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nutrition
inflammation, encouraging you research is touting as magic for
to rest. It’s also being linked with physical and mental longevity.
problems such as atherosclerosis – And you can blame a collective
the leading cause of heart attacks. obsession with the gut for the fact
It releases proteins called cytokines, “She was getting such phenomenal that fermented foods are enjoying
which contribute to symptoms results on blood pressure, cholesterol a culinary revival. “In this sense,
of depression, and it switches levels and cognitive ability that the the anti-inflammatory explanation
off genes that balance the body, doctor monitoring the patients called is a way of understanding why the
turning on those that cause damage. her and asked, ‘What kind of magic foods that we know to be healthy
As for where inflammation is this diet?’ When the academic told are actually healthy,” says Borelius.
comes from, your body creates me what foods the participants in the It’s one thing drawing a line
it. Fat cells excrete inflammatory study were eating, I nearly fell off my between diet and inflammation,
substances, so the more excess chair. It was a diet I’d been following but trying to discern the foods
weight you have, the more inflamed under the advice of a fitness trainer that trigger it from those that
you’re likely to be. Stress causes for a few years, and it had totally temper it is another. While some
it, as does lack of sleep. And it’s revolutionised my health. The fat around studies, including one published
also triggered by external sources, my middle had vanished, backache in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy,
such as pollutants and food. But, gone, minor depression lifted.” have shown that eating, say,
happily, food is also shaping up to So make sure you’re seated turmeric lowered levels of
be one of the major ways to fight it. safely while we reveal which foods inflammation, they haven’t shown
make up an anti-inflammatory diet: whether this has a knock-on effect
fruit, vegetables, olive oil, whole in the body. And scientists have
grains, oily fish, turmeric, avocado, failed to reach a consensus on
MAGIC chia seeds, fermented foods and what foods are pro- and anti-
bone broth. Yes, they’re the kind of
inflammatory. “Even now, opinion
NUTRIBULLET ingredients you read about in these differs on some foods, like dairy,
as it seems to show different
pages every month, and that’s the
The idea of an anti-inflammatory diet point. “We’ve known for years that results in different trials,” says
first caused a buzz in the early ’00s, these kinds of foods are good for Aisling Pigott, a registered dietitian.
when celebrity dermatologist Nicholas us, but we haven’t always known “It suggests there may still be
Perricone claimed it was the reason his why,” adds Borelius. Before you something we don’t yet know
clients looked so young and glowing. started ‘eating the rainbow’, it was about exactly how foods affect us
Genuine research followed, with called your five-a-day, and it was in terms of inflammation. It may be
various studies attempting to prove based on research that suggested that individuals react differently,
the efficacy of this way of eating. Fast this number was the minimum you or other elements of the diet play
forward to 2013 and Borelius came needed to hit in order to reap the a role in altering the effects.”
across the term ‘anti-inflammatory protective rewards. Oily fish is a What we do know, we owe largely
eating’ while on the board of Lund mainstay of the Mediterranean to two pioneers in anti-inflammatory
University in Sweden. “One of their diet, which a growing body of eating: Dr James Hebert and
academics had conducted a trial on 44 researcher Dr Nitin Shivappa from
people changing their diet,” she recalls. the University of South Carolina.
They examined more than 1900
articles on inflammation to create
a list of about 45 foods or food
components (things such as alcohol,
FEBRUARY 2020 womenshealth.com.au 87
