Foods that fight inflammation (eat these!) 🍒

Inflammation is our immune system's defense mechanism. It helps protect us against disease and infection, injury and even stress. And in the short term it's actually a good thing, but we don't want inflammation sticking around in the long term because it can lead to chronic pain and even disease within itself. And so that's what I wanted to chat about today. How we can avoid or reduce unnecessary inflammation by eating certain foods that have anti-inflammatory effects. Now some of you might already know this, but before starting this channel I actually worked in the field of nutrition as a dietician and I learned a lot about the power of foods in fighting inflammation and I wanted to dive into what those foods are today. And you're gonna see loads of recipes featured kind of throughout the video, so keep your eye out for this recipe alert sign, which essentially just means that recipe link for you is in the description box below. Now let's dive in. So this is super cool. Plants have developed their own defense mechanism to help them fight off certain bacteria, fungi, insects and even viral infections. And part of their immune system are these compounds that are called phytochemicals that are also known as phytonutrients. And what happens is that when we consume plant foods, we essentially just absorb these phytonutrients. And research has shown that these compounds help to even protect us from chronic diseases. They help to reduce inflammation and are potent in helping to protect us from cancer and heart disease. And so fruits and vegetables are very rich in these phytonutrients and to make sure that we get a good mix of these nutrients into our system, we want to try to aim to eat a variety of different colors. And so diversity is at least as important as quantity. So let's explore each of these colors and the benefits that they can provide. Let's start with red colored foods like tomatoes and red bell peppers and watermelon. They're rich in lycopene and this is a potent antioxidant that helps to reduce damage that are done by harmful molecules that are known as free radicals. Lycopene is also thought to protect against prostate cancer as well as heart and lung disease. One quick note about fruits and veggies whose flesh is white or pale colored on the inside like this here apple or eggplants for example, most of the color is in the skin and that's also where you're gonna find most of the phytonutrients. So if you want to reap the maximum benefit from these kinds of fruits and vegetables, try to enjoy it with the skin whenever you can. Then there's orange and yellow foods like carrots and sweet potatoes and squash and these provide carotenoids and these help to promote communication between our cells. They may also help to prevent heart disease and you might have heard about carotenoids also helping out with our eyesight. It might come as no surprise that green foods are very nourishing especially leafy greens like kale and spinach and even broccoli. These are rich in flavanols which help to reduce the risk of vascular disease and they just generally help to reduce the effects of inflammation all around. And then there's blue and purple colored foods like blueberries and blackberries but also purple cabbage and grapes and plums and these are rich in the powerful compounds called anthocyanins which are believed to delay cellular aging. They also block the formation of clots in our blood which can help to keep our hearts healthy. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds, thousands of compounds that are in these fruits and veggies that we haven't explored because we wouldn't have the time to but they all help in their own unique way to help fight inflammation and other various diseases. So it really helps to get a variety whenever we can. These next ingredients aren't particularly colorful per se but they do have very strong anti-inflammatory kind of properties and these are the basis of a lot of our meals and these are garlic, onion, and ginger. So let's start first with garlic. These contain organosulfur compounds and then onions contain compounds called quercetin and both of these phytonutrients have anti-inflammatory benefits but they also have been shown to prevent cancer and microbial and viral infections. Then there's ginger and these contain the phytochemical called gingerols and this helps to reduce inflammation and helps to prevent the progression of various chronic diseases. Oxidation is a very necessary and normal chemical reaction that happens in our bodies but sometimes an imbalance can occur in this reaction which can lead to something called oxidative stress. Now oxidative stress can cause inflammation but it can also damage our cells, proteins, DNA. It can even cause premature aging and even certain kinds of diseases. Now luckily there are certain compounds called antioxidants that help to restore the balance and antioxidants are really rich in the fruits and vegetables that we just talked about but also in spices. Spices and dried herbs offer the most antioxidant punch by weight than almost anything else and this is especially true for oregano, rosemary, and thyme. And these are ingredients that we've combined together in our homemade Italian seasoning mix. You can make this mix just once and then keep it in your pantry and then you're gonna have it at the ready to just scoop up into your favorite pastas or pizza sauces to add a whole bunch of antioxidants all at once. It's just so simple. And then there's also turmeric powder. This is another antioxidant powerhouse because it's really rich in a phytonutrient that's called curcumin. Now unfortunately