BEST Anti-Inflammatory Foods | What I Eat in a Week

Hey guys, so here for another sit down video. We're gonna be talking about inflammation and how to reduce inflammation with certain foods that are super easy to implement into your diet, that taste delicious, that of course are 100% plant-based and vegan, and hopefully eating this way can help you feel a lot better and reduce inflammation, and especially chronic inflammation, if that's something that you're suffering with. In this video, I'm gonna share with you the five foods that I eat on a daily basis that help reduce inflammation. There are other foods, of course. This is not an exhaustive list of everything that you need to eat and do to reduce inflammation. We're just focusing on food, and we're just focusing on the foods that I eat every day. And I'd like to thank Pompan for sponsoring this video. If you'd like to learn more about their farmer-crafted, extra virgin olive oils, and the role that they play in helping to reduce inflammation, check out the link that I leave down below in the description box for more information. I love using Pompan olive oils because they are delicious, they are high quality, they're easy to find at your regular grocery store, and Pompan's mission is to help you eat and live well every day. And they have all sorts of different olive oils, but in this video, we're gonna be using their bold extra virgin olive oil, which is full of flavor, which I really like in an olive oil, full of rich aroma, and it's perfect for dipping and drizzling. But we'll talk more about that in a moment. So first off, we should start with what in the world is inflammation, and why does it matter? Why is an anti-inflammatory diet important? So inflammation is part of a normal, functioning, healthy immune system response. For example, say you cut your finger. Your body produces inflammation to actually help to heal the wound. Some level of inflammation in the body is healthy, and it helps to protect your health, the health of your whole body. However, chronic inflammation, so inflammation that builds up over time, that doesn't cease, that continues to attack your certain organs or systems in the body, that is not healthy. Chronic inflammation actually is an underlying mechanism in the creation of quite a few diseases, like cancer, type two diabetes, joint issues, metabolic syndrome. So eating to reduce inflammation is really helpful. Now eating a diet that is rich in nutrients has been shown to limit inflammation, and even help to get rid of chronic inflammation in the body. And what better diet to eat for nutrients than a vegan, whole food diet, meaning a plant-based diet that is rich in unprocessed foods, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, all that good stuff. Now we'll get into those anti-inflammatory foods that I eat on a daily basis and that I love so much. And of course, I'm gonna tell you how I eat them so it will be easier, hopefully, for you to incorporate these into your own diet as well. Okay, so the first one is omega-3 fatty acids. I'm sure you have heard about this, especially when it comes to eating fish, salmon, taking fish oil supplements, but guess what? Plant-based foods also have omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 is super important for helping to reduce inflammation in the body, as well as it's good for the brain and it's good for the heart, but we're talking about inflammation here. The most popular plant-based omega-3 foods are definitely flaxseed, that's probably the most famous, walnut in second place, chia seeds, hemp seeds, and get this, this is something that you don't hear about as often, but dark leafy greens are also very good source of omega-3 fatty acids. So on the daily, when I'm having my breakfast, oatmeal usually, I will do a tablespoon of ground flaxseed in the oatmeal or teff porridge or whatever other hot cereal I'm eating. And that is a wonderful way to incorporate omega-3 fatty acids because you're stirring in the flax, you don't really taste it much, and it's like taking a vitamin, but it's a whole food source, so it's so much better. I also love to make chia seed pudding. I make one with spirulina, which I have a video for here, and I also make a really yummy one with pumpkin. I like to eat that as a snack because it's super filling, it's got plenty of fiber and protein, but it's also a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. Can we talk about walnuts? I especially love to eat walnuts in savory. So I put them in lentil meatloaf that I make. I also make this, oh, I wanna have this tonight, but this lentil walnut taco meat that is wonderful for burrito bowls, you can put it in tacos, you can even change up the seasonings and make the most delicious lentil walnut bolognese for pasta. And it's just a great way to eat more walnuts, which will give you the healthy fats, omega-3 fatty acid, protein, fiber, and all sorts of other wonderful properties that walnuts have. So I mentioned the fact that leafy green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. So eat salads every day if you can, and bulk them up with more omega-3s and more goodness by adding nuts and seed to the top of your salad. Bulk your plate up and you will have no problem getting enough omega-3 fatty acids to help you reduce inflammation. My next favorite anti-inflammatory food is extra virgin olive oil. So I cook with some types of extra virgin olive oil and I use it for my salad dressings, I use it for dipping bread in or drizzling over my soups in the wintertime, which I did today. But it's wonderful, and it's also a great anti-inflammatory food. Drizzling Pompeian's bold extra virgin olive oil over your meal is such an easy way to add more flavor, but also add anti-inflammatory benefits to whatever you're eating. Now this is why I love eating plants. Extra virgin olive oil has more than 36 phenolic compounds that help reduce inflammation in the body. In particular, the phenolic compound oleocanthal has an anti-inflammatory response in the body that is similar to taking ibuprofen. I would much rather eat my medicine than have to take something. I use the Pompeian bold extra virgin olive oil to make my favorite white bean, butternut, and kale soup, which I call zuppa di fagioli in the Italian way. But it is so tasty and full of flavor, and