The Inflammation Spectrum, page 1
Praise for The Inflammation Spectrum
“Will Cole is one of the most curious and compassionate health practitioners we have worked with at Goop. In The Inflammation Spectrum, he shares his helpful, simple-to-follow toolbox, along with his compelling and empowering perspective on reclaiming and optimizing your health.”
—GWYNETH PALTROW, founder of Goop and New York Times–bestselling author of The Clean Plate
“Dr. Cole has done a terrific job highlighting the role of inflammation as a pivotal player in a broad swath of our most pervasive and tenacious health issues. Focusing on chronic inflammation and the lifestyle modifications that can facilitate its resolution is fundamental for regaining and preserving health, and these goals are wonderfully achieved in The Inflammation Spectrum.”
—DAVID PERLMUTTER, MD, FACN, New York Times–bestselling author of Grain Brain and Brain Maker
“The Inflammation Spectrum is the book we have all been needing. Just as he did with Ketotarian, Dr. Will Cole wows us again by shedding new light on inflammation with a fresh solution. With this book, you’ll not only learn how inflammation impacts your health, you’ll also discover the specific foods your body loves and hates, to start healing your health problems—no guessing needed.”
—ALEJANDRO JUNGER, MD, New York Times–bestselling author of Clean Gut and Clean Eats
“The Inflammation Spectrum is for anyone who is fed up with fad diets. My colleague Dr. Will Cole has used his years of functional medicine experience to brilliantly lay out a plan that anyone can use to feel and look their best. Achieve food freedom by finally discovering which foods are truly optimal for your body and how that can manifest into sustainable, lifelong wellness.”
—MARK HYMAN, MD, director, Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, and New York Times–bestselling author of Food
“Inflammation is such a hot topic in the wellness world, and The Inflammation Spectrum finally provides us with the answers to all of our questions. Dr. Will Cole explains how inflammation exists on a continuum and shows you how to discover where you are on that spectrum. If you’ve ever been confused about your health, this is the book to read to start making positive changes naturally, through delicious food medicines.”
—JOSH AXE, DNM, DC, CNS, bestselling author of Keto Diet and Eat Dirt
“Dr. Will Cole is a go-to expert on all things functional medicine for my clients’ health problems. The Inflammation Spectrum makes it easy to find which foods work best for your body. He takes it one step further by giving you the tools to apply that knowledge to your life in a very practical way through finding out which foods your body loves. This is grace-based eating at its best.”
—KELLY LEVEQUE, celebrity nutritionist and author of Body Love
“Inflammation is the root of all evil when it comes to health. It’s a serious problem that many of us are living with and we don’t even know it! With Dr. Will Cole’s The Inflammation Spectrum, there’s finally a program and a protocol to put us on a path to fight inflammation and achieve optimal health and happiness.”
—JASON WACHOB, founder and co-CEO, MindBodyGreen, and author of Wellth
“If you could summarize what is at the root cause of all diseases of civilization, it would come down to inflammation, hands down. In The Inflammation Spectrum, Dr. Will Cole offers up his invaluable clinical wisdom on how to nourish yourself to keep the fires of inflammation at bay. This book will help you put out the fire that’s keeping you fat and sick with a whole food–based ketogenic diet that’s tailor-made for you.”
—JIMMY MOORE, bestselling author of Keto Clarity and co-author of The Complete Guide to Fasting
“Healers like Will Cole are the great promise—and future—of preventative medicine. In his practice, Dr. Cole offers highly individuated and intuitive care that puts you on a wellness spectrum—with the goal of keeping you on the vital end. In today’s high-stress world, where autoimmune disease runs rampant among women, he brings a much-needed focus to stopping chronic illness before it takes hold.”
—ELISE LOEHNEN, chief content officer, Goop
“Finally! All the smart questions you want your health practitioner to ask! My esteemed colleague Dr. Will Cole gets it right with The Inflammation Spectrum. As a gut-health expert, I know the root of most chronic inflammation is in the gut, and how individualized, tailored prescriptions for health through diet, recipes, and meal plans can change lives. Dr. Cole’s book features functional medicine–based quizzes that can help everyone be a sleuth to discover their unique inflammation and health profile.”
—VINCENT PEDRE, MD, bestselling author of Happy Gut
“In The Inflammation Spectrum, Dr. Will Cole eloquently explains the root cause of health problems and offers a fun, innovative plan to begin lowering inflammation and reclaiming optimal wellness.”
—TERRY WAHLS, MD, IFMCP, author of The Wahls Protocol
“Once again my friend Dr. Will Cole has created a means of education around a topic that is so controllable but often neglected. . . . As a chef devoted to changing the world through food, I am excited for you to enjoy the epic education that is found within the following pages.”
