Your body’s stressed as it is, so give it the break it needs with anti-inflammatory foods rich in omega-3s and antioxidants. The benefits, which include a reduced chance of disease and a healthier you, aren’t too shabby either.
It is becoming increasingly clear that chronic inflammation is the root cause of many serious illnesses – including heart disease, many cancers, and Alzheimer’s disease. We all know inflammation on the surface of the body as local redness, heat, swelling and pain. It is the cornerstone of the body’s healing response, bringing more nourishment and more immune activity to a site of injury or infection. But when inflammation persists or serves no purpose, it damages the body and causes illness. Stress, lack of exercise, genetic predisposition, and exposure to toxins (like secondhand tobacco smoke) can all contribute to such chronic inflammation, but dietary choices play a big role as well. Learning how specific foods influence the inflammatory process is the best strategy for containing it and reducing long-term disease risks.
The Anti-Inflammatory Diet is not a diet in the popular sense – it is not intended as a weight-loss program (although people can and do lose weight on it), nor is it an eating plan to stay on for a limited period of time. Rather, it is way of selecting and preparing foods based on scientific knowledge of how they can help your body maintain optimum health. Along with influencing inflammation, this diet will provide steady energy and ample vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids dietary fiber, and protective phytonutrients.
About Inflammation
Your body creates inflammation as a quick way to heal everything from paper cuts to the flu. Essentially, the immune system increases blood circulation to the injured area, instigates infection-fighting heat, and sends white blood cells and other chemicals to ward off bacteria and mend damaged cells. When it’s doing that job, inflammation is a good thing. The long-term harm happens when the body continuously produces low-grade inflammation; unfortunately, the odds are high that you don’t even know the damage is being done. Even doctors can’t always point to where chronic inflammation is located in the body, and what its specific causes are.
In general, though, inflammation may be triggered by conditions such as chronic back pain, ongoing infections like tuberculosis, viruses, bacteria, allergies, and even gum disease. Excess weight is also considered a major inflammation engine, because extra pounds don’t just get stored in the body as lethargic blobs of flab. Body fat, especially in the gut, is active tissue. It produces hormones and secretes substances just like an organ, and some of these can trigger inflammation, says Barbara Nicklas, PhD, a professor of medicine at Wake Forest University Health Sciences in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In one study, dropping even a few pounds caused inflammation to nose-dive.
Even before it gets stored in your midsection, however, dietary fat in the foods you eat can affect inflammation. Certain types of fat promote this reaction, while others fight it. Although this relationship is just beginning to be understood, read on to identify the major culprits.
How does the Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Diet work?
The Anti-Inflammatory Diet is based on a daily intake of 2,000 to 3,000 calories, depending on your gender, size, and activity level. About 40 to 50 percent of your calories will come from carbs, 30 percent from fat and 20 to 30 percent from protein. Weil suggests striving for a mix of all three nutrients at each meal.
It’s based on the Mediterranean diet, Weil says, with a few extras such as green tea and dark chocolate. The program calls for a variety of fresh foods, with a heavy emphasis on fruits and vegetables, which Weil says provide phytonutrients that fight cancer and other degenerative diseases. In addition, he recommends routine consumption of omega-3 fatty acids and avoiding fast and fried foods at all costs.
The guidelines get more specific by dietary component. For example, when it comes to carbs, you want the kind that will keep your blood sugar low and stable. Toward that end, opt for less processed foods, filling up on healthy carbs such as whole grains, beans, squashes and berries.
You’ll cut down on saturated fat, which is found in butter, cream and fatty meats, and steer clear of margarine, vegetable shortening and partially hydrogenated oils. Instead, your dietary fat will come from extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts and omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to reduce inflammation. The plan stresses substantial intake of omega-3s from cold-water fish such as wild salmon, sardines and herring. If you’re not eating oily fish twice a week, Weil recommends a daily fish oil supplement that includes EPA and DHA. Protein sources include fish, yogurt, cheese and beans, especially soybeans.
You’ll aim for a variety of colorful produce, especially berries, tomatoes, orange and yellow fruits, cruciferous veggies and dark leafy greens. Whenever possible, choose organic to avoid pesticides. (Weil helps promote the Environmental Working Group’s list of produce that’s most and least contaminated with pesticides – the so-called “dirty dozen” and “clean 15,” respectively.) Along those lines, Weil suggests drinking only purified water to avoid toxins such as chlorine and chloramine. Opt for tea over coffee, particularly the white, green and oolong varieties. He also permits plain dark chocolate (with a minimum cocoa content of 70 percent), which contains antioxidants, and red wine, in moderation, which has been linked to cardiovascular health.
What Do You Eat?
An exact description of the anti-inflammatory diet varies, depending on whom you ask. The anti-inflammatory diet is “probably very close to the Mediterranean diet,” says Christopher Cannon, MD, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. He co-authored The Complete Idiot’s Guide to The Anti-Inflammation Diet, which includes recipes for anti-inflammatory eating and information on vitamins.
An anti-inflammatory diet is the Zone diet with fish oil, says Sears, who wrote The Anti-Inflammation Zoneand whose popular Zone diet recommends low-fat protein, carbs, and heart-healthy monounsaturated fats.
