Anti-Inflammatory Diet | How To Cut Inflammation | How To Reduce Inflammation | Anti Inflammatory Lifestyle
So I feel like anti inflammatory diets and lifestyles are everywhere these days (written late 2021). In the last year or so, I have heard way more people talking about it than ever! From those recovering from Covid-19, to those making sure their auto immune diseases are kept at bay with the extra stresses of life, or for those developing new health issues and diseases as I am 39 now and the onset is unfortunately often within the surrounding decade. I honestly even have discussions with people about it for their young children, believe it or not.
An anti-inflammatory diet is similar to a Paleo diet. I’d say it stems from an AIP diet once things have been re-introduced. The point is to minimize or rid the body of the common causes of inflammation. When bodies are trying to fight viruses or combat the insane amounts of stress we have these days, they’re taxed. Taxed and stressed bodies then become inflamed. That inflammation can and often does cause lots of issues – from weight gain to joint aches to adrenal dysfunction to disease to brain fog, etc.
*If you aren’t familiar with the AIP diet, click here to see my blog post about it and why it may be for you or someone you know.
I can’t say living on an anti-inflammatory diet is HARD, yet it does take work. It takes planning. It takes strategy and being open-minded. It takes trying new shit, and new brands and new products – that literally seem to hit the shelves of Whole Foods and Costco on a weekly basis! When I was told to stop eating dairy in 2001, and my little milk-obsessed world came crashing down, there was literally only soy milk as an alternative. And when I say there was only soy milk, I mean that SILK made two options: plain and vanilla. I mean that I had to find specialty stores to get it at, which were generally only about one in per city. Fast forward 20 years and there are 2-3 entire fridge sections at Whole Foods dedicated to milk alternatives! Your average Target, Walmart, Kroger, Publix or Albertson’s, has at least 1-2 dedicated sections. In addition to that, there are additional cold doors you open that provide yogurt alternatives, and cheese substitutes and coconut or cashew milk ice cream. It’s mind blowing to me! We have come SO FAR with just dairy alternatives, let alone crackers and tortilla chips/wraps and don’t even get me started on flours. It’s fucking awesome – the variety that is out there and now you can pretty much have almost anything and still be complaint: even chocolate!
Changing subjects now that I’m hungry from typing that…
Another added layer to any anti-inflammatory diet needs to be you paying attention to the shit that doesn’t work for your body. It’s really ridiculous and embarrassing how little people pay attention to their bodies. Being in tune with your body, especially regarding the things you put in it could change your whole life. When you wake up and you are gassy and bloated and your joints ache or you have some brain fog or flehm at the back of your throat, you need to start paying attention to what you consumed the day prior. Sad reality is, one or a combination of some of the things you most recently consumed, do not work for your body. They caused some type of inflammatory or unnatural response as your body tries to digest them – that’s stressing your insides the F out!
Cutting out things that give you heart burn or make your stomach cringe, or have you be gassy or with a headache, is really beneficial. The fact that I even have to tell you to not be eating those things on the reg, is silly, yet here the hell we are! In addition to all of the things you KNOW your body ain’t a fan of, I’ve put together a list of the foods you should both consume and avoid. Reality is, people who follow diets like this are generally healthier, maintain better weights, have less aches and pains, and even sleep better. I’ll speak for all of us when I say “yes please” to that shit!
The downloadable PDF list I’ve put together can be found by clicking here! It’s essentially an easy grocery list. And while it seems like lots of your favorite things aren’t on that list, the amount of substitutes and creative recipes out there in this day and age are mind blowing! I’ll share some on this blog, and there’s a ton of other bloggers and social media accounts to follow as well.
While it’s great and ideal for your body to live this lifestyle 100% of the time, I get it may not be ideal for your actual life. I get it’s not convenient and the foods aren’t as readily available. Believe me, I do. I have lived it, or even some way more strict version, for about the last year and a half. Won’t lie and say it’s easy. Won’t lie and say you get to eat out and live your best damn life socially, yet it may be the very thing you need for a period of time in your life to have your body living it’s best life? So consider that!
