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Are you looking for a diet to help ease inflammation? Or maybe you’ve heard about an anti-inflammatory meal plan and you’re wondering whether it will work for your health needs.
Read on to better understand the anti-inflammatory diet. Once you’re up to speed, you can have informed conversations with your healthcare provider about whether you want to try it and how to do so safely.
An anti-inflammatory diet is designed to help your body fight inflammation. There’s no one diet plan that’s anti-inflammatory. Instead, you’d consume certain foods that might help (or at least don’t contribute to) inflammation. You’d also avoid foods that can add to the overall amount of inflammation in your body.
In general, these diets will want you to choose most of your food from categories such as:
Anti-inflammatory diets will advise you to avoid things like processed or refined sugars, processed foods, alcohol, and red meat, particularly the more fatty options.
Other versions of this diet may have you focus on eating more of specific compounds in foods, like polyphenols, vitamin C, omega-3 fatty acids, and probiotics. The Mediterranean diet and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) are popular diet plans that focus on eating anti-inflammatory foods.
The Dietary Inflammatory Index can help you figure out which foods are more likely to cause inflammation. It looks at the effects foods have on certain inflammatory markers connected to inflammation, then gives each one a score. It can help you figure out which specific foods you want to eat and which ones you want to avoid.
Some of these diets may also take into account the ways you cook, since some methods are connected to higher inflammation than others. They prefer you cook your food by stir-frying, baking, steaming, or even using the microwave, rather than cooking it on the grill or eating fried food. Cooking methods like grilling or frying use high temperatures, which can produce advanced glycation end products (AGEs) that may contribute to inflammation.
Inflammation and obesity seem to be closely connected. Being diagnosed with obesity makes it more likely that you’ll experience systemic inflammation, and that relationship may go both ways. Obesity is connected to having fat around your internal organs, which is called visceral fat. Basically, your system gets overloaded with fat cells and too much nutrition. This sends signals to your body that your immune system needs to be activated, which causes inflammation.
Most of the time, inflammation is a healthy response in your body. It helps you fight off invaders like bacteria, allergens, and viruses. You might experience swelling or a fever, but these are signs that your body is doing what it’s supposed to do. It can, however, end up damaging healthy cells. You can also end up with an inflammatory response that doesn’t go completely away. You may not notice this type of inflammation, but it’s the kind that puts you at an increased risk for a lot of different conditions.
You can end up with both damaged tissues and chronic inflammation associated with obesity. Additionally, inflammation is a factor not only in obesity but also in other conditions. These include heart disease, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, some types of cancer, and arthritis, some of which are connected to obesity as well.
Inflammation may be connected to issues like joint pain and fatigue, which can come along with obesity. It’s also connected to a higher risk of developing sarcopenia obesity, where you lose muscle mass alongside carrying more fat. This puts you at a higher risk of developing complications of obesity, too.
Inflammation may be connected to carrying a certain type of fat in your body. This may be why some people living with obesity experience more or less inflammation than others do. This type of fat may also explain the connection between obesity and many of these other diseases that are connected to inflammation.
Emerging research shows weight stigma itself can also take a physical toll on the body. In one long-term study, people who reported being treated unfairly because of their weight had more than twice the risk of developing metabolic changes and inflammation. This link remained even after researchers took body weight into account.
All of these reasons are why people diagnosed with obesity might consider anti-inflammatory diets.
Anti-inflammatory diets have been shown to help with a number of symptoms, some of which are associated with obesity. These include:
However, it can be hard to know if a particular diet is going to help you specifically. The best thing to do might be to try one and see if your symptoms improve.
If you choose an anti-inflammatory diet, the Mediterranean diet is one beneficial option. It often helps people living with obesity lower their body weight, which can help with quite a few symptoms. It can also help change the number and types of fat in your blood to make that balance healthier. It helps your immune system and the number and type of bacteria in your gut, too, which may decrease inflammation significantly.
A DASH diet may also be helpful, particularly in people diagnosed with both obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). It may work for people without that second diagnosis, too. It’s been shown to help people lower their body weight, lower their blood glucose levels, and lower the amount of inflammation they experience.
These two diets are very similar. The Mediterranean diet focuses more on eating fish than the DASH diet does. The Mediterranean diet also focuses on eating healthy fats and moderate amounts of sodium, while the DASH diet limits both. You can eat a moderate amount of dairy on the Mediterranean diet, while the DASH diet focuses on eating it but wants you to eat low-fat versions. Finally, the Mediterranean diet allows a moderate amount of wine, while the DASH diet tends to eliminate alcohol. If any of these foods are important factors for you, they may help you decide which diet to try first.
Keep in mind that diet is just one piece of the puzzle. Regular exercise, avoiding smoking, and limiting alcohol are also key to reducing inflammation.
If you’re looking for the best diet for your health goals or you want a specific eating plan, your first stop should be your healthcare provider’s office. They can not only help you decide if an anti-inflammatory diet plan is right for you but also help you answer more specific questions like “What is the best anti-inflammatory meal for me?” and “What to eat in the morning for inflammation?”
If your doctor isn’t comfortable offering you the level of dietary support you need, they can refer you to a registered dietitian. These professionals are trained in helping people choose diet plans that work for them. They can also help you with the specifics, like which foods to buy, which recipes taste the best, and what your grocery list should look like.
You don’t have to do it all yourself. These healthcare professionals can help you get the most out of any diet you choose, including the anti-inflammatory diet, so you can live well, keep your quality of life high, and improve your overall sense of wellness in the world.
On MyObesityTeam, people share their experiences with obesity, get advice, and find support from others who understand.
What has your experience with the anti-inflammatory diet been like? Let others know in the comments below.
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