How does the Paleo diet combat chronic inflammation. What are the key anti-inflammatory foods in the Paleo diet. Why is the Standard American Diet pro-inflammatory. How can adopting a Paleo lifestyle improve overall health and reduce inflammation.

Understanding Inflammation and Its Impact on Health

Inflammation is a natural bodily response to injury, infection, or foreign invaders. While acute inflammation is essential for healing and protection, chronic inflammation can have detrimental effects on our health. But what exactly is inflammation, and how does it affect our bodies?

Chronic inflammation occurs when the body’s inflammatory response persists over an extended period. This prolonged state of inflammation can lead to cellular damage and contribute to various health issues, including:

• Diabetes
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Heart disease
• Cancer
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and depression

Given the widespread impact of chronic inflammation on our health, it’s crucial to understand how our lifestyle choices, particularly our diet, can influence inflammation levels in the body.

The Role of Diet in Inflammation: From Cause to Cure

Our dietary choices play a significant role in either promoting or reducing inflammation within the body. By making informed decisions about the foods we consume, we can potentially mitigate the risk of chronic inflammation and its associated health problems.

One way to monitor inflammation levels is by measuring C-Reactive Protein (CRP) in the blood. CRP is a marker for inflammation, and elevated levels can indicate an increased risk of chronic inflammatory conditions. Consuming a diet high in inflammatory foods can lead to increased CRP levels, as these foods release inflammatory messengers that contribute to chronic inflammation.

Inflammatory Foods to Avoid

To reduce inflammation, it’s essential to identify and limit the consumption of pro-inflammatory foods. Some common culprits include:

• Refined carbohydrates
• Wheat and other cereal grains
• Sugar-sweetened beverages
• Margarine, shortening, and lard
• Processed meats

These foods can negatively impact gut health and cause insulin spikes, both of which contribute to inflammation.

The Standard American Diet: A Recipe for Inflammation

The typical Western or Standard American Diet (SAD) is often characterized by its high content of pro-inflammatory foods and a lack of anti-inflammatory nutrients. This dietary pattern has been linked to an increased risk of various chronic diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Why is the Standard American Diet so problematic? Here are some key reasons:

1. High in processed foods: The SAD is rich in refined carbohydrates, added sugars, and unhealthy fats, all of which can promote inflammation.
2. Low in fruits and vegetables: These plant-based foods are crucial sources of anti-inflammatory compounds, yet they are often lacking in the typical Western diet.
3. Imbalanced omega-6 to omega-3 ratio: The SAD tends to be high in omega-6 fatty acids and low in omega-3s, which can contribute to increased inflammation.
4. Excessive calorie intake: Overeating, particularly of nutrient-poor foods, can lead to obesity and metabolic dysfunction, both of which are associated with chronic inflammation.

The Paleo Diet: A Natural Approach to Fighting Inflammation

The Paleo Diet, also known as the “caveman diet” or “stone-age diet,” is based on the types of foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans. This dietary approach naturally eliminates many of the pro-inflammatory foods found in the Standard American Diet while emphasizing nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory options.

How does the Paleo Diet help combat inflammation? Here are some key ways:

• Elimination of processed foods: By avoiding refined carbohydrates, added sugars, and artificial ingredients, the Paleo Diet reduces the intake of pro-inflammatory substances.
• Emphasis on whole foods: The diet focuses on consuming fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, nuts, and seeds, all of which can have anti-inflammatory properties.
• Improved omega-3 to omega-6 ratio: The Paleo Diet encourages the consumption of fatty fish and grass-fed meats, which can help balance the intake of these essential fatty acids.
• Increased intake of antioxidants: The abundance of fruits and vegetables in the Paleo Diet provides a rich source of antioxidants, which can help combat oxidative stress and inflammation.

