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If you want to look less like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and more like one of the Hemsworth brothers, you’ve gotta tweak your diet. Sure, when you’re in your 20s and you can eat Flamin’ Hot Cheetos with a Mountain Dew chaser for breakfast with no consequences, you don’t really think about your health and words like “anti-inflammatory.” But the older you get, the more you have to think about what you shove in your pie hole.
In the simplest words, an anti-inflammatory is anything that reduces body inflammation. You know: swelling, pain, and all that. And, if you ask us, the best anti-inflammatories are food.
But just because there are great anti-inflammatories that will lead to a more comfortable life, there are also many foods that have the opposite effect. These foods will make you feel freakin’ miserable.
Below, you’ll find six of the best anti-inflammatory foods as well as six of the worst. Eat up and slim down.
Anti Inflammatory Foods
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Avoid: Fried Foods
This might seem like a bit of a bummer, but fried foods should be avoided if you want to reduce inflammation. Not eating chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, and every other food on the fried food platter is medically proven to reduce inflammation.
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Eat: Nuts
If you’re already eating a lot of nuts for protein, good for you. Almonds, walnuts, and other nuts have tremendous anti-inflammatory properties. They contain large doses of fiber as well as Vitamin E, calcium, and Omega-3 fats that all have anti-inflammatory properties.
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Avoid: Red Meat
Well, we know this one is impossible. We have to have a burger or steak every now and then. Just don’t overdo it because red meat is high in saturated fat that can lead to inflammation. Don’t get rid of it completely, just learn to limit it.
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Eat: Tomatoes
Tomatoes are juicy, delicious, and the perfect addition to your favorite sandwich. They’re also filled with nutrients including vitamin C, potassium, and lycopene. The latter is an antioxidant known for its anti-inflammatory properties and reduction of certain cancers.
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Avoid: Processed Foods
Processed foods like potato chips and fast food have compounds that can have lasting implications on your gut health. Changes in stomach bacteria wreak havoc on your immune system and create chronic inflammation. It’s just bad news.
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Eat: Avocados
Not only are avocados creamy, delicious, and the perfect topper to toast or your favorite sandwich, they’re also chock full of things like fiber, magnesium, potassium, cancer-reducing carotenoids, and tocopherols. On top of that, they have ingredients that reduce inflammation.
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Avoid: Refined Carbohydrates
Multiple scientific studies have shown that refined carbs aren’t good for your health. The added sugars go into your bloodstream and elevate your blood sugar, thus creating inflammation. If you’re going to eat carbs, avoid refined carbs.
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Eat: Berries
On top of being loaded with vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and antioxidants, berries like strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries are filled with anti-inflammatories. The compounds are called anthocyanins and they're known to not only reduce inflammation but also reduce the risk of many diseases.
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Avoid: High Fructose Corn Syrup
You've probably heard that ingesting a lot of high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, but you don’t know exactly what’s bad about it. The ingredient in many products including cereals, ketchup, and sodas is known to heighten your blood sugar and add to inflammation along with increasing the risk of diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, and obesity.
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Eat: Olive Oil
Not only is olive oil loaded with antioxidants, it has valuable anti-inflammatory properties. One of the main antioxidants in olive oil is oleocanthal, a substance that has similar anti-inflammatory abilities as ibuprofen.
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Avoid: Sugary Beverages
When it comes to sugar, the best advice is to avoid it as much as possible. This is tough because sugar is in almost everything. But you can avoid sugary soda. High sugar diets lead to insulin resistance, obesity, and increased inflammation.
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Drink: Green Tea
Everyone talks about how good green tea is for your health, but do you actually know what its health benefits are? Drinking it might lower the risk of certain cancers, heart disease, and even Alzheimer’s. But a compound called epigallocatechin-3-gallate is known to reduce damage to fatty acid cells and reduce inflammation.
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