Anyone Have Success With An Anti-Inflammatory Diet?

This is basically the outline of the anti-inflammatory diet that we give out at the medical clinic I work at. I have seen great benefits from people that have a lot of pain while on this diet. In summary eat more plant based diet, with organic meat and vegetable when possible, and avoid anything processed.

PROTEIN goal: to get sufficient healthy source of protein to supply the amino acids that help to preserve and build muscle, and heal musculoskeletal tissues.
- for sedentary individuals: 0.8gm/kg
- when doing aerobic training that is moderate to vigorous: 1.2g/kg lean body weight
- when weight lifting to make body shaping: 1.4-1.6g/kg
- while healing from surgery 1-1.2g/kg
- for healing tendon or ligament from an injury 1.2g/kg of lean weight

- eat protein with each meal and snack
- limit or eliminate red meat unless it is free-range, grass-fed beef or lamb
- avoid charring/browning proteins/meats
- use organic meats or free-grange meat and poultry when possible
- use free range eggs but avoid browning the eggs
- avoid lunch meat that have nitrate or nitrites
- use walnut as protein source for snack and for omega 3 fatty acids
use mixed nuts and seeds
- nut butters, soy
- organic milk products
- for milk substitutes, you can use soy, rice, almond, or oat milk
- beans and grains as source of protein and fiber
- get at lest 1/3 - 1/4 of your daily protein need at breakfast
- minimize large fish such as tuna and swordfish because of mercury. Avoid farm raised salmon because of PCBs, river trout is usually okay

FAT goal: eat healthy fats and decrease unhealthy fats
- use coconut oil, canola, or olive oil for cooking
- make your own salad dressing with 2 parts flax oil, 4 parts extra virgin olive oil, and red wine or basalmic vinegar
- use sources of omega 3 : flax seed, chia seed, ocean salmon, walnut
- use a daily supplement of 1-4 g of high EPA/DHA fish oil purified to eliminate mercury, pesticides, etc
- use dry-roasted or raw nuts
- eliminate deep fried and breaded fried food
- avoid all partially hydrogenated oil and trans fats by reading labels
- decrease saturated fats (ice cream). Try to limit foods that have more than 6-8 grams of fat per serving

CARBOHYDRATE goals: limit non-nutritive carbs and use healthy complex carbs as an energy and vitamin source.
- have a daily intake of healthy and colorful fruits (berries, pomegranate, apples, pears, and citrus fruits) and veggies for fiber and beneficial phytochemicals to help your body quench free radicals and biotransform (detoxify) toxins
- eat healthy vegetables (organic when possible)
- eat other vegetables for their nutrients and fibers
- eat from the onion family daily
- consider juicing organic vegetables to improve your intake of phytochemicals
- limit cookies, cake, scones, muffins, potatoes, starches, sugars, rice, pasta, and breads unless you are training for a long aerobic event or do not have a weight management problem; in that case, use whole and sprouted grains in bread or boiled
- eat beans for soluble fibers and to limit colon inflammation
- use a bread that has at least 3-5 grams of protein and fiber per slice
- use whole grain sources for carbs suc has quinoa, millet, etc
- use a breakfast cereal that has at leat 8 grams of fiber and 4-10 grams of protein per cup

FOOD ADDITIVES
- try to avoid artificial coloring and diet beverages with aspartame
- minimize and avoid food containing ingredients that have MSG or hidden MSG.

STEPS FOR HEALTHIER FOOD CHOICES
- minimize partiall hydrogenated oil in processed foods ("no trans fats")
- minimize or avoid eating at fast food restaurants. At restaurants choose butter based toppings on the side, eliminate sour cream and cream based dishes. Choose salads (with oil and vinegar or vinaigrette), vegetables and avoid deep fried entrees.
- Minimize or avoid deep fried and breaded foods.
- Minimize sugar and starches
- increase healthy fruits such as apples and berries
- try to choose organic fruits and vegetables when your budget and the availability of these items allows.
- eat protein at every meal
- try to purchase free-range poultry and meat (if you are not vegetarian)
- try to choose low-fat, organic dairy products
- use good multivitamin mineral supplement at meals - minimum of 500mg calcium, magnesium 500 mg, and antioxidants (A,C,E, selenium)
- try some green tea daily
- minimize drinks with fructose and corn syrup
- choose veggie juices such as V8 or an organic version
-for fruit juice, choose one with a lot of phytonutrients and antioxidants
- if you are trying to lose weight, limit juices other than veggie juices to 4-6 ounces per day

(sorry I got lazy as I was typing the handout... I left some things out.. let me know if you have more questions).

An anti inflammatory diet massively reduced my eczema, but I got rid of that entirely simply by stopping using sulphate surfactants! It is difficult to separate the 'reducing inflammation' component from the 'boosting nutrition' component, if you cut out added sugar and white refined carbs, consume more oily fish and more fruit and veggies you are obviously going to end up with more vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and antioxidants available to the body.

Some acute inflammation is absolutely beneficial as part of the 'healing cascade' but too much is known to be damaging to tissue, plus no topical or diet will eliminate it all you are just looking to moderate the chronic stuff, the inappropriate immune responses. It's possible to still benefit from the healing cascade without a massive inflammatory response by using anti inflammatory or healing foods/ supplements/ topicals, you can trigger the cascade at different points. For example reams of published research on the properties of standardised aloe vera inner leaf extract when used topically (healing, collagen induction, antioxidant, anti inflammatory), plenty on the different actions of pro/ anti inflammatory foods or nutrients like the omega-3s and omega-6s, and more being published all the time.

The inflammation cascade occurs when there is a damage or irritant that starts off a pathway that brings macrophages to the area to get rid of an infection. Depending on which cascade is activated, sometimes the complement system is turned on which kills off certain cells. This is good if it is acute such as when you have an infection.

It becomes an inappropriate response when it becomes chronic, resulting in a systemic inflammatory response such as Crohn's disease. Long term inflammation results in changes to the vascular and bronchial lining. That in turn affects the guts where nutrients are absorbed, serotonin is produced (which is important in mental health), thyroid production, and immune response.

If you have an inflammatory disease such as allergies, asthma, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel disease, pelvic inflammatory disease, vasculitis, acne, etc you would benefit. Some of the basic symptoms that most people are not aware of is bloating and fatigue.