Key Anti-Inflammatory Foods in the Paleo Diet

The Paleo Diet is rich in foods that have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. Some of the most potent inflammation-fighting foods included in this dietary approach are:

Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are powerhouses of anti-inflammatory compounds. They are rich in antioxidants and polyphenols, which help repair cells and protect against various diseases. Some notable examples include:

• Berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)
• Leafy greens (spinach, kale, collard greens)
• Tomatoes
• Avocados
• Beets

Fatty Fish

Fish high in omega-3 fatty acids are excellent for combating inflammation. The Paleo Diet encourages the consumption of:

• Salmon
• Mackerel
• Sardines
• Anchovies

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds are rich in healthy fats and antioxidants. Some Paleo-friendly options include:

• Walnuts
• Almonds
• Chia seeds
• Flaxseeds

The Omega-6 to Omega-3 Ratio: Balancing Act for Inflammation Control

One of the key aspects of the Paleo Diet that contributes to its anti-inflammatory effects is its focus on maintaining a healthy balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Why is this ratio so important?

Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are both essential for our health, but they need to be consumed in the right proportions. The typical Western diet often contains an excess of omega-6 fatty acids, which can promote inflammation when consumed in large quantities. On the other hand, omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties.

The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is thought to be around 1:1 to 4:1. However, in the Standard American Diet, this ratio can be as high as 20:1 or even 25:1, heavily skewed towards pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids.

The Paleo Diet naturally helps to correct this imbalance by:

1. Eliminating many sources of excess omega-6 fatty acids, such as processed vegetable oils
2. Encouraging the consumption of omega-3-rich foods like fatty fish
3. Promoting the intake of grass-fed meats, which have a more favorable omega-6 to omega-3 ratio compared to grain-fed meats

Beyond Inflammation: Additional Health Benefits of the Paleo Diet

While the anti-inflammatory effects of the Paleo Diet are significant, its benefits extend beyond just reducing inflammation. Adopting a Paleo lifestyle can lead to improvements in various aspects of health, including:

Blood Pressure Regulation

The Paleo Diet’s emphasis on whole foods and reduction in processed food intake can contribute to better blood pressure control. The diet is naturally low in sodium and high in potassium, which can help maintain healthy blood pressure levels.

Improved Glucose Tolerance

By eliminating refined carbohydrates and focusing on whole foods with a lower glycemic index, the Paleo Diet can help stabilize blood sugar levels and improve insulin sensitivity. This can be particularly beneficial for individuals at risk of or managing type 2 diabetes.

Enhanced Lipid Profiles

The Paleo Diet’s emphasis on healthy fats from sources like nuts, seeds, avocados, and fatty fish can lead to improvements in cholesterol levels. Many individuals following the Paleo Diet report increases in HDL (good) cholesterol and decreases in LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides.

Weight Management

The focus on whole, nutrient-dense foods and the elimination of processed foods can make the Paleo Diet an effective approach for weight loss and weight maintenance. The high protein and fiber content of the diet can also contribute to increased satiety, potentially reducing overall calorie intake.

Implementing the Paleo Diet: Practical Tips for Success

Transitioning to a Paleo Diet can seem daunting at first, but with the right approach, it can become a sustainable and enjoyable way of eating. Here are some practical tips to help you successfully implement the Paleo Diet:

Focus on Whole Foods

The cornerstone of the Paleo Diet is whole, unprocessed foods. Fill your plate with:

• Lean meats and fish
• Fruits and vegetables
• Nuts and seeds
• Healthy fats like olive oil and avocado

Plan Your Meals

Meal planning can be crucial when starting a new dietary approach. Take time each week to plan your meals and snacks, ensuring you have a variety of Paleo-friendly options on hand.

Gradually Eliminate Non-Paleo Foods

If the idea of completely overhauling your diet overnight seems overwhelming, consider a gradual approach. Start by eliminating one food group at a time, such as grains or dairy, and slowly transition to a full Paleo Diet over several weeks or months.

Experiment with New Recipes

The Paleo Diet offers a wide range of delicious and nutritious food options. Explore new recipes and cooking methods to keep your meals interesting and enjoyable. There are numerous Paleo-friendly cookbooks and online resources available for inspiration.

Stay Hydrated

While not specific to the Paleo Diet, proper hydration is crucial for overall health and can help support the body’s natural detoxification processes. Aim to drink plenty of water throughout the day.

Listen to Your Body

As with any dietary change, it’s important to pay attention to how your body responds. Some individuals may need to make modifications to the standard Paleo Diet to suit their individual needs and preferences.

