Fighting Inflammation With Superfoods

Staying healthy is a constant battle with pollution, crummy unhealthy foods, too much alcohol, smoke, too much sun time, and even fighting infections has serious side effects. Constant exposure to these things creates cellular damage and inflammation, chronic inflammation or repetitive inflammation which leads to problems in the joints, heart, colon and least but not last, our skin.

Number one on your body’s list of chores is fighting cell damage and inflammation. it’s possible to lean the odds in your favor by eating superfoods which contain high amounts of antioxidants and prostaglandins.

Antioxidants – are natural substances that are responsible for the color in fruits and vegetables, and vitamins like C and E which are cell damage fighters. Antioxidants battle inflammation by neutralizing free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules that migrate throughout the body scavenging particles from healthy cells, which creates a very unstable and unhealthy situation.

Lucky for all of us superfoods are jammed with antioxidants that also move through the body and put a stop to free radical damage.

Here’s a list of some of the more potent antioxidant superfoods

– Acai berries

– Blueberries

– Broccoli

– Cranberries

– Green tea

– Pomegranate

– Spinach

Inflammation and Fats

Our body makes chemicals called prostaglandins which are responsible for initiating or stopping inflammation reactions throughout the body.

Some foods increase the amount of inflammatory prostaglandins and reduce the amount of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins, which creates an unstable and unhealthy environment. Diets high in saturated fats is at the center of increased inflammatory prostaglandins.

But don’t give up hope because there are superfoods that can fight inflammation.

Unsaturated fats are actually good for the body. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated are the two types.

Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of polyunsaturated that is very good for you. Omega-3s have a mountain of research behind them and they have been shown to reduce inflammation. the take home here is that by adding foods high in omega-3 fatty acids you can prevent heart disease, cancer, and arthritis.