15. The Anti-Inflammatory Diet Part 2: Small Lifestyle Changes with Big Health Benefits

The Anti-Inflammatory Diet Part 2: Real Food, Lifestyle Shifts, and Lasting Health

When it comes to inflammation, last week’s episode showed us that it isn’t always the enemy it’s actually one of your body’s greatest tools for healing. But when inflammation becomes chronic, it drives disease and drains vitality.

In this second part of Dr. Anikó’s anti-inflammatory series, she explores what the anti-inflammatory diet really looks like in practice and how cultures around the world have been living this way for centuries. From Blue Zones to Mediterranean traditions, Dr. Anikó shows how food, community, sleep, and stress management all come together to create a lifestyle that nourishes body and mind.

Key Takeaways

• Why the anti-inflammatory diet is more than just food - it’s a lifestyle that improves mood, energy, and long-term health.
• How eating patterns in Blue Zones (Okinawa, Sardinia, Greece, and more) reveal secrets to longevity and lower disease risk.
• Why stress and poor food choices fuel inflammation and how small, sustainable changes can make a big difference.
• The role of herbs, spices, and whole foods (like turmeric, legumes, and leafy greens) in fighting inflammation naturally.
• Why the anti-inflammatory approach is flexible, customizable, and rooted in joy rather than restriction.

Episode Highlights

• 1:00 The big picture: why an anti-inflammatory lifestyle benefits kids, adults, and even future generations.
• 2:00 The opportunity in poor nutrition statistics among teens and why change matters now.
• 5:00 How stress influences food choices and inflammation levels in the body.
• 7:00 Exploring global anti-inflammatory traditions: Mediterranean, Okinawa, Nordic, and more.
• 9:00 Eating less, eating communally, and why mealtime connection matters.
• 13:00 Practical food pyramid and food table guides to simplify anti-inflammatory eating.
• 18:00 Herbs and spices, turmeric, garlic, cinnamon are powerful inflammation fighters.
• 20:00 Sweets, teas, and mindful indulgence the anti-inflammatory way.

Whether you’re navigating autoimmune conditions, looking to prevent chronic illness, or simply ready to feel more vibrant every day, this episode gives you the tools you need to feel nourished.

✨ Don’t miss Part 3 coming next week where Dr. Anikó shares the practical steps to implement the anti-inflammatory diet in your own life.

Connect with Dr. Anikó:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.aniko/

Website: https://www.draniko.com/

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Disclaimer:
The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the guidance of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you heard on this podcast.

Transcript

Dr. Anikó: Hello. Hello. Welcome back to Nourished with Dr. Aniko. Today is part two of our discussion about the anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle. Last week was part one and we talked about inflammation in pretty great detail. We even had some Latin words. It was, it was a ride. but one of the. Important take home messages, I'm hoping from last week, is that inflammation is not only our friend, it is necessary for [00:01:00] our life and remaining alive, right?

Because inflammation is our body's response to any kind of tissue injury, whether that's infection, uh, virus. Anything like that. So acute inflammation is our friend. The problem is when we have chronic inflammation, that doesn't really resolve, and that underlies the development of a lot of disease processes.

And so when we adopt an anti-inflammatory diet or lifestyle, we can actually treat the symptoms of many of these. Diseases and conditions that have inflammation as their underlying cause, or at least one of their underlying causes. And not only that, but we can reduce our risk of developing these conditions in the first place.

 So it's a way to improve our mood, our energy, our quality of life in the now, in the present moment. And it's also an opportunity to potentially head off problems in the future, And this is [00:02:00] true for kids and adults alike. So we know that. Our kids are not getting the nutrition that they need. The CDC reviewed some national data amongst high school students and found that only 7.1% of the students met recommendations for fruit consumption and only 2% met recommendations for vegetable consumption.

And I like to view this as a glass half full thing, right? That there's so much opportunity for growth and shift and changes. Additionally, there's evidence that anti-inflammatory diets may improve fertility, and also there are studies that have shown that high adherence to a Mediterranean diet, which is a version of the anti-inflammatory diet and will get there in a second, lowered the risk of the baby having wheeze in the first 12 months.

So let me be clear, we're talking about high adherence to a [00:03:00] Mediterranean diet. During pregnancy, right? So this is really huge, So we can affect our symptoms, our life in the present moment. If you are growing another human, the way that you eat and live can impact their health long term. And additionally, and I think anyone who's been stressed, this is a very intuitive finding in the research, but 

Pregnant people with high stress levels are more likely to consume inflammatory diets, which makes sense, right? If you've ever been stressed, what are you reaching for? Maybe not the. Salad or the, you know, steamed greens you might be reaching for the nachos or something like that.

