A resident of Redwood City, CA, Alan Stinson has completed training in construction and has a background in retail and medical supply delivery. Having shed 70 pounds over the past few years, Alan Stinson combines regular workouts in Redwood City, CA with a healthy diet.
To achieve a healthy diet, paying closer attention to the types of food consumed is necessary. For many years, several health agencies have been studying how certain foods groups affect our well-being. For example, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Alabama developed a new index that measures foods in terms of the levels of inflammation they cause.
Published in the Journal of Nutrition, the inflammation index was created by analyzing data encompassing 30,000 people of diverse backgrounds and with four lifestyle characteristics. Nineteen food groups consumed by these people, who shared food habits as part of a Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study (REGARDS) study, were cross-referenced.
The result was a numerical score assigned to 109 different basic foods, with negative values associated with low inflammation and positive scores moving toward greater inflammation. On the low end were tomatoes (-0.78), berries and apples (-0.65), and poultry (-0.45). With fish and red meat hovering around zero, high inflammation scores were associated with added sugars (0.56), processed meats (0.68), starchy vegetables (0.72) and refined grains (0.72).
What these results seem to reinforce is that the same types of foods associated with inflammation are also those that pose a threat to overall health, when consumed too much.
Alan Stinson (Redwood City CA) 
