One of the best ways to decrease inflammation in our body is to reduce or remove inflammatory foods.

The "Big 3" inflammatory foods that everyone can benefit from reducing or removing are:

1. Bad Fats

• Partially hydrogenated oils (aka trans-fat)
• Hydrogenated oils
• Rancid vegetable oils (vegetable oils that oxidize when exposed to heat creating cell damaging free radicals)

Our cell walls are made of fats as well as proteins.

The fats we choose to eat, are the fats we build our cell walls from.

When our cell walls are made from bad fats they become more prone to microbial invasion (which increases inflammation).

Cell walls built from bad fats do not function as they should.

Our cell walls are designed to let the "good" stuff in and transport the "bad" stuff out.

When the walls are made of fake or rancid fats, it’s difficult for nutrients and hormones to get into the cells, which means hormones can't get there message to the cell.

It also means that the cell chemical messengers can't get out of the cells to deliver their message, and that toxins from cellular waste can't get out.  Now we self-intoxicate.

Anti-inflammatory Tip 1:

Read labels and avoid anything with trans fats, hydrogenated oils, or vegetable oils (soybean, corn, canola, sunflower & safflower).

Also, do not cook or fry foods in vegetable oil as that will turn them rancid quickly.

2. Commercial Meats

Animals that are meant to eat grass but fed a grain based diet, become inflamed themselves.

We eat what we eat eats.

So when our meat eats inflammatory grains, we eat inflammatory grains.

When the animals we eat are sick and inflamed, we eat the sick animal parts.

Commercially raise animals also consume pesticides and herbicides used on their food, and are injected with hormones and antibiotics (to make them grow and keep them from catching bacteria or viral diseases).

You then “eat” the pesticides, hormones and antibiotics when you eat the meat. These in turn, cause inflammation in your body.

This is how animal products get a bad rap. It’s not the animals themselves that are making us sick, it’s what they are eating and being exposed to (and their resulting ill health) that is making us sick.

Anti-inflammatory Tip 2:

Consume grass-fed, free range, wild and organic animal products.

This will ensure you are getting a cleaner, less toxic, less inflammatory food item.

 3. Sugar

Sugar is in abundance in our food supply and meals today.  

It is minimal in nutrients but high in calories and quickly absorbed which creates and emergency blood sugar response.

This is stressful to the body and creates inflammation. 

Sometimes the hardest part about sugar is that it is in so many foods we wouldn't suspect and listed under names we don't recognize as sugar.

I often share this resource with my clients to help them identify hidden sources of sugar: Hidden Sugars 

Anti-inflammatory Tip 3:

Read all labels to find hidden sugar sources in your diet.

When starting to reduce inflammatory foods in your diet, these 3 categories are a great place to start.

But, sometimes the foods that are causing a lot of inflammation in our body are harder to identify.

Many times they are foods like blueberries, cabbage, green beans, tomatoes that are normally healthy foods but because your body is uniquely reacting to them, they are actually causing inflammation for you.

Our body can develop sensitivities to any food, even a healthy food.

One way to figure this out is to eliminate the food item from your diet for a month and then reintroduce it to see if you notice a reaction (can take up to 4 days for the reaction to show up).

This could take you a long time to test every good to figure out which ones are causing inflammation (and sometimes the reactions are subtle but still causing chronic low grade inflammation)

This is why I use the Mediator Release Test (MRT) with my clients who are working to reduce inflammation and tackle health symptoms or conditions. It helps us identify which foods the person’s body is specifically reacting to.

Here is a sample lab report:

Once we can more accurately identify the unique foods your body is reacting to, we can eliminate the reactive foods temporarily to let your immune system calm down and your gut lining to repair.

I simplify this process for my clients by creating a recipe book of meals that they can eat and help them build a rotational diet.

At then end of the elimination period, we one by one reintroduce foods and watch for reactions to determine if the food is now safe or still needs to be kept out of their diet.

I have been amazed by the improvements in my clients symptoms when they eliminate their reactive foods.

One client was struggling with severe bloating and infrequent bowel movements. We eliminated her food reactions and she now goes daily and isn’t up at night in pain from excess trapped gas in her gut.

Another client made the connection that cinnamon was causing a dip in her mood. She used to have a chia tea daily and now skips it because she feels so much better mentally.

 Are you curious if food reactions are causing your inflammation and symptoms?

Want to know once and for all which foods are making you feel unwell?

Let’s connect on a discovery session and talk about the process for identifying your trigger foods, how to eliminate and heal your gut (and other symptoms) 

If you believe that chronic inflammation is holding you back from feeling your best and being able to enjoy life, let’s connect on a discovery session.

In this complimentary session, we’ll talk about your health concerns and goals, and how Nutritional Therapy can help.  On this call, I can share more about my process and what it’s like to work with me to help you determine if this the solution you’ve been looking for!