Anti-Inflammatory Diet Linked to Reduced Risk of Early Death

By Sondra Forsyth

Adhering to an anti-inflammatory diet was associated with lower risks of dying from any cause, dying from cardiovascular causes, and dying from cancer in a study published in September 2018 in Journal of Internal Medicine.

A release from the publisher notes that in the study of 68,273 Swedish men and women aged 45 to 83 years who were followed for 16 years, participants who most closely followed an anti-inflammatory diet had an 18% lower risk of all-cause mortality, a 20% lower risk of cardiovascular mortality, and a 13% lower risk of cancer mortality, when compared with those who followed the diet to a lesser degree. Smokers who followed the diet experienced even greater benefits when compared with smokers who did not follow the diet.

Anti-inflammatory foods consist of fruits and vegetables, tea, coffee, whole grain bread, breakfast cereal, low-fat cheese, olive oil and canola oil, nuts, chocolate, and moderate amounts of red wine and beer. Pro-inflammatory foods include unprocessed and processed red meat, organ meats, chips, and soft-drink beverages.

The release quotes lead author Dr. Joanna Kaluza, an associate professor at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, in Poland as saying, “Our dose-response analysis showed that even partial adherence to the anti-inflammatory diet may provide a health benefit.”