How to Reduce Chronic Inflammation

Inflammation is a crucial component of our health. It springs into action when needed to fight off foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses…then calms down and waits for the next danger. But for billions of people, chronic stress, the Standard American Diet (SAD, a fitting acronym) and environmental insults including smoking and pollution have triggered inflammation to turn on…and stay on. The result—chronic inflammation—is like an out-of-control campfire that’s jumped beyond the pit, setting every organ it touches aflame and increasing the odds of developing cancer, heart disease, dementia, diabetes, autoimmune disease and more.

As studies continue to link chronic inflammation with disease, the food-as-medicine movement has gained well-deserved traction, and the public is clamoring to learn more about the foods that can cause inflammation and foods that reduce inflammation.

Most of us know, for instance, that salmon and kale are anti-inflammatory foods, and that excess sugar and ultra-processed foods are pro-inflammatory. But there are hundreds of other inflammation-extinguishing foods and drinks, including coffee, cod and garbanzo beans. Also omega-3 fatty acids act like inflammation firefighters, entering cells where they turn on proteins that extinguish inflammation caused by excess body fat.

After you eat certain foods, the body launches an impressive, coordinated effort to reduce inflammation. Understanding the why behind that process can encourage you to incorporate great-for-you foods into every meal.

Bottom Line Personal spoke with William Li, MD, medical director of The Angiogenesis Foundation, which focuses on disrupting disease through angiogenesis, the body’s process of growing new blood vessels. Here’s what he has to say about inflammation…what causes it…and how to reduce it.

“What can I eat to reduce inflammation?” If I had a dollar for every time a patient, friend or reporter has asked me that question in the last few years, I’d have enough money to treat every person reading this article to an anti-inflammatory salmon and kale salad, says Dr. Li. Here are his answers to that question and others about inflammation.

What you already know: Beans are anti-inflammatory.

What you may not know: The fiber in beans acts as breakfast, lunch and dinner for your healthy gut bacteria, which in turn produce specialized fatty acids that lower inflammation and help control body weight. The 39 trillion healthy bacteria living in our gut, collectively called the microbiome, are known for their immune support role, but they do so much more. When you eat plant-based, high-fiber foods such as beans, nuts, whole grains and certain fruits and vegetables, the bacteria in your microbiome feast on that fiber and produce acetate, butyrate and propionate—short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that have a hand in lowering inflammation. SCFAs also spark immune defenses (including against microscopic cancer cells that are not yet detectable)…and facilitate the gut-brain messaging that shapes mood and cognition. When you hear the term “prebiotic,” it’s usually referring to an SCFA-generating high-fiber food.

Recent finding: Spanish researchers asked 40 overweight adults to eat one-third cup of broccoli sprouts, an anti-inflammatory food loaded with SCFAs, every day for 10 weeks and then measured the participants’ blood levels of several inflammatory markers. At the end of the 10 weeks, those markers had dropped…and they remained lowered for 20 days after they finished consuming the broccoli sprouts.

SFCAs also dial down inflammation by reducing body fat. Excess body fat is highly inflammatory, releasing chemical signals called cytokines that cause systemic inflammation. When you lose excess weight, inflammation is lowered also. SCFAs help with weight loss by enhancing metabolism and stimulating the hunger-suppressing hormone leptin. In the Spanish broccoli trial above, participants’ body fat decreased by 6%, on average.

Bottom line: Keep eating those beans, lentils, chickpeas and split peas, but don’t forget about fiber powerhouses such as nuts…whole grains like whole wheat, oats and barley…and colorful fruits and veggies, especially the reds, greens and blues, which have among the strongest microbiome-activating powers of all produce.

What you already know: Oily fish such as salmon and sardines are anti-inflammatory powerhouses.