curcumin isn't very readily absorbed into our bodies unless it's combined with black pepper which can help to increase its absorption by 2,000%. So that's why you can often see that when we're making curries we usually combine our turmeric with black pepper but you'll also see that whenever we're making delicious drinks like our golden milk recipe or you could batch make our golden latte drink mix. I feel like it's just such a lovely way to wind down in the evening scooping up a little bit of this powder combining it with your favorite warm plant-based milk. It's just so delicious and nourishing. Now let's talk about beans for a second. They contain a very powerful phytonutrient that we've already discussed if you remember called anthocyanins. We saw that in the blueberries, blackberries, and purple cabbages. Those have like a blue-purple color, right? And so do certain beans like red beans, black beans, pinto beans. These are especially really high in these anthocyanins. And beans are also very high in their fiber content which has been shown to reduce insulin sensitivity and also to reduce inflammation. And then there's soybeans and these are something that you see us enjoy a lot in the form of edamame beans, tempeh, or tofu and they're rich in the phytonutrient that's called isoflavones. You might also sometimes hear about soy being controversial because it contains phytoestrogens. We do have a whole article on soy in case you're interested and want to learn more. I'll link it for you below. But in short, the results of these studies on phytoestrogens have been conflicting in the past but more recent studies conclude that soy is not only safe for consumption but it is also very protective against different kinds of cancers and it's generally recommended because it's a very great protein source. And that's another way that we can actually help to reduce inflammation is by consuming more plant-based proteins over animal proteins. Certain animal proteins like red meat and dairy have been linked with increased inflammation whereas plant proteins have been linked with decreasing inflammation. I've always been so fascinated with gut health and our guts are these intricate ecosystems that trillions of microorganisms call home. And some of these microorganisms promote inflammation whereas others are thought to reduce it. And fiber is one source that can fuel the growth of the beneficial gut microorganisms that help to support our overall optimal health. Now some sources of fiber include the fruits and vegetables and beans that we've discussed but also it's very rich in whole grains. Whole grains are incredibly nourishing and filling so you can aim to add them whenever and wherever you can. It's delicious to enjoy with meals of course but you could also have something like oats together with breakfast or you could add it into energy bars or even just add grains to salads. And also I don't know if you knew this but popcorn is a whole grain in and of itself so feel free to pop some popcorn to enjoy as a snack. We're gonna end strong here with omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fats fulfill so many different functions in the body and they're the starting point for the creation of certain hormones that help to fight inflammation. Omega-3 fats are essential which means our bodies can't make it on its own which means that we have to consume them directly from food. And plant-based sources of omega-3 fats are ground flax seeds, ground chia seeds, hemp seeds and walnuts. And in case you're interested we have an awesome recipe for a super seed mix where you essentially just take all of these omega-rich ingredients, you mix them together in a jar and then it's super easy to have it on hand. You can sprinkle it onto salads or smoothie bowls or onto yogurts which is what I like to do or onto oatmeals to get an extra boost of energy and omega every day. Plus you can consider an omega supplement from algae which fun fact, algae is where fish get their omega from. So you could just bypass eating the fish and get it straight from the source and as usual we do have a whole article about omega-3 fats so if you want to delve deeper the link is in the description box. What I usually like to do and this is really one of my philosophies is to focus more on the foods that we can be enjoying more of and let those foods naturally displace the foods that we maybe ought to be eating a little bit less of. So for example to get the optimal benefit of the omega-3 fats that we've just talked about from foods we actually need to limit the omega-6 fats that we get from foods. There's a few other examples of foods that actually cause inflammation but instead of delving into those in this video what we've done is we've created a whole new brand new inflammation article and I'm gonna link that for you in the description box below in case you'd like to delve deeper. But if I was to summarize essentially all we want to do is to try to eat a rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables. Whatever is available to you is great. We want to cover our basis with enjoying onion, garlic, and ginger in meals. We can also spice up our meals or even potentially our drinks to make them more flavorful and nourishing. Then we can fill ourselves up with beans, we can fuel up on fiber, and we can try to get in some omega-3 rich foods as well. And that's pretty much anti-inflammatory foods in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed and that you learned something new. If you did, feel free to give the video a thumbs up. It means a lot when you do. And that's it for today. Pickle Flames signing off. We'll see you in the next video.