Almost six in 10 Americans have a proinflammatory diet

Key takeaways:

• Over half of the study sample had a proinflammatory diet.
• Interventions like adding more garlic, ginger or black tea can help shift toward an anti-inflammatory diet, a researcher said.

Most Americans have diets heavily associated with inflammation, according to a study published in Public Health Nutrition.

Findings from the cross-sectional analysis showed that proinflammatory diets are especially prevalent in certain subpopulations, including young adults, non-Hispanic Black adults and those with lower education or income.

According to background information from Harvard University, foods that can cause inflammation can include fried foods like French fries, soda and other sweetened beverages, refined carbohydrates and processed meat.

Meanwhile, chronic inflammation can lead to the development and progression of several chronic diseases, according to Rachel J. Meadows, PHD, a visiting faculty member at The Ohio State University School of Public Health, and colleagues.

“[I]nflammation is an important element to consider and the overall balance of diet is most important,” Meadows said in a press release. “Even if you’re eating enough fruits or vegetables, if you’re having too much alcohol or red meat, then your overall diet can still be proinflammatory.”

In the analysis, the researchers used the dietary inflammatory index — an assessment tool that characterizes inflammation using 45 dietary components — to evaluate the diets of 34,547 adults aged 20 years and older from the 2005 to 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

They found that 57% of the adults had index scores indicative of a proinflammatory diet.

“That number was higher for Black Americans, men, younger adults and people with lower education and income,” Meadows said in the release.

Only 34% showed scores indicative of an anti-inflammatory diet, whereas 9% had a neutral inflammatory diet.

Researchers identified multiple study limitations. The study assessed diets through a 24-hour recall, which may be vulnerable to multiple biases and does not show long-term eating patterns or intake.

Additionally, the categorizations of socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity and sex “may not have fully captured the true complexity of these factors,” the researchers wrote.

“For example, binary sex and adult socioeconomic status capture only a portion of the true range that can influence dietary behaviors,” they added.

According to Meadows, there are several dietary changes that can be made to help shift toward a more anti-inflammatory diet.

“There’s a potential here to think about positive interventions, such as adding more garlic, ginger, turmeric and green and black tea — which are all anti-inflammatory — to your diet,” she explained.

Meadows noted that there can be challenges to eating an anti-inflammatory diet, like poor accessibility and costs of fruits and vegetables, while chronic inflammation can also be tied to adverse childhood outcomes and stress.

Ultimately, “there are a lot of factors that contribute to chronic inflammation, and they all interact — even sleep is a key component,” she said. “Diet can be used as a tool to combat.”

References:

• Foods that fight inflammation. Available at: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/foods-that-fight-inflammation. Published March 26, 2024. Accessed Oct. 9, 2024.
• Meadows R, et al. Public Health Nutr. 2024;doi:10.1017/S1368980024001800.
• Study highlights pervasiveness of inflammation in American diet. Available at: https://news.osu.edu/study-highlights-pervasiveness-of-inflammation-in-american-diet/. Published Oct. 1, 2024. Accessed Oct. 9, 2024.