A road to Anti-Inflammatory Diet

 

Is it possible to reduce inflammation by changing our diet? 

The answer is yes. There are many scientific studies showing that certain foods cause  inflammation while others reduce inflammation. Some people have chronic inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, ulcerative colitis and they report improvements in their symptoms when changing their eating habits. Today I’ll answer some questions: 

What is the anti-inflammatory diet? Is it healthy? 

For how long do I have to try until I see the benefits? 

So, let’s talk about anti-inflammatory diet today First, I need to explain what inflammation is,  

So you understand why the anti-inflammatory  diet is so important. And maybe that will help  

What is inflammation?

You have to adhere to this diet for the rest of your life, not only for a few months. 

Inflammation is a normal reaction of the body to any threat, insult, trauma, attack or infection. Your immune system reacts by sending white blood cells to combat the insult, for example to kill the bacteria or eliminate the cancer cells. However, in auto-immune diseases there will be chronic inflammation that is not normal. Auto-immune diseases occur  

Autoimmune diseases 

When your immune system recognize your own cells as something that is threatening, and then, it will start attacking the normal cells. This is what happens in rheumatoid arthritis,  

psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, inflammatory bowel diseases, some types of thyroiditis, diabetes type 1,  multiple sclerosis and many other diseases. 

Fibromyalgia

We don’t know if fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition is an auto-immune disease or not, but there are some recent indications that people with  fibromyalgia have some chronic inflammation going on, because there are some inflammatory markers  that are higher in people with fibromyalgia. 

Obesity and inflammation

Now, if you are overweight pay attention to this.  Fat tissue releases pro-inflammatory molecules, such as leptin and cytokines. So, even if you adhere to an anti-inflammatory  

diet, your levels of inflammation may not go  down because your body is constantly releasing  

these pro-inflammatory substances from the  excess fat that you are carrying around. 

Before I continue, remember that this video is for educational purposes only. If you have a  

condition that needs medical advice, please talk  to your doctor. And if there is an emergency,  

go to the nearest emergency department.

I think that doesn’t work. My approach is to incorporate healthy eating habits in your life for good. If this diet is overwhelming to you, try changing one thing at a time.  

It is better to go slow and stick to it, than to abandon it because you could not persevere. 

Remember, you are what you eat. So, what is an anti-inflammatory diet?  

I’m sure you will NOT be surprised by it, as there is a lot of common sense in this diet. 

1.      Avoid white bread, white flour and gluten. Replace by gluten free flour like almond flour,  

2.      Refined carbohydrates and gluten oat flour, brown rice flour, corn flour, tapioca or cassava flour. 

3.      sugars and sweeteners

4.      Avoid white sugar any kind of sugar or artificial sweeteners. 

Replace by homemade sugar-free jams or just plain fruit that already contains sugars. 

It takes time to retrain your taste buds to sense natural sugar in fruits, vegetables or milk.  

Once you train your taste buds without any added sugar or sweetener you will be surprised how awful it tastes when you add anything to sweeten your drinks or food. 

5.      Avoid soda, pops and any kind of carbonated drinks

Replace by water, homemade teas, and freshly squeezed citrus fruits like oranges, lemons and limes. Or berry smoothies, like strawberry, blackberry, raspberry or blueberries. 

6.      processed food

Replace by fresh, raw vegetables and fruits.  

Replace processed meat by buying raw meat, poultry or fish, and you cooked yourself at home, then it is very different from boxed meat or fish. I find that very few people understand what processed food is. Just look at the package food that you have in front of you. Is it in  the original state that you would find in nature?  So, if the food that you have has been cooked, canned, frozen, packaged or changed with fortifying substances or preservatives,  then, this is processed food. Even the healthiest ingredient can be processed and then you lose all the benefits. For example, fish is very healthy, we will talk about that later,  but if you buy a box where the fish has been  prepared in a factory, fried in unhealthy oil, and added preservatives to last longer in  the shelves, then it is processed fish. 

7.    

