Eat to Heal: 3 Things I Learned About the Anti-Inflammatory Diet

"Food is one of the most powerful levers that we have on inflammation."

Lee Holmes is a clinical nutritionist and the author of 12 books. Her latest book is Eat to Heal, and I'm not kidding when I say this is the perfect book for me. It takes all the research that's out there and puts it into a really nice, clear, digestible format. On episode 14 of our podcast, The Lee & Irene Show, I interviewed Lee all about it.

The book is "primarily centered around inflammation and specifically chronic inflammation," and the first chapter is called Your Kitchen is Your Medicine Cabinet. "Food is one of the most powerful levers that we have on inflammation." "There's 60 recipes in the book, and I wanted them to be functional, delicious and supportive of the way that I'd love someone to eat."

You can listen to the full episode here:

Here are the 3 things I learned from the Eat to Heal book

1. Your immune system can run on low alert all the time

"In the short term, inflammation is actually your immune system and it's doing its job." When you cut yourself, the area starts to swell, there's heat and the wound heals. That's acute inflammation. "The problem is chronic inflammation and that's what I talk about in the book, which is when that emergency response, it never fully switches off."

"Our immune system is running in the background on a very low alert all the time... that's why sometimes people don't think that it's really happening to them."

"There's a sentence in the book that I'm really proud of and it says, perhaps this book is in your hands because something doesn't feel quite right. Maybe you've been told everything looks normal on your tests, even though your body is screaming otherwise."

2. Certain plant foods help clear out zombie cells

I asked Lee what surprised her the most when she was doing the research for this book. "One thing that really came out of the research for me that isn't really spoken about much is something called zombie cells."

"So the scientific term is senescent cells. So these are actual cells that have stopped functioning, but they refuse to die. They're like zombies and they just sit around in your tissues releasing inflammatory signals. They disrupt all of those healthy cells around you." "It's like, you know, this disruptive kid in class that sits at the back throwing rulers and paper planes."

"There are certain plant compounds that are natural senolytics. So these are the compounds that help clear out those senescent cells." Fisetin is in strawberries and apples, quercetin is in capers, onions and berries, and curcumin comes from turmeric.

I'm imagining I'm having a turmeric latte and an apple and some strawberries, and they're going in like Pac-Man and gobbling up all these dead cells. "It is like a Pac-Man game," Lee said.

Zombie cells can build up in your skin too. That's the idea behind the Acure Zombie Cell Clarifying Serum and Mask, made with milk thistle and niacinamide. The mask gently exfoliates to help clear away dead and "zombie" cells.

Lee also talked about SPMs, or specialised pro-resolving mediators. "Your body naturally produces SPMs, and these are from omega-3 fatty acids. So your flaxseed meal, your avocado, your good fish, all those good fats." "It's not just anti-inflammatory omega-3s, they're actually pro-resolution."

3. Lee's 4321 rule makes an anti-inflammatory diet really easy

Every plate is "40% veggies, 30% protein, 20% whole grains, 10% fats. That's the template, the 4321 template. And we're adding in all those anti-inflammatory foods on a Mediterranean style." On page 125 there's this plate, and it's beautifully drawn. It's like a pie chart. All the recipes in the book are based on that 4321 MAP approach.

"The Mediterranean diet works partly because, this is what I love about it, it's not rigid. It's a pattern. It's not a prescription." "The goal really is to crowd in the good rather than obsess over eliminating the bad."

There's also a quiz in the book to help you figure out your inflammation level. "I've devised 16 questions and they're scored between zero to four and it gives you this fire rating, whether you're low, moderate, high or severe."

I closed my eyes and picked a page. Page 156, Baked Sweet Potato Hash Browns. My other favourite is on page 159, the Buckwheat Banana Crepes with Figs and Berries.

Healing is not a linear thing

"I do really like to encourage and reinforce to my clients that healing is not a linear thing." "Healing isn't about being perfect or obsessing over foods or cutting a lot of things out. It's just something that empowers you and makes you feel better." "When your body is in survival mode, it honestly doesn't need another lecture. It needs support, it needs consistency, it needs a routine and it 100% needs compassion."

You can buy Eat to Heal from all major bookstores and from Lee's website.

Listen to the full episode

We also talked about how Lee writes her books. Her advice for anyone who wants to write one is "you just start." And we talked about the neuro inflammation link to mental health. You can listen to episode 14 on Spotify.

About the Author

Irene Falcone is the founder of Clean Nectarine and co-host of The Lee & Irene Show. She started her first clean beauty business in 2011 with $100 in her garage and grew it to $20m in four years. She has spent over 15 years reading the backs of beauty and wellness labels, is a Telstra Business Women's Awards winner and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and has been featured on A Current Affair, The Project, Sunrise, Channel Nine Mornings and Sky News.

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