“If you have formed the habit of checking on every new diet that comes along, you will find that, mercifully, they all blur together, leaving you with only one definite piece of information: french-fried potatoes are out.”

- Jean Kerr

Through social media, newspapers, magazines, and friends and coworkers, we are bombarded daily with advice on how to eat. A new fad diet always gains momentum, promising a solution to all of our health problems. Not surprisingly, our patients often have specific questions about these popular diets. This tool for your practice offers basic information about a number of noteworthy diets, along with relevant research.

Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Like other healthy diets, the anti-inflammatory diet encourages eating whole foods, healthy fats (particularly omega-3 fats), and whole grains. The diet also recommends minimizing pro-inflammatory foods such as red meats, processed/boxed foods, and dairy fats. Evidence suggests that an anti-inflammatory diet reduces the risk of disease, such as cancer,¹ cardiovascular disease,² and asthma.³ Studies also show positive results for chronic pain,⁴ inflammatory bowel disease,⁵ and osteoporosis.⁶ Future research is expected to show improvement for autoimmune diseases as well. For more information see “The Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle” handout.

Summary: This diet is a useful adjunct treatment for chronic diseases but can also be used as a general dietary recommendation due to reduction in cancer and cardiovascular risk.

Elimination Diet

The elimination diet involves journaling food intake, watching for a correlation between foods and unwanted symptoms, and then removing possible culprits from the diet for a set period of time, usually 2-3 weeks. Foods are then reintroduced into the diet systematically to see if symptoms recur. For example, one food may be added back every three days to see if it triggers symptoms. This information is then used to create a new eating pattern. There has been positive research for the elimination diet for rheumatoid arthritis,⁷ irritable bowel syndrome (IBS),⁸ migraines,⁹ atopic dermatitis,¹⁰, ADHD,¹¹ and other diagnoses. For more information, see the “Elimination Diets” handout.