/ Anti-inflammatory Plan my week
Move · Food

Five bowls that turn the heat down.

Chronic, low-grade inflammation hums in the background of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. No single food switches it off. A Mediterranean-style pattern lowers it a little, and in a large trial cut heart attacks and strokes by about 30%. Here are five bowls built on that pattern, in Australian measures, with a week planner and a shopping list.

Plan my week The bowls Evidence Check first

Evidence-checked, and not a diet prescription. Your week plan stays on this device.

01 · The heat

A short burst heals. A low hum that never switches off is the problem.

A cut, a cold or a hard training session sets off acute inflammation: heat, swelling, then repair. Chronic low-grade inflammation is quieter and lasts for years. Food is one lever on it, alongside waist size, smoking, sleep and movement.

Acute
Chronic low-grade
Feels like
Heat, redness, swelling, pain
Usually nothing at all
Lasts
Days
Months to years
Shows up as
A wound, a sore throat, sore muscles
Slightly raised hs-CRP or IL-6 on a blood test
Linked with
Injury, infection, hard training
Fat around the waist, smoking, short sleep, long sitting, and the overall diet
Its job
Repair
None useful. It travels with heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Anti-inflammatory eating aims only at the right-hand column, and it works through the whole pattern rather than single foods. Researchers even score diets with a Dietary Inflammatory Index built from 45 foods and nutrients.[3]

What food can do, in three numbers

−0.39mg/L
Average drop in hs-CRP on Mediterranean-style diets

Across 33 trials and 3,476 adults. IL-6 fell by 0.16 pg/mL. Real but modest, and results varied a lot between trials.[1]

~30%fewer events
Heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths in PREDIMED

7,447 adults at high risk, about 5 years. The extra virgin olive oil arm beat a reduced-fat diet: about 1 fewer event per 100 people.[2]

3–6days
Of omega-3 from one 150 g serve of Australian farmed salmon

At about 980 mg EPA+DHA per 100 g raw, one fillet covers 3 to 6 days of the Heart Foundation’s 250–500 mg a day. Food first, label second.[5][4]

02 · The bowls

Five bowls, one pattern.

Each bowl uses some of the same building blocks: fish, extra virgin olive oil, legumes, wholegrains and plenty of plants. The table shows what each one brings and what to watch, so you can mix them across a week.

BowlFishOlive oilLegumesWholegrainPlantsWatch
Yes Fish, but low in omega-3 Not in this bowl Plants counts different plant foods, not oil or spices
Converted to grams and millilitres. The original recipes use US cups and spoons, and a US tablespoon is 15 ml where an Australian one is 20 ml. Every oil here is extra virgin olive oil. Use the serves control on each bowl to scale it.

Bowl ideas and photos adapted from a recipe thread by No filter Skin on X. Methods, measures and notes are ours.

03 · The week

Plan a week, get the shopping list.

Pick one bowl a day. The planner counts fish meals against the Heart Foundation’s 2–3 a week, tallies legumes, plants and salty extras, then builds one list scaled to your household.

Your week

Example week, change any day
Cooking for
2 people

How the week adds up

Shopping list

04 · The evidence

What the evidence supports.

Graded from solid to myth. Small, real effects are still worth having when they come from meals you would eat anyway.

Solid
A Mediterranean-style pattern cuts heart attacks and strokes.
PREDIMED: 7,447 adults at high risk, followed for a median 4.8 years. Hazard ratios 0.69 with extra virgin olive oil and 0.72 with nuts, against a reduced-fat diet. About 1 fewer event per 100 people.[2]
Guideline
Eat 2–3 serves of fish a week, including oily fish.
Heart Foundation: a serve is 100 g cooked, about the size of your palm. Aim for 250–500 mg of marine omega-3 (EPA and DHA) a day, plus 1 g of plant omega-3 (ALA).[4]
Moderate
The same pattern lowers inflammation markers, a little.
33 trials, 3,476 adults: hs-CRP −0.39 mg/L, IL-6 −0.16 pg/mL. CRP results varied widely between trials, and TNF-α didn’t move.[1]
Limited
Beans and fibre lower CRP.
Linked in population studies. In trials, non-soy legumes moved CRP by −0.21 mg/L, which was not significant, and a 2024 review in adults with overweight found no effect on CRP, IL-6 or TNF-α. Eat them for fibre, protein and low salt.[10][11]
Limited
Berries calm inflammation.
A 2020 review of 32 trials found small drops, mostly with concentrated anthocyanin doses above 300 mg a day. Newer reviews find no clear effect from usual intakes.[12][13]
Limited
Extra virgin olive oil works like ibuprofen.
Its oleocanthal blocks the same COX enzymes in the lab. The researchers estimated 50 g of oil, about 2¾ Australian tablespoons, matches roughly 10% of an adult ibuprofen dose. It has never been tested as pain relief.[17]
Association
Ultra-processed food drives inflammation.
A 2025 review of 24 studies: more ultra-processed food went with higher CRP in 11 of 17 adult analyses and higher IL-6 in 5 of 6. Observational, so cause isn’t proven.[18]
Association
Eat 30 different plants a week.
From the American Gut Project: people eating 30+ plant types a week had more diverse gut microbes than those eating 10 or fewer. A rule of thumb, not a tested target. All five bowls together reach 17.[19]
Myth
Nightshades cause inflammation.
Arthritis Australia: there is no proof that tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant or capsicum affect arthritis symptoms. Keep the cherry tomatoes.[16]
Myth
Dairy is inflammatory.
Trial reviews find dairy neutral to slightly anti-inflammatory, except in people with a cow’s milk allergy. One of the reviews had a dairy-council author.[14][15]
05 · Check first

Check these before you change how you eat.