Right. And then the other finding was that highly stressed people have higher levels of TNF alpha, which is an inflammatory cytokine. So that's a pro-inflammatory cytokine. So that means it creates more [00:04:00] inflammation in response to an anti-inflammatory diet than those with lower stress levels. So we're seeing that the stress itself.

Affects your TNF alpha affects your inflammation and also affects your choices in food that will also affect your inflammation. So it is so much more complex because we are complex beings that are relating to a complex world. But that also means that there are so many places where we can make small changes that can over time, and when we make all the changes together, make a really, really big difference. Again, this Can be viewed from a lens of intense stress and pressure,

Or it can be viewed from a lens of immense possibility and power. And that's the lens that I like to look at things from. So no information that I share is ever meant to shame anybody, to scare anybody. It's really meant to be information to be used as [00:05:00] power in your life in the way that you can and want to use it.

Alright, so that being said. Let's jump back into the anti-inflammatory diet, and one of the reasons that I really love the anti-inflammatory diet, and as we learned in the last episode, we're not just talking about a short term change to your eating. We're really talking about a lifestyle and really like an approach to food, a sort of shift in how we even.

Think about food, right? A joyful, nourishing, community oriented way of living and relating to food. Okay? So one of the reasons that I love the anti-inflammatory diet so much is that it's really customizable. It doesn't have to be one size fits all, and I find that. it's the best when individuals or families really tailor it to fit their individual needs, because then it doesn't feel restrictive. It just feels like you're making really good, [00:06:00] loving, joyful, healthy choices for you and your family. So anti-inflammatory diets are not new and they're found in many, many different cultures.

What is relatively new in Western medicine is to use these diets and lifestyle changes as an approach to both treating disease processes and then also to prevent them from developing in the first place. But if you're familiar with any Ayurveda or traditional Chinese medicine, or actually many different medicinal.

Traditions that are a little older. Food is used as medicine very, very frequently. So the idea of food being medicine isn't new. Even in Western medicine, especially earlier iterations of Western medicine, we knew that what you ate was connected to. Your recovery, how well you felt, your energy levels, that kind of thing.

But to use the anti-inflammatory approach specifically [00:07:00] is what a little bit new. But again, the anti-inflammatory diet has many, many variations. So it could be the traditional Mediterranean diet, it could be the dash diet, which is the dietary approach to stop hypertension, which has lots of.

Research behind that as well. It could be the traditional Okinawa diet, it could be the Nordic diet, it could be the traditional Mexican diet and the Okinawa diet. I'm gonna mention in particular because Okinawa is the part of Japan that is one of the blue zones. And if y'all have heard of the Blue Zones, those are multiple areas in the world that have been recognized as having, much longer lifespans than average. And a little piece of trivia that I think is fun to know is that they were called Blue Zones because when they looked them up on the map, they circled them in blue and therefore they became the blue zones.

Alright, just your little factoid for the day anyway. So the way that people eat in the blue zones is all a little bit [00:08:00] different, but what they have in common is that they're all eating a lot of vegetables, a lot of legumes, whole grains, nuts as well

in Greece and Italy and also in Japan. They do eat a lot of fish. They don't eat really big portions. and that reminds me of the Ayurvedic approach where you talk about having one third food in your stomach, one third liquid, and one third air. Now, again, this isn't about just calorie restriction to deprive yourself.

This is about an awareness of when your body feels optimized, and I know that when I eat a really big, huge, heavy meal. Optimized is not the word that I would use to describe myself, right? So there is a way that eating a little bit less than what we're used to, at least in the Western culture, can leave you feel a little bit more invigorated.

Again, you always wanna listen to your body, and if you want more in your [00:09:00] body needs more. Please give your body more. This isn't about restriction. This is just about an awareness of how we sometimes tend to overeat because we are not paying attention like we're eating in a distracted way. Because another commonality in these blue zones is that people eat communally.

They eat in big social groups. Eating is a social engaged. Activity. Right. And there are studies that show that when we eat together, we tend to eat less and we tend to make more nutritious food choices. And when you think about having a meal with a bunch of people, it's not just you scarfing down your.

Food. You're having a conversation. You're waiting for everybody to be served. There are all these customs and activities that lead food to not be the only thing you're focusing on. Food is what's connecting you, but it's the connection that you're experiencing while you're eating. These areas are also places where exercise [00:10:00] is built into daily life.

