Anti-inflammatory diet

The diet can have a huge impact on inflammation.

To make the diet easy, start off with the high points summarized by Michael Pollan:

• Eat food,
• Not very much, and
• Mostly vegetables.

To decrease inflammation, eat more:

• Fruits and vegetables - aim for 5-9 servings per day
• eat the rainbow (include foods from the white/tan, yellow, orange, red, green, and blue/purple groups every day)
• mostly organic, especially dairy, eggs, and meat if you can afford it
• lots of beans and lentils and some fish
• healthy oils (avocado, nuts, olive oil, flax and other seeds)

And eat less:

• "white" foods - sweets, processed carbohydrates like cereal, bread, cookies, crackers
• "Bad Fats" - saturated fat(animal fats, dairy fat, etc.), trans fat (hydrogenated oils) and vegetable oils high in omega-6 fats (corn oil, soy oil, etc.)

Regular exercise also has an anti-inflammatory effect on the body.


Here is a handout from the University of Wisconsin on this subject.

Pain Program Recipes - Recipes from our Pain Program and a guide to eating this way

We have additional handouts from the IFM we can share with our established patients on the patient portal - contact us if you would like these materials.