Topics:

• Blending an Anti-Inflammatory Diet with Your Cultural Foods
• Why an Anti-Inflammatory Diet
• Transform Any Dish Into an Anti-Inflammatory Meal
• Making Filipino Food Anti-Inflammatory
• Recipe: Healthy Filipino Adobo - the Anti-Inflammatory Way

Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Your Culture

Nutrition is a science, but the food we eat is a very personal thing. And healthy eating looks different in every culture. I have worked with many families from different cultures. As a family health coach, I consider your taste preferences and values around food, your day-to-day schedule, access to food, and your personalized goals when transitioning to an anti-inflammatory lifestyle.

Food and all that it comes with – preparing it, celebrating with it, consuming it with family - are a significant part of your culture and have the power to tie you back to your ancestors and special memories.

Giving you all the meal plans in the world will not help you transition to an anti-inflammatory diet without incorporating the best parts of your previous food experiences.

That's how my family and my clients will be successful long term. This is how I reversed my autoimmune disease, naturally lost weight, and continued to improve my health drastically. 

Why is it important to transition to an anti-inflammatory diet?

Chronic inflammation is a growing problem throughout the world. It is often invisible without the immediate onset of symptoms or may not be that serious, but long term, it’s been linked to many chronic diseases that have the potential to disrupt your life…

• Acne, eczema, and psoriasis
• Allergies and asthma
• Autoimmune diseases
• Cancer
• Chronic pain
• Diabetes
• Gastrointestinal issues – IBS, bloating, constipation
• Heart disease and stroke
• Mental health disorders - Anxiety, depression, panic attacks
• Metabolic syndrome
• Neurodegenerative diseases - Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s

What causes chronic inflammation?

Chronic low-grade inflammation can occur with exposure to chemicals like tobacco, or radiation, consuming an unhealthy diet or too much alcohol, not being physically active, feeling stressed or socially isolated, and having excess weight.

So, what do we do?

Attending to these habits and making other lifestyle changes can be very helpful in preventing and decreasing the amount of inflammation to reduce its damaging effects on the body. Even though there are many, the main one we will discuss today is nutrition. Nutrition can be one of the hardest things to control, but with the right support and strategies, it is one thing we CAN control.

“For chronic low-grade inflammation not caused by a defined illness, lifestyle changes are the mainstay of both prevention and treatment,” says Harvard Health. The good news is that anti-inflammatory foods help you stay healthy and reduce your risk of many diseases. In fact, it’s estimated that 60 percent of chronic diseases could be prevented with a healthy diet.

Turn Any Dish Into An Anti-Inflammatory Meal

Instead of eliminating your favorite meals from your diet, prepare it by ADDING more anti-inflammatory nutrients as a side or within the main dish.

• Eat more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, fish, poultry, legumes, and healthy oils
• Pay special attention to foods high in antioxidants, including colorful plants such as berries, cherries, plums, red grapes, avocados, onions, carrots, beets, turmeric, green tea, and dark green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale
• Omega-3 fats can help to reduce pain and clear up inflammation and are found in salmon, trout, mackerel, soy, walnuts, and flax
• High-fiber foods and probiotics encourage friendly gut microbes to help reduce inflammation
• Avoid charring foods when cooking at high temperatures
• Limit inflammatory foods such as red and processed meats (lunch meats, hot dogs, hamburgers), deep-fried foods (fries), unhealthy fats (vegetable oils, shortening, lard), sugary foods and drinks (sodas, candy, sports drinks), refined carbohydrates (white bread, cookies, pie), and ultra-processed foods (microwaveable dinners, dehydrated soups)

Making Filipino Food Anti-Inflammatory

My family is from the Philippines, so I grew up eating all the common Filipino foods most know and love. However, Filipino food can be known for its high fat, high calories, and high sugar savory meals. But what culture doesn’t have its own share of such indulgence foods? Besides all the deep-fried lumpias, crispy pata, and chicharrones that are saved for special occasions, most dishes that are eaten on a daily basis have tipped the scale towards inflammatory because the quality of our ingredients has decreased and can be tricky if you don’t pay attention to the labels.

