Did you know that certain foods can affect your body in such a way as to cause chronic low – grade inflammation? This inflammation can lead to a whole bunch of diseases including cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and even heart conditions.  The good news is, there are delicious ways to combat this.

Fad diets will definitely come and go, but considering an anti-– inflammation diet is different. It’s not necessarily a weight-loss regimen, rather this kind of a "diet" is an eating plan for life that can help you ward off some of these serious diseases, and make you more comfortable. While the scientific jury is still out on how truly effective it can be, experts believe eating anti-inflammatory foods is a meal plan well worth considering.

Inflammation is your body‘s response to a problem, infection, or injury. You know how you bang your knee and it becomes swollen? That’s acute inflammation. It’s how your body repairs the damage. Once the damage is gone, the inflammation goes away.

This kind of a response can happen anywhere in your body, and not just in the places we can see, but in the places we can’t see either like your blood vessels or your organs. And because you don’t see it, sometimes you don't know about it and worse yet, you don't know if it goes away. This is chronic inflammation and if it’s left untreated expert say that it can lead to serious health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, dementia, cancer, and osteoporosis.

Studies have found that consuming too many calories or carrying too much fat in your body can play a role in chronic inflammation. Same is true for eating a diet high in processed foods and/or sugar. Research has also found that eating fewer calories with high-quality nutritional, anti-inflammatory foods can have an anti-inflammatory effect on your whole body.

Currently there is no single anti-inflammatory diet. And more research definitely needs to be done. In the meantime though, experts suggest the following: First and foremost maintain a healthy weight and eat the calories necessary to do that. Last but certainly not least, make sure the calories that you do consume are full of high-quality foods that have anti-inflammatory effects.

The Environmental Nutrition newsletter recently identified some inflammatory fighting foods. Consider adding these to your meals:

• Broccoli and other crunchy cruciferous vegetables like brussels sprouts and kale. Also included in this list are dark leafy greens.
• Lentils and other complex legumes.
• Salmon and other fishes rich in omega Dash three fatty acids, As well as olive oil.
• Grapefruit, Pineapple, and berries, especially blueberries.
• Brazil nuts
• Wheat berries
• And of course, my favorite, spices. Tumeric and ginger are both excellent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant rich seasonings that not only make your mouth happy, but they could help your body as well.