People are also really connected to growing their food or fishing for their food. So things are local, things are seasonal. Additionally, sleep and rest is emphasized. So those rest activity cycles are. In more balance. Alcohol is a little bit of a tricky one because the newer research is showing that, hmm, maybe even moderate alcohol consumption isn't that great.

Um, I will say that in the study in Sardinia for example, they tend to consume grapes that are grenache grapes that have a particularly high antioxidant level. the research is a little bit still inconclusive in some ways, but we used to think for sure, red wine is definitely healthy. That may not be the case. at any rate, if you do drink, drink in moderation and if you don't drink, don't start drinking because of the anti-inflammatory diet, that is probably not a healthy choice. Other things these areas have in [00:11:00] common is having a purpose in life. Many people in these areas are religious or spiritual, so they're sort of like a higher power and purpose that they really live in their lives.

They have a healthy social network. Older and younger people live together, so. As we talked about in the previous episode, it's so much more than the food on your plate. It is how you're consuming it. It's who you're consuming it with. It's if you took a walk to get there. It's if you grew your food. All of those things contribute to reducing inflammation, improving longevity, and improving your quality of life.

Because when we look at the standard American diet, which the acronym is pretty appropriate, it's SAD, sad, it's a sad diet. It is full of pro-inflammatory.

Elements, right? You have the trans fats, you have the ultra processed foods that I don't even like to call foods, to be honest. They're edible [00:12:00] items technically. Are they foods? Foods should be nutritious. These ultra processed foods are absolutely not. So we see that the standard American diet is super pro-inflammatory.

It doesn't mean that you have to Move to a blue zone, although I'm sure many of us would love to. It just means that you can start making changes in that direction with that as kind of a framework that then you get to customize to your life and to your family's life. So in very practical terms, my two favorite visuals for the anti-inflammatory diet are Andrew Wiles, Anti-Inflammatory Diet Pyramid or Food Table, and then Dr.

Hillary McClafferty, who's. Also one of my favorite people, she's a pediatric integrative physician. She's an ER doctor. She leads an integrative pediatrics program as well. Should really check her out. She's amazing. she also has a food table. It's an anti-inflammatory pediatric. Food table. [00:13:00] So between these two folks, and there's definitely a lot of other resources online, those are just my two favorite ones.

You can definitely find both the pediatric version and the adult version. And the only real difference is that sort of tea and some moderate alcohol consumption used to be recommended in the adult one, not so much anymore. And in the pediatric one, obviously you wouldn't be giving your kids caffeinated beverages.

And again, it's a real simplification of eating, right? if you've read Michael Pollan's book. He's written a lot of great books. Two of them, well, many of them on food, actually more than two. But the two big ones were the Omnivores Dilemma and in Defensive Food, but also he has cookbooks, and he also wrote the really amazing book, how to Change Your Mind, which is different topic completely.

 Anyhow. I really go back to his quote as the heart of this way of eating and living, which is eat food, not too [00:14:00] much, mostly plants. My friends is the heart of the whole thing, right? So not complicated. And when we talk about food again, we're talking about real food, and you want to get to the most natural form of the food possible, right?

So the not processed one, the not bleached one, the not quick cooked one. If you already have a lot of those in your diet, you can go to this sort of more natural form to start. So, like I said, you can really use any anti-inflammatory dietary guide, but I like Dr. Andrew Wiles, and Dr. Hillary McClafferty is.

So I'll just start with y'all reviewing them and the way that you use an anti-inflammatory or any food pyramid or food table, is that the biggest part of the pyramid or the largest table represents. The food you want to eat the most of. So the size of the section of the pyramid or the [00:15:00] size of the table represents how much of your diet that should take up.

So with the anti-inflammatory diet, vegetables are the biggest table. So fruits and vegetables are the foundation of the pyramid, essentially. Vegetables being more, taking up more space than fruit. So fruits and vegetables are both incredibly important. They are not interchangeable. Next. We have whole and cracked grains.

So again, we're talking about grains in their most natural form, beans and legumes. Again, you can pick the ones that you like. There's a lot of room to customize all of this. the next layer is fish and seafood, then healthy fat.

So that's gonna be like olive oil, walnuts, flax seed, avocado. Then the next layer in certain pyramids, and I actually really like these, and I think it's a wonderful incorporation of different traditional wisdom from different countries. So cooked Asian mushrooms, Dr. Weil is [00:16:00] Very much a fan of these mushrooms.

So we're not talking about the button mushrooms or the cremini mushrooms we're talking about like shiitakes, maitake, that kind of mushroom always cooked because well, The Asian mushrooms, many of them can't even really be consumed if you don't cook them.

