Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion, Fourth Edition (46 page)

Tea: green (highest), black, rooibus, mint

Chocolate

Coffee (not a recommendation but is high in polyphenols)

Onions, leeks

Broccoli, cabbage

Beans of all types, including soy

Parsley, celery

Millet, wheat

Skin of citrus fruit

Tomatoes

Clover

The use of nutritional supplements has been best studied in ulcerative colitis where inflammation can roar. Curcumin from turmeric, resveratrol from red wine and red grapes, EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) from green tea, and quercetin from maples, onions, leafy vegetables, and tea have all been shown to reduce inflammation in ulcerative colitis and throughout the body. Many high-polyphenol supplements, spices, and foods have been shown to decrease levels of NF-kappaB and to decrease inflammation. You can use many of these as foods, or you can find them singly or in combination in products that reduce inflammation.

Curcumin (Curcuma longa): Standardized to curcuminoids 200 to 1,000 mg three times daily, or use 2 to 3 teaspoons of dried turmeric or 1 to 2 “fingers” of fresh turmeric juiced daily.

Ginger: Drink as a tea or in fresh vegetable juice, eat crystallized ginger, use fresh or dried in cooking, or take capsules 500 to 2,000 mg daily.

Boswellia (frankincense): 100 to 1,200 mg standardized extract daily.