Skip to content

Create an Inflammation Fighting Kitchen with these Top 20 Anti Inflammatory Foods Tips – Sharon Palmer, The Plant Powered Dietitian

    Reduce the level of chronic inflammation—at the root of chronic diseases—through an anti-inflammatory diet! Learn how to create an inflammation fighting kitchen with these top 20 anti-inflammatory foods tips, and 10 anti inflammatory recipes and shopping list.

    The strategy of eating your way to lower inflammation levels has gained momentum. A recent Google search for “anti-inflammatory diet” yielded more than 516 million hits! Scientists recognize that inflammation can fuel the major chronic disease killers of our time, from heart disease to cancer. While acute inflammation, the body’s natural reaction to an injury or assault, is good, chronic inflammation is not. When the body’s inflammatory reaction fails to shut off or becomes activated when there is no real trigger—sometimes lasting for days, months, or even years—chronic inflammation results. This underlying inflammation can become the root of many diseases, including heart disease, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes (check out my book The Plant-Powered Plan to Beat Diabetes for more information), cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and neurological degeneration.

    Mediterranean Sheet Pan Veggies

    That’s why it’s so important to discover ways to infuse more anti-inflammatory ingredients into your lifestyle by creating an anti-inflammatory kitchen. I’m sharing some of my favorite anti inflammatory recipes below, as well as my top 20 anti inflammatory foods tips to promote an anti-inflammatory cooking style.

    Promoting Anti-Inflammatory Living

    Perhaps no one is more familiar with anti-inflammatory living than Andrew Weil, MD, director of integrative medicine at the University of Arizona and author of several books, including Eating Well for Optimum Health. “All diseases of aging have a common root: inappropriate inflammation. Now it is a mainstream view that the inflammatory process promotes diseases like coronary heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease. There is also a link to cancer; anything that upregulates inflammation increases the pressure for cells to divide rapidly,” reports Weil. “Inflammation is at the cornerstone of the body’s healing process; it’s so powerful yet so destructive. If it is chronic at low levels that are imperceptible throughout the body, it creates the foundation of age-related diseases.

    Fighting Inflammation with Diet

    A growing body of evidence links particular foods and eating patterns with lower levels of inflammatory biomarkers. Both epidemiological studies and intervention trials support a link between diet and a reduced risk of many chronic diseases, and experts believe that the diet-inflammation connection might be one explanation. In a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, scientists found that diets high in refined starches, sugars, saturated fats, and trans fats and low in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and omega-3 fatty acids appear to turn on the inflammatory response. But a diet rich in whole foods, including healthful carbohydrates and fat and protein sources, along with regular exercise and not smoking, seems to cool down inflammation.

    Weil points out that epidemiological evidence links traditional dietary patterns, such as the Japanese and Mediterranean diets, with lower disease rates. Both diets have characteristics linked with lower inflammation levels. The traditional Japanese diet is low in fat, sugar, flour, and dairy and high in fish, vegetables, sea vegetables, rice, green tea, fruit, and soy foods, while the Mediterranean diet is low in meat and sugar and high in fish, whole grains, olive oil, fruits, and vegetables. In addition, vegan and vegetarian diets—high in plant foods—have been linked with lower levels of inflammation.

    Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal with Pistachios

    “You can go through life with an anti-inflammatory lifestyle or you can go through life with a proinflammatory lifestyle. Diet has a huge impact on inflammation. People should stop eating refined, processed, manufactured foods and eat an abundance of fruits and vegetables that are high in phytonutrients that protect against cancer and other diseases and focus on high-quality vegetable proteins such as legumes, nuts, grains, and soy foods,” stresses Weil.

    Scientists are also exploring the benefits of individual foods on inflammation. While a dietary pattern rich in plant foods appears to be at the root of lower inflammation, particular foods such as berries, tomato products, walnuts, turmeric, and red wine appear to be especially promising, according to recent research. Britt Burton-Freeman, PhD, MS, director of nutrition at the National Center for Food Safety and Technology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, reports that the modern Western diet—high in calories, fat, and sugar and low in nutrients—is proinflammatory. In fact, obesity is a proinflammatory state. But individuals can fight this inflammatory status with diet, she says.

    Southwestern Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie

    Burton-Freeman explains that phytonutrients in plant foods reduce disease risk through multiple inflammation-related pathways. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 12-week crossover trial that Burton-Freeman led (and was published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition), a strawberry beverage reduced overweight men’s and women’s inflammatory response to a high-fat meal. In another study that Burton-Freeman authored, tomato paste blocked meal-induced inflammation in healthy-weight men and women.

    “There are dietary strategies that can combat inflammation,” she says. “The effect of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables can be seen even at a single meal. Consider a lifetime of meals unprotected from inflammation or a lifetime of meals protected.”

