The Most Inflammatory Foods and How to Avoid Them

By: Laura Evans

Inflammatory foods are the last thing that you want to inadvertently eat if you are on an anti-inflammatory diet. If you know what foods can cause you inflammatory problems, you can work on minimizing or eliminating the foods from your diet.

Inflammatory Foods
In some ways, discovering the inflammatory foods that you eat in your diet is easy. For example, if the food that you are eating includes sugars, including corn syrup, the food is going to be inflammatory. Drop white bread, rice and pasta from your list of acceptable foods. Junk foods are a complete no-no. Cut back on your alcohol consumption and avoid red meats, as well as dairy products such as milk and cheese.

Part of the problem for people who want to avoid inflammatory foods is that we have become a society dependent on prepackaged foods and processed foods beyond wanting a quick meal from the nearest drive-through. Prepackaged and processed foods can contain ingredients that are just downright bad for your health regardless of the type of diet plan that you choose.

Therefore, you have to become an expert at reading packaging nutrition information. Among the additives that you should try to avoid or reduce are:

  • Salt, listed as sodium
  • MSG
  • Artificial sweeteners
  • Disodium guanylate
  • Disodium inosinate

Even if the pre-packaged foods tout "natural flavors" or say that they are "health" foods, the foods may still have nasty additives. Check the labels.

In addition to additives, processed and pre-packaged foods can contain fats that are not good for inflammation and can lead to other medical problems such as heart disease.

Basically, an anti-inflammatory diet is a healthy diet. Not only might this type of diet help reduce the symptoms of inflammation, this diet can help you lose weight and help you reduce the risks of developing heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes in the future. 

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Studies have linked inflammation to heart disease. Although taking a daily aspirin and losing weight can help to lower your level of inflammation, there are anti-inflammatory foods high in healthy mono-unsaturated and omega-3 fats can make a difference too.

The causes of inflammation are still a mystery. But taking a daily aspirin, statins, participating in daily physical activity and losing weight appears to reduce inflammation in the body.

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