Eating style
Anti-inflammatory eating
A popular label for a loosely defined idea. What people mean by it, what trials have measured, and why it ends up looking much like the Mediterranean diet.
What people mean by it
There is no single anti-inflammatory diet. The term covers ways of eating meant to lower chronic, low-grade inflammation, which is associated with conditions such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. In practice the advice is familiar: plenty of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, nuts, oily fish and olive oil, with herbs, spices, tea and coffee, and less processed meat, refined carbohydrate, fried food and sugary drinks.
What the research shows
The Mediterranean diet has the best support. A 2022 meta-analysis of 22 randomised trials found it produced the clearest reductions in inflammation markers such as interleukin-6, while DASH, vegetarian and vegan diets showed no substantial effect. An earlier meta-analysis of 17 trials also found lower C-reactive protein (CRP) on Mediterranean diets.
Whether shifting those blood markers changes anyone’s health is less certain. A 2021 umbrella review of observational studies found that diets scored as more inflammatory were associated with many chronic diseases, but rated the evidence as convincing for only one outcome, heart attack, and as limited for most. These studies looked at whole eating patterns, not individual foods or supplements.
A practical version
Because the evidence points to the overall pattern, the practical advice is the Mediterranean guide under a different name: build meals on vegetables, beans and whole grains, cook with olive oil, eat oily fish once or twice a week, and keep processed meat, sweets and fried food occasional. Nothing in this evidence calls for cutting out whole food groups.
Worth knowing
- This is not a treatment. If you have an inflammatory condition such as rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease, follow your clinician’s advice and ask before changing your diet or medication.
- Evidence that lowering inflammation markers through diet improves health outcomes is limited and mostly observational.
- There is no agreed definition, so the phrase on a product or meal plan tells you little about what is in it.
Common questions
Which foods cause inflammation?
Research looks at patterns rather than single foods. Diets high in processed meat, refined carbohydrate, fried food and sugary drinks score as more inflammatory. What you eat most of the time matters more than any one item.
Do I need turmeric or supplements?
No. The trials behind this guide tested whole diets, not supplements. Herbs and spices are welcome for flavour, but the evidence is for the overall pattern.
Sources
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: Diet Review, Anti-Inflammatory Diet
- Koelman et al., Advances in Nutrition (2022): Effects of dietary patterns on biomarkers of inflammation, a meta-analysis of randomised trials
- Marx et al., Advances in Nutrition (2021): The Dietary Inflammatory Index and human health, an umbrella review
- Schwingshackl & Hoffmann, Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases (2014): Mediterranean dietary pattern, inflammation and endothelial function, a meta-analysis
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Speak to a doctor or registered dietitian about your own situation.