Inflammation is more or less a forgotten factor to health because too often we are worried about the amount of calories in our foods or what diet we are on that we forget the simple question:
Will this food feed or fight disease?
The same goes for our lifestyle habits and mindset. The reason why inflammation is so critical to consider is because it is the hidden culprit to many common symptoms such as skin rashes, bloating, joint and muscle pain, weight gain, allergies, headaches, migraines, fatigue, poor digestion and more. Many of these annoying symptoms that pop up are connected to inflammation and even more concerning, chronic inflammation is connected to many, if not all, chronic diseases including diabetes, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease, hypertension and even depression.
Luckily, foods and simple daily habits can make all the difference in preventing and managing inflammation.
Firstly, what exactly is inflammation?
Inflammation is an immune response that secretes cytokines to promote healing and white blood cells to destroy damaged cells and any pathogens that may be present. It’s easiest to see when you injure yourself and the affected area becomes red and hot and then it will go down, usually within a few days depending on the severity. Doesn’t sound so bad? You’re right, inflammation is an essential protective mechanism and in some circumstances, we don’t want to reduce it, specifically during an infection or injury as it will help us to heal. But what happens if this inflammatory response doesn’t go down and you become chronically inflamed? And what if this inflammation is not visible? If you have inflammation occurring in your gut, you won’t be able to see it, you may just notice some bloating, maybe altered bowel movements and other digestive complaints. Inflammation is not always obvious and if you are like many others, you may not even consider that you are inflamed from a general symptom such as bloating or even weight gain. This is when the problem arises. We can’t always see inflammation so we don’t always do anything about it and as I mentioned earlier, chronic inflammation is connected to many disease states and symptoms such as:
· Weight gain
· Digestive issues (bloating, constipation)
· Skin conditions (eczema, psoriasis, acne)
· Low energy
· migraines/headaches
· Allergies (commonly caused by leaky gut)
· Leaky gut
· Joint pain
· Muscle aches
· Menstrual Pain (and other hormone conditions)
Strategies to mitigate inflammation
Anti-inflammatory foods
· Turmeric (Just make sure you combine it with pepper to improve it’s absorption)
· Quercetin
· Green tea
· Broccoli sprouts
· Licorice root
· Fenugreek
· Berries
· Fish oil
· Chia seeds
· Avocado
· Ginger
· Resveratrol
· Bone broth
· Coconut oil
· Matcha
· CoQ10
· Extra virgin olive oil
· Omega 3s
· Herbal teas
How to incorporate this into your daily life:
1. Try to consume a wide variety of anti-inflammatory foods on a daily basis and reduce the inflammatory foods (vegetable oils, processed foods, artificial sweeteners/colours/flavours etc.)
2. After a sleepless night or a night out, take a turmeric supplement (make sure it has pepper in the supplement) to reduce inflammation associated with lack of sleep, increased stressors and/or alcohol.
3. During stressful times, pay particular attention to consuming anti-inflammatory foods. You may like to supplement during this time with turmeric, quercetin, CoQ10 or resveratrol.
4. Sip on herbal teas and/or green tea throughout the day (especially chamomile, licorice tea and matcha)
5.Increase your dietary intake of high quality omega 3s on a daily basis. In addition, you may like to take fish oil to increase further.
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