You can eat
- Vegetables at lunch and dinner, in several colours, raw or cooked.
- Fruit, two or three pieces a day, whole rather than juiced.
- Between fruit and vegetables, at least 400 g a day [2].
- Pulses three or four times a week, in stews, salads, hummus or soups.
- Oily fish twice a week (sardines, mackerel, anchovies, salmon) and white fish the rest of the time.
- Nuts and seeds, a handful a day, raw or roasted and unsalted.
- Extra-virgin olive oil as the preferred fat for cooking and dressing.
- Oats, brown rice and wholemeal bread, potatoes and sweet potatoes.
- Turmeric, ginger, garlic, oregano and paprika for flavour, so you use less salt.
- Water as your drink; coffee, tea and herbal infusions, without sugar.
What to avoid
- Pastries, biscuits, salty snacks, ready meals and processed meats every day.
- Sugary drinks and packaged juices. Free sugars should stay below 10% of the day’s energy [2].
- Alcohol: the less, the better; in rheumatoid arthritis and in gout it may be associated with flares [3].
- Salt, less than 5 g a day [2]; spices, lemon and vinegar provide the flavour.
- Red meat and processed meat, as an occasional food and not as the basis of the week.
- Fried and breaded foods every day; oven or papillote is better.
- Cutting out gluten, dairy or nightshades without a diagnosis that calls for it.
- Taking supplements to treat the disease without your doctor or your registered dietitian-nutritionist prescribing them.
Changes that help
Cooking and dressing fat
Instead of butter, margarine or sunflower oil, use extra-virgin olive oil for cooking and dressings. One product reaches every meal at home, which is why it comes first.
Dinner
Instead of a ready meal or pizza on a bad day, use rinsed canned pulses with frozen vegetables sautéed together. It takes as long as the oven and needs no real cooking.
Snacks
Instead of biscuits, pastries or salty snacks, choose fruit, plain yoghurt or a handful of raw or roasted unsalted nuts. Nuts are calorie-dense: keep the handful a handful.
Protein
Instead of processed meat in a sandwich, choose canned sardines or mackerel, a boiled egg, hummus or grilled chicken. Oily fish twice a week covers the recommendation.
Drinks
Instead of soft drinks or packaged juice, choose water, sparkling water with lemon or unsweetened iced tea. This is where much free sugar hides without making you full.
Salt and flavour
Instead of adding salt, use garlic, onion, lemon, vinegar, paprika, oregano, turmeric or ginger. Spices add flavour and reduce salt; they do not belong in a treatment capsule.
Habits that help
- Move every day within what your pain allows; exercise is safe in rheumatic diseases [3].
- If you want to change your weight, do it with your healthcare team [3].
- If you smoke, ask for help to quit [3].
- Protect your sleep, because pain and fatigue get worse when you sleep badly.
- Cook a larger amount and freeze portions for flare days.
“Anti-inflammatory diet” is one of the most repeated and worst-explained labels in nutrition. Almost anything fits underneath it, from cutting out gluten and dairy to fasting and green juices.
People who search for it are rarely just curious. They arrive with arthritis, psoriasis, migraine, fibromyalgia or COPD, and with the feeling that food ought to be able to do something. It can do something, and in consultations the first thing we do is make clear what.
What exactly is an anti-inflammatory diet?
It is an eating pattern, not a list of specific foods. When we talk about eating “anti-inflammatory” in consultation, we are describing something very close to the traditional Mediterranean diet. Vegetables and fruit every day, pulses several times a week, fish (including oily fish), nuts and whole grains. Extra-virgin olive oil is the main fat. There is little red meat, little processed meat and few ultra-processed foods. There is no safe amount of alcohol for health (WHO): the less, the better. And none during pregnancy, breastfeeding or childhood, if you are going to drive, or if your medication does not allow it.
