Anti-Inflammatory diet: 8 Important Thing To Know About

Inflammation is a reaction of the body in response to some injuries, diseases, and infections. It is the mechanism of the body that helps in the healing process, by this mechanism acute problems get resolved. 

The anti-inflammatory diet is a treatment to fight inflammation and reduce inflammation in your body. It is a common assumption that inflammation is always bad. Whereas it produces some undesirable side effects, it is a healthy response that is produced by our immune system.

What is an Inflammation?

In the case of a cut or injury, we may feel pain or swelling in a particular area, which will signal the body to be gentle with the particular area. The blood flow is high in the particular area, which will produce redness or warmth.

These activities are the signs which are shown by our immune system when it is fighting foreign pathogens and repairing damaged tissues. As the healing process increases, inflammation gradually decreases.

Inflammation can be harmful also when it is for a long period and it started to damage the healthy cells. It can also be a genetic problem where the body’s immune system attacks the body cells. It mainly occurs in the condition of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and lupus.

1. Chronic Inflammation 

This type of inflammation which continuous for a longer period. Obesity can also cause inflammation when the excess fat tissues will lead to hormonal and some immune system changes which cause inflammation and it will affect the whole body.

Some other causes of chronic inflammation are alcohol abuse, exposure to toxic substances, smoking, autoimmune disease¹, and autoimmune disease.

After a long period, chronic inflammation will increase the risk of several diseases such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, heart disease, and arthritis. Several foods will manage chronic pain.

2. Metaflammation

It is a type of low-grade inflammation² and it usually does not contribute to noticeable symptoms, but after a long period, inflammation is converted into major chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and many types of cancers.

Most of the time they are caused by an unhealthy lifestyle like lack of physical activities, unhealthy fats consumption, and high stress provoking the chronic low-level inflammation throughout the body which is known as Metaflammation³.

What are Inflammatory Markers?

Inflammatory markers are the set of biomarkers that are tested to check the presence of any active inflammatory disease in the body. If the person is suffering from any inflammatory disease then the level of inflammatory markers is increased in the body. 

The two important and key inflammatory markers are C reactive protein and Erythrocyte sedimentation rate⁴.

Whereas there are some more markers such as acute-phase protein (like ferritin and fibrinogen), procalcitonin, IL-6, Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF)⁵, IL-10, and soluble IL-2 receptor. These markers are increased due to some major infections, depressive disorders, inflammatory disease, malignancy, and myocardial infractions.

Signs Of Inflammation

There are many signs of inflammation, some of them are:

• Pain
• Swelling
• Redness
• Heat
• Loss of functions

There may be some more symptoms that will be observed after a long inflammation:

• Fever
• Exhaustion
• The general feeling of sickness

What are anti-inflammatory diets?

For these types of conditions, we need anti-inflammatory diets. They consist of various food which will interfere in the inflammatory process, the exact mechanism is still unknown. There is not a perfect and single anti-inflammatory diet plan.

But it includes various foods and vegetables, minimum refined whole grains, oily fish, brown rice, omega 3 fatty acids, and extra virgin olive oil. 

• 
  

  Clinical Nutrition

  
  

It is a discipline that deals with the diagnosis, management, and prevention of metabolic and nutritional changes which are related to acute and chronic diseases(some chronic diseases are blood pressure, cancer, and stroke).

It may be due to improper diet which may cause the excess or lack of proper nutrients and energy. So we have to pay attention to our eating habits and eat a healthy diet.

• 
  

  Mediterranean diet

  
  

The Mediterranean diet is the traditional diet of Italy, Greece, and some other countries which are situated at the border of the Mediterranean Sea. A survey shows that 92% of people in Italy follow a Mediterranean diet.

This diet includes whole grains, nuts, seeds, spices, and herbs. this diet provides us with many health benefits.

• 
  

  Whole foods

  
  

These are those foods that do not contain processed foods, refined foods, or some bad ingredients. This type of food provides us with many health benefits and maintains proper health conditions as it contains legumes, fruits, eggs, and vegetables.

These are the foods that contain trans fats, fried foods such as fried chicken, fried fries, sugary beverages, and excess consumption of alcohol.

How does The Anti-Inflammatory Diet work?

