Grab your basket and get ready to feel amazing! This is the diet I use with the majority of my clients to lower inflammatory markers, reduce aches and pains, improve metabolism, cognition, skin glow and of course….to support healthy hormones. So here we go folks! Let’s dive into a few aspects of this extraordinarily natural and (yes!) simple diet, and what a typical day looks like. Heads up, you’re going to see what goes on my plate breakfast, lunch and dinner…and in between! You’ll also discover the Dietary Inflammatory Index, lots of healthy anti-inflammatory recipes and more. The lesson to take away from this is that many of us are (knowingly or unwittingly) increasing our chances of inflammatory disease through our food choices, and actually our food choices have the potential to modulate inflammation and take us into greater levels of health. Food isn’t just about filling the energy reservoir, food is about boosting us on all levels. By the end of this article you’ll have a solid understanding of how to get started and I’ve even thrown in a weekly diet planner for you. Enjoy!
Did you know that inflammation drives half of modern chronic diseases
…and a list of all the ‘modern diseases’ that are driven by inflammation.
If you’ve ever felt tired for no reason, struggled with stubborn joint pain, or found that your hormones feel “out of sync,” it could be chronic systemic inflammation at work behind the scenes. It has a way of making you feel worn out, stressed out, tired, weak, stretched thin, and sometimes it makes you live in constant or recurring pain. While short-term (acute) inflammation provides your body with a pathway to wound protection, tissue healing and infection prevention, chronic inflammation is a different story. It’s a silent accomplice to aging, gut diseases, cellular senescence, wear and tear on your joints, bone and muscles and more. Many of today’s most common health concerns arise from a combination of poor dietary choices, unsuitable lifestyle practices and chronic, persisting inflammation is there to drive them along.
Acute inflammation occurs with tissue damage due to trauma, infection or toxicity and will switch on rapidly, usually clearing up within 2 to 6 weeks. It’s usually more severe but shorter-lived. Chronic inflammation on the other hand, can last for years, gradually causing damage and injury to the body internally.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks chronic diseases as the greatest threat to human health.” (Pawha et al 2023)
In 2019 a paper was published in the Nature Medicine Journal ‘Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span’. Furman and co-researchers outlined the key social, environmental and lifestyle factors that dramatically increased systemic chronic inflammation such as:
- chronic infection
- sedentary lifestyle
- obesity
- dysbiosis
- poor diet
- sleep disturbance
They linked chronic inflammation to:
- cardiovascular disease
- diabetes
- chronic kidney disease
- metabolic-associated fatty liver disease
- cancer
- depression
- osteoporosis
- autoimmune disease
- neurodegenerative diseases
The diagram below from the paper shows the more common causes of chronic systemic inflammation on the left, and the associated diseases on the right.
Above: What Causes Chronic Systemic Inflammation from Furman, D., Campisi, J., Verdin, E., Carrera-Bastos, P., Targ, S., Franceschi, C., … & Slavich, G. M. (2019). Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span. Nature medicine, 25(12), 1822-1832 Link
Take a moment to think about the conditions you yourself, or your loved ones and friends have experienced and how prevalent these conditions are. Good examples of modern diseases driven by chronic inflammation include:
- heart disease
- stroke
- diabetes
- inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease)
- obesity
- cancer
- rheumatoid arthritis
- systemic lupus erythematosus
- multiple sclerosis
- and those mentioned above.
It’s quite likely you know people with at least one of these conditions, because a large proportion of these conditions are listed by the Bureau of Statistics as the most prevalent chronic conditions in Australians – these being arthritis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, cancer and kidney disease.
According to studies, chronic inflammatory diseases create a maladaptation of several body systems (including your hormone – endocrine – system, nervous and reproductive systems) which is how we can end up developing a serious condition as a result of unaddressed inflammation. For example, recurrent infections can be one of the causes of chronic systemic inflammation. Ideally infectious diseases are resolved within 3-8 weeks in order to positively help your body adapt to the stress, any longer than that and the process becomes maladaptive. (Straub and Schradin 2016) So if your flu is still lingering 8 weeks on…..consider getting some support for your immune system rather than letting it just carry on into the 100 day cough or recurrent respiratory infections.
