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I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly being bombarded with advertisements for this diet or that one. Smoothies, keto, vegan, carnivore, potato. Potato? Yes, potato.
It’s confusing isn’t it?
Based on my research, training, and personal experience, I’ve found that a general ant-inflammatory diet and a keto-flexitarian diet work best for most people.
I have also seen vegan, vegetarian, and carnivore diets work really well for people. However as a functional medicine practitioner, unless someone comes to me already vegan or vegetarian, I usually begin with anti-inflammatory or keto-flexitarian and move towards one of the others if they still don’t seem to function their best.
I’ve gone into detail on both the anti-inflammatory diet and the keto-flexitarian diet in separate posts. If you haven’t read those yet, you can get there by clicking on the links below.
But I’ve gotten many questions about which one is best.
It’s that question that I’ll answer today.
Let’s get started.
What is the Difference Between the Anti-Inflammatory Diet and the Keto-Flexitarian Diet?
The difference between the Anti-Inflammatory way of eating and the Keto-Flexitarian food plan is minimal, but significant.
Both food plans are designed to lower inflammation in the body, thus preventing or reversing chronic disease and pro-aging biochemical processes. The Keto-Flexitarian food plan is basically an extension of the Anti-Inflammatory food plan that guides your body into mild ketosis with the overall goal of optimizing brain function and preventing cognitive decline. This is because science shows that your brain functions better when your body is in ketosis than when it is not. I go into more detail in my post on How to Eat to Prevent Cognitive Decline. You can check it out by clicking here.
Because it aims to keep you in mild ketosis, the Keto-Flexitarian diet is naturally slightly more restrictive than the Anti-Inflammatory diet, but can be just as delicious. It minimizes grains and starchy vegetables as well as high sugar fruits, whereas the Anti-Inflammatory diet just focuses on avoiding the more inflammatory ones.
That’s pretty much it as far as differences go. Overall, both ways of eating are very similar, lower your overall inflammation levels, and help heal your gut. I go into more detail on how to heal your gut and why it’s important in another post. Click here to read it now.
You may be wondering at this point that if these two ways of eating are so similar, which one should you choose to follow? Let’s get into that now.
Which One Should You Follow?
The path you choose will depend on your health goals, current health, and family history. Let’s start with the last one and work our way forward.
If you have a family history of Alzheimer’s disease or cognitive decline, the Keto-Flexitarian diet is something you should consider. You can read more about why in my post on How to Eat to Prevent Cognitive Decline. Click here to go there now. However, if you have no family history of brain issues but have family members with diabetes, cancer, blood pressure problems, autoimmune disease, or hormone issues, you may want to look at the Anti-Inflammatory diet. All of these issues can be related back to inflammation and this way of eating has helped prevent, relieve, put into remission, and even reverse these medical conditions. To learn more about this way of eating, click here.
Likewise, if you currently have Alzheimer’s or issues with your memory, please take a look at the Keto-Flexitarian diet. Whereas if you battle diabetes, cancer, blood pressure problems, autoimmune disease, or hormone issues, consider the Anti-Inflammatory diet.
Last but not least, if your health goals are to lower your inflammation, prevent the above medical conditions, or get rid of some pesky symptoms (including pain, bloating, low energy, difficulty losing weight, skin problems, food sensitivities, and even abnormal poops [yes, I said poop]), I encourage you to look into the Anti-Inflammatory diet to help you do that. If you also experience brain fog or difficulty concentrating, I’d then encourage you to consider the Keto-Flexitarian diet instead. Both ways of eating will help lower inflammation, prevent inflammation-related medical conditions, and help resolve the first set of symptoms, but the Keto-Flexitarian diet really hones in and focuses on erasing the brain symptoms as well.
Overall, both the Anti-Inflammatory Diet and the Keto-Flexitarian Diet are great ways of eating that include tons of delicious foods that make you feel great. However, there is a fundamental difference – the focus on the brain – that sets the Keto-Flexitarian Diet apart.
In this post, I’ve gone over the details of that fundamental difference as well as which food plan you might choose to try.
Again, I’ve linked the posts that go into more detail on each way of eating below so you can learn more and get started.
If this seems overwhelming and you’d like guidance, I’d be happy to help. Just click here to set up a free Discovery Call with me.
It’s time we use food as medicine. Happy eating!
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