By following these tips and staying committed to the principles of the Paleo Diet, you can harness its anti-inflammatory benefits and potentially improve your overall health and well-being.

How The Paleo Diet Fights Inflammation

How The Paleo Diet Fights Inflammation

January 21, 2022

Fusionstudio/ Shutterstock.com

Reviewed by Dr. Mark J. Smith on January 10, 2022

Inflammation is a popular buzz word in the health and nutrition world, but does it really affect your health?

Here’s why you might experience inflammation, and how your diet can help quell it.

What is Inflammation?

Anything foreign in our bodies can cause inflammation. It is natural and necessary for the body to become inflamed in response to tissue injury and bacteria. [1,2,3,4] In fact, inflammation can be protective to our health when we’re combating infection or healing from injuries. [3]

When inflammation becomes repetitive, or chronic, that’s when inflammation becomes a concern. Chronic inflammation can damage cells, tissues, and organs, and is linked to health problems like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. [1,4 5,6]

Research even links chronic inflammation with psychiatric disorders, like schizophrenia and depression. [2]

How Does Diet Affect Inflammation?

Fighting inflammation may be as simple as what we buy at the grocery store. While you won’t find one magic food at your local grocer, it’s important to understand that our diet influences inflammation. [1,4] Being attentive to the way you eat will help to develop and maintain an anti-inflammatory diet. [6]

In addition to being mindful of what you eat, another way to stay aware of inflammation is by measuring blood markers for inflammation. C-Reactive protein (CRP) is a marker for inflammation in your blood. Consuming a diet high in inflammatory foods can increase the levels of CRP because they release inflammatory messengers that increase the risk of chronic inflammation.

Why The Standard American Diet is Pro-Inflammatory

Foods that cause inflammation include refined carbohydrates, wheat and other cereal grains, soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages, margarine, shortening and lard, and processed meats. [1,2,6] These types of food can alter our gut health, as well as cause insulin to spike which is what contributes the inflammation.

The standard American diet is full of these unhealthy foods, and is also often low in fruits and vegetables, which in turn increases the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and other diseases. [6,7,8]

How The Paleo Diet Can Help

When you eat The Paleo Diet®, you automatically avoid all these harmful foods. Things like blood pressure, glucose tolerance, and lipid profiles are all likely to improve when you follow The Paleo Diet. [2]

Plus, you’ll eat lots of healthy anti-inflammatory foods when you’re Paleo. Fruits and vegetables are great at helping your body combat inflammation and are linked to lower levels of CRP. [4, 6]

Specifically, fresh produce like tomatoes, avocados, beets, berries, green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, and collards are rich in natural antioxidants that help to repair cells, and protective compounds called polyphenols. [1,5] Polyphenols aid in digestion, and help to fight diseases such as diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, and cardiovascular disease.[9]

Maintaining a low omega-6 to omega-3 ratio has an anti-inflammatory effect on the body and can improve cardiovascular health. [10,11] The body cannot make α-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid, or linoleic acid (LA), an omega-6 fatty acid, however they are essential to survive. It is important to maintain a healthful balance of these fatty acids, but unfortunately, most Americans consume 14 to 25 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids. [11] In order to keep the fatty acid ratio in your favor, consume more foods with a healthy ratio such as olive oil, nuts like walnuts and pecans, and fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel. [6,8] According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, regularly consuming these foods has been linked to a lower risk of age-related macular degeneration [9]

The Bottom Line

Inflammation can create all sorts of health problems, ranging from itchy skin and joint discomfort to heart disease and cancer. The best way to prevent or treat inflammation without pharmaceuticals is by consuming a Paleo diet. You’ll naturally get lots of anti-inflammatory fruits, veggies and fish while cutting down on pro-inflammatory foods like grains, dairy, sugar, and highly processed foods. Just one more great reason to go Paleo!

