Adopting an anti-inflammatory diet
Nutritious blood, healthy blood vessels
Green vegetables should be the main staple of this diet, as they contain the best concentration of trace minerals that produce healthy, nutritious blood. These include iron, zinc, magnesium, potassium, sodium, calcium and nitrogen. Nitrogen in fact also improves oxygen deliver from the blood to the cells of the body.
Foods shown to have powerful anti inflammatory properties:
- Fibre has been proven to lower the main marker of inflammation – CRP levels in the blood (C-reactive protein). Grains (particularly oats), fruits and vegetables vegetables are all a good source of fibre.
- Fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines and anchovies all have powerful anti-inflammatory omega 3s and have been shown to reduce inflammation when consumed twice a week.
- Green vegetables and berries are among the most inflammation reducing vegetation.
- Almonds, walnuts and pistachios
- Beans have a strong mix of anti inflammatory and antioxidant compounds
- Olive oil and onions
Whether you are looking to optimise your athletic performance, general health or manage or resolve a chronic health complaint, keeping inflammation at healthy levels and eating foods that promote high quality blood is very useful.
Inflammation is the part of the body’s immune response to injuries, infections, trauma (stress) and toxins. A major cause of many chronic diseases is one of a chronic inflammatory nature (of course genetics and a number of other factors can be involved), which can take us strongly out of balance. It is often our habits, diets and lifestyle choices which trigger this chronic inflammation and disease. Diet, stress, exhausting movement, inadequate rest, difficult relationships, poor mental health. You know that, that’s why you’re here. Diseases most likely to affect those of older ages such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, heart attack and dementia have all been shown to be influenced in severity by dietary, lifestyle and environmental influences.
So what can we do in terms of eating habits to invite long term healthy blood and appropriate levels of inflammation?
To make recovery from training and injury faster and fuller?
We can avoid the more inflammatory foods and experiences for a month, make sure we are getting the results we are seeking, and then slowing reintroduce one of these inflammatory foods or emotional stressors at a time. As symptoms start to resurface, the culprits become clear.
Inflammation is a natural effect of the body’s healing response. But when the body is chronically taxed on its resources and functions, chronic inflammation has many unfavourable consequences, for example:
- Inflammation in the lining of the gut wall results in increased fluid retention, which means the peristaltic function weakens – the process of squeezing food through the digestive tract – and absorption of nutrients from food suffers.
- Inflammation in the veins and arteries causes cholesterol to accumulate more and more, blocking the blood vessels and putting them at risk of blockage (embolism) and subsequent heart attack. Cardiovascular health is natural and ease to achieve by reducing stress and eating natural foods.