Anti-Inflammatory Diet
The anti-inflammatory diet is not a diet that we might think of as a regular diet. It is not intended as a weight-loss program, although many people can and do lose some weight while on it. It is also not an eating plan to stay on for just a limited period of time. The anti-inflammatory diet is an eating guide for a lifetime of optimum nutrition.
An exact description of the anti-inflammatory diet can vary. There are probably as many differences in the description of an anti-inflammatory diet as there are doctors that design them. In fact, each person is different and a diet best for the patient is many times best designed mostly by the patients themselves!
Individual designed anti-inflammatory diets are those most likely to be followed by those who design them. The way we have found with the best chance of success over the long term is to have the patient keep a ‘food diary’ for a week. We can then recommend changes to some of the foods eaten regularly by the patient. A well-integrated anti-inflammatory diet can, many times, be only small changes to what a patient already is used to eating.
You Are What You Eat
Our food choices can help our skin to look youthful, smoother and even radiant. The anti-inflammatory diet will also improve our mental states. Helping us to become more positive and upbeat. It will keep our energy levels high and our thinking clearer and sharper. To top it off, an anti-inflammatory diet, sometimes along with a few minor lifestyle changes, can help you keep chronic inflammation and pain at bay.
Supplements can be a huge part of an anti-inflammatory diet. Especially when it comes to helping the body improve the joint and spine actions by supplying the basic nutrients the body needs to make items like glucosamine and essential fatty acids. These essential fatty acids like Omega-3 feature additional benefits to the cardiovascular and brain functions.
There are a number of medications, which can lower inflammation, such as Advil, or even aspirin. These solutions present their own side effects and dangers and tend to mask symptoms instead of dealing with the under lying problems. Following an anti-inflammatory diet, rich in natural whole foods as well as herbs for inflammation, can act as a replacement to those drugs, therefore circumventing the side effects of medication.
What Can I Eat?
An anti-inflammatory diet follows the principles of good nutrition; smaller meals with a variety in mind, avoiding processed foods and foods with gluten. Diets high in fiber meet most of the criteria associated with anti-inflammatory diets but specifics vary from diet to diet. Generally anti-inflammatory diets focus on foods or supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish or fish oil supplements and some nuts.
An anti-inflammatory diet as it pertains to spinal healing includes lots of water and the avoidance of fruit juices. The focus of joint nutrition is on improving joint repair by supplying the building blocks for cartilage and other joint components in order to help in the restoration and maintenance of motion and end the cycle of pain. Dr. Hulbert recommends taking hydrolyzed collagen polypeptides as well as specific vitamins and minerals to aid in the bodies regeneration process.
Benefits
Some of the benefits of anti-inflammatory diets include reduced arthritis pain and even reduced levels of depression and cholesterol. People who have experienced any of the many symptoms caused in part by inflammation can feel real benefits by making minor changes and choosing what they eat based on an anti-inflammatory diet.
Some arthritis patients actually experience a reduction in the pain and increased range of motion after long term continued use of joint nutrition and supplements. Also indirectly because of the increase in circulation, more joint nutrition will be supplied to the affected areas and more lubrication within in the joint allowing for greater range of motion can result.
To reiterate, an anti-inflammatory diet is simple and can be implemented with a little effort and many times with little change in what you already eat. An anti-inflammatory diet is a lifestyle change though, and can seem contrary to the classic food pyramid. Implementing this type of diet is a change that is actually quite simple to implement once you realize which foods to eat and which to avoid.