[00:00] These are the best foods to reduce inflammation&nbsp; based on science. One food component with a&nbsp;&nbsp; powerful anti-inflammatory effect is tocopherol&nbsp; also known as vitamin E. Tocopherols are potent&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:12] antioxidants. So they neutralize free radicals&nbsp; that can trigger inflammation. One rich source&nbsp;&nbsp; of tocopherol are nuts like cashews, almonds,&nbsp; walnuts, pistachios are also good sources and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:25] different types of seeds have a lot of&nbsp; tocopherols as well. One meta analysis of&nbsp;&nbsp; randomized controlled trials found that chia seeds&nbsp; help lower the inflammatory marker C reactive&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:37] protein. Another anti-inflammatory powerhouse is&nbsp; called oleocanthal. Oleocanthal is a fascinating&nbsp;&nbsp; compound. It's mainly formed when olives are&nbsp; crushed and it's responsible for that peppery&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:50] sensation when you eat really high quality&nbsp; olive oil. That pungency in the back of your&nbsp;&nbsp; throat. That's oleocanthal. And oleocanthal is not&nbsp; present in refined olive oil. The refining process&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:02] gets rid of it. Oleocanthal works in our body&nbsp; exactly like ibuprofen. It's nature's ibuprofen.&nbsp;&nbsp; It inhibits enzymes that produce prostaglandins&nbsp; which are pro-inflammatory molecules. Those are&nbsp;&nbsp; exactly the same enzymes targeted by ibuprofen. In&nbsp; a meta analysis of randomized controlled trials,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:20] olive oil helped reduce inflammatory markers&nbsp; like C reactive protein and interleukin 6.&nbsp;&nbsp; Now, as we're going through this list of foods,&nbsp; remember there's no such thing as a superfood.&nbsp;&nbsp; That's not really a scientific concept. Everything&nbsp; works in the context of a whole dietary pattern.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:37] But it's true that some foods have better evidence&nbsp; than others. Okay. Another great nutrient to fight&nbsp;&nbsp; inflammation is potassium. Potassium improves&nbsp; nitric oxide signaling and it also enhances&nbsp;&nbsp; endothelial function. It's also effective in&nbsp; toning down immune cell hyperactivity and the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:54] result is that the level of some inflammatory&nbsp; markers like interleukin-8 is lowered. Good&nbsp;&nbsp; sources of potassium include sweet potatoes, some&nbsp; fruits like bananas and avocados and tomatoes.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:07] Spinach has a lot of potassium as well. Lentils&nbsp; and beans are also good sources. A systematic&nbsp;&nbsp; review found improvement in inflammatory markers&nbsp; with consumption of pulses like beans and&nbsp;&nbsp; lentils. And a 2015 randomized controlled trial&nbsp; found a diet emphasizing lentils, chickpeas,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:25] peas, and beans for 3 days a week lowered high&nbsp; sensitivity C reactive protein, interleukin 6, and&nbsp;&nbsp; tumor necrosis factor alpha in overweight diabetic&nbsp; patients. And speaking of overweight, one thing&nbsp;&nbsp; that's important to understand is that fat tissue&nbsp; itself is pro-inflammatory. And that's because fat&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:42] cells, adipocytes, secrete inflammatory mediators&nbsp; like adipokines. So people with obesity tend to&nbsp;&nbsp; have higher inflammatory markers and when we&nbsp; lose weight our inflammatory markers come down&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:54] consistently. So that's another way to reduce&nbsp; inflammation. Weight loss irrespective of the&nbsp;&nbsp; specific foods. Okay. Another crucial player&nbsp; when it comes to fighting inflammation is our&nbsp;&nbsp; microbiome. The bugs in our gut produce compounds&nbsp; like butyrate which strengthen the gut barrier and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:11] also promote anti-inflammatory cells. One way&nbsp; to boost our microbiome is to consume fermented&nbsp;&nbsp; probiotic foods. One meta analysis of randomized&nbsp; controlled trials found that daily intake of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:24] probiotic yogurt for more than 8 weeks reduced&nbsp; some inflammatory markers like C reactive protein&nbsp;&nbsp; in overweight individuals. Other inflammatory&nbsp; markers like interleukin 6 and TNF alpha were&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:37] not significantly changed. Another probiotic is&nbsp; kefir which is a form of fermented milk and kefir&nbsp;&nbsp; has also shown some anti-inflammatory effect. In&nbsp; one trial patients with inflammatory bowel given&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:49] kefir showed a decrease in inflammatory markers.