    Jackfruit Black Bean and Quinoa Tacos

    Top 20 Anti-Inflammatory Foods Tips

    Scientific evidence is moving forward to paint a picture of an anti-inflammatory diet that looks something like this:

    1. Eat a rich in a variety of plant-based foods to provide an assortment of nutrients and anti-inflammatory compounds.
    2. Paint a colorful plate, providing a rainbow of phytochemicals which are responsible for the colors in plants.
    3. Avoid highly processed, refined, low-nutrient foods, such as refined grains, and sugary foods and beverages.
    4. Focus on whole, minimally processed plant foods, such as whole grains, pulses, fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
    5. Pack in fruits and vegetables (at least half your plate!) to provide antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds.
    6. Add dark green leafy vegetables to the diet often, such as kale, spinach, mustard greens, and arugula.
    7. Cook with mushrooms frequently, which are rich in anti-inflammatory compounds.
    8. Include frequent intake of berries, such as blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and cranberries.
    9. Balance calories to promote healthy weight; excess calories can promote inflammation.
    10. Emphasize healthful carbohydrates, in particular, which are less refined, high in fiber, and low in glycemic index.
    11. Eat most of your grains in their whole form (intact kernels are better than flour), such as farro, oats, barley, brown rice, quinoa, and sorghum.
    12. Trim added sugars intake, such as cane sugar, corn syrup, and high fructose corn syrup.
    13. Reduce animal proteins, with seafood (if it is consumed) as the primary animal source.
    14. Make plant proteins the star of the plate, such as pulses, soy foods, and nuts.
    15. Focus on healthful fats, such as mono and poly-unsaturarated fats, like extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, and avocados.
    16. Minimize unhealthful fats, such as saturated found in animal foods and tropical oils, and trans fats (which have been banned in recent years).
    17. Include regular omega-3 fatty acid intake from plant sources such as walnuts, flax, soy foods, and chia seeds (and fish for non-vegetarians).
    18. Flavor foods with antioxidant spices and herbs, such as garlic, green herbs, ginger, and turmeric.
    19. Enjoy healthful beverages, such as water, tea or coffee (without the addition of added sugars or saturated fat) and moderate red wine (if you choose to drink alcohol).
    20. Allow for small amounts of antioxidant-rich dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa) as a treat.
    Edamame Brown Rice Salad with Chard

    Healthful and Delicious Anti Inflammatory Cooking

    An anti-inflammatory cooking style happens to blend in with an overall optimal dietary pattern recommended by numerous health experts and organizations. Even the Dietary Guidelines for Americans advises an eating pattern that shares much in common with this dietary style. With its emphasis on whole, antioxidant-rich plant foods, healthful fats, flavorful herbs and spices, healthful proteins, and moderate wine and chocolate consumption, it may be not only a healthful lifestyle but also a delicious one.

    Curried White Bean Hummus

    Anti-Inflammatory Shopping List

    To help create an anti-inflammatory kitchen, use this grocery shopping food list.

    Fish and Shellfish (vegetarians and vegans may omit)

    • Cod
    • Flounder
    • Halibut
    • Mackerel
    • Mussels
    • Oysters
    • Salmon
    • Sardines (canned in olive oil or water)
    • Scallops
    • Shrimp
    • Tuna (light, canned in water)

    Fruits (fresh, frozen, or canned without sugar)

    Grains

    Herbs and Spices (fresh or dried)

    Pulses, Soy Foods, Nuts, Seeds

    Oils 

    Vegetables (fresh, frozen, or canned without salt)

    Miscellaneous Items

    • Dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
    • Red wine in moderation (if you choose to drink alcohol)
    • Tea (green, white, or black)

    Note: This is a partial shopping list—many additional cultural, traditional foods contain anti-inflammatory compounds.

    Try these Top 10 Anti Inflammatory Recipes:

    Pomegranate Avocado Quinoa Salad
    Southwest Stuffed Bell Peppers with Black Beans and Quinoa
    Pistachio Turmeric Rice Power Bowl
    Apple Raisin Red Cabbage Slaw
    Vegan Sloppy Joes
    Ratatouille with White Beans
    Smoky Sweet Potato Chili
    Snow Peas and Seitan Vegetable Stir Fry
    Italian Zucchini Boats with Vegan Pesto
    Arugula Salad with Tomatoes

    This post may contain affiliate links. For more information click here.

    https://sharonpalmer.com/top-20-anti-inflammatory-foods/”>

    #Create #Inflammation #Fighting #Kitchen #Top #Anti #Inflammatory #Foods #Tips #Sharon #Palmer #Plant #Powered #Dietitian