Unhealthy food, eaten in a hurry, seems to be the price we pay for living in liberated modern societies. We can’t get away from food knowledge, which is power and what you put on your plate can have a huge impact on your life, as previously mentioned. Here Christine Byrne, OutsideOnline.com, reflects on eating a healthy diet to reduce harmful inflammation:

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“In the world of wellness, inflammation has become the ultimate supervillain. Anything that promotes inflammation is immediately thought to be bad, while anything that fights it is good. There are well over a thousand anti-inflammatory diet cookbooks on Amazon and several thousand more anti-inflammatory supplements, teas, and even creams. There’s sound reasoning behind some of these products, but not all inflammation is bad. It’s necessary, actually. And while a healthy diet is one thing that can help minimize the harmful type of inflammation, the idea that certain foods are anti-inflammatory is flawed.

What Is Inflammation, Anyway?

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Inflammation is the immune system’s response to any traumatic event that happens in the body’s tissues. Blood (carrying immune cells) and intracellular fluid (carrying plasma proteins) flow to the affected area, which can lead to redness, extra warmth, and swelling. Sometimes this process stimulates nerves and can cause soreness and pain. All of this is part of the healing process, with varying degrees and duration of inflammation based on the stimulus.

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“Acute inflammation is a protective response of the body’s defense system to fight pathogens, remove damaged tissue, and aid in healing. This type of inflammation starts quickly and lasts for a short time, typically one to a couple days,” says Dayong Wu, associate lab director of the Nutritional Immunology Laboratory at Tufts University. This response is key to nearly every reparative process, including recovering after a workout, fighting off illness, and healing wounds.

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While acute inflammation helps resolve problems in our bodies, chronic inflammation can cause them. Unlike localized acute inflammation, chronic inflammation can affect entire body systems, like your lungs, skin, or joints. The symptoms tend to be milder but longer lasting. Inflammatory byproducts like cytokines, reactive proteins released by the immune system, get cleared up quickly in acute inflammation but can build up during chronic inflammation and eventually cause harm, since they disrupt the normal function of your blood and immune cells.

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“Chronic inflammation is increasingly recognized to be a risk factor for many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease, neurodegenerative diseases, depression, and even some cancers,” Wu says. It’s also the root cause of chronic inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease, in which the immune system mistakes normal cells for harmful ones and needlessly attacks them.

Can You Eat Your Way Out of Inflammation?

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A person’s overall diet pattern can impact levels of chronic inflammation, but there’s no agreed-upon anti-inflammatory diet out there. If you look through a few anti-inflammatory cookbooks or guidelines, you’ll notice some common themes. A diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats might help protect your body against inflammation—along with a host of other health issues.”

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Read More … Article Source: https://www.outsideonline.com/2392942/what-is-the-best-anti-inflammatory-diet

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