Inflammation and Diet - An Easy Explanation

Inflammation and Diet - An Easy Explanation

The connection between inflammation and diet is pretty well understood by scientists; the process is just complicated enough to confuse the average person. The information provided here attempts to be as uncomplicated as possible while still being helpful.

First, let's talk about blood sugar. When you get too hungry, your blood sugar drops. After you eat, it will either rise to a normal level or spike very high, depending on what you eat.

If you eat simple carbohydrates like junk food, soda, bread or other processed grains, it will spike. When the blood sugar goes up, the body produces insulin.

Insulin lets the cells of the body know that lots of energy is available. Without insulin, the cells cannot pull in the energy; this is the problem in type I or juvenile diabetes.

If a person is healthy, the cells will open up in the presence of insulin and absorb the blood sugar for energy. But if the cells do not need the energy, the sugar returns to the liver and may eventually be stored as fat.

This is the first connection between inflammation and diet. Fat cells produce inflammatory hormones. While it was at one time thought that fat cells would continue to stretch as more fat came in, it is now known that they rupture, which triggers the inflammatory response.

These inflammatory responses play a role in heart disease. It is highly likely that the reason overweight and obese people are more likely to have age-related heart disease is due to the chronic inflammatory activity going on in the cells of their bodies.

The old theory that a person cannot get fat if they do not eat fat has obviously been disproven. Too many simple sugars and carbs can cause obesity just as easily as too much fat, particularly if it is the wrong kind of fat.

That's another connection between inflammation and diet. Many popular foods contain high concentrations of omega-6 fatty acids. Some contain no omega-3s at all. The intake of omega-6s and 3s needs to be balanced in order to reduce the risk of inflammatory diseases.

Some omega-3 rich foods have been shown to have anti-inflammatory activity. Fatty fish is an example. It is for this reason that practitioners began to recommend fish oil for their patients with chronic inflammatory conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

There are other factors concerning the connection between inflammation and diet. For one thing, insulin is an inflammatory compound.

When blood sugar spikes, too much insulin is produced. If this happens on a regular basis, chronic inflammatory conditions can be the result. In addition, the cells of the body can eventually stop recognizing or responding to insulin. This is called insulin resistance and is what happens in type II or adult onset diabetes.

This was not a detailed look at inflammation and diet. It is more of a beginner's version. The truly important thing to remember is that dietary supplements like fish oil can help.

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