Dr Rupy: Inflammation is going to become the dominant topic in health and nutrition over the next few years because it is the root cause of ageing and so many other diseases of modern living. But the good news is that we can use food to our advantage and today I am going to dive into ten foods you need to eat to balance inflammation every day.
Dr Rupy: Hi, I am Dr Rupy, I am a medical doctor and nutritionist. And when I suffered a heart condition years ago, I was able to reverse it with diet and lifestyle. This opened up my eyes to the world of food as medicine to improve our health. On this podcast, I discuss ways in which you can use nutrition and lifestyle to improve your own wellbeing every day. I speak with expert guests and we lean into the science, but whilst making it as practical and as easy as possible so you can take steps to change your life today. Welcome to the Doctor's Kitchen podcast.
Dr Rupy: Since writing the chapter in both Eat to Beat Illness, my second cookbook and Healthy High Protein, I have become really interested in inflammation because the more I learn about it, the more I realise it connects so many of the health issues people struggle with and the thousands of people that I have seen throughout my medical career all seem to have inflammation woven into their journey. On the one hand, it is a brilliant part of the body's defence system. It helps us fight off infections and repair injuries and constantly remove cancerous old or damaged cells. But when that process does not switch off properly, it becomes this slow burn in the background that can drive everything from heart disease, strokes to cancer and dementia. And it is not only about long-term disease. It actually shows up in daily life with things like joint pain, gut problems, skin issues, poor sleep and feeling constantly tired. However, this is actually what really excites me about this field. It is that food can actually give us a direct way to influence it. Every time you sit down to eat, you are either fanning the flames or gently dousing them. Now, most of us have heard the phrase anti-inflammatory diet, but what does that actually mean? Well today, we are going to dive into what we mean by inflammation and the signs of excess inflammation and why those are sometimes quite hard to determine. We are going to talk about what an anti-inflammatory diet is, the benefits of eating in an anti-inflammatory way, and my top ten anti-inflammatory foods that are evidence based. I am also going to do a little take on controversial foods as well as some takeaways on how to measure inflammation and what we are doing with the Doctor's Kitchen app in how we can help you measure inflammation.
Dr Rupy: Obviously the Doctor's Kitchen app is something that I am terribly proud of. I was working on it way over four years ago and not only is it because we have over a thousand recipes that are truly healthy, but we ensure that the recipes that go onto the app are actually aligned to health goals because they meet certain criteria, whether that is the amount of vegetables, the anti-inflammatory nature of the ingredients that we use, et cetera. And no other app goes that far. What we have also been busy beavering away in the background on are two key features that I think are going to be game changing for you. One is the progress tracker. Now, I am not a progress tracker kind of guy. I do not really care for macros and calorie counting, that is just not me. But this progress tracker allows you to take a picture of your meal using the Doctor's Kitchen app and it will analyse it for what we think are important: protein, fibre, number of plant points, and whether this is likely to be pro or anti-inflammatory. These are the parameters that I think are really important for people to get a steer on. Whether you are looking at a healthy meal or not really depends on these kind of numbers. And so I think this is absolutely game changing. I have been using it myself, so has my wife, just to give us a little nudge as to whether we need a little bit more fibre or a little bit more protein in every meal. And I think as a nice little test it is something to experiment with. So give it a try on the Doctor's Kitchen app, just take a picture of your plate or you can upload a picture that you have already got. Or you can even describe it in the text box as well. It is really intuitive. It is really simple. You do not need to analyse a whole bunch of packets and that kind of stuff. Just take a picture of your plate. If you are interested in getting the app, it is 50% off right now because of Black Friday. We never do discounts for the Doctor's Kitchen app apart from during this time. So if you are interested in either getting it for yourself or gifting it, the details can be found by clicking the link on your podcast player. And even if you use the Doctor's Kitchen app for free there are over a hundred recipes there that are completely open to everyone so download the Doctor's Kitchen app anyway, have it to hand and you will be able to use some of the recipes. And it is a great sort of little nudge in the new year to eat healthily after the inevitable indulging over the Christmas period. But for now, I hope you enjoy this podcast all about inflammation and you learn a bit about how you can cater your diet and your lifestyle to reduce inflammation which is one of the most important processes that everyone should be aware of.
Dr Rupy: If you are interested in slowing ageing, protecting yourself from dementia, metabolic disease, cancer and heart disease, you have to understand inflammation. Inflammation is like the language of your immune system. It is your body's response to injury, infection or anything harmful. And it is a complex biological process designed to protect us. And at its core, it is about responding to stressors, but it also has a signalling role too. It calls on the other parts of your immune system to defend against pathogens or clear away damaged and contaminated cells and kick start the repair process. Now, typically, inflammation is acute, so it is short term. And it flares up quickly and it should resolve completely once the problem is sorted. And a good example of this is when you let's say you cut your finger and blood vessels, they widen, immune cells rush to the chemical messengers that are released and then you see redness and swelling. And once that tissue is repaired, the response switches off. Acute inflammation is protective and essential for healing. Without inflammation of that nature, we would not have survived the evolutionary process. I would not be able to speak to you in the middle of this studio in the middle of an urban environment surrounded by environmental pollutants and pathogens, et cetera, et cetera. But the problem is when that response does not fully switch off. And this is also referred to as chronic inflammation, long term mild inflammation. This immune system stays slightly activated for a long period of time, often without the obvious symptoms. And instead of it helping, it actually starts to cause local damage to tissues and organs and it is this background consistent level of inflammation that actually raises the risk of disease. An analogy I like to use is sort of like calling the fire brigade. When there is a fire they rush in, they douse the fire out and then they leave. But imagine if this fire brigade just did not leave. And it just kept on spraying water even though the fire was non-existent, day after day. Over time, you would have soggy worktops, you would have mould in the walls, and you would probably have a problem that was worse than the original issue. This is sort of what chronic inflammation does inside of the body. Another analogy that I use is the campfire analogy. The fire itself is really important, you can cook food on it, it provides you with warmth and it scares off predators, but if that fire gets out of control, you could burn your hand, you can overcook your food, you could burn the entire campsite down. So remember, it is about balance. Inflammation is absolutely necessary for life. Without it, your immune system would just not have the tools to fight infections and kill cancer cells and protect your body from toxins. So the goal is not to rid ourselves of inflammation completely or silence it in an aggressive way with drugs or therapeutics, but we need to get the balance right. It does not need to be switched off completely, but it should not be simmering away in the background.
