The ability to produce inflammation is critical to our healing processes.

Inflammation should be like a tap. It should be on when needed but otherwise off. One of the recurring themes in this column has been the importance of reducing the amount of unwanted inflammation in our bodies. This is the background or ‘silent' level of inflammation where your immune system produces a continual stream of inflammatory chemicals which makes most existing problems worse and can even be the cause of many diseases. Your doctor can measure this with a CRP test.

Inflammation is switched on or off by the types of fats in our diet. It may surprise you that the much maligned saturated fats are at worse neutral and at best anti-inflammatory. Our grass fed cows produce butter that is relatively anti-inflammatory while some saturated fats such as those found in tropical oils such as coconut and red palm oil are very anti-inflammatory. The real culprits are the high Omega 6 polyunsaturated cooking oils such as soya bean, grapeseed, sunflower and most cooking oil blends. These are found in margarines, dressings, sauces, baked and fried foods and are very hard to avoid. These oils activate inflammatory prostaglandins which then inflame tissue and joints.

Omega 3 does the exact opposite. These oils, especially the EPA and DHA found in oily fish allow the body to turn off inflammation when not needed. Of course these cannot be used for cooking and must be obtained from eating oily fish or fish oil supplements. When looking for supplements, choose the fish oils that have added vitamin E to prevent rancidity.

Another family of very beneficial and anti-inflammatory fats are the monounsaturated fats such as those found in olive oil, avocados (and avocado oil) and some nuts, especially raw almonds. These are quite stable and are naturally high in antioxidants to prevent rancidity.

If you have a high CRP, have any inflammatory health problem you should take strong measures to increase Omega 3, increase monounsaturated fats and reduce high Omega 6 polyunsaturated oils from your diet. This will lower inflammatory prostaglandin activity which will result in lower background and specific site inflammation. You may be amazed at the results, especially if you suffer from actual inflammatory symptoms. If you are concerned about inflammation please contact me for an anti-inflammatory programme for your circumstances.

John Arts is a natural health commentator and researcher. If you have questions or would like a free health plan you can contact John at john@johnarts.co.nz or phone 07 578 9051 or 0800 423 559. You can join his newsletter at www.johnarts.co.nz Read more from John at www.sunlive.co.nz