Anti-Inflammatory Foods: Start here.
An intro to anti-inflammatory foods by Mercedes, a Holistic Health Coach and Holistic Nutrition Coach. This is not meant to substitute advice given by a doctor or a nutritionist, this is not meant to be dietary advice or to treat any dietary ailment. This article is from the research and expertise of a Holistic Nutrition Coach.
Kale Salad Lunch Prep by Mercedes U. Copywrite That Mom Mercedes 2023.
Did you know that we consume most of our problems? That sounds bad but think about it, do you feel ready to go on a run after eating something that has been deep fried, covered & smothered? Or does your day feel ready to begin when you have a nice rounded breakfast as simple as Berry oatmeal?
Sure, green smoothies are amazing but for 70% of us this for some reason or another us unattainable. Why? Is it the price or even the tools and time for preparation or even something else?
For me, I'm up at 4am but My kids and husband don't get up until 7am. I am not turning the blender on at 405am for my breakfast, it would be loud and my toddler wouldn't go back to bed easily. So for me, I enjoy something I can prep to have at a later time (meal prep!) like avocado toast with an egg or that berry oatmeal from earlier. Some inflammatory foods that are more common in our diet other than those deep fried foods we mentioned earlier are:
Red meat
Processed meat
Commercial baked goods (like grab and go items)
Bread and pasta made with flour
Foods with added sugars
Sugar sweetened Drinks
Trans fats.
(Source, Johnson Hopkins medicine.org )
You may think that list is too much to give up and it's not worth cutting or even changing how you eat a food group (preparation can make a difference, we can cover that in another post.)
Consuming these foods can lead to a higher risk of chronic inflammatory caused Diseases like:
CVD
Diabetes
Malignancy
Auto-immune diseases
Chronic hepatic and renal disease
Obesity
Metabolic syndrome
Pre-diabeties
Heart disease
FBS, Chronic, Ulcerative colitis
Cancer
Arthritis
Alzheimer's
(Credit Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov and Johns Hopkins )
So how do we start?
I'd personally take the lowest impact, when you look at those 7 groups of inflammatory foods what is something you can change or cut out?
Perhaps it's your vending machine, mom/dad snack like Oreos or little Debby bars? You can create a “dupe" to have in your fridge or lunch box, I once made a nice brownie out of sweet potatoes and dark cocoa powder. I'm not saying it was a 1:1 swap but it hit the spot. You can also make a good chocolate cookie at home with no sweet potatoes included, because at home you're not putting in fillers or preservatives. Make a ½ batch and call it a day or make a double batch and freeze pre-scooped pucks of dough to cook as desired. Frozen cookie dough when stored correctly can last for a few months in the freezer. As an added bonus, if a potluck or party comes up you have a quick item to prepare and bring. Win win 🏆.
Some other things I like to prep for any meal are my chopped veggies, if you begin your week prepared for meals they get cooked so much faster. Because you already put in the time and effort into the prep time. I just spent a day dehydrating clearance potatoes that I bought, I can use those at a later time to add to my breakfast (I did a hash brown cut) and to my dinner (I also did a disk cut for sides like potatoes au gratin) and other soups. My kids also got involved helping me feed potatoes into our food processor, little fingers at a safe distance but also fully helping mom in the kitchen. Also I mentioned that these were clearance potatoes, yes they were 2 pounds for 99c a bag. I like to dehydrate clearance food or anything I may have gotten with a food box because real food goes bad, when I get these foods I take a day or two to prep and dehydrate and honestly about 76% of our pantry is home dehydrated herbs, spices and veggies. Other than Jerky we don't dehydrate a lot of meat right now, but that could all change with knowledge.
Food Box Meal Prep with Blueberry Chia Muffins by Mercedes U. Copywrite That Mom Mercedes 2023.
I will be sharing my favorite anti-inflammatory recipes here and on my mailing list. I am also creating a membership only recipe guide on this site to have a quick overview, so please sign up if that interests you.
Thank You for being here, make sure to leave me a comment of what you thought about this article below. I love to hear what you thoughts are and what information you want to see from a health coach.
Many Blessings, Mercedes. Holistic Health and Wellness Coach, Nutrition Coach.
