Eating an anti-inflammatory diet is one way to reduce inflammation in your body. We have a delicious family-friendly Anti-Inflammatory Meal Plan to help you!
What Does Inflammation Do In Our Bodies?
Inflammation might be responsible for more health problems in our country than we realize! Research is showing cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, Alzheimer’s, asthma, eczema, (and of course anything ending with the term -itis) and much much more all have one, underlying cause: Inflammation! Inflammation itself isn’t a bad thing. It’s our bodies natural way to respond to stress or foreign particles. The problem is when this response is chronic, our body gets damaged.
You may wonder what this has to do with children? These chronic issues are usually the LAST symptom! Inflammation begins long before disease or death. And in the case of asthma and eczema, we all know many children are suffering from those while they are young. In an upcoming PBS special, Brenda Watson makes the connection between our diet, our digestive system, and inflammation. I found it super enlightening as of course, I’ve always believed our diet has the biggest impact on our health.
What foods contribute to inflammation?
- SUGAR
- Saturated Fats
- Trans fats
- Eating a diet high in omega-6 and low in omega-3 is associated with increasing levels of cytokines — proteins released from cells that trigger inflammation (source)
- Processed foods
- Refined grains
What foods help decrease inflammation?
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Fish
- Seeds
- Nuts
- Herbs and Spices
- Beans
Whether you decide controlling inflammation is the way to better health, or not, you would have to agree, that decreasing the foods that we believe contribute to the problem, and increasing the healing foods, is definitely a good thing!
One Week Anti-Inflammatory Meal Plan
This meal plan includes all of the links for each recipe. If you would like to print this, scroll down for the printable version!
FREE ANTI-INFLAMMATORY PRINTABLE MEAL PLAN
