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How a carefully balanced diet lets immune system thrive under pressure
It’s a necessary evil with which every human body must contend.Yet little is really known about how to control the impact of inflammation. By signalling the immune system to heal and repair damaged tissue, it protects us from harm but it’s also a key factor in countless diseases, including Covid-19.
Now, in a new book, biochemist Dr Barry Sears outlines how diet can be a powerful tool in maintaining such a delicate balancing act. By eating the right mix of protein, fat, carbohydrates and vitamins, genes that cause inflammation can be “silenced” and genes that reduce it can be “switched on”, leading to better health.
Dr Sears, who researches the hormonal effects of food at the Inflammation Research Foundation in the US, says: “Inflammation is like the weather. We talk a lot about it, yet we know little about how to control it.
“You need to turn on inflammation to protect your body from infections and injuries, but also need to turn off inflammation, so it doesn’t continue to attack your body.”
There is no drug to maintain this balancing act, but your diet can, if you treat it like a “super-drug”.
“There’s no magic bullet in nutrition, only the constant orchestration of the hormones and genes that reduce, resolve and repair the damage caused by inflammation,” says the food researcher.
While Dr Sears says it can be beneficial for many things – including pregnancy health, athletic performance and fighting off illness – some experts say the notion of an “antiinflammatory diet” can be misleading, and striving for a healthy balance is better than following regimented diet plans.
“We know chronic inflammation can play a role in ill health and that it can be affected by many factors, including the diet, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking,” says Sarah Coe, a nutrition scientist with the British Nutrition Foundation.“But, as yet, there is a lack of scientific evidence to support an ‘anti-inflammatory’ diet, so we need a better understanding of the relationship between the foods we eat and inflammation.
“Diets that have been claimed to be ‘anti-inflammatory’ tend to be a Mediterranean-style diet or diets rich in particular nutrients (eg vitamins A, C and E, selenium, zinc and omega 3s), which we can get from eating a healthy, balanced diet.
“While the evidence isn’t there to recommend a specific diet, having a generally healthy diet and lifestyle may help to reduce levels of chronic inflammation, as well as having other benefits for health.”
There is no magic bullet in nutrition