The Hemp Connection:
diets

The term"anti-inflammatory" has been floating around Facebook, the blogosphere, and Twitter recently. It has, apparently, become the new buzzword. It's an important term, so before it overexposes itself out of your consciousness, I thought it would be good to tackle with regards to what it means to hormone balance.

What is inflammation? It is a condition that exists when the metabolic cost of what you are doing is not adequately balanced with activities that allow for adequate repair and maintenance.

A friend once bought a brand new car. It served her faithfully for a few years…and then, one day, in the deepest cold of winter, it just stopped. After visiting with the mechanic, she asked me what I knew about oil changes. I told her I had them once every 3,000 miles, just as the owner's manual recommended. Through her sheepish facial expression, she shared that she had never once changed or even checked the oil level. Her car died because it had run completely out of oil.

Just like your car, your body will give out on you if you do not balance normal life activities and stresses with repair and maintenance. You need to take time out of your day and spend money in order to keep your car…and yourself…running efficiently and to remain standing over time…but if you don't, the time, money, ad loss you potentially have to spend will be even more.

What are some pro-inflammatory (inflammation-promoting) activities to be aware of?

Any kind of activity that raises your metabolism is pro-inflammatory.

**If you're stressed and not addressing that stress to reduce its influence, you're pro-inflammatory.
**If you're not sleeping, which allows your body's metabolism to slow down for a few hours, you're pro-inflammatory.
**If you're dealing with a chronic medical condition, THAT can be pro-inflammatory. And that can be a double-whammy if the reason you're sick to begin with, is that your body has started to give out from your not making good self-care choices.
**If you're eating a high-carbohydrate diet, or bingeing on sweets, that is pro-inflammatory. Carbohydrates need more of your body's oxygen to be metabolized than do other calorie sources.
**If you're using stimulants, legal or otherwise, to compensate for not sleeping well, that is pro-inflammatory.

Believe it or not, exercise is pro-inflammatory! The trick to using it to your benefit is to use it with respect.
**If you exercise every single day without taking a day off, or if you do the same exercise every time instead of changing it up and resting different muscle groups, it becomes pro-inflammatory.
**If you do not eat enough to fuel the exercise you are doing, that is pro-inflammatory.
**If you exercise so much that you cannot sleep adequately, that is pro-inflammatory.
**If you cut your sleep short in order to get to the gym, that is pro-inflammatory.

If your exercise helps you to manage your stress (provided it is not your ONLY outlet for stress), helps you to sleep, is countered with downtime, and is fueled with an adequate, varied diet, it can be anti-inflammatory. It is HOW you use exercise that matters.

If you are binge eating, not eating, swinging back and forth between the two, eating a limited variety of foods, your nutrition program is pro-inflammatory. It's not just about omega-3's, blueberries, and supplements. It's how everything you eat fits into the big picture that counts.

I think the guys in today's photos are saying it best. It's as much about what you DON'T do…as what you DO do.

When I ran across this research study, it immediately brought to mind most women I know with PCOS--because they focus so much on restrictive eating as a way to improve their condition. Women with PCOS that has not yet been diagnosed often develop eating disorders as a way to manage it. If their eating disorder is anorexia or bulimia, it encompasses deprivation. And it often bounces back into binge eating disorder when the PCOS wrangles control back in its direction.

And if you've tended to lean toward the binge eating direction, you've likely been advised to lose weight. And much of the advice you have been provided for how to do this, even by licensed health care providers, has been about eliminating--calories, carbohydrates, even entire food groups. Most of what I see on Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Groups, where women with PCOS are talking about what they're eating, it's about extreme programs and denial.

It seems to be especially prevalent in women who are trying to conceive. So when I saw this study, I wanted to share it.

This is a study done on cows, but I believe there is a good takeaway lesson. So bear with me.

