We Eat Too Much of Inflammatory Food

by Valeriya Kettelhut, PhD | Jul 30, 2019 | Body Wellness

Do you know that overeating activates the immune system in a way that generates excessive body inflammation? This inflammation is characterized as persistent, low-grade chronic inflammation. If left ignored, the inflammation can lead to increased body weight, cancer, and the chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus.

Role Of Obesity In Inflammation

Obesity plays an important part in chronic inflammation. First, obesity promotes serious changes in fat cells. Fat cells become bigger in size. Secondly, the enlarged fat cells act as a trigger for specific immune cells, called macrophages. In the obese fat tissue, the concentration of macrophages increases up to 50% from 5% in the lean fat tissue. Moreover, the enlarged fat cells activate and stimulate macrophage functioning. Specifically, excess of fat stimulates macrophages to release pro-inflammatory chemicals causing chronic inflammation and insulin resistance. So, on one hand, the enlarged fat cells cause chronic inflammation in the body. On the other hand, chronic inflammation advances weigh gain. This vicious cycle is ongoing. Chronic inflammation and obesity are deeply interconnected. When fasting, the obese fat cells start experience break down and death. Macrophages immediately populate these areas: they start cleaning the debris of dead cells and creating the released lipids (fatty acids). This process prevents the excessive penetration of fatty acids to the blood stream. Unfortunately, macrophages eventually fail to perform adequate cleaning and consumption of excessive lipids. The bad lipids go to the blood stream and increase inflammation. The researchers now try to reprogram macrophages to enable them to successfully cope with the obese fat cells.

Avoiding Pro-Inflammatory Food Can Reduce the Inflammatin

Where can we start ?, We can modify our lifestyle first. We can reduce the inflammation by losing weight. Second, we can also remove pro-inflammatory food from our diet. Certain foods encourage chronic inflammation, which in turn may lead to overeating and weight gain in non-obese people. Avoiding pro-inflammatory food can be the first step to prevent obesity. Try to remove these products from your diet:

Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup Artificial trans fats(margarines) and vegetable and seed oils (soybean oil)
Refined carbohydrates: candy, bread, pasta, pastries, some cereals, cookies, cakes, sugary soft drinks and all processed food that contains added sugar or flour
Excessive alcohol
Processed meat

Although, inflammation can occur in response to many triggers, we have much more control over factors like diet. Inflammatory food is a proven risk factor for inflammation. So, let’s start checking on honey, what’s for dinner?