No official document defines “the anti-inflammatory diet”, and no scientific society has made it a protocol. What does exist is accumulated evidence on the Mediterranean pattern and on the inflammation markers measured in blood. Everything that follows rests on that.
The word “inflammation” also mixes two different things. One is chronic low-grade inflammation. It is silent, it is measured with blood tests and it goes with diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis. The other is what many people call “having an inflamed belly”, which is abdominal bloating and a digestive matter. If yours is the second, you will find the guide to bloating and abdominal distension more useful.
Does an anti-inflammatory diet work?
It works for some things and not for others, and it is worth knowing which. An analysis of 33 trials found that the Mediterranean diet lowers high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, interleukin 6 and interleukin 17 [1]. However, it did not change standard C-reactive protein, interleukin 10, tumour necrosis factor alpha or total antioxidant capacity [1]. It moves some of the markers, and not all of them.
Lowering a blood marker and improving a disease are two different things. EULAR, the European alliance of rheumatology associations, based its lifestyle recommendations on a review of 83 dietary exposures in seven rheumatic diseases. Its conclusion is that there is a lack of good-quality evidence that any single food or nutrient has a clinically relevant effect [4]. What it found was a small benefit for some components of the diet, with moderate evidence [4]. A small benefit on pain in rheumatoid arthritis was also observed [4].
In autoimmune diseases, a 2026 review included in the Italian guidelines on the Mediterranean diet points the same way. Following the pattern more closely is associated with better quality of life in multiple sclerosis and in coeliac disease, with moderate certainty [5]. In rheumatoid arthritis the association is smaller and of low certainty [5]. The drops in C-reactive protein were inconsistent [5].
In consultation we sum it up like this. Eating this way is reasonable, has support and suits the great majority of people. In some diseases, such as kidney disease, it has to be adjusted. What it cannot do is make your disease disappear or replace the treatment your doctor has prescribed. After reviewing everything, the lifestyle recommendations call for a healthy, balanced diet [3]. There is no trick behind it.
How long does it take to notice a difference?
There is no established timeframe, and anyone who gives you an exact one is making it up. What we do know is what the trials measured. In the Mediterranean diet analysis, interleukin 6 fell mainly in interventions of less than twelve weeks and in people under sixty [1]. These are blood-test data, and they say little about how you will feel.
Symptoms change more slowly and more unevenly, because they depend on your disease, your treatment and your flares. What is usually noticed first are less visible things, and we see them in consultation every week. Getting through the afternoon better, sleeping a little better, no longer living food as a source of doubt. None of the three shows up in a blood test, and all three count.
That is why we work with three months of sustained changes before deciding whether a plan works for you.
Are there anti-inflammatory foods?
Not in the way they are usually sold. No food switches off chronic inflammation on its own. Nor has any of the foods on internet lists, such as turmeric, ginger, green tea, berries or flaxseed, shown this when taken in isolation. What has support is the whole, the entire pattern sustained over time.
That does not mean they are surplus to requirements. Turmeric, ginger, garlic or oregano add flavour without salt, and that is where they contribute. The problem comes when they move from the kitchen to the jar of capsules and are taken as medication. No spice has support today for treating a rheumatic disease [4]. If you already take a supplement, tell us: that way we can check that it does not interfere with your medicines. And if you want to start one, ask your doctor or your registered dietitian-nutritionist to prescribe it.
Omega-3 as a supplement is the most studied case, and its effect is small [4]. If you need it, your doctor or your registered dietitian-nutritionist will prescribe it. The practical option is to get it on the plate, with oily fish, walnuts and flaxseed.
Do tomatoes, gluten or dairy cause inflammation?
No, unless you have a diagnosis that says otherwise. It is one of the questions we get asked most in consultation. There is no evidence linking nightshades (tomato, potato, aubergine and pepper) with more inflammation or more joint pain. They are also vegetables that contribute and fit squarely into the Mediterranean pattern. An alkaline diet does not treat inflammation either.
