The Anti-inflammatory Eating Plan

It seems to me that one of the most profound things you can do to impact your long term health is to control inflammation. Sure, we commonly think of inflammation as part of diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, and indeed it is. But over the last few years, science has also shown us that a multitude of illnesses, from heart disease to Alzheimer's disease, are caused or greatly worsened by chronic inflammation. I think this discovery is one of the most significant developments in understanding our health to be made in a long time, and it explains a lot of things about how we age prematurely. More and more health experts are turning to these ideas and recommending an anti-inflammatory eating plan. To catch up on the basics of this approach, see this good overview.

But wait. Healers knew all this 5,000 years ago. Ayurveda calls this inflammatory heat "pitta" and they said it's one of the most destructive forces in your body. It can literally slow cook your organs, causing them to become worn out and fail prematurely. The eyes, liver, skin and hair are particularly vulnerable, along with the digestive tract and, as we know, the joints. Science is just now catching up.

I have seen a pitta controlling diet do great things for people. Cooling down the chronic damaging pitta makes people more relaxed, happier and less burned out. Plus, their hemorrhoids go away, and that would help anyone's mood.

To get going on a pitta/inflammation reducing program, concentrate on green vegetables, especially eaten raw. Include the juices, too. Cucumber and celery are standouts. Naturally sweet foods, including fruits, cool the tissues, and remember to include the colorful (purple, blue, red) superfruits that reduce inflammation so well. Bitter foods are actually the most cooling. Our American diet does not include many bitter foods, but consider some mildly bitter greens like kale. Ayurveda considers ghee (clarified butter) the most broad spectrum anti-inflammatory food you can eat. I have seen ghee do some wonderful things.

Avoid pungent foods like horseradish and go easy on the hot spices (chilies, garlic and the like).

If you'd like to dig a little farther in to these ideas, and read more about the relationship between Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and body chemistry, including anti-inflammatory foods and a pitta-controlling diet, check out my book, Body Balance, here.

Many years from now, when we're all relaxing on the porch in our rocking chairs, we can talk about how well our anti-inflammatory diet worked for us, and I'm pretty sure we'll still have all our marbles.