How to Start an Autoimmune Protocol Diet

References:

1. Foods that fight inflammation https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/foods-that-fight-inflammation

2. De Punder K. and Pruimboom L. The dietary intake of wheat and other cereal grains and their role in inflammation https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643…;

3. McDonald, E What foods cause or reduce inflammation? UChicago Medicine. https://uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/gastrointestinal-articles/what-foods-cause-or-reduce-inflammation

4. Shivappa N, Hebert J, Rietzschel E, DeBuyzere M, Langlois M, Debruyne E, Marcos A, Huybrechts I, Associations between dietary inflammatory index and inflammatory markers in the Asklepios study. 2015, Associations between dietary inflammatory index and inflammatory markers in the Asklepios Study | British Journal of Nutrition | Cambridge Core

5. Lindeberg S. Paleolithic diets as a model for prevention and treatment of western disease. American Journal of Human Biology 24:110-115 (2012). Lindeberg2012.Paleodiet. (1).pdf

6. Mayo Clinic. Nutrition and healthy eating. https://www.mayoclinic.org/health-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth-how-to-use-food-to-help-your-body-fight-inflammation/art-20457586.

7. Spreadbury I. Comparison with ancestral diets suggest dense acellular carbohydrates promote an inflammatory microbiota, and may be the primary dietary cause of leptin resistance and obesity. Diebetes, Metabolic Syndrome, and Obesity: Targets and Therapy Comparison with ancestral diets suggests dense acellular carbohydrates promote an inflammatory microbiota, and may be the primary dietary cause of leptin resistance and obesity (nih.gov)

8. Patel S, Suleria H. Ethnic and paleolithic diet: where do they stand in inflammation alleviation? A discussion. Journal of Ethnic Foods. Ethnic and paleolithic diet: Where do they stand in inflammation alleviation? A discussion – ScienceDirect

9. ScienceDaily. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2009. Eating Fish, Nuts And Olive Oil May Be Associated With Reduced Risk Of Age-related Blindness — ScienceDaily

10. Dimitratos, S. Inflammation: What is it, and how can my diet and behavior affect it? American Society for Nutrition Inflammation: What Is It, and how can my diet and behavior affect it? (nutrition.org)

11. Mount Sinai Omega-6 fatty acids Information, Omega-6 fatty acids Information | Mount Sinai – New York

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Can the Paleo Diet Help Fight Autoimmune Diseases?

Can the Paleo Diet Help Relieve Symptoms of Autoimmune Disease?

Some studies suggest that paleo really does offer benefits, like weight loss and more energy, while others show anecdotal evidence that eliminating inflammatory foods in the standard American diet — such as soda, chips, and cookies — as well as grains, legumes, and most dairy, can help people manage diseases like Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Sounds great, right? Not so fast. Turns out, more research is needed before we can know for sure what effect this restrictive diet may have on autoimmune diseases, says Kelly Kennedy, RD, CDE, the staff dietitian at Everyday Health.

“Unfortunately, there just isn’t enough scientific evidence to clearly show that following a paleo diet would be helpful for improving symptoms of an autoimmune condition,” Kennedy says. “For some people, following the diet might help, but for others, it may not.”

More on Following the Paleo Diet

11 Celebrities Who’ve Tried the Paleo Diet for Weight Loss

Kennedy adds that while there may be some short-term health benefits that come from this kind of elimination diet, she recommends that people don’t think of paleo as a long-term solution. In part, that’s because the restrictive diet may lead to more risks than benefits.

“My main goal is to make sure that a diet is realistic and maintainable for the person who wants to follow it,” Kennedy says. “However, with the paleo diet, I actually wouldn’t recommend following it long term, simply because more research needs to be done and because it can contribute to nutrient deficiencies — something that people with autoimmune diseases are already at an increased risk of.”

What About the Autoimmune Paleo Diet (AIP)? Does It Work?

If you’ve researched diets for autoimmune diseases online, you’ve likely come across the autoimmune paleo diet (AIP), which proposes to directly address gut inflammation that leads to autoimmune disease. This diet is sometimes called the autoimmune protocol diet, and depending on where you’re looking, they may be one and the same, or the paleo diet may be a type of an autoimmune protocol diet.

In any case, AIP is specifically geared toward reducing inflammation in the body that leads to flares for conditions like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). (2) It focuses mainly on vegetables and meats, and tackles what some people in the holistic health community have dubbed “leaky gut,” which is believed to contribute to the chronic inflammation associated with autoimmune diseases. (It should be noted that the traditional medical community doesn’t recognize leaky gut, and published, peer-reviewed research on it is limited.)