One of the body systems that has perhaps the hardest time is our digestive systems. Hit with nutrition change, food contaminating plastics and heavy metals, stress, gluten, processed food, pesticides, glyphosates, and all the other toxins in our food, this system is one that pretty much every naturopath focusses on with a client at some point. It might be to repair historical damage to make way for new, and improved health. It might be to address acute and intense symptoms in the present. It might be to rebalance flora as best we can in weight gain, perimenopause/menopause, anxiety, allergies or depression. Gut health on a global scale needs a bit of work! Did you know….
Australia has one of the highest rates of IBD [Inflammatory Bowel Disease]
…with the number of Australians affected expected to reach 290,000 by 2030. (ANU Reporter 2025)
But enough of the doom and gloom, here’s…
…some good news about inflammation!
What you eat has the potential to either fuel or hinder your inflammation. By choosing specific ‘superfoods’ and losing specific ‘pro-inflammatory’ foods, you can find yourself on the path to recovery with more energy, less fat gain, a clearer mind and improved blood markers like C-Reactive Protein (CRP), LDL cholesterol, Triglycerides, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), liver enzymes and blood glucose levels.
It’s about taking the opportunity to rewrite your narrative around nourishing and healing your body with food, rather than simply filling your body with a fuel source. It’s about leveling up with your diet. An anti-inflammatory diet isn’t about restriction…it’s about nourishment, flavour, and whole foods that help your body thrive.
I’ve seen clients with brain fog, hot flushes, joint pain, and autoimmune flares experience real transformation within weeks of adopting an anti-inflammatory approach. But note, I see the best results with those who stick to this diet for at least 12 months. To promise a positive result with any less than that would be misleading. This is especially true for women navigating the hormone rollercoaster of midlife. I focus a lot on reducing inflammation in women in midlife because it’s one of those more mysterious pathologies that sets in around our early forties (if not earlier) and sets in motion an ongoing, chronic low level inflammation that does a few things you might not have known about.
Chronic systemic inflammation:
- Is associated with many chronic diseases, especially lifestyle related diseases
- increases your chances of fat gain or makes it difficult to lose fat
- lowers energy
- increases bloating
- causes headaches
- reduces energy
- contributes to stagnation
- has a negative impact on your body chemistry including your hormones
If you’re a woman aged 35 and over, then note that inflammation becomes more problematic as we age. You might like to read my other article Perimenopause ~ the Great Inflammatory Event as well as why this diet suits the perimenopause life phase so well in my article Is a Mediterranean Diet good for perimenopause? It is important though, not to assume that diet will fix everything. If someone has a chronic disease then diet can help, but is not usually enough to modify a disease. So consider diet within the broader context of the individual, and know that all the other things you do to be healthful and well are also important, if not essential, to maintain good health. And while inflammation is a feature of many chronic diseases, it may not always be your primary concern.
Let’s dive into what this way of eating looks like, and why it’s especially helpful for women in midlife. Sometimes the most powerful medicine is found in your own kitchen.
What is the anti-inflammatory diet?
I believe the anti-inflammatory diet is evidence that we’re slowly returning to the old ways of viewing food as medicine. It’s about selecting fruits and vegetables that are rich in specific compounds that have been scientifically proven to reduce chronic systemic inflammation. It’s a pathway to better health and longevity by improving heart health, metabolic power, cognitive function and hormone health too. Lying at the heart of the anti-inflammatory diet is the Mediterranean Diet – for more information on this particular diet and it’s usefulness in midlife read my article on the Mediterranean Diet in Perimenopause here.
Core principles of the anti-inflammatory diet are:
- Benefit from the broad therapeutic chemistry of whole foods
- Offset oxidation and stress from poor food choices and chemical toxins
- Give your natural antioxidant powers a boost with high antioxidant fruits and vegetables
- Favour healthy fats that lubricate your joints, eyes and tissues and calm down inflammation and reduce unhealthy fats that age you more quickly and increase visceral and subcutaneous fat gain
- Support healthy liver function which enables your body to better manage hormone production and excretion
- Improve your blood sugar levels by favouring foods that improve glycaemic control and provide you with long lasting energy
“Ultimately, the plan models a pattern of eating that (1) focuses on eating whole, plant-based foods that are rich in healthy fats and phytonutrients and (2) maintains a stable glycemic response.” – Ricker et al
To reduce inflammation eat more of these foods:
- fibre
- whole grains
- vegetables and fruit containing anti-inflammatory compounds like polyphenols (grapes) and flavonoids (citrus fruits)
- specific spices that lower inflammation like Cinnamon.
