Chronic Inflammation - It’s Everywhere
Literally. Like Everywhere. These are just a few of the magazines I’ve picked up since the beginning of the year that focus on chronic inflammation - and they all contain information and suggestions as to how to reduce inflammation and calm the raging beast.
But the one thing that they all have in common? That what you eat plays a huge part in how you feel and can actually help counteract chronic systemic inflammation. You can read my post “Fight Inflammation With The Foods You Eat” to gain a better understanding of how and why your diet is a huge contributing factor. There are so many whole foods that are natural anti-inflammatories. And most of them are super easy to incorporate into your diet on a daily basis!
All of these magazines (along with Prevention’s 28-Day Anti-Inflammatory Diet) do a really good job of explaining chronic inflammation and the impact it can have on your daily life. Each of them give suggestions for actions you can take to get on the right track, and provide easy to implement recipes you can try.
One of these magazines even includes a 2 week meal plan for kick-starting your future of anti-inflammatory eating. This Clean Eating Special Edition was actually published in 2020. It was so popular, it was reissued this year. You can grab a copy of the original issue on Amazon by clicking the button below.
Along with more than 50 anti-inflammatory recipes, the editors cover recommendations for lifestyle changes, talk about phytochemicals (which are found in plant-based foods), and provide some pretty solid advice to combat inflammation.
So I decided to give a few of the recipes from their 2-week reboot regimen a try - before jumping into the whole program. First up - Lemon Chia Donuts. I chose these for 2 reasons - one, I love to bake and two, I had all the ingredients in my pantry/fridge. Note - the magazine photo looks way prettier than mine. LOL
The first thing I noticed was how yellow the batter turned out. Now granted, the recipe calls for almond flour and coconut flour (both of which have a slightly pale gold hue) and includes both lemon zest and lemon juice. Based on that, I’m not at all sure why I was surprised to see the batter this color. LOL
The batter also turned out a little drier and lumpier that I expected. By the way - if you don’t yet have a donut pan, be sure to get one. I’ve had this Wilson Donut Pan for years - ever since I started baking the Barefoot Contessa’s cinnamon donuts. You can find the pan on Amazon, along with the Barefoot Contessa’s Foolproof cookbook where you can find her baked cinnamon donut recipe.
These donuts baked perfectly in the amount of time called for in the recipe, and other than my glaze turning out red instead of pink, they came out pretty close to what I expected. They tasted very much like a lemon poppyseed muffin but were drier than what I would’ve liked.
Next up Asian Chicken Stir-Fry. Now I’ve done stir-fry quite a bit and this recipe isn’t much different than ones I’ve followed before. It calls for coconut aminos instead of soy sauce or Tamari sauce, and is served over steamed cauliflower rice instead of brown or white rice.
You start with chopped broccoli, red peppers and scallions. The sauce is coconut aminos, rice vinegar, arrowroot starch, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes. Have to tell you I doubled the amount of sauce called for - it just seemed that there wasn’t enough to coat all the veggies and chicken.
Everything gets sautéed in avocado oil (chicken separately), then combined with the sauce. Serve over cauliflower rice and you’re done. I was a little concerned about no salt and pepper being included in the recipe. But the red pepper flakes replaced the black pepper and additional salt wasn’t necessary. Verdict: Just as good as what you can get out. Woo hoo!
In the coming weeks I plan on trying a few more of the recipes featured in this special edition of Clean Eating. And I think I’ll take a really close look at Prevention’s 28-Day Anti-Inflammatory Diet. I’ll keep you posted!
And if you want to learn more about certain whole foods that are anti-inflammatory and really good for you, grab my FREE downloadable PDF guide to 24 Inflammation Fighting Foods You Can Grow Yourself. Even if you don’t grow them yourself, you’ll know what to look for at your favorite grocery or market
