Today, I am starting a special series about how to tamp down inflammation with anti-inflammatory foods, beverages, and herbs. In this first video of the series, I talk about the 5 most surprising anti-inflammatory foods.

If you’re tired of being told you need to eat your greens and berries, you’ll love these foods. Not only are they delicious, but they also help reduce inflammation in our bodies.

Watch the 5 Most Surprising Anti-Inflammatory Foods video

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Table of Contents

Why Do We Want to Reduce Inflammation?

Tamping down on inflammation is important because inflammation causes damage in our bodies, and this cellular damage can open the door to disease. The less inflammation we have in our bodies, the better.

Note that we need the ability to react to some inflammation, which is our body’s response to trauma. For example, if you cut your finger, your body rushes in to stop the bleeding and begin the healing process. That’s a healthy part of our body’s defenses. However, you don’t want inflammation raging through your body 24/7. And that’s where tamping down on unnecessary inflammation is essential.

Disclaimer

Note: I am not a doctor or medical professional. This information is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to treat or diagnose any type of illness. If you are not feeling well, please seek professional medical attention and medicine. And if you are thinking of supplementing your treatment with home remedies, be sure to talk to your medical professional about them. It’s important that you get the medicine and treatments you need to get back to good health.

List of the 5 Surprising Anti-Inflammatory Foods

We often hear about the importance of eating green leafy vegetables and colorful berries to improve our health; there is nothing wrong with that. These vegetables and fruits provide us with lots of vitamins, minerals, and fiber to help our bodies tamp down inflammation.

However, if you want to make significant strides in improving your dietary health, nutrient-dense foods will give you the biggest return on what you eat. These foods give you vitamins and minerals and bolster your body’s ability to reduce inflammation by improving your digestive health and helping you to better absorb the nutrients from all the food you eat.

The 5 Surprising Anti-Inflammatory Foods

  1. Butter from Grass-Fed Cows
  2. Meat and Poultry from Pastured Animals
  3. Naturally Fermented Vegetables
  4. Cultured Dairy
  5. Sourdough Spelt Bread and Sprouted Flour Bread

Note that you can make many of these anti-inflammatory foods at home, and I show you how with the recipe videos highlighted in this blog post. However, in my anti-inflammatory foods video and this blog post, I focus on foods you can get at your grocery store if you don’t have time to make the recipe or if you are still at the beginning of your traditional foods journey. You’ll see some product examples in this blog post, and you’ll find many more in today’s video.

Are you surprised by number one on our anti-inflammatory foods list—grass-fed butter? Yes, you saw that right. This delicious creamy delight is packed with nutrients that help reduce inflammation in the body. So, let’s dive in and learn more about this amazing food.

Update: I published the second video in this anti-inflammatory series: 5 Most Surprising Anti-Inflammatory Drinks.

What Makes Grass-Fed Butter Special?

Grass-fed butter is made from the milk of cows that graze on pasture. Unlike conventional butter, which comes from cows fed a diet primarily consisting of grains, grass-fed butter boasts a richer nutritional profile. This type of butter contains higher levels of beneficial compounds, including:

Each of these substances plays a significant role in reducing inflammation.

What Are Omega-3 Fatty Acids?

Omega-3 fatty acids, often called Omega-3s, are a specific type of fat found in almost every cell in the body. Fat is an essential nutrient that’s part of our nutrition. These Omega-3 fatty acids can reduce the risk of blood clotting and reduce inflammation, among many other benefits.

What is Conjugated Linoleic Acid?

Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is a type of fatty acid found in grass-fed butter. Studies have shown that CLA has potent anti-inflammatory properties, and scientific research indicates that CLA can help inhibit inflammatory markers in the body. This means that incorporating grass-fed butter into your diet could help you manage inflammation more effectively.

What Is Butyric Acid?

Butyric acid is another beneficial compound found in grass-fed butter. This short-chain fatty acid is known for its positive effects on gut health. It can significantly reduce intestinal inflammation and improve gut barrier function, which is particularly important for those suffering from conditions like Crohn’s disease or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Meat and Poultry from Pastured Animals

Can eating red meat and chicken help reduce inflammation in our bodies? It seems counterintuitive to all we have been told! However, it makes a difference if the meat and poultry we consume are from pastured animals since these grass-fed animals have a different biochemistry from those raised in confinement and fed grain.

Similar to all we have learned about butter, the same holds true for the meat of pastured animals. When animals are allowed to forage, their meat has a higher percentage of Omega-3’s and CLA. As we discussed earlier, these fatty acids provide a whole host of benefits when consumed by humans.

Naturally Fermented Vegetables

To make naturally fermented vegetables, you simply need to submerge your vegetables into a salty brine and allow them to ferment—in essence, “brew”—over the course of a few days to a few weeks or even a few months. Thanks to the naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria on the vegetables, the fermentation process creates an end product that is rich in probiotics—good bacteria—which are excellent at improving or maintaining good digestive health.

However, recent research indicates that fermented vegetables may also tamp down inflammation. This finding isn’t surprising because when probiotics improve gut health, our bodies are better able to absorb the nutrients from the foods we eat. Proper nutritional absorption is important for overall health. And when we are healthy, we are less likely to have a body in a state of inflammation.

Making Fermented Vegetables at Home

An example of this fermentation process is when you chop up cabbage, put it in a jar, fill the jar with a saltwater brine, and allow the cabbage to turn into probiotic-rich sauerkraut.

