You can use food to fuel your body or create dis-ease, which is one of the reasons why I’m so passionate about food and sourcing high quality ingredients. While this is a nuanced topic and what works for me may not work for you, I found that while healing and simultaneously lowering high amounts of inflammation in my body, cutting out these foods have been monumental in my fast recovery.
If you, too, are recovering from a health crisis or struggle with auto-immune or GI symptoms, you may want to look at cleaning up your diet. If you read this list and feel overwhelmed, go slow and don’t worry about cutting it out all at once. Since my ‘normal’ growing up was adhering to a strict vegan diet and lifestyle, applying discipline in the area of food has been pretty easy for me. I still miss certain foods (like indulging in bagels or tomatoes or pizza!) but for right now, I have found a sweet spot for my healing by avoiding these inflammatory trigger foods.
1. Nightshades
Tomato, peppers, eggplant, and white potato — not sweet potato. This one has been the hardest for me since they’re one of my favorites. Nightshades contain solanine, an alkaloid that can cause inflammation in large amounts. It can irritate the GI microbiota, contributing to leaky gut, and increased joint pain.
2. Gluten
Aside from a large majority of US wheat being sprayed with glyphosate (round up), gluten can activate zonulin, a regulator of intestinal permeability, which can increase permeability and trigger an immune response. If you aren’t gluten sensitive but want to implement healthier alternatives, go for organic sourdough and organic pastas. For GF alternatives I like Lotus Foods noodles, Jovial brown rice pasta, and in a pinch Canyon Bakehouse Mountain White (the one with olive oil.)
3. Natural Flavors
If you have created a habit of looking at food labels, you’ll probably agree that it’s wild how many food products have natural flavors. But it’s not so natural — mixtures can contain more than 100 chemicals (including solvents, emulsifiers, flavor enhancers, and preservatives.) In fact, according to the FDA, some natural flavors ~classified as safe~ are made of more than 90% other substances used to enhance the flavor being created. *When a product I like uses natural flavors I will contact the company to ask them what their source is and if they’re honest about their sourcing and it comes from fruit, then that’s when I make an acceptation.
4. Refined Sugar
Sugar can contribute to inflammation by triggering the release of inflammatory molecules known as cytokines. You can read more here. For me, this also includes artificial flavors, HFCS, and additives. I opt for fruit, medjool dates, coconut sugar, manuka honey and maple syrup.
5. Seed Oils
Inflammation heavennnn. Soybean, canola, sunflower, safflower, ricebran, grapeseed, etc. (It’s worth noting that I don’t think they’re ALWAYS problematic. I think once in a while is totally fine. When I am fully healed, my stance is this: I’d rather enjoy my life instead of being stressed every time I have seed oils. While I’m focused on my deep healing I choose to avoid them. If I don’t, I feel increased joint pain, GI upset and brain fog. That being said, if there’s not a way you can avoid them, you may want to look into taking vitamin e (I like this brand) with your meal. I like to opt for grass fed beef tallow + butter, single source organic olive oil, coconut oil and ghee.
6. MSG
Otherwise more commonly known as ‘yeast extract’, ‘flavoring’, ‘flavor enhancer’, ‘621’, ‘glutamate’, ‘monosodium salt’ and so many more — The FDA actually allows food companies to disguise MSG as 90+ food additives. MSG flares my nerve pain like no other.
7. All Sources of Caffeine
Not just coffee. Teas, like green tea, matcha or black tea. As sad as a coffee free existence has been the last two years, cutting this out has helped me so much.
8. Chocolate
While the flavanols in chocolate are responsible for its anti-inflammatory effects, chocolate has small amounts of caffeine which can influence inflammation. When I was first floxed I slowly realized that the caffeine in chocolate was contributing to my anxiety and pain. As I’ve healed I’ve been able to introduce small amounts of organic, high quality chocolate back into my diet!
9. Fried Foods
Fried foods produce compounds in the body called ‘advanced glycation end products’, also known as AGEs. These compounds directly stimulate inflammation in the body.
10. Alcohol
Drinking heavily may cause some people to develop problems with bacterial toxins moving out of the colon and into the body. In one 2010 study, levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, increased in people who consumed alcohol. Those who had more than two drinks per day had the highest CRP levels. Alcohol consumption may increase inflammation and lead to a leaky gut which essentially drives inflammation throughout your body.
11. Soy
Since soy is actually a legume, it also contains anti-nutrients such as lectins and phytates that bind to the intestines and make nutrients inactive in the body by inhibiting absorption. This limited absorption can also irritate your gut/ contribute to leaky gut syndrome, and perpetuate overall gut dysfunction and digestive distress which can increase C-reactive proteins in the body. I think wether or not soy causes inflammation is specific to ones bio-individuality. Some individuals may experience sensitivities or allergies to soy, which can actually trigger an inflammatory response. Certain processed soy products such as soy protein isolates or highly refined soy oils, may lack the beneficial nutrients and phytochemicals found in whole soy foods, potentially diminishing their anti-inflammatory effects. If you like eating soy products, opt for fermented soy like tempeh and natto.
12. Restaurant Foods
This one is not too complex – right now I really just avoid restaurant foods and cook my own meals so I know exactly what (and the quality of ingredients) that is going into my food. Things I’m avoiding by not eating out are seed oils, low quality ingredients and contaminations.
13. Pasteurized Dairy
I notice that I generally do better without pasteurized dairy. Raw dairy seems to be fine. If I have dairy, I’ll usually take a lactase enzyme (discount code is ‘celebrate’) to help break down the lactose. Since I grew up vegan, I noticed that I definitely felt lactose-intolerant anytime I’d have a little dairy post veganism. The other reason I’m really careful with this is because non-organic/grass fed dairy will oftentimes have added hormones and antibiotics. Noooo thank you! This one is nuanced as well, and if you feel good consuming it, then go for it! There are some types of dairy that contain gut-friendly probiotics; however, eating certain types of dairy can promote inflammation. If you have chronic pain, look into your consumption of processed dairy products, such as whole milk, sugar-loaded yogurts, and processed cheeses. Opt for high quality like organic or grass fed products. Fermented dairy products like greek yogurt and milk kefir may be more suitable to you.
14. Most Processed/ Packaged Food
This one is also nuanced. I avoid pre-packaged meals, or boxed meals like rice/pasta dishes, tomato sauce, deli meats, chips with seasonings, premade sauces, dressings, etc. However, I still use things like canned coconut milk, coconut aminos, chia seeds, bone broth from Kettle & Fire.
If you’re looking for other ways to lower inflammation, here are some of my favorite healing modalities:
1. Dissolve-It-All (discount code ‘celebrate’)
2. Jellyfish Collagen (discount code ‘celebrate’)
3. Electrolytes (discount code ‘celebrate10’)
4. Magnesium Glycinate (discount code ‘celebrate10’)
5. Colostrum (discount code ‘celebrate’)
If you found this post helpful please share with a friend or drop a comment below and let us know what foods you’ve avoided in the name of healing! If you’re looking for recipes free of gluten, refined sugar, dairy and seed oils, check out the recipe section of our blog here.
