Inflammation is one of the body’s most important protective responses, and one of the most misunderstood. Inflammation is not a symptom or a diagnosis, it is a biological signaling process the immune system uses to protect you, repair damage, and restore balance.

When inflammation turns on briefly and then resolves, it supports healing. When the signal stays active, or the body can’t complete the resolution phase, this same protective response becomes chronic and quietly damaging.

Understanding this difference is the key to understanding inflammation itself.

What is Inflammation? 

Inflammation is an energy-expensive, chemically coordinated defense response. The immune system turns it on when cells detect danger, and it turns it off once repair is complete.

Problems arise when the danger signal is persistent, or the resolution phase fails. That’s when inflammation shifts from helpful to harmful.

The Chemical Messengers That Drive Inflammation:

Inflammation is coordinated through specific chemical messengers that tell the body when to defend, and when to repair.

• Cytokines (such as TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6), which amplify immune signaling and can suppress mitochondrial energy production and alter metabolism
• Eicosanoids (prostaglandins, leukotrienes, thromboxanes), which regulate pain, swelling, fever, and clotting
• Reactive oxygen species (ROS), which help kill pathogens but must be neutralized by antioxidants to prevent damage to DNA, proteins, and membranes
• Inflammasomes (such as NLRP3), which act like molecular tripwires and can be activated by metabolic stress and crystals like uric acid and cholesterol

When these signals remain elevated, the body stays in defense mode.

What Actually Triggers Inflammation?

Cells detect danger patterns using immune sensors called pattern recognition receptors.

There are two main categories of danger signals: PAMPs and DAMPs. 

Signals from outside the body (PAMPs)

These come from microbes, such as:

• bacterial components like LPS
• viral RNA
• fungal cell wall components

Signals from inside the body (DAMPs)

These come from stressed or injured cells, such as:

• oxidized lipids
• damaged proteins
• mitochondrial components released during cellular stress
• uric acid crystals

Immune sensors respond to danger, not the source. They can’t neatly separate “outside threat” from “inside stress.”

So diet, sleep loss, stress, and metabolic overload can activate the same inflammatory pathways as infection. 

Food Sensitivities and Immune Activation

Classic food allergies (IgE-mediated) are fast and obvious, and come with immediate symptoms such as hives, swelling, anaphylaxis. Food sensitivities are usually slower and more subtle. They often involve innate immune activation and IgG-associated responses. 

1. Gut barrier stress: Tight junction regulation shifts (zonulin signaling is one piece of this), and larger food fragments can cross the gut lining.
2. Immune sampling: Dendritic cells encounter these fragments. If the immune system is already primed (stress, infections, dysbiosis), the food is more likely to be labeled as “potential threat” by immune cells.
3. Low-grade immune response: Cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-α rise, often without dramatic symptoms. Instead you may notice fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, bloating, or skin flares.

This is chronic inflammation—an ongoing, low-grade immune response that doesn’t fully turn off. 

This is why elimination diets can be so helpful. They temporarily remove foods that act as a daily source of inflammatory signaling, giving the immune system and gut the space they need to heal and reset.

How Everyday Food Patterns Activate Inflammation

Inflammation is rarely about one food. It’s most often driven by repeated patterns that generate danger signals, such as repeatedly consuming ultra-processed foods, consuming too many carbohydrates or too many calories, and preparing food in a way that creates specific byproducts that signal danger to the immune system. The combination of a diet rich in highly processed foods and foods the immune system is sensitive to creates the perfect storm for chronic inflammation. 

Ultra-processed foods can activate inflammatory pathways through specific biochemical routes:

• AGEs (advanced glycation end products) formed during high-heat processing can bind receptors that turn on inflammatory gene signaling.
• High-glycemic meals can increase post-meal oxidative stress and inflammatory signaling (including NF-κB activation in immune cells).
• Certain additives/emulsifiers can disrupt gut mucus and increase immune contact at the intestinal lining, which can promote inflammation.

Blood sugar dysregulation adds another layer. Repeated glucose spikes increase insulin demand. Over time, insulin resistance can develop. Insulin resistance is not only metabolic, it is also inflammatory, and often shows up as fatigue, brain fog, mood instability, and pain sensitivity.

And when the gut barrier is stressed, immune activation becomes more likely, both locally and systemically. That’s why digestive issues so often overlap with whole-body inflammatory symptoms.

Oxidative Stress: Where Inflammation Meets the Cell

A major driver of chronic inflammation is oxidative stress, which is a state where reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced faster than the body can neutralize them.

