Battling inflammation, disease through food

If you want to live longer -- avoid heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and cancer -- then pick and choose your foods with care to quiet down parts of your immune system.

That's the principle promoted by the founders and followers of anti-inflammatory diets, designed to reduce chronic inflammation in the body.

There's still a lot of science to be done. And should you try such a diet, you probably shouldn't expect any 30-day miracles. But there may be something to eating in an anti-inflammatory way.

Foods that promote inflammation -- saturated fats, trans fats, corn and soybean oil, refined carbohydrates, sugars, red meat and dairy -- are reduced or eliminated.

Resveratrol, found in grape skin and red wine, has been shown to improve blood vessel function and slow aging in rats.

Pomegranate juice decreases atherosclerosis development in mice with high cholesterol. Garlic improves blood vessel functioning in the hearts of rats with high blood pressure.

Curcumin (an antioxidant chemical found in turmeric) improves ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and pancreatitis in mice and has anti-cancer effects in the animals too.

Fish oil, rich in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids and derived from oily fish such as tuna, salmon and mackerel -- is already recommended by the American Heart Assn. to help prevent cardiovascular disease. It has been shown to reduce blood triglyceride levels and slightly lower blood pressure, lowering the risk for heart attacks and strokes.