Anti-inflammatory diet
 

Arthritus, diabetes, visceral fat are all related to inflammation. So I've been researching and trying an anti-inflammatory diet. Some of it is easy. Other parts not so much. I've always leaned toward cooking from scratch. This makes it easier.

One of the hard parts is avoiding "artificial" because I can't eat sugar and want sweet now and then. As in coffee.

I have less body pain when I stay on it.

I have a terrible sweet tooth, always have. I want to eat all the sugars and carbs and breads and pasta and on and on, but it is not good for my body, especially my blood glucose but also inflammatory type stuff. Husband feels on his ketovore eating that what inflammation issues he was having before are gone now.

TMI: I had a long period of terrible awful digestive issues, and that was after the post gall-bladder issues that lasted for years. My general doctor suggested that I try a no artificial anything diet for awhile, but particularly no artificial sweeteners of any sorts. At the same time, my sleep doctor had me go off caffeine for a year. LOL and I was eating super low carb and all in all -- that was a miserable year. But the no artificial sweeteners took care of the gut biome and stopped the constant rumbling and diarrhea. With my biome protected, I can now handle a can or two of soda a day which is a treat for me, but if I go past that my innards start protesting again.

We have both found that we can tolerate the sugar alcohol sweeteners. Is sort of a misleading term, is chemical composition -- there is no alcohol in them as we think of it. In Seattle it was pretty easy to get Coffee Syrups, here in Peoria not so much. We order a couple times a year from Skinny Syrups. The "simple syrup" is basic sugar flavor. We use them in coffee, we use them with carbonated water (we are thinking of getting a Soda Stream sort of thing), I'll even do a little squirt of something like English Toffee on my oatmeal!
https://www.skinnymixes.com/collecti...y-mixes-syrups

Yikes! Shipping is $12.95!

Especially if you have Amazon Prime it might be a lot easier/cost effective to try a bottle that way. A local "discount freight" merchandise place often has them in stock there -- no cheap price, still the $7.99 or whatever a bottle is now. HomeGoods often has them. Tuesday Mornings (since closed) was another non-shipping source for us. I think we started buying at discount price of 3.99 and regular of 5.99 -- long ago enough to get hooked on it.

We order by the case or whatever the current deal is for free shipping. With rising prices, it isn't quite as painless a thing as it was before, but now we have a couple of neighbors hooked on their own special flavors and we know what we like and how much we go through, so it is a couple cases per year. It used to be buy 12 bottles for the price of 10 and get free shipping but those days are gone...

I decided a picture is worth a 1000 words so this is an almost live shot of the coffee corner. We don't have many guests but there have been a couple "never would have guessed you were from Seattle" comments :p We typically have at least 4 bottles open, the picture is just the coffee corner, on the other side of the sink is my tea stuff and Simple Syrup and Chai over there. Hubby usually has Vanilla Carmel Creme, he also uses it to fix his keto friendly whipped cream he freezes for ice cream. There is also Chocolate Truffle for coffee, and a Candy Apple for soda water.

Here is what I use and it only takes one to two drops, Zero-Cal Liquid Sweetener .4 Drops = 1 Tablespoon of Sugar my last order of the two bottle pack was Jan 2023. That is how long it lasts for me. I still have 1/4 bottle left. I buy it from Amazon.

I had a long period of terrible awful digestive issues, and that was after the post gall-bladder issues that lasted for years.

I had my gall bladder removed and the surgeon at my post op visit told me to take an enzyme like Beano before each meal and that will help with digestive issues. I could tell the difference when I didn't take one before a meal.

I did an anti inflammatory diet for years. Now I do a modified one. One of things the nutritionist I worked with told me about was coconut sugar. It's lower on the glycemic index. I also use the Minimalist Baker website. She has great recipes that are very healthy. You can search by different parameters, like gluten free, vegan, dairy free and other things which makes it nice and she uses healthy ingredients with few artificial ingredients. Those might help you.

Forks Over Knives has an article about sweetners in Fall 2025. Date (paste, sugar and syrup) are given favorable reviews. Think I'll try the syrup (it's already in my cupboard).

PS. The article includes information on nutrition, sweetening strength, color/appearance, baking properties, etc.

Thanks for the website.

pet- thanks for bringing this important topic up. I believe we are a nation inflamed. And everyone, thanks for the links. I want to see a functional medicine doctor. My anxiety is surely in part due to inflammation, at least it seems so.

I'm sure it is, Susie. When my food sensitivities were bad and I did have inflammation, I had sort of random anxiety for no reason at all. That has changed since I've gotten on a diet that limits my reactions to food.

We are definitely a nation inflamed. Processed foods cause inflammation and a lot of other problems. They also aggravate a lot of current problems. I use a functional medicine doctor and she's awesome. She's expensive and medicare and insurance doesn't cover my functional medicine visits with her, but it's worth it. She's the one that figured out what was causing my food sensitivities and thus how to treat them. I love her!