And maybe you can live this lifestyle 80% of the time, like using the 80/20 rule, and 20% of the time you be a normal socialite? Maybe that works and your body feels and looks better, and you maintain it? And then in the days or phases when shit gets out of whack and you gain a few pounds, start to feel achy, see crap on your skin, or feel foggy, you’ll know it’s time to clean it up!
I gotta be honest…before I started working with the doctors that I’ve been working with since last May, I never really thought about taking intermittent periods and focusing them on cleanups in my diet or life. When I was in college, about two or three times a year I would take two days and eat only raw fruits and vegetables and nuts. We didn’t have smoothie places back then and I would say it was a lot harder in the early 2000’s for whatever reason, yet I did it just to give my body a break. It felt good to give the GI tract a break from time to time – no heavy meat processing, no dairy, so carbs or refined sugars either. It was clean fun, and I always enjoyed it! I only did it a couple of times a year, yet I now realize that maybe something like that is done once a month? Maybe one day a week you clean your damn diet up and go meat free or grain free or nut free or sugar free?! Like what if you just tried one week a month to cut out inflammatory foods? What if you lived your life on and anti-inflammatory diet 3 weeks out of the month and then let live for week 4? Ever considered that?
Sometimes the body is more about the load or overload of certain things. We consider the loads of other external things in life: workloads, stress, actual weight when we’re working out, etc. Yet it’s funny we don’t really do that with food and drink, right? Something else to consider.
Like maybe your body can handle brown rice, yet only once a week? Maybe you can handle some dairy – yet goat and sheep’s milks are often easier on the body and not as likely to be full of hormones and junk! Possibly gluten isn’t your enemy, yet you just can’t have it twice a day? Ever thought of it like that? That’s it’s about a load?
Some items you might not need to give up forever or always, yet you may just need to back off? Ideally, you go a good 30 days or so on a full anti-inflammatory diet and THEN start to bring things back you’re certain don’t bother you, and in moderation even. So you don’t go without gluten for 30 days and then have a bagel for breakie and a hoagie for dinner, to be followed by chocolate cake for dessert! You maybe have gluten once a day a few days that week, and see how your body feels with that. You slow play it. And you try to control the load! Seems easy enough, right?
I know I’ve thrown out lots of ideas here, yet overall I hope you get the point of the anti-inflammatory diet and why we would want to do such a thing! Inflammation is the root of all evil! Most of the inflammatory foods and ingredients we ingest help promote disease. Cancers thrive on them. Viruses thrive on them. Autoimmune disorders and diseases freaking loooove them. And honestly, we just can’t afford it. We, as the human people in this day and age – with external stressors out of fucking control – we cannot handle purposely ingesting a bunch of crap, just cause it’s easy, tastes good, or we’re flat out lazy!
Whatever’s important to us, we’ll do. Bottom line. So if cutting inflammation is important to you – you’ll do it! Maybe not every day, maybe not full time forever, maybe not even 7 days a week, yet you’re gonna f’ing participate! And you’re going to feel better and look better and do and be better as a result. No joke. If you’re struggling with health issues or your body is becoming and feeling unrecognizable, I highly suggest you start with these lists and do yourself a damn favor! Just a few weeks. See how it goes. Just a few months if you’re that bad off, and observe the difference.
The longer we do hard things, the easier they become! Everything unknown and unfamiliar is hard. That’s the way life goes. The fear of the unknown just makes everything seem “hard”. Yet is about change. It’s about swaps. It’s about introducing new recipes and ingredients and concepts into your life! It’s about being more mindful and living on purpose. It’s about fueling your body with things that help it thrive, not kill it off and fuck it up!
I also guarantee you’ll love me and you more once you give it a shot! You’ll be shocked at how easy hard things become in life, once you challenge yourself and grow and expand…or clean up in this case! It’s about being healthy-ish right?! And YOU GOT THIS! LFG!