Anti-Inflammatory Foods

Logo image

In order to remedy inflammation, you need to identify the base cause of the inflammation and to treat it. Normal inflammation is desirable, bringing blood to fight organisms, repair tissues and to cause people to rest the tissue affected, and should not be suppressed.  However chronic inflammation may either be the normal ongoing reaction to a continuing assault, or an overreaction triggered by cross-immune reactions, a lack of parasites which cause the parasite parts of the immune system to “cross over” to attack tissues and similar functions.  Diseases caused by an overactive inflammatory response include asthma, allergy, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, psoriasis, emphysema, colitis, contact dermatitis, and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Eliminate any dietary triggers.  The most prevalent suspects are gluten, dairy, soy, corn or seafood.  You may have cravings for them.  The only way to be sure, is to rate all of  your symptoms on a 1-10 scale of severity and frequency, to eliminate the food for six weeks, and to retake the test.  (Humans are programmed biologically not to remember pain or problems, so you may think nothing improved while your scores are significantly better.) You may rechallenge and retest if you need more proof.  Blood tests have 30% false positives and false negatives, so may be misleading.  If you were to be allergic to a food, what do you think it would be?

Eliminate sugar which is pro-inflammatory.  Refined starches are easily converted to sugar, so a low carbohydrate, whole food diet is anti-inflammatory.

Eliminate Omega 6 oils (corn oil, cottonseed oil, linseed oil, peanuts, Crisco).  We need a 2/1 Omega 6to Omega 3 ratio but usually have a 32/1 ratio.  They are pro-inflammatory.  Also eliminate all trans fats.  You can use olive oil, or cook with saturated oils like coconut or red palm fruit oil.

Eat non-farmed deep water fish from clean waters and pasture-raised meat.  Wild Northwestern salmon, herring, beefalo, venison, buffalo, New Zealand lamb, tuna and cod tend to be high in Omega 3s.  When beef is raised on grass out of doors, it is much higher in Omega 3s.  Corn finished meat is not high in Omega 3s.

Eat brightly colored orange, dark green, blue and black fruits and vegetables which are high in flavanoids and OPCs.  Tomato paste is a better source of lycopene than fresh tomatoes.  Blueberries, blackberries, goji berries, butternut squash, collard greens, kale, spirulina and pomegranates are good for reducing inflammation.  So are seaweeds.

Vitamin D3 is essential for fighting inflammation and most of us are deficient.  Don’t wear sunscreen (but don’t stay our too long at a time- you don’t have to color up.)  If you have pale skin, exposed to the sun during prime hours in a southern climate, you may get enough D.  But we need far more than the 400 iu RDA which was established only for children who played out of doors to not get rickets.  Normally we need 4000-10,000 iu.  Toxic levels have been reported at 120,000 iu, so if you take large amounts, get blood tests.  You may need to load the Vitamin D3 during periods of stress or illness, so have your doctor check your levels.  Vitamin D2  may have more problems in large doses.

Magnesium is needed for enzymatic reactions to ferry insulin and neurotransmitters into your cells.  800mg of Magnesium citrate, ionic liquid magnesium or the Calm magnesium fizzy drink are recommended forms as it is not easily assimilated.

a blog on health and natural healing