My Top 4 Diet Changes for Rheumatoid Arthritis, Cancer, and Other Illnesses

Oh the joy! There's nothing that makes me want to dance and leap around the room more than when I hear someone say they are ready to take a stand for their health. Lucky me, I've been able to hear it come out of 4 different people's mouths in the last 3 days—this morning I happened to hear it from one of my most favorite aunts, who also happens to have rheumatoid arthritis. I feel overjoyed after hanging up with her.

I'm blogging today to not only share my joy and excitement but to also share how when you set your sights on something, truly desiring it, we inevitably collide with the answers we're seeking through multiple sources. My aunt wanted to know how I first went about changing my diet, and after practically every new thing I told her she'd say, "No way! My friend was just telling me that same thing yesterday," or "We went to dinner last night, and a man there was talking about how his cancer has been getting better because he's been doing that too!"

So it's time to share. Here are the 4 main health changes I made to get improve my nutritional intake and improve my health on multiple levels:

1. Eat alkaline foods.
2. Eat salmon and/or fish oil.
3. Eat cruciferous vegetables (i.e., cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, kale, and collard greens.
4. Drink green smoothies.

You may hear me got on my soap box time after time about alkaline foods, but it's for a reason. Everything we eat falls on a spectrum of acidic on one end and alkaline on the other end. Click here and here for a chart of where foods fall on this spectrum. The goal is to eat more alkaline foods so that your body can reserve it's resources to fighting illness rather than neutralizing acidic foods in digestion.

Salmon contains much needed omega 3s that reduce inflammation and build up muscles to support joints, particularly helpful for rheumatoid arthritis. Salmon is also high in Vitamin D, which has been shown to reduce the production of blood vessels that cancer tumors feed off of.

Cruciferous vegetables are full of disease-fighting phytochemicals and are known to help prevent various forms of cancer, such as colon, prostate, and breast cancers, as well as rheumatoid arthritis. If you're dealing with poor health, it's recommended that we eat these friendly veggies 4 to 7 times a week. At first I thought this was ridiculously impossible until I realized that I already was drinking kale practically daily in my morning green smoothie! Who knew kale was a cruciferous vegetable?—The more you learn. And if you'd like to learn more about cruciferous vegetables, click here.

Drinking green smoothies not the first health change I made 2 years ago, but hands down it was the most significant. Greens such as kale, spinach, collard greens, and chard are packed with vitamins and minerals. They are full of iron, calcium—no wonder there's calcium in cow's milk because cows eat greens all day long, but who knew you didn't need milk to get calcium?—and mega amounts of vitamin A and C. According to Self Nutrition Data, kale is "a good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folate, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese." Apparently it's a vegetable worth including in your diet! Self Nutrition Data is an awesome website for looking up the health benefits of foods.

Here's a blog post bonus to keep inspiring you. It's time to take a stand for your health!

Salmon and Omega-3 Fatty Acids

©http://www.inkanat.com/en/arti.asp?ref=salmon-oil

When I first got really sick with rheumatoid arthritis (March 2010), my dear friend Hayley became the salmon chef extraordinaire, and every Thursday night she'd bring me a new salmon dish. What a saint, no? Back then I'd been reading a lot about how omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon help in reducing inflammation and joint pain, along with a list of other great health benefits, including losing weight, preventing heart disease, lowering blood pressure, improving painful periods, reducing ADHD symptoms, reversing breast and colon cancer, and improving your mood. I was also making salmon for myself weekly, and my mom would make salmon almost every Sunday when I'd go home for family dinner. All in all, during those first four months of being diagnosed I was eating salmon up to 4 times a week.

