Today we have Dr Jenna back with us – this time to talk about Eating for Inflammation – you might wonder why I have an immunologist here to talk about inflammation – that will become very clear throughout our conversation.
In today’s podcast we talk about inflammation as a concept – why it’s becoming so popular in the medical literature and why it’s so relevant to a host of different medical specialties.
Today we cover the following:
If I was to summarise our conversation in a dietary way of life – it would be the Mediterranean diet. As we alluded to in our conversation, the Mediterranean diet is known to be anti-inflammatory, and now you have an understanding of what we mean by anti-inflammation.
Inflammation isn’t something that we need to radically remove entirely, its use in human biology needs to be understood. But in the context of our modern lifestyles we are usually out of balance.
If you have a copy of my new book – Eat to Beat Illness – make sure you check out the page where I have a diagram looking at what is pro and what is anti-inflammatory in our modern world.
A quote from my conversation with Dr Jenna:
‘What happens if it tumbles over into something that’s not acute – it hangs around and falls below the radar, you don’t get those classic signs of inflammation, you don’t have the redness and swelling and heat, you haven’t got a fever 24/7 but there’s something smouldering below the surface – that’s what we call chronic inflammation’
Dr Jenna Macciochi
If you haven’t listened to the first episode that we recorded with Dr Jenna – Eat for Immunity – I highly recommend that you do. In that episode we go into a little bit about Dr Jenna’s background, where she’s from and how she’s come to this understanding of food, lifestyle blended with the science and why it’s so important for the health and wellbeing of our population.
In summary, the easiest way to have an “anti-inflammatory diet” – is by eating a variety of different coloured fruits and vegetables. Having quality fats from nuts, seeds and fish oils is absolutely key to getting that nice balance of fats that have anti-inflammatory properties.
And as I’ve talked about before, Fibre is also super important from the perspective of inflammation and other medical specialties.
Looking at your stress levels is another key factor in inflammation- we cover this in the podcast with Dr Rangan which I’d highly recommend you listen to. Looking at re-setting your stress levels, particularly in the morning is a very important thing to do and can be really beneficial.
Jenna is an immunologist with a passion for understanding the impact of nutrition and lifestyle on our immune system.
She holds a PhD from the Faculty of Inflammation, Repair & Development at Imperial College London specialising chronic inflammation. Jenna has since held positions at The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine & worked in Biotech specialising allergy and oral immunotherapy. In 2009 Jenna was awarded a Fellowship to combine her personal interests in nutrition with study of the immune system in Switzerland, working on metabolic endotoxemia, post-prandial gut permeability, diet regimens & use of pre/probiotics. Life in Switzerland combined with her research shaped how she lives her life to give her the most energy to live life to the full
Currently a lecturer at the University of Sussex, Jenna teaches undergraduate & postgraduate immunology to medical, pharmacy & biomedical sciences students. Her research focus remains on understanding the role of nutrition & lifestyle on immunity.
A Brighton-based & mother of twins, Jenna is a perpetual culinary experimenter who loves to cook from scratch using sustainable, local & seasonal ingredients. Growing up farm-to-table in rural Scotland, cooking has always been a big part of her life & nurtured her appreciation of food as the foundation of health. With a passion for movement, she is also a trained fitness instructor focusing on pre & post-natal women’s fitness.
Dr Jenna is currently working on a huge passion project and is writing a book all about the immune system: sorting fact from fiction, dispelling myths and with recipes and rituals to improve your immunity and help you adapt & self-manage, cultivating long term health & wellbeing.
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