Foods That Cause Swelling In Feet

Struggling with swollen feet is not something many people, or any really, want to deal with. It can be embarrassing and frustrating to have to handle and hide swollen feet, especially if you don’t know what’s causing it or if you’re here, you assume it’s food and is looking to figure out what foods that cause swelling in feet are and why. 

To start off this article, it’s important to note that you should always consult your doctor or medical professional with any health concerns, like swollen feet. There can be a multitude of reasons that cause this issue and it’s essential to clarify that it’s not a high-risk concern. You should be cleared by your doctor before attempting to simply eliminate foods from your diet that may or may not be causing your feet to swell (a doctor can prove to provide much better answers through the process of elimination).

In the article, we will be discussing what inflammation is, what can categorize food as an inflammatory food, and also provide some answers on to what foods can cause swelling in the feet. Get to reading to find some answers and start eliminating foods, like processed foods, from your diet to eliminate the negative inflammatory side effects and other negative health concerns and risks they can cause. 

What Is Inflammation?

Inflammation is the body’s natural biological prerogative to battle toxins, infections, injuries, and so on. When there is an “overdosage” of inflammation in the body, it can lead to high-risk issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis, to name but a few. 

It’s also important to note that inflammation is a necessary biological process needed for the body to fight against issues like infection in order to heal itself. Without inflammation, there would be no signaling to the brain and the immune system to fix damaged tissue or fight against viruses and bacteria. Having a balance is essential in creating a healthy and effective immune system that does its job without harming the body in the process. 

What Makes A Food Out To Be An “Inflammatory” Food?

An inflammatory food is any food that has the ability to change the bacteria living in the human body’s gut. The reason this is an issue that processes into inflammation and food being termed an “inflammatory food” is that when bacteria in the gut is altered it can proceed to affect the immune system to encourage inflammation or chronic inflammation. And in terms of “inflammatory foods”, all processed foods are inflammatory foods. 

Foods/Ingredients That Cause Swelling In Feet

Processed Sugars 

Also known as refined sugars, processed sugars are a common day ingredient in today’s society’s foods that cause a major issue with inflammation (which can cause swollen feet). 

If you didn’t know already, sugar—as in processed refined sugar—has been proven to be incredibly unhealthy and cause a vast array of negative health risks like diabetes and heart disease. It’s really no surprise that sugar’s negative health risks only manage to incline rather than decline, as sugar also causes insulin stores (when there’s a mass of it in the body’s system) to hold onto excess fat cells (which in turn encourages the fat cells to get bigger and expand).

High fructose syrup is an example of a “refined sugar”, which can be found in a bunch of different everyday products like some of the examples provided below. 

Common Day Foods That Contain Processed Sugar:

• Soda
• Cereal
• Granola Bars
• White Bread

Trans Fats

Artificial trans fat is another ingredient in accessible common day foods that cause inflammation. It has been repeatedly shown in studies that trans fat has been shown to increase inflammation, most notably in people with excess fat. 

Some examples of foods that contain trans fat are:

• Margarine
• French Fries
• Fried Foods

Highly Refined Carbohydrates

Similar to sugar, carbohydrates that are highly refined cause insulin to spike. This then proceeds to call upon the body’s inflammatory response due to the body’s immune system working to do its job and remove the excess blood sugar in the body. 

Some examples of foods that are considered to be highly refined carbohydrates are:

• Bread
• French Fries
• Crackers
• Cereals

Alcohol

When drinking alcohol the body works to detain more water (as alcohol dehydrates you), and because of that, there is a resulting swelling, or inflammatory, response. There is a boatload of other major health risks that result from long-time consumption and overconsumption of alcohol, like kidney failure and liver failure.

Processed Meats

Like processed sugars and other products, processed meats are innately shown to increase the risk of negative health concerns. All processed foods have been shown to have negative side effects and health risks, so working to eliminate or minimize the consumption of processed foods is highly advised.

Processed meats are high in saturated fats, which increase the body’s natural inflammatory response. Saturated fats, especially when overconsumed, have been shown to promote inflammation in the body due to the build-up of cholesterol in the body’s arteries. 

Common day examples of processed meats include:

• Sausages
• Hot Dogs
• Burgers
• Deli Meats
• Pepperoni
• Ham
• Bacon

Anti-Inflammatory Foods

Thankfully, there are anti-inflammatory foods that can battle against inflammation and swelling caused by the inflammatory response of the body.

Some examples of them are:

• Vegetables (like spinach, kale, ginger, turmeric, and collards)
• Nuts (like almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, and pecans)
• Fruits (like oranges, strawberries, and blueberries)
• Fish (like salmon and tuna)

Conclusion

Did you find this article informative? Make sure to leave a comment below to tell us what you think or if you have any questions. Don’t forget to share this informative article on “Foods That Cause Swelling In Feet”. 

Tag us on social media to show us what inflammatory foods you’ve cut out of your diet to decrease inflammation and swelling in your feet! Make sure to share this article and its inclusive information on presenting what foods can cause swelling in the feet due to an inflammatory response, with a friend or family member to spread the love (and the unswollen feet)!

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