The 4 Worst Foods That Cause Inflammation
Avoid these to combat chronic inflammation.
Inflammation is one of the body’s natural mechanisms for increasing blood flow—as well as antibodies and proteins—to an area to fight infections, injuries, or toxins in an attempt to heal itself. When it happens occasionally, known as acute inflammation, it’s a positive response (think about a bruise or swollen ankle that only lasts a few days). But when inflammation becomes chronic, it can lead to serious health issues such as heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and stroke.
On the up side, food is one of the key natural ways we can control inflammation in the body. There are plenty of healthy ingredients that fight inflammation, as well as a number of foods that worsen it.
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Here are the top foods to avoid in order to reduce your body’s anti-inflammatory response, according to health experts.
Added sugars in foods like packaged granola bars, cereal, and fancy coffee drinks can increase chronic inflammation through the release of cytokines, and can also raise blood pressure, says nutrition expert Frances Largeman-Roth, RDN, author of Eating in Color. Consuming excessive high fructose corn syrup and other forms of sugar can also increase your risk of type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, and even cancer, adds Andrew Abraham, MD, the founder and CEO of Orgain.
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Don’t confuse these foods with those that contain naturally occurring sugar, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and dairy. We’re talking about sugars that are added to foods and beverages to sweeten them (save for honey, which has been shown to reduce inflammation.) While it’s not realistic to cut out all added sugars in our diets, we can certainly stand to reduce our daily intake. "Start by using less sweetener in your morning coffee and gradually reduce it to zero," Largeman-Roth advises. And be sure to read nutrition labels.
While most brands have removed trans fats—they’ll be listed as partially hydrogenated fats in the ingredient list—from their food products, certain packaged foods still contain them. “For example, packaged frosting has 2 grams of trans fat per 2 tablespoon serving," explains Largeman-Roth. Trans fats have been found to cause systemic inflammation in the body and eating them has been linked to coronary heart disease.
