THE GOOD STUFF
To help prevent and potentially reverse inflammation, it’s important to follow what is often called a Mediterranean diet. That means lots of vegetables, fruit, olive oil, a variety of leafy greens, wholegrains, legumes, herbs, spices, seeds and berries, with only small amounts of meat and fish.
YOU SHOULD ALSO TRY TO
■ Eat red, purple, red-brown or green plants: Plant food these colours have more phytochemicals which are antiinflammatory. Studies have found that berries and greens such as kale and broccoli smother inflammation better than bananas and lettuce.
■ Love the wonky stuff: Produce grown with fewer pesticides might not look perfect, but having to struggle for survival helps it build up more polyphenols, the anti-inflammatory antioxidants the gut loves, as well as salicylic acid, which is also anti-inflammatory.
■ Eat lots of different plants: A 2019 study by the American Gut Project found that the more types of plants you eat, the more diverse your gut microbiome is. People who ate 30 types of plants (fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds) each week had a significantly more diverse microbiome than those eating 10 or fewer different plants. “Diversity is a marker of health in the gut microbiome,” says Ravella. “And we know that the gut microbiome affects inflammation throughout the body.”
■ Use gentle cooking methods: The higher the temperature you cook your foods at the more likely they are to develop inflammatory byproducts. This is particularly the case for animal food – meat, cheese, butter and eggs. If you must roast, grill or fry food at high temperatures, make it fruit, vegetables, grains or legumes. “Most of the time you just want to gently sauté or bake your food.”
■ Eat fermented food: Studies have shown that fermented foods are very anti-inflammatory. Toss a few tablespoons of fermented vegetables into your meal, and eat fermented breads – sourdough made in the traditional way, for example.
■ Eat a good balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fats: Omega-3 fats are a type of polyunsaturated fat with a strong anti-inflammatory effect. They are found in foods such as fish (particularly salmon, herring and mackerel), greens including brussels sprouts and broccoli, walnuts, chia seeds and flaxseed. Omega-6 fats, found mostly in vegetable oils such as sunflower and soybean oil, are more inflammatory. It’s fine to eat both, but at the ratio our ancestors consumed them – four times the amount of omega-6 fat as omega-3, rather than 15 to 20 times the amount of omega-6 fat, as is the case today.