But Kennedy says this diet plan similarly doesn’t have enough research behind it and notes that, just like the traditional paleo diet, it may lead to nutrient deficiencies.

“I would just want to make sure that they’re not eliminating more foods than they need to,” says Kennedy, cautioning against paleo or AIP. “Find what works for you personally, and stick with it.”

How the Paleo Diet May Help Treat 5 Autoimmune Conditions

Still, some research supports the idea of using paleo to treat autoimmune conditions.

Here’s what you should know about paleo and its potential benefits for five well-known autoimmune conditions.

1. IBD

An estimated 3.1 million people have IBD in the United States. (3) One study found that an AIP diet can “improve clinical responses in (IBD).” The researchers monitored 18 adults with IBD who went through a six-week elimination diet followed by a five-week “maintenance phase. ” At the end of the study, an endoscopy was performed on the people participating. While the study found significant improvement in some people’s symptoms after they went on the diet, two of the participants who had ileal strictures — a common complication of Crohn’s disease — before the study began experienced worsening symptoms.

More on Eating for Crohn’s Disease

How Food Can Impact Crohn’s Disease

The study authors cautioned that people need to keep in mind that each individual’s condition is different and that this kind of treatment requires “counseling and close follow-up.”

“Dietary change can be an important adjunct to IBD therapy, not only to achieve remission, but perhaps [to] improve the durability of response and remission,” the authors wrote. (4)

But Kennedy says more research would be needed to confirm this notion. “There is some research to suggest that [paleo] may help with IBD, but more and larger studies are needed before the true effects can be determined,” says Kennedy, adding that those studies would also need to be long term.

2. Skin Conditions Like Psoriasis and Eczema

Some paleo proponents cite the diet’s ability to curb inflammation as playing a big role in improving chronic skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema.

Kennedy notes that, as with IBD, current studies are limited. “Again, more research is needed,” she stresses, reiterating that a standard elimination diet is still the most recommended approach for helping with skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis. In a 2017 survey of psoriasis patients, nearly 70 percent reported a favorable response to the paleo diet.

3. Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Some current research suggests that paleo may help with MS. (5) The research — which looked at a small, uncontrolled pool of 13 people — suggests that people who adhered to the paleo diet, along with an exercise program and meditation, showed “significant improvement in fatigue.” But it’s unclear exactly which part of the treatment (exercise, diet, or meditation) actually helped people with their symptoms.

More on Paleo and MS

Healthy Eating Habits for Multiple Sclerosis

For this research, 10 out of 13 participants enrolled in a two-week study, then went on to be observed over a 12-month period. Eventually, eight people completed the study and six of them fully stuck with the paleo diet. The results were promising and suggested the need for more research down the line.

“While there are anecdotal success stories, the benefit remains to be proven in a scientific study,” Kennedy says.

4. Celiac Disease

The paleo diet includes only gluten-free foods, so it’s no surprise the plan is popular among people managing celiac disease, which is marked by gluten intolerance. But the paleo diet isn’t necessarily the best — and certainly isn’t the only — diet option if you’re managing celiac, Kennedy notes.

“For [those] diagnosed with celiac disease, the results are clear: Following a gluten-free diet is necessary to control symptoms. However, any other paleo diet limitations beyond this would not affect the disease symptoms,” Kennedy says.

Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking

1. Deleted, November 6, 2022.
2. The Autoimmune Paleo Diet. Mindd Foundation.
3. People With IBD Have More Chronic Diseases. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. April 15, 2022.
4. Konijeti GG, Kim NM, Lewis JD, et al. Efficacy of the Autoimmune Protocol Diet for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. November 2017.
5. Bisht B, Darling WG, Grossmann RE, et al. A Multimodal Intervention for Patients With Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis: Feasibility and Effect on Fatigue. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. May 7, 2014.
6. Esposito T, Lobaccaro J, Esposito M, et al. Effects of Low-Carbohydrate Diet Therapy in Overweight Subject With Autoimmune Thyroiditis: Possible Synergism With ChREBP. Drug Design, Development and Therapy. September 14, 2016.

