What are they and why do we need to take anti-inflammatory foods?

Anti-inflammatory foods are those that have the capacity to provide substances or nutrients that are essential for our body to fight oxidative and inflammatory processes, either directly or by helping the body to manufacture anti-inflammatory substances. As a preview I will say that these foods are always plant foods.

Butwhy does our body need anti-inflammatory drugs in our diet?

Our organism is constantly in balance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory reactions, as well as oxidative processes with antioxidants and this happens because it is simply part of the basic functioning of our machinery.

Our cells generate energy in small engines called mitochondria and, as in a car, the combustion processes of “gasoline” (carbohydrates and fats) produce toxic oxidized residues that must be eliminated with antioxidant substances. Otherwise, if oxidized residues accumulate, the cells are damaged and the organism detects cellular or tissue damage and starts an inflammatory process to eliminate the damage and regenerate it with healthy cells and then starts an anti-inflammatory process so that everything returns to normal.

Our body is constantly immersed in processes of wear and tear and regeneration and this involves oxidative and inflammatory processes that are normally solved without any problem thanks to all the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory substances that we can generate and others that must come from our diet because we cannot manufacture them.

So far so normal. But what happens when we have a chronic disease, what happens when we have chronic pain? In these situations these harmful oxidative and inflammatory processes are accentuated and are not compensated, generating a chronic situation in which we worsen our symptoms and health.

Therefore, if we are healthy, but even more so if we have any pathology, we must ensure that the body does not lack anything nutritionally to compensate for these oxidative and inflammatory processes.

We will talk about inflammation and anti-inflammatories in a generic way, although oxidation and antioxidants are always behind them.

So,why are anti-inflammatory foods so important? The first thing is because in a natural way is what the body needs that day after day we provide it with the simplest thing that is precisely what we eat.

There are nutrients and anti-inflammatory substances that can only come from food, we cannot manufacture them in our body or if we do manufacture them it is only in very small quantities. And there is no point in “swelling” to take anti-inflammatory drugs if we have not reviewed our diet.

If the body lacks these antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients, it will not be able to defend itself from those processes that are worsening a disease and its symptoms, it will not be able to generate enough anti-inflammatory substances and then it happens that problems that should be resolved soon do not (for example, without going any further, a scar from a surgical intervention that has a hard time healing and scarring, a pain that does not stop when it seems that it should because the cause that caused it is already being resolved or has already been resolved, etc.).

And with this we cannot say that food is going to provide the complete solution to our health problems, but it is the solution in a very important percentage, more than we imagine.

What are the nutrients and other substances with anti-inflammatory properties?

We can classify them into two groups:

Antioxidants: a good supply of vitamin C, vitamin A and beta-carotene, vitamin E, selenium, zinc, manganese, polyphenols, etc., will help us to counteract the oxidative processes that generate or worsen inflammatory processes. These components are found almost exclusively in foods of vegetable origin. The more colorful, the more antioxidants, the more varied we eat in terms of types of vegetables, the more antioxidants we will be taking.

Anti-inflammatory: in this case we are mainly talking about nutrients, omega-3 fats, contained in oily fish (containing long-chain omega-3s such as EPA and DHA, which are the most potent nutritional anti-inflammatories) and in nuts, seeds and other dried fruits (which provide alpha-linolenic acid, a precursor of the less potent long-chain omega-3s). There are also other anti-inflammatories in food, such as the oleocanthal in olive oil or the salicylic acid in some aromatic herbs and spices such as oregano, bay leaf or nutmeg.

Thus, these two types of nutrients or substances are key to modulating the body’s inflammatory responses.

List of anti-inflammatory foods that should not be missing in our diet:

• Oily fish: the fish with the greatest anti-inflammatory potential because it is rich in omega-3 fats with high anti-inflammatory potency.
• Walnuts (and other nuts): also rich in omega-3 although less potent than oily fish.
• Sesame, chia and flax seeds: rich in omega-3 as well as walnuts
• Vegetables: all provide very important antioxidants and especially some such as kale, broccoli, beet, tomatoes, sprouts such as arugula or lamb’s lettuce, etc.
• Fruits: all fruits have antioxidants, but especially pomegranate, avocado, orange, grapes, strawberries and berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries).
• Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO): its composition includes powerful antioxidants such as vitamin E, hydroxytyrosol, many polyphenols and anti-inflammatory substances such as oleocanthal.
• Whole grains: they provide mainly polyphenols and minerals among other nutritional virtues and should always replace refined cereals, although they should be taken in moderate amounts because our lives are very little physically active (cereals are a source of complex carbohydrates that provide a lot of energy that if not used will be stored as fat and that does not interest us if we have a normal or excess weight).
• Legumes: they have a good content of polyphenols, minerals and fiber with great prebiotic potential, in small portions several times a week also help us.
• Yogurt: provides an indirect anti-inflammatory effect thanks to its live ferments that take care of our microbiota, which also contributes to a good regulation of inflammatory processes.

How often should we include them in our diet?

Always. Daily fruits and vegetables (at least 5 a day), yogurt, EVOO, nuts (and other nuts such as almonds or pistachios) and seeds.
Weekly 3 or 4 servings of about 150-200g of cooked legumes and 2 or 3 servings of oily fish, especially small fish so that they do not have too much accumulation of heavy metals (sardines, anchovies, herring, trout, salmon, mackerel …).

It is vitally important to take advantage of the anti-inflammatory potential of food. What we eat matters a lot 🙂