This One-Day Diet Is All You Need To Start Taming Inflammation

My job as a functional medicine doctor is to get to the root cause of health problems but also come up with practical, sustainable solutions to address them. Here's my simple one-day plan to get you started:

For all you coffee lovers out there, this is an easy one! It may be a shock to hear that coffee is encouraged, but coffee drinkers were shown to have lower CRP (an inflammatory protein) levels so start off this one-day diet with a nice big cup of joe. Make sure what you are drinking is organic and third-party tested for mold. If you can't tolerate coffee, green tea has also been shown to lower CRP1.

Did I tell you this is not your mother's anti-inflammatory plan? We are getting scientific here, my friend. High levels of the inflammatory nuclear factor kappa B, or NF-kB, will not do you any favors when trying to balance inflammation levels. When NF-kB is activated it binds to your DNA and brings about various inflammatory cascades in the body and has been shown to play a role in many chronic inflammatory conditions2. Start decreasing this by snacking on NF-kB-fighting super foods throughout your day such as blueberries and matcha green tea.

The protein Nrf-2 turns on genes3 that are responsible for antioxidant and detox pathways. This in turn helps calm inflammation levels. Activate Nrf-2 by focusing on dietary antioxidant foods such as matcha green tea. Not only will green tea increase Nrf-2, but it is pulling double duty decreasing the inflammatory NF-kB as well.

The vitamins A4, D, E5, and K26 are extremely important to your health for many reasons. They play a big factor in bringing down inflammation by decreasing levels of the inflammatory protein CRP. Focus on food medicines that are high in these vitamins by following my food plan below.

Make sure to limit the alcohol (or cut it out entirely!). It can actually increase your levels of CRP7. However, studies have shown that red wine when consumed in small amounts is associated with lower CRP8. So if you choose, end your day with a nice glass of your favorite organic red wine before heading to bed!

Methylation is your body's biochemical superhighway that helps protect your DNA, brain, and gut from inflammation. It is important to support healthy methylation pathways to lower homocysteine, an inflammatory amino acid. A great way to help with this is by eating sulfur-rich vegetables such as cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli.

Stress can hurt your health in more ways than one, including raising CRP. People with stressful jobs or toxic relationships have been shown in many studies to have higher CRP levels9. Mindfulness meditation is a great technique to help lower stress and also bring down CRP10. Incorporate mindfulness at some point either in the morning before you start your busy day, during lunch, or even in the evening to close out the day.

Now let's take these inflammation-busting tips and maximize them for your day. This plan will focus on calming inflammation in all its forms: CRP, NF-kB, and homocysteine. In addition, your anti-inflammatory methylation and NRF-2 pathways will be activated. Win-win!

Ingredients

Combine all ingredients in blender and blend.

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Method

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Ingredients for the bone broth

Ingredients for the soup

Ingredients for the cauliflower

Bone broth:

Soup:

Cauliflower:

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Make time to give yourself some "Brain Breaks," times of calm and silence. Even if it's just for a few minutes, close your eyes or spend time in nature and breathe. If you are eating like a champ but filling your body full of stress, you won't calm inflammation effectively. After your day is over, if you want to take it to the next level, take my 60-day challenge to calm inflammation in my Elimination Diet video class. This journey will help you find out what foods your body loves and which it hates, focusing on the world's most anti-inflammatory foods.