{"id":1035,"date":"2018-03-13T10:54:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T14:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harvestpartners.farm\/connect\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2018-03-13T13:15:09","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T17:15:09","slug":"eat-farm-food-avoid-chronic-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harvestpartners.farm\/connect\/2018\/03\/13\/eat-farm-food-avoid-chronic-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"Eat Farm Food, Avoid Chronic Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Problem: Inflammation<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

How likely are you to die from a chronic disease?\u00a0 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)<\/span>.1<\/a><\/sup>CDC Chronic Disease Overview<\/a><\/span>\u00a0A common thread runs through all of these:\u00a0inflammation<\/em>. The symptoms of inflammation include aches and pains, redness, swelling, heat, and pus or mucous production.\u00a0 These are the body’s natural response to tissue damage, irritants\u00a0or pathogenic infection. But continued assaults on the body result in chronic inflammation, which results in more than half of all U.S. adults\u00a0having one or more chronic illnesses.2<\/a><\/sup>CDC Chronic Disease Overview<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Too Bad, So SAD<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Scientific research over the last\u00a0two decades has revealed that the standard American diet (SAD) leads to a fatty acid imbalance between the omega-6 (\u03a96) and omega-3 (\u03a93) fatty acids that are responsible for keeping the body’s inflammatory response honed and balanced.\u00a0 Americans eat way too much \u03a96, a building block for compounds that have pro-inflammatory and immune-activating\u00a0functions.\u00a0 Omega-6 is also considered a facilitator of fat storage in the body.\u00a0 On the other hand, Americans eat far too little \u03a93 fatty acids, which have anti-inflammatory properties.\u00a0 Omega-3 fatty acids originate in the leafy green portion of plants and in seaweed, algae and plankton.\u00a0 Animals such as grass-fed<\/strong> cattle and wild caught<\/strong> fatty fish\u00a0like tuna and salmon are high in \u03a93.\u00a0 Omega-6 fatty acids originate in the seed and grain portion of plants.\u00a0 Processed seed oils (e.g., soy oil, corn oil, canola oil, etc.) and animals such as grain-fed<\/strong> cattle and farmed<\/strong> salmon are high in \u03a96.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0SAD includes much more \u03a96 than \u03a93.\u00a0 Americans typically\u00a0exhibit an imbalance of between 15:1 to 25:1 in their \u03a96 to \u03a93 ratio, a far cry from the 1:1 ratio our distant ancestors are thought to have consumed.\u00a0 This fact should be of no surprise given that most Americans get 20% of their calories from just one highly-processed product:\u00a0 soybean oil<\/span>.3<\/a><\/sup>USDA: Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, 1909-2004<\/a> <\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0If 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\u00a0grocery items (about 24,000 products) that contain soy oil ( high in\u00a0\u00a0\u03a96 .)\u00a0 You might be surprised at some of the items on the list, especially those often considered “health foods.”\u00a0 These are just some of the items from the first 15 pages (!) :<\/span><\/p>\n