You may have seen warnings about the effects of inflammation on your health, but is it truly that bad? Everyone experiences inflammation sometimes, as it’s your body’s way of responding to injuries, bacteria, and other harmful occurrences. While short-term or acute inflammation is a normal part of the healing process, inflammation that occurs over months or years can damage your health.
This condition, called chronic inflammation, can cause symptoms like pain, persistent fatigue, constipation, and recurrent infections. It can also contribute to conditions including cardiovascular diseases, cancers such as colon and breast cancer, Type 2 diabetes, asthma, and more. Around 3 in 5 people around the world die from chronic inflammatory diseases, according to a study published in the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine. “Anyone who has been told by their physician that they have or should be concerned about developing any of these conditions should consider making some dietary adjustments to address overall health and inflammation,” says registered dietitian Lindsey Modica.
A variety of environmental and lifestyle factors may play a role in chronic inflammation. These include diet, stress, lack of exercise, air pollution, smoking, and more. Don’t be discouraged, though—this means that everyday choices also offer many opportunities to reduce your risk of inflammation and resulting diseases.
Diet is an important cause of inflammation—but also an effective way to fight it. The Western diet is high in saturated fats and refined sugars that are linked to an increase in pro-inflammatory molecules. Specific foods that may contribute to inflammation include red meat, processed meats such as bacon and deli meats, deep-fried foods like donuts and French fries, white flour bread and pasta, and sugary foods such as sodas, sports drinks, and candy. Besides often containing ingredients like sugar that actively lead to chronic inflammation, processed convenience products common in a Western diet also “lack fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants like anthocyanins and polyphenols” that can reduce inflammation, Modica says.
To help combat inflammation, Modica recommends plant-forward diets like the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) and Mediterranean diets. “Both of these diets include a much higher quantity of natural, unprocessed ingredients than typical Western diets,” she explains. Each one contains plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts, but the lower-fat DASH diet focuses on lean meats and low-fat dairy while the Mediterranean diet emphasizes seafood and olive oil and limiting meat. Both avoid sugary foods and full-fat dairy products like whole milk and butter. “Several research studies have shown that the Mediterranean diet is associated with reduced metabolic and cardiovascular disease risk,” Modica says, such as a research review published in the journal Biomedicines in 2020. In addition, because inflammation is linked to obesity, following these diets can lower your inflammation risk while helping you maintain a healthy weight.
Modica also recommends specific foods to target inflammation, such as leafy greens, fruits like berries and oranges, almonds, fatty fish (like salmon), and olive oil. Many fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants and polyphenols, which are natural compounds that help protect the body from damage including inflammation. “Coffee and tea also contain polyphenols and other anti-inflammatory compounds and may protect against inflammation, although it is important to avoid adding too much sugar to these beverages,” Modica adds.
The good news is that dietary and other lifestyle efforts don’t need to be all or nothing. “For most people, I suggest starting with adding more vegetables and fruit to your day,” Modica says. This may mean including an extra serving of vegetables to each meal or having fruit with Greek yogurt as a snack. “Working to substitute commonly eaten pro-inflammatory foods with anti-inflammatory foods can start to make a difference,” she adds. Modica recommends replacing French fries with a baked potato (“leave the skin on for extra fiber,” she says), a charcuterie board with a vegetable tray with hummus, or Alfredo sauce on white pasta with tomato sauce on whole wheat or chickpea pasta.
Small changes can help in other areas, too. Exercising regularly, avoiding smoking, and limiting alcohol intake will improve your health and reduce your risk of chronic inflammation. Getting sufficient, uninterrupted sleep is also beneficial, as recent research links sleep disturbances to an increased risk of infections and inflammation. Finally, in recent years, researchers have linked chronic and acute stress to inflammation, so it’s key to manage stress levels.
There’s no guaranteed way to avoid chronic inflammation and related health conditions; the idea is to find ways to lower your risk. “Inflammation and its relationship to disease and overall healthy is multifaceted, but it is important to start to take steps to reduce it whenever possible,” says Modica. “With a little extra thought into the choices you make, you can start to make steps in the right direction.”