Anti-Inflammatory Diets: Do They Work?

Plants continuously produce thousands of compounds called phytochemicals. These chemicals perform vital functions for the plants.  Some plant chemicals are helpful to humans when consumed in foods, such as fruits, vegetables, plant oils, and whole grains.  These phytochemicals have anti-inflammatory properties.


Anti-inflammatory diets purport to protect cells and organs from low-level, chronic inflammation, which some studies have linked to heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and other common health conditions.  Dietitians don’t yet have a diet based on clinical evidence, definitively showing that foods with certain phytochemicals prevent or treat diseases—akin to the DASH diet, shown to lower high blood pressure.

Good and Bad Inflammation: Inflammation is not inherently a bad thing—far from it. Short-lived, or acute, inflammation is part of the body’s healing response to injury, toxins, and infection. Damaged cells release chemicals that allow blood vessels to leak fluid into the tissues, causing swelling that may help to isolate the damage from the surrounding tissues. The immune system dispatches special cells to target invaders like bacteria and eliminate the damaged cells.

Phytochemicals and Foods: If you want to try an anti-inflammatory diet, where do you start?
It is important to talk about anti-inflammatory foods rather than specific anti-inflammatory nutrients.  Anti-inflammatory foods are the ones you are already advised to eat for optimal health.  These include whole grains, which are very rich in phytochemicals, beans, nuts, herbs, and spices are filled with anti-inflammatory compounds called flavonoids and related compounds. Fiber is another part of anti-inflammation, and of course fruits, vegetables, and the omega-3 fatty acids in fish. Anti-inflammatory diets really have some merit but, on the other hand, they’re not magical panaceas.

Here are selected illustrative examples of the wide variety of foods that contain anti-inflammatory phytochemicals:

-Colorful Fruits & Vegetable: Carrots, tomatoes, leafy greens, peppers, and sweet potatoes; blueberries, cherries, oranges, papaya, and strawberries.
-Healthy Fat Sources: Nuts and vegetable oils, such as olive, canola, soybean, and corn; fatty fish, such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, and sardines.
-Whole Grains: Amaranth, barley, brown rice, buckwheat, corn, oats, rye, and wheat.
-Herbs & Spices: Basil, dill, oregano, parsley, and sage; cinnamon, cumin, ginger, paprika, saffron,
and turmeric.
-Beverages: Coffee and tea contain anti-inflammatory phytochemicals.

For more information read this article: Anti-Inflammatory Diets: Do They Work?