Healthy Diets Reduce Inflammation

Inflammation is increasingly being seen as a causative factor in the aetiology of many Western lifestyles diseases. Cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and obesity are all typified by low levels and systemic inflammation. The reason for this inflammation is not fully understood, but large increases in fat mass to increase activation of the immune cells that invade the tissue and create a low grade inflammatory response and this can cause endothelial dysfunction. Further the high amounts of oxidative stress in these conditions may also induce inflammatory conditions. That these conditions may develop under conditions of poor quality diet has been observed, and a number of dietary components have been identified that can inhibit the inflammation associated with these diseases. However, more recently whole diets have been tested with regard their ability to inhibit systemic inflammation, and in this regard high quality diets have been shown to be more effective than individual dietary components.

For example, in one study researchers¹ investigated the association between consuming combinations of high quality foods with the risk of inflammation in adults that were at risk of cardiovascular disease. The fact that these subjects were at risk of cardiovascular disease suggested that they had developed the metabolic syndrome, a conditions characterised by chronic inflammation. Analysis of the diets of the subjects revealed that consumption of fruit, wine and poultry, and lower intakes of high fat dairy, were associated with a reduction in inflammation. Further analysis of the diets revealed that higher consumption of fish was significantly associated with a reduction in endothelial dysfunction. These results support previous findings to show that foods high in antioxidants (fruits and wine) and long chain fatty acids (fish) reduce inflammation. The ability of poultry to reduce, but dairy to increase, inflammation may relate to consumption of these food having a modulating effect on the saturated fat content of the diet.

RdB

¹van Bussel, B. C. T., Henry, R. M. A., Ferreira, I., van Greevenbroek, M. M. J., van der Kallen, C. J. H., Twisk, J. W. R., Feskens, E. J. M., Schalkwijk, C. G., and Stehouwer, C. D. A., 2015. A Healthy diet is associated with less endothelial dysfunction and less low-grade inflammation over a 7-year period in adults at risk of cardiovascular disease. Journal of Nutrition. 145(3): 532-540