Additional Sources

• Abbott RD, Sadowski A, Alt AG. Efficacy of the Autoimmune Protocol Diet as Part of a Multidisciplinary, Supported Lifestyle Intervention for Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Cureus. April 27, 2019.
• Afifi L, Danesh MJ, Lee KM, et al. Dietary Behaviors in Psoriasis: Patient-Reported Outcomes From a U.S. National Survey. Dermatology and Therapy. June 2017.
• Venter C, Eyerich S, Sarin T, Klatt KC. Nutrition and the Immune System: A Complicated Tango. Nutrients. March 2020.

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We eat and lose weight! Progressive diets

progressive diets
Modern nutritional strategies allow you to restructure the metabolism and switch the body to receive energy from fat instead of glucose. Let’s consider the most interesting of them.

Ksenia Chernaya @wellness.genetics Certified nutritionist and wellness coach.
Provides one-to-one counseling, lectures and seminars on how nutrition and nutrigenetics can help restore health and improve quality of life.

Modern nutritional strategies allow you to restructure the metabolism and switch the body to energy from fat instead of glucose. Let’s consider the most interesting of them.

The LCHF (Low Carbs High Fat) nutrition system appeared in Sweden, whose official dietetics was the first to talk about the fact that low-fat foods are not healthy, and fat is not at all as dangerous as carbohydrates. It is based on a simple principle: eat as little sugar and starch as possible, and more whole foods rich in fat, protein and dietary fiber.

BJU ratio in the diet:

• 70-80% fat;
• 15-20% proteins;
• 5-10% carbs.

What is allowed – meat, fish, poultry, eggs, oils (olive, butter, coconut), animal fats, seeds, sour cream, cream, full-fat cottage cheese, cheeses, avocados, vegetables growing above the ground, mushrooms, tofu. In small quantities, you can eat berries, nuts, pumpkin, pasta from legumes, dry wines. Fruits are limited (they contain a lot of fructose), milk (contains lactose), root vegetables (carrots, beets, onions), pastries, chocolate (more than 85%), vegetable oils with Omega-6, beer. Sugar (all types, sweets, sweets), honey, chocolate, bread, flour, juices, any sweet drinks, cereals, cereals, pasta, potatoes, dried fruits, margarine, low-fat foods are completely excluded.

The main thing that this nutrition system gives is a decrease in the level of inflammation in the body and cravings for sweets – you will agree, a lot. Side “pluses” will be the normalization of blood sugar levels, pressure, cholesterol indicators, and the solution of problems with the intestines. By eating a high-fat diet, you can manage acne, reduce metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. In addition, the diet is really tasty and not hungry, quite feasible for everyone, unless, of course, you prefer the sweet taste to any other.

The LCHF meal plan is not suitable if you are not able to control your feeling of satiety and overeat frequently (eating disorders). In this case, there is a risk not to lose weight, but, on the contrary, to gain weight.

Ketogenic (KETO) diet

High fat diet

The keto diet appeared in the 1920s and was originally developed to treat children with epilepsy. Its essence is to introduce the body into a state of ketosis – a process that is launched to survive with a decrease in the supply of food to the body. How it works? Don’t worry, you won’t have to go hungry. After digesting fats, the liver produces ketones, which replace the glucose that comes from carbohydrates. Elevated levels of ketones in the body limit the production of insulin and start the process of active fat burning to replenish energy reserves. In fact, the keto diet is a strict version of the LCHF (only 20-25 grams of carbohydrates are allowed).

BJU ratio:

• 75-85% fat;
• 10-15% proteins;
• 5-10% carbs.

The diet is the same as for the LCHF diet, but more fat is allowed, and almost no carbohydrates.

Keto diet is effective in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, hormonal imbalance, PCOS, epilepsy. However, this type of food also has pitfalls. At the initial stage, a state of keto-flu is possible (headache, nausea, leg cramps, decreased physical activity). The keto diet is not suitable for those who have any liver and kidney diseases, gout. The transition to a ketogenic type of nutrition is recommended to be carried out under the supervision of a specialist.