    

trans fats and hydrogenated oils

Avoid unhealthy fats like trans fats or hydrogenated oils.  Just read the labels and you will find these unhealthy fats in a lot of ingredients, including margarine, shortening,  packaged meats, hot dogs, cookies, muffins, cupcakes, frozen pizza,  microwave popcorn, and many more. 

Replace by healthy fats, like extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, and nuts like walnuts and almonds.  Check my other video about omega-3 fatty acids. 

8.       Reduce red meat

There is no need to eliminate all red meat from your diet if you want to follow an anti-inflammatory diet.  Watch my video about vitamin B12 to hear more about deficiency of this vitamin, especially in people who restrict red meats from their diet.  

But it is good to limit the amount of red meat to one or two meals per week. 

Replace red meat by beans, lentils, chickpeas and whole grans like kernels, quinoa, and bulgur, brown rice or oatmeal. Also green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale and broccoli are highly recommended. 

9.       Limit the amount of alcohol 

There is no need to eliminate alcohol completely, but it is important to reduce the amount for a number of reasons, to avoid intoxication, alcohol use disorder and also obesity, as alcohol contains a lot of calories. 

Replace sweetened cocktails, beer, and spirits by red wine. One glass of red wine a day is safe and it is rich in antioxidants.

10.  Limit the amount of coffee. 

No need to eliminate coffee as there are benefits, but drink too much is not healthy. Also, you may be adding too much cream, milk, sugars or sweetener to your diet. 

Replace some coffee by green tea. Green tea contains antioxidants and many healthy compounds.

11.  Avoid packaged snacks, especially when you are in a rush, hungry, and tired.  

You know when you get home, after a long day, when you want to grab a quick bite, sit and relax for a while. That is the dangerous hour. Have some containers with healthy snacks ready to grab. Keep an individual portion of nuts or fruits. Keep the leafy greens in your fridge clean and ready to eat, toss some olive oil and vinegar and eat a big salad.  

Leafy greens like spinach, kale and collards are excellent anti-inflammatory ingredients; you may use and abuse them. Toss them in smoothies, meat or bean dishes. The anti-inflammatory diet is a healthy diet. So, even people who do not have chronic inflammation or chronic pain, they may benefit from adopting this diet. 

In order to stick to this diet, I recommend the PSCE approach: 

P.S.C.E principle

PLAN

Plan your meals before you go to the grocery store, including the recipes and ingredients,  and make a list of what you need to buy SHOP Only buy the ingredients in your list.  

Well, of course, if you see a similar ingredient that is on sale, or in season, and you can easily   replace that in your meal plan, then go for it. But avoid the isles of processed foods, sweets, artificial drinks, and canned foods. Spend more time in the vegetables and fruit sections. Explore and be adventurous.

COOK 

Try to cook all your meals at home. Limit the amount of take-outs and restaurant to very few special occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries. Invest in a nice pan set, maybe a slow cooker, a good blender, and measurement tools. If finding time to cook is a problem, then try to cook large batches for the whole week and freezing. 

EAT mindfully Take your time to enjoy the meal, eat mindfully observing the aroma, colours, texture and taste.  Eat slowly and if possible, make it an occasion to socialize with family, neighbors or friends. At my home, this is how I practice PSCE: I kind of memorized almost all recipes that I make regularly, so I don’t need to make a list anymore.  

Only when I want to try a new recipe, then I bring the list of ingredients with me to the grocery shop. I shop only once a week.  I avoid going to the grocery store more often because I always end up buying some unhealthy stuff that I see and can’t resist.  

Then, I cook dinner every evening, and I always calculate 8 portions.  

That is because we are a family of 4 people, and we always eat the leftovers the next day at lunch.  

If there are more than 8 portions, then I freeze them in single portions for an emergency day that I am super busy or lazy. I also prepare a healthy breakfast every morning. We eat dinner most of the days together as a family.  Lunch is not always the case as each one of us we are usually working or in school, but we always bring our lunch boxes to school or work   to warm up and eat there. Remember WE ARE WHAT WE EAT!