Anti-inflammatory diet – no sugar, no dairy, limited grains

Have you heard of an anti-inflammatory diet? What exactly does that mean? I’ve heard people say Paleo, AIP and the Wahls Protocol all help with inflammation? Why do these help?

So these diets *could* help with inflammation, and they all have commonalities that I’ll talk about. Some of the most common ones in these are limiting sugar, dairy and grains.

A true anti-inflammatory diet like the Wahls diet has you remove all processed food, limits how much grain, legumes, and meat you can have. It requires you remove all dairy, sugar, and fake sugar from your diet as well. I have heard many people get good relief from eating an anti-inflammatory diet, but they can be so strict and rigid that makes it hard to follow them long term. And if you don’t stick with it, you will have some relief for some period of time, but it will only last as long as you can keep up eating that way.

A balance diet of foods, limiting processed foods helps inflammation

In general, I recommend a balanced diet of mainly fruits and vegetables, small amounts of protein and grains and limiting sugar, dairy, gluten products and fried foods to only occasional.

Food allergies and knee pain

If you have a food allergy you definitely need to not eat that food. Depending on how intense the allergy is you could go into anaphylactic shock, but you could also get a rash or symptoms on the inside. If I had a food allergy that wasn’t as severe as anaphylactic shock but I got a rash or had GI symptoms like bloating, constipation or diarrhea every time I eat that food my body is going to have a reaction and inflammation will be build up. Inflammation builds up because your body senses an illness or injury is present so the inflammatory process occurs. The inflammatory process is normal to help you heal, but if I never take away the inciting factor, like an irritating food then I’m going to be in constant inflammation.

Some foods that are inflammatory include certain grains like those that contain gluten (wheat, barley, rye), dairy, and sugar. For someone who has Celiac disease, a wheat allergy or gluten intolerance are 3 examples of someone who may need to follow a gluten free diet.

Cutting out dairy and sugar for knee pain

Dairy and sugar can cause inflammation because of the digestive process. Dairy has lactose which is a specific type of sugar only found in dairy. When sugar is digested and broken down the body will use what it needs for energy and then the rest is stored. The liver can convert these into fatty acids and then the body starts a reaction from the presence of these fatty acids that initiates the inflammatory process. So how do we avoid all this inflammation? One of the ways is to limit the amount of these types of food we eat. Going gluten free isn’t necessarily a healthier lifestyle, a snickers bar is gluten free, is that going to be your first choice for healthy food options? But if we have Celiac disease, wheat allergies or gluten intolerance then limiting and eliminating foods that contain gluten are necessary. Limiting dairy and sugar intake can reduce inflammation by limiting the amount of sugar that’s leftover in the body after the body does it’s normal thing with sugar.

What should I do for an anti-inflammatory diet?

My husband and I follow a modified Paleo diet, we still eat legumes and some grains like corn. We find that our bodies can tolerate these and so we keep them in the mix. We do follow the gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free as best we can. How can we do it, do we just eat lettuce? Nope, we had Indian food the other day, we eat tacos every week, I make Chinese beef and broccoli a few times a month. It’s knowing where to find the substitutes that still taste good and fall within the plan. The best thing I’ve done was find Danielle Walker’s cookbooks. Right now she has 4, coming out with a 5th next year. She had modified recipes over the years to take her favorite foods and make them tolerable for her body. If you’re interested in her cookbooks check out daniellewalker.com and you can look in her shop.

Edit This Post was originally posted in September 2021 on the sister page Mobilept.us. Since then I will note that my husband is not allergic to dairy. We found out through allergy testing and elimination diet. He can eat dairy! It’s not an inflammatory problem for him. Nightshades are! And the dairy he was eating that caused his stomach upset was shredded cheeses that had potato starch added to prevent caking. We always wondered why he could eat block cheddar cheese, but not shredded cheddar cheese. We knew something must be different but didn’t know what until his R.D. told him to eliminate nightshades. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Although going nightshade free may or may not be in a traditional anti-inflammatory diet, it may help someone who has sensitivities to nightshades. Luckily I have found brands of cheese that do not have potato starch as their anti-caking agent.

Long story short:

Yes, eating an anti-inflammatory diet helps knee pain. Eating an anti-inflammatory diet helps reduce the overall amount of inflammation in the body and let’s all the pains, including knee pain, calm down.

If you’re looking for knee pain relief check out this free guide I created just for you