Since then, as my inflammation and pain have decreased drastically, I'm less vigilant about getting my omega-3s from salmon—usually eating it only once every one to two weeks now. I eat chia seeds and flax seeds a'plenty, along with dark leafy greens, free-range eggs, walnuts, olive oil, winter squash, and occasionally shrimp, which all have a varying amount of omega-3s, but today my doctor recommended I make an added effort to eat salmon twice a week. I've been going to a new doctor who reactivates muscles, and he explained that my muscles will heal faster if I eat more omega-3s, particularly those found in seafood as opposed to those found in plants. It's been incredible to see that as the doctor reactivates the nerve connections, my RA pain lessens. He worked on my lower back last week. Many of the nerves in my muscles are no longer getting their messages to the brain and vice versa. So by stimulating the nerves, the muscles are reactivated to once again work as they should. Today the doctor worked on my left shoulder, and I am thanking the heavens that I am continuing to discover more ways to heal naturally. My shoulder has been in a lot of pain the past few days, so I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings.

So on my way home from the doctor's I bought two pounds of glorious salmon, and I'd say I'm awaiting dinner with quite a bit of excitement. Nothing beats eating freshly grilled salmon outside under the oak trees—plus the breeze is perfect today and the sun is my best friend. Welcome back, salmon of the sea! Who knew I was missing you so? One of my most favorite salmon recipes is found here in a past post. To read more about how much you need of omega-3s, click here for one website of information.

Salmon and Brussels Sprouts

For about a month straight now I've been getting my healthy share of salmon, maybe even to the point of overdosing. It just sort of happened. My friend Hayley is not only kind and generous, but she's a talented chef, and she's has been bringing me weekly salmon dishes. Then here and there I've eaten salmon at restaurants and at my family's homes and I've made it myself twice. Not until the joints of my hands started to feel amazing this past week did I really sit down and think about what was making a difference.

Fish oil is known to help with the inflammation of RA. I've also been taking plenty of herbs/drops from my holistic doctor that are fighting the Strep G and helping tame the RA. I've also taken my diet up a notch in eliminating all processed foods. So I believe it's a combination of everything. It's working!

So this past Sunday I had a friend over and decided to make her some salmon. Big surprise. My friend Mandy has, hands down, the most amazing salmon recipe, so don't be alarmed if you start overdosing on salmon too. It's called Soy Ginger Salmon, so see below for details.

And blech, Brussels sprouts, right? Wrong! This recipe is from my friend Jenn, and I could not stop eating this stuff. I made it as a side to the Soy Ginger Salmon, and together they make up my new favorite meal. I halfed the recipe since there were just two of us eating, but bad idea. Next time there will be no halfing going on. Let me know what you think of the recipes.

Mandy's Soy Ginger Salmon

(serves 8)

2 pounds salmon fillet

1/2 cup agave (2/3 cup agave = 1 cup sugar)

1 tablespoon lemon zest or lemon juice

2/3 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons coconut oil (cold pressed, unrefined)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons fresh ginger root, minced

2/3 cup orange juice
a pinch black pepper
a couple shakes sea salt

1. Place all ingredients in a large ziplock bag. Seal bag and marinade in refrigerator overnight or for at least 3 hours.

2. Preheat broiler. Place fish in a foil-lined baking pan. Reserve marinade.

3. Broil fish skin-side up for 2 minutes. Remove from oven, pull skin off, and baste with marinade. Return to oven and broil for 2 more minutes. Flip fish over and broil until fish flakes (about 4 min.). If your salmon is skinless, broil for 4 minutes on one side and 4 minutes on the other.

Jenn’s Brussels Sprouts with Warm Lemon Vinaigrette
(serves 6)


2 tablespoons coconut oil
20 ounces Brussels sprouts, trimmed, outside leaves removed if needed, and quartered (about 5 cups)

1 teaspoon salt

a pinch pepper

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste

a little agave natural sweetener, to taste

zest of half a lemon for garnish

Heat coconut oil in a large non-stick skillet over high heat. Add Brussels sprouts to skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown in places. Add salt, pepper, and onion, and cook for 30 seconds more. Add water and cover. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Remove lid. Add lemon juice. Stir to combine well. Drizzle a little agave over top and stir to evenly distribute. Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with lemon zest.