How to Reduce Inflammation (and Why It Matters for Gut and Autoimmune Health)
Inflammation is your body’s natural defense mechanism. It’s how we fight off infections, recover from injury, and heal damaged tissues.
But when inflammation becomes chronic - persisting for weeks, months, or even years - it can start doing more harm than good.
Chronic inflammation is becoming more and more common, some of us know about it and deal with the symptoms associated regularly, while others may have it and not even realise.
Chronic inflammation is linked to a wide range of health conditions, including:
Autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and lupus
Gut-related issues like IBS, coeliac disease, SIBO, IBD and leaky gut
Chronic fatigue, skin issues, joint pain, endometriosis, anxiety, depression, and brain fog
If you’re dealing with any of these, or even just feeling off in your body, there’s a good chance unresolved inflammation is playing a role.
The good news? There’s a lot you can do to support your body, reduce inflammation naturally, and start feeling better.
Why Chronic Inflammation Matters for Long-Term Health
Inflammation is a natural and important part of your immune response, it’s how your body fights off infection, heals wounds and protects you from harm. But when inflammation becomes chronic, it can begin to damage tissues, disrupt hormone balance and contribute to disease.
In conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, coeliac disease, psoriasis, IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, the immune system mistakenly targets the body’s own tissues, leading to persistent inflammation and tissue damage. Chronic gut health issues like IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) often come with their own inflammatory load.
Even without a formal diagnosis, symptoms like ongoing fatigue, skin problems, joint pain, difficulty losing weight, and poor stress recovery may all signal that your body is dealing with low-grade, unresolved inflammation.
Reducing inflammation is possible and there are many things you can do to support your body to come back into balance. What you eat, your daily habits, your gut health, and how you care for your body are all parts of the picture.
Nutrition for Reducing Inflammation
What we eat has a huge impact on how well our body operates, chronic inflammation, and various diseases or health challenges.
An anti-inflammatory approach to food isn’t about restriction or elimination for the sake of it. It’s about learning to nourish your body in a way that supports your immune system, your gut, your hormones, and your energy. Here are the key areas to focus on:
Eat More of the Foods That Calm Inflammation
Meals with a variety of whole foods, anti-inflammatory, and gut health supporting ingredients:
Colourful vegetables and fruit: Having a range of colourful foods provides various phytonutrients (beneficial plant compounds) many of which help to reduce inflammation and support gut health as well as providing other benefits for the body.
Healthy fats: Extra virgin olive oil, avocado, oily fish for omega 3 (salmon, mackerel, sardines), nuts and seeds like walnuts, chia seed, flaxseed (plant based omega 3s), pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds.
Herbs and spices: with anti-inflammatory properties like turmeric, ginger, rosemary and cinnamon
Fibre rich foods: whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables to support gut health, digestion, and inflammation reduction
Prebiotic foods: like onion, garlic, asparagus, banana, apple, oats
These foods are rich in fibre, polyphenols, antioxidants, vitamins, and healthy fats - all of which help reduce oxidative stress, support your gut microbiome, and regulate immune function.
Reduce inflammatory foods
It doesn’t make these completely off limits but reducing these “sometimes foods” can make a big difference to inflammation and overall health. These foods are more likely to fan the flames when it comes to inflammation, especially when eaten regularly or in large amounts:
Ultra-processed foods: with long ingredient lists and artificial additives
Refined sugars and excess sugar alcohols (like sorbitol, mannitol, erythritol), which can aggravate gut symptoms and worsen gut health
Highly refined carbs (like white bread and pastries with little fibre or nutrition)
Excessive alcohol
These foods tend to be low in nutrients, low in fibre, and disruptive to gut health and blood sugar balance, all of which can trigger or increase inflammation.
Worth a mention is gluten and dairy which can cause inflammation and negative effects on gut health for some people as they are common culprits when it comes to food sensitivities and gut health challenges (among other foods as well). While many people can tolerate them completely fine, it’s about learning what works for your body and what helps you specifically feel well.
Support Your Gut to Support Your Immune System
Most of your immune system lives in or around your gut, so keeping your gut healthy is essential for managing inflammation.
That means:
Eating a wide variety of colourful and fibre-rich plant foods (aim for 30+ types per week)
Fermented foods: (if tolerated) like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, miso and yoghurt with live cultures
Staying hydrated to support digestion and gut lining health
For people with more complex gut health issues, a personalised approach to fibre and nutrition can make a big difference. In cases of dysbiosis, SIBO, autoimmune disease, or a compromised gut barrier (also called leaky gut), even well-intentioned strategies like “feeding the good bugs” can backfire, because fibre feeds all bacteria, not just the beneficial ones.
If you're dealing with IBS, ongoing bloating, sensitivities, or reactivity, it’s often not just about what you’re eating, it’s about the state of your gut. When the microbiome is imbalanced or the immune system is overactive, your body can start reacting to foods that would normally be harmless.
This is where working with a practitioner can help you get to the root cause, reduce triggers, and build gut resilience step-by-step. Often, once inflammation settles and the microbiome begins to re-balance, most people can gradually reintroduce more foods and expand their diet again.
In some cases, a short-term elimination or modified protocol (like low FODMAP or the Autoimmune protocol (AIP)) can help identify triggers, but the goal is never to stay restricted long term. It’s about improving gut function, immune tolerance, and dietary diversity in a sustainable way. Ideally, elimination diets are done with a nutritionist to ensure nutrient needs are met, to best support gut repair and overall health, and the approach is tailored to your needs - though for many people, earlier steps can make a noticeable difference without needing a full elimination.
My 12-week program, Gut, Autoimmune + Inflammation Reset, is designed to guide you through this process - step by step.
Lifestyle Habits That Lower Inflammation (Movement, Sleep, and Recovery)
When it comes to reducing inflammation, your daily routines matter just as much as what’s on your plate. The way you move, rest, and recover sends constant signals to your body, either supporting healing, or driving stress and inflammation.
The good news? Small, consistent lifestyle changes can have a big impact over time.
Nervous system support: The mind-body connection
One often overlooked piece of the inflammation puzzle is the nervous system. Chronic stress (whether from emotional stress, trauma, poor sleep, overwork, or even under-eating) can keep your body in a state of “fight or flight” - and that keeps inflammation switched on.
You can eat all the anti-inflammatory foods in the world, but if your nervous system is constantly on high alert, healing will feel like an uphill battle.
Tools to Help Calm your nervous system and reduce stress:
Gentle movement like walking, stretching, or restorative