The Worst Foods For Neuropathy Best Anti Inflammatory Diet

This is Tom Bernacki and today I'm going over the studies for the absolute best foods for your nerve damage and peripheral neuropathy and the foods to absolutely avoid. We're going to go over why you're doing it, the big secrets, and we're starting now. Peripheral neuropathy is a condition that affects the nerves outside the brain and the spinal cords. This is absolutely one of my biggest interests. I do a lot of talks on this at a lot of different conferences, a ton of videos. We even have a book coming out about this. Check out all our resources for exactly how to diagnose it, all the compression syndromes, all the causes, the 15 best nutrients, supplements, and minerals. We do it all with practical guides. It's all free. We're not trying to sell you anything. In this video, we're going over proper nutrition, the best foods, the worst foods. Peripheral neuropathy, your fingertips, your toes, they're the longest nerves from your brain. There's a lot of damage that can happen, oxidative stress, smoking, poor blood flow, a lot of damage, a lot of different conditions. There's actually a hundred different documented causes. We go over those in some of our videos below and we go over some of our best nutrients, vitamins, deficiencies, but now let's go over the proven foods, the studied foods. The best foods for peripheral neuropathy are, number one, lean proteins. Lean proteins like chicken, fish, tofu, beef, bees, and pork even. I love pork as well. I'm not going to exclude that one. Are rich sources of amino acids, which are essential for nerve repair. They have B vitamins in there, a lot of great nutrients. A study published in the Journal of Nutrients found that consuming adequate protein in your lean meats is crucial for nerve healing and regeneration. Very well studied, not to mention all the great vitamins and minerals you can get in there. Dark leafy greens. Dark leafy greens have come under attack recently because they contain some oxalates, but the reality is studies show, as long as you don't develop kidney stones, that it's not something major to be concerned about. That's my opinion at the very least, and the benefits far outweigh the negatives. They contain vitamins such as B6, B9, B12. The B vitamins make up my top 15 list quite a bit. These make a big difference and are crucial for nerve repair. They form something called myelin. So myelin are thick sheets that cover your nerves. They help the conduction. They help the coding. This is proven in the Journal of Neuroscience Research that these B vitamins can help people with peripheral neuropathy. Number three, nuts and seeds. This is one of my favorite topics. I love nuts. In fact, I have a great video, my top nine nuts and my three worst nuts. These include almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds. These are rich in vitamin E. Vitamin E is a very powerful antioxidant that protects nerves from damage and aids in nerve repair. This is a study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry found that vitamin E supplementation, which nuts and seeds are very high in, can improve peripheral neuropathy function. Not just that, but nuts and seeds are low in simple sugars. So they're a great snack. Instead of eating candy, instead of eating chips, snack on some nuts. It'll help your nerve disease. It'll help you lose weight. It'll help you get healthy. Omega-3 fatty acids. I love these. These are found specifically in fatty fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel, and in seeds as well. Flax seeds, chia seeds, they have anti-inflammatory properties that can aid in nerve repair. They decrease inflammation. I have a great video about omega-3 fatty acids, how to not get scammed by the supplements and the foods. A study published in the Journal of International Society of Sports Nutrition found that omega-3 supplementation may improve nerve function in people with peripheral neuropathy. Colorful fruits and vegetables is another one. I love these. These get a bad rap, specifically for diabetics, but studies show that eating a reasonable amount of fruits and vegetables is actually good for your blood sugar. If you go crazy with overripe strawberries, that's one thing, but colorful fruits and vegetables like berries, oranges, bell peppers are rich in vitamin C and antioxidants. They stop oxidative stress to your nerves. They aid in nerve repair. They're healthy for you. They're low on the glycemic index. They stop the diseases that cause nerve damage, and at the same time, they provide the nutrients that heal nerve damage. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that consuming more fruits and vegetables may help improve nerve function in people with diabetic neuropathy. Another great food is whole grains. Switching away from simple sugar ones like white rice or pasta and switching to brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, these are rich in B vitamins. Lowers insulin levels, so that helps prevent damage to nerves, but at the same time, fiber helps regulate these sugar levels. The B vitamins help heal the nerves. