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What makes food inflammatory?

amblight
amblight Posts: 350 Member
edited February 25 in Food and Nutrition
I'm struggeling to find info on inflammatory foods, which isn't clearly biased.
I'm seeing a lot of anti-carb and anti-dairy, and I can't really pick out if it's based on facts, or just some vague clean/healthy ideas.
Can anyone define what makes a food inflammatory? Or offer a link to an unbiased info? I would like to know a simple, unbiased way to figure if something is inflammatory or not - I've read several places that heavy glycemic load can cause inflammation, so I was thinking of going by that, though apparently saturated fats are also inflammatory? So would I be close to avoiding inflammatory foods if I avoided heavy glycemic loads + sat fat? Not seeing any reason to cut out high protein (and thus, low fat, low carb) dairy, right?

Replies

  • CipherZero
    CipherZero Posts: 1,418 Member
    Typically 'inflammatory foods' refer to ones high in arachidonic acid (AA) as opposed to foods high in eicosapentaenoic acid or icosapentaenoic acid (EPA). It's been theorized that a high ratio of AA to EPA causes inflammatory response of the immune system.
  • amblight
    amblight Posts: 350 Member
    Typically 'inflammatory foods' refer to ones high in arachidonic acid (AA) as opposed to foods high in eicosapentaenoic acid or icosapentaenoic acid (EPA). It's been theorized that a high ratio of AA to EPA causes inflammatory response of the immune system.

    Al right, thanks, finally something specific to look for!

    So, this would suggest I should aim to get less fats from nuts, grains and poultry, and more fats from fish and dark green veggies (lol, I'm always saying how those 2 things are sooo nutrient dense... For my nutrition exam, I said that "when in doubt, just write 'fat fish and dark green veggies'", and it was probably right half the time).
  • bkthandler
    bkthandler Posts: 247 Member
    I have read this book Anti-Inflammation Diet For Dummies and it was pretty straight forward.

    Also google Dr. Weil and anti-inflammatory and his website has some interesting stuff. Ignore all the suppliments but there is still good info.
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