Cut out gluten , eliminate sugar , stop eating those toxic seed oils . You hear it all the time from fitness influencers who are obsessing over specific foods that they call inflammatory . But while we are scrutinizing these ingredient labels , the actual drivers of chronic inflammation are hiding elsewhere . They are not exotic foods or mysterious toxins . They're lifestyle factors that most people are ignoring . So today we're going to break down what is inflammation , why your anti-inflammatory diet might not solve the problem , what are the lifestyle factors that are more important than food choices when it comes to inflammation , and how to engineer your approach to address the root causes instead of chasing symptoms .
Philip PapeWelcome to Wits and Weights , the show that helps you build a strong , healthy physique using evidence , engineering and efficiency . I'm your host , certified nutrition coach , philip Pape , and today we're engineering our way through one of the most misunderstood topics in health and fitness , and that is inflammation , the dreaded I-word , the misused I-word . The fitness industry has turned inflammation into a boogeyman , convincing people they have to eliminate foods , they have to buy expensive supplements , follow restrictive protocols . But when we apply a little bit of systems thinking to inflammation and look at the science , we discover that the conventional approach is solving the wrong problem entirely . It's not going to get you anywhere when it comes to inflammation . Now , before we get into it , if this episode opens your eyes to how inflammation really works , I just want you to do me a favor and text it to someone who's been struggling with some of these topics and the confusion and the misinformation in the industry , who's curious about inflammation , inflammatory issues or anti-inflammatory foods . Just text this show to a friend . That's all I'm going to ask for today , and with that let's get into it and start by defining
the system . Talk about what inflammation actually is . We can't solve a problem until we understand what it is and what you're dealing with , and inflammation is highly misunderstood .
Philip PapeThere's really two processes going on here . There's acute inflammation , and that's your body's immediate response system . Think of it as like your biological emergency response . You cut your finger , you twist your ankle , you get an infection and boom , you get pain , heat , redness , swelling , right . This is a very well understood aspect of acute inflammation . You could even get acute inflammation from positive practices like strength training , where you have an immediate response to the stimulus you place on your muscles . Training where you have an immediate response to the stimulus you place on your muscles and the inflammation process causes them to adapt . This is all normal , this is essential , this is a good thing .
Philip PapeBut then we have chronic , low-grade inflammation , which is the one that we are actually concerned about , and this is like having your emergency system stuck in the on position right the fight or flight . The high alert system is just stuck on for months or even years . It is a silent killer , it is systemic . It is linked to cardiovascular disease , diabetes , alzheimer's , metabolic dysfunction , you name it . And so here's where our engineering mindset comes in , in that these are two completely different systems with different inputs , different processes , different solutions , and most people are trying to solve chronic inflammation using an acute inflammation style logic , and that's where we fail in the process , especially when it comes to foods . You know fear-mongering over specific foods , which is why I'm making this episode .
Philip PapeSo let's go back and step back a bit and look at the root cause . When most people think about inflammation , they immediately jump to foods , especially when you hear about things like seed oils . They're inflammatory . But the data actually doesn't support this . It tells us a very different story , and that is that the number one driver of chronic inflammation is visceral fat , your belly fat is you know . It's not just sitting there looking sad . It is an endocrine organ . It pumps out inflammatory cytokines and we're going to get into , we're going to explain these a lot . This is part of the blood markers of inflammation . You can have Interleukin-6 , tnf-alpha and C-reactive protein . You've probably heard of the last one . It gets discussed a lot CRP , c-reactive protein . These are inflammatory markers that can be measured in the bloodstream . Invisceral fat is actually the number
one driver of those byproducts , those inflammatory cytokines .
Philip PapeSo that's the first one . The second one is physical inactivity , sedentary behavior . It doesn't just make you weak and lazy and unfit and causes you to eat more and do all the other things we don't want to do . It also creates a pro-inflammatory state , because when you're not moving your immune system gets , we'll say , confused . It starts attacking your own tissues . You're not living like a human should live . You're essentially wasting your life being sedentary . Meanwhile , exercise , training , movement produces myokines that actively reduce inflammation , so that movement and training is anti-inflammatory . The third driver is chronic stress and poor sleep . When you're chronically stressed , when you're sleep deprived right , and sometimes they go hand in hand , we know this affects our cortisol your immune system tends to overreact and then inflammation becomes your default state . You're in a more inflammatory situation .