Dr Rupy: Another issue with inflammation is that low grade inflammation does not obviously reveal itself. It is not clear sometimes that you are inflamed at all. In some cases, there can be a complete absence of any symptoms or signs whatsoever. Most people think of inflammation in the context of fever, pain, redness, obvious skin changes at the site of an injury, but it can also be vague. It can be ongoing fatigue, persistent pain, joint pain, aches, general malaise, gut issues, bloating, brain fog, just not feeling right. And in many cases inflammation can be a complete silent killer. It can be invisible, yet damaging. Sort of like blood pressure. Unless your blood pressure is really high, you are not really going to know about it. But if your blood pressure is consistently high, but moderately high, it is going to get to the point where you are damaging your cells, but you will not know about it until you suffer from a stroke or something like a heart attack because of that accumulation of damage to your vessels.
Dr Rupy: So why is suddenly inflammation such a big concern for us in the modern age? Well, our environment has radically changed. And whilst we all benefit from extra years as a result of water sanitation, vaccines, antibiotics, clinical guidelines and evidence based medicine that standardise things like surgical procedures, you could argue that our modern environment has become pro-inflammatory. We have a massive influx of ultra-processed products. We are surrounded by a lot more pollutants that many of whom we have not come in contact with at all in our evolution. Thousands of new chemicals have been introduced into our food system, but also our clothing and our general environment. There is also industrial pollution, there is sedentary lifestyles, addiction to digital devices, loneliness. These are all things, outside of just food, that can tip the balance towards a pro-inflammatory state. But luckily, there are things that we can do to mitigate the inevitability of excess inflammation with daily practices and specific foods. And in fact, the benefits of an anti-inflammatory diet are well established to not only just reduce your risk of disease in the long term across many areas of health, but also help you feel better day to day in just a matter of a few days or at least a few weeks. So for example, when we think of day to day benefits, there has been some studies looking at better sleep. A more anti-inflammatory dietary pattern is associated with better sleep in at least one sleep domain, particularly in terms of sleep efficiency where you have less wakefulness during the night. It is also established for lower pain. Although the evidence is considered low quality and more research is needed, there was a meta-analysis of seven randomised control trials that showed an anti-inflammatory diet can help lower pain in people suffering with rheumatoid arthritis patients compared to standard diets. There is also better blood sugar control. So people with a more pro-inflammatory diet show high levels of fasting blood sugar, insulin and HbA1c. So there could be some benefits for your metabolism short term as well.
Dr Rupy: And even fatigue, an anti-inflammatory diet has been shown to improve energy levels and reduce the sort of fatigue and tiredness that you get from a standard diet. So an anti-inflammatory diet could actually make you feel better in no time at all. And it is not just the short term. Obviously we want to focus on the long term as well. And in terms of long-term health outcomes, the evidence is really encouraging. Studies including big umbrella reviews and meta-analyses show that people who eat a more anti-inflammatory diet tend to have a lower risk of cancer. And this includes overall cancer risk and a range of site specific cancers that include colorectal cancer, respiratory cancers and oral cancers. And actually, this has been discussed many times by people in the oncology field. One of my favourite books is Professor Robert Thomas's How to Live. He has also got a great book called Keeping Well with Cancer that I think is a great adjunct to anyone's treatment, either in remission or during treatment, but certainly in prevention as well. And then one of the early books that I read was Anticancer: A New Way of Life by Dr David Servan-Schreiber whose name I have probably completely messed up there, but this is a phenomenal book again looking at the anti-inflammatory potential of our diets and how this has a protective effect. He talks about different fruits and vegetables in here, epidemiology, you know it is super, super interesting. So cancer and anti-inflammatory diets is definitely a win for me. It is also linked to less fat. So there was a meta-analysis that showed that pro-inflammatory diets were linked to an increased waist circumference and the opposite can be said of anti-inflammatory diets. And in fact we have had both Mariette Boon and Liesbeth van Rossum, two scientists, researchers looking at fat, the vital yet hugely underrated organ, and they talk about the benefits of anti-inflammatory diets a little bit in this book as well. Again, a really, really good book looking at the good and bad types of fat. And actually excess fat, particularly visceral fat is something that is pro-inflammatory and something that we can improve with an anti-inflammatory diet as well. As ageing, I mean scientists now use the term inflammaging because as we age, our baseline inflammation rises and it accelerates things like frailty, muscle loss, cognitive decline and chronic disease. So it stands to reason that we should be using anti-inflammatory diets to mitigate against that risk.
Dr Rupy: Dementia. In fact Dr Lisa Mosconi, another guest on the podcast, wrote Brain Food as well as many other phenomenal books. And again, this one focuses on foods that are all deemed anti-inflammatory as well as nutrient dense as well. In fact, my quote is on the back of this. One of the most exciting reads on brain health that I have ever come across. I cannot recommend this book enough. There you go. I cannot recommend this book enough literally. Dr Lisa Mosconi is a phenomenal researcher. She is getting a lot of air time at the moment that she deserves. And again talks about an anti-inflammatory diet from the lens of protecting your brain and protecting us against neurodegeneration which is the defining disease of our lifetime. Anti-inflammatory diets are also referred to by Dr Deepak Ravindran, another guest on the podcast who talks about this from the lens of pain medicine. So he is a pain consultant and in the pain free mindset which is around the seven steps to taking control of overcoming chronic pain, one of those steps is using an anti-inflammatory diet. I mean there are lots of other complicated issues as there are with all the different conditions and areas of medicine that I have just discussed, but an anti-inflammatory diet for pain is something that again is another well established use case.
Dr Rupy: And now we even have evidence around better mental health. There was a meta-analysis with over a hundred thousand participants and they found that people on pro-inflammatory diets have a 1.4 times increased likelihood of being diagnosed with depression or displaying depressive symptoms compared to those on an anti-inflammatory diet. And this was also discussed by Edward Bullmore, a psychiatrist in the book The Inflamed Mind where he links inflammation to the likelihood of mental health conditions. Again another phenomenal book I highly recommend. We have not had Edward on yet but I really think inflammation, I am hoping you are getting the sense that inflammation is just related to so many diseases of modern living and if we tip the balance of inflammation then we can actually lead to some resolutions. And it is because addressing inflammation is not just about the symptom, but tackling a root process that cuts across multiple health issues.
