There is a traditional saying, “let food be your medicine, your medicine your food.”
I like to think I’m an open person, not “anti” anything, but I am anti-inflammation!
I have been writing (okay, occasionally ranting) about how our current lifestyle, even (gasp!) pasta and bread, can put a terrible strain on our immune systems, our hormones, and, not least, our fertility.
Of course, I’m a bit obsessed with inflammation, because it is a cause of many of my health and fertility problems, plus, on my husband’s side of the family, they have virulent terminal cancer and thyroid disease up the wazoo, so I worry about my spouse, and my MAN FERTILITY guinea pig.
In the airport the other day, however, I saw a rather ordinary person reading called something like INFLAMMATION NATION: WHY INFLAMMATION IS THE ROOT OF MOST DEGENERATIVE DISEASES, or something like that. I’m more used to seeing people reading The Davinci Code, so I thought it was interesting to see that the idea of inflammation has gone so mainstream.
Thus, I’m going to be running a small series on an anti-inflammatory diet. Did you know that some foods, like ginger, are natural COX-2 inhibitors? (if COX-2 inhibitors sounds familiar, it’s because that’s what VIOXX and all those drugs that kill your pain–and then your heart–do). And, I’m also not worried about people OD’ing on fruits and veggies, believe me.
Basically all veggies are good for you–fiber, sterols, antioxidants, vitamins–you get the picture. Here’s a list of vegetables that have been shown to be particularly anti-inflammatory. The stuff my doc tested in my blood, proinflammatory cytokines, IL-1 and TNFa, trigger the release of free radicals. The production of free radicals, in turn, encourages the production of more these lousy proinflammatory cytokines.
From a fertility standpoint, these cytokines plus Natural Killer cells (NKs) create an environment hostile to healthy implantation of an egg. Pregnancy is one of the most precarious immune system dances: the body has to “let up” on its regular immune system processes to accept the fertiltized egg, which is, basically, a foreign body, but not let up enough that you die of an infection or something. You can see, then, how just a little inflammation can interfere with that process.
In any event, these veggies can help neutralize these free radicals, helping to break the proinflammatory cycle. GO ORGANIC if you can, please, as the pesticides and fertilizers don’t do your immune system–or our earth–any favors. Bon appetit!
Avocado
Artichoke
Anigula
Asparagus
**Bamboo** shoots (Heather, don’t eat your floors 
)
Beet tops
Bok choy
Broccoflower
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage – all types
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chives
Cilantro
Cucumber
Dandelion greens (at the health food store–don’t pick from your lawn!!)
Eggplant
Endive
Garlic
Green beans
Jicama
Kale
Kohlrabi
Leeks
Lettuce: red or green
Leaf; and all types of
Greens
Okra
Onions
Parsley
Peppers (all kinds)
Radish
Red leaf chicory
Sea vegetables- Seaweed, kelp, nori, Dulse, and KIM, the Korean veg.
Peas – all types
Spinach
Sprouts (broccoli and bean)
Swiss chard
Watercress
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Related posts:
