Living with an autoimmune condition can be extremely annoying. Your immune system is an army defending your body’s castle against intruders like germs and different bacteria. Imagine your army malfunctions and starts attacking your own body and developing conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, type I diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. As a result, you experience extreme pain, depression, laziness, rashes, fatigue, and exhaustion.
Who’s the culprit?
There is no clear evidence of what causes autoimmune diseases. Still, studies have found that hereditary factors, environment, infections, and diet can play a major role in causing excessive inflammation, which is linked to autoimmune diseases. So, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that all autoimmune illnesses are fundamentally inflammation issues.
To treat the symptoms of inflammatory disorders, doctors frequently turn to medicine, but this sometimes misses the opportunity to address the underlying causes. The good news is that following a plant-based diet can soothe inflammation and autoimmune disease symptoms.
Here are some reasons why shifting to a plant-based diet can heal your body against autoimmune diseases:
Getting rid of the biggest offenders
Inflammation is the root cause of autoimmune diseases, but science shows that following a plant-based diet is a healthy way to combat inflammation. A plant-based diet emphasizes removing foods with the potential to trigger symptoms, including refined sugar, processed foods, dairy products, and unhealthy animal fats. Gluten and certain grains are also eliminated because it causes a serious autoimmune disease called celiac, damaging the small intestine and leading to gut dysbiosis.
Low in fat and toxins
Foods from animals contain high amounts of fat and cause a high inflammatory reaction. A plant-based diet is low in inflammatory triggers and is not contaminated with industrial pollution and chemicals, which harm the tissues and can cause inflammation.
And finally, diets based on plants have a low bacterial load. Numerous bacteria produce lipopolysaccharides, which are produced as the bacterium decomposes. Bacteria and their inflammatory-promoting bacterial toxins thrive in animal products. By making plant-based food choices, we can lower the number of bacteria, pollutants, and other inflammatory-promoting substances in our diet and prevent the reactive inflammatory response that is typical of meals derived from animals.
Heals the gut
It is now understood that the health of the gut significantly affects immunity. In the gut lining, lymphoid tissue keeps an eye out for pathogens as the microbiome digests undigested food and releases metabolites. A poor diet upsets the bacterial balance and encourages the formation of harmful metabolites, weakening the tight connections between gut cells. The immune system may mistake food particles and microorganisms that enter these “leaky” gaps for invaders and start an attack.
Foods that are highly allergic and likely to encourage leaky gut are the focus of plant-based diet programs used to treat autoimmunity. Foods eaten as part of a plant-based diet generally enhance gut health by diversifying the microbiota and raising the synthesis of metabolites that strengthen and tighten the gut lining to stop the contents from entering the bloodstream.
Support immune health
There are nutrients and antioxidants in particular plant diets that can affect the immune system and encourage healthy immunological responses:
Vitamin C: Tomatoes, oranges, broccoli, bell peppers, papayas.
B Vitamins: Leafy vegetables, nuts, grains, seeds, root vegetables.
Carotenoids and flavonoids: Colorful fruits and vegetables, especially berries.
General immune support: Ginger, garlic, onions, leafy greens, and mushrooms.
A diet rich in nutrient-dense plant foods shows promise for easing symptoms and promoting the body’s ability to repair itself, even if special protocols must be created to address the distinct symptoms and reactions in each case of autoimmune illness.