—DAN CHURCHILL, author of DudeFood
“In The Inflammation Spectrum, my friend Dr. Will Cole brings love and grace back to wellness. Doing away with dieting dogma, Will teaches us how to find out which foods make us feel our very best.”
—KELLY RUTHERFORD, actress
“Dr. Will Cole does an amazing job of showing us how inflammation plays a vital role in shaping our health. He brilliantly explains the roots of chronic health problems and provides hope and innovative, practical ways to overcome inflammation and come out on the other side with restored health for a thriving life.”
—DHRU PUROHIT, host of The Broken Brain
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
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Copyright © 2019 by Will Cole
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
Illustrations by Michael Weaver
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cole, Will (Functional medicine expert). | Adamson, Eve, author.
Title: The inflammation spectrum : find your food triggers and reset your system / Will Cole, Eve Adamson.
Description: New York : Avery, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019015847| ISBN 9780735220089 (hardback) | ISBN 9780735220096 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Inflammation—Popular works. | Inflammation—Diet therapy—Popular works. | Inflammation—Diet therapy—Recipes. | BISAC: HEALTH & FITNESS / Diets. | MEDICAL / Diet Therapy.
Classification: LCC RB131.C652 2019 | DDC 616/.0473—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019015847
Ebook ISBN 9780735220096
Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures, and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician. All matters regarding your health require medical supervision. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book.
Version_1
To Amber, Solomon, and Shiloh:
When I look at you, I see the heart of God—boundless love, grace, and acceptance. May these qualities permeate the pages of this book.
CONTENTS
Praise for The Inflammation Spectrum
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE
ANTICIP8: How Bio-Individuality Determines What Your Body Loves and Hates
CHAPTER TWO
INVESTIG8: Discover Your Personalized Inflammation Profile
CHAPTER THREE
INCORPOR8: Your Track and Your Toolbox
CHAPTER FOUR
INITI8: Transitioning into the Elimination Phase
CHAPTER FIVE
ELIMIN8 OR CORE4: Cool Inflammation and Heal
CHAPTER SIX
DEDIC8: Your Anti-Inflammatory Cookbook
CHAPTER SEVEN
REINTEGR8: Testing Your Old Favorites
CHAPTER EIGHT
CRE8: How to Design Your New, Personalized Food and Life Plan
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About Dr. Will Cole
INTRODUCTION
Your body is alive because of brilliant biochemistry. As a vast sixty thousand miles of blood vessels run through you, your body is producing 25 million new cells each and every second. There are more intricate connections in your brain than there are stars in the galaxy. In fact, the trillions of diverse cells in your body were actually formed from the same carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in the stars that shone brightly billions of years ago. In other words, you are literally made of stardust. While these trillions of cells all have their own unique purpose, they also have one thing in common: They exist so that you may thrive. This is how intricately and profoundly special you are. For eons, throughout time and human existence, no one—not one person—has ever had your unique confluence of genes, biochemistry, and beauty, until you.
For each of us, every food we eat instructs our biochemistry. Every meal, every bite of food we take, constantly and dynamically influences how we feel. But because no one else is you, there are no hard-and-fast rules that will reveal one universal list of good and bad foods. The foods that work well for someone else may not be right for you and your unique biochemistry. This book is just for you. It is your personal guide to finding out which foods your body loves, hates, and needs to feel great.
What foods cause inflammation for you? What foods are nutritious and beneficial for you?
As a functional medicine practitioner, I specialize in helping people learn the language of their bodies so they can discover exactly what they are doing (or not doing) during the course of each day that may be helping or hurting their unique biochemistry. I have helped thousands of patients lose weight and regain vitality by teaching them how to tap into their own deep internal wisdom. What foods cause inflammation for you? What foods are nutritious and beneficial for you? Your body knows. Your diet should be exclusive to you, but how do you know the right foods for you? How do you learn to hear what your body is telling you so that you can nourish it and flourish?
