Inflammation in the Body Revisited

I wrote about inflammation on Saturday, 8 April 2017 and Tuesday, 18 April 2017. I was telling the story that my very-low carbohydrate diet had reduced my inflammation if negligible levels and everything was under control.

Chronic Vascular Inflammation is caused by high Insulin levels in the blood. Click Image to enlarge

You should never say things like that. It's the fruit season. There are free apples and pears and quinces. I've always enjoyed eating fruit. I wrote on the 8 April that excess fruit in the diet was probably the main cause of the chronic rash I developed in late summer 2014.

Early this month, I'm scratching at the varicose veins on my ankle. Then I had an itchy back in the shower and I used the back brush to give it a friendly rub. Why is my skin becoming itchy? It's inflammation in my body.

This didn't get serious, I acted on the warning sign. I've stopped eating fruit, and mostly the problem has gone. Not fully solved, but the inflammation is receding. Truth be known I'm also eating more than the 50g of carbohydrates I allow myself each day.

For me, not being diabetic, I can be a bit loose with my practice and I suffer very little. Insulin works, and now I might even be insulin sensitive again. So my weight is perfectly stable, at 75kg. My objective in maintaining ketosis is to minimise chronic inflammation. So; how do you do that?

If you read about reducing inflammation in the body you get conflicting information. Vegetarians are sure that the secret is to remove the meat from your diet. Vegan's go further and remove all dairy foods. I have no expertise here. I do have my own experience. There's lot of evidence that vegan and vegetarian diets are not healthy.

Suggested Anti-inflammatory Foods

We're not worried about the short term inflammation caused by exercise, or in response to infections or accidents. It's long term vascular inflammation that concerns us. If you suffer from any problem that's called xxxxitis, like arthritis, that is also caused by inflammation, and an anti-inflammation strategy should help you.

Reducing Chronic Vascular Inflammation

Let's deal with meat first. Meat in the diet does cause some inflammation, but it also has it's own anti-inflammatory properties. Net result zero, with the advantage of high density nutrition.

The most damaging high-inflammation foods are omega-6 vegetable oils. That's why you should stop eating margarine and butter substitutes, and look carefully at the ingredients in sauces and dressings. Some people believe that whole grains also cause inflammation. Gluten intolerance is one example. Many people report that although they are not made sick eating gluten, they seem better if they avoid it. So perhaps many of us are a bit gluten sensitive.

A similar story exists for dairy foods. It's not normal for most species to use milk as a food after weaning. Thousands of years ago, during famine, humans who were able to use lactose in their diet had a survival advantage. That's still in our genes. Most of us are lactose tolerant and we can eat dairy food without problems. I get a bit of a runny nose when drinking milk, but nothing else. There are great nutritional advantages if dairy foods are used, but some people can't, and they will know about that.

John Stephen Veitch