Been told you have inflammation? Then try an anti-inflammatory diet for a couple months. You’d be surprised how easy it is and how much better you’d feel after just a couple of days.
Inflammation is defined as a localized protective reaction of tissue to irritation, injury, or infection, characterized by pain, redness, swelling, and sometimes loss of function. Acute inflammation is a good thing as our body is doing it’s job at healing an area or fighting an infection. However, when inflammation becomes chronic, it’s like a continuous slow burning fire in your body where not only sick tissues get destroyed, but healthy tissues can get “burned” or damaged as well by the overactive immune system. Having chronic inflammation is kinda like having a low grade infection or fever all the time.
Chronic or “hidden” inflammation has been linked to many diseases such as arthritis, heart disease, obesity, Alzheimer’s Disease, asthma, cancer, depression, anxiety, crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and many other diseases. Some even say inflammation is the root cause of all diseases. Chronic inflammation is silent, most people are not aware they have it. A person can have low grade chronic inflammation for many years without even knowing it!
The anti inflammatory diet is not a weight loss diet but excess adipose tissues (fat) is pro inflammatory because fat cells produce inflammatory cytokine proteins. So, following an anti inflammatory diet may help you drop a few pounds.
Many things can cause inflammation but the key here is that we can control it with the food we eat. Some of the foods we eat are pro inflammatory, meaning that they cause inflammation in the body, while other foods are anti inflammatory, meaning they help the body heal and stop the inflammation process.
Below you will find my list of anti inflammatory foods and pro inflammatory foods.
| Anti-Inflammatory Good Foods List | Pro-Inflammatory Bad Foods List |
| Vegetables: Green leafy vegetables such as kale, collard, chard, romaine, arugula, spinach, broccoli, onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, shitake mushrooms | Vegetables: white potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, corn |
| Fruit: organic pesticide free fruit, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, papaya | Sugar: white, brown, agave, maple syrup, sucanat |
| Fish: wild salmon, halibut | Fish: shellfish |
| Nuts: almonds, cashews, brazil nuts | Nuts: peanuts |
| Beans: black, pinto, mung, adzuki, lentils | Canned foods: buy your food fresh |
| Grains: brown rice, millet, quinoa | Refined Grains: white bread, white rice, pasta, gluten, wheat, rye, oats, kamut |
| Spices: cinnamon, rosemary, mint, basil, cloves, ginger, turmeric, parsley, oregano, garlic, kelp, seaweed | Processed foods: breads, pastas, cereals, candy, chips |
| Fats/Oils: omega 3, flax oil, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, full fat organic butter or ghee | Fats/Oils: cooking oils, vegetable oil, peanut, sesame, canola, trans fats |
| Dairy: clarified butter, ghee | Dairy: milk, yogurt, cheese, margarine |
| Meat: organic hormone free meat | Meat: commercial non organic meats and poultry, pork |
| Beverages: water, sparkling water, green tea | Beverages: coffee, alcohol (wine, beer, hard liquor) |
| Supplements: omega 3, B complex, Vitamin C, CoQ10, alpha lipoic acid (ALA), L-glutamine, N-Acetyl Cystine (NAC), kelp, seaweed | Food Additives: MSG, aspartame, excess salt |
With a vast drop in temperature, darker skies and rainy days, winter is the most yin of all the seasons. It is associated with the kidney and bladder organs, the color black, the element water, the emotion fear, and salty and bitter flavors.
Goji berries are one of the most well known Chinese herbs in the US. Used for over 2000 years in China, they were first mentioned in the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, the oldest known book on Chinese herbs in 200 BC. They are prized for their ability to tonify blood and yin without causing stagnation. Consumed daily in China as a food and herbal medicine, goji berries are revered for their anti-aging properties. They are used in many beauty tonics.
