Have you ever wondered that, in spite of the progress that we have made in the field of medicine, we still fall sick! Thanks to our lifestyle and diet. Every severe disease like heart disease, arthritis, cancer, and diabetes starts with inflammation. It is crucial to reduce your inflammation levels. Anti-inflammatory foods and lifestyle changes should be made an integral part of your diet plan. Here is an Indian Anti-inflammatory diet plan along with a list of anti-inflammatory foods. As well as some important diet tips to reduce inflammation.
List of Anti-inflammatory foods
Let us take a look at the foods that can help build your immune system and reduce inflammation from your body.
Omega- 3s
- Walnuts
- Chia seeds
- Salmon
- Tuna
- Mackerel
- Fish oil
- Flax seeds
Fruits and Vegetables
- Tomatoes
- Apples
- Pineapple
- Grapes
- Apricots
- Mango
- Pumpkin
- Onion
- Berries
- Bell peppers
- Spinach
Fermented foods
Fermented foods contain good bacteria that can help your immune system. These foods reduce bloating diarrhea and gas.
- Yogurt
- Kombucha
- Sauerkraut
- Pickles
- dosa and idli batter
Zinc and selenium
- Almonds
- Sunflower seeds,
- Unsalted pistachios
- Pumpkin seeds
- Eggs
- Seafood
- Brazil nuts
Herbs and spices
Whole grains
- Oatmeal,
- Whole wheat bread,
- Jowar,
- Buckwheat,
- Bajra
- Brown rice
Read- Top 15 Anti-inflammatory foods for thyroid and PCOS.
List of Foods to Avoid in Anti-inflammatory diet
Sugar
Excess intake of white sugar can weaken your immune system. It can greatly suppress your immunity. Refined sugar can result in inflammation. Sugary foods like cakes, cookies, pie crusts, and candies should be especially avoided. So, it is best to have better substitute sugar with natural sweeteners like raw honey, jaggery powder, and dates.
Processed foods
Processed foods can decrease your ability to effectively fight infectious diseases. They may look healthy from their appearance but they are linked to heart disease and inflammation. These include packaged foods or any food that comes in a box. Even the packaged food that comes with a tag ” healthy snack”.
High-fat foods
Foods prepared from partially hydrogenated oils contain trans fats that can result in high inflammation levels and highly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Fried foods are tasty but they can produce AGEs known as advanced glycation end products that can stimulate inflammation.
Processed red meat
These are full of saturated fats that can cause inflammation. It is better to stick to lean pork or skinless poultry instead of fatty and processed meats.
Diet Tips to reduce inflammation in the body
Here are some important Diet Tips to reduce inflammation in the body as well as to improve the body’s immunity
Eat the right foods
Ensure that you consume foods that contain antioxidants like green vegetables and curcumin. These can help heal your body. Your gut health is extremely crucial to the immune system. Include gut-friendly foods like yogurt, oats, barley, garlic that can protect your gut and help form a strong immune system.
Make exercise your habit
To boost your immunity levels, physical activities like running, walking, strength training, as well as swimming can be useful. Exercise does not help to produce good hormones but it also improves your calorie balance.
Avoid consuming a low protein and high carb diet
Less intake of protein can weaken your immunity and high carb intake can interfere with the functioning of WBCs. Hence, weakening your immunity and increasing inflammation in the body. Low carb diet plan.
Sleep
Poor sleep routine can result in compromised immunity as the majority of the repair, detoxification, and growth processes take place during the night. Hence, a minimum of six to eight hours of good quality sleep is important to keep your immunity intact. Benefits of good night sleep.
Hydration
Drinking adequate water can help in the proper transportation of nutrients to the trillion cells present in our body.
Control stress levels
Stress is a big turn off for immunity. It can raise the cortisol levels which is an obstacle towards building immunity. Hence, it is better to handle it well by practicing daily affirmations, meditation, and other useful techniques to lower your stress levels.
Stop smoking
Smoking depletes the best nutrient- vitamin C that is great for boosting immunity. Active as well as passive smoking can impact our lung health. How to stop smoking.
Alcohol
Overindulgence of alcohol can create by-products that can spike the levels of inflammation and harm your liver. So, it is best to limit its intake and make sure to drink lots of water after taking it in moderation.
Indian Anti-Inflammatory Diet Plan
Based on the list of Anti-inflammatory foods as well as the Diet tips to reduce inflammation in the body that we discussed earlier, We have created an Indian Anti-inflammatory diet plan. This diet plan will not only help in increasing your body’s immunity, but it will also help in reducing inflammation as well as internal healing.
Early Morning:
1 glass of spiced turmeric tea (Turmeric, star anise, ginger, and honey)
Breakfast:
1 bowl Jowar / oats / Rawa upma with veggies
+ 1 sliced apple/ pineapple/ orange
Mid-morning :
1 glass Sattu drink (Sattu flour mixed in water with lemon juice and jaggery powder)
Lunch:
1 cup soybean sabzi with 2 whole wheat phulkas + 1 tsp ghee+ 1 cup beetroot raita
Mid-evening:
1 cup roasted chana or 1 cup of yogurt with flax seeds
Dinner:
1 bowl sweet potato soup + 1 cup carrot rice
Bedtime:
1 cup warm milk with a pinch of turmeric powder
EndNote:
The above given anti-inflammatory diet plan can promote the proper functioning of the body. But people who are allergic to any of these foods can modify it according to their preference. The anti-inflammatory diet plan gives you a choice of experimenting with a variety of nutritious and flavorful foods. Though diet is important, it is also important to be mindful of various other areas like sleep, exercise, and stress. All these areas when combined together can create a healthy lifestyle for life.
Everyone wants to lose some weight and look good. Diet, exercises are pretty good way to lose weight but adding additional help is also important.