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Fight the Good Food Fight Against Inflammation

April Heath

01/27/2025

When your joints feel like they’re on 🔥FIRE 🔥, it’s probably inflammation, so we’ll look at natural ways to fight back.

Image Credit: April Heath LMT (MS Designer)


Two types of Inflammation

There is acute inflammation, which is the body’s first reaction to an invader like a virus. There is also chronic inflammation, which is when the body remains inflamed after the threat is long gone.

According to Cleveland Clinic, the symptoms of chronic inflammation can be hard to pinpoint. Digestive problems, frequent infections, and fever are symptoms indicating possible chronic inflammation.

Since I’ve been dealing with tantrums in my hip – I mean bursitis – I’m keen to learn how to make the inflammation go away. While mainstream medicine has been helpful, it’s not a permanent remedy. 

So, I recruited help.

Joye Burford of Plant-Based Wellness sent an easy recipe with lentils (yum!)

1/2 cup cooked brown lentils
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup mixed steamed veggies 

Mash  the lentils in a bowl, then mix with breadcrumbs, parsley and spices.
Form into small patties
Heat olive oil in a pan and cook patties for 3 mins on each side.
Serve with steamed veggies.

Julian Zumpano is a registered dietitian at Cleveland Clinic. In this video, she explains some simple diets to combat inflammation, such as

  • Whole foods
  • Minimally-processed foods
  • One-ingredient foods (ie an apple)
  • Mediterranean Diet

Maximally processed foods make up the majority of my daily diet. Bacon cheeseburgers, frozen dinners, Oreos, and ice cream! That has to change.

Forced to change

One of my clients asked why I was limping, and when I said it’s from hip bursitis, she told me a story. When she was 18, she had an injury that triggered inflammation in her knee that wouldn’t go away. Her grandmother had been a natural healer in the “Old Country”, and her dad became a naturopathic physician. He prescribed three servings of celery daily for 30 days. 

Image credit:  © Nevinates | Dreamstime.com


She hated celery. When the knee pain became unbearable, she decided to give the intolerable celery regimen a try. Thirty days later, the knee pain went away and never came back.

That’s a cure.

Since I’m not interested in managing pain symptoms for the rest of my life, a cure sounds great.

I’m not a celery fan either, but I hate it less than I hate pain, and I plan to survive for at least 30 days. So, I’ve been eating raw celery. It’s making a noticeable difference. I’ve also been applying black castor oil to the area and drinking ginger turmeric tea. Together with Tylenol and anti-inflammatory medicine, it’s all helping, although the pain still flares up.

It’s especially bad after sitting, but once I get going the pain subsides.

If you’re also suffering with bursitis and want to know more about it, check out this post from Mayo Clinic

In the meantime, I shared this in another post, but here it is again. Yoga with Joelle’s YouTube channel has a series of 10-minute yoga exercises to treat hip bursitis. The easiest are supine (on your back). Then progress to sitting, and ultimately standing yoga.

For the academics in the crowd

Harvard University Health has a great list of foods that fight inflammation, as well as a list of no good foods with healthy substitutes.

For those who enjoy preparing food and cooking (not me!) Cleveland Clinic organized some recipes to combat chronic inflammation.

There you have it! Several all-natural ways to fight the good food fight against chronic inflammation.


If you’ve experienced chronic inflammation, what remedies helped you? Tell me in the comments.

Easily book your appointment: www.joyfulrisingspa.com

Call/Text: 754.777.9437

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