23rd Feb 2026

Newsletter Monday

Hello Reader,

​This article on the BBC caught my attention this morning.

Not because it was outrageous, but because of the language.

“Anti-inflammatory foods.”

That phrase usually lives quite happily on Instagram next to green powders and discount codes. When the BBC starts using it, you know it has crossed into mainstream thinking.

And to my medical brain, that term has always felt… weighty.

If we are going to call something anti-inflammatory, I want noticeable effects. I want it to behave like a drug. If we’re making a physiological claim, it should earn the title.

Because we all know what anti-inflammatory actually feels like.

You take ibuprofen for a sprained ankle or a throbbing shoulder and within hours you feel the difference. The pain eases. The swelling reduces. There is a tangible effect.

That is what anti-inflammatory means in medicine.

The wording around food subtly implies it can do something similar.

That berries and olive oil are quietly doing the same job as NSAIDs - just more gently.

That is asking food to do something it cannot do.

It’s not the fault of the food. It’s a reflection of the marketing.

What are these magical foods?

So what’s actually being presented as “anti-inflammatory”?

• Vegetables.
• Fruit.
• Legumes.
• Whole grains.
• Nuts.
• Olive oil.
• Oily fish.

In other words - nutrient-dense, minimally processed food.

The kind of food that looks like it came from the ground, a tree, or the sea.

Nothing exotic. Nothing medicinal.

Just food.

What does the evidence show?

Most research in this area measures markers like CRP - indicators of low-grade inflammation.

Mediterranean-style diets are associated with modest reductions.

But the effect sizes are not dramatic. They are not steroid-level. They are not biologic-therapy level.

What tends to lower those markers most reliably?

• Weight loss.
• Reduced visceral fat.
• Improved insulin sensitivity.
• Better overall metabolic health.

In other words: less physiological stress.

And here’s the important part, what are these diets usually compared to?

• Refined carbohydrates.
• Processed meats.
• Ultra-processed, energy-dense foods.
• Low-fibre, low-nutrient diets eaten in excess.

So when inflammatory markers improve, is the broccoli medicinal?

Or is it simply replacing food that drives metabolic dysfunction?

There is a difference between something being therapeutic… and something being less harmful.

And then there’s the paradox.

People with genuine inflammatory bowel disease - Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis - often have to carefully manage fibre intake.

During flares, high-fibre foods can worsen symptoms. Many require steroids or biologics to control immune-driven inflammation.

If food were powerfully anti-inflammatory in the pharmacological sense, that wouldn’t be the case.

Scale matters.

For most people, so-called anti-inflammatory foods support metabolic health and we all want that.

They reduce the drivers of low-grade inflammation largely by preventing excess fat gain and improving insulin sensitivity.

They displace ultra-processed food.

They do not function like drugs.

They do not meaningfully suppress autoimmune disease.

They do not “switch off” inflammation.

They are not medicine.

They are normal.

By default, we evolved to eat food that grew around us. Somewhere along the way we drifted so far from that baseline that returning to it now looks like treatment.

It isn’t.

It’s foundation.

And foundations rarely make good headlines.