Paleo diet (paleolithic)

Stone age diet

It is based on the theory of human evolution for a period of 2 million years. In the Stone Age, people hunted, gathered berries, fruits, mushrooms and nuts, but about 10,000 years ago, agriculture “added” cereals, legumes and dairy products to the human diet, to which, according to theory, the body was not and still is not ready. Having chosen a paleo diet, you, of course, do not have to fry a mammoth at the stake. Its main principle is the use of natural, and most importantly, local vegetables and fruits, plus meat and fish, and the exclusion of cereals and dairy products. There is no strict structure for proteins-fats-carbohydrates here, and calories are not limited. However, portions will have to be reduced, and physical activity increased.

The basis of the diet is lean meat (chicken, turkey, rabbit), eggs, wild fish, local and seasonal vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds, fermented foods, roots, herbs. Grains and legumes, pasta and bakery products, dairy products, sugar in any form, industrial oils, canned food, semi-finished products, fast food, sushi, alcohol are completely excluded.

The paleo diet works well for normalizing blood sugar levels, but this type of diet is not at all suitable for vegetarians and people with kidney disease. In addition, with poor internal regulation of hunger and appetite, there is a high probability of weight gain due to the lack of BJU framework.

Elimination (anti-inflammatory) diet

Mindful eating

This diet is one of the most effective ways to identify hypersensitivity to certain foods. Recommended for those who are concerned about digestive problems, skin rashes and chronic fatigue. As part of this nutrition system, foods that potentially irritate the immune system are excluded from the diet (for a period of 8 weeks or more). Then, one by one, they are again returned to the diet, determining the inflammation-provoking product.

The result is individual for everyone, and the reason for this is unique genetics, microbiome and other features. But at the end you get a personal nutrition plan that provides an optimal quality of life. At the same time, all vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats and carbohydrates are present in the diet.

The basis of the diet in the anti-inflammatory diet is fatty wild fish, grass-fed meat, vegetables (especially cruciferous), avocados, berries, coconut oil, olive oil, ghee. Refined and artificial sugars, eggs, cereals, dairy products, seeds and nuts, nightshade (potatoes, eggplant, peppers), onions, garlic, caffeine, alcohol are excluded. At the same time, this diet does not carry any serious health risks, but in case of health problems, the transition to an elimination diet, of course, should be accompanied by specialist advice.

The anti-inflammatory diet teaches you to listen and hear your body, allows you to find out which foods cause irritation, so that later you can eat consciously and easily recognize the signals coming from the digestive system.

Alkaline (alkaline) nutrition

Beauty diet

It is based on the concept that nutrition should not only be balanced, but also have the right pH (balance between acidic and alkaline foods). Adherents of the alkaline diet claim that the predominance of oxidizing foods in the diet contributes to the development of chronic diseases and cancer (cancer cells survive only in an acidic environment). A very fashionable topic today, especially among vegetarians, vegans and raw foodists.

The main diet of the alkaline diet (70%) is potatoes, greens, lettuce, cabbage, green beans, colored vegetables, egg yolk, corn, milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, almonds, almond milk, dried fruits, olives, avocados, soy sprouts, tofu, peas, soy milk, dark sugar. In a smaller amount (up to 30%), acidifying foods are allowed or completely prohibited – meat, fish, seafood, eggs, cheese, lard, all grains, bread, millet, white sugar, pumpkin seeds, coffee, tea, cocoa, wine, red beans, onions.

The structure of alkalizing nutrition is good, as it is based on a large amount of greens, vegetables and fruits, the benefits of which are undoubted. However, objectively, such nutrition is not able to change the pH of the body, the lungs and kidneys are responsible for this. In addition, the criterion for choosing foods for the alkaline component is one-sided and may not take into account the needs and characteristics of your body.

Many famous actresses and models adhere to the alkaline diet – Jennifer Aniston, Victoria Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow, Elle MacPherson.

Having chosen any diet for yourself, do not rush to radically change your diet right away. Decisions must be considered! Assess the state of your body, genetic characteristics, possible inflammatory processes. And before cardinal changes, it is still better to consult with a specialist.
Be healthy!

Anti-Inflammatory Autoimmune Diet – Telegraph