The same goes for gluten, and here there is a specific source. The medical board of the National Psoriasis Foundation recommends a gluten-free diet in psoriasis only for people who test positive on blood markers of gluten sensitivity [6]. And it does so with a weak recommendation [6]. Outside that case, removing it is not indicated. If you suspect coeliac disease, do not remove gluten before the tests.
The same goes for dairy. Removing it without a reason impoverishes your diet, complicates your social life and leaves less calcium and less variety with nothing in return. If you suspect a food, it is looked at with a method. A symptom diary, a limited removal with a date to bring it back and, when appropriate, a medical test. IgG intolerance tests and bioresonance diagnose nothing, and they are no use for deciding what to remove.
If what you want is to reduce a bloated belly
Then a different guide will help you more. Many people reach “anti-inflammatory diet” looking for how to reduce a bloated belly, and they are two different problems. Abdominal bloating has to do with gas, transit and fermentation, and sometimes with irritable bowel syndrome behind it. It is dealt with using other tools, which you will find in the guide to bloating and abdominal distension.
The two share the same basis. Eat slowly, space out your meals, have vegetables every day and eat fewer ultra-processed foods. From there, the goal and the advice change.
What changes depending on your condition?
The pattern is shared, and what decides the plan is the detail. These are the five situations we work with most, with what nutrition contributes in each.
Arthritis and rheumatic diseases
This is where most research has been done, and the effects of diet are small [4]. Maintaining a healthy weight and exercising, including strength work, count for more. EULAR calls for reaching and maintaining a healthy weight together with the healthcare team [3]. It also stresses that exercise is safe and improves pain and disability, especially in osteoarthritis and axial spondyloarthritis [3]. You will find it covered in the guide to eating with arthritis.
Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis
Here the firmest recommendation has to do with weight. In psoriasis with overweight or obesity, the medical board of the National Psoriasis Foundation strongly recommends losing weight with a low-calorie diet [6]. In psoriatic arthritis it recommends the same, weakly [6]. We cover it in the guide to diet for psoriasis.
Migraine
There is no universal list of foods to remove. In migraine, the aim is to find your own triggers, which change from one person to another. Above all, it helps to keep regular mealtimes, hydration and sleep. Skipping meals is one of the most frequent triggers we see in consultation. The detail is in the guide to food and migraine.
Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue
This is where most contradictory lists circulate and where there is least to remove. The aim is that eating does not become one more chore. Simple guidelines, real food, portions you can prepare on a bad day, and looking after your weight and muscle mass. The specifics are in the guide to eating with fibromyalgia.
COPD and chronic respiratory disease
Here the common problem is eating too little. Losing weight and muscle mass worsens the outlook, and nutrition is part of the treatment. We work with small, frequent meals, more energy in less food and enough protein. It is in the guide to eating with COPD. If you need to regain weight, we work on it in our weight gain consultation.
Does an anti-inflammatory diet help you lose weight?
It can accompany weight loss, although it is not designed for that. When you swap ultra-processed foods, sugary drinks and fried foods for vegetables, pulses and fish, many people lose weight without setting out to. And in several of these diseases, weight is exactly where nutrition contributes most. Rheumatology guidelines recommend it [3] and, more strongly, so do psoriasis guidelines [6].
What is not honest is to sell the anti-inflammatory pattern as a method for losing weight fast. If what you want is to lose weight, your guide is the one on losing weight, which explains the pace and how to sustain it. The two fit together. You can follow this pattern and lose fat at the same time, with the plan adjusted.
A day of anti-inflammatory eating
This is what an ordinary day looks like with this pattern, without weighing anything and without buying anything unusual.
- Breakfast. Oats with plain yoghurt, fruit and a handful of walnuts. Or wholemeal bread with olive oil and tomato, and coffee or tea without sugar.
- Mid-morning. A piece of fruit, a yoghurt or a handful of almonds.
