Today, we’re talking about what to eat and what not to eat for joint health. Even if you're a lot young like me, this topic is for you. It's important to start now, giving your body some love, helping those joints to stay nice and healthy and limber so that whenever you are older this is not something that you are getting on the computer and Googling and trying to figure out how to have better joints. Let's just start it now! Let's just go ahead and be focused. So, did you know nutrients and food can actually control inflammation. It can help bone density and strengthen cartilage. Food does all those things. You don't need all these fancy nutritional supplements or the next big thing. Food is the superstar here and I’m gonna talk about a couple of my favorites at the end of this video. So, have a pen and paper ready, as always so that you can take notes. 

All right, things like dark leafy greens, these are going to contain antioxidants including Carotenoids, that's going to slow down the breakdown of cartilage. Also, a lot of these things that you do know but perhaps or things you have not tried because you either don't like them or you think that they're not something that you're used to eating or you don't think your family will like it. I will tell you I have three kids, 2 who are eating regular table food. My baby she does eat some I have to mash up a lot of stuff but you know I'm starting her on these things that are really good for her so whatever I'm eating - she's almost 9 months, so whatever I'm eating, I just smush it up so that I can get her palette loving these things instead of getting her focused on you know rice cereals and sugary treats and things like that. I'm going ahead and introducing these really really good foods to her even as a baby and so it's never too early to start with eating and focusing on your body and helping to get these nutrients in.

So salmon, sardines, things like that. My kitty, salmon okay she's 9 months old she's eating salmon because I'm flaking it up and making sure it's safe for her to eat and she's eating the same things as me. The reason I wanted her to have these is because of the Omega-3s that’s going to help reduce stiffness and pain in your joints. Also, if you're not able to get enough fish into your diet perhaps it's for you live, maybe it's a budget issue, maybe the only supply that is available next to you you know where you live is less quality fish so you're going to get more of the bad stuff with the fish, I understand if you're not able to get it this would be something that I would suggest to get a supplement for if you're not able to get enough Omega-3s because they are so important for brain health and just all kinds of stuff.

Also, one of the most popular foods in this lineup is avocados. Harbor Kate, who is my baby, she loves avocados. Really easy to mash up, mix it up with you know either fruits or vegetable other fruits or vegetables she loves them and it's really really easy to have avocados. Now, if you're like me, you looking and avocado and it's you know already needs to be thrown away cuz it's brown on the inside, one trick is if you bought avocados that are too hard from the store you can take them and put them into a basket with either potatoes or you can put them in with apples and it will help to ripen it or if you want it to slow down ripening you can put it in the refrigerator and that will help to slow down the the process of you know getting ripe and all that. Also, what I actually do since I don't typically eat it just regular sometimes I do but a lot of times I'm putting it in a shake and so we have a store here and you can actually buy it frozen and that way I always just take out pieces that I need throw them in the blender for my smoothie. They're always ready to go instead of you know paying quite a bit of money sometimes when they're out of season for an avocado and now it's brown and you can't eat it.

All right, another thing that's really good is turmeric. Now, you can buy turmeric powder, you can put it in your food, you can put it in your smoothies, all kinds of different things. It is really good to have in your tool kit because of the wonderful benefits that it has. It is an anti-inflammatory which is super important for joint pain, right?! A lot of times, that’s what’s hurting in our joints, it’s the inflammation. So we want to make sure that we are reducing that.

Also, extra virgin olive oil. It's delicious, super easy to cook with, most stores have it so it's readily available. It also contains components which block inflammation. So, before you even get the inflammation, it's helping to block it. Also, it may reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis and also could help control blood sugar. So all really really good things.

Also, I am here down in Louisiana in the United States and we have something that we always cook with and that's called the Trinity and two of these next superstars are part of that lineup you have garlic, you have onions, bell peppers but the ones that we're going to talk about here are garlic and onions. Tons of recipes that start with garlic and onions. I can tell you anytime that I'm starting a recipe at our house and I have garlic and onions cooking, everybody's going to walk in “oh what are you cooking”. It's like the beginning basis of a fabulous meal no matter what else is added to it. It's also really good because onions are rich in quercetin which is an antioxidant that works to reduce inflammation. Also red onions are particularly high in antioxidants. Garlic contains Allicin which is a compound that helps to alleviate symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. I'll be honest I had to look up how to say these things because you know I like to make up pronunciations but I really want them to be accurate for you so you can actually apply this information.

I have two more that I want to talk about one is just orange vegetables in general. So, things like carrots and sweet potatoes. They're going to contain Beta Carotene and Vitamin A, that's going to help reduce inflammation and they're also really good for promoting collagen for the production of collagen rather. 

And the last one I'll talk about is Monk Fruit. Monk fruit does not get enough love in my opinion. It is a great sweetener and there's also like syrups now they're made with monk fruit really really really good for you, really really tasty. It helps to alleviate joint pain and stiffness but also comes with a ton of their benefits: boosting immunity, lowering cholesterol, improving insulin resistance and dropping blood sugar. It's also been shown to reduce the size of tumors. This is one of the crazy fruits and vegetables that I've just talked about. 

So if you are looking to kick inflammation to the curb, perhaps you could make dinner that sounds a little bit like this. It's just an idea. I like to give you a practical component to all of these bonus videos. For dinner, you could have baked salmon. We talked about fish, you get out the sweet potato, sweeten it with a little bit of monk fruit. A little bit of turmeric on the top. Also, pair it with a side salad right and side salad is full of dark leafy greens, throw an avocado on there. You can then make a homemade dressing. It could have garlic in it and it could have onions in it and the extra virgin olive oil. There's tons and tons of recipes, look it up Google it lots of recipes to choose from and voila you have an inflammation reducing meal, tasty delicious even your kids can like it my kids eat this kind of stuff all the time. Until next time stay well and I'll see you then.