it contains the kale, the olive oil, and all these other wonderful wholesome plant-based foods in one soup to help you reduce inflammation. And it is perfect for fall, for lunch, or for dinner, and honestly, I even like to eat it for breakfast because I'm that girl who likes a savory breakfast most of the time. So just drizzle that bad boy onto the top of your soup and then eat it. All right, now we can talk about fresh fruit, which I happen to love a lot. Fruit has so many antioxidants in it that are great for helping to reduce inflammation in the body. It's easy to eat fruit for a snack, add it to your breakfast porridge or cereal. If reducing inflammation is top of your health priorities, then you wanna choose fruits that are super, super high in antioxidants, and lower in sugar would be helpful. So choose berries, cherries, some stone fruits. If you only have access to organic frozen fruit, that is fine too. Even if it's not organic, still, eat your fruit. It still has those antioxidants. And the thing about frozen fruit is that it's frozen at its peak of freshness. So all that good stuff is still in there. Of course, cruciferous vegetables are also really great for helping to reduce inflammation. Kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, they're all in that family. And I love that you can prepare them in so many different ways. For example, right now it's fall, so I have been eating a lot more roasted vegetables. But the way that I most often eat my cruciferous vegetables is in a salad. I like to eat one salad a day, one big salad, not a side salad, I don't really do side salads. I want an entree salad that is full of nice, fresh kale and romaine and any other leafy vegetables I can get my hands on that looks good at the grocery store or the farmer's market. Because I like to eat it raw, it's good roughage. Also, cruciferous vegetables and all leafy green vegetables are just a wonderful source of fiber. And eating a lot of fiber helps you to maintain a healthy digestive system, but it also helps to feed the healthy bacteria in your gut and just make for a healthy ecosystem for that bacteria to flourish. And that bacteria, when you have healthy gut bacteria, it does help to reduce inflammation in your body too. See, everything is connected. So eat your salads, roast your vegetables, steam them, whatever you have to do to eat more cruciferous and green leafy vegetables is great. And lastly, I had to save my favorite for last, sweet potatoes. Now you guys already know what I feel about sweet potatoes. They are my favorite food, and even if they weren't healthy, I would still eat them all the time because they are the best. But they also happen to be extremely good for you, and they also happen to be a wonderful anti-inflammatory food, who knew? So sweet potatoes are full of antioxidants, and they even have vitamin C, which I don't think a lot of people know because they're not a fruit, but the antioxidants and other phytonutrients in sweet potatoes can help to reduce your inflammation in your body, specifically anthocyanin, which is present in those sweet potatoes that have that more vibrant color. The orange, the purple sweet potatoes, not gonna sleep on the white Japanese ones, though, because they are the bomb, but the ones that have a lot of color and pigmentation, and I do eat the skin because even the skin has that pigment, and it has those antioxidants and more fiber and all that goodness, so eat the skin as well. So there's a million ways to eat sweet potatoes. If you're just getting started with a plant-based diet or eating to reduce inflammation, start simple with just roasted and baked sweet potato. Just put one in the oven, bake it, it is so delicious, it's perfect for your meal, for a snack, late night snack, it's the bomb. Or you can get a little bit more creative and add sweet potato to your stews or whatever else you're cooking. I like to add roasted sweet potatoes to my salad so I can just bulk that salad up with more anti-inflammatory, fiber-rich, nutrient-rich goodness, just saying. Actually, I think I have a whole playlist for sweet potatoes. I will share it down below. Let me talk to you real quick about the foods that cause inflammation because it's important to know that you eventually also want to start to limit the foods that do cause inflammation. So you can get more to like an 80-20 or 90-10 ratio of anti-inflammatory foods to maybe the ones that are causing the inflammation. So foods that cause inflammation, sugary foods, sugary drinks, processed and refined carbohydrates and other foods, alcohol, margarine and shortening, and red meat, and especially processed meats. So if you're eating a majority of that type of food, you want to start to limit it and you will start to feel better and inflammation can start to come down and your body can start to heal and flourish and be healthy. So see, that is why I recommend a whole food vegan diet for everyone. That is just really low in processed foods and very high in the vegetables, the fruit, olive oil, nuts, seeds, beans. You just want to eat foods that you recognize as coming out of the ground because those are the ones that are the most supportive of your health and the most nutrient dense. I hope that was helpful to everyone watching, especially anyone who's watching who is suffering from chronic inflammation. So if you have any questions or if you just want to talk more about what you're going through or if you even have any tips and further advice and further resources for reducing inflammation in the body, share it in the comment section down below and we can talk more about it. And also thank you to Pompeian for sponsoring this video. I, like I said, love their olive oils because they are farmer crafted and they are delicious. I'm sharing the recipe for that white bean, butternut squash and kale soup down below. So if you want to give it a try, the recipe is down there and make sure you pick up a bottle of the Pompeian bold extra virgin olive oil as soon as possible so you can top your soup with it and let me know what you think. More information and resources about anti-inflammation and anti-inflammatory eating is down below so you can see where I got my sources from and I hope it's inspiring and helpful. I'll see you guys next time. Thanks so much for watching. Bye.