An Experiment in Pain

Day 181

Knee and heel pain have become part of the norm for me. I've learned to work with and around it, but I really would like to eventually be pain free - or at least as pain free as a woman heading into her 40's can be.

Here's the deal. Joint pain is a limiting factor in my health journey. There are things I simply can't do because of it. I've tried pain relievers, knee sleeves, ointments, glucosamine, etc. All of them help to varying degrees, but never to a point where I can not worry about it.

Enter my nutrition class.

The text of my class was talking about the importance of fats in our diet and how different fats have different health benefits. Believe it or not, all fat (with the exception of trans fats) are important to our body. Anyway, the author highlighted a client who came to him with many of the same symptoms I experience: knee, shin and calf pain among them. When they looked at his diet, they realized that his polyunsaturated fats (omega-3's and omega-6's) were all out of balance.

Why is this important?

Well, omega-3's are anti-inflammatory, while omega-6's are inflammatory fats. Eating more omega-6's would cause more inflammation and pain in the body. By switching up his fats, he was pain free within a month.

OK. So what does this mean for my experiment?

When I started this journey, I struggled to get my fats down to what they should be. In the process, I unknowingly ended up cutting out all of my monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. All my fat was coming from lean meat, which, though lean, is still saturated fat. Turns out not only do we need to have our macros balanced, but our fats need to be balanced as well. 1/3 of our fats should come from each kind of fat: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.

Beyond that, when it comes to polyunsaturated fats, the ratio of omega-3's to omega-6's should be between 1:1 and 1:4, respectively. The athlete highlighted above had a ratio of 1:20, which is extraordinarily easy to do.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been researching this and trying to figure out how to bring my fats into balance. I've spent hours working on meal plans and created grocery lists that switch out one of the fats I use for another. My fats are now balanced and I've tried to improve my omega-3 and omega-6 ratio. (I'm not exact on the ratio, because that would take a great deal of time that I don't have, so I figured that making a concentrated effort to bring in more omega-3's was at least a start.)

My hypothesis - or hope, really - is that though this may not solve the problem completely, it will greatly improve my symptoms so that I will be able to do more of the exercises I enjoy and work harder during my sessions with my trainer. Hey, it's worth a try, right?

In case you're curious, I've put together a list omega-3 and omega 6 foods. You should be able to see why it's so easy for your ratio to be off by looking at it. Omega-6's are far easier to come by and are more common in the western diet.

Omega-3 Foods

EPA and DHA (Found in animal products. Easier for the body to use because it is the form our bodies need.

·        

F     Fontina Cheese – 448 mg / 2 oz

·         Grass-Fed Beef – 160 mg / 6 oz

·         Anchovies – 597 mg / 1 oz boneless

·         Omega- 3 Eggs – 225 mg / egg

·         Egg Yolks – 240 mg / ½ cup

·         Mackerel – 5134 mg / 3.5 oz

·         Salmon – 2260 mg / 3.5 oz

·         Cod Liver Oil – 2664 mg / 1 Tbsp

·         Herring – 1729 mg / 3.5 oz

·         Oysters – 565 mg / 6 oysters

·         Sardines – 2205 mg / 1 cup

·         Caviar – 1086 mg / 1 Tbsp

·         Tuna – 1414 mg / 3 oz

·         White Fish – 1363 mg / 3 oz

·          

ALA (Plant form. Has to be converted to EPA and DHA for our bodies to use them, which isn't always very efficient, but is better than nothing.)

·         

F     Firm Tofu – 814 mg / 3 oz

·         Spinach – 352 mg / ½ cup

·         Navy Beans – 1190 mg / 1 cup (ALA)

·         Mustard Seed – 230 mg / 1 Tbsp

·         Walnuts – 2500 mg / ¼ cup

·         Winter Squash – 332 mg / cup baked

·         Purslane – 300 mg / ½ cup

·         Flaxseed Oil – 7300 mg / 1 Tbsp

·         Flaxseeds – 2338 mg / 1 Tbsp

·         Wild Rice – 240 mg / ½ cup

·         Chia Seeds – 2500 mg / 1 Tbsp

·         Red Lentils – 480 mg / 1 cup

·         Olive Oil – .1 g / oz

·         Walnut Oil – 1.4 g / 1 Tbsp

Omega-6 Foods

·         Walnuts – 9 g / ¼ cup

·         Safflower Seeds – 7 g / ¼ cup

·         Brazil Nuts – 6 g / ¼ cup

·         Sesame Seeds – 5.3 g / ¼ cup

·         Pumpkin Seeds – 4.8 g / ¼ cup

·         Squash Seeds – 4.8 g / ¼ cup

·         Peanuts – 4 g / ¼ cup

·         Peanut Butter – 3.5 g / ¼ cup

·         Sunflower Seeds – 3.4 g / ¼ cup

·         Sunflower Oil – 10 g / 1 Tbsp

·         Corn Oil – 8.8 g / 1 Tbsp

·         Soybean Oil – 7.7 g / 1 Tbsp

·         Avocado Oil – 4.4 g / 1 Tbsp

·         Canola Oil – 3 g / 1 Tbsp

·         Flaxseed Oil – 2.1 g / 1 Tbsp

·         Palm Oil – 1.4 g / 1 Tbsp

Olive Oil – 1.2 g / 1 Tbsp

* The Omega-6 list isn't very extensive. I know beans also have omega-6 fats. I decided to focus more on increasing omega-3's rather than decreasing omega-6's because I figured that would be a good start and have the same effect.