Maybe you’ve heard the words “inflammatory foods” before; maybe you haven’t.

More so than normal lately, I’m hearing the words “gut health, inflammation, heal your gut, etc” It’s not a bad thing. We all should be doing it. However, if you aren’t planning on making healthier nutrition choices, no amount of shakes, juices, drinks, or supplements are going to solve your problems. Oops, truth bomb.

That’s what we are talking about on today’s podcast.

Inflammatory foods are everywhere today. While we won’t get rid of them in our daily diet (they’re too convenient), it’s important to be aware of what they are and what they are doing to our bodies.

Disclaimer: I AM NOT a doctor and am NOT diagnosing you with inflammation; what I’m offering is information about inflammation. To work SPECIFICALLY on your issues, depending on the level of problems, I highly recommend a nutrition coach (hi, that’s me), registered dietician, or medical professional.

What is Inflammation:

For starters, we need to talk about what inflammation is. Think of it like this, when you are injured, your body bruises. That bruising is inflammation, or in other words, swelling. When we are talking about poor gut health, it usually means your gut is inflamed.

There are many common signs of inflammation that we wouldn’t typically associate with gut health: anxiety, acne, energy, brain fog, bloating, arthritis flare-ups, reflux, and problems going to the bathroom, are just a few to start with.

These signs mean something isn’t right; however, it doesn’t necessarily mean a lifelong problem, it just means that right now, your gut is off. That’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today… healing your gut with food.

5 Most Common Inflammatory Foods:

• Gluten
• Dairy
• Soy
• Eggs
• Corn

Keep in mind not all of them will necessarily cause problems. We are all individual people, therefor one of these inflammatory foods might affect you differently than it affects someone else.

How To Minimize Inflammatory Foods

If you feel like your body is not agreeing with certain foods, I would highly suggest starting with a food journal. Keep track and see what is and isn’t agreeing with your body. Once you get a little more information, reach out to a doctor or medical professional who can help you safely eliminate that food from your diet.

To clean up your eating and eat less inflammatory foods, here are a few things you can do:

• Start reading labels, and become familiar with what foods make you feel better and what don’t.
• Focus more on whole foods vs. processed foods.
• Don’t change your entire diet immediately.
• Start cooking at home more instead of eating out.

Do not:

• Do a detox or a cleanse to remove the toxins of inflammatory foods.
• Jump into it without working with someone who can help you make smart choices.
• Eliminate everything and hope for the best (trust me on this one).

Being informed is the best thing you can do for your health. Know YOUR body and how it reacts can make big changes in the long run for your health.