Dr Rupy: Now the reason why I am such a fan of food and I believe it is such a powerful lever in this discussion around inflammation is because unlike your genes which you cannot change, diet is literally modifiable. It is not a once in a while input, you eat two to three times a day, every day over your entire lifetime and that is thousands of opportunities to nudge your biology in a healthier direction. Now most people think of colourful fruits and vegetables as high in antioxidants and whilst that is true, the story goes much deeper than that. Foods carry compounds like polyphenols, these plant chemicals. They also have things like omega-3s and fibre and vitamins and minerals that directly influence pathways of inflammation and oxidative stress. But they also have a powerful effect on something called the epigenome. These are like the little switches on top of your genes that can either ramp up or ramp down the expression of your genes. So they do not change your genes, but they change how those genes are expressed. And anti-inflammatory foods can gently modulate parts of our immune system to tip it towards an anti-inflammatory picture. Plus the cumulative effect adds up over time. So it is kind of like investing in your pension pot over time with these anti-inflammatory foods and you can literally build resilience one plate at a time.
Dr Rupy: So let's talk about these ten anti-inflammatory foods that I am really, really bullish on. The first one I want to talk about are berries. Now the key nutrients in berries are things like Vitamin C, fibre, they also have trace minerals, but they are really, really concentrated sources of these polyphenols. And they have weird and wonderful names. There is anthocyanins, flavonols like quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin. There are catechins that you also find in things like green tea, phenolics, stilbenes, all these different types and classes of plant chemicals. And the top sources or the most highly concentrated of these berries are ones that have like mini seeds in which, you know for someone who has gum recessions are kind of irritating because they get stuck in between my teeth, but I kind of know that when I have got those seeds or highly seeded berries, things like raspberries, blackberries, I am actually getting a lot more polyphenol bang for my buck. So black elderberry, lingonberry, black currants, blackberries, cranberries, bilberries, lesser known varieties like haskap berries that you find in North America, I believe in certain parts of Canada and Alaska. You have got some other weird and wonderful ones like saskatoon or gooseberry, honeysuckle berry. These are all phenomenally concentrated in these different plant chemicals that have an anti-inflammatory effect. Now in terms of the dose of how much you should be aiming for every single day, it is actually not that much. So the research on berries has used quite a range and two blueberry studies gave the equivalent of about one to one and a half cups of fresh blueberries a day. That is like a really good handful of blueberries. And for aronia berries, there was another study that used powders providing anywhere between 16 to 27 milligrams of anthocyanins but they did not translate that into a portion size of whole fruit. I would say you want to be looking for at least a good handful of berries and take your pick. You do not really need to choose just the highest in polyphenols because the benefits, as we will get into a little bit later, is not in one particular polyphenol or one particular chemical, it is in getting a range of these different chemicals because if you think about their epigenetic effects, they all have impacts on different inflammatory switches. So you really want to just spread your bets as much as possible. And berries give you that opportunity because there is just so many different types. There is one meta-analysis of 44 trials and 15 cohort studies that found that anthocyanins from berries reduced inflammatory markers like CRP and TNF-alpha and they even improved cholesterol levels and they were linked to a lower risk of heart disease and cardiovascular deaths. So this is a meta-analysis clumping together 44 different trials and 15 cohort studies. So quite a wide range of different studies. And for that to be demonstrated in outcomes is really impressive for me. So I always keep frozen berries in the freezer so I can throw them into overnight oats or yoghurt bowls or even just snack on like almost like a sorbet. And when they are in season, I really make the most of them. So I snack on them just after meals, I have some after my breakfast, it is just a really easy way to get your daily dose of anti-inflammatory chemicals. So lean into berries, if you want to go for the cheaper ones get them from the freezer, there is nothing wrong with those because they are frozen at source and they protect a lot of those chemicals, there is less handling, there is actually less degradation in some cases compared to fresh. If you bite into it and it tastes sort of floury and bland, that is not a good berry. That is one that is probably past its sell-by date. It should taste tart and slightly sour at the tip of your tongue. And if you can get ones with more seeds you are getting more of those polyphenols as well. And those polyphenols do not necessarily need to be absorbed into your body because there could be having local effects on your microbes that we will discuss a little bit more later on as well. So berries for the win.
Dr Rupy: Dark leafy greens. They contain things like fibre and folate, Vitamin K, Vitamin C, but they also contain flavonoids and carotenoids like lutein. You tend to think of carotenoids in the context of yellows and oranges, so things like butternut squash and the different sort of squash vegetable, the squash family. But they also are contained quite heavily in green vegetables as well. You also have quercetin, glucosinolates in cruciferous vegetables and sulforaphane as well that is really richly concentrated in things like broccoli. Now there are so many different studies looking at key benefits but there is one that I want to highlight around longevity. So there is a 2021 umbrella review that found that just 100 grams of these dark leafy greens per day was linked to a 25% lower risk of death from all causes including heart disease and stroke. From a brain health perspective, there is research from Rush University that found that people who ate at least one serving of greens daily experienced slower cognitive decline and they said in their paper it was equivalent to being 11 years younger. Now obviously that is not literal, but who would not want 11 years more life? I mean anything that is going to make me feel 11 years younger, I am going to be having and luckily I have greens every single day. And high intake is also linked to fewer signs of Alzheimer's disease in the brain as well. And obviously as we are talking about inflammation, in a controlled diet, a diet that was high in carotenoid rich vegetables like greens and fruits, they favourably improved inflammation status by increasing the concentrations of certain markers and reducing things like CRP and TNF-alpha in healthy individuals as well. So in terms of dose, as a minimum we should be looking at 80 to 100 grams per day which is about four heaped tablespoons of cooked kale or two tablespoons of cooked spinach. And this is nothing new. If you look at different cultures around the world, every culture seems to have its own version of daily greens. Wild chicory in Italy, you have got horta in Greece which is just wilted wild greens with lemon and olive oil and a bit of salt, it is like one of my favourite things. Saag in India which is just stewed down greens that have been cooked in a pressure cooker for hours. You have sukuma wiki in East African countries. You have these edible wild greens called quelites in Mexico. Even in England, we have nettle. Nettle leaves are really rich in certain B vitamins and Vitamin K as well as well as folate. Every culture seems to have some like stewed greens that you can have on the side of a meal. And the top sources are the darker varieties. So think cavolo nero, kale, nettle, dandelion greens, swiss chard, broccoli, watercress, rocket. And my favourite way to have it is honestly at the side of every single meal. So as an example today my breakfast was stewed down rocket leaves with a bit of sprouts that we will talk about in a second, some eggs on top and just a little bit of berries on the side as well that I had in the fridge from yesterday. That was literally me getting my greens in and my berries in in the first meal of the day. So just think at every opportunity can you add greens to the side of your meal, can you add greens into the stew or curry? It is honestly going to have those benefits for inflammation and wider health protection.
