Inflammatory markers can double within six hours of eating a pro-inflammatory meal. Which foods are the worst?
Foods That Cause Inflammation
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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Excessive inflammation may play a role in a number of leading causes of death and disability, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. But what are the stimuli that jumpstart the deleterious inflammatory cascade? You typically hear about the pro-inflammatory nature of a chronic high-fat diet, but the inflammatory effect “may not be limited to chronic intake but may be evident after the consumption of a single meal.”
Within hours after eating an unhealthy meal, inflammatory markers like (IL-6), interleukin-6, can skyrocket, doubling within six hours. The majority of studies show an increase in IL-6 after the consumption of a high-fat meal. But the meals they tested weren’t just filled with meat, eggs, dairy, and oil, but also junky refined carbs like white flour and added sugar.
Yes, give people essentially straight butter fat and no carbs, and you can still get a spike in inflammation within hours, proving the added fat itself is pro-inflammatory. But give people straight sugar water without any fat, and you can get the same thing, proving the added sugar is pro-inflammatory too.
Why should we be concerned with the inflammatory responses after unhealthy meal ingestion? Because substantial research points to the notion that persistent low-grade inflammation is an underlying factor in several high-mortality chronic diseases, and that diet can contribute to, or attenuate, that inflammation.
You’ll note in this graph that IL-6 levels jumped up to about 3 pg/mL. You start regularly getting up to levels of about 3 pg/mL, and that’s associated with twice the risk of death. That increased risk was found across the board, compiling eight other similar studies, likely because it’s linked with increased risk of heart disease, the #1 killer of men and women, even about as strongly as some other major established risk factors like high cholesterol.
Now, not all high-fat foods cause inflammation. More than a dozen studies combined show that whole plant foods such as nuts do not increase inflammatory markers, even eating up to handfuls of nuts a day. In fact, spread half an avocado on a beef burger, and you may be able to blunt some of the inflammation caused by the meat—even lean meat.
There are reviews purporting to show a drop in inflammatory markers after eating wild game, which is about as lean a meat as you can get, but that’s only compared to store-bought meat. Give people some really fatty meat, and their IL-6 shoots up, as does their tumor-necrosis factor and C-reactive protein. Inflammatory, inflammatory, inflammatory within hours of it going into your mouth. But what if you instead eat a kangaroo steak, extremely low-fat on the order of elk or moose? What you get is inflammatory, inflammatory, inflammatory, again within hours of it going into your mouth. Now, certainly less inflammatory than conventional meat you might get at the store, but pro-inflammatory nonetheless, increasing markers of inflammation within mere hours.
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- Emerson SR, Kurti SP, Harms CA, et al. Magnitude and timing of the postprandial inflammatory response to a high-fat meal in healthy adults: a systematic review. Adv Nutr. 2017;8(2):213-25.
- Deopurkar R, Ghanim H, Friedman J, et al. Differential effects of cream, glucose, and orange juice on inflammation, endotoxin, and the expression of Toll-like receptor-4 and suppressor of cytokine signaling-3. Diabetes Care. 2010;33(5):991-7.
- Harris TB, Ferrucci L, Tracy RP, et al. Associations of elevated interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein levels with mortality in the elderly. Am J Med. 1999;106(5):506-12.
- Li H, Liu W, Xie J. Circulating interleukin-6 levels and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in the elderly population: A meta-analysis. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2017;73:257-62.
- Danesh J, Kaptoge S, Mann AG, et al. Long-term interleukin-6 levels and subsequent risk of coronary heart disease: two new prospective studies and a systematic review. PLoS Med. 2008;5(4):e78.
- Neale EP, Tapsell LC, Guan V, Batterham MJ. The effect of nut consumption on markers of inflammation and endothelial function: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ Open. 2017;7(11):e016863.
- Chen C-YO, Holbrook M, Duess M-A, et al. Effect of almond consumption on vascular function in patients with coronary artery disease: a randomized, controlled, cross-over trial. Nutr J. 2015;14:61.
- Li Z, Wong A, Henning SM, et al. Hass avocado modulates postprandial vascular reactivity and postprandial inflammatory responses to a hamburger meal in healthy volunteers. Food Funct. 2013;4(3):384-91.
- Haskins CP, Henderson G, Champ CE. Meat, eggs, full-fat dairy, and nutritional boogeymen: Does the way in which animals are raised affect health differently in humans? Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2019;59(17):2709-19.
- Arya F, Egger S, Colquhoun D, Sullivan D, Pal S, Egger G. Differences in postprandial inflammatory responses to a “modern” v. traditional meat meal: a preliminary study. Br J Nutr. 2010;104(5):724-8.
Motion graphics by Avo Media
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Excessive inflammation may play a role in a number of leading causes of death and disability, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. But what are the stimuli that jumpstart the deleterious inflammatory cascade? You typically hear about the pro-inflammatory nature of a chronic high-fat diet, but the inflammatory effect “may not be limited to chronic intake but may be evident after the consumption of a single meal.”