Although fermented vegetables, in one form or another, are available at most grocery stores, they can be costly. The good news is that they are easy and affordable to make at home. In this recipe video, I show you how to make sauerkraut, a staple of the traditional foods kitchen.

More Fermented Vegetable Recipes

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Cultured Dairy

Dairy inoculated with various types of good bacteria and then fermented creates a variety of cultured dairy foods, such as kefir. Although the present research is still in its infancy, cultured dairy products, like yogurt, may play a role in easing inflammation.

As with butter, cultured dairy made from the milk and cream of animals raised on pasture is high in omega-3 fatty acids and CLA and, specifically, in the case of the cream, butyric acid. As we previously discussed, research has associated these nutrients with easing inflammation.

Making Cultured Dairy at Home

Although you can get a variety of forms of cultured dairy at your local grocery store, the best products richest in nutrients, are going to be the ones you make at home. For example, it’s very easy to make homemade yogurt, and I show you how with just a bowl. No machine required!

More Cultured Dairy Recipes

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Sourdough Spelt Bread and Sprouted Flour Bread

As traditional foods cooks know, there has been a huge interest in making sourdough starter and sourdough bread. And with its widespread popularity, scientists started investigating why people were drawn to sourdough bread. Their research revealed that people could digest sourdough bread more easily than traditionally made bread.

However, their research also revealed something very surprising. Scientists discovered that sourdough bread made from Spelt, one of the ancient grains, had anti-inflammatory properties!

Marys Nest Foolproof Spelt Sourdough Bread Recipe

Making Sourdough Spelt Bread at Home

Once you master creating a sourdough starter, the next step is easy. You can use that starter to make a variety of sourdough breads. So be sure to add Sourdough Spelt Bread to your repertoire for its anti-inflammatory properties!

Making Sprouted Flour Bread at Home

I have a very detailed video for you in which I show you how to soak grain, sprout it, dry it, and mill it into sprouted flour. It is a bit of a labor of love, but it is well worth it. You’ll find it considerably more cost-effective than buying sprouted flour bread.

However, if you don’t have the opportunity to make Sourdough Spelt Bread or make baked goods with sprouted flour, you can get sprouted breads from your local supermarket. In my anti-inflammatory foods video, I show you an Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin Sprouted Grain Bread that I found in the freezer section of my grocery store.

Anti-Inflammatory Series

Stay tuned for the next post in this series on the 5 Most Surprising Anti-Inflammatory Beverages. We’ll be exploring nutritious and refreshing beverage options to help you on your journey to better health.

You can get notified when I publish the next video and blog post in this series by:

Learn More About Traditional Foods

If you’re looking for a printed book full of my traditional foods recipes that shows you how to create a traditional foods kitchen, be sure to order your copy of my new bestselling book, The Modern Pioneer Cookbook.

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Seasonal ingredients, traditional techniques, and nourishing recipes. Over 85 traditional, from-scratch recipes! Discover for yourself how you can use simple ingredients and traditional techniques to cook the modern pioneer way.

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Looking for Meat from Pastured Animals?

If you can’t find pastured meats in your neighborhood supermarket or farmer’s market, check out US Wellness Meats for grass-fed beef and free-range chickens.

This post is not sponsored. I’m a long-time customer of US Wellness Meats because I have always been impressed by the quality of their products. Check out my US Wellness Meats unboxing video to see the types of products you can get, including bones for beef bone broth!

Mary with a US Wellness Meats shipping box.

Grind Your Own Flour with the Mockmill

When it comes to electric grain mills, after I did A LOT of research, I decided to buy a Mockmill. And am I so happy I did! The Mockmill is a very affordable but beautifully crafted German-made mill that stone grinds grain with settings ranging from 1 to 10—fine to coarse ground grain. You can use your Mockmill to turn your Spelt whole grain into flour.

Learn more about Mockmill electric grain mills for making fresh flour and their Flake Lover’s Flaker that flakes whole grain in minutes. (This is not a sponsored post, I bought the Mockmill products that I show you, and I’m a happy user of their devices in my kitchen.)

Masontops Mason Jar Fermentation Kit Discount Coupon

Although you don’t need any special equipment to start making ferments, the Masontops kit can help you simplify the process and enable you to create your ferment successfully. In my Masontops unboxing video, I show you my Masontops Complete Mason Jar Fermentation Kit and go over everything the kit includes, and you can use your Masontops equipment to make homemade fermented vegetables.

Masontops Unboxing Review YouTube

Cultures for Health

If you’re looking for starter cultures from Milk Kefir to Cheese, see the products that Cultures for Health offers for making homemade cultured and fermented foods. And if you order from their website, be sure to use my MARYSNEST discount code for 15% off your purchase. You’ll find products to help you make cultured dairy.

  • Cultures for Health – Make Real Cultured Foods at Home and use discount code MARYSNEST for 15% off your purchase on the Cultures for Health website.

Download Your Free 36-Page Pantry List

For an extensive list of the traditional foods you can make and purchase to stock your pantry, be sure to download my free 36-page Traditional Foods Pantry List. This comprehensive eBook is full of links to recipe videos, helpful articles, and more!

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Disclaimer:I am not a medical doctor, a medical professional, a dietician, or a nutritionist. All content found on the MarysNest.com website, including text, images, videos, eBooks or eGuides, social media, or other formats, were created solely for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or proper nutritional advice. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have watched in a video or read on this website. Use caution when following the recipe in this video. The creator and publisher of this video and website will not be held responsible for any adverse effects that may arise from the use of this recipe and method or any other recipe and method on this website or corresponding video channel.

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