Nutrition That Fights Inflammation

While inflammation isn’t necessarily anything that will cut your longevity short, it is something that quickly deteriorates your quality of life. Living in pain isn’t something anyone wants to experience.

Inflammation is when your body is trying to protect you, but it ends up creating pain instead. It hones in on something that needs to be attacked – like irritants or unhealthy cells – and normally, it would help heal you.

But inflammation takes a wrong turn when it actually goes too far and the inflammation hurts more than the infection. You can tell if you have inflammation because you’ll experience pain, swelling, redness

It can benefit you, for instance if you hurt your knee, because it alerts you to the fact that you’ve damaged your tissues – so it helps you go easy on your joints until the tissue is able to heal.

However, the inflammation something makes it harder to recover, and more inflammation occurs because of the initial flare-up, so you need something to quell the inflammation – and food can be your helper!

Inflammation in and of itself isn’t life threatening. But it’s been linked to other health concerns like diabetes and cancer. If you go to the doctor for a health concern, you’ll find that many diagnoses turn out to have some level of inflammation – such as a swollen throat due to a common cold. So even if it’s not terminal, keeping inflammation at bay helps you live a healthier life.

Toxic Foods That Cause Inflammation Flare-Ups

Adhering to our “remove and replace” regimen for fighting disease with foods, there are certain items you want to restrict or rid from your diet as much as possible.

·         Alcohol

·         Fried foods

·         Processed meats (bacon, hot dogs, bologna)

·         Eggs

·         Coffee

If you have arthritis, then your doctor probably told you to steer clear of these inflammation-worsening foods. It’s typically beneficial for you to stick to a Mediterranean type diet – one where meat is limited and fruits, whole grains and vegetables are paramount.

Freshness counts, too. Eating all of those high sugar, high salt processed foods that come prepackaged worsen your inflammation and cause more pain in your body.

If you can, switch to a mostly vegetarian diet. Meats tend to flare up inflammation, so if you have to eat meat, make them a small portion on your plate and not a main attraction.

The saturated fats found in animal protein actually help create inflammation because it contains arachidonic acid. U.S. News reported that diets that don’t have as much of this molecule have a lower incidence of inflammation flare-ups.

Dairy can be inflammatory to your body, too. Things like full fat butter, cheese, milk and yogurt do nothing good for your body If you eat dairy products, choose low-fat or skim versions.

Sweeteners – real and artificial – can cause inflammation in your body. Everything from fried or baked cakes to soft drinks can worsen your symptoms of pain and swelling.

Wheat and gluten products can lead to increased inflammation in your body. You want to look for gluten-free foods as much as possible to keep the reaction out of your body.

Many people who suffer from inflammation conditions know the effect that alcohol has on them. It unfortunately contains a high amount of sugar, which contributes to a raised level of inflammation.

Heal Your Body Through Non-Inflammatory Foods

So what should you eat to control and reverse symptoms of inflammation in your body? The key is to keep your system from attacking itself, so that means boosting the health of your body at a cellular level.

Food can help with this.

Again, the Mediterranean diet is the perfect recipe for success when it comes to keeping inflammation at bay. Instead of marbled meat, choose Omega-3 packed fish, like salmon or tuna a few times a week.

Soy is a great meat alternative. This estrogen-like plant-based food helps lower inflammation in your body. But it all depends on how processed it is. Try for more natural versions like tofu and edamame.

Eating foods like spinach, kale, turnip greens, collard greens or mustard greens can have a positive effect on your inflammation issues. They contain tons of vitamin E, which protects your body from cytokines – the molecules that help inflammation occur.

Dairy is something that’s good for your bones, but full fat dairy can cause inflammation. Some people have mistakenly thought that they had to stay away from all dairy, but low fat variations are good for you.

If you don’t have any allergic reactions to dairy, then look for dairy products that have a double benefit for inflammation – like yogurt with probiotics. This helps inflammation in the gut.

Grains aren’t always good for you, but in the case of inflammation, whole grains can help reduce pain and swelling. The fiber in whole grains helps suppress the C-reactive protein, which helps flare-ups.

Nuts are a food that can tame inflammation in your body. Look for nuts like walnuts and almonds, which have tons of fiber, calcium, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E. They also have antioxidants to help repair inflammation in your body.

Here’s a food that seems like it would cause flare-ups, but which actually heals your body – peppers! You can choose peppers that aren’t hot, like bell peppers, or spicy peppers like chili or cayenne peppers.

The one thing that causes heat – the capsaicin, will actually help your pain and swelling go down. Manufacturers even use it in topical creams for arthritis and other inflammation disorders.

Here’s what you need to know about inflammation – treatments aren’t a one size fits all solution. One person might have an allergic reaction to something and have their inflammation worsen, while another feels healed and whole after trying a particular nutritional solution.

You have to keep track of what works and what doesn’t and tailor your anti-inflammatory diet to your own personal preferences and reactions. Eliminate foods that cause flare-ups, and eat more of those that suppress the inflammation in your body.