Clear evidence: pro-inflammatory diets linked to 27 chronic diseases…here’s how to fix it

Over 60% of Americans are living with a chronic disease, and 40% are living with two or more chronic conditions that are dramatically decreasing life expectancy (and quality of life). And so many are preventable.

When it comes to inflammation, diet and stress are the biggest contributors, and diet accounts for the vast majority of that. We really can make a huge impact on our health with what we eat, and I’ve been repeating my Triple-A approach to health to you (repeatedly repeating, over and over ha!) for years now: almost all sickness and disease comes from acidity, inflammation, and oxidative stress, and the solution is a diet rich in alkaline, antioxidant-rich and anti-inflammatory foods.

And when it comes to inflammation, brand-new research published in the Advances in Nutrition Journal drives this point home – strongly linking a pro-inflammatory diet to 27 chronic diseases including heart attacks, all-cause mortality (i.e. premature) death, bowel cancer, pancreatic cancer, respiratory cancers, and oral cancers and more.

The study was a meta-analysis pooled data from 15 studies looking at 38 health outcomes from four million people from across the world. The links the study found were incredibly clear and offer more evidence that while many conditions can be complex, the solutions can be so simple.

What is Inflammation & What are Pro-Inflammatory Foods

There are two types of inflammation: acute, and chronic. Acute inflammation is a good thing. This is when the body is injured, and your immune system releases white blood cells to surround and protect the area.

Chronic inflammation, on the other hand, is NOT a good thing. This is when inflammation is turned up high and lingers, and the biggest source of this lingering heat…is diet.

With chronic inflammation, the immune system constantly pumps out white blood cells and chemical messengers that say “we’re under attack, keep fighting!”.

Before long these white blood cells will attack healthy tissue and organs, and serious problems emerge.

You might think that inflammation is only linked to conditions like autoimmune, and arthritis – but as this research shows, chronic inflammation is associated with heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and bowel diseases like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Pro-Inflammatory Foods

We’ve covered this a fair bit before, but there’s nothing like mastering the fundamentals.

Pro-inflammatory foods (i.e. those that cause inflammation) are quite easily grouped as those foods that:

1. Contain gluten
2. Contain sugar
3. Are processed

In other words, all acid-forming foods. And pretty much all processed, packaged foods.

Again, the solutions are simple: eat fresh as much as possible.

Now, I want to make it clear that nobody is expected to be perfect, and perfection is not required to feel and look incredible. But try to limit these pro-inflammatory foods as much as possible.

And Anti-Inflammatory Foods?

The good news is, all alkaline-forming foods are naturally anti-inflammatory too. So if you’re following any of my suggestions and advice you’ll be on the right track.

However, if you are struggling with inflammation right now, then you’ll want to hit it hard. And for this, there are a few foods I want to suggest right away that are proven, powerful anti-inflammatory superfoods. To dig a bit deeper, I recommend you check out my Anti-Inflammation Plan here, or join the wait list for my Alkaline Base Camp coaching. It’s currently closed, but we’re going to be opening up more spots soon!

The Top Anti-Inflammation Foods

1. Turmeric (special focus on this one, try to get turmeric daily)
2. Ginger
3. Garlic (also anti-viral)
4. Broccoli, Cauli and other cruciferous
5. Leafy greens

If you can focus on getting these into your diet regularly, while minimizing the pro-inflammatory foods, you’ll really see a difference.

And in terms of supplements, I really recommend Thorne’s Meriva SF as a fantastic source of curcumin (the anti-inflammatory compound in turmeric), and broccoli sprout powder.

It Is Clear, We Need to Get the Inflammation Out

When we’re in a state of chronic inflammation, it unbalances every system in the body – your endocrine system (that controls your hormones), digestive, immune, pH balancing, and detoxification system. It affects every cell. It makes it 10x harder to reach your health goals.

By aiming towards a more alkaline-forming diet, we are naturally getting the pro-inflammatory foods out, and fighting inflammation with those beautiful alkaline, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant-rich, nutrient-dense foods.

But getting started is often the hardest thing.

It is why I always recommend starting with one simple step, and then adding. Don’t always try to do it all at once.

Just think about your diet, think about the foods you eat on a regular basis, and see if you can swap ONE for a more anti-inflammatory, alkaline food. What food is appearing in your diet regularly, that would be an easy swap?

Start there, and then add more. Baby steps. This approach – focusing on the core things that will make the biggest difference (with the least stress) is why we get such incredible results in the Alkaline Base Camp.

This is the approach that virtually guarantees success because it removes that stress (also pro-inflammatory!), makes it easy, and therefore heaps more enjoyable.

Let’s do this!
Ross

SEE ALSO:

Ross’ Anti-Inflammation Diet
Two Anti-Inflammatory Turmeric Teas
Soothing Gut-Healing Soup
The Anti-Inflammation Smoothie
The Most Acidic Foods
The Ultimate Guide to the Alkaline Diet