What is inflammation?
Inflammation helps the body fight illness and protects it from harm and infection, and it’s a necessary part of the healing process – so it’s definitely not a bad thing!
The definition of inflammation is as follows (Mosby’s):
The protective or destructive response of body tissues to irritation or injury.
The cardinal signs of inflammation are redness, heat, swelling, itching and pain, often accompanied by loss of function. The severity, timing and local character of any particular inflammatory response depend on the cause, the area affected and the condition of the host.
Inflammation is also triggered when a foreign substance such as an invading microbe, plant pollen, or chemical invades the body, making it a vital defence mechanism.
When inflammation gets out of hand and becomes chronic however it can lead to other health concerns and widespread pain in the body, which is seen on a large scale in the Western world – and nutrition plays a huge contributing role.
Acute and chronic inflammation
If you for example cut yourself, this becomes red and inflamed – this is acute inflammation, a healthy inflammatory response which contributes to the healing.
Chronic inflammation on the other side can be detrimental to somebody’s health, and many major diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, depression and Alzheimer’s have been linked to chronic inflammation.
Chronic low grade inflammation is a highly significant risk factor for morbidity and mortality, especially in older patients.
Inflammation is the root cause of many health problems, and we often need to start by addressing any underlying inflammation before treating any other health issues.
How does chronic inflammation present?
Chronic inflammation can show up in many ways and with many different symptoms, including the below:
- Joint and muscle pain
- Gut / digestive issues
- Weight gain
- Fatigue
- High blood pressure
- Brain fog
- Chronic pain
Chronic inflammation can also be caused by an autoimmune disorder, where your immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue.
Anti-inflammatory foods
These foods should be included in an anti-inflammatory diet:
- Green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, collards) and other vegetables including broccoli, sweet potatoes, courgettes, watercress, tomatoes, garlic
- Legumes (chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans)
- Fruits, especially berries, oranges, apples, pineapple, cherries
- Nuts (almonds, walnuts) and seeds (flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds)
- Oily fish (mackerel, sardines, anchovies, herring)
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Herbs and Spices: turmeric and ginger (they both have especially powerful anti-inflammatory properties), plus black pepper, cayenne pepper, rosemary, basil, oregano
These are all foods that are generally recommended as part of a healthy, balanced diet, and their positive effect on lowering inflammation markers is one of the reasons for that – with inflammation being an important underlying mechanism for the development of many diseases.
Vegetables and fruits are particularly high in natural antioxidants and polyphenols, the protective compounds found in plants.
Both green tea and coffee are also often associated with reduced markers of inflammation due to their polyphenols and other anti-inflammatory compounds.
There are some supplements that can help with inflammation and pain, please speak to your health practitioner or a nutritional therapist like myself about this for further information.
Foods that cause inflammation
These foods should be avoided or limited as much as possible:
- Refined carbohydrates (white bread, white pasta, pastries, cakes, pizza)
- Refined oils and foods fried in these oils (including chips)
- Processed meats (including sausages, burgers, bacon)
- Saturated fats (including cheese, butter, red and fatty meats)
- Excessive alcohol consumption
- Sugar (including biscuits, desserts, chocolate bars) and sugar-sweetened soft drinks
It’s also good to be aware of artificial sweeteners, and the emerging evidence that these could cause inflammation due to disrupting the gut microbiome and its role in regulating inflammation.
Sugar and inflammation
There is plenty of research highlighting the link between sugar and inflammation and in many ways this makes perfect sense – and reading this might want you to reduce your sugar intake for that very reason!
In short, sugar promotes the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. This is down to our bodies having difficulty processing artificial ingredients, seeing sugar as a toxin or foreign body that needs to be attacked and then expelled.
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, inflammation is triggered when a foreign substance invades the body, and that’s exactly what happens here. If you think about this when reaching for a biscuit next time it might make it easier to swap it for a food that helps combat inflammation rather than trigger it!
Sugar has many more negative effects on the body, and I will do a blog post about sugar (and the various alternatives names for sugar that you need to look out for on food labels) very soon.
The Mediterranean diet
A healthy, balanced and nutrient-dense diet based on whole foods is key (remember to “eat the rainbow”!), and many people notice improved health and wellbeing when cutting out / down inflammatory foods in their diet.
The Mediterranean diet and eating pattern can be a useful guideline as it is high in many of the recommended anti-inflammatory foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, fish, healthy oils and whole grains. Studies have also confirmed lower markers of inflammation in participants following the Mediterranean diet.
I did a blog post about the Mediterranean diet a while ago if you want to read it here .
As always, if you have any questions or comments regarding this post then please feel free to get in touch or check out my 1:1 consultation package if you interested in a personalised programme.
We can also have an initial chat on the phone / via Facetime or Zoom first if you have any questions about Nutritional Therapy and how we can work together on optimising your health, just get in touch!
Thank you for reading and keep well x