- Lunch. Half a plate of vegetables, a quarter of pulses or fish and a quarter of brown rice or potato, with raw extra-virgin olive oil.
- Afternoon snack. Fruit and some nuts, or wholemeal toast with hummus.
- Dinner. Vegetable soup or salad and a light main course of fish, egg or pulses, with wholemeal bread.
The plate method (half vegetables, a quarter protein and a quarter wholegrain carbohydrate) settles almost all portion questions without counting anything. On flare days, dinner comes from what you already have in the cupboard and the freezer.
What mistakes do we see in consultation?
They are almost always the same four, and all four can be undone.
- Arriving with half the pantry removed. Gluten, dairy, nightshades, pulses, cereals. Add up the internet lists and there is almost nothing left. The first consultation usually consists of putting food back on the table.
- Replacing treatment with diet. No way of eating replaces an anti-inflammatory drug, an immunosuppressant or a biologic. Stopping your medication on your own is the decision that ends worst.
- Buying supplements before improving the weekly shop. Supplements do not replace changes in what you eat. They mean a lot of money spent before you have changed what you eat for dinner five days a week.
- Setting goals that are too ambitious on a bad day. In a disease that comes in flares, the plan has to work on the day you cannot cope with anything. If it only works on a Sunday when you have time, it is not a plan.
What works is changing one thing at a time, and letting it settle before moving on to the next.
The pattern, in five minutes of video
Watch “What is anti-inflammatory eating and how can it improve your health?” on YouTube (5:11).
If you take away one idea, let it be this. What has backing is the whole pattern sustained over time. The food of the week and the jar on the shelf do not. And what food contributes most in these diseases is what gets mentioned least: weight, muscle mass, rest and getting to a flare day with the fridge sorted.
If you arrive with accumulated exclusions, reports from several specialists or medication that has to be taken into account, it makes sense to do this with support. Our team of dietitian-nutritionists specialising in anti-inflammatory nutrition works from your diagnosis and your treatment, in Barcelona and online.
You live with a disease that has good days and bad days. The plan that works is the one that fits both.
We explain it on video
More videos
So, what can I have for dinner on a flare day?
One fat at home
This week, cook and dress food preferably with extra-virgin olive oil, instead of butter, margarine or sunflower oil. It is a single product and it reaches every meal.
When to see a doctor
When you should see a doctor
“Anti-inflammatory” describes an eating pattern, not a treatment. Food can support your treatment, look after your weight and muscle mass and give you a stable base for flares. What we cannot do is diagnose your disease, stop its course or replace the medication you have been prescribed.
Here are the warning signs for migraine, arthritis and autoimmune diseases, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, and COPD, ordered by urgency. In the guide to each condition you will find only its own.
Ask for a medical appointment without waiting to change your diet if you notice any of these signs:
- A headache that reaches its maximum intensity in less than five minutes, the worst you remember [7]
- Headache with fever, neck stiffness or confusion [7]
- You lose strength, vision or speech, or someone notices that your personality has changed [7]
- You are short of breath at rest, your lips or nails are bluish, or you are confused or very drowsy [10]
- You have a hot, red, swollen joint with fever [8]
- Your mood is very low, you feel hopeless, or you think about harming yourself [9]
- For two days or more you have had more breathlessness, more cough, or your sputum has changed colour or amount [10]
- One or more joints swell and the swelling does not go down in six weeks [8]
- You wake up with stiff hands or feet for more than half an hour [8]
- The pain appears when you cough, bend down or make an effort, or changes with your posture [7]
- You take painkillers for headaches on more than ten days a month [7]
- The tiredness is new, gets worse over weeks and comes with fever, night sweats or weight loss [11]
- You have muscle weakness, not just tiredness: you drop what you pick up or cannot climb stairs [9]
- The pain is concentrated in a new area, or wakes you at night in a way that is different from usual [9]
- You lose weight without trying, have a fever that does not go away or have night sweats [11]
- Your ankles swell and this is new [10]
- You lose weight and muscle mass without trying [10]
What to do. For any of the first four signs, call 112 or go to the emergency department now. If you have a hot, red joint with fever, go to the emergency department today, because a joint infection has to be ruled out. If you think about harming yourself, call 024 or go to the emergency department today.
