I like to experiment on myself. You never know what will work, and how will you know if you don’t try? I also firmly believe there is an optimal diet out there for everyone, and what works for one person will not necessarily work for anyone else. So experiment! As long as you’re getting all your nutrients, and the majority of your diet is vegetables, why not give it a try? (Sorry, this means an all pizza diet, while a tempting proposition, is probably not a good idea. Side note, that would require breakfast pizza. Which sounds amazing.)

Anyway, one of the most powerful therapies in naturopathic medicine is food. GLORIOUS food. The source of our culture’s greatest pleasure and greatest pain. I have tried most popular diets for a month, just to see how I feel. Most recently, I tried the anti-inflammatory diet. I probably should have tried it ages ago, but better late than never I suppose.

How it works

This diet focuses on decreasing major allergens/sensitivities and other foods that increase inflammatory chemicals, improving blood sugar regulation, increasing the supply of nutrients and anti-oxidants, and improving the detoxification processes. Decreasing inflammatory foods is key: these foods not only create inflammation but also use up anti-oxidants that could be used to clean up inflammation your body is making. It’s a big double whammy. So much of the chronic disease experienced today has either inflammation at its root, or inflammation as a result. So decreasing inflammation will either solve or reduce symptoms of so many diseases.

Now what to eat?

The basic, bare bones rules: Avoiding foods that increase inflammation. This includes fatty animal products that aren’t from grass fed organic sources, products that contain trans fat, caffeine, alcohol, and any processed foods. Additionally, anything you have an allergy or sensitivity to. It’s a good idea to just eliminate the big things that are generally a problem for a lot of people. These are gluten, dairy, corn, eggs, soy, and nightshade vegetables. Ok, but what do you increase? Greens!!! So many greens. Cold water fish (sardines are my favourite sustainable option). Orange/yellow/red vegetables, but just not peppers or tomatoes because those are part of the nightshade family. Keep your carbohydrates to complex sources quinoa, rice, millet and oats. Also, as much as red wine is the nectar of the gods, and coffee the reason I wake up in the morning, part of this diet is giving alcohol and coffee a break.

More information

Now this is a sampling of only three books on the subject. So full disclosure, this is in NO way an exhaustive list. My favourite book is Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo. What a wonderful book, and the recipes are absolutely delicious. However, not everyone does well on paleo or maybe you eat vegetarian or vegan and so eating a lot of meat isn’t really in your game plan. The Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Action Plans by Dorothy Calimeris and Sondi Bruner and The Anti-Inflammatory Diet in 21 by Sondi Bruner are both wonderful. They have meal plans and lots of options for those who aren’t eating a lot of meat. Here are some additional links to read up on inflammation and how diet can contribute or help, but there are so much more out there!

Some Research

Diet and Inflammation by Galland L. (2010) – human studies correlate diet diary with inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein, IL-6, and TNF-alpha. These studies reveal a modest effect of diet on markers on inflammation on adults who are going about their daily lives without active intervention. Significant dietary influence is seen with glycemic load, fibre, fatty acids, and some micronutrients found in fruits and vegetables. One diet in particular, the mediterranean diet, contains larger amounts of these anti-inflammatory foods and has been shown to have anti-inflammatory benefits when compared to the standard American diet.

Low Grade inflammation, diet composition and health: current research evidence and its translation by Minihane, A. M. et al (2015) – There is lots of research suggesting that many aspects of diet and gut health influence inflammatory markers in the blood. Some of these gut bacteria, dietary fats, and carbohydrate intake. Some limitations of dietary studies are that they only measure a few markers of inflammation, and usually in a fasting state, which may not accurately tell us what is going on inside the cells themselves. But there is enough evidence suggesting that there is a benefit to warrant utilizing this diet and to continue to research to understand the interaction between diet and inflammation.

Effect of Nutritional Status and Dietary Patterns on Human Serum C-Reactive Protein and Interleukin-6 Concentrations by Smidowicz, A. (2015) – Many studies confirm that fruit, vegetables, high fibre, and plant foods are associated with low inflammatory blood markers. Low fat and low carbohydrate diets produce conflicting results, but these results may actually be the results of weight loss on inflammatory markers. Another diet that has had a little research on it is the DASH diet, but studies done suggest that it does reduce C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation).

Some gaps in this research is the affect on food sensitivities and leaky gut syndrome on inflammation markers (a not well studied area to begin with) and animal product source on inflammation markers (conventionally raised farm animals vs. grass fed organic). But these review studies do strongly indicate that diet can have an affect on inflammation markers in the blood.

And those are the basics! Keep in mind, success with this diet will be directly related to how closely the diet is followed. This is why I go full force for a month, it’s short enough that I can commit to it but long enough to really see how the diet affects me.