THE AGE OF INFLAMMATION
Discovering your unique diet is important for optimizing health, but there is an even more important reason to intervene into the dietary and lifestyle habits that don’t serve you. There is a storm brewing. Clouds are gathering on the horizon and they’re coming our way. It is the storm of inflammation. The signs are already upon us. A shocking 60 percent of American adults have a chronic disease, and 40 percent have two or more chronic diseases.1 Today someone will have a heart attack every 40 seconds,2 cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide,3 50 million Americans have an autoimmune disease,4 and almost half the population of the United States has either prediabetes or diabetes.5
Brain health problems are also on the rise. Around 20 percent of adults have a diagnosable mental disorder.6 Depression is now the leading cause of disability around the world. Around 1 in 5 American children ages three to seventeen (about 15 million kids) have a diagnosable mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder. Serious depression is worsening, especially among teens, with the suicide rate among teen girls reaching a forty-year high.7 Anxiety impacts more than 40 million Americans, and Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Since 1979, deaths due to brain disease have increased by 66 percent in men and a whopping 92 percent in women.8 One in 59 children are now on the autism spectrum.9
Why is this happening? There is one underlying commonality between all these different health problems—one link that binds these atrocities. Every single one of these health problems is inflammatory in nature. Sadly, this is the age of inflammation.
This is the age of inflammation.
What is the top, and oftentimes the only, option given by mainstream medicine for these chronic inflammatory health problems? Pharmaceutical drugs. A staggering 81 percent of us take at least one medication a day. But are all these pharmaceutical “fixes” actually helping?
We spend more money than any other country on health care,10 yet our life expectancy is shorter, obesity is more widespread, and the rate of maternal and infant death is higher than in any other industrialized nation in the world. Prescription drugs, in fact, are now said to kill more people than heroin and cocaine combined.11 Certainly some people are alive because of medications, and modern medicine has brought us amazing advancements in emergency care. But who can look at these statistics and conclude that the mainstream approach to chronic health problems is effective or sustainable?
But why do we have to choose between modern medicine and getting healthy? There is a time and place for lifesaving conventional medicine. For every health decision we make, I believe we should ask, “What is the most effective option for me that causes the fewest side effects?” For some, medications fit this criterion, but for many others, they do not. Medications are not the most effective option for many people with many different kinds of health problems, even though drugs are often the only option conventional medicine has to offer. And most modern pharmaceutical medications have a long list of potential side effects (you’ve seen those drug commercials). How can we even call this modern system health care? There is very little health or care in mainstream medicine today. “Disease management” or “sick care” would be more descriptive.
Patients come to see me or consult with me online from all over the world for many reasons, but one of the most common is that conventional medicine has not provided solutions or relief for their chronic health issues. These health problems can vary widely, but what I see most often are cases of digestive distress, autoimmune conditions, hormone imbalances, persistent anxiety or depression, weight loss resistance, and unrelenting fatigue. My patients have a desire to address the cause of an issue rather than just masking it with pharmaceuticals that often have side effects just as bad or worse than the symptoms they are supposed to relieve.
When patients come to see me, I talk and listen to them extensively. I give them several questionnaires (which I’ve adapted for this book) to really investigate where their symptoms are rooted and where they are most vulnerable to inflammation. Then, unlike conventional doctors, who are taught to follow a model of matching symptoms to a diagnosis and a corresponding medication, I work with my patients to discover the underlying facets of their chronic health issues. I’m not just interested in “How do we stop the symptoms?” I am also interested in “How do we find and fix the root cause of the symptoms so they resolve on their own?” To me, this is a more sensible and direct approach, because who ultimately has health problems due to a pharmaceutical deficiency?
This is an important, even critical, difference between the way I practice functional medicine (more about that shortly) and the way conventionally trained doctors practice. You’ve probably heard the quote from Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food.” How far have we strayed when the father of modern medicine’s words are considered radical and threatening to mainstream medicine? In conventional medicine, food is an afterthought, if it is thought of at all.
But food should not be an afterthought. Food is powerful medicine. The problem is, you aren’t likely to get much information about this kind of “prescription” from your conventionally trained doctor. Today in U.S. medical schools, students on average receive only about nineteen hours of nutrition education over their four years of school,12 and only 29 percent of U.S. medical schools even offer med students the recommended twenty-five hours of nutrition education.13 A study in the International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health assessed the basic nutrition and health knowledge of medical school graduates entering a pediatric residency program and found that they were able to correctly answer an average of just 52 percent of the eighteen questions. In short, most doctors would fail a basic nutrition exam because they simply don’t have the necessary training in this field.14
It’s ironic that nutrition is such a low priority for mainstream medicine, since a startling 80 percent of the most common chronic diseases (heart disease, cancer, autoimmunity, diabetes) are almost always preventable and reversible with lifestyle choices.15 If almost all of the chronic health problems we face as a world today are preventable, reversible, improvable, manageable, or overcome-able naturally, why would we settle for anything less? Just because something is common doesn’t mean it’s normal. Chronic inflammatory health problems and a growing prescription list are certainly ubiquitous, but they are definitely not normal.
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE: THE FUTURE OF CARING HEALTH