Struggling with autoimmune and inflammatory pains, fibromyalgia, trouble losing weight, and a significant family history of diabetes and cancer, I had to find a way to tweak my diet in a way that promotes healing instead of inflammation. Let’s take a simple Filipino recipe and I’ll show you how I serve it to my family. This method of “healthi-fying” allows my family to enjoy the traditional Filipino flavors while adding touches to make it more nutrient-dense and anti-inflammatory.

If you search the web for an authentic Filipino adobo recipe, which is a common favorite, you’ll find the ingredients include pork or chicken, vinegar, garlic, cooking oil, sugar, bay leaves, salt, and peppercorn.

Meat

Eating lots of red meat is often associated with inflammation, but for health purposes, I’ve cut down on cooking pork a lot for my family. The leanest meat is chicken breast, but this recipe does well with a little bit of fat (which is why pork does taste amazing). I like to use chicken wings or chicken thighs because those are my family’s favorite cuts.

Pasture-raised chicken is ideal because it has 3x the omega 3’s, 50% more vitamins A, D, and E, and 21% less saturated fat.

Source. https://www.pasturebird.com/blogs/farmtalk/what-is-pasture-raised-chicken   

Vegetarian option

This recipe also does awesome with tofu or just plain veggies. Asian Kang Kong is our preference but it can be made with bok choy, green beans, or spinach.

 Soy Sauce

Many people who struggle with inflammation may have sensitivities to gluten and/or soy. Cutting those ingredients out, especially highly processed, and non-organic forms may be the key to improving your symptoms. Many of the soy sauce brands out there are processed with added sugars and other ingredients that can further promote inflammation. Here are my favorite substitutions for soy sauce…

Tamari Soy Sauce. It tastes just like soy sauce, but a higher-quality and gluten-free version.

Coconut Secret’s Coconut Aminos. This one is my absolute favorite and only this brand. It tastes nothing like coconuts. It’s a soy-free and gluten-free alternative. The bonus is that it has a natural sweetness to it – so it decreases the number of added sugars in your recipes. I personally use this product in 100% of my recipes that require soy sauce (which is in a lot of Asian recipes).

If you suffer from any inflammatory conditions mentioned above, soy sauce is one of the first swaps that's highly recommended to start with. 

Vinegar

The “healthiest” vinegar is apple cider vinegar, but I honestly haven’t tried it with this recipe. I use plain white vinegar, which is still good for us. Make sure you check the ingredients in your vinegar to ensure that there is no added sugars or ingredients that promote inflammation. Vinegar can control blood sugar, which helps with inflammation and many other health benefits, so this is an awesome ingredient to include in your meals.

Garlic

Garlic is another superfood spice that is a source of prebiotics, and antioxidants, and can boost our immune system and more. According to Healthline, it can protect us against illness, reduce blood pressure, improve cholesterol levels, and more. And trust me when I say I use A LOT of garlic in my cooking.

Cooking oil

Most vegetable oils are highly inflammatory and highly processed. If you must use cooking oil, switch to more natural oils such as cold-pressed olive oils, avocado oils, flax oils, etc. In this recipe, I’ve completely omitted cooking oils. If you need a non-stick option for your pan, use a high-quality non-stick spray. Here is my favorite. Avocado oil cooking spray. 

Sugar

I completely omit the sugar in the recipe when I use the coconut aminos sauce since it’s already naturally sweetened.

Talking about ALL the effects of sugar will be saved for another day. But I'll say this... If you look at the original adobo recipes, it “only” requires 1 to 2 tablespoons of sugar in a whole recipe. You might be thinking it’s not that much. But think about realistically how much added sugar you eat a day. Or in a week? Our body ideally can only process up to 25-35g, or 6-9 teaspoons, of added sugar per day, any more than this drives inflammation. Is it worth it for you to have sugar in your savory foods? Wouldn’t you rather use your “allowed daily sugars” to enjoy that sweet treat you love for dessert?