&nbsp; They also experienced reduced bloating which is&nbsp;&nbsp; typical in inflammatory bowel and they reported a&nbsp; subjective improvement in their well-being. These&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:01] results are really interesting because it's&nbsp; a common idea on social media that dairy is&nbsp;&nbsp; inflammatory. And if you have a specific condition&nbsp; like an allergy or some forms of intolerance,&nbsp;&nbsp; sure. Otherwise, we don't see that. And&nbsp; particularly with fermented dairy, we even&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:15] see the opposite, an anti-inflammatory effect.&nbsp; And this is a pattern. Foods that influencers&nbsp;&nbsp; insist on social media are inflammatory almost&nbsp; never are when you look at the actual scientific&nbsp;&nbsp; evidence. Other common ones are all grains are&nbsp; inflammatory and seed oils are inflammatory and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:32] none of it is factual. Inflammatory has really&nbsp; become a buzzword on social media to scare people&nbsp;&nbsp; away from eating a certain food. Okay. Another&nbsp; way to harness the power of our microbiome is&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:44] to feed it. So this is where prebiotics come in.&nbsp; Prebiotics are foods that feed the microbiome,&nbsp;&nbsp; and oats and barley are two examples that lead to&nbsp; the production of butyrate by our gut bugs. Rye&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:58] is another example and legumes which we already&nbsp; talked about also have this function. Another&nbsp;&nbsp; powerful anti-inflammatory player are resolvins.&nbsp; Resolvins are lipid mediators that regulate the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:11] function of inflammatory cells like neutrophils&nbsp; and macrophages. And resolvins also promote the&nbsp;&nbsp; resolution of inflammation, they end it. And&nbsp; protectins are another important player. They&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:24] help the body repair damaged tissue. They clear&nbsp; away inflammatory debris and they also help the&nbsp;&nbsp; body fight infections. Protectins and resolvins&nbsp; are made in our body from omega-3s like EPA and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:37] DHA. Good sources of these fats include oily fish&nbsp; like salmon, sardines, anchovies. Seaweed is also&nbsp;&nbsp; a good source. In fact, that's where the fish&nbsp; get it, and also seafood like muscles or shrimp.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:52] A 2021 randomized clinical trial published in&nbsp; Italy found that a diet rich in oily fish improved&nbsp;&nbsp; subclinical inflammation including lowering the&nbsp; inflammatory markers high sensitivity C reactive&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:05] protein, IL6 and IL17. Okay, we're going to look&nbsp; at some great natural supplements in a second, but&nbsp;&nbsp; one last nutrient that's really potent at fighting&nbsp; inflammation are catechins. Catechins are a type&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:18] of flavonoid with potent antioxidant effect.&nbsp; And catechins can be found in green tea leaves,&nbsp;&nbsp; cherries, cocoa has catechins as well. And berries&nbsp; are another good source. And the way catechins&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:32] fight inflammation is by blocking key inflammatory&nbsp; pathways like NfkB that normally inhibit&nbsp;&nbsp; antioxidant enzymes and stimulate inflammatory&nbsp; cytokines. Several trials have shown that eating&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:46] berries helps lower some inflammatory markers&nbsp; like tumor necrosis factor alpha. And finally,&nbsp;&nbsp; if you need an extra boost, here's a couple of&nbsp; natural supplements that show a really promising&nbsp;&nbsp; effect. Curcumin supplements have been shown in&nbsp; randomized trials to help lower inflammation.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:02] Garlic supplements like AGE, aged garlic extract,&nbsp; have been shown in randomized trial to lower&nbsp;&nbsp; inflammatory markers as well, with the best doses&nbsp; being between two and 2.4. four grams a day of AGE&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:16] and some of the strongest results interestingly&nbsp; are for something called propolis supplements.&nbsp;&nbsp; So propolis is a resin produced by honeybees and&nbsp; meta analyses of trials have shown substantial&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:29] reductions of interleukin 6, C reactive protein&nbsp; and tumor necrosis factor alpha with propolis&nbsp;&nbsp; supplements. Inflammation contributes to plaque&nbsp; buildup in our arteries. And we covered the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:42] best foods to shrink plaque size in this previous&nbsp; video. So check it out and I'll see you in there.