If you’re eating foods high in trans fatty acids (TFAs) and saturated fats (red meat) then you’re increasing your inflammation levels.
The standard Western diet doesn’t compare well with an anti-inflammatory diet because the Western diet is high in saturated fats, refined carbohydrates, convenience foods, red meat, salt and sugar. Add onto this that we often rush when eating, or we can fixate on foods that give us a sugar high/fix like chocolate and sweets, or a dopamine fix like crunchy crisps. Today this style of eating has spread to become a global issue and it’s tied to increased production of pro-inflammatory chemicals in our bodies and a reduction in our own production of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory chemistry. More on this in this paper here if you’re interested.
What the anti-inflammatory diet actually looks like
The food pyramid below was developed as a prototype for people living with chronic pain. Researchers of the study published in Nutrition Research Reviews in 2018 investigated the anti-inflammatory potentials of a range of common foods to determine how they could modulate chronic pain. They found that by applying some foundational rules, one could transform their diet into a pain-reducing diet by lowering the inflammatory potential of what they were eating.
- Low glycaemic carbohydrates should be eaten as three daily portions, fruits and vegetables as five daily portions and red wine and extra virgin olive oil was also in there as a daily food.
- The foods that should be eaten weekly included red meat, eggs, fresh cheese, legumes and fish, in varying portions. Legumes for instance should be eaten four times within a week.
Check out the food pyramid below to get more of a idea of how frequently certain foods should be eaten.
Above: Food pyramid devised to reduce chronic pain which is a good representation of the anti-inflammatory diet. Taken from Rondanelli, M., Faliva, M. A., Miccono, A., Naso, M., Nichetti, M., Riva, A., … & Perna, S. (2018). Food pyramid for subjects with chronic pain: foods and dietary constituents as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agents. Nutrition research reviews, 31(1), 131-151.
It’s hard to know what’s actually happening under our skin, and science is revealing many chemicals can surge or increase in a chronic inflammatory state. Chemicals like interleukin-beta (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-13 (IL-13) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα). These are all associated with inflammageing, a natural development of systemic inflammation that affects us as we age that can increase our risk of neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases. (Wawrzyniak-Gramacka et al 2021)
How to know if your anti-inflammatory diet is working.
There are lots of ways you could assess if this diet is actually helping you reduce inflammation internally. We do need more research so this is just a guideline, somewhere to start. Some studies measure inflammation markers like C-reactive protein (CRP) which your Dr or a naturopath can organise for you with a standard blood test. You might have to request it though, rather than assume it will be included. One such study was published in 2021 in Poland. They found that increasing the intake of anti-inflammatory foods like fruits, vegetables, omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins C and E, monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and flavonoids had a positive effect on the progression of inflammageing in the elderly.
Another thing you could do is apply the techniques used in studies like measuring your weight, waist and hip circumference, cholesterol levels, and other markers of metabolic health and see how they change with an anti-inflammatory diet. Give it a few months between testing at least.
Another study, also in Poland, assessed changes in cognitive function in over 200 postmenopausal women and found that pro-inflammatory foods in the diet increased the risk of cognitive impairment in the postmenopausal phase. Every one point increase in the dietary inflammatory index scale (more on this to come) was associated with a 1.55 times greater odds of cognitive impairment.
If possible try to commit to a cycle of a 21 day anti-inflammatory diet and then have a weeks break if you need where you stay generally healthy but allow yourself to enjoy food a little more. Do this for at least 12 months, it takes that long for any eating to approach to really stabilise in benefits for you.
You could also use a scoring system…
Above: You can make every dish anti-inflammatory by using my Anti-Inflammatory broth as a base.
Scoring your own diet – how anti-inflammatory is your diet?
You can use the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) to find out how anti-inflammatory your diet really is. It was devised nearly twenty years ago and first used in trials in 2009, mainly for the study of metabolic diseases. Foods that increase inflammation (or drive up the levels of inflammatory markers like CRP) are given a positive score while foods that reduce markers of inflammation get a negative score.
The higher your DII score overall, the more pro-inflammation your food choices are.
This means an increased risk of diseases associated with inflammation. Obviously the idea is to get a lower score after tweaking your diet as needed. This index has been used in over 200 studies to date and in meta-analyses as well. Foods and their index scores have been references in studies, some more than others. Omega 3 fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids have been included the most in articles, and vitatmins E, C and D regularly included, while eugenol, riboflavin, niacin, rosemary, pepper and saffron are used less frequently.
