Want softer skin, a better mood, and less painful joints? Just include oily fish in your meal plan for each week. Fish like salmon, tuna, sardines, anchovies, herring and just about every fish from cold deep waters contain plenty of omega-3 oils. Scientific research has confirmed that these oils have a very beneficial effect on lots of health problems; including depression, anxiety, arthritis, high cholesterol and dry skin.

The omega-3 oils are so good for us because of their molecular structure: They’re fluid and flexible. Since our cell membranes are just really oil floating on fluid, a diet high in omega-3 oils promotes more flexible cell membranes. This means materials move in and out of your cells more readily, including neurotransmitters in your brain. Omega-3 oils also have a regulating effect on your immune system, helping dampen down over-reactivity that can occur in auto-immune disorders.

Oily fish, and seafood in general, used to play a much larger part in our diet than they do today. In the stone age, before humans began to settle in groups and farm animals, our diet was quite different from a modern western diet. We ate a lot more greens, seafood, seeds and nuts, with just a little wild game meat when we could run fast enough to catch it.  

These days our diet is dominated by omega-6 oils, which, due to their different molecular structure, are pro-inflammatory. Grains, full fat dairy and farmed grain-fed animals are our main sources of fats. This gross imbalance between omega-3 and omega-6 oil intake is a major contributor to disease in modern western civilisations.

You can help correct this imbalance by including oily fish regularly in your diet. Naturally, these fish taste rich and, well, oily, due to their high oil content. Some of them, like anchovies and sardines, are really only palatable in small quantities. Others, less rich in oils, like tuna and salmon (wild) can be enjoyed in larger portions as they have a milder flavour.

An 84g serve of sardines contains 496mg of EPA and 613mg of DHA – as much omega-3 as two high strength fish oil capsules.  Eating the oily fish will supply vitamins and minerals too: more fun than taking supplements.

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You can probably recall some of the annoying and awful things your parents subjected you to in your childhood “because it’s good for you”. Some of them seemed really unpleasant, but as we look back, we can see how they actually were doing you good. Many of these practices we can return to, and reap the benefits. Here are some of the more memorable ones:

-          Having a spoonful of Cod Liver Oil poured down your throat: Although the texture and taste may have been repulsive, cod liver oil is a great source of the omega-3 essential fatty acids, plus the fat soluble vitamins A and D. (Thankfully, cod liver oil is now available flavoured!)

-          Being forced to eat a real breakfast: The first meal of the day has traditionally been much more substantial than in modern times. You may have been served a steaming bowl of porridge followed by a protein like eggs. Farmhouse breakfasts were even more substantial as everyone understood that a complete meal would “carry you through the day”. The modern practice of something light on the run is setting you up for a mid-afternoon energy slump. Try making time for a substantial breakfast over the next week and watch your mid-afternoon energy slump evaporate. (You will have to get up a little earlier, but it’s worth it)

-          Offal like liver and kidneys appeared on your dinner plate: Often ‘disguised’ with names like ‘lambs fry’ or ‘tripe’ so you couldn’t easily identify what you were eating: These relatively inexpensive cuts of meat are packed with vitamins and minerals. Liver is a fabulous source of vitamin A; kidneys are a great source of vitamin B3. They can make a nutritious addition to your ‘big breakfast’, or become part of a stew, like steak & kidney pie.

-          Sitting down together as a family for your evening meal. The last meal of the day was traditionally a time when all family members were expected to be present. No multi-tasking with answering the phone, watching the TV, or with one eye on the computer for incoming emails.  It’s a valuable practice in modern times to stop for dinner. It will help you de-stress, re-connect with your family, and be focused on the pleasure of eating, reducing indigestion.

You can probably recall lots more – like being forced to eat your vegetables. Now that we’ve had this trip down memory lane, could you use some of these traditional practices to help you and your family get healthier today?

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If you suffer from chronic inflammation (think chronic joint pain, skin problems that won’t resolve, that sort of thing) you may be able to ease that discomfort a little by deliberately choosing foods that are anti-inflammatory (and avoiding the foods that promote inflammation).

