How you can steer clear of heart disease and type-2 diabetes
CANceR. cardiovascular disease. Type 2 diabetes. obesity. Autoimmune disease. Age- related illness. These are the chronic conditions that take millions of lives each year, cause untold suffering and burden our healthcare systems.
Many of these diseases are directly related to lifestyle. There are many factors that can affect your overall risk of getting diseases. but whatever your level of risk, if you develop chronic illness, there is a high chance that it will be one (or several) of these major killers.
if you’re concerned about a strong family history of certain cancers, heart disease, type 2 diabetes or autoimmune conditions, or if you are fighting to recover or minimise symptoms, then i urge you to read this section and plan your meals accordingly.
each of these diseases has many dimensions to it, in which multiple health defences are malfunctioning and need to be boosted.
but if your body’s defences are fully geared up and functioning, you will stand a good chance of avoiding them.
success means engaging multiple defence systems properly to prevent or modify the disease. No single food does it all. you need to rally every defence system in your body. Here’s how . . .
ARE YOU AT RISK OF TYPE 2 DIABETES?
Type 2 diabetes is a growing health problem, in which the body’s failure to properly control metabolism leads to catastrophic issues in many organs.
While type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, type 2 diabetes is regarded as a lifestyle disease in which the body develops insulin resistance. This can often be reversed with exercise and a healthy diet.
Type 2 diabetes is a disease to avoid at all costs. While reducing carbohydrates, red meat intake, and sugary drinks is fundamental to preventing it, actively eating foods that fortify your health defence systems is known to reduce your type 2 diabetes risk.
There is evidence that whole grains, nuts, plant-based foods and fish can help you ward it off.
even if you already have type 2, your diet gives you the crucial opportunity to lower the risk of the many serious complications of the disease, which ultimately wreaks havoc on your heart, eyes, brain, nerves, kidneys, feet, and immune system.
Eat more:
WHOLE grains, nuts, plant-based foods and fish. Research suggests these foods can help prevent type 2 diabetes.
Foods that boost good angiogenesis (formation of blood vessels) such as grains, seeds, onions and plums. These help your body compensate for the slower blood vessel growth, and so improve blood flow to the heart and boost circulation to healing wounds.
Foods that can inhibit bad angiogenesis, such as almonds, cherries, salmon and blueberries, which can help ward off problems with vision.
Food and drinks that invigorate stem cells, including green tea and cocoa powder. These special cells tend to be fewer in number and less active in people with type 2 diabetes, and they can help improve circulation, regenerate nerves, restore the heart and repair damaged eyes.
Foods that build up healthy gut bacteria (see back page), because type 2 diabetes can disrupt your microbiome.
Foods that can counteract inflammation, such as red leaf lettuce, olive oil and onions. Type 2 diabetes iabetes often leads to o inflammation. Foods that activate the he immune system, such as s broccoli sprouts and chilis, hilis, will help you avoid infection nfection in the face of the lowered immune mmune defences caused by type 2 diabetes. DNA-PROTECTIVE rotective foods, such as seafood rich ich in omega-3, broccoli and watermelon. rmelon. Type 2 diabetes can cause metabolic chaos that leads to biochemical shrapnel in the body, which can damage DNA and accelerate ageing.
ARE YOU OVERWEIGHT?
OBESITY carries the hidden danger of a condition called metabolic syndrome, which is linked to the way you metabolise fats and sugars and increases your risk of heart disease.
There are ways of eating that can boost your health defences to help fight obesity.
Eat more:
ANTi-ANgiogeNic foods that block the formation of rogue new
blood vessels, including anchovies and salmon. They can literally starve fat and restrict its growth, because we now know that fat tissue grows like a tumour and needs a blood supply of its own.
Foods that promote a healthy microbiome. These can lower blood cholesterol and foster weight loss.
Foods that repair DNA, such as berry juice, oranges and turmeric. They are beneficial if you are overweight because obesity causes dNA damage i in your cells. ANTi-iNFlAmmATor ANTi-iNFlAmmATory foods, such as oily fish rich in omega-3. studies have shown show obesity is essentially a state of whole-body inflammation, so s eating these can help lesse lessen that inflammatory state. immuNiTy-AcTivATiN immuNiTy-AcTivATiNg foods such as coffee, olive o oil and aubergine. These can hel help counteract the fact that obesity blunts the weapons of your immune system, which has implications for many other chronic diseases linked to obesity.
ARE YOU AT RISK OF HEART DISEASE?
cArdiovAsculAr disease is one of the world’s biggest killers, and circulatory problems can impact the brain, leg muscles and other organs, too.
Bad genetics, high cholesterol (specifically the bad kind, called ldl), inflammation, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and smoking all contribute to the problem, too.
They put a big strain on the ability of the body’s health defence systems to maintain their balance and protect you against the acceleration of these conditions.
But if you’re worried about cardiovascular disease, diet can clearly play a helpful role.
Eat more:
Foods that stimulate good angiogenesis — the growth and improvement of new blood vessels to help improve blood flow to the heart — such as sunflower seeds, chillies and even apples.
Foods, such as aubergine, watercress and brown rice, that recruit stem cells to help build new blood vessels as well as regenerate heart muscle, brain cells, and other muscles.
Foods that lower inflammation, including plums, apples and capers. This will lessen the chances that the plaques that might be clogging your blood vessels will rupture and cause a heart attack or stroke.
Foods that improve your microbiome, the population of bacteria in your gut. cardiologists are finding key links between the microbiome and blood cholesterol, so a diet that improves gut bacteria may prove to keep your heart healthy, too.
DO YOU HAVE AN AUTOIMMUNE CONDITION?
AuToimmuNe diseases are caused by the body’s immune system attacking its own cells. This includes conditions such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease ( crohn’ s disease and ulcerative colitis) and lupus. The immune attack causes severe and chronic inflammation throughout the body, and although medications such as steroids can help, they usually come with side-effects. steroids can trigger glaucoma, weight gain, increased risk of infection, and even psychosis in some cases. A good dietary approach for any autoimmune disease will boost each of the body’s five defence systems.
Eat more:
Foods that calm the immune system, including those with anti-inflammatory properties, such as onions and cranberries.
Foods with known antiangiogenic properties, including almonds and tomatoes.
These help minimise the damage caused by the undesirable blood vessels that grow as a result of chronic inflammation.
These blood vessels can invade and destroy healthy tissues (such as those in your joints if you have rheumatoid arthritis), but certain foods can help minimise damage.
Foods that help restore healthy gut bacteria. An abnormal gut microbiome can trigger some autoimmune diseases.
eating walnuts, beans, kiwis and cocoa will increase levels of a by-product of gut bacteria called butyrate, which has antiinflammatory properties shown to reduce the bone and joint destruction seen in arthritis.
Foods that foster the regeneration of a healthy immune system. These can prevent the chaos of autoimmune diseases. Fasting can help to reboot the immune system, too.