General guidance, not a meal plan for you. If any of these apply, the bowls may need changes, and a GP or Accredited Practising Dietitian can tailor them.

Pregnant or planning

Cook eggs until the white is firm and the yolk has started to set, so boil the soft-boiled eggs in bowls 1 and 2 for 8 minutes or more.[8] Canned tuna and salmon are fine. Limit shark (flake) and billfish to one 150 g serve a fortnight with no other fish that fortnight.[7]

Watching salt

Australia’s sodium target is 2,000 mg a day; average intake is about 3,600 mg.[20] Feta, olives, canned fish and packet roasted chickpeas carry most of the salt here. Pick springwater tuna, rinse olives and chickpeas, and use feta or olives rather than both.

On warfarin

Spinach and other leafy greens are high in vitamin K, which affects warfarin. You don’t need to avoid them, but keep the amount steady from week to week and tell your doctor before a big change.

Kidney disease

Avocado, tomato, sweet potato, legumes and yoghurt are high in potassium. If you’ve been told to limit potassium or phosphorus, ask your renal dietitian before making these bowls a habit.

Allergies

The bowls contain fish, egg and milk. Swap fish or chicken for more chickpeas or firm tofu, and leave out the feta or yoghurt. With a cow’s milk allergy, dairy is inflammatory for you.[15]

An inflammatory condition

With arthritis, IBD or psoriasis, food supports treatment and doesn’t replace it. High-fibre, legume-heavy bowls may not suit an IBD flare. Find an Accredited Practising Dietitian at Dietitians Australia.

Sources22
  1. Keshani M, Rafiee S, Heidari H, et al. Mediterranean diet reduces inflammation in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutr Rev, 2025.
  2. Estruch R, Ros E, Salas-Salvadó J, et al. Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts. N Engl J Med, 2018.
  3. Shivappa N, Steck SE, Hurley TG, et al. Designing and developing a literature-derived, population-based dietary inflammatory index. Public Health Nutr, 2014.
  4. Heart Foundation. Omega-3, omega-6 and heart health. Updated June 2025.
  5. Nichols PD, Glencross B, Petrie JR, Singh SP. Readily available sources of long-chain omega-3 oils: is farmed Australian seafood a better source of the good oil than wild-caught seafood? Nutrients, 2014. Salmon figures are 2013 data and vary by farm and feed.
  6. USDA. FoodData Central: cooked farmed Atlantic salmon (FDC 175168) and canned light tuna in water (FDC 171986, 334194).
  7. Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Mercury in fish. Reviewed December 2020.
  8. NSW Food Authority. Pregnancy and food safety: foods to eat and avoid; and Eggs: enjoy safely.
  9. Food Safety Information Council. Is it done yet? Cook chicken to 75°C. 2017.
  10. Salehi-Abargouei A, Saraf-Bank S, Bellissimo N, Azadbakht L. Effects of non-soy legume consumption on C-reactive protein: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrition, 2015.
  11. Mansouri F, et al. The effects of nonsoy legumes consumption on serum levels of inflammatory biomarkers and adiponectin in overweight/obese adults. J Nutr Biochem, 2024.
  12. Fallah AA, Sarmast E, Fatehi P, Jafari T. Impact of dietary anthocyanins on systemic and vascular inflammation: systematic review and meta-analysis on randomised clinical trials. Food Chem Toxicol, 2020.
  13. Avendano EE, et al. Dietary intakes of anthocyanins and cardiometabolic health. Am J Clin Nutr, 2026.
  14. Nieman KM, Anderson BD, Cifelli CJ. The effects of dairy product and dairy protein intake on inflammation: a systematic review of the literature. J Am Coll Nutr, 2021.
  15. Bordoni A, Danesi F, Dardevet D, et al. Dairy products and inflammation: a review of the clinical evidence. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr, 2017.
  16. Arthritis Australia. Healthy eating and arthritis (PDF). June 2024.
  17. Beauchamp GK, Keast RSJ, Morel D, et al. Ibuprofen-like activity in extra-virgin olive oil. Nature, 2005; and Nature news coverage.
  18. Ciaffi J, Mancarella L, Ripamonti C, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption and systemic inflammatory biomarkers: a scoping review. Nutrients, 2025.
  19. McDonald D, Hyde E, Debelius JW, et al. American Gut: an open platform for citizen science microbiome research. mSystems, 2018.
  20. NHMRC. Nutrient Reference Values update: changes in sodium NRVs (PDF). 2017.
  21. NHMRC. Australian Dietary Guidelines, Guideline 3: limit saturated fat, added salt, added sugars and alcohol. 2013.
  22. World Health Organization. Guideline: sugars intake for adults and children. 2015.
Start here

Two fish meals and one bean meal this week.

That covers the Heart Foundation’s fish target and adds a legume meal. Build from there, one bowl at a time.

Plan my week The bowls Evidence Check first
Movement matters too. Try the Fascia movement guide