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a diet rich in whole grains was associated with less type 2 diabetes and better nerve function. Low glycemic index foods. These are foods that are high in sugars that are difficult to break down and low in simple sugars, so we're talking lentils, beans. These are digested more slowly, resulting in slower rise in blood sugar levels. Simple sugars, so high glycemic index foods, have been shown to damage peripheral nerves. The Journal of Diabetes Investigative Research found that low glycemic index foods definitely are correlated with better diabetic nerve function. Let's take a second to talk about the glycemic index. Basically, when you eat something, it measures how quickly your blood sugar spikes. Healthy foods don't spike your foods. Unhealthy foods spike your foods. Beru are a big misconception. Take a look at this food chart and pause it. This is extremely important. People treat fruits so unfairly. Look at how good it is on the glycemic index. Only really banana, which is over-ripened, or watermelon are sugary. The rest can be really good, but at the same time, don't eat like 50 fruit at the same time. More is not always better. And here's a good frame of reference to look at. As we move into the hummus, chickpeas, garlic, onion, green peppers, eggplants, mushrooms, lettuce, those are your best low sugar foods. But then you move into other fruits, even chocolate. So for your chocolate lovers, nuts, cashews, whole milk, not that bad. But then you move into more your coarse breads, your strawberries, your milk, natural yogurt, oatmeal, beans. Then 50 to 70 is where you move into more your breads, your sweeter fruit, your ice creams, your yogurts, your grapes. And then 70 to 100 is white bread, donuts, all the processed foods, cornflakes, french fries, potato type foods. Those are the ones to avoid. Check our links below for a more detailed list. And these are our foods to avoid. You want to focus on foods that don't damage your nerves, and at the same time, give you nutrients that help heal your nerves. The foods to avoid, number one, processed foods, foods like chips, cookies, fast food. These are unhealthy fats, unhealthy sugars, high in salt. These are shown to worsen inflammation. They damage your nerves. Proven in the Journal of Nutrition, Health, and Aging, high processed foods are strongly associated with increasing the risk for peripheral neuropathy. If it's coming from a factory, it's not good for your nerves. Refined carbohydrates, fine carbohydrates like white bread, pasta, and rice can cause a spike in blood sugar levels. This leads to nerve damage. A study published in the Journal of Diabetes Care found that a high intake of refined carbohydrates may increase the risk of developing diabetic neuropathy. And the biggest one for me, this is actually the number two cause behind diabetes and potentially chemotherapy is alcohol. Everybody drinks alcohol around the modern world, and this really correlates with nerve disease. This prevents the absorption of vitamins and minerals that are necessary for nerve repair. This is well studied. The Journal of Neurology found that drinking alcohol can lead to nerve damage. This is the second biggest cause, alcoholic neuropathy. It even has a name. Cut out the alcohol. If you're having tingling in your fingertips and your toes, just cut it out. It'll make a huge difference and improve the quality of your life almost immediately. Trans fats. So interestingly, these were banned in 2020, but banned doesn't really mean anything. They just lowered the levels to the point where they don't really document it for you. Under one gram per serving. So you could just lower the serving potentially. I don't know. I'm sure they're cutting corners anyway. Trans fats are in fried foods like margarine, processed snacks, this. Anything that's processed that is made to sit on a shelf for a long time has some trans fats or historically did. This worsens inflammation. It damages nerves. The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging showed that trans fat directly correlates to nerve damage. That's one that really cut down on, again, stuff that comes from a factory. Artificial sweeteners. This is a great alternative to eating sugary foods. So if you had to choose, obviously the artificial sweetener is better. But aspartame, sucralose can worsen inflammation and damage nerves. So a study for the Journal of Diabetes Care found that consuming these artificial sweeteners may increase the risk of developing diabetic neuropathy. Dairy products. Babies need to drink milk. I'm a big fan of this. Cut down your milk intake as an adult. High fat dairy products like excessive cheese, excessive butter. This can be related to worsening inflammation and damaged nerves. I'm skeptical about this because the trend in science now is showing that fat was unfairly blamed by a lot of the big sugar lobby dollars. Fat now is overwhelmingly being shown that it's not quite as bad, but there are some studies. The Journal of Nutrients found that too much fat intake, and again, this is kind of like the unhealthy meats, the processed meats, is related to nerve disease. Fried meats. I put this in the area of processed meats. Fried meats are basically covered with vegetable oils. Vegetable oils raise our omega sixes compared to our omega threes. That's correlated with high rates of inflammation. And it's also associated with something called heterocyclic amines, which worsen inflammation and damage nerves. Fried meats specifically, oily fried meats. The Journal of Nutrients found that a high intake of these HCAs may increase the risk of developing neuropathy, increase your joint inflammation, and your nerve inflammation. Switch to the lean proteins, the dark leafy greens, the nuts, omega three fatty acids, colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low glycemic index foods. Cut out the alcohol, the simple carbs, the trans fats, the artificial sweeteners. Check out our guide on our top 15 minerals for your nerve disease and repairing your nerve damage. And check out the secrets in that video. That's very crucial to understand your nerve disease.