Inflammation and The Food We Eat

When you hear the word inflammation you are probably like most people in that you think about the redness that appears around a cut or burn but unless you suffer from arthritis you may not think about the inflammation that occurs internally. Inflammation can be a good thing or a bad thing for the body.

The goodness of inflammation is that redness that appears around a cut or burn since that is a part of the healing process. The badness is when inflammation triggers the start of disease or pain, something that is much researched and still only partially understood.

It is known that inflammation plays a role in heart disease, cancer, mental health and in athletic performance – inflammation is a part of the muscle aches after a long workout - what is less clear is why inflammation acts as it does in some people and differently in others or what role our diet plays. Current evidence seems to indicate that there is a protective component in a wide variety of plant foods and certain types of fats.

So while we may not fully understand the impact of the inflammatory process on disease, or muscle aches,  you can shift your diet to achieve known health benefits, all the vitamins and minerals, and possibly protect against the negative aspects of inflammation by considering the following.

• Choose more darkly colored or strongly flavored fruits and vegetables like spinach, kale, broccoli, melons, berries, cherries, sweet potatoes and others.
• Shift your fat choices to olive or canola oil
• Add walnuts and flax seeds to cereals, salads or eat as snacks
• Choose fish like salmon, tuna, sardines, herring and lake trout more often (American Heart Association recommends at least two 3½ ounce servings per week and advises children and pregnant women to limit fish intake to less than 12 ounces/week)

Since research is still evolving in terms of what role foods or food components play in inflammation it is probably best to rely on foods, and not supplements, until more is known about how much, how often and any side effects from supplements.

Connie Diekman, M.Ed. RD, CSSD

Nutrition Communications Consultant