There has been some debate about the accuracy of this index, mostly because it’s taking a different approach to most dietary indexes. You might have heard of the Womens Health Initiative Study, there was an ancillary study done observing 2,600 participants and the DII was applied here to check inflammation levels in postmenopausal women. They found that higher (pro-inflammatory) scores were associated with higher inflammatory biomarkers, increased risk of colorectal cancer but not with invasive breast cancer risk. (American Institute for Cancer Research)
If you can get your diet to closely resemble the Mediterranean Diet and take note of specific foods recommended in this article, you’ll be on your way to a healthful diet and lowering inflammation. In the table below you can see the DII scores of a fast food diet versus the Mediterranean Diet and a Macrobiotic Diet, just to give you a sense of foods contained and how the healthier diets will take you into negative scores. Definitely a good thing! The authors wrote: “macrobiotic and Mediterranean meal plans exhibit anti-inflammatory potential, based on the derived DII scores, which may have the potential to exert beneficial effects on health. The DII represents a novel tool for assessing diet quality and has the potential to be used for evaluating and guiding individuals in setting dietary goals to help decrease levels of inflammation, thereby potentially reducing the risk of certain chronic health conditions.”
Above: a comparison of the DII scores of fast food diet, Mediterranean diet and macrobiotic diet. Lower scores are more anti-inflammatory. Higher scores are more pro-inflammatory. From Steck, S. E. S. N., Shivappa, N., Tabung, F., Harmon, B. E., Wirth, M. D., Hurley, T. G., & Hebert, J. R. (2014). The dietary inflammatory index: A new tool for assessing diet quality based on inflammatory potential. Digest, 49(3), 1-10
What are the benefits of an anti-inflammatory diet?
Let’s go through the key benefits of this sort of approach to eating for adults.
Reduces Chronic Pain and Joint Stiffness
Women with arthritis, fibromyalgia, or perimenopausal joint pain often notice reduced stiffness and flare-ups within weeks. This is due to the high content of antioxidants and healthy fats that help calm inflammation in the joints and tissues.
In 2023 original research on the use of an anti-inflammatory diet for chronic pain sufferers was published. They put 45 adult patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis on a modified Mediterranean Diet for with a focus on eating foods with known anti-inflammatory activity like blue fish, extra virgin olive oil, legumes, kefir, fruits, natural yoghurt, and a product containing Turmeric with Black Pepper. While doing this they measured levels of stress, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance and quality of life. They also eliminated known pro-inflammatory foods like gluten, processed foods, cows milk, red meat, alcohol, sugar and casein.
After 4 months there were improvements in metabolic markers like waist circumference, BMI and quality of life as well which reflects the reduction in pain symptoms. It’s just one study, but its promising.
When you’re creating a diet plan for chronic pain management, be sure to optimise your polyphenol content. Authors of the study state:
“…polyphenols can effectively prevent and alleviate the symptoms of rheumatic diseases.”
This is due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions and their ability to dampen down the activity of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Important polyphenols include:
- flavonols
- anthocyanins
- proanthocyanins
- resveratrol
You’ll find these in several fruits and legumes. Also carotenoids are antioxidant properties and able to inhibit reactive oxygen species (ROS) so they protect from oxidative damage. You’ll find carotenoids in sweet potatoes, carrots, red peppers, squash, avocado, and watermelon.
If this is you…
You’ll love my Gut-loving Golden loaf with Feta and Dandelion (which can double as a daily bread, and my Vegan healing broth with medicinal herbs (and of course a base for stews, soups and casseroles – my Low Histamine Chicken Broth
Improves Gut Health and Digestion
We naturopaths have a saying, that everything begins in the gut, a reference to the Hippocratic approach to health which is over 2000 years old. In contemplating this for this article I came across a paper by Louisa Lyon for Oxford Academic. She wrote:
“Gastrointestinal disturbances are described in autism, and increased intestinal permeability has been reported in multiple sclerosis. Meta-analyses suggest that chronic constipation may be an early symptom of Parkinson’s disease, usually thought to be because alpha-synuclein pathology starts in the gastrointestinal tract.”
