Foods that Can Cause Inflammation

Inflammation is your body’s natural way of protecting itself when you are injured or sick, it helps to defend your body and to also stimulate natural healing. Conversely, chronic inflammation can be harmful to your body and it is often linked to diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, or fibromyalgia. Little do many know, some of the common foods we eat can play a role in the inflammation in our body.
The first items on this list is table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Sugar and corn syrup are almost a 50/50 combination of glucose and fructose. Eating large quantities of fructose has been linked to obesity, liver disease, kidney disease, and of course insulin resistant diabetes. Research has shown fructose to cause unhealthy inflammation in the cells that line our blood vessels. These diseases counter act our bodies natural anti-inflammatory response.

Artificial Trans fats are one of the unhealthiest fats you can consume. Trans fats, commonly found in margarine, are added to processed food to extend their shelf life, but they will not extend your life. These trans fats will lower your HDL (good) cholesterol and increase your risk of heart disease.

Eating processed meats, such as sausage, bacon, ham, and beef jerky may lead to increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, and intestinal cancer. Of all these types of cancer, colon cancer is the strongest associated risk due to the inflammatory response of the colon to the processed meat.

Lastly, excessive amounts of alcohol can lead to severe inflammatory problems. Those who consume excessive amounts of alcohol develop problems with wide spread inflammation and secondary organ damage. Alcohol should be limited to 1 – 2 standard drinks per day, this has been shown to actually have some positive health benefits.

Those individuals with chronic inflammatory issues should be aware of the food they intake. Controlling the amounts of these inflammatory causing foods can lower your body’s natural inflammatory process and help you deal with chronic illnesses.

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Andrew Vertson

Andrew received his Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science from California State University, Fresno in 1991. He then earned his Master’s degree of Physical Therapy in 1996 and his Doctorate degree of Physical Therapy in 2002 from Loma Linda University. In 1996 he also earned his Certification as an Athletic Trainer. He has also completed extensive post-graduate course work in orthopedic manual therapy through Kaiser-West Los Angeles and the Ola Grimsby Institute.

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