This diet does not have any strict rules regarding calorie intake or portion size. It only advises eating a variety of these foods daily instead of having one or two specific nutrients or foods. 

These foods contain antioxidants, phytochemicals, and fiber which avoid cellular stress and block the inflammatory signals which are produced by the immune system of our body. It also increases the healthy gut microbiota⁶ and decreases the rate of digestion to avoid surges in blood glucose. It may also alter the composition of the fat cell to reduce inflammation.

List Of Anti-inflammatory Foods:

Here is a list of some anti-inflammatory foods:

• Leafy greens
• Fruits
• Legumes and whole grains containing high fiber
• Tea and Coffee
• Fatty fish
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Herbs and Spices such as ginger, turmeric
• Monosaturated fats are examples of monosaturated fat-containing foods that are nut butter and avocados.
• Polyunsaturated fats, Examples of polyunsaturated fat-containing foods are walnuts, omega-3 fatty acids, chia seeds, flaxseeds, and aquatic foods.
• Dark chocolates contain a minimum of 70% cocoa solids.

List Of Inflammatory Foods:

Here is the list of some inflammatory foods:

• Processed foods that contain high amounts of fat meats such as hot dogs, and bacon.
• Refined carbohydrate foods such as rice and pasta.
• Fried foods
• Saturated fats contain products like full-fat dairy products and processed meats.
• Partially hydrogenated oils and ultra-processed foods.
• Sugary beverages such as cold drinks, and soda.
• Excess amount of alcohol

Anti-inflammatory Principles:

There are some principles of an anti-inflammatory diet that we have to follow:

• Minimize the sugar intake
• Eat food that is high in omega-3 fatty acids
• Eat more amount of vegetables and whole grain
• Have a low quantity of dairy foods
• Don’t have processed foods.
• Eat minimally processed foods.

Anti-inflammatory Agents:

Anti-inflammatory agents are those substances that block certain substances which cause inflammation so that the body will not feel the inflammation.

Chemical Anti-inflammatory Agents:

• Aspirin
• Naproxen
• Ibuprofen
• Etoricoxib
• Diclofenac.

Natural Anti-Inflammatory Compounds:

• Pineapple
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Curcumin
• Spinach
• Salmon

What are Inflammatory Proteins?

Inflammatory proteins are those proteins whose rate of synthesis is higher than their rate of catabolism. So their amount will be increased in the plasma. This will increase due to the food containing a higher pro-inflammatory potential.

Some of these proteins are fibrinogen, alpha 1 anti-chymotrypsin, C reactive protein, orosomucid, haptoglobin, alpha 1 antitrypsin, and ceruloplasmin.

Footnote

So we have to intake the things which have anti-inflammatory effects. There are many things that we have to include in our diet so that the inflammation is decreased. We can follow the Dash diet as well as the Mediterranean diet.

These foods contain antioxidants, fiber, phytonutrients, and proteins which will help to reduce inflammatory markers by following a proper mechanism.

Many types of research conclude that having a proper diet that contains anti-inflammatory food and doing proper and regular exercise will help to prevent all diseases.

Read more from us here.

1. Davidson, Anne, and Betty Diamond. “Autoimmune diseases.” New England Journal of Medicine 345.5 (2001): 340-350. ↩︎
2. Pereira, Solange S., and Jacqueline I. Alvarez-Leite. “Low-grade inflammation, obesity, and diabetes.” Current obesity reports 3 (2014): 422-431. ↩︎
3. Christ, Anette, and Eicke Latz. “The Western lifestyle has lasting effects on metaflammation.” Nature Reviews Immunology 19.5 (2019): 267-268. ↩︎
4. Bedell, Susanna E., and Booker T. Bush. “Erythrocyte sedimentation rate. From folklore to facts.” The American journal of medicine 78.6 (1985): 1001-1009. ↩︎
5. Waters, John P., Jordan S. Pober, and John R. Bradley. “Tumour necrosis factor and cancer.” The Journal of pathology 230.3 (2013): 241-248. ↩︎
6. Rinninella, Emanuele, et al. “What is the healthy gut microbiota composition? A changing ecosystem across age, environment, diet, and diseases.” Microorganisms 7.1 (2019): 14. ↩︎

Last Updated on April 29, 2024 by laibaarif