pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory foods

[CleverKnot]

I had a lot of health issues in my 20s with tendonitis (and was 1st time my back went). Which seems like an "inflammatory" condition. Then my back went out the other day (woe is me...) and I got to thinking if my diet is still too "pro-inflammatory".

The most cited scientific studies I can find is Tabung 2015/2016. That says these foods are (most to least)

pro-inflammatory: Refined grains, sugary drinks, processed meat, red meat, diet sodas, tomatoes, organ meat, other vegetables, other fish

anti-inflammatory: coffee, wine, leafy green veg, beer, dark yellow veg, pizza, snacks, fruit juice, tea

That wasn't what I expected. Plus it's not consistent. Pizza is usually refined grains and has tomatoes in it.

The other big study I found is Shivapapa. They don't organise the list so easy, but roughly,

pro-inflamma: higher fat, saturated fat, higher calories, trans-fats (and others)

anti-inflamm: high fibre, green/black tea, beta-carotene, ginger, garlic, flavinoids, omega-3, onions, alcohol, caffeine (and others)

I'm not sure if there is better scientific evidence out there.

How would you decide which foods are "pro" or "anti" inflammatory?

I don't know but I have an inflammatory disease and I love coffee which I always thought was a big 'no-no' so I am overjoyed to see it on the anti-inflammatory list. Thank you!

Everything in moderation tbh.

The latest research seems to say work on your gut microbiome to reduce inflammation.
Feed it with a variety of veg, nuts, herbs, and probiotic foods

That's a weird study in the sense it raises a lot of questions.

It is pretty much guessing that fish is 'proinflammatory' because it's being deep fried in trans fats. Well is it or isn't it?

And the pizza puzzle:

'Tomato paste contains 2.5- to 4-fold higher bioavailable lycopene than fresh tomatoes, and lycopene has shown anti-inflammatory properties, which could explain the inverse association of pizza with inflammatory markers.'

(The portion amount was 'two slices', size not given.)

Personally I don't find it helpful, especially the TNF-a assumptions.

I have inflamatory health issues and completely agree that the information available is very confusing.

I have decided that eating a diet that is high in green vegetables and low in processed foods is about the best I can do. I think it is bad to exclude any food group completely, but best to eat food that is as close to nature as possible. I definitely feel worse when I eat fast food or snacks.

There are one or two exceptions: Raw tomatoes cause pain and inflamation in my joints and bananas also seem to be an issue for me.

Sorry I am only just getting back to this.
Thanks for replies.

I found a big study, syst review, which reckoned tomatoes aren't inflammatory. And I keep finding lots of big studies like that (synthesis of many other studies) which basically end up saying nothing at all is consistently inflammatory food stuff. The microbiome claim seems to be based on what happens during no more than 6 hours after you eat... well, exercise also increases IL-6 in 1st few hours after you exercise, yet exercise is considered to be generally an anti-inflammatory habit, because it releases "good" IL6 not bad IL6.

It'd be hilarious if it wasn't all such completely useless information. Some examples below. Honestly, I'm going to use much less disputed info to make any decisions.

Beans are inflammatory but maybe legumes are not.
Low fat diets may be anti-inflamm but only if you actually lose weight on them.
Vegetarian diet wins.
The claims about saturated fat get very distorted with weird assumptions about replacement calorie sources.
Asseem Malhotra: isn't the guy determined to claim his dad was killed by covid vaccine clogging up his arteries?

Pah.

I’m thrilled beer is anti inflammatory! But I agree Op it is confusing and inflammation can wreak havoc. There’s so many studies now about how it can lead to cancer/dementia and so on.
you’d think the info would be more widely available and easier to understand. I was listening to a podcast the other day, and this dr was saying 70% of illness (this was in America) could be avoided with diet.