ROS are produced during:

• normal metabolism, especially during mitochondrial energy (ATP) production
• blood sugar spikes after refined carbohydrate meals
• consumption of highly processed foods and refined seed oils
• chronic stress and ongoing inflammation

In small, controlled amounts, ROS play useful roles in immune defense and cell signaling. The body is designed to handle this, as long as antioxidant systems are supported.

When ROS Become a Problem

ROS are unstable molecules missing electrons. To stabilize themselves, they steal electrons from nearby structures, such as cell membranes, mitochondria, proteins, and DNA.

Cell membranes are particularly vulnerable because they are made largely of fats. When these fats are oxidized, membranes become fragile and less functional.

This is oxidative stress, and it is a key driver of chronic inflammation.

Cellular Communication and Inflammatory Signaling

Cell membranes are not passive barriers. They are communication surfaces.

They regulate what enters the cell, how signals are received, and how inflammation resolves. When membranes are healthy, cells can respond appropriately to nutrients, hormones, and immune signals. When membranes are damaged, signaling becomes distorted.

Healthy membranes allow the body to use key nutrients and signals effectively, including:

• Magnesium and potassium for cell signaling, energy production, and nerve and muscle function
• Omega-3 fats, which become part of the membrane and support inflammation resolution
• Vitamins A, D, E, and K for immune balance, antioxidant protection, and hormone signaling
• Sulforaphane and polyphenol metabolites, which influence gene expression for antioxidant and detox defenses
• Hormones and metabolic signals, which depend on membrane receptors to regulate blood sugar and stress

When oxidative stress and damaged fats destabilize membranes, cells become less responsive, even when nutrients are present.

Why Chronic Inflammation Is So Damaging

Acute inflammation is localized and time-limited. It resolves. Chronic inflammation is low-grade and systemic. The “off switch” doesn’t fully engage.

Over time this is associated with:

• impaired insulin signaling
• endothelial dysfunction
• mitochondrial inefficiency
• altered brain immune signaling and mood changes
• tissue remodeling and fibrosis

The Role of Antioxidants and Phytonutrients

Antioxidants help control inflammation by donating electrons to unstable reactive oxygen species (ROS), neutralizing them before they can damage cell membranes, mitochondria, proteins, and DNA.

Different plant compounds support this process in complementary ways:

• Carotenoids quench highly reactive oxygen species (such as singlet oxygen) that preferentially damage fats and cell membranes
• Polyphenols reduce oxidative stress and calm inflammatory signaling pathways such as NF-κB
• Sulfur-based phytonutrients support the body’s production of glutathione, the primary internal antioxidant used to regulate inflammation
• Fresh herbs and leafy greens provide compounds that help regenerate antioxidants and support detoxification pathways

Rather than eliminating ROS, the goal is balance. It's about keeping oxidative stress within a range the body can manage and resolve.

Why an Anti-Inflammatory Diet Helps

Food influences inflammation every day, not through a single nutrient or superfood, but through patterns that either add to or reduce inflammatory load.

An anti-inflammatory diet helps by:

• Lowering incoming oxidative stress, especially from blood sugar spikes, processed foods, and damaged fats
• Providing the building blocks needed to repair cell membranes, so cells can respond appropriately to nutrients, hormones, and immune signals
• Supplying phytonutrients that calm inflammatory signaling at its source, rather than just masking symptoms
• Supporting mitochondrial efficiency, which reduces excess ROS production during energy generation

This is why whole foods—especially vegetables, herbs, healthy fats, and high-quality protein—are protective at the cellular level.

Over time, these food choices reduce background inflammatory signaling, support resolution, and allow the immune system to shift out of constant defense mode and back into repair.

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Ready to Support Your Body and Calm Inflammation?

Inflammation is the immune system responding to perceived danger, inside or outside the body.

Food patterns, blood sugar swings, gut barrier stress, sleep disruption, nervous system overload, and metabolic strain can all generate the same danger signals and activate the same inflammatory pathways.

When food choices support cell membrane integrity, antioxidant balance, gut resilience, blood sugar stability, and nervous system regulation, inflammatory signaling can soften, and healing becomes possible.

For more support, explore these options:

• Nourishing Meals®, a smart meal planning system that helps you put this way of eating into practice with supportive recipes and meal plans. Select Anti-Inflammatory Diet to begin.
• Explore different elimination diets and discover which approach is the best fit for you.
• Additional articles on gut health and nervous system support, which play a central role in immune regulation and inflammation, including How Nervous System Dysregulation Affects Digestion, How Food Sensitivities Affect Sleep, and The Role of the Nervous System in Digestive Health.

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