With a respiratory flare-up lasting two days, contact your respiratory specialist or your GP today or tomorrow. In COPD, waiting is costly.
For the rest, book an appointment with your GP this week. If it is your head, they will refer you to neurology if needed. If a joint has been swollen for more than six weeks, the referral is to rheumatology within the following six weeks. In arthritis, starting early changes the outlook.
Most days with a chronic disease do not look like this list. Food can help you feel better, and it does so best when it comes alongside treatment and not in its place.
Every case is different
General guidance can only take you so far. The next step is to look at your situation in a consultation.
Keep reading
Weight-loss diet: how to lose fat and keep it off
You have tried diets that worked for a month, only for the weight to come back, and now…
Fibromyalgia diet: what to eat and what may help
Almost everything hurts, you have no energy, and every week someone tells you to cut out which food.…
Migraine diet: which foods to avoid and which not to
You have been cutting foods out using a list from the internet, but the migraines keep coming. Each…
Diet for rheumatoid arthritis: what to eat and what does not help
You have read that tomatoes cause inflammation, citrus fruit makes pain worse and you should give up dairy.…
Psoriasis diet: what to eat, according to the evidence
If you have psoriasis, you may have read that you should cut out gluten, dairy or tomatoes, or…
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Sources
- Keshani M, Rafiee S, Heidari H, et al. Mediterranean Diet Reduces Inflammation in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Nutr Rev. 2026;84(9):1776-1790. doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuaf213
- Organización Mundial de la Salud. Alimentación sana. Fact sheet. Geneva: OMS; 2026. Available at who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet
- Gwinnutt JM, Wieczorek M, Balanescu A, et al. 2021 EULAR recommendations regarding lifestyle behaviours and work participation to prevent progression of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. Ann Rheum Dis. 2023;82(1):48-56. doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2021-222020
- Gwinnutt JM, Wieczorek M, Rodríguez-Carrio J, et al. Effects of diet on the outcomes of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs): systematic review and meta-analyses informing the 2021 EULAR recommendations for lifestyle improvements in people with RMDs. RMD Open. 2022;8(2):e002167. doi:10.1136/rmdopen-2021-002167
- Gianfredi V, Baldini L, Deledda A, et al. Effects of the Mediterranean diet on inflammation, quality of life, and mortality in autoimmune diseases: a systematic review featured in the Italian National Guidelines “La Dieta Mediterranea”. Nutrition. 2026;143:113026. doi:10.1016/j.nut.2025.113026
- Ford AR, Siegel M, Bagel J, et al. Dietary Recommendations for Adults With Psoriasis or Psoriatic Arthritis From the Medical Board of the National Psoriasis Foundation: A Systematic Review. JAMA Dermatol. 2018;154(8):934-950. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2018.1412
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Headaches in over 12s: diagnosis and management. NICE guideline CG150. London: NICE; 2012 (updated in 2025). Available at nice.org.uk/guidance/cg150
- Combe B, Landewé R, Daien CI, et al. 2016 update of the EULAR recommendations for the management of early arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis. 2017;76(6):948-959. doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-210602
- Macfarlane GJ, Kronisch C, Dean LE, et al. EULAR revised recommendations for the management of fibromyalgia. Ann Rheum Dis. 2017;76(2):318-328. doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-209724
- Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: 2025 Report. GOLD; 2024. Available at goldcopd.org/2025-gold-report
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Suspected cancer: recognition and referral. NICE guideline NG12. London: NICE; 2015 (updated in 2026). Available at nice.org.uk/guidance/ng12
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