Its easier to get a handle on this when you consider that everything you eat gets broken down into a biochemical mixture of molecules that your body then processes to create a whole new set of molecules: To build new cells, feed your brain, promote immunity etc. Some foods that you eat can actually cause more inflammation, exacerbating the pain and discomfort you’re already experiencing. And some foods can help calm that inflammation too.

The foods that can make your problem worse are, not surprisingly, foods of our modern industrial age: sugar, saturated fats, additives. Foods like biscuits, sugary doughnuts, sugar or syrup in coffee and tea….the list goes on and on. Its always an interesting exercise to write down everything you eat and drink during a day, then go back over the list and highlight any of the foods that contained sugar (you can find out by reading the nutrition label on the packet) or where you added sugar.

Our modern diet is remarkably unbalanced in our fat intake – we eat way too many omega-6 oils (from farmed meat, grains, dairy) and way too little omega-3 oils (from seafood, nuts, seeds, oily plants like avocado). This is why fish oil supplements work so well in calming inflamed, painful joints – because they help re-balance your fat intake.

The vitamins and minerals in some foods also helps your body create the right biochemical reactions to calm inflammation.

Foods that will help calm inflammation:

-          Seafood, especially oily fish like salmon, tuna and sardines

-          fresh vegetables and fruit

-          raw nuts, seeds, oily fruit

Foods that aggravate inflammation when you eat too much:

-          sugar (including soft drinks, sweets)

-          processed grains (made with white flour, like pastry)

-          deep fried foods

-          highly processed fatty foods (like potato crisps)

If you’d like to assess just how pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory a particular food is, there’s a web site that provides this kind of data: www.nutritiondata.self.com Do a search for the food that interests you and you’ll see charts that include the inflammation factor rating. For example, butter has an inflammation rating of -720 (its strongly inflammatory due to its high saturated fat content) and sardines have an inflammation rating of 763 (strongly anti-inflammatory due to their high content of omega-3 oils).

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Do you find your eyes feeling scratchy, dry, irritated, but can’t work out why? Let me share with you the process that nutritionist-naturopaths go through as we decipher the cause of these symptoms. Keep in mind that its all about inflammation; its choosing where the inflammation is coming from that helps you find the solution.

Inflammation is a natural response of your body to an internal or external irritant. When your immune patrol cells detect a problem, they emit chemical signals. Their action causes the walls of your blood capillaries to open up a little, allowing more immune cells into the tissue fluid to start fixing the problem. The immune signalling also irritates your nerve cells, causing pain. Blood vessels in the area swell up, causing heat and swelling. To sum up: swelling, redness and pain = inflammation happening.

Here are five possible causes of your dry and itchy eyes:

1. Is it infective conjunctivitis?  This is an acute eye infection easily spread from person to person. Your eyes might feel constantly gritty, watery and red. You need to see your health practitioner ASAP if you suspect this is the cause.
2. Is it an allergic reaction? This could be the cause if your eyes get sore only at a particular time of the year, or when you’re inside a particular building or car. A symptom diary can help you work out if this is the cause; and if it is, your naturopath can provide you with natural anti-allergy remedies.
3. Is it a lack of vitamin A? This is a fat soluble vitamin important for your eye health. Its available in retinyl form from animal foods like meat and eggs; and in betacarotene form from orange vegetables. This is why your parents wanted you to eat the carrots on your plate.
4. Is it an essential fatty acid imbalance? Most western diets contain an abundance of omega-6 oils, and nowhere near enough omega-3 oils. The result is a body that’s pro-inflammatory in lots of different ways, including easily inflamed eye tissues. If you regularly eat more farmed meat, eggs, dairy and grains (omega-6 sources) than you eat seafood and plant oils (omega-3 sources), you may be short on omega-3 oils. Dry or cracked heels are one sign of an omega-3 deficiency.
5. Strained eye muscles. The lens of your eye changes shape to focus using lots of tiny muscles. Work them too hard, and they can become sore (just like the other muscles in your body). Check your optical prescription is up to date, and if you wear contacts, ask your optometrist to check that you haven’t developed an immune reaction to your lenses.

Check in with your health practitioner if you can’t work out why your eyes are feeling bad. Although eyes seem quite robust, they’re delicate organs that can easily slip into chronic inflammation if you don’t attend to problems with them promptly.

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