Eat Well, Be Well | Healthy Nest Nutrition

It’s been researched over and over—some foods can make you feel better, and some worse. Better might mean good energy, less joint pain, a clearer head, more focus or more strength, or all of the above. One aspect of better/worse might be related to the amount of inflammation in the body.

We know that certain foods produce more and certain foods reduce inflammation. It’s not that far to leap to say how you feel in your skin might sometimes be related to what you ate. Let’s take a closer look at inflammation: what foods cause more and what foods cause less. Because eating different actually could make a difference in how good we feel.

What is Inflammation?

Inflammation is a natural process, part of the body protecting itself, or helping to heal itself. Very useful for acute situations: a cut, a broken/sprained limb or other injury or infection. The body sends out chemical alarms and signals the immune system to go to a specific injury. Then, when the fire is out, the immune system calms down to normal balance. When the body continues to send out alarm bells for an acute injury for weeks, months or years, it is harmful and can lead to health issues. This is chronic inflammation.

We know environmental toxins and lifestyle (FOOD, sleep and stress) contribute to chronic inflammation. With lifestyle, specifically, drinking alcohol in excess, higher body mass (unless you have tons of muscle), too much or not enough exercise and lots of stress and smoking all add to the inflammatory load of the body. We also know that if out of control, chronic inflammation does contribute to diseases: Alzheimer’s, asthma, cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes.

Lowering inflammation using food and nutrient building blocks has been well researched. It is known that vitamins A, C and D as well as Zinc, the spices turmeric, ginger and garlic and antioxidants can reduce inflammation.