Professor Philip Calder shares how our diet can increase intestinal inflammation. This in turn could potentially cause a host of severe health and metabolic problems - from heart disease and diabetes to obesity and autoimmune disease, the Mirror reports.
Calder pointed out that many staples of the modern diet, especially those high in simple sugars and saturated fats, can exacerbate this problem. Simple sugars are found in everything from table sugar and honey to fruit juices and syrups, while saturated fats are found in a variety of foods, including some meats, baked goods and even coconut oil.
The professor stressed that avoiding saturated fat is crucial to reduce inflammation, mentioning that most experiments use a high-fat diet to provoke an inflammatory response. But there's good news too, as he added:
"You will be relieved to know that there are many things that can mitigate this reaction."
"If you replace saturated fat with extra virgin olive oil, for example, you won't get such a big reaction. If you include nuts and vitamin C, you don't get such an acute reaction. If you include omega-3 fatty acids in the diet, you don't get as severe a response," the professor explained.
The nutritional immunology expert from the University of Southampton sheds light on how inflammation is the immune system's response to damage, whether caused by injury, disease or environmental factors. However, when this reaction goes wrong, it can wreak havoc in the body, leading to problems such as rheumatoid arthritis, in which the immune system mistakenly targets healthy joint tissue, or type 1 diabetes, which can be triggered by a viral infection and mistakenly cause the immune system to attack the pancreas.
Calder highlighted the merits of omega-3s for their additional health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart disease and dementia by calming inflammation. He also advocated an anti-inflammatory diet rich in "fruits, vegetables and berries," and suggested products that improve the gut microbiome, which may further help curb inflammation in the gut. | BGNES
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