Food Inflammation: Part II

So after being obliterated with the bad news of GMO foods, you are now ready to find out how inflammatory the actual foods that you eat daily, really are.  Even the health foods!  This site is such a great resource, so go check out the IF rating system at www.inflammationfactor.com and if you think you are an inflammatory plagued individual, buy the book!

You might ask how you would know if you are an inflammatory plagued person, and I would be glad you asked!  The implication is huge.  We live in a new world of inflammatory conditions, and as we clearly see from Wednesday’s Daily Sprout, Genetically Modified Foods are a huge cause for this, however, so are the foods you eat everyday, even if they are not GMO.

Fibro myalgia, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel conditions, celiac disease, asthma and other bronchial disorders, food allergies and so many more conditions are inflammatory in nature.   And inflammation starts with the gut, and the food you put in it.  As the intestinal lining swells, the gut permeability goes up, and foods that are inflammatory to the gut become inflammatory systemically as they enter the blood stream.  Causing joints, muscles and lungs to swell.

So what are these highly inflammatory foods?  Well, check out the inflammatory ratings of some of these common foods, where the more negative the rating, the more inflammatory it is.  In addition to this random resource, we can begin to cross reference inflammation with glycemic effect as well.

When you start to look at those foods that increase your blood sugar as well as inflammation, we quickly get a “who’s who” of foods to be avoided on the Advanced Plan/Healing Diet.

White Rice has an inflammatory effect of -244 and it has a glycemic index of  86 to 109 depending on the exact type and how it is cooked (these are high blood sugar inducers) , whereas brown rice has an ultra low inflammatory effect of -229 (joke, not sure it is worth the brown rice when you start looking at it this way) with a glycemic index in the 80’s and 90’s.  Quinoa is -126, which is interesting considering we recommend it as a wise alternative to grains, and here it is with a considerably painful inflammatory level and a moderate glycemic index of 53 .  Ground flaxseed (flax meal) has an inflammatory level of 26, which means it is anti-inflammatory (mildly).

Looking at the glycemic index we can see why the advanced plan prefers quinoa, but we can also see why it is in moderation.  The advanced plan is more about the glycemic effect than inflammation, yet you will find that the two largely go hand in hand.

A recommendation if you want to become more informed and perhaps develop some memorization of these foods would be to get the two apps that exist in the world of food tracking.  One is the IF tracker, great for inflammation tracking.  The “A Low GI Diet” app is also fantastic for looking up glycemic indeces on the spot.  These two resources together will help you decide if you should avoid certain foods, and if you need to alter your entire life style (likely).

So that concludes part II; between GMO foods and other inflammatory foods.  Keep an eye out for more as this is an ever growing concern!  Be well, eat well, Dr. E