Indian Foods that cause Inflammation in the body

Inflammation is a common term we hear often, when somebody has body pain or fever. We take it quite casually and just pop in some pills to sort out the inflammation, without bothering about its cause. Inflammation is basically the body’s reaction to some kind of stress, and the good thing is that it indicates that the body is working to overcome the problem. When you get a cold, cough or running nose your body responds with inflammation in the form of a fever that helps you heal. The inflammation does its job, gets rid of the virus and disappears. However, if this inflammation persists, it can indicate or even lead to severe problems.

There are many lifestyle causes for inflammation and one of the main ones is the intake of wrong foods! Processed foods and sugar are amongst the biggest causes of inflammation. Can you believe that inflammation begins within 30 minutes of having sugar and could last up to 4 hours!

Why does sugar cause inflammation?
When we eat excess sugar, the pancreas secretes insulin to move this excess sugar from the blood to our cells. Occasionally, this is okay. But, when the process is repeated over and over again, the cells lose their ability to respond to insulin, leading to insulin resistance. This leads to low-grade body inflammation, and more serious diseases in the long run.

Eat more natural foods
In order to avoid inflammation, have foods that do not spike your insulin levels. Go for foods with more fibre, less or no sugar, and complex carbohydrates that take more time to digest. More natural the foods you eat, the cleaner and safer they are. More of processing means a greater risk. So, avoid using thickening agents like corn flour in your soup. Opt for stir-frying instead of deep-frying. Stay away from store-bought salad dressing and make a simple olive oil dressing at home.

Ensure good health in every meal
Understand what’s good for you, and make these practices a regular habit. For example, make sure you have a healthy breakfast every day. Try a combo of oats and almond milk, as in Oatmeal Almond Milk with Apples or Healthy Vegan Breakfast. If you prefer a desi start to your day, have a go at the Methi Thalipeeth, a Maharashtrian breakfast made of jowar, ragi and bajra.

If you feel hungry between breakfast and lunch, go for a healthy morning snack like fruits, which have low glycemic index (GI). Low GI means that the food will get digested slowly in your stomach and make you feel fuller and healthier. Have an apple, orange or sweet lime. Always have the fruut whole and not as juice, to get more fibre and vitamin C. You could also have some almonds or peanuts. Try the H Homemade Peanut Butter for Weight Loss and Athletes or the Homemade Almond Butter for Weight Loss and Athletes. These are protein-rich and give you a good dose of healthy fat too.

It’s easy to fix a healthy lunch. Even to work, you can carry a delectable lunch salad. Just carry the ingredients and the dressing separately and toss the two together to make a healthy and super tasty lunch salad. Top up on antioxidants with salads like Chawli, Paneer and Veg Healthy Lunch Salad or Rajma Vegetable Healthy Lunch Salad. You can also go for wholesome Indian lunches with dals and subzis. A tasty dal like the Basic Urad Dal Recipe will give you loads of protein and vitamin B, while a healthy subzi like Khumbh Palak tops up your protein and iron reserves.

Evening snack is the most dangerous of all meals! This is when we tend to grab junky foods like deep-fried samosas, spicy bhel, etc. Substitute these with healthy alternatives like Healthy Moong Chaat or Roasted Makhana. Kids can also have something healthy like the Oats Bhel.

For dinner, have super healthy Buckwheat Dosa with protein-rich Sambhar. Go for whole grain or millet-based dosas and idlis rather than the white rice varieties. When you make raitas avoid adding sugar or fried stuff to it. Move to healthy options like the Onion Raita. You can also have a protein-rich paneer subzi like Palak Paneer with awesome Indian rotis like the Jowar Bajra Garlic Roti or Mooli Jowar ki Roti.

Say no to these foods
1. Sugar: Sugar is the biggest culprit in body inflammation as it has zero nutritional value and will just create chaos in your body. It is not easy to abruptly stop sugar but withdraw from it gradually. It will do you a world of good.
2. Milk: Human bodies are not made to digest milk from animals, as it contains a sugar called lactose, which is difficult to digest.
3. Refined carbs: Refined foods are stripped of nutrients and fibre, so steer clear of foods like white rice, maida, pasta and cereals.
4. Alcohol: It has very little nutritional value and high sugar content, which could affect your liver and brain.
5. Artificial sweeteners: Most artificial sweeteners will create long-term weight gain. So, stay away from aerated drinks and other such foods and beverages, which are loaded with such sweeteners.
6. Fried foods: Avoid all fried foods. They will increase you intake of bad fat resulting in all kinds of diseases like blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

We eat most of these foods very frequently, without even giving a second thought to the fact that they can cause inflammation.

45 Common Indian foods that cause inflammation

From today, be aware of the foods that cause inflammation and try to avoid them as much as possible. Eating wise will surely help you bid goodbye to inflammation and its long-term effects!