We can’t underestimate how important it is to look after our digestive systems. Our guts are as unique as we are. There are more than 1,000 bacterial species capable of surviving in the gut, and the potential for over 150 species to live in each of us.
An anti-inflammatory diet supports microbiome diversity and reduces bloating. A healthy gut is your frontline against inflammation. Anti-inflammatory foods feed your microbiome with fiber-rich nutrients, these are foods like legumes, prebiotic veggies, and fermented foods – all of which support regular digestion, less bloating, and improved immune function.
If this is you…
You’ll love my Seed Loaf which is rich in fibre and my Zucchini loaf which is so easy to digest, totally gluten free and full of herbs, veges and Buckwheat which is rich in rutin, an anti-inflammatory plant chemical that should be in everyones’ anti-inflammatory diet mix. You’ll also love my Macrobiotic Green Goddess Dressing which can turn a bowl of steam greens into a delicious meal with detox supporting herbs. There’s also my Reflux Busting Smoothie or my Calm Your Guts Creamy Smoothie which make a great meal alternative if you mix in your favourite protein powder.
Supports Hormonal Balance in Midlife
Inflammation that goes unresolved can trigger hormonal symptoms and worsen hormonal conditions. During perimenopause and menopause, fluctuating estrogen levels can itself trigger inflammation. Inflammation is a known factor in conditions like endometriosis and in perimenopause inflammation becomes a recurring and persisting factor that may be worsening your hot flushes, food cravings, poor energy, mind fog and poor blood sugar control. Great foods to include in your anti-inflammatory diet to support a healthy hormone balance are:
- Flaxseed
- leafy greens
- whole soy
For more information be sure to check out my article Perimenopause ~ the great inflammatory event.
If this is you…
You’ll love my Delicious Nut and Seed Butter for Perimenopause and Menopause to stabilise blood sugar levels, provide essential protein and moisten the internal tissues that tend to heat up and dry out in menopause. Another great protein rich meal is my Hearty Spiced Butter Beans which makes a fabulous main for two or a side dish at lunch or dinner. Another one of my favourite sweet treats is a slice of Hormone Boosting Seeded Banana Loaf with a dab of natural yoghurt.
Promotes Healthy Weight and Energy Levels
A key benefit of an anti-inflammatory diet in midlife is that it reduces fatigue and improves metabolic flexibility. This mean more physical and mental energy to achieve all the things you want to in the second half your lifespan, along with a smaller waist circumference and lowered risk of chronic disease. Working in tandem with less joint pain you can enjoy being physically active without feeling drained or physically stressed.
Ensuring good protein levels is a must if you have insulin resistance, high blood sugar, weight gain or difficulty losing weight. It’s also important for perimenopause because if there’s one time your metabolic hormones are going to start freaking out!
Nuts are one way to support protein intake, just bear in mind that they’re the fruits of plants that are designed to become a new plant one day. So they have within them lots of dense nutrition designed to keep a seed alive while it’s going through the process of germination. In other words, they will build you and they will nourish you….they may also expand you and make you gain weight. So always in moderation.
Here’s why I love nuts as part of an anti-inflammatory diet for midlife though, we need the protein, we need healthy and nourishing foods, and we can easily integrate some nuts into our daily diets. I love my Perimenopause Nut Butter on my Zucchini Loaf every morning. It keeps me going until lunch. Also studies show that the monounsaturated fatty acids in nuts (known as MUFAs) have antioxidant action in the body, and they can help relieve chronic inflammation.
This way of eating is naturally satisfying and stabilizes blood sugar, which means fewer energy crashes and fewer sugar cravings. Over time, many people experience improved metabolism, better sleep, and easier weight management.
If this is you you’ll love my Planty Cacao Chia Pudding to enhance phase 3 detox for toxin elimination as well as Golden Roasted Cauliflower Soup If you’re wanting to up your protein intake to help support blood sugar levels and reduce cholesterol don’t forget to eat a broad range of beans, vegetables and fruits like my Delicious Chickpea & Sweet Potato Curry or my Hearty Butter Beans.
Protects Brain and Heart Health
An anti-inflammatory diet also protects your brain and heart with it’s emphasis on healthy fats like the Omega-3s and an abundance of polyphenols as mentioned above. These all assist in improving blood flow, reducing oxidative stress, and protecting against cognitive decline. They’re also heart-friendly, helping to lower cholesterol and stabilize blood pressure which are key concerns as we age.
