Can You Keep Inflammation at Bay with the Right Diet?

Inflammation sounds bad, but acute inflammation that results from a cut or a twisted ankle is actually a good thing. It’s your immune system’s attempt to heal the damage by pumping out white blood cells and chemical messengers that fight injury and infection. Inflammation is bad, however, when it’s chronic and overwhelms your body’s ability to deal with it. Think of it as too much of a good thing. When the immune system is in overdrive, it may attack nearby healthy tissues and organs. Chronic inflammation has many causes, which can include obesity, smoking, lack of physical activity, and a diet high in pro-inflammatory foods.

Chronic inflammation that results from any combination of these risk factors has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and, most recently, with some of the devastating damage to the lungs and other organs caused by COVID-19.

How Do You Know if You Have Inflammation?

Acute inflammation is usually easy to spot—swelling, redness, fever, blistering, pus. But chronic inflammation is often invisible, making it tough to even know it exists. There are blood tests that identify markers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), which is produced by the liver in response to chronic inflammation. Another commonly used test is called plasma viscosity (PV), which measures an increase in several inflammation-related proteins in blood plasma. But you will only know if these are elevated if your doctor orders a blood test specifically to measure them.

Foods that Contribute to Inflammation

While diet hasn’t been proven to cause chronic inflammation all by itself, it can be a significant contributor, especially
if pro-inflammatory foods are a regular part of your diet and if that is combined with other risk factors. Generally speaking, limiting or eliminating foods that contribute to inflammation should reduce your risk of developing chronic inflammation and the disease conditions that can result. Reducing the sugar in your diet is a step in the right direction. It’s not so much sugar itself that’s the problem, it’s the amount we typically eat. The average American consumes about 17 teaspoons of sugar a day. Cookies, cakes, candies, soft drinks, and cereals are obvious sources of sugar, but it’s also hidden in bread, crackers, and salad dressings. Check ingredient labels for sugar.

Trans fats also contribute to inflammation. While many food manufacturers have reduced or even eliminated trans fats from their products, labeling laws allow one-half
gram of trans fats per serving and the product can still be labeled trans-fat free. While you won’t find the words “trans fat” in the ingredient list, look for “hydrogenated oil” or “partially hydrogenated oil,” which means the product contains at least some trans fats.

A high intake of processed meats that have been salted, cured, fermented or smoked for flavor, such as bacon, hot dogs, meat jerkies, pepperoni, salami, and sausage is associated with inflammation.

While dairy foods have often been cited as possible triggers for inflammation, a recent review of clinical trials published in the journal Advanced Nutrition, found that consumption of milk or dairy products did not increase inflammation in healthy subjects or in individuals with metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes.

If your diet contains a lot of pro-inflammatory foods, your risk of developing chronic inflammation is likely greater than if your diet is rich in the anti-inflammatory foods listed below.

Foods that Have an Anti-inflammatory Effect

Eating foods that are known to have anti-inflammatory properties is a simple step you can take to help prevent or reduce the risk of developing chronic inflammation. Foods that are rich in antioxidants include fruits (blueberries, cherries, oranges, raspberries, strawberries), vegetables (beets, bell peppers, broccoli, cabbage, edamame, spinach, tomatoes), whole grains (brown rice, bulgur, oatmeal, quinoa), nuts (almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts), fish (mackerel, salmon, sardines, tuna), spices (ginger, turmeric, rosemary, sage, oregano) and vegetarian foods (tofu, soymilk, kelp).

Eating more anti-inflammatory foods is simple if you follow
dietary patterns proven to reduce disease risk in general, while avoiding or limiting foods that trigger inflammation. Anti-inflammatory dietary patterns include vegetarian diets, the Mediterranean diet, and the DASH diet, which is proven to lower blood pressure and blood levels of LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol). All three diets include an abundance of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts and seeds.

Physical Activity is Key

While a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods is important for reducing your risk of developing chronic inflammation, being physically active is also an important part of the inflammation-fighting prescription. Researchers at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine found that as little as 20 minutes of physical activity has inflammationfighting effects. Specifically, 20 minutes of moderate treadmill exercise resulted in a 5 percent decrease in the number of inflammatory cells released into the body.

Bottom Line. The prescription for preventing or reducing inflammation are the same as most recommendations for overall disease prevention and promotion of good health—simply eat more plant foods and fatty fish, and be physically active.

The post Can You Keep Inflammation at Bay with the Right Diet? appeared first on University Health News.

Read Original Article: Can You Keep Inflammation at Bay with the Right Diet? »