Good nutrition is a vital foundation for good health and disease prevention. It must consist of eating the right foods and taking key nutritional supplements. The most important foods you should be consuming are those that produce the least amount of inflammation within your body.
Inflammatory Foods: The Underlying Cause of Virtually All Disease
The reason most people develop a disease is because the foods they eat are inflammatory. Experts call this Systemic Inflammation. This is different than acute local inflammation from an injury such as a sprained ankle. Systemic Inflammation is a chronic, low-grade inflammatory reaction to certain foods we eat. Sugar, flour, trans-fats (partially hydrogenated oils), vegetable and seed oils, and meat and eggs from grain-fed animals cause the release of excessively high amounts of inflammatory chemicals that cause tissue destruction, DNA damage and eventual disease.
Research now shows that poor dietary habits create a state of Systemic Inflammation that causes the development of most diseases, including aches and pains, heart disease, cancer, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, sinusitis, allergies, acne, asthma, digestive conditions, flu symptoms, dysmenorrhea (menstrual cramps), endometriosis, high blood pressure, depression, metabolic syndrome (pre-diabetes), and diabetes (1-14).
Here is a simple chart showing the effects of inflammatory foods and the diseases they cause compared to anti-inflammatory foods and the health they promote:
Are You On The Path To Sickness and Disease or The Path To Wellness and Health?
Most doctors and patients are managing these common diseases with medications to control the symptoms. However, the underlying cause of most chronic diseases is the inflammatory foods we eat, not the lack of medicine. Medication is not fixing the problem. It is simply controlling the problem.
Disease is most effectively treated and prevented by eating less inflammatory foods and more anti-inflammatory foods. Diets, such as the Mediterranean, South Beach and Paleo diet are mostly anti-inflammatory because they promote more vegetables, fruit, lean meat and fish, and less sugar, grains and processed food. The USDA also recently changed their long-standing food “Pyramid” with a more up-to date food “MyPlate” which stresses more fruits and vegetables and less grains.
| Inflammatory Foods | Anti-Inflammatory Foods |
| Sugar/High Fructose Corn Syrup Deep Fried Food Trans Fats/Hydrogenated Oils Corn, Safflower, Sunflower, Soybean, Peanut, and Cottonseed Oils Refined Grains Whole Grains Grain/Flour Products (Bread, Pasta, Baked Goods) Most Packaged Foods Most Processed Foods Grain-fed Meat/Eggs Dairy Products | Fruits Vegetables Raw Nuts (None containing peanut, sunflower, cottonseed or other inflammatory oils) Potatoes and other root vegetables Fish (except farm-raised tilapia, catfish) Wild Game Grass-fed/Pasture-raised Meat Omega-3 Eggs Organic Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Organic Coconut Oil Organic Butter (Ghee) Dark Chocolate Red Wine Stout Beer Balsamic Vinegar Spices: All including Ginger, Turmeric, Garlic, Oregano, Basil, Rosemary, Cloves, Fennel, Anise, Coriander, etc. |
Adapted From: Seaman, D. Nutritional Considerations for Inflammation and Pain. In: Liebenson CL. Rehabilitation of the Spine: A Practitioner’s Manual. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2007: p.728-740.
Anti-inflammatory foods promote health and wellness while inflammatory foods promote sickness and disease. Eating an anti-inflammatory diet is the best strategy to prevent or reverse disease, reduce the need for medication, and maintain healthy body weight. If you would like to learn more about anti-inflammatory foods, meal suggestions, and nutritional supplements that fight inflammation, you can check out the…
Deflaming Guidelines: How To Eat To Prevent Disease For Lifelong Health
References:
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2. Seaman DR. Nutritional considerations for inflammation and pain. In: Liebenson CL. Editor. Rehabilitation of the spine: a practitioners manual. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2006: p.728-740.
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