Anti-Inflammatory Diet

What to Expect? You may experience detox symptoms such as headache and fatigue during the first
few days. It's your body getting rid of toxins. It's OK to feel hungry.

Inflammation is part of the body’s immune response; without it, we can't heal. But when it's out of
control—as in Rheumatoid Arthritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis among others—it can damage the body.
Plus, it's thought to play a role in obesity, Heart Disease, Diabetes and Cancer.

Foods high in sugar and saturated fat can spur inflammation. “They cause over activity in the immune
system, which can lead to joint pain, fatigue, and damage to the blood vessels,”

The anti-inflammatory is designed primarily to reduce the risks of age-related disease and optimize
health, and is not a diet specifically for weight loss. Nonetheless, many people will lose weight on it.
Stabilizing blood sugar by eating low-glycemic-load meals, eating lean protein with healthy fats,
drinking plenty of water, and having high quantities of fiber from fresh fruits and vegetables all
contribute to increased metabolism, which helps the body burn fat rather than store it.

The anti-inflammatory diet gives you a healthy balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
Most people these fats are found in oil-rich seeds and the oils extracted from them, which are used in
almost all snack foods and fast foods.Omega-3 fatty acids have an anti-inflammatory effect and are found
in oily fish, walnuts, flax, hemp, and to a smaller degree in soy and canola oils and sea vegetables.

The Insulin-Inflammation Connection

All carbohydrates convert to sugar in the blood, and the more refined the carbohydrates are, the
quicker the conversion goes.

Refined carbohydrates such as crackers and white bread cause a rapid rise in blood sugar, which in
turn triggers your pancreas to produce a surge of insulin in order to escort the sugar into your cells
and out of your bloodstream (high blood sugar levels are dangerous.) However, excess insulin is a
problem. Not only does excess insulin promote the storage of pro-inflammatory body fat, excess
insulin also activates enzymes that cause your body to produce a type of fat called arachidonic acid
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Janette Reyes-Heath PhD Holistic Nutrition Coach
(AA) that can promote the production of inflammatory messengers. Although some amount of AA is
necessary for your body to function optimally, an excess of AA can be detrimentally inflammatory.

One way you can control inflammation and prevent your body from producing excess amounts of
insulin and too much AA is by simply avoiding refined carbohydrates and choosing unrefined
“whole” carbohydrates in their natural form. “Whole” carbohydrates should lay the foundation of
your anti-inflammatory diet pyramid.

Carbohydrate foods also influence the inflammatory process. In the body, chemical reactions
between the sugars and protein produce pro-inflammatory compounds called AGEs (advanced
glycation end products). You can moderate this process by keeping blood sugar low and stable. That
means eating less bread, white potatoes, crackers, chips and other snack foods, pastries, and
sweetened drinks, less refined and processed foods, and by avoiding fast foods and products made
with high fructose corn syrup. Instead, eat more whole grains, beans, sweet potatoes, winter
squashes and other vegetables and temperate fruits such as berries, cherries, apples, and pears
instead of tropical fruits such as bananas, pineapple, mango and papaya.

As far as protein is concerned, eat less meat and poultry, both of which contain pro-inflammatory
fats, and more vegetable protein (soy foods, beans, lentils and other legume), whole grains, seeds,
and nuts. If you eat fish, choose the oily varieties that give you omega-3s (wild Alaska salmon,
sardines, herring, and black cod).

You can eat as much as you want of this Non-Starchy Vegetables and Greens
as they are low in Calories and ease inflammation.

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Janette Reyes-Heath PhD Holistic Nutrition Coach
Also, remember to add a lot of fiber in your diet as this one will help to regulate your
colon and also keep your cravings for food under control.

Resources and Research

Harvard Medical School (Harvard Health Publications)
Arthritis Foundation
American Diabetes Association
Andrew Weil, M.D.
GCNM Global College of Natural Medicine
Kingdom College

3| Page Naturalgren LLC 2014 ©

Janette Reyes-Heath PhD Holistic Nutrition Coach