What you may not know: Omega-3 fatty acids in seafood are absorbed into your cells where they extinguish inflammation caused by excess fat. You can get similar benefits from cod, shrimp and even chia seeds. Omega-3 fatty acids are the Swiss army knives of inflammation-fighting—they work in many helpful ways…

They protect the heart. Inflammation acts like sandpaper on the delicate lining of blood vessels throughout the body, including in the heart, making it easier for disease-causing plaques to form. Omega-3s help heal that inflammatory wear-and-tear by recruiting reparative stem cells from bone marrow and protecting them as they fix the damage.

They trigger SCFA production and activate metabolism, helping to burn harmful body fat. Specifically, omega-3 fatty acids fire up brown fat, a type of wafer-thin fat located on the sides of the neck, behind the breastbone and between the shoulder blades. When activated by omega-3s, brown fat acts like a space heater and starts burning white fat, the inflammatory, wiggly-jiggly fat you can see in your belly, under your chin and on your upper arms.

They may quell inflammation in the brain that is linked to depression. In research out of King’s College London and published in Molecular Psychiatry, human brain cells placed in petri dishes were treated with two types of omega-3 fatty acids found in fish—eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)—before being exposed to cytokines. Result: The omega-3s protected the brain cells from cell death.

Our bodies can’t produce omega-3s, so we must obtain them from dietary sources. Salmon gets all the accolades, but most seafood options provide omega-3s. That’s because fish and shellfish eat phytoplankton (algae), tiny plant organisms that drift through the ocean and are rich in omega-3s…or eat sea creatures that have fed on phytoplankton.

Bottom line: Aim for about five ounces of cod…four medium-sized shrimp…three medium-sized oysters…a dozen mussels…or a tablespoon of salmon roe three times a week. Choose wild-caught fish, which obtain their omegas from plankton or other fish. Farm-raised fish source their omega-3s from feed, usually something chicken-based. Also: Don’t shy away from frozen fish—the omega-3s are captured during the flash-freezing process, and frozen seafood often is more convenient and cost-effective.

Vegetarians and vegans: You can tap into the anti-inflammatory benefits of omega-3s by eating chia seeds, wakame (seaweed salad), walnuts, flaxseeds and edamame. These foods don’t contain omega-3s, but they’re rich in the polyunsaturated fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which the body converts into omega-3 fats. Reminder: You would need to eat a lot of these items to reach your daily needs, so an omega-3 supplement may help. (Always consult your doctor before starting any supplement.)

What you already know: Green tea is the best thing you can drink to reduce inflammation.

What you may not know: Coffee works, too! Besides perking you up, java kickstarts SCFA production in the gut to lower inflammation and help control weight. It also contains high concentrations of the powerful anti-inflammatory compound chlorogenic acid.

Bottom line: Drinking one to three cups of coffee a day has been shown to slow the burn rate of telomeres, the protective chromosomal endcaps that shield DNA from age- and inflammation-related damage. Diet is one of the most potent protectors of telomeres, and coffee tops the list, right alongside chlorogenic-rich black and green tea…and Mediterranean diet staples such as nuts, seeds and produce (especially blueberries, peaches, plums and prunes…and eggplants). Consistent sleep and exercise also safeguard telomeres.

But: Dairy can render chlorogenic acid largely unavailable, so you might want to try drinking your coffee black or with soy, almond or oat milk.

Even better: Organic coffee boasts substantially more anti-inflammatory and DNA-protecting chlorogenic acid than conventional coffee. When insects nibble on plants, the plants produce inflammation-fighting compounds as a defense mechanism. This stress response, known as leaf-wounding, is why organic produce is more anti-inflammatory than conventional. In the case of the coffee plant, leaf-wounding leads to higher levels of chlorogenic acid, but different plants defend themselves with different protective acids. Strawberries, for instance—specifically the seeds called achenes—have ellagic acid, which triggers the browning of white fat, and organic strawberries contain more ellagic acid than conventionally grown berries.

When it comes to foods that reduce inflammation, there’s no silver bullet. But every inflammation-fighting food or drink you consume makes a difference.