Anti-inflammatory diet: What to eliminate, What to Add

You feel bloated, your face might be breaking out (what is this, teenaged acne again?).  Your joints might hurt just a little too much after a workout.  Headaches, weight gain.  Or something more serious.

It’s probably caused by inflammation.   

So how to we stop the inflammatory “cascade” as we used to call it in nutrition school?  So that little things don’t turn into something more serious?

In anticipation of my anti-inflammatory cooking class next week, here are three things to look out for and four items to incorporate into your diet as you consider lowering your inflammation. 

What to eliminate for anti-inflammatory eating

PUFAs:  Yes, PUFAs.  I’m sure you’re wondering what that stands for.  It stands for Polyunsaturated fatty acid.  And the definition is that they are fatty acids that contain more than one double bond in their backbone.  That’s the scientific definition…

What it really means for you is oil.  Mostly the cooking oils that you may already use like corn oil, vegetable oil or canola oil.  Cooking with these oils is inflammatory because they are full of Omega 6 fatty acids.  And Omega 6 oils are necessarily bad for you—but in the Standard American Diet we get too many of them.  Mostly from processed foods.  Too many omega 6 fatty acids in your body, especially compared to omega 3 fatty acids can cause inflammatory pathways leading to yes… inflammation.

So try to eliminate, or greatly reduce your consumption of fast foods, packaged foods from a box or a can, fried foods and processed meats.  And switch your oils to healthier versions like olive oil, avocado oil and coconut oil.   If you don’t think the item could actually excrete oil (what’s a canola?), it’s probably a PUFA.

Sugar:  You knew I was going to say sugar.  The story on sugar is long and I could probably devote an entire blog post to the issues with sugar.  I’m NOT talking about the occasional sweet treat.  What I am talking about is the load that continual consumption of sugar places on your body.  Sugar from sources such as soda, (yes, even diet soda), processed foods, too many sweet treats, wine (sorry.) and even places where you don’t recognize sugar are placing your body in an inflammatory state.

And speaking of hidden sugar, here’s an exercise that’s illuminating.  For just one day, look at all the labels of the products that you consume.  And note where you find any derivative of sugar.  Things like:

Yep, like ALL THOSE!  It’s quite a list!  We did this exercise during a 5-day challenge a few months back and the comments from participants was astounding!  The challenge group was incredibly surprised by the fact that they were ingesting sugar—even though they thought they weren’t.  Sugar is definitely sneaky.

So check that salad dressing you are using to top your favorite healthy salad.  Or your coffee creamer.  You may be surprised.

Foods To Which You May Be Allergic or Sensitive:

Gluten and dairy are some of the most inflammatory foods around.  And many people don’t know they are sensitive to them. 

Why are gluten and dairy inflammatory.  A little science perhaps?

How do you know if you may be allergic or sensitive to a food.  In my case, I didn’t know for several years, until it dawned on me.  Yep, I didn’t feel well when I ingested dairy.  I felt bloated, had abdominal pain…and worse.  I finally had a medical test to confirm my suspicions.

With gluten, it was a different story.  It’s hard to realize you have a gluten sensitivity unless you have overt symptoms—and many people do not.  Your bloating, rashes, lack of energy or even mood issues could be a sign of gluten intolerance.   I’ve written before about a great test, the Wheat Zoomer, that will test the level of gluten and wheat antibodies in your body so that you can get an understanding of your level of gluten intolerance.    

Here’s more about gluten insensitivity:  https://barwellness.net/blog/gluten. 

And if you are interested in my journey with gluten sensitivity, read this:  https://barwellness.net/blog/aippaleo

And there are other foods that might cause reactions for you

Other sensitive foods include corn, soy, nightshades, nuts, shellfish and others.  If you think that you may be allergic to any of these foods, a simple test may point you in the right direction. 

Recently, a client was complaining of an acne type rash.  She had already eliminated gluten and dairy, and when she did consume them, it didn’t affect her rash.  We were perplexed but ordered a food intolerance test through one of the lab companies in which I’m associated.  The only food that came back as an issue for her was peanuts.   Even though she didn’t consume them regularly, when she removed them from her diet, the rash disappeared.  Coincidently, her brother had a severe peanut allergy growing up.