Seventy-two pregnant cows, about a month before their due dates, were assigned to 6 different dietary regimens:

Ad lib eating with canola-supplemented feed Ad lib eating with linola-supplemented feed Ad lib eating with flax-supplemented feed
24% calorie restriction with 8% canola-supplemented feed 24% calorie restriction with 8% linola-supplemented feed 24% calorie restriction with 8% flax-supplemented feed (Linola is a low omega-3 form of flax often fed to cattle)

After the calves were born to these cows, they were fed the same non-supplemented lactation diet.

From one week after birth, the cows underwent reproductive ultrasounds twice a week until they again ovulated. Here are the very interesting findings (I discuss them below).

1. Cows fed without caloric restriction had higher body weights before delivery, but after delivery, they had fewer ovarian cysts.
2. These cows, regardless of what kind of fat they were given, did have a higher incidence of uterine infections.
3. Regardless of diet treatment, the time it took for the uterus to return to its normal size did not differ.
4. It took longer for cows to ovulate after giving birth if they were fed canola oil, regardless of calorie level eaten, than it did if they were fed linola or flaxseed oil.
5. A greater percentage of cows whose diets were not restricted during their first pregnancy were able to conceive a second time with the first round of artificial insemination.

OK, the obvious omission in this study is the overfed cow. But cows are not natural binge eaters so it's understandable why this condition was not included in this study. But…what this study really highlights, is that restricting calories is not really the best fertility-friendly strategy. (The degree of restriction was actually far less in these cows than what many of our inCYST fans impose on themselves. It was the equivalent of a 1350 calorie diet for someone who would normally need 1800 calories to maintain their ideal weight.)

Secondly, even though we do talk about using canola oil because it has a nice omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, continuing to eat your favorite fried foods and using a"healthy" fat may not really be a productive strategy. You will help yourself most if you learn to eat foods that are not too high in fat.

Bottom line, it's not about the quantity of calories, it's more about the quality. It's not about extremes, it's about balance.

If you're having a hard time with balance, let us help you!

Colazo MG, Hayirli A, Doepel L, Ambrose DJ. Reproductive performance of dairy cows is influenced by prepartum feed restriction and dietary fatty acid source. J Dairy Sci. 2009 Jun;92(6):2562-71.

I know you readers. The surest way to get you thinking about something…is to bring it up in conversation and then tell you not to think about it.

That personality characteristic is why infertility drives you so crazy…why you spend hours on the Internet looking for more information, getting excited about a new piece of information then driving yourself crazy for several more hours researching that piece of information, blogging about it, Facebooking about it, Tweeting about it. It can consume you.

So even though I don't agree with diets, I don't talk about them because it reinforces the cognitive paths through which that obsessive thinking is carved. I'd rather build new, healthy paths of thinking and encourage them to grow, while neurological"weeds" grow in and crowd out the viability of the old ways of obsessing and thinking. I aspire to make this new way of thinking so rewarding that it's easy to look back at the old thoughts and obsessions, identify them as"brain spam" and click your brain's"delete" button before they even have a chance to have your attention.

The problem I have is that today is International No Diet Day. I love the concept and believe in the message, but promoting it goes totally against the grain of how I choose to fight the problem. In order to promote it I have to make you think about dieting…or maybe not dieting…or maybe a little bit of both.

So instead, I'm going to tell you, this one time only, ever, on this blog, if you haven't figured it out already, we're not about dieting. We're about valuing ourselves and the planet enough to make choices that benefit both. Making food choices that fuel us without depleting the planet, choosing a bedtime that allows for adequate sleep, moving because it feels good, and not stressing or obsessing about things that keep us stuck.

Please remember our blog as a place to come when so much talk about what you're trying to get away from is starting to feel like a force stronger than gravity, pulling you exactly toward that unwanted destination.

So before we get stuck in that place where we don't want to be but sometimes get so caught up in talking so much about where we don't want to be that we keep ourselves right there…

…I'm going to wish you a happy May 6th and invite you to do something for yourself that promotes feeling really, really good about yourself.

Me? I had some delicious strawberries for breakfast, put some luscious coconut oil on my skin, shared a funny joke with friends, and scheduled my day to end early enough that I can attend an art opening of a friend.

No time for thinking or talking about places I don't want to be.

Here's to you having an equally nurturing day as well.