The anti-inflammatory diet

There is a consensus among health professionals that inflammation in cells and the body’s arterial system is a major cause of degenerative disease. So lowering the level of inflammation is an important contribution to long-term health.

The first priority is to increase the amount of anti-inflammatory foods in your diet. These include fruits, vegetables, and omega-3-rich oily fish. Fish high in omega-3 fatty acids include wild salmon, mackerel, herring, tuna, sardines, and pilchards.

Fruits with high anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant scores include blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, and blackcurrants. High-scoring vegetables include broccoli, asparagus, beets, mushrooms, chard, spinach, and cabbage.

These fruits and vegetables are good sources of flavonoids and carotenoids with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Generally, the more (natural) colours there are on your plate, the higher the anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory content of your diet.

The second priority is to reduce the amount of pro-inflammatory foods (and cooking methods) in your diet.

Your body uses fatty acids from the food you eat to make certain important hormones. Omega-6 fatty acids – found in polyunsaturated plant oils like safflower, sunflower, and corn oil – are used by the body to produce hormones that promote inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids (from oily fish) have the opposite effect – they are used to produce hormones that reduce inflammation.

Our ancestors ate a diet with a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 of between 1:1 and 2:1, which is a healthy ratio. Today we consume foods containing far too many Omega-6 fatty acids – partly because they are used extensively in processed foods, because they are cheap. As a result, the body is forced to use too many omega-6 fatty acids to build cells, tissues, and hormones – and the balance in the body becomes pro-inflammatory.

Use the following table to increase anti-inflammatory foods in your diet and reduce the levels of pro-inflammatory foods. Note that the table is headed More and Less – because it is all about balance. There is no one food that is all good or all bad.

The third priority is to choose an anti-inflammatory supplement.

The American Cancer Institute now recommends 9 portions of fruit and vegetables a day! If this is too much for you, we suggest you switch to a nutritional supplement like NutriShield that includes not just the conventional vitamins and minerals, but also potent anti-inflammatory compounds such as Omega-3 fish oil, curcumin, green tea, and grapeseed flavonoids.

A conventional daily A-Z vitamin and mineral tablet will provide a baseline of the essential micronutrients for which there are Recommended Daily Amounts (RDAs), but will do little or nothing to reduce chronic inflammation. This is one reason why studies on simple vitamins and mineral supplements generally show no reduction in age-related disease.

Balancing anti- and pro-inflammatory foods

Cooking

Use fewer Omega-6 polyunsaturated plant oils; switch to (monounsaturated) olive oil. Cut down on foods cooked at high temperatures, whether grilled, fried, barbecued, or roasted, because such cooking creates pro-inflammatory compounds. Rub joints for roasting with thyme and/or oregano, which helps counteract these compounds. Meats are best stewed, slow cooked, stir fried or sautéed quickly in thinner cuts. It’s best to steam or microwave vegetables.