If you aren’t feeling well, some foods could be a trigger for you.  If you are interested in food allergy testing, reach out and we can discuss your options.  There is an assortment of food allergy testing on the market today; many of the tests can be done with a simple finger prick from home.

So what should I eat?

There are plenty of foods that are anti-inflammatory and that you can easily add to your diet.  Even if you haven’t had a lot of cooking experience with these ingredients, there are plenty of cookbooks and on-line sources of easy recipes that will allow you to experiment in the kitchen.

And you can join my anti-inflammatory cooking class, hint, hint

Here are four ingredients we will feature in the class:  

Turmeric

I’m sure you’ve heard about this nutritional powerhouse.  It’s one of the most anti-inflammatory spices and a strong antioxidant.  You may know that the power comes from the active ingredient, curcumin, which has been studied extensively and is incredible.  I studied curcumin as a healing food for clients with insulin resistance (basically, pre-diabetes) during one of my programs.   Studies also show that its anti-inflammatory compounds aid in increasing gluten tolerance. (Ding, Li et al, 2016) (Maithilikarpagaselvi, et al, 2015). 

As we will discuss more in class, if you are new to turmeric, go slow.  It’s strong spice and can be quite overwhelming at first.  It also stains everything, ugh!  Baking soda with lemon and/or vinegar can be helpful with turmeric stains. 

Ginger

Has anyone (like your mom?) told you to drink ginger tea when you have an upset stomach?  Or what about ginger ale?  While we were 7-up folks when I was younger, but the reason why you might gravitate to ginger is because it does settle the stomach and reduces nausea.  Ginger also has anti-inflammatory compounds, called gingerols which block inflammation.  And antioxidants that reduce inflammation.  Ginger has also been shown to have anti-cancer properties.

I love ginger in stir-fries and if you take the anti-inflammatory cooking class, I think you’ll love it in the stew we will be creating. 

And the best way to peel ginger is….with the back of spoon!  Try it and you’ll find you can get to the good spots quicker.

Broth

I wasn’t feeling well this week and so I drank some high-quality, store bought broth and it really helped me.  I have friends who start their day with a delicious mug of bone broth instead of coffee.  This may not sound appealing to you, but good bone broth is delicious and is full of amino acids that support health.  The gelatin is great for digestion and chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine support joint and bone health.  Its anti-inflammatory actions will also support our immune system. 

In the class, we cover how to easily make your own bone broth and with the invention of the instapot, you can make a batch in record time.  You can also freeze it. 

Cauliflower/Cruciferous Vegetables

Some studies show that cruciferous vegetables, like cauliflower, help reduce inflammation as evidenced by markers in the blood.  The sulfur compounds, or glucosinolates, help neutralize and eliminate carcinogens (Navarro, Sandi, et al, 2011).  The most important ingredient, in my humble opinion, of cruciferous vegetables is indole-3-carbinol (also known as I3C).  I3C is cited in many studies as being cancer preventive, especially in estrogen related cancers (Auborn, Karen, et al, 2003). 

I love to roast cruciferous vegetables, especially in the fall and winter months.  It’s easy to just cut them up, add olive oil, salt and pepper (and maybe a hint of turmeric and cumin seed) and roast in a 400 or a 425-degree oven until they are done to your liking.  Extras keep for a few days to a week.

And of course, if you can tolerate raw cruciferous veggies, they are a wonderful treat with your favorite healthy dip. 

We will feature cauliflower in the anti-inflammatory class, but you could substitute for any cruciferous veggie.

If you are ready to jump into more anti-inflammatory eating, this post will get you started.  There are many great books on anti-inflammatory diets that you can find wherever you buy your books. 

As always, I’m here to help.  Reach out to me at barwellness@comcast.net.  And do join us on March 4, 2021 for my anti-inflammatory cooking class. 

To Your Health,

Bev