Managing Inflammation

Tame the Flames with Nutrition

Addressing Inflammation Can Bring Relief

Ask anyone living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) about inflammation and you’re likely to get an earful. Inflammation is a catchall term to describe how the immune system protects the body from a variety of insults, such as infection, injury, and irritation. With RA, this defense system is triggered inappropriately and it can feel like there is a fire burning out of control in your body. Joints feel painful, hot, and swollen—all classic signs that inflammation has run amok.

Given that the origin of the word inflammation literally means “to set on fire,” it’s not surprising that this process is characterized by heat and pain. But this is just the inflammation you can see and feel. Just as important—but much less understood—is the chronic inflammation that can occur in the body day after day.

Even in the absence of visible signs and symptoms, low-grade, chronic inflammation may be causing damage in our bodies. Even in people without RA, chances are their food choices contribute to inflammation that may later manifest as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic conditions.

Understanding Inflammation

To wrap your brain around just what this chronic inflammation might look like, envision that each and every cell in your body is busy carrying on a conversation with all of the cells around it. This cellular conversation participates in, and is affected by, inflammation.

When inflammation is in balance, when there’s just enough to fight infections and perform other “housekeeping” duties, yet not so much that it wreaks havoc on your body, these cellular conversations are quite pleasant. It’s the cellular equivalent of a neighborly chat over the backyard fence. Catching up on the neighborhood news, complimenting your neighbor on her garden, asking about her kid’s soccer game… this is the stuff of normal cell-to-cell communication.

On the flip side, when inflammation is out of control and running wild, this cellular communication can turn nasty. It’s the cellular equivalent of a shouting match. Sometimes, it even escalates to pushing and shoving. Instead of the nice friendly messages that cells share with one another to keep abreast of the happenings in the neighborhood, inflammation ratchets up the tone and volume of the conversation to damaging levels.

This is the scenario in which plaque can cling to artery walls leading to heart disease, cells can sustain DNA damage leading to cancer, and joints can stiffen and lose function worsening the day-to-day difficulty of living with RA.

You may not see it or feel it as it occurs, but sure enough, chronic inflammation can contribute to symptoms and pain over the long term. But the good news is that something as simple as what you eat can help control inflammation, giving the body some much needed relief.

You may be aware that chronic inflammation can do damage to your body but you might not know how and why your food choices affect inflammation.

Of course, food and nutrition cannot replace the medical management of a serious condition such as RA, but food should be your ally in keeping symptoms under control. Gaining a basic understanding of what inflammation is and how you can use food and nutrition to minimize its unpleasant effects in your body should be a top priority in any RA self-care plan.

Fighting Fat

The first order of business when taming inflammation is balancing your fat intake. Saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated are the three general categories of fat, but when it comes to inflammation, all of the action is with the polyunsaturated fats. Within this category, you will find the omega-6 and omega-3 fats.

Omega-6 fat typically is the guilty party when it comes to increasing inflammation. Omega-3 fat is the superstar when it comes to taming inflammation. Unfortunately, the modern American diet has led us astray and away from an ideal balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fat.

Health experts who study changes in diet over time have found something seriously amiss with the modern American diet. It turns out that our ancestors ate a diet with nearly equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 fat. That is, for every gram of omega-6 fat eaten, our forefathers managed to quaff nearly a gram of omega-3 fat.

In our current food climate, this ratio has increased drastically. Most of us eat somewhere between 10 and 30 grams of omega-6 fat for every 1 gram of omega-3 fat. Knowing that omega-6 fats turn up the inflammation and encourage shouting matches between the cells in our body, is it any wonder that what we eat can contribute to pain?

The best way to tackle this imbalance is to go natural. This means getting as much of the processed food out of your diet as possible. The biggest sources of those inflammation-producing omega-6 fats are soy and corn oil. Even if you’re not cooking with these oils, you’re probably getting plenty.

Read the label on most any packaged food and you’re certain to find corn or soy oil in the ingredient list. These fats are cheap, they have a long shelf life, and they have, quite literally, taken over our diets.

Instead, rely on those foods that look much like they did when they came out of the ground or off the vine. Focus on eating "low on the food chain." The bulk of your diet should come from fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (black beans, lentils, chick peas, navy beans, kidney beans, and others), nuts, and seeds.

The Power of 3s

Once you tackle the excess omega-6 fat, put your focus on getting those inflammation-dousing omega-3s back into your diet. If the omega-6 fats are the fuel for the fire, think of the omega-3s as the fire extinguisher.

The richest source of omega-3 fat is cold water fish, such as salmon, sardines, cod, mackerel, trout, and whitefish. But if you’re not a fan of fish, don’t despair. There are other ways to get these key fats into your diet. A fish oil supplement may be an option. Ask your doctor about whether fish oil supplements are right for you.

Beyond fish, you can tap into plant sources of omega-3 fat too. Go for ground flaxseeds, walnuts, other nuts and seeds, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, and canola oil. Wild caught game and grass fed beef also provide some omega-3 fat to the diet.

Berries, such as blueberries and blackberries provide omega-3s, too. Even better, these brightly colored foods provide other healthful nutrients, such as flavonoids and anthocyanins, which are known to play a role in fighting inflammation.

Sidebar: Dietary Dos and Don’ts for Taming Inflammation

Eat More of These Foods	Limit or Avoid These Foods
Cold water fish	Chips, crackers, and snack foods
Ground flaxseeds	Microwave meals and “instant” foods
Walnuts	Baked goods, such as doughnuts and cake
Other nuts and seeds	Cookies, pastries, and pie
Whole grains	Fast food
Green leafy vegetables	Fried foods such as french fries
Canola oil	Soy and corn oil
Anything fresh, whole, and nutritious	Anything that comes in a plastic wrapper

RECIPE: Walnut Berry Crisp

Even people who are focused on healthy eating deserve a sweet treat now and then. Try this berry-licious, omega-3 powerhouse for your next dessert.

Preparation time: 20 minutes. Cook time: 35 minutes. Serves six.

Ingredients

Filling 

2 large apples, peeled and diced
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 cups frozen blackberries
¼ cup brown sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons juice, any variety
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Topping

¾ cup whole oats
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup maple syrup

Instructions Preheat oven to 350º F.
Mix apples and frozen berries together in a large bowl
Add remainder of filling ingredients to fruit and mix well; set aside.
In separate bowl, combine topping ingredients; mix well with fork or finger tips.
Place fruit mixture into 9 × 12-inch (approximate) glass baking dish.
Press topping mixture lightly over top of fruit.
Cover with foil and bake at 350º F for 20 minutes.
Remove foil and continue to bake at 350º F for another 15 minutes, until top lightly browns.
Remove and let cool slightly.
Serve warm.
Per serving: 280 calories; 38 grams of carbohydrates; 8.5 grams of protein; 10.5 grams of fat; 4 grams of fiber.