Anti-Inflammatory Diet: What We Add, What We Remove, and How to Start

“I eat pretty healthy. So why do I still feel bloated and tired?”

We hear this in first sessions all the time. And when we look at a normal week together, we rarely find one “wrong” food. We find a pattern: little variety, little fiber, bread and cheese at almost every meal, quite a few ready-made foods, irregular sleep, and a body that rarely gets a real break.

An anti-inflammatory diet isn’t just a list of “good” and “bad” foods. It’s a way of setting up your days so you give your body the chance to do what it already knows how to do.

In this article:

• What We Mean by “Inflammation”
• It’s Not One Food. It’s the Pattern
• The Five Things We Look at First on Your Plate
• Your Plate Is Not the Only Piece
• When the General Approach Isn’t Enough
• How to Start Without Changing Everything
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Conclusion

What We Mean by “Inflammation” — and Why It’s Not Always Bad

Inflammation is one of your body’s most useful mechanisms. When you cut yourself, catch a cold, or get injured, your immune system switches on, does its job, and then settles down. This acute inflammation is protection.

What concerns us is something different: a low-grade, persistent activation that doesn’t fully switch off. It doesn’t necessarily hurt, and it doesn’t always show up on routine labs. But research links it to many chronic conditions, from cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes to autoimmune disease [1]. It is also often raised in hormonal conditions such as PMOS, formerly PCOS.

The root causes are rarely just one. Food is one of them — and it’s one of the few you can change starting tomorrow.

It’s Not One Food. It’s the Pattern

Turmeric doesn’t “switch off” inflammation. A dessert doesn’t “switch it on.” What matters is what you eat most days, over a long enough time.

That’s why researchers study whole dietary patterns, not just single foods. They’ve even built indexes that score how “inflammatory” or “anti-inflammatory” someone’s overall way of eating is, based on hundreds of studies [2].

We don’t use the “Mediterranean diet” as a ready-made therapeutic template. It has many good elements, like olive oil, vegetables and fish. In everyday life, though, the label often ends up meaning bread, pasta and cheese almost every day — foods we see weighing on many people in our clinical practice.

Our anti-inflammatory foundation has two parts. We add vegetables, legumes, good fats, fish, and herbs and spices. And for a period, we remove three things that, in practice, weigh on many of the people we see: sugar, gluten and dairy.

The Five Things We Look at First on Your Plate

When we work with patients, we start with five questions.

1. How Much Plant Variety Is There in Your Week?

Vegetables, legumes, fruit, gluten-free grains like quinoa, rice and millet, nuts, seeds, fresh herbs, and spices like ginger, turmeric, oregano and garlic. Each of these groups brings different fibers and plant compounds, and fiber is the main “food” for the microbes in your gut.

A simple goal: more different plant foods across the week than you eat now. Not perfect. More.

2. Which Fat Do You Use Every Day?

Extra virgin olive oil as your main fat, oily fish such as sardines, anchovies, mackerel or salmon once or twice a week, and a handful of nuts are some of the most reliable choices we have.

3. How Often Do Ultra-Processed Foods and Added Sugar Show Up?

We’re not talking about one dessert on Saturday. We’re talking about the packaged snacks, sodas, processed meats and “healthy” products with long ingredient lists that slip into the routine without us noticing. That’s where cutting back makes the biggest difference.

4. How Often Do Gluten and Dairy Show Up?

For most people, the answer is “at almost every meal”: bread, pasta, cheese, yogurt. In our practice, we remove them for a period for almost everyone.

Why? In a small experimental study on intestinal tissue samples, gliadin, one of the components of gluten, temporarily increased the permeability of the intestinal wall in every group tested, including people without celiac disease [3]. How much that translates into symptoms differs from person to person — and that’s exactly what a structured removal period shows: whether your digestion, energy or other symptoms change.

We follow the same logic with dairy, because clinically we see that many people feel a difference when it’s removed for a while and then reintroduced in a structured way.

The removal has a beginning and a plan. After a few weeks, reintroduction shows clearly what your own body tolerates. And if celiac disease is suspected, testing happens before you remove gluten, because afterward the results are no longer reliable.

5. Are There Fermented Foods?

Sauerkraut, kimchi, water kefir. In a small clinical study in healthy adults, ten weeks of eating more fermented foods was linked to greater microbiome diversity and lower levels of several inflammatory markers [4]. If one of them makes you bloated, start with a very small amount or leave it for later.

Your Plate Is Not the Only Piece

You can eat very well and sleep five hours. Or follow an excellent meal plan with stress that rarely lets you go. Your body “reads” all of it together.

• Sleep: consistent hours and enough of them are some of the most underrated “anti-inflammatory” tools.
• Movement: regular, at an intensity that suits you and that you recover from.
• Chronic stress: when your nervous system is stuck on high alert, small pauses during the day matter more than we think.
• Alcohol and smoking: the less, the better.

When the General Approach Isn’t Enough

An anti-inflammatory diet is a very good foundation for most people. But it isn’t a personalized plan. Sometimes something more specific is needed:

• when bloating or abdominal pain persist despite the changes — it may be worth looking into, for example, bacterial overgrowth (SIBO),
• when you’ve removed gluten and still have symptoms,
• when certain foods seem to bother you and you want to understand how allergy, intolerance and sensitivity differ,
• when there’s a diagnosed autoimmune or other chronic condition.

How to Start Without Changing Everything

The most common pattern is waiting for the “perfect” Monday, starting with ten new rules, and dropping them by Thursday. We prefer the opposite. This week:

1. Add before you remove. One extra vegetable or legume in one meal a day.
2. Change your main fat. Extra virgin olive oil for cooking and salads.
3. Start the removal with one food. For example, your daily bread or cheese. Find a replacement you genuinely enjoy, and next week move on to the next one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you remove gluten and dairy for almost everyone?

Because in practice we see that many people feel a difference when they remove them, often without having suspected they were a burden. It’s a structured trial: we remove them for a few weeks, watch what changes in digestion, energy and symptoms, and then reintroduction shows what suits you. If celiac disease is suspected, testing happens before the removal.

Where do I get calcium without dairy?

From sardines and anchovies eaten with their bones, tahini and sesame, almonds, legumes, vegetables like broccoli and kale, and calcium-fortified plant milks. With some variety across the week, covering your needs without dairy is realistic.

What do I eat for breakfast on an anti-inflammatory diet?

A few simple ideas: gluten-free oats with a plant milk, seasonal fruit, walnuts and ground flaxseed, or eggs with vegetables and avocado. What they have in common is protein, fiber and a good fat.

Can I measure inflammation with a test?

There are markers, like high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP), that give an indication. But they don’t tell you where the inflammation comes from, and they’re affected by many factors, such as a recent virus. That’s why we read them together with your history and the rest of the picture.

Do supplements like curcumin or omega-3s help?

They’ve been studied and have a place in some cases. But they don’t replace the overall eating pattern, and the choice, dose and duration depend on the person. If you take medication, especially blood thinners, talk to your doctor first.

How long until I notice a difference?

There’s no single timeline for everyone. Some people notice changes in digestion or energy within a few weeks of consistent changes, others later. The most useful thing is to observe yourself: sleep, energy, digestion, mood.

Conclusion

An anti-inflammatory diet isn’t another trendy diet. It’s a pattern you build gradually: more plant variety, good fats, less sugar and ultra-processed food, a period without gluten and dairy, and sleep and movement that suit you.

Small changes that last are worth more than big changes that don’t.