Philip PapeThe fourth driver is environmental toxins . So , as much as I don't really talk about these too often , I've had some guests on that talk about them . Um , smoking is the big one . We don't think of that as environmental toxic , but it really is , and I'm glad I don't have to walk around in clouds of secondhand smoke Like I did in the eighties when they had , you know , smoking sections in the restaurant , smoking sections even in an airplane at one point . Uh , but also things like air pollution . You know the chemicals , the things that we're exposed to in a lot of our products . You know some we're discovering , some we're maybe not aware of , and any other exposure that triggers inflammatory cascades . These are real , but especially something like smoking and air pollution . Now notice what's missing from that list Specific foods , specific foods are missing , and this is where we have to separate the signal from the noise , because , yes , diet affects inflammation , but not the way you think
.
Philip PapeIt's the dietary patterns , not the individual foods , that drive inflammation . A Western dietary pattern which is high in ultra-processed foods , high in sugar , high in refined carbs , high in trans fats , is going to create inflammation through multiple pathways . It's not specific foods , it's the whole pattern . It disrupts your gut microbiome , you have large swings in blood sugar , you've got more oxidative stress . You've got all the conditions that contribute to obesity , mainly through over consumption . Right , it has nothing to do with seed oils ? Okay , it's overconsumption , it's the gut health , right it's . You know , the misuse of insulin through blood sugar spikes , because you're not acting , you're not lifting weights . It all compounds together because , in fact , somebody who has a much improved lifestyle can , I'll say , get away with a somewhat poor dietary pattern versus someone who doesn't , for that very reason .
Philip PapeBecause it's not the individual foods , it's a dietary pattern as well as a lifestyle . So if you remove individual foods , it's not going to impact systemic inflammation , unless you have a specific intolerance to those foods . Right , the whole nightshades , oxalates , gluten-free for everyone approach . There's no evidence that those reduce inflammation in healthy people . Same thing with seed oils . In fact .
Philip PapeWe know adding in seed oils or replacing saturated fats with seed oils improves health outcomes . It is definitively demonstrated in the research . There's no argument about that and regardless of the processing , people talk about shelf rancidity . No , none of that is actually borne out by the evidence as being a concern based on the outcomes . In fact , there's a study that found a pro-inflammatory lifestyle predicted poor fitness . But diet alone didn't significantly affect the outcomes . The lifestyle factors are doing the heavy lifting , and so inflammation isn't caused by eating a specific food . It's caused by the cumulative effect of multiple lifestyle factors that create a pro-inflammatory environment in your body . So if we know this , the good thing is it gives us a little more freedom and flexibility than we might have thought a more flexible diet , for example . But we could also engineer an anti-inflammatory lifestyle for ourselves . We can optimize the system rather than these individual components that don't actually have an impact .
Philip PapeSo first we should address the biggest lever , which is body composition , when I mentioned , visceral fat is the largest driver of chronic inflammation . We wanna lose our visceral fat , and that removes the primary inflammatory factor in your body . It doesn't mean you have to get shredded . That's not what it means . Even just modest fat loss will significantly reduce inflammatory markers , and this is why you know fat loss , weight loss , whatever you want to call it , simply having a lower body weight in and of itself actually solves a lot of the health markers and health issues that people have . Not everything , and it's not about scale weight . It's more about body composition , right , more about losing fat , holding on and building muscle and losing fat . So that's the biggest lever right there , which is everything we talk about on this show for the most part .
Philip PapeUh , the second thing is implementing regular movement , not just training , but also moving throughout the day , walking but also not sitting for long stretches to keep your muscles producing the anti-inflammatory myokines Myokines , you know , I forgot how to pronounce these and strength training is very powerful here because muscle tissue actively fights inflammation . So just having muscle is highly anti-inflammatory . The third thing is you're going to have to improve your sleep and stress . That's just always the thing we need to be doing , and if you are running on low sleep , running on high stress , high perceived stress , psychological , physical , whatever that is creating a highly inflammatory state for you . It is a legitimate physiological outcome of having too much stress and not enough sleep and not enough recovery . Recovery is not optional . The older we get , the more important recovery gets by leaps and bounds . It is a foundation .
Philip PapeThe fourth tip I have here out of five is optimizing your dietary pattern . So here's where people will hear me and say how can you tell people to eat seed oils ? How can you tell people to eat like so many carbs and fat , and they say , no , I'm not telling people you know how much or what to eat . I'm asking you to optimize your diet for you based on a variety of factors based on your satiety , eating guilt-free , supporting your performance goals , supporting your energy needs , and so what that looks like for people to be able to do it sustainably is prioritizing whole foods , fiber , diversity of your diet , which means proteins , fats and carbs , and nutrients , of course , that are gonna support your gut microbiome . So we're not talking about food perfectionism . We're not talking about specific foods to add in or avoid . We're talking about the overall dietary pattern through a variety of foods that you choose that meet these needs , and that's the flexibility part that makes a huge difference .