Dr Rupy: I mentioned sprouts, I will talk about sprouts. A handful of sprouts can contain 50 times more anti-inflammatory compounds than the fully grown vegetables. And if you have not tried them yet, sprouts are plants basically at their very first stage of life when they are super super concentrated in nutrients. And you can grow them on your kitchen counter for pennies. Now there are a number of different key compounds depending on which sprout you opt for, but my personal favourite are broccoli sprouts. So broccoli sprouts, again are very very cheap to source, you can get the broccoli seeds, you just want to make sure that those are organic seeds that you are using. And you can grow them either in a sprouting machine or just simply in a container and just washing them, you keep them rinsed and damp and then they grow over four or five days. If you look up sprouting online or if you look at my first book, The Doctor's Kitchen cookbook, you will be able to find how you can sprout a variety of different products. You can sprout mung beans, lentils, chickpeas, any seed or any legume you can actually sprout. There was a really cool trial where 40 healthy overweight adults ate 30 grams of raw fresh broccoli sprouts every single day and after ten weeks their inflammatory markers, things like CRP and IL-6, dropped by 59% which is absolutely phenomenal. So sprouts for me are just an unlock to your health. If you were to do one small thing, it was probably the smallest thing that you can do in this whole long list of anti-inflammatory foods, get sprouts into your diet. And if you are going to go for one, I would choose broccoli sprouts. They have also got some really interesting detoxification abilities as well. There are other studies where they show that broccoli sprout extract that is a rich concentrated source of sulforaphane that you find in brassica vegetables was able to remove environmental pollutants from people's bodies who were living in an urbanised environment in China and I will link to those studies as well in the podcast show notes. So sprouts for the win, sprouts are phenomenal, get some sprouts in your diet. Put them into sandwiches, put them into wraps, put on the top of meals, garnish your salads with them. Just get sprouts into your diet.
Dr Rupy: Now the key compounds in extra virgin olive oil that we have spoken about on the podcast many times, we had Dr Simon Poole who is a world renowned expert and olive oil sommelier, one of the only ones in the UK I believe. The key compounds are monounsaturated fatty acids and there are polyphenols from the olive like oleocanthal and oleuropein. Now these chemicals act on the same inflammatory pathways as ibuprofen. They inhibit the COX enzyme and they lower inflammatory messengers like prostaglandin E2. This is phenomenal. There have literally been studies that show a drizzle, about 7 grams a day, which is about half a tablespoon, was linked to around 28% lower risk of dying from dementia related causes. Just half a tablespoon which is phenomenal. And when I think of food as medicine, I do not think of food as replacing pharmaceuticals, but when I read these kind of studies, it does make me wonder about the number of times I have prescribed a pain killer to someone and whether I could have prescribed a really good quality bottle of extra virgin cold pressed olive oil. And it is a bit of a thought experiment for me but olive oil is just one of those ingredients which just stands out across so many different products that I have come across. But the key is quality. So you want to look for cold pressed, early harvest because the early harvest will give you some confidence that you are getting the freshest and the highest concentrated form of the polyphenols in the olives. And something that has not been bottled or harvested you know more than a year ago because there is general degradation from the moment it is harvested. So as early and as close to that harvest date the better. You also want to have an olive oil that is preserved in a dark bottle and not in plastics because as we will learn about on a podcast coming up with Dr Stephanie Wright, plastics are easily degraded by oils and those microplastics can go into the oil and almost serve as a more effective vector of actually consuming said plastics. So you want to look for a dark bottle for a number of different reasons. And it should have a strong peppery taste. And if an olive oil manufacturer has gone through the effort of actually lab testing their olives and their oil for polyphenols, that is a bonus point for me. And you want to be looking at a minimum of 250 milligrams of polyphenols per litre. And now these are unique polyphenols that you only find in olive oil. So even though the total number of polyphenols per litre does not sound like that much, you are getting these novel polyphenols that you will not find in other products, you will not find them in broccoli or green vegetables, you will not find them in berries. They are just going to come from olives. Which is why I have got ten anti-inflammatory foods or ten anti-inflammatory categories of foods because you want to get a wide spectrum of all these different highly enriched polyphenol rich foods to reduce inflammation because they are all doing little mini jobs in this sort of like circus of anti-inflammatory benefits. So invest in good extra virgin olive oil, I usually have around two to three tablespoons per day. I cook with it, it is completely safe to cook with as long as you are not taking it to a super high temperature. The smoking point is 180 degrees centigrade. A lot of people compare the smoking points to things like coconut oil or ghee. The smoking points of those are around 200 degrees centigrade. You do not really want to be taking your food beyond that anyway. So 180 degrees centigrade for a smoking point for olive oil is perfect for low to medium cooking and that is exactly how I would use it and how I do use it every single day.
Dr Rupy: Nuts. Nuts are a wonderful food. Now people worry about nuts because they are high in fat and therefore they are high in calories. But these are not empty calories. These are nutrient dense powerhouse ingredients that you should not be scared of. And if we judge foods on the basis of their calories, we really do miss out on the bigger picture and we miss out on the benefits that could be accrued from consuming these ingredients. And this is one of my bugbears whenever people look at you know one of our smoothies let's say or the Doctor's Kitchen bread or an overnight oats with nuts and seeds and they are like "oh well the calories are super high". We have discussed calories a number of different times on the podcast, everyone's absorption of calories is different. You do not absorb 100% of all the calories you consume, there is a big wide spectrum. In fact we spoke to Dr Sarah Berry on the podcast previously about that and how there is a huge variation in how many calories someone can absorb. And it is just the wrong way to look at your food as well. It is a very arbitrary single pane way. I am not saying that energy consumption does not matter, but when it comes to whole foods, I would not think and I would not over-egg the point around calories. Now the key compounds in nuts are again unsaturated fatty acids, things like alpha-linolenic acid, but they are also high in flavonoids as well. So an example were walnuts. Walnuts contain ellagitannins which can help fight inflammation along with phytosterols that actually lower blood cholesterol. Additionally, they are high in Vitamin E, the anti-inflammatory micronutrient that you also find in olive oil. In fact, just 30 grams which is about a handful of sunflower seeds or almonds contains 50% of your daily requirements of Vitamin E. Plus they have things like magnesium and selenium and zinc and fibre that is going to be great for your gut and phytosterols. So this is why I think it is the wrong way to look at nuts through the lens of calories because they are coming with so much good stuff. Now the key benefits are shown in a study that shows a daily serving of nuts, 28 grams, was associated with a 19% reduced relative risk of cardiovascular disease. And in a trial, a low dose of almonds, just 10 grams a day before breakfast, improved participants' cholesterol levels. So this, I mean just the studies on nuts in general are just piling up. So I enjoy them either as a snack, as a handful, I put them in Doctor's Daily Bread on the app. I have them to top stews with, I use pistachios as an example. And the ones that I really lean into are almonds, walnuts and pecans. And the reason why are because those are the highly concentrated versions of polyphenols. So they have highly concentrated amounts of polyphenols in them which is phenomenal.
Dr Rupy: The next anti-inflammatory food could be thought of as little capsules of anti-inflammatory compounds that mimic nuts. They are seeds. So again the key compounds in seeds are very similar to nuts. They have a bit of plant protein in, as do nuts. They have fibre, they have omega-3s, they have Vitamin E. They also contain things like lignans as well. The list goes on and on and on. But one of the interesting facts around seeds is that their protein content is really high. So some of them, like hemp seeds, my favourite seed even though it is not the highest in polyphenols, has 10 grams of protein per handful. Now even though the calories are quite high in that because they are full of these fats that are really really good for us, the amount of protein you are getting, a good quality protein as well, has all nine essential amino acids in, is pretty phenomenal. From just a handful of hemp seeds. Which is why I scatter them into salads and dressings and you know, the list goes on when it comes to the number of things that I put them in. But all of these nuts, they work harmoniously with all those different ingredients, the omega-3s, the Vitamin E, the polyphenols to lower inflammation. And it has been demonstrated in multiple studies that they lower inflammation using blood markers like CRP and TNF-alpha.
Dr Rupy: And whilst each seed has its superpower, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, et cetera, my three favourite are these. Flax seed. Now every spoonful of flax seed has a powerful compound called SDG. I cannot pronounce the name of this compound, it is the longest word I have ever seen in the English language, but I can tell you it is surprisingly well researched for its anti-inflammatory benefits. And when you look at a big review looking at flax seeds and flax consumption, you only need to eat 10 to 30 grams per day of flax to have benefits. There are meta-analyses, so these big compilations of randomised control trials, that demonstrate that flax seed supplementation significantly reduces circulating markers of inflammation, which is why I have it almost daily in my oats and smoothies and again in a version of Doctor's Daily Bread as well where we have replaced one of the seeds with just flax seeds. I tend to grind the flax seeds because they are better absorbed when they are ground cause they are quite, if you have ever looked at a flax seed whole, they are quite dense seeds to sort of break into. And if you are going to use a pre-ground version of flax, keep it in the fridge because those oils are quite sensitive and to preserve them you just put them in the fridge. It is always surprising when people see me put flax in the fridge because you know you tend to keep flax outside or in your pantry. But yeah keep those in the fridge just because they are a little bit less stable. And the same way I keep my fish oil in the fridge as well.
Dr Rupy: The benefits of flax, I mean I could go on and on and on. They have phytosterols, they have these benefits for menopausal health, they are a source of protein, they are a great fibre source, your gut bugs absolutely love them. But for anti-inflammatory benefits that is the reason why I have it in my oats and smoothies and even my protein shakes as well, I will put flax in there for those added benefits. So get flax in your diets, it is very very available and you can get them in bulk and in the whole seed form and just grind them gently to get some of those benefits. The other seed, and it is interesting that these are both small seeds, is sesame. Now sesame comes in lots of different varieties, you got white sesame and black sesame. If you can go for black sesame or get black sesame, I would because those darker varieties tend to have these unique compounds. But some of the special standout ingredients include sesamin, sesamol and sesamolin. These are types of plant chemical called lignans, similar to what you find in flax. And they are isolated from sesame seeds and in mostly lab studies, it has been shown to exert strong anti-inflammatory effects. And sesame is also a rich mixture of different plant chemicals that again, they all work together to reduce inflammation. And you can use sesame in so many different ways. So tahini, which should be, and you should check the ingredients, 100% sesame ground, which is why it sort of separates and creates this oil, is a way of getting sesame into your diet very very simply. It is a way that I enrich yoghurts as well to just boost the fibre and protein content as well. Or simply you can just sprinkle sesame seeds over stir fries or salads, that way you are getting the flavourful benefits and those functional benefits together. You will never look at sesame seeds in the same way. These are powerful anti-inflammatory ingredients that we should be experimenting with as much as possible.
Dr Rupy: Now you do not have to go fancy. The third seed that I am going to talk about has less research looking at it, has less attention, but it is widely available and I think is a good everyday hero and it is cheap. Sunflower seeds. They are easy to find and they are full of Vitamin E and polyunsaturated fatty acids that protect the heart particularly linoleic acid. But they do not have as many scientific reviews looking at those benefits. Now I think if we actually paid attention to a lot more of the different seeds out there, we would actually demonstrate some of these effects. But because these aren't referred to as functional foods in the same way flax seed is, it does not get that health halo. But I think it deserves as much attention. So even though there is not a decent trial of sunflower seed consumption, I scatter them over everything. Again salads, I use it as an alternative to pesto when I cannot find pine nuts, or I just grab a handful of them straight from the jar whenever I need a snack. And what is amazing is you do not need a lot. Even one to two tablespoons of seeds a day shows anti-inflammatory benefits. So personally, whatever seeds you are using, whether it is pine nuts or pumpkin seed, mix them up, get a variety of all different seeds, try and experiment with them as much as possible. And even if you cannot think of a recipe with seeds, just scatter them on top of whatever you are eating.
