by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
Inflammation is a popular topic these days. While acute inflammation is a natural response to illness, infection, or injury, chronic systemic inflammation is linked to health risks. Chronic, systemic inflammation is inflammation that persists for weeks, months, or years and that affects the whole body. In contrast, acute inflammation goes away quickly and affects the part of the body that is injured or infected.
Chronic inflammation is a factor in a number of diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers have developed lists of foods that are associated with higher concentrations of substances in the blood that indicate inflammation. They also have identified foods that are associated with lower blood concentrations of markers for inflammation (1). Dietary patterns that contain more foods associated with higher blood concentrations of indicators of inflammation have been associated with many diseases including heart disease (2), some cancers (3, 4), liver disease (4), type 2 diabetes (5), and severe Covid-19 (6).
Many websites associated with medical and academic institutions such as Johns Hopkins Medicine and Harvard Medical School provide details of anti-inflammatory diets. Typically, these sites recommend eating more whole, unprocessed foods without added sugar such as vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, whole grains, legumes, and limited amounts of olive oil.
Foods to avoid or limit on an anti-inflammatory diet include white breads and pasta, refined cereals, soda, juice, sweets, cheese, ice cream, commercial baked goods, deep fried foods, red meat, and processed and cured meats.
Clearly a vegan diet emphasizing whole foods and with few or no highly processed foods can be an anti-inflammatory diet. Studies have found that a vegan diet results in lower blood concentrations of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation (7, 8).
References
- Tabung FK, Smith-Warner SA, Chavarro JE, et al. Development and validation of an empirical dietary inflammatory index. J Nutr. 2016;146:1560-1570.
- Li J, Lee DH, Hu J, et al. Dietary inflammatory potential and risk of cardiovascular disease among men and women in the U.S. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020;76:2181-2193.
- Romanos-Nanclares A, Tabung FK, Sinnott JA, et al. Inflammatory and insulinemic dietary patterns and risk of endometrial cancer among US women. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2023;115:311-321.
- Zhang X, Zhao L, Christopher CN, et al. Association of dietary insulinemic and inflammatory potential with risk of liver cancer and chronic liver disease mortality in postmenopausal women: a prospective cohort study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2023;118:530-537.
- Jin Q, Shi N, Aroke D, et al. Insulinemic and inflammatory dietary patterns show enhanced predictive potential for type 2 diabetes risk in postmenopausal women. Diabetes Care. 2021;44:707-714.
- Yue Y, Ma W, Accorsi EK, et al. Long-term diet and risk of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2022;116:1672-1681.