If this is you…
You’ll love my Zucchini loaf which uses Buckwheat as a base to make a delicious and easy to digest daily bread. It’s rich in the compound rutin which tightens blood vessels and is recommended by naturopaths and nutritionists to support vascular strength and integrity.
Mediterranean diet versus Anti-Inflammatory diet
The anti-inflammatory diet isn’t just a copy of the Mediterranean diet though. It’s much more specific than eating natural as well. The compounds in anti-inflammatory foods are the basis and inspiration for most therapeutic products like detox powders, vitality enhancing supplements, several herbal anti-inflammatory medicines and of course, the medicinal diet when tailored to address inflammatory conditions.
When I prescribe this sort of diet for my clients it will usually be in combination with those sorts of products to optimise the effects because diet is a great foundation to health when you’re already healthy, but when your body is in imbalance or there’s a chronic disease running under the surface, it’s important to have more than food to rely on.
Consider also that our soils in Australia may contain heavy metals like lead, and may be nutrient depleted from unsustainable farming practices and this creates a health imbalance in the foods we eat. So we can try to be as healthy as possible and rely only on food when we’re in a state of balance, and when we’re not we have the option to get ourselves onto an anti-inflammatory protocol to get back to ‘normal’.
I have lots of options for short and longer anti-inflammatory protocols so feel free to book in for a consultation if you’re wanting to speed up your recovery or prevent an inflammatory condition setting in further. You can choose to work with herbs, nutritional supplements or both and I always screen for chronic inflammation in the initial consultation. Don’t be shy! Pop me an email or head straight to book in with the button below.
It’s time to talk about which foods to include and which ones to avoid. Ideally food choices are determined by your age and health goals and this a good reason to work with a naturopath to design the diet that suits you best. For example, if you’re aged 35 and over then a couple of ways an anti-inflammatory diet can help you age gracefully and avoid chronic diseases associated with aging are:
- It can help stabilise blood sugar levels to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome, to provide more energy, to reduce hot flashes and to calm down mood swings, particularly those in the latter stages of the menstrual cycle.
- It supports many of the markers of healthy aging for post-menopausal women such as cardiovascular health, bone density and cognitive function (memory, learning, focus).
The best Anti-Inflammatory Foods to Eat Daily are…
- Omega-3 fats (e.g. flaxseed, sardines, walnuts)
- Leafy greens, berries, turmeric, ginger, fermented foods
So we have to talk about polyphenols if we want the best inflammation-fighting fruits and vegetables. The top polyphenol foods for midlife are:
- blueberries
- cherries
- strawberries
- raspberries
- blackberries
- blackcurrant
- dark grapes
- elderberry
- dark chocolate
- cacao
- green and black tea
- turmeric
- clove
- star anise
- flaxseed
- olive oil, olives (black, green)
- broccoli
- red cabbage
- onion skin
- black beans
- red onion
- globe artichoke
- soy flour, tempeh
And here’s how you upgrade your standard anti-inflammatory diet with some superfood add-ons to create diversity and get a little more creative.
- 2 servings/day of green tea or matcha (antioxidant and anti-inflammatory)
- add ginger or turmeric to smoothies or stir fries (boost metabolism, anti-inflammatory)
- Small handful nuts like Brazil nuts as a snack (selenium rich)
- Add extra virgin olive oil or my macrobiotic dressing to meals, salads or steamed veges
- eat 2 serves of a polyphenol rich fruit daily
What to Avoid on an Anti-Inflammatory Diet
These are foods that cause or trigger inflammation and are best avoided.
- Anything that comes in plastic packaging and contains colours, flavours or additives. In other words, avoid ultra-processed foods
- High sugar foods or high glycaemic index foods that spike your blood sugar levels and make you tired hours later like cake, lollies and chocolate.
- Anything containing trans fatty acids (TFAs) as your body will struggle metabolising them and most likely will just shunt them into fat storage, increasing your risk of diseases associated with increased visceral fat.
- Alcohol
- Excessive levels of red meat
Tips for Getting Started (Without Overwhelm)
Making changes to your diet that are going to be long-lasting usually take a few months. So it’s helpful to set a realistic time frame to integrate this new approach. Or perhaps in your case, it might just be a case of taking an already good diet and refining it. Here are some of the things I suggest to my clients when they want to adopt an anti-inflammatory diet to make the process smoother and easier:
Commit to one anti-inflammatory meal a day, preferably breakfast
Breakfast is usually the easiest meal to refine or change, and to stick with day after day. That said, there’s no reason why you can’t have two or three anti-inflammatory options for your breakfast and alternate them as you like. Lunch might also be a good idea if you tend to have meal replacement shakes or smoothies and you can easily superboost these with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory fruits and vitamin supplements.