Dr Rupy: Number seven are legumes. Beans and lentils. Now if you want to sprout these you can put these in the sprout section if you like. But on their own, simply soaked if they are dry and then cooked for the appropriate amount of time, for chickpeas is about 45 minutes, for turtle beans or navy beans it takes a bit longer maybe an hour and a half as long as it is soaked properly. These guys all have a moderate amount of protein, but they are high in dietary fibre, they have B vitamins, they have got magnesium and they do have a variety of some of these colourful plant chemicals, these phytonutrients and also they are low in GI as well. A lot of people do not associate legumes, lentils and beans with the same chemicals that you find in berries. But they can be good sources of these different chemicals as well. And legume consumption is one of the best illustrations of how food can protect you against a number of different conditions. More bean consumption and lentil consumption, lower risk of cardiovascular disease, lower risk of several cancers, lower risk of obesity and in some of these shorter term studies lower inflammatory markers as well. Now why is this? Now although they do not have the same concentration of these plant chemicals like berries, I would think of them in a similar way, particularly the darker varieties, navy bean, adzuki, black bean, kidney beans, those are some of my favourites. But I think the main mechanism is going to be because of the fibre types. So beans have all different types of fibre, the total amount of fibre is going to be quite high. They have complex carbohydrates and this is what your gut microbes absolutely love. And what they do when they munch up all these different legumes, these lentils, puy lentils, green lentils, speckled green lentils, all the different sort of dhals that we have in Indian cooking and all the other cuisines across the world, they gobble up these different fibre types and then they create short chain fatty acids, acetate, propionate, butyrate. And what that does is that nourishes your colonic cells. When your colonic cells are nourished they produce this beautiful mucin layer around the digestive tract and what that does is it protects your gut barrier. Your mucin layer to use an American football analogy are kind of like your offensive linemen. If no one knows what American football is, this is not going to make any sense whatever. But the offensive linemen are these big heavy burly blokes that are there to protect the quarterback. Everyone kind of understands what the quarterback is doing, the quarterback gets the ball and he is sort of like the brains of the operation. He is either throwing it down field, he is passing off to someone, he is trying to fool the defensive operation. So these big burly blokes are kind of like your mucin layer. And you want them to be as big as possible. And what these guys like in real life as well as in the digestive tract are beans. They love legumes, they love lentils, they love beans. So you want to give them beans, you want to create that lovely glossy mucin layer that has that protective barrier and prevents things like leaky gut that we have spoken about in a lot of detail in a separate solo podcast that I have done titled leaky gut or how to heal a leaky gut, even though leaky gut is not the technical term, it is intestinal hyperpermeability, but people mostly understand it as leaky gut.
Dr Rupy: And whilst I am a fan of those darkly coloured legumes, you do not need to have those if you do not like them. Chickpeas, haricot beans, butter beans, white beans, the lighter coloured varieties of lentils, split red lentils, these are all just as good. You want to try and aim for around 400 grams of cooked legumes per week, so it is actually not that much. I mean I personally go for around a handful of cooked beans every single day as a minimum, I mean it just naturally arrives in my diet because I have a lot of different sources including soy beans as well in the form of tofu. But if you struggle with that, you can always start slow. You can start with just a tablespoon of beans every single day. And top tip, if you do have sensitivities to beans or you are trying to navigate getting more fibre in your diet, there is a few tips you can use to make sure you are tolerating the increase in fibre. One of which is to ensure that if you are using pre-cooked beans from a jar, either a glass jar or a tin, you want to wash them thoroughly because some of those starches, the resistant starches are concentrated in the water and if you wash those off, they are less troublesome for folks. Start small, so like a teaspoon or a tablespoon and then titrate upwards. And sometimes that can be spaced out by a few empty days as well. The other thing is if you are cooking from scratch, making sure that you are removing the water and you are soaking it for a good amount of time. Another top tip is actually to sprout some of these lentils and then cook them. So by sprouting you are actually making the proteins a lot more digestible, you are moving it along the sort of like from the raw to the cooked variety and then if you sprout a chickpea for example and then you lightly saute it, you have got rid of a lot of those different chemicals that could be troublesome as well. So there are some variations in how you prepare the legumes that can help people tolerate them better.
Dr Rupy: On the subject of carbs, whole grains, number eight. Now whole grains often get written off as just simple carbs and they get lumped together with white rice, chips, potatoes, breads, pastas, but they are actually so much more than that. And when I talk about whole grains, I am talking about actual whole grains. They are rich sources of these anti-inflammatory compounds. And I am not talking about a brown bread versus a white bread which is basically just white bread in a brown disguise. Actual whole grains are things like bulgur wheat, buckwheat, barley, sorghum, red rice, black rice, oats, and when I say oats I mean proper oats like steel cut or like jumbo rolled oats. And even some that you know I might not even have tried yet, like there is a really interesting grain that I recently heard about from the Himalayas which is a form of buckwheat and it is richly richly concentrated source of different polyphenols and because it is grown in the Himalayas at altitude it is a stressed plant and polyphenols are really the result of plants trying to defend themselves. So the higher the concentration or the higher the more stressful the environment, like in an organic environment where you do not have pesticides to just help you along and get rid of the weeds for you, got to figure out yourself, you tend to have a higher concentration of polyphenols that are so beneficial for us. So when I talk about whole grains, I am talking about those whole grains. I am not talking about pastas and white breads and other carbohydrates or grains in general. Because a lot of the grain that we have in our current diet are refined grains, not whole grains. And the key compounds that you find in these whole grains aside from fibre, we talked about fibre with the legume story, are phenolics, flavonoids, lignans, all these help lower inflammation. There is a really cool study actually that I looked at looking at sorghum. Now I do not actually use sorghum that much but in terms of the polyphenol scale, sorghum is right up there. Sorghum is phenomenal. And this small trial, they got people to eat pasta made from either red sorghum, white sorghum or regular wheat on different days. And just two hours later, only the red sorghum pasta increased polyphenol levels in the blood and improved antioxidant defences compared to the white sorghum and the regular pasta. Again, small study but what it shows us is that these red and coloured varieties have more opportunity and more impact when it comes to antioxidants and the polyphenols that they contain and how they are measured in the blood as well. So really interesting heuristic, a rule of thumb, to have whenever you are in the supermarket. Go for the red or the purple, the deeply coloured varieties as often as possible. That is not to say that we should not be having anything white, so things like mushrooms for example that tend to be beige, will have a different selection of chemicals and you will not necessarily find all different coloured varieties of those, although I have seen some pink oyster mushrooms that are amazing. But you want to try and go for the darker more deeply coloured varieties just as a rule of thumb. My personal favourites, camargue rice or also known as red rice, black rice that has anthocyanins in and actually turns the water black, it is pretty phenomenal. Sorghum is something I am definitely going to be experimenting with even more so and quinoa which is technically a pseudo grain, again I have that as my whole grain source whenever I am creating a diversity bowl or a protein bowl or something where I need to increase the quantity in to service my needs. So definitely get whole grains in your diet, again start off small if you want to, but they are rich sources of some of these anti-inflammatory compounds.
