Best Anti-Inflammatory Foods for Intuitive Eaters
The following information is provided for information and educational purposes only and is not intended as individualized nutrition guidance or medical nutrition therapy.
There’s a lot of fearmongering about inflammatory foods in diet culture, along with endless recommendations for anti-inflammatory diets, detoxes, books, and the like. Unfortunately, much of what you’ll find isn’t evidenced based or doesn’t consider your relationship with food.
The good news is, you can follow anti-inflammatory eating patterns and still be an Intuitive Eater. Let me show you how.
The Connection Between Food and Inflammation, Explained
Although inflammation gets a bad rap, it serves an important and necessary purpose in your body, defending against injury or infections and supporting tissue repair. When it’s acute or short-lived, inflammation is a welcome and needed part of the healing process.
Chronic inflammation, however, is associated with increased risk of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, arthritis, and diabetes, among others.
While food is by no means the only driver of chronic inflammation—environmental toxins and stress are two of many other big factors that immediately come to mind—some foods and eating patterns can contribute to inflammatory processes in your body. Others have anti-inflammatory properties.
How Intuitive Eating Fits in With Anti-Inflammatory Eating
Chronic stress results in persistently elevated cortisol levels, which can increase inflammation and weaken your immune system overtime. If your relationship with food or your body is an ongoing stressor, and you’re concerned about inflammation in your body, please know that healing your relationship with food could be an important part of your healing protocol.
Often, people incorrectly assume that since Intuitive Eating promotes pleasurable eating, an all-foods-fit mindset, and ditching food rules, it must not be appropriate for people who are concerned about their health or who have specific food-related medical conditions that require nutrition therapy.
This isn’t true. Honoring your health with gentle nutrition is one of the ten principles of Intuitive Eating. Many food-related health conditions can be addressed by considering foods, nutrients, and behaviors to ADD to your diet rather than relying primarily on foods to restrict.
For example, instead of advising my clients with prediabetes or diabetes to restrict carbs, I can usually teach them how to add whole grains and fiber-rich fruits and veggies to their diet and show them how to balance their meals with a helpful ratio of macronutrients to slow the absorption of glucose into their bloodstream. We also might focus on increasing movement or lowering stress levels, two behaviors that are also helpful for blood sugar regulation. Even when food restrictions are medically necessary, for example with someone who has celiac disease and needs to eliminate gluten, we do the healing work to help them frame it as an act of feel-good and nourishing self-care rather than deprivation-driven eating that can trigger massive cravings or rebellious or rebound overeating.
As an Intuitive Eating aligned dietitian, I aim to treat anti-inflammatory eating the same way—focusing primarily on foods to add, while also helping folks heal their relationship with food enough so they’re able to view the option to limit pro-inflammatory foods as a helpful, empowered choice that aligns with their individual health values and goals rather than a rigid, restrictive diet.
Who Needs an Anti-Inflammatory Diet?
Anti-inflammatory eating protocols may be particularly beneficial for anyone with an autoimmune condition, such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, or Crohn’s disease. Other conditions where they may be helpful include non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, certain types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, or metabolic syndrome.
That said, as you’ll see in a minute, anti-inflammatory diets emphasize a healthful eating pattern that can help many individuals lower their risk of various chronic diseases.
What are the most beneficial anti-inflammatory foods?
Contrary to what you may find in a Google search, there is no single, clearly defined anti-inflammatory diet, although the Mediterranean, DASH, and the Okinawan diets have all been identified as having anti-inflammatory benefits.
Sometimes the tendency in the media (or even in research) is to zero in on individual nutrients or foods to fight inflammation. However, we don’t eat individual nutrients we eat a wide variety of foods that work synergistically, along with other complex factors, to impact or promote health. When it comes to an anti-inflammatory diet, I’d encourage you to think of it as an overall pattern of eating that emphasizes a variety of anti-inflammatory foods, such as the ones listed below.
Fruits and vegetables are the backbone of an anti-inflammatory approach to eating. Aim to fill half your plate fruits and veggies at most meals and do your best to include a wide variety of colorful produce throughout your day. Doing so will add nutrient-rich, high-fiber foods to your diet along with a variety of polyphenols, which have known anti-inflammatory properties.
Foods rich in omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 6 fatty acids are generally believed to have pro-inflammatory effects while omega 3s are anti-inflammatory. Yet we need them both in our diets (remember, some inflammation is helpful).
Research suggests the ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids consumed is particularly important in terms of inflammation. Although the typical Western diet generally has a ratio of 20:1 omega 6 to omega 3s, it’s believed that a ratio of less than 10:1 has anti-inflammatory benefits.
What does that mean in practice? Include plenty of sources of omega 3s fatty acids in your diet, including cold-water fish like salmon, sardines, anchovies, and mackerel, hemp, flax, or chia seeds, fortified eggs, and walnuts. At this point, research does not support limiting omega 6s, found in canola, sunflower, and safflower oils, along with sunflower seeds, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds, as they have heart-healthy benefits.
In terms of fats, it's advisable to watch your intake of saturated fats from red meat, butter, fried foods, and baked goods, and to include other healthful fats, especially olive oil in an anti-inflammatory diet.
Plant-based proteins such as tofu, edamame, tempeh, legumes, beans, nuts, and seeds, are emphasized in anti-inflammatory diets, along with smaller amounts of lean grass-fed beef or pasture-raised poultry (which have been found to have higher omega 3 content) in addition to the omega-3-rich seafood suggested above. Wild caught fish may provide more omega 3s than farm raised.
Tea, especially green or white tea, has supportive antioxidants and polyphenols.
Herbs and spices have beneficial properties and can be included liberally in anti-inflammatory eating patterns, especially ginger and turmeric, but also garlic, cayenne pepper, and oregano, among others.
Pro-inflammatory Foods to Avoid?
It’s advisable to keep your intake of fried foods, sugar, saturated fats (as noted above), and refined carbs—which are found in white flours, breads, rice, pasta, and the like—comparatively low in an anti-inflammatory or other health-promoting eating pattern.
However, that doesn’t mean you need to eliminate these foods altogether or that they’re “bad.” All foods can fit even in an anti-inflammatory diet and being mindful is not the same as restricting what you eat. Research, along with my clinical experience in helping hundreds of people heal their relationship with food, shows that restriction tends to result in food obsession, massive cravings, and overeating or bingeing.
My general suggestion is to give yourself enough opportunity to enjoy these foods so that you don’t feel deprived, while practicing enjoying them mindfully, savoring the flavors, tuning into your hunger and fullness cues, and considering how they make you feel. You may find it especially beneficial to work with an Intuitive Eating dietitian who can help you balance having a happy, healthy relationship with food with gentle nutrition and anti-inflammatory eating goals.