Water

You’ll find in most recipes, it says to add water to the pot. I omit the water because I found that when I cook with chicken wings, it releases a lot of its own water, adding more water will “water down” the flavors. Also, I cook my adobo covered, and lots of water is created from the heat and condensation when covering a pot. But use your own discretion and add more or less water, or omit it altogether based on your taste preference.

Sides

What enhances this dish to become anti-inflammatory are the sides we eat with this. Commonly, adobo is eaten over a bed of fluffy white rice. But here's how I prepare the sides... 

Brown Basmati Rice - This is my favorite brown rice. I cook it in bone broth for added collagen and protein. Don’t forget to soak it in warm water for the “sprouting” process for 6-12 hours (I just soak it overnight and cook it in the morning). Sprouting releases nutrients for easier absorption and less impact on your blood sugar. For extra flavor, I love mixing brown rice with roasted garlic powder 

Ground Flax seed - Flax seed is an amazing thing to add to your foods. It’s so easy because it doesn’t alter the flavors of your foods and is a great source of protein, fiber, and the all-important Omega 3’s. 2tbsp of flax seed offers nearly 3000mg of omega 3’s which is amazing. I add this stuff to all my foods. So yes, I mix this into my already cooked and warmed sprouted brown rice.

Green onions - I like to throw green onions on a lot of my meals also because it’s such an easy addition to get your prebiotics in. It’s highly nutritious and anti-inflammatory.  

Cucumbers are a great side for lots of Asian dishes because it adds crunch to the meal, without distracting from the flavors.

RAW sauerkraut - There’s an Asian side called atchara, which is made with pickled papaya and carrots. It’s like pickled daikon radishes that also taste amazing. I love all these sides also, but for that extra boost in nutrients, raw sauerkraut is the way to go. Now if you haven’t thought of using this aside from topping your hot dogs with it, it’s time you give it a try. Raw sauerkraut tastes way better and fresher than the ones you get at the hot dog stands. There are no added sugars, and we can’t express how important it is to get probiotics into your body.

✨ Pro Tip: This is a lot of new ingredients, don't be afraid to start with just ONE swap at a time and slowly work through the other ones as you adjust your taste buds and budget.

This was an amazing meal and is a staple in my home. It's gluten-free, soy-free, sugar-free, paleo, keto, and most importantly, it’s baby and kid-approved 🤗

Recipe for Chicken Adobo – the Anti-Inflammatory way

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken, cut into serving-sized pieces
• ¼ cup minced garlic
• ½ cup Coconut Secret’s Coconut Aminos
• ½ cup white vinegar
• ½ to 1 cup of water (optional)
• 1-2 bay leaves
• Peppercorn according to your taste

Sides

• Sprouted Brown Basmati Rice or sub for cauliflower rice for paleo/keto*

Mix ins: roasted garlic powder and ground flax seed

• Cucumbers
• Raw sauerkraut 
• Green onions

Instructions

1. Sautee chicken and minced garlic in a pot until browned
2. Add coconut aminos, vinegar, bay leaves, and peppercorns.
3. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium
4. Cover pot for about 15-20 minutes until meat is just about cooked. Timing depends on the type of cut you use. Chicken thighs take longer than chicken wings.
5. Once the meat is cooked, I let the sauce cook out with the cover off for another 15 minutes until the water is cooked out, so you're left with a slightly thicker sauce
6. Serve this over the sprouted brown rice and other sides.
7. Enjoy!

Pro tip: Stir-fry brown rice with adobo sauce for extra delicious flavor! Even picky eaters and those who are transitioning to brown rice instead of white rice will love this 😉

I can’t wait till you try this recipe! Share your pictures on social media to spread our love for food and health. Till then, check out this cute video of my 4-year-old making this recipe on Instagram or Facebook 🥰