Dr Rupy: Number nine. You are probably expecting this one because it is spices. And you have probably wondered why it is not at the top of the list because it is pretty obvious that spices are phenomenal for inflammation. We only need to eat a little bit but because they are concentrated sources of these plant chemicals that support your gut and lower inflammation, they have quite dramatic impacts. Now the top sources that you have probably heard of will include turmeric, clove, cinnamon, ginger. These are the four spices with the biggest anti-inflammatory potential according to various measures including the ORAC score. It is a scoring system for antioxidant effect. But my sort of thinking on polyphenols is actually it is better to get diversity rather than just an arbitrary high score. Whilst a high score is notable and might be useful, I think the biggest thing that we should be erring weight on is actually the variety of different polyphenols which is why I am such a fan of getting it from not only your greens and your berries but also things like whole grains and legumes because they all provide an opportunity to get different polyphenols into your diet. They also, going back to herbs and spices, seem to have the greatest impact on inflammatory proteins like cytokines as well as the ability to reduce the activity of pro-inflammatory enzymes. But you do not want to forget about things like oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, all of which have very high ORAC scores and measure up against turmeric pretty well.
Dr Rupy: But if I had to choose three, first would be ginger. The flavour comes from gingerols and shogaols, these are the same compounds shown in trials to lower inflammation. You do not need loads, about a thumb of fresh ginger or a teaspoon of powder. I grate that into stir fries or curries or steep it in hot water as a ginger tea. I tend to have a lot more ginger in my diet during the winter months when I want to amp up my defences before I get any close contact with cold viruses. Turmeric would be number two. It is that golden colour which is curcumin or curcuminoids. It has been shown in a number of different trials to ease pain and stiffness, almost in the same category as ibuprofen as well. I cook with it all the time. Again curries, soups, stews, but broths as well. I will put turmeric into a broth, either chicken broth or miso broth. I put it into scrambled eggs. It is just a very easy almost colouring agent to add a bit of earthy flavour but also that vibrancy to meals. And I would say another fun one that I am recently looking into the research around is black cumin or nigella seeds. Now if you have ever tried nigella seed, it has a similar aromatic flavour to like a muted clove almost with a slight spiciness to it as well. And the star compound is something called thymoquinone. And it has got some of the strongest evidence for lowering inflammation in people, in just a few weeks actually. Which is why you find it in a lot of health food stores in the form of black cumin oil. So people literally take the oil and some people use it topically to reduce inflammation of things like dermatitis. But the flavour and the culinary use I think is really impressive. And again you do not need that much to actually have benefits. Around one to three grams of the stuff has been shown to have benefits. So I use it with things like fish, I put it into dressings now. I have used it in a number of different recipes on the Doctor's Kitchen app. You can also find it in the Doctor's Kitchen cookbooks. But the one thing I would say with all spices from ground to seed varieties to fresh is that quality is super super important. When you look at supermarket brands of these herbs and spices, they tend to be poor quality. We had Simon Mills on the podcast a number of different times now talking about how to check the quality of your spices. Sniff test. Does it smell pungent? Does it smell very clear? When I tried good quality cinnamon versus a bog standard cinnamon with Ren from Ren's Kitchen who is the spice queen, I mean the difference was incredible. Like completely different. I felt like the true cinnamon tasted like sugar. It was that sweet and that pungent. I thought she had put literal sugar in it, I did not believe her for a while. But it is a phenomenal difference. So really try and get used to tasting your spices and figuring out does it taste like sawdust, does it taste that pungent? It should smack you around the face. It should really really be strong. And unfortunately a lot of supermarket brands and the mass market brands, they radiate their spices, they do not know the origin of the products. So you want to try and lean into a good quality spice manufacturer. You can find them online. Ren's Kitchen is one of my favourites where we have all of Ren's products here, no financial affiliation whatsoever. And the other thing I try and do are buy whole seeds. So whole coriander, whole fennel seeds and I crush them myself to maximise their wonderful flavours. If you think about just the surface area of these seeds, you are protecting them from oxidation. And then when you crush them using a pestle and mortar or a spice blender in the moment when you are going to use them, they taste a lot better and you are getting a lot more bang for your buck and you are releasing those compounds right at the moment where you are going to use them in cooking and then consume them very soon afterwards. So you are protecting those precious healthy chemicals and you are benefiting from their anti-inflammatory effects.
Dr Rupy: And like I said, you do not need much in the way of spices. I am not telling you to eat you know handfuls of chillies or tons of star anise. The benefits in studies are shown for as little as one to three grams a day which is about a teaspoon. So just think whenever you are cooking, grab your spices and make it spicy.
Dr Rupy: Number ten are drinks. Anti-inflammatory drinks. A lot of people do not realise that you can sip your way to anti-inflammatory benefits. You do not often think of drinks as anti-inflammatory but they can be such a great source of polyphenols. So matcha, type of green tea that is getting very popular right now mixed in with smoothies and sugary syrups and all the rest of it. The raw form of matcha is actually packed with something called EGCG, epigallocatechin gallate. EGCG got it on the third time. That has been shown to lower inflammation and improve the function of your blood vessels. So many studies looking at matcha. It is a beautiful ingredient. You gotta get used to the grassiness and the somewhat bitter tones but it is a wonderful ingredient. So if you like the taste of matcha, the fact that it is also got L-theanine in to sort of have a mild calming effect makes it more favourable for people who do not like the sort of cognitive or performance enhancing effect of of coffee. So you know matcha is a great alternative for folks. Cacao, raw chocolate. It is full of flavonols. Improves blood flow to your brain, lowers inflammatory markers. A brilliant ingredient that you can mix into drinks. I always put raw cacao in my smoothies. You can bake with it as well, we have done some baking with Karen O'Donoghue. I absolutely love it. Raw cacao is phenomenal. You want to look for a really good source. You want to ensure that they are lab testing to make sure they are free of things like heavy metals. Good brands will be very transparent about where they are getting the cacao from, whether there is any slavery in the supply chain. This is a really complex product unfortunately. And the third one is black coffee. You know made from good quality beans, abundant in things like chlorogenic acids. They are really well known for their antioxidant properties and anti-inflammatory effects and there is loads of studies linking, I mean over 20,000 studies linking health benefits with coffee. So definitely drink your way to anti-inflammatory benefits. But there is lots of others. Hibiscus tea, black tea, these are all full of polyphenols that you can benefit from. But I would watch out for added sugar and sweeteners and this can cancel out the benefits. So just make sure you are making these at home without sugar if you can and if you are going to use a sugar just make sure to use the smallest amount because these ingredients are ones to savour and enjoy and appreciate those complex arrangements of polyphenols that give so much flavour.
Dr Rupy: Now we have got to ten anti-inflammatory ingredients. You know the list could go on. There is dark chocolate, certain types of mushrooms but these are the ten that I personally get into my diet pretty much every day I would say, if not at least a couple of times a week. The reason why I am able to get this into my diet so often is because I use a very simple trick that regular listeners of the podcast know exactly what I am about to say. It is BBGs. My beans, berries, greens, seeds and nuts. I feel like I get the beans and berries the wrong way around all the time but it does not really matter whether you are getting the berries before your beans or your beans before your berries. BBGs every single day. I ask myself did I get my beans, berries, greens, seeds and nuts every day? And I often do not need to even ask myself because I have already had most of them by lunchtime. A handful of cooked beans a day, a handful of berries, greens at every meal just sort of like a heuristic for me anyway. And seeds and nuts I tend to have in my smoothies, in my salad, to add texture to my diversity bowls. I get seeds and nuts in every single day. And this is a really easy way to get anti-inflammatory ingredients into your diet every single day. An anti-inflammatory diet or an anti-inflammatory dietary pattern is not just a list of these ten foods. It is a diet that is technically high in fruits and vegetables, high in healthy fats, high in whole grains, high in nuts and legumes. And BBGs tips you towards that anti-inflammatory diet that is discussed and examined in so many of these different papers that we have and the evidence base that we have around the benefits of anti-inflammatory diet. And it strongly overlaps with the Mediterranean dietary pattern which has consistently been shown to have lower inflammatory scores in population studies as well. So rather than sort of having to adhere to strict dietary patterns whether it is paleo, whether it is vegan or, just get your BBGs in every single day. And I promise you your inflammatory measures will tip towards an anti-inflammatory picture because you are getting some of these really highly concentrated sources of polyphenols in those ingredients.
Dr Rupy: The foods I would say that you need to limit to ensure that you are not sabotaging this anti-inflammatory diet are processed foods, particularly ultra-processed foods, things with emulsifiers and fillers and that have been completely manipulated from their original product and what they should look like. And that is a good heuristic actually because you have a lot of health brands now creating crisp or chip alternatives for our American friends where they will use a vegetable but they have completely changed what that ingredient looks like in its entirety to make it in a crisp or chip format. That is a processed food until proven otherwise. Even if it has three ingredients on the back, it does not matter because the structure of that food has been completely changed. So that is a processed food or an ultra-processed food. Refined carbs we want to limit or remove from our diet. Processed meats so bacon, sausages, hot dogs, ham. Excessive alcohol that can be pro-inflammatory because of its impact on the gut. And sugar sweetened beverages. These are all pro-inflammatory. And the reasons why is because they tend to be high in things like sugars and additives that can be at the detriment of our gut health as well as devoid of the anti-inflammatory benefits of the polyphenols that we have been discussing. Now some of the controversial foods that might sit in the middle between pro and anti-inflammatory are meat, full fat dairy, eggs and fish. And actually oily fish I would say would definitely be anti-inflammatory particularly the smaller omega-3 rich types of fish, mackerel, herring, anchovies, some of my favourites. But meat, dairy and eggs. Now whilst these may be devoid of anti-inflammatory benefits, I would not say that these are pro-inflammatory and things to avoid, but more so something to sort of mitigate the potential inflammation effects by pairing them with an anti-inflammatory plate. So I am not a fan of removing red meat from your diet. I am not a fan of removing eggs from your diet because they do have benefits. They cover a lot of bases. I mean protein is one but they also have nutrients that are really hard to get into a plant based diet. Now if you opt for a plant based diet for lots of other reasons that is completely fine and you just have to be judicial about replacing some of the nutrients that you will struggle to find in a 100% plant based diet. But if we go too far down the lens of looking at food through inflammation alone which I think is a very useful picture but not one that we should look at in its entirety and forget about everything else particularly things like protein that I have just written a whole book on, we risk removing and restricting things in our diet. And I think full fat dairy, meat and eggs do have benefits but it is about the dose of those ingredients and how we pair those with anti-inflammatory ingredients. So even though these might not be deemed as anti-inflammatory and in some circles they are deemed as pro-inflammatory, it is the blend and how we consume them in the context of a mixed meal that makes it good or bad for us. And I think there is a way to consume these foods in a healthy way and still have a beneficial impact on your body and your overall health outcomes without necessarily having to restrict or remove those entirely.
Dr Rupy: If you are interested in measuring your personal inflammation levels, there are a number of different tests that you can do. The ones that spring to mind are high sensitivity CRP. There is CRP and there are other markers as well that are being explored, things like secretory IgA. You can look at your gut microbiota as well and looking at metabolites of those microbes to see whether you know they are inflamed or not. There are some tests looking at leaky gut although they are not great and we discussed that in a previous podcast episode. And there are some interleukins that you can look at as well in certain blood draws. But I feel that there is going to be space for a means of measuring inflammation a lot better in the future that we currently do not have access to at this point in time. Now when it comes to measuring inflammation in the diet, there are a couple of different indices that are available that we personally use in the Doctor's Kitchen app as well. And we are actually looking at a blend of a number of these different scoring mechanisms. One is the DII. This is probably the most widely used tool and it was specifically developed to provide a universal measure of inflammatory potentials of the diet. It is derived from like 2000 plus peer reviewed articles linking 45 nutrients and foods to six key inflammatory biomarkers like IL-6, CRP, TNF-alpha et cetera. And they look at both cell and animal studies as well as human research. And even though there are some limitations, we feel that in our Doctor's Kitchen app it is a useful scoring mechanism but it cannot be used in isolation. In the same way we cannot look at food in isolation just through the lens of inflammation pro or anti effects. And this is why we use it in the Doctor's Kitchen app. But there are some other really useful tools. There is something called the Energy Adjusted DII or the Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Index. And what we are thinking about doing is looking at a hybrid or a collection of all these different scoring methods that have been validated to provide you an ultimate picture of whether a plate of food that you take a picture of is going to be pro or anti-inflammatory. So the first thing I would do is download the Doctor's Kitchen app, take a snap of one of your meals and then just see what the protein, fibre and the plant points score is for that meal and then you could start to add more meals and it will give you the DII suggestion of your overall week. And it is a really really cool little feature that we would love to get your feedback on as well. If you have enjoyed this episode on inflammation and I have convinced you that inflammation is a good thing to be aware of, let us know in the comments on YouTube or on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. We would love to hear about some suggestions for future episodes as well. And I would check out the newsletter where we give you seasonal Sunday updates on ingredients that are in season, hopefully where you are, and ways in which you can utilise those ingredients for ultimate inflammation as well as overall health benefits. This has been everything about inflammation. I hope to see you next time.