2. Make simple swaps (white bread → whole grains, sugar → fruit)
Do an audit of your current diet to see where you can make positive swaps quickly. Changing your daily white bread for one rich in seeds or fibre is a winner. I love Golden Loaf for this with the anti-inflammatory action of Turmeric or Zucchini loaf. If you eat yoghurt, read the label and see if there’s a healthier alternative, for some people dairy products can be very inflammatory so it helps to make the switch to coconut yoghurt for instance. Switch up coffee for green tea and drink in those antioxidants!
3. Batch cooking
The one thing that makes sticking to a healthy diet easier is to batch cook so that you have healthy food ready to go. We tend to get busy and forget to prepare meals that will nourish us, often ending up eating the foods that give us a quick energy boost but don’t necessarily feed our cells and tissues essential nutrients. So whip out the food processer and the blender and prepare your daily snacks and daily bread in batches. I love making things like nut butter, protein balls, bread, herb pesto and chicken broth over a weekend and that keeps the family eating well through the week. Another thing I love is making up spice mixes, watch my interview with Sonia Houria Rivas as she shares her recipe for a healthy spice mix from Tunisia where she spent part of her childhood. Here are some of my favourite recipes you might like to try:
- Pesto: Chickweed pesto
- Daily bread: Zucchini loaf or Golden loaf
- Chicken broth: Turmeric Chicken Broth
- Nut butter: Perimenopause Nut Butter
- Protein balls: Matcha balls
- Smoothies: Lemon Blueberry Smoothie, Pineapple and Tumeric, Reflux Busting Smoothie
Before I go, here’s a weekly printable anti-inflammatory diet planner to help get you started! Below the image is a link to download the PDF version so you can print it out, or at least see it more clearly 🙂
Like more info, you can read through this handout on the anti-inflammatory diet here.
In summary
The anti-inflammatory diet is not a “diet” in the restrictive sense. It’s a way of eating that centres around real, whole foods that support your body’s natural healing processes.
Inspired by the Mediterranean and Green Mediterranean diets, this approach focuses on:
- Colourful vegetables and fruits (think berries, leafy greens, broccoli)
- Whole grains (like oats, brown rice, and quinoa)
- Plant-based proteins (lentils, chickpeas, tofu, flaxseed)
- Omega-3-rich fats (extra virgin olive oil, walnuts, chia seeds, sardines)
- Anti-inflammatory herbs and spices (ginger, turmeric, garlic)
It also limits or avoids ultra-processed foods, refined sugar, alcohol, and trans fats — all of which can worsen inflammation.
If you’re dealing with hormonal chaos, joint or muscle pain, stress and overwhelm, chronic fatigue, or just want to feel more vibrant in your body, the anti-inflammatory diet is a powerful – and evidence-based – place to start.
It’s not a trend. It’s a return to whole food wisdom.
This article will hopefully fill in any gaps in your understanding of the benefits of the anti-inflammatory diet. If you’re looking to seriously move forwards on this diet the next step would be to book in for a consultation and we’ll work together to tailor the diet to your specific health goals. You can book in here.
Hey there! Welcome to my world of totally natural and powerful healing medicines. Medicines from nature. Medicine from Source. I’m a naturopath and herbalist with extensive clinical experience working with a range of health conditions including hormonal, metabolic, mental health, sleep and more.
I’ve brought together years of clinical and teaching experience, academic skill and curiosity to bring you this blog. I hope you enjoy it! If you do, leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!
Sources:
- Aslani, Z., Abshirini, M., Heidari-Beni, M., Siassi, F., Qorbani, M., Shivappa, N., … & Sotoudeh, G. (2020). Dietary inflammatory index and dietary energy density are associated with menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women: a cross-sectional study. Menopause, 27(5), 568-578.
- Health conditions prevalence. ABS.
- Furman, D., Campisi, J., Verdin, E., Carrera-Bastos, P., Targ, S., Franceschi, C., … & Slavich, G. M. (2019). Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span. Nature medicine, 25(12), 1822-1832.
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