If you haven’t read my last blog post, check that out real quick to discover how chronic inflammation can be harmful for the body. Since a poor diet can lead to chronic inflammation, it is important for you to know what foods cause the most inflammation.
In my own research and years as a health coach, I have compiled a list of what I have come to know as the 5 foods that are most inflammatory to the body. These foods are gluten, dairy, corn, soy and sugar.
1. Gluten
A gluten free diet has become a hot topic in today’s society. Many people are choosing to go gluten free now because they are aware of the impact it has on their health, both physically and mentally. Gluten is the protein that is found in wheat, barley and rye products.
Gluten can be especially harmful to those with a gluten intolerance (light to moderate sensitivity to gluten consumption) or Celiac disease (severe reaction to gluten consumption). In the case of Celiac disease, an autoimmune condition, gluten poses an attack on your immune system and has a pro-inflammatory effect. In the case of gluten intolerance or sensitivity, there is a similar inflammatory reaction that takes place.
Repetitive consumption of gluten over time can lead to intestinal permeability, a.k.a “leaky gut”. In short, this is when the lining around your gut is weakened and can lead to toxins traveling in and out of the gut when it is not supposed to. This can then lead to many different symptoms and cause chronic inflammation. There are various symptoms of a gluten intolerance including bloating, abdominal pain, skin rashes, brain fog, headaches, constipation/diarrhea, etc. If symptomatic to gluten, all the more reason to avoid it as this can further damage the gut lining.
2. Dairy
Dairy has a very similar genetic make-up to gluten, and so the body responds symptomatically in a very similar way. Lactose intolerance is more common than you’d think around the globe and many people suffer from it without even realizing it, or they just put up with it.
Symptoms of dairy sensitivity, like bloating or gas, can be instant or show up in a delayed fashion. For example, you may experience abdominal discomfort one or two days after consuming dairy. This makes it difficult to identify dairy as the culprit. Elimination diets are helpful in this scenario to figure out which specific foods or food groups bother you. For example, eliminating dairy in your diet for a month and then reintroducing it may give you insight on how dairy affects your body.
3. Corn
Corn?? Isn’t corn a vegetable??? Yes, yes it is. Corn is a vegetable, and a grain, and a fruit… however, it is very much a high glycemic vegetable. This means that corn has a high sugar content. There is also a lot of starch in corn. When we eat corn, it is rapidly converted to sugar in the blood. Sugar is known to lead to chronic inflammation, as we will read further on in this post. In addition, 90% of the corn that we eat is genetically modified nowadays.
We are all familiar with the obvious corn products like popcorn, corn tortillas, corn tortilla chips, and corn on the cob. However, corn is used in many different ingredients to make many different foods. When avoiding corn products, watch out for corn derived ingredients in processed foods like corn starch, vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, fructose, dextrose and others.
4. Soy
Soybeans are another crop that are nearly always genetically modified before it reaches the consumer. Upwards of 90% of soy grown in the United States is made with GMO’s (genetically modified organisms). Due to outstanding factors, like wind and insects, we cannot automatically assume that the other 10% of soy labeled as non-GMO is actually non-GMO.
Soy is considered a legume and legumes may be hard to digest for some, if not most people. Food particles that are left undigested in your gut can create infections and provoke intestinal permeability, thus triggering inflammation. Soy also contains “goitrogens” naturally which can affect your thyroid gland and thyroid production.
5. Sugar
Oh, sugar… This might be the most common and most readily available ingredient to all of us. We have normalized sugar into our everyday lives for too long. Let’s give ourselves a reality check here. Sugar has just about 0 benefits to the body. It gives us headaches, it makes us fat, it promotes disease and cancers, and the list goes on. It is, without a doubt, promoting inflammation in the body.
Artificial sweeteners are the biggest culprit today – they are cheap, make things taste “good” and they are snuck into A TON of processed foods and drinks with foreign names that disguise them from the average person. According to the American Heart Association, the typical American adult consumes about 60 pounds of added sugar per year. That is over a pound every week! The typical American child consumes even more – about 65 pounds of added sugar per year.
Natural forms of sugar include things like honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and fruit. These are going to treat your body much better than artificial sweeteners, however we still want to limit our intake of sugar all together.
Well, there you have it. Those are my top 5 foods to stay away from to decrease inflammation throughout the body. Focus on eating more nutrient dense foods like a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and clean proteins. You are what you eat – bon appétit!