But button mushrooms and the cremini mushrooms and those kinds of things actually have some carcinogenic compounds in them if you don't cook them. So those are not even the ones that are recommended. It's the Asian mushrooms. But if you're a mushroom fan, you really shouldn't be eating them raw. Fully raw.

There's also whole soy foods. So

soy too can be a little bit controversial, especially in the world of breast cancer research because soy has phytoestrogens in it, which is fabulous, right? It has been concerning in the world of estrogen sensitive cancers, the research has seemed to [00:17:00] show that if you're eating natural soy, so we're not talking about soy supplements, we're not even talking about soy powders, we're talking about natural soy.

So. Tofu, Tempe Edamame. The research has seemed to show that moderately consumed soy in your diet, in its natural like food form. I'm trying to be super specific because it's important, right? Um, has seemed to be safe. So that is recommended. you don't want soy. Everything right? Soy cereal with soy milk and a side of soy tofu or anything like that in reasonable amounts, and reasonable is like one to two servings a day has seemed to be safe.

So that's what the current research seems to show. Also, other sources of protein. I like dairy, eggs, poultry, that kind of thing. healthy herbs and spices. So this is something that I really like to emphasize, especially with kids where you're not wanting to put a ton of salt and sugar in their food.

Obviously not yours, food either, but we have [00:18:00] a little more agency sometimes with kids where they can't do it themselves, so we flavor their food for them. You're limiting the salt and sugar, but herbs and spices you can do in. So many amounts, right? And we have some real powerhouse anti-inflammatory spices, and I'm talking about turmeric in particular.

So turmeric has been shown to have really powerful anti-inflammatory effects, and it does depend on how you consume it, right? So if you consume turmeric by itself, it won't really be absorbed into the body very much, which if you're looking to reduce inflammation locally, like in the esophagus or something like that.

That can be a great thing to do, but if you want to absorb it more systemically, meaning that it's absorbed into your bloodstream and taken all over your body and is able to have effects in other parts of your body instead of just locally, you're gonna wanna consume that with black pepper and also with a fatty meal.

So turmeric is really found a lot [00:19:00] in the traditional diet that's India, right? And they do have fats in their food and they typically do add black pepper. So it's really wonderful when you look back on our history and see how we have sort of evolved to be able to use these herbs the way that they are most powerful, and that makes perfect sense, right?

We had many, many, many years living together with the plants that were local to our environment and learning about how they best impacted us, right? We are part of nature, so it makes sense that we would respond to these natural elements of our environment anyway. Okay. I get excited about stuff anyhow, but other healthy herbs and spices that we love, cinnamon, garlic, and then all the other ones too, like basil and thyme and all of them.

Many of them have different phytochemicals that are really healthy and really good for us. So don't [00:20:00] shy away from the herbs and spices. Don't sleep on these amazing additions to our food. both in terms of nutrition and then also in terms of just flavor and enjoyment, right? And then as we get to the top of our pyramid.

These little tables or sections are taking up less and less space, so we know we're consuming less and less of them. So you can do tea again with kids. You would wanna do decaffeinated tea, but white, green and oolong tea have all been shown to have really healthy compounds and antioxidants in them. Then again, red wine.

Controversial, but certainly no more than one to two glasses a day. It's typically recommended one glass for women, two glasses for men, and then healthy sweets. So those would be unsweetened dried fruit, dark chocolate is a great one that's also full of antioxidants. And then things like fruit sorbet. I will say that when you're used to the standard American diet, these don't sound that [00:21:00] exciting, but when you start to eat in ways where you're eating real food and you're tasting real food.

These flavors start to really pop and stand out and be a lot more satisfying than they might seem at the outset. Or you might be thinking, I love fruit sorbet, I love dark chocolate. This is awesome. And I'm one of those people. So then great, I'm excited for all of us to take this journey together. So speaking of the journey, next piece is how to implement the anti-inflammatory diet.

And since we have taken a pretty big bite, yes, I used the same pun again this week. I love it. We'll stop here for today, but next week we'll talk about the details on how to implement the anti-inflammatory diet in your life and your family's life. So I hope this gets you really excited for the power of diet and lifestyle in your life, because all the things we talked [00:22:00] about when we talked about the Blue zones, for example, exercise quality, sleep.

Those also reduce inflammation, right? So this is really a multi-pronged approach to improving your. Present health in the moment and your future health, and your kids' health and your future baby's health. So it really is this amazing approach that I hope gets you really excited for the possibility. 

Of your health and your life with something as simple as just what you eat and how you eat it, and who you eat it with. So see you next week for part three on the anti-inflammatory Approach to Health. Take very good care y'all and stay nourished. [00:23:00]