Inflammatory Foods and Nutrition

Inflammatory Foods and Nutrition

Do you know what Inflammatory Foods are and how they affect your Nutrition?

We all know that processed foods are bad for us. But do you know why?

Processed foods often contain things that are inflammatory to the body and especially the gut. Things such as damaged fats, excess sugar, and oxidised cholesterol.

How to make better nutitional choices.

Sometimes it is hard to make nutritious choices in our fast-paced modern world. Here are some examples of food swops you may want to consider:

Instant oat cereal                 VS   Overnight porridge oats

Cheddar cheese                   VS   Cheese-Strings

Bio-live natural yogurt          VS   Benecol

Sourdough wholemeal bread VS   white sliced bread

Butter                                 VS    Margarine

Rice                                     VS    Rice cakes

 

Eating a greater proportion of seeds, nuts, wild organic meat, dark green vegetables, and oily fish also dampens down any inflammation. Fermented foods help to digest carbohydrates and keep your gut happy. Eating small amounts of these fermented foods daily is key. Changing them up to give variety to the gut is also important.

However, diet is not the whole story.

Exercise and fasting are equally important.

Exercise increases the insulin sensitivity of cells so less insulin is released and big spikes in blood sugar are not seen. It also increases gut motility and decreases stress hormones.

Fasting for 5-6hrs between meals encourages gut motility. Overnight fasting (e.g.12hrs) encourages the gut to ‘clean’ itself, leanness, a robust immunity and good mental health!

Long term low level inflammation is often a trigger for many chronic diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, bowel conditions like IBS and auto-immune disease and cancer.

Top 10 Inflammatory Foods:

1. Refined sugar like that found in fizzy drinks, pastries and cakes, sweets, and snack bars,
2. Vegetable oils from corn, canola, soybean and safflower and all the products that contain them
3. Non-organic Dairy products
4. Gluten – An inherently inflammatory item, but it is now found everywhere in our food
5. Fried foods
6. Refined white flour
7. Processed corn
8. Artificial chemicals and additives
9. Trans fats
10. Alcohol

Top 10 Anti-Inflammatory Foods:

1. Dark chocolate
2. Extra virgin olive oil
3. Pomegranate
4. Berries
5. Avocados
6. Mushrooms
7. Oily fish like salmon and mackerel
8. Dark green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale
9. Nuts like almonds, walnuts and pistachios
10. Turmeric

Top 10 Fermented Foods:

1. Kefir
2. Miso
3. Sauerkraut
4. Kimchi
5. Kombucha
6. Bio Live Plain yogurt
7. Apple cider vinegar with the ‘mother’
8. Tempeh
9. Tofu
10. Sourdough bread

 5 ways to decrease/prevent inflammation in our bodies:

1. Eat a diverse diet! Lots of different coloured fruit and vegetables, textures, flavours and cuisines.
2. Leave longer between meals and overnight.
3. Exercise regularly.
4. Eat fermented foods little and often.
5. Decrease or slowly cut down on processed foods.

Let me know if you have made any of the above swops or changes to your diet and how this has changed your health!