Anti-inflammatory foods

At the moment I am eating a pretty strict anti-inflammatory diet to prevent and reduce inflammation in my body. To train often and hard causes inflammation and it’s important to help the body to fight this naturally. The easiest way to do this is though food.

A good anti-inflammatory diet contains fruits, vegetables, lean protein, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats. 

This diet can actually help prevent or treat other conditions as well like; allergies, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, asthma, cancer, depression, diabetes, gout, heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and stroke. How cool is that!

Diets high in refined starches like white breads, pastas, cereals, and other foods that contain no fiber and are high in sugar affect the body’s ability to cope with inflammation. Saturated and trans fats also contribute to inflammation. These fats can creep into the diet by eating fried foods, fatty meats, butter, cream and other full-fat dairy, and vegetable oils that are rich in omega 6 fats like canola or sunflower oil.

However, all fat isn’t bad, choose olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds and fatty fish when possible to increase these healthy forms of fat. We need to eat less omega-6 fatty acids that cause inflammation and more of the omega 3 that is anti-inflammatory. Ideally, the ratio of Omega 6s to Omega 3s should be 1:1. But our modern consumption is more like 10:1.

This is what you should avoid from your diet:
Sugar, refined starches, Soybean, corn, peanut, Saturated and trans fats and vegetable oils that are rich in omega 6.

This is what you should eat to help your body fight inflammation:
Fruit like, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes and oranges.
Herbs like, turmeric & ginger.
Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, kale, broccoli and collards.
Fats like olive oil & coconut oil, avocado, almonds and walnuts.
Protein like fatty fish, mackerel, tuna, sardines and bird.

Another nice benefit is of cause that you will manage your weight better when not eating sugar. Your body fat will drop and you will tone up! It’s a win – win!