Inflammatory Foods to Avoid for Better Health

Chronic inflammation is a major factor in many serious diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and cancer.

Your body’s natural way to fight off something dangerous is inflammation. This is a sign of a triggered immune response. It’s beneficial when it’s an appropriate reaction to a real threat. It’s beneficial when it’s an appropriate response to a real threat.

Inflammatory Foods to Avoid for Better Health

Inflammatory foods cause inflammation, and chronic inflammation is a hidden disease that lies at the root of many health problems.

By avoiding inflammatory foods, you can help your body boost its immune system, lose weight and fight diseases.

Let’s take a look at what to avoid and why.

1. Sugars Added

Our bodies are designed for a small amount of sugar (sucrose). Our modern diet is full of sugar, making it one of the most inflammatory foods.

High-sugar diets trigger the immune response, as our bodies aren’t designed to deal with this much sugar. It’s a literal invasion because the body perceives it as such.

This can also lead to insulin resistance and weight gain. The extra sugar is stored in fat, which increases the size of your fat cells. It’s easy to get carried away with it.

Prepackaged and processed foods often contain some sugar. You might be shocked at how much sugar you have “dosed” on over the course of a single day. This can partly be attributed to high-fructose Corn Syrup, a concentrated form of sugar that is used in many food products.

Did you know that low-fat yogurt, pasta sauce, and dairy free milk have high sugar levels, making them potentially dangerous foods to avoid. These products should be avoided.

Remember that fructose, a type of sugar found in fruits and vegetables, is not the problem. Consuming more sugar from added sugars can lead to inflammation and other diseases.

2. Artificial Trans Fats (Partially Hyogenated Oil)

Trans fats are something you’ve probably heard about and know they can be harmful. Did you know there are two types of trans fats?

Natural trans fats are found in dairy products and they don’t increase your risk of developing diseases.

Artificial trans fats can cause havoc in your body. Food manufacturers initially added hydrogen to unsaturated oils to make food with a longer shelf life.

Now we know artificial trans fats can cause inflammation and increase the chance of developing diseases.

You’ll still find them in products such as:

French fries
Fast food fried
Different types of margarine
Some shortenings
Prepackaged pastries and cookies (cookies, pastries)
Products that contain ‘partially hydrocarbonated oil’

Trans fats should be high on your list for inflammatory foods to avoid.

3. Too many Omega-6 Fatty Acids

Balance is key when it comes to omega-6s. At healthy levels, Omega-6s can be good for you. However, if they are too high in your system, it can cause a pro-inflammatory response.

While most people can get enough Omega-6s, they need to consume more Omega-3s in order to reduce inflammation. An anti-inflammatory diet plan provides healthy amounts of Omega-3 rich food, and reduces or eliminates the use Omega-6 oils (below).

Limiting Omega-6 fatty acid-rich foods includes:

Corn oil
Mayonnaise
Peanut oil
Sunflower oil
Safflower oil

There are still healthy levels of Omega-6s found in foods such as:

Meat/poultry
Fish
Eggs
Corn
Soybeans

The majority of Omega-6 fatty acid intake in Western diets is sufficient without the addition of certain oils.

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4. Refined Carbohydrates

Avoid foods made with white flour and refined sugars.

Refined carbs (refined carbs) lack their nutritional content. Your body rapidly breaks down processed carbs into sugar, which is more likely to be absorbed quickly than slowly. This triggers inflammation and activates your immune system.

Complex carbs and whole-grains are more difficult to digest because your body processes them. Because the digestive system has to extract nutrients and fiber, it takes longer for sugars to reach your body.

This means that if your body is able to process a reasonable amount of natural, unrefined carbohydrates, it doesn’t cause inflammation (unless you are intolerant which we’ll discuss below).

5. Processed meat

Most processed meats are salted, cured or smoked. Preservative chemicals may be added to processed meats during this time. These chemicals can cause damage to the bowel and raise cancer risk.

Also, processed meats can increase AGEs (advanced glycocation end-products). Glycation is when sugar and fat combine in the bloodstream.

If your body is unable to eliminate AGEs quickly enough they build up in your system, triggering inflammation. You are more likely to produce too many AGEs if you have high blood sugar or diabetes.

More concerning is the link between inflammation and the development of colon cancer.

6. Saturated Fat

Saturated fat is bad for your heart, as you’ve probably heard. Saturated fat is bad for your health. It can also cause chronic inflammation.

Meals high in saturated fat trigger your immune system and your inflammation response. Unsaturated fats, however, seem to combat inflammation.

Saturated fat is a primary problem in animal products, which includes foods such as:

Beef
Lamb
Pork
Poultry (with skin).
Lard/cream
Butter
Cheese

Other dairy products (not skim)
Be aware that baked goods and snack foods containing these foods can also be higher in saturated fat, which can cause inflammation if consumed regularly.

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7. Gluten (If You’re Sensitive)

Although the above foods are likely to cause inflammation in most people, certain ingredients may only be harmful for those who have a particular sensitivity.

Gluten doesn’t necessarily promote inflammation in everyone. However, if your body has trouble digesting gluten, it can trigger an immune response, even if you do not have an autoimmune disorder such as celiac disease.

Gluten sensitivity is when your body thinks that the offending substance invades your digestive tract and activates your immune system to attack the gluten proteins.

This causes inflammation to spread beyond your digestive tract, making gluten a top choice for people with sensitive stomachs.

However, if you have an immune response (such as celiac disorder), your immune systems turns on you and attacks your intestinal tissue.

What is Gluten?

It is a protein that can be found in wheat, barley and rye as well as triticale (a mix of wheat and rye). However, the term “wheat” can also refer to a variety of foods such as:

Wheat flour (and everything made with it).
Wheatberries
Durum
Semolina
Farro
Spelt
Graham
Emmer
Farina
Kamut
Einkorn

Isolated gluten is also used by food manufacturers to improve the texture and hold shape of foods. Store-bought breads are made with naturally occurring gluten from wheat flour and additional gluten to preserve the fluffy texture.

Take care when reading packaged food labels if you have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.

Reduce Chronic Inflammation can Improve Bladder Symptoms

Cystitis (inflammation in the bladder) can be treated with diet, but not all cases. If you have sensitive bladder symptoms, it is possible to reduce pain and improve continence with an anti-inflammatory diet and marking which inflammatory foods to avoid.

We offer a variety of absorbencies and products to help you stay dry and comfortable if you are suffering from leaks.