I was interviewed for an audio program on the topic of Anti-Inflammatory Diet. I wanted to make setting up your diet to fight inflammation to be simple and more importantly practical. I came up with 4 main components to an anti-inflammatory diet. Here they are:
1. Eat Less Carbs – More and more studies are showing that carbohydrate restriction is a effective way at reducing markers of inflammation.
2. Eat More Anti-Oxidant Rich Foods – Getting more polyphenol and anthocyanins rich foods in your diet isn’t that difficult. Eat more red, purple, and blue fruits and vegetables, have a couple cups of green tea each day, even some red wine or dark chocolate.
3. Increase the Amount of Omega-3 Rich Foods in Your Diet – I’m not just talking about EPA/DHA (from fish oil /salmon). ALA (from flax) has been shown to impact inflammation via a different mechanism so make sure you are getting both kinds of omega-3s.
4. Lose Excess Fat – Extra sagging body fat is an inflammation factory. Dropping the extra pounds is the best way to reduce inflammation (and your blood pressure, risk for heart disease, risk for diabetes, etc).
If you are doing all of these…great. If not, what are you waiting for?
Apply these simple steps so that you can control the pro/anti-inflammatory balance in your body.