Specifics vary from diet to diet, but in general anti-inflammatory diets suggest:
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.
- Minimize saturated and trans fats.
- Eat a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish or fish oilsupplementsand walnuts.
- Watch your intake of refined carbohydrates such as pasta and white rice.
- Eat plenty of whole grains such as brown rice and bulgur wheat.
- Eat lean protein sources such as chicken; cut back on red meat and full-fat dairy foods.
- Avoid refined foods and processed foods.
- Spice it up. Ginger, curry, and other spices can have an anti-inflammatory effect.
Sample Meal Plan
How can you incorporate foods that fight inflammation into your daily eating plan? Linda Antinoro, RD, and Julie Redfern, RD, dietitians at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, offer the following healthier alternatives to the typical American diet:
BREAKFAST
Typical Choice: Large bagel with cream cheese and a 20-ounce coffee with cream and sugar
Better Choice: A cup of oatmeal with skim milk, two tablespoons of raisins, and one tablespoon of walnuts; a half cup of blueberries; a cup of green tea
Why: Oatmeal contains flavonoids and has no saturated fat, unlike the cream cheese and light coffee’s 13 grams. Raisins are among the most powerful antioxidant foods, according to an analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service; blueberries come in second. Walnuts are high in omega-3 fatty acids; green tea is rich in antioxidant polyphenols but isn’t linked to increased inflammation the way moderate-to-heavy coffee drinking is.
LUNCH
Typical Choice: Cheeseburger with fries and a 20-ounce soda
Better Choice: Turkey sandwich with 3 ounces of meat, 100 percent whole wheat bread, red leaf lettuce, tomato, and 1 teaspoon mayonnaise; 6 ounces of 100 percent fruit juice.
Why: The sandwich has 10 to 15 fewer grams of saturated fat than a cheeseburger and fries, while the tomato, lettuce, and whole-grain bread contain antioxidants lycopene, anthocyanins, and lignans, respectively. Fruit juice provides antioxidants as well, unlike sugary soft drinks, which some research links with markers of inflammation in women. And the small amount of omega-6 in mayo’s soybean oil is okay if the rest of your diet is healthy.
SNACK
Typical Choice: Three chocolate chip cookies
Better Choice: Two tablespoons mixed nuts and 3/4 cup grapes
Why: Nuts are rich in monounsaturated fat; grapes contain anthocyanins.
DINNER
Typical Choice: Six-ounce steak, packaged white-rice side dish with powdered cheese and seasonings, and green-bean casserole
Better Choice: Three ounces of baked wild salmon sprinkled with oregano; 1/2 cup brown rice; steamed asparagus spears drizzled with olive oil; salad with 1 1/2 cups spinach leaves tossed with sliced red peppers, red onion, 2 tablespoons avocado cubes and dressing made with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and 1 teaspoon vinegar; 6 ounces red wine.
Why: Salmon is a top source of omega-3. Oregano, asparagus, red peppers, and onions all contain various antioxidants. Spinach does too, along with a small amount of omega-3. Brown rice is high in lignans, unlike packaged white rice, and that powdered sauce also contains omega-6. Avocado is a source of monounsaturated fat, as is olive oil, which may have additional unique anti-inflammatory properties. Wine contains polyphenols and has been linked to lower rates of inflammation.
DESSERT
Typical Choice: One cup of chocolate ice cream
Better Choice: One cup of sliced fresh peaches sprinkled with cinnamon
Why: Peaches contain carotenoids and flavonoids instead of the saturated fat found in ice cream; cinnamon packs polyphenols.
Total calories
Typical American Diet: 2,583
Anti-Inflammation Diet: 1,543
Books on the Anti-Inflammatory Diet
The Anti-Inflammation Zone by Barry Sears, Ph.D.
Sears layers anti-inflammatory principles onto his original 40:30:30 approach (40 percent of calories from carbohydrates, 30 percent from protein, and 30 percent from fat). You’ll still build balanced meals and snacks using the plan’s concept of “Zone blocks” (each block is made up of mini-blocks of protein, carbs, and fat), but there’s a heightened emphasis on fish, veggies, berries, olive oil, almonds, avocado, and spices.
The Perricone Weight-Loss Diet by Nicholas Perricone, M.D.
Celebrity dermatologist Nicholas Perricone promises that an anti-inflammatory diet will give you smoother, younger-looking skin in addition to a svelte physique. His diet program is built on anti-inflammatory “super-foods.” In addition to the usual suspects (salmon, avocado, olives, turmeric, chile peppers, green veggies, and flaxseeds), he adds yogurt, apples, and cinnamon to his Top Ten list.
The Inflammation Free Diet Plan
by Monica Reinagel, M.S. L.N.
Most anti-inflammatory diet plans revolve around the same short list of foods. For more variety, this book has an “IF Rating” system that ranks thousands of foods according to their “inflammation factor.” When you’re tired of ginger-glazed salmon and broccoli, expand your repertoire with other types of fish, meats, fruits, vegetables, grains, and spices. Build anti-inflammatory recipes and meal plans by adding up the IF Ratings of individual foods.