Known facts about inflammatory foods that affect most people.
Your diet affects your inflammation and in turn determines how fast you age. It’s a simple concept that the fuel that goes into your body determines how well your body runs and in turn how healthy you are.
But what’s a healthy diet?
Now let’s talk about diet. There are many opinions about what a “healthy” diet consists of, and there are genetic factors that make a particular diet better for one person, and not as healthy for another, so I will try to present the basic diet that is good for most people in the US and Europe. Why do I say that? Because that is where I practice medicine and the genetic melting pot in the US is primarily European.
Let me give you an example of a difference between genetically European vs Asian people when it comes to diet. The one food that is key to the Asian diet is SOY. Soy has slowly infiltrated the American diet as a thickener or filler in almost every food. Asians genetically thrive on soy, but most European genetic people have a disconnect with soy that causes inflammation and gut disease.
If you have your genetic diet done at my office with a test called Nutrigen, most Europeans will have soy on their “do not eat list”. This one food that is so good for one human is not necessarily good for another. A second example would be the differences in ideal diet for A and AB blood types versus O and B blood types. A and ABs are the only people who can successfully tolerate a “plant based diet”. The other two blood types (O and B) that make up over half the world cannot be healthy on a plant based diet and they must eat animal products including meat, eggs and milk products to be healthy.
You see this is a complicated subject, and one that doesn’t lend itself to following trendy diets and recommendations by Instagram and Facebook. I will direct this Blog to known facts about inflammatory foods that affect most people. If you want to know exactly what to eat for you specifically, then getting a genetic test like Nutrigen to sort out the foods that are not recommended for you! Many of my very smart patients proudly describe their diets as healthy but are unaware of the effects of the additives and preservatives that are contained in them that make them both inflamed and sick. For instance, a 52 year old woman came to her first appointment, and her blood work revealed a high inflammation marker (HS-CRP over 3.0) and she was 50 lbs. overweight and had Prediabetes. I went over her daily diet found it filled with simple carbs that she thought were healthy…well maybe for a skinny 20 year old who runs every day, but not for a sedentary menopausal woman with a blood sugar and obesity problem. Here is what she told me.
She started her day with instant oatmeal which is VERY high in added sugar and simple carbs and doesn’t contain protein. She added some nuts, but that is not enough protein to make an impact to balance her sugar load. This is not the way Americans who are overweight and prediabetic or diabetic should start their day. Sugar in any food increases insulin resistance, suppresses the immune system and increases the risk of autoimmune diseases, immune suppression and most of the diseases of aging!
Every night she had brown rice (both white and brown rice are the highest glycemic food other than pure sugar). No one who is overweight should eat rice. The big lie is that rice is healthy, but it is not for non-Asians. It is the sole reason all my female Indian patients born in India who are married to doctors in the US are obese. Their diet is based on rice at every meal, and they won’t give it up. Sugar increases inflammation even if it is in the form of simple sugar food!
Diet Coke/Diet anything stimulates insulin and contains a variety of chemicals that make a person sick and inflamed. Diet soda is a bad choice due to the preservative chemicals and type of “sweetener-chemical” they contain. Diet soda fills your body with toxins and additives. If it says Diet, don’t believe it! Just another false advertising scheme is the label “Low fat”….ok, the government told us low fat was the way to go for 30 + years but they lied. Anything labeled low fat is high in carbohydrate or you would never eat a second bite! Low fat means inflammation so steer away from those foods.
Fast Food is the worst thing we can eat because it is filled with chemicals that make them tastier, make us hungrier to eat more and contain microplastics and chemicals that alter your metabolism to make you hungry, fat…and inflamed!
So now you have learned what you should stop eating so what can you eat?
If you have inflammation and want to save yourself from aging and being disabled as you age, then lower your risk with your diet, and to do that you must become an expert in food…it should be fresh or frozen whole food (vegetables, fruit, meat, and or milk products without soy) containing the fewest additives you can find. Start the day with protein (free range eggs generally don’t have additives) and include a protein at every feeding. and very low in grains. Red meat and chicken is good for us if fat is cut off to remove toxins. Fish should be eaten 2-3 times a week. Yes, I get that some fish have heavy metals but if you don’t eat fish out of a can you can avoid a lot of them.
Milk contains a lot of carbohydrate, but whole milk in small doses is much better than low-fat milk, which has no redeeming qualities and is equivalent to “sugar water”…if you tolerate milk, buy organic whole milk, and limit yourself to a cup a day. Anything bought in the center of the grocery store is not going to help your inflammation and prevent disease. Shop around the outside of the store. Fill your grocery basket with:
- Fresh or frozen fruit (3 servings a day)
- Only Fresh and Frozen veggies and at least one serving of raw vegetables daily (e.g. salad).
- Grass-fed Beef only, and cut off the fat
- Meat for sandwiches should not be “cured” or processed. Make sandwiches with slicked turkey or ham that is not cured.
- Olive oil daily (1 Tablespoon) and use it to bake and cook.
- Chicken without antibiotics and without the skin (that is where the toxins are)
- Lean ground beef or ground chuck (remove the fat)
- Fish at least 3 x q week (not canned tuna, or other canned fish)
- A salad a day keeps the bacteria in your gut happy and helps your neurotransmitters and decreases inflammation.
- Salad dressing: creamy or balsamic vinegar and olive oil
- No low-fat foods! They contain carbs and chemicals to make them tasty.
- No soy unless you are Asian
- No whole wheat. Eat only Sour Dough Bread if possible.
- Pasta should be made from semolina flour only, not whole wheat (that is what they cook pasta within Italy)
- Make your own pizza with semolina flour dough to avoid additives.
- Honey is sugar so less than a teaspoon a day with a protein meal is advised.
- Half and half or whole cream in your coffee, no fake creamers.
- Even low carb creamers have dangerous chemical additives.
- Apple Cider Vinegar is ok if you like it, but Basaltic vinegar is made from grapes and is equivalent or better as salad dressing.
- Avoiding sugar and sweeteners improves and balances your gut bacteria and decreases inflammation, and inflammaging.
The take-away message is that to avoid inflammation we should not eat processed foods with chemicals and additives. Fresh cooking with organic foods, if possible, including meat, fish, chicken and turkey, cheese, milk products, fresh vegetables and fruit, no sugar added, cook with olive oil if possible and no seed oils. Honestly you will gain health and prevent the diseases of aging if you follow these tenets.