Philip PapeAnd then , fifth and finally , we want to minimize environmental toxins when you can control them , and that's easy when it comes to smoking , not easy , I mean . Obviously it's hard to quit smoking for those who are addicted , but it's an obvious lever . Limiting or eliminating alcohol and then all the other chemical exposures , to whatever degree , makes sense for you in your life , depending on where you live , depending on what products you use , whether you microwave foods in plastic I'm not gonna get into those details . That's not my area of expertise , to be honest . That's very personalized and I don't wanna fear monger over that . But the accumulation of these does create a level of inflammatory load that your other healthy habits are basically counteracting , and if you want to just further improve that inflammatory state , you have to consider those All right . So , to summarize , it's body composition , movement , sleep and stress , aka recovery your dietary pattern and minimizing
environmental toxins .
Philip PapeNow , I alluded to this briefly , but I want to hit it home . Okay , your muscle tissue isn't just for strength , it isn't just for aesthetics or function . It's your primary anti-inflammatory organ . When you contract your muscles during exercise , they release compounds , in the moment called myokines , that communicate with your fat tissue , your liver , your brain , your immune system , and they actively suppress inflammatory pathways and they promote healing throughout your body . Right , and the funny thing is , lifting weights is a hormetic stressor , it's an acute stressor , it's an acute level of inflammation , but it benefits your chronic inflammation tremendously . Every time you lift weights , every time you move with intention , you are programming your body to be less inflammatory . Right , it's just like you're adding more calorie-burning tissue to your body and that just operates 24-7 . Same thing here . You're creating a less inflammatory environment and that's why people who strength train consistently have lower inflammatory markers in their blood than sedentary people , even when controlling for body weight . So we have to have the body composition , but we also have to be training and building muscle . The muscle itself is actively fighting inflammation at the cellular level and it gets stronger the more you use it and the more you train , the more anti-inflammatory your body becomes . So there's nothing more apropos than you know this show , wits and Weights , using your brain to understand that inflammation comes from lifestyle , and then lifting some weights , knowing that muscle and strength and all of that is the biggest anti-inflammatory impact here . And I've talked to otherwise healthy people who don't strength train and they're leaving a lot on the table because they're making it a lot harder than themselves in multiple ways , especially as they get older . So the fitness industry they want you to believe .
Philip PapeInflammation is complicated , that you have to have special diets , you have to buy their supplement to control it , you have to cut out these foods . You know , you look at the reels of these idiots in the grocery store pointing out why you shouldn't eat this and shouldn't eat that . Ignore it , unfollow , right the out why you shouldn't eat this and shouldn't eat that . Ignore it , unfollow , right ? The truth is that inflammation is a systems problem , with systems solutions . Stop obsessing over individual foods and start optimizing the lifestyle factors . It's not easy , it takes effort , it does , it takes patience , but you have all the information at your fingertips on how to make it happen and now it's just a matter of the right level of commitment and action . And sometimes that's support and motivation as well , through whether it's coaching or community or just listening to the show you know . Reach out , join our Facebook group If you need some more help . If you need a community , I've got coaching options as well If you need that .
Philip PapeI want you to build muscle to create your body's anti-inflammatory pharmacy . Build muscle to create your body's anti-inflammatory pharmacy . That's your pharmacy , no supplements . I want you to move regularly to keep your immune system balanced . I want you to manage your stress and sleep to prevent cortisol-driven inflammation . I want you to focus on the dietary pattern and the flexibility , not food perfectionism and restriction , because your body's very sophisticated We've hidden this point many times . It is designed to maintain balance , to maintain homeostasis when you give it the right inputs , and so work with that , work with that .
Philip PapeAll right , this episode's kind of short , but I think it hit on the main points
that inflammation is a systems-based lifestyle choice . That's how I'm gonna put it . It's not specific foods , it's really about lifestyle . So the same lifestyle that improves your physique going to put it , it's not specific foods , it's really about lifestyle . So the same lifestyle that improves your physique , your body composition , your health , will also give you less inflammation .
Philip PapeIf this episode changed how you think about inflammation , I want you to text it to someone who's been caught up in the hype , in the anti-inflammatory hype . Maybe they don't yet understand that the solution isn't to restrict more you know to do , carnivore , something like that . It's just a better system and a better lifestyle and information like this can literally change someone's relationship with food and their health and then it can change their life . So I really encourage you to text it with a friend . Let them know about the episode as a bonus , post it to social media , to your story or to your feed , and tag me . I'm at Wits and Weights on all platforms and that's it . Inflammation the more you know , right . Until next time , keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember , when it comes to inflammation , engineer your lifestyle system , don't chase the symptoms or specific foods . I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights podcast .