VERY interesting information.
I hurt my back several years ago. I thought it had healed, but recently, started having trouble again. I went from hiking 6 miles a day to hardly being able to walk with out pain. Out of desperation, I went to a chiropractor who does physical therapy, hoping he could show me ways to build my back muscles up, or something.
He told me to change my diet to an anti-inflammatory diet. I’ve always been a big vegetable eater, so it’s not been too hard (cutting out salt and sugar, not so easy). It’s only been about 3 weeks. If anti-aging, anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory properties are all contained in one little blueberry, I’m in. They taste really good, too. Do they have to be fresh blueberries or can dried blueberries work?
Fresh or frozen (canned has a lot of sugar). Simmer them slowly in their own juices. The juice is important. Do not add water.
There are very few blue/red colored foods. There is an old tale about king Aurthur traveling deep into the woods. He came across an old man sitting on his porch. The man was crying and in great anguish. Aurthur asked him what his problem was, and the man was upset because he accidentally dropped his grandfather while helping him out of bed. Arthur was, of course, confused. What was the secret of his longevity? According to the old man, it was the elderberries growing through out the forest.
Elderberries, like blue berries, also have that blue/red colored juice.
I’ve been sort of toying with a paleo/primal diet lately, since I have degenerative disc disease in my lower back and have to deal with a lot of inflammation, too. It’s just really hard to do with two very young children, so I’ve put it on hold. I wonder what this does to that whole low-carb/no-carb diet philosophy. Do the antioxidants outweigh the negatives of any grain anti-nutrients? Does sorghum contain whey? Can it make a decent wheatless bread? Very interesting indeed!
BTW I’ve been taking a lot of Omega 3’s lately because I had LASEK eye surgery and it helps with the healing, and I’ve noticed a difference in my level of back pain. Two big horsepills a day, one flax seed oil and one fish oil, plus some vitamin C. :)