain sugar. Number two: gluten. So think breads, pastas, bagels. The list goes on and on. We named a lot of them. They're hidden ones in like soy sauce, beer. Refined oils; again, those are canola, soybean, corn and cottonseed, and that vegetable oil, which is usually a combo of those. And then alcohol is another big inflammatory food.
TERESA: Right.
NIKKI: So if you need help eliminating these harmful foods from your diet and setting up an anti-inflammatory eating plan, we can help. Reducing pain and healing joints takes time and dedication, but eating that Weight and Wellness real food eating plan will help. And we've known it from many, many clients. “Oh yeah. My knees don't hurt as much. My hips don't, my back.” All of those things reduce pain. Call us at (651) 699-3438. And let us set up an appointment for you to help.
TERESA: Well, our goal at Dishing Up Nutrition, well, our goal of the show of Dishing Up Nutrition and the goal of Nutritional Weight and Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through eating real food. It's a simple yet powerful message. Eating real food is life changing. Thank you for listening and have a great day.
