In this episode:

• If you have rheumatoid arthritis it’s important to work on your gut health
• One of the best foods for building healthy microbes
• It doesn’t matter which variety of leafy greens, they all help
• What if you have digestive issues and bloating?
• How to incorporate leafy greens into your diet

Do you have rheumatoid arthritis And you’re wondering to yourself, where should I begin with my lifestyle changes to reduce inflammation? You’ve probably heard lots of conflicting information online and you’re wondering, what can I do that’s easy to implement so I can just get started, dip my toe in the water and get some results without having to do too much just now because you feel overwhelmed. Okay, So if that’s the case, this video is for you. My name is Clint Paddison from RheumatoidSolutions.com, Phase II Evolution of the Paddison Program, which has helped over 17,000 people around the world with inflammatory arthritis to implement strategies of pain reduction. And you can check out this channel for countless success stories, people sharing their testimonies.

So I found when I was going through my awful years of rheumatoid arthritis that I couldn’t eat anything without triggering more pain. This included things like Flaxseeds, which are notoriously promoted, things like meats, dairy products, starchy vegetables, couldn’t eat anything. Only thing that I could eat that I keep coming back to for beginners is leafy greens. Leafy greens are one of the greatest foods for inflammatory arthritis. What we want to do is start out by adding leafy greens to our diet to start to promote the healthy species of bacteria in our gut. We can buy one of these mixed bags of leafy greens from the supermarket, it doesn’t matter which combination of leafy greens are in there you are going to provide benefits regardless. Just find a packet that you like and enjoy. If you have a sensitivity to leafy greens and you think, Clint, even that I can’t eat because of my stomach issues and bloating or because you’ve heard of some crazy dangerous diet like a carnivore diet or something, and you’re eating that and now you discover that now you can’t seem to eat anything else because your microbiome has become so narrow and you’ve created such dysbiosis that even even eating a little piece of leafy green is going to give you bloating or discomfort. Then what I want you to do is make it so small that it’s trivial and ridiculous to not eat it.

Okay, so take a tiny piece of leafy green and then tomorrow have a slightly bigger piece of leafy green. And then the next day another slightly bigger piece of leafy green until you’re able to eat. Oh my gosh, a handful of leafy greens, and from there you want to build and build. So you might want to even have a side salad with your breakfast and lunch and dinner after a few weeks to really, really build up these helpful cultures of bacteria in your gut, which are intricately linked to the inflammatory process with rheumatoid arthritis. You can check out my other videos for that. There’s a presentation I’ll link to right now on the screen, which explains everything about diet and rheumatoid arthritis. So what we want to do is increase these leafy greens and put them in smoothies. You can put them on your meals, you can even cook them if you need to, if you’re unable to tolerate them raw. I prefer raw, I think that’s most natural. I think that’s the way that we traditionally have eaten these healthful plants over our evolution. But if you need to cook them, which helps to break down the plant fibers, which is called cellulose into more easily digestible molecules, then you can do that. So even if you needed to steam them for a period of time just to soften them, for you to begin, then that’s fine.

That’s what we need to do, we need to get started on leafy greens. Don’t put dressing on them. We want to just eat them either raw or with some lemon juice or maybe with some grated carrot or some grated beets just to give some flavor. A little lime you might want to try, but we just want to introduce the leafy greens by themselves as a new food for your gut. And in doing so, this will help to help to shift the bacteria towards more butyrate producing bacteria. And what that is, is a fuel for the epithelial cells which provide that protection between what you eat and the bacteria in your colon from your bloodstream. And in doing so, this will help to reduce symptoms. So don’t feel overwhelmed, don’t keep looking for more options on YouTube as to what to do to begin increase your leafy greens in a very incremental but determined way. And this will be your first step towards better health and less symptoms.

If you’re looking for a program that can take this to a whole new level and transform your life with RA. Then head over to RheumatoidSolutions.com where we’ve got a step by step process to lead you through the entire path from A to Z for my American friends.