Within hours after eating an unhealthy meal, inflammatory markers like (IL-6), interleukin-6, can skyrocket, doubling within six hours. The majority of studies show an increase in IL-6 after the consumption of a high-fat meal. But the meals they tested weren’t just filled with meat, eggs, dairy, and oil, but also junky refined carbs like white flour and added sugar.
Yes, give people essentially straight butter fat and no carbs, and you can still get a spike in inflammation within hours, proving the added fat itself is pro-inflammatory. But give people straight sugar water without any fat, and you can get the same thing, proving the added sugar is pro-inflammatory too.
Why should we be concerned with the inflammatory responses after unhealthy meal ingestion? Because substantial research points to the notion that persistent low-grade inflammation is an underlying factor in several high-mortality chronic diseases, and that diet can contribute to, or attenuate, that inflammation.
You’ll note in this graph that IL-6 levels jumped up to about 3 pg/mL. You start regularly getting up to levels of about 3 pg/mL, and that’s associated with twice the risk of death. That increased risk was found across the board, compiling eight other similar studies, likely because it’s linked with increased risk of heart disease, the #1 killer of men and women, even about as strongly as some other major established risk factors like high cholesterol.
Now, not all high-fat foods cause inflammation. More than a dozen studies combined show that whole plant foods such as nuts do not increase inflammatory markers, even eating up to handfuls of nuts a day. In fact, spread half an avocado on a beef burger, and you may be able to blunt some of the inflammation caused by the meat—even lean meat.
There are reviews purporting to show a drop in inflammatory markers after eating wild game, which is about as lean a meat as you can get, but that’s only compared to store-bought meat. Give people some really fatty meat, and their IL-6 shoots up, as does their tumor-necrosis factor and C-reactive protein. Inflammatory, inflammatory, inflammatory within hours of it going into your mouth. But what if you instead eat a kangaroo steak, extremely low-fat on the order of elk or moose? What you get is inflammatory, inflammatory, inflammatory, again within hours of it going into your mouth. Now, certainly less inflammatory than conventional meat you might get at the store, but pro-inflammatory nonetheless, increasing markers of inflammation within mere hours.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Emerson SR, Kurti SP, Harms CA, et al. Magnitude and timing of the postprandial inflammatory response to a high-fat meal in healthy adults: a systematic review. Adv Nutr. 2017;8(2):213-25.
- Deopurkar R, Ghanim H, Friedman J, et al. Differential effects of cream, glucose, and orange juice on inflammation, endotoxin, and the expression of Toll-like receptor-4 and suppressor of cytokine signaling-3. Diabetes Care. 2010;33(5):991-7.
- Harris TB, Ferrucci L, Tracy RP, et al. Associations of elevated interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein levels with mortality in the elderly. Am J Med. 1999;106(5):506-12.
- Li H, Liu W, Xie J. Circulating interleukin-6 levels and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in the elderly population: A meta-analysis. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2017;73:257-62.
- Danesh J, Kaptoge S, Mann AG, et al. Long-term interleukin-6 levels and subsequent risk of coronary heart disease: two new prospective studies and a systematic review. PLoS Med. 2008;5(4):e78.
- Neale EP, Tapsell LC, Guan V, Batterham MJ. The effect of nut consumption on markers of inflammation and endothelial function: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ Open. 2017;7(11):e016863.
- Chen C-YO, Holbrook M, Duess M-A, et al. Effect of almond consumption on vascular function in patients with coronary artery disease: a randomized, controlled, cross-over trial. Nutr J. 2015;14:61.
- Li Z, Wong A, Henning SM, et al. Hass avocado modulates postprandial vascular reactivity and postprandial inflammatory responses to a hamburger meal in healthy volunteers. Food Funct. 2013;4(3):384-91.
- Haskins CP, Henderson G, Champ CE. Meat, eggs, full-fat dairy, and nutritional boogeymen: Does the way in which animals are raised affect health differently in humans? Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2019;59(17):2709-19.
- Arya F, Egger S, Colquhoun D, Sullivan D, Pal S, Egger G. Differences in postprandial inflammatory responses to a “modern” v. traditional meat meal: a preliminary study. Br J Nutr. 2010;104(5):724-8.
Motion graphics by Avo Media
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Foods That Cause Inflammation
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
Stay tuned for Which Foods Are Anti-Inflammatory?–up next.
For more on diet and inflammation, see:
- Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Depression
- Speeding Recovery from Surgery with Turmeric
- Which Spices Fight Inflammation?
- Dietary Treatment for Painful Menstrual Periods
- The Effects of Avocados and Red Wine on Meal-Induced Inflammation
- Best Food to Counter the Effects of Air Pollution
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