Eat Farm Food, Avoid Chronic Illness

The Problem: Inflammation

How likely are you to die from a chronic disease?  About 7 out of every 10 American deaths each year are the result of chronic illness, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and autoimmune diseases (such as arthritis).¹CDC Chronic Disease Overview A common thread runs through all of these: inflammation. The symptoms of inflammation include aches and pains, redness, swelling, heat, and pus or mucous production.  These are the body’s natural response to tissue damage, irritants or pathogenic infection. But continued assaults on the body result in chronic inflammation, which results in more than half of all U.S. adults having one or more chronic illnesses.²CDC Chronic Disease Overview

Several factors contribute to chronic inflammation, including cleaners, pesticides and other environmental toxins. But the food we consume every day can have a major impact — and we might not even know it. 

Too Bad, So SAD

Scientific research over the last two decades has revealed that the standard American diet (SAD) leads to a fatty acid imbalance between the omega-6 (Ω6) and omega-3 (Ω3) fatty acids that are responsible for keeping the body’s inflammatory response honed and balanced.  Americans eat way too much Ω6, a building block for compounds that have pro-inflammatory and immune-activating functions.  Omega-6 is also considered a facilitator of fat storage in the body.  On the other hand, Americans eat far too little Ω3 fatty acids, which have anti-inflammatory properties.  Omega-3 fatty acids originate in the leafy green portion of plants and in seaweed, algae and plankton.  Animals such as grass-fed cattle and wild caught fatty fish like tuna and salmon are high in Ω3.  Omega-6 fatty acids originate in the seed and grain portion of plants.  Processed seed oils (e.g., soy oil, corn oil, canola oil, etc.) and animals such as grain-fed cattle and farmed salmon are high in Ω6.  

The SAD includes much more Ω6 than Ω3.  Americans typically exhibit an imbalance of between 15:1 to 25:1 in their Ω6 to Ω3 ratio, a far cry from the 1:1 ratio our distant ancestors are thought to have consumed.  This fact should be of no surprise given that most Americans get 20% of their calories from just one highly-processed product:  soybean oil.³USDA: Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, 1909-2004    If you think you are an exception, consider the fact that a simple ingredient search of the USDA Branded Foods Product Database returns 805 pages of grocery items (about 24,000 products) that contain soy oil ( high in  Ω6 .)  You might be surprised at some of the items on the list, especially those often considered “health foods.”  These are just some of the items from the first 15 pages (!) :

• margarine and spreads
• salad dressings
• bouillon cubes
• cheese spreads & faux dairy products
• mayonnaise & sandwich spreads
• peanut butter
• corn chips
• tortillas & tortilla chips
• granola and other fruit & grain health bars
• trail mix
• olives
• wholesome nut blend ( & nut spreads)
• roasted & mixed nuts
• canned sardines, tuna, fish
• crab & seafood salads & cakes
• bread
• buns
• beef patties
• bagged vegetable mixes / veggie blends
• salad mixes
• fruit and nut salad
• premade soups
• coffee creamers
• chick peas
• taco shells
• Tater Tots
• tomato sauces
• spaghetti sauces
• cakes
• Ramen and many other noodles
• chicken pad thai
• chicken – seasoned coating mixes
• buffalo wing sauce
• marinades, dips and sauces
• vegan sparerib cutlets & other faux meats
• chili beans
• refried beans
• French fries and other potato snacks
• bamboo shoot tips
• Bac’n Buds
• protein drinks
• cookies
• Fig Newton bars
• pizza crusts
• Jimmy Dean ham & cheese breakfast bowl
• candy bars
• ready-made pies
• ready-to-use frosting
• biscuits
• pastries
• crackers
• dumplings
• rolls
• pretzels & pretzel snacks
• microwave popcorn
• potato chips
• donuts
• wasabi
• fried rice and other fried foods
• nonstick cooking sprays
• stir-fry oil
• cooking oil / shortening

Note that many of the items listed could be made at home with a few simple ingredients and no processed vegetable oil.  To make matters worse, many people substitute even worse oils, thinking they are healthier than soy oil.  The Ω6/Ω3 ratio for many popular oils is shown in the table below:⁴Chris Kresser: Too Much Omega-6 and Not Enough Omega-3 Is Making Us Sick 

Notice that fish is the antidote food for a diet too high in Ω6.  Flaxseed oil also looks promising.  However, if you’re thinking about taking fish and/or flaxseed oil as a supplement, there are important considerations (see here and here.)

Significantly, grass-fed beef and lamb has an Ω6/Ω3 ratio of just 2:1 compared to grain-finished beef with a range of 15:1 to 22:1.  This high disproportion in grain-fed cattle is one reason various health authorities and pundits consistently recommend a reduction in red meat consumption (another reason is the misdirected demonization of saturated fat in general.)

How to Fight Back

So how can we help our bodies fight injury and stress while not exposing ourselves to continuous inflammation?  Here’s a two-pronged approach:

1.) Reduce or eliminate root causes (triggers) of inflammation.

2.) Ensure that your body has what it needs to rapidly spin up an inflammatory response to fight assaults and then effectively and completely shut down its own inflammatory response when danger has passed.

Let’s take a look at each of these in more detail.

Reduce or Eliminate Threats

First, you can reduce or eliminate triggers of inflammation by reducing your exposure to dietary and environmental toxins.  Here are good places to start.  Eliminate or reduce:

• refined flour, sugar and sweeteners
• refined vegetable oils and rancid fats (those listed above)
• novel proteins found in genetically modified (GMO) foods
• pesticides, herbicides, fungicides found in non-organic and processed foods
• toxic home cleaning and self-care products (ask us about alternatives)
• flame retardant chemicals found in plastics, clothing, bed linens, carpets, window coverings, etc.
• adjuvants and synthetic materials in flu and vaccine shots (including metal compounds, soy, chicken, human embryo, dairy, peanut and others)

Balance the Inflammatory Response

Next, we can help our body properly initiate and then wind down its inflammatory mechanisms through proper diet and cooking.  Here’s how:

• Eliminate industrial seed oils such as the ones listed above in favor of more nutritious and flavorful cooking fats like olive oil (no or very low temp only), coconut oil, ghee, and other pastured animal fats (such as lard and tallow.).  Fats with higher saturated fatty acid levels have higher smoke points and will not become damaged or rancid as easily.  Eating damaged or rancid oils is a big culprit in chronic inflammation so it’s important not to overheat or repeatedly re-heat cooking oils.
• Eat real food.  What a food has been “fed” makes a huge difference in whether it’s helpful or harmful when it’s eaten.  The way food has been processed or preserved is another factor.  Don’t completely shun the naturally occurring Ω6 in nuts and seeds and other whole foods, especially if you are eating adequate amounts of Ω3 fatty acids.
• Eat healthy sources of Ω3. Consuming cold-water fatty fish such as wild-caught Alaskan salmon and grass-fed beef, lamb and goat is a great way to offset the all-too-common Ω6 in your diet.  Note that it does little good to eat these foods if you are still consuming overwhelming amounts of Ω6-rich foods.  The overall ratio in your diet is what counts!
• Don’t overdo the nut flours.  For those of you trying the many “paleo” or “Whole30” recipes, nut flours can be a good substitute for wheat flour.  But they tend to be high in Ω6 and it’s easy to consume too much.  Coconut flour or cassava flour are other substitutes.

Food from the Farm

One way to know what is going into your food is to find local farmers who will produce food for you , with transparency and with the above considerations at the forefront of their practices.  You’ll need to ask the right questions and check up on them from time to time to monitor and inspect their practices to ensure alignment with your goals.  Transparency, trust and high standards of production shouldn’t be exceptions, they should be the rule.

At Maple Valley Farm, we do a number of things to get as much nutrient density and a healthy fatty acid profile into our animals as possible.  We strongly believe in the health benefits of eating more meat from herbivorous animals raised on 100% pasture forage, reducing intake of polyunsaturated fats (especially those that may easily rancidify in the cooking process) and increasing our consumption of fresh, wild-caught fatty fish from a source we trust.  This season, in addition to our grass-fed beef and lamb, we’ll be allowing our Harvest Partners to add fresh, wild caught Alaskan Salmon to their partnership share at below market prices.  We also plan to allow spot purchasing of our carefully sourced seafood items at a convenient price for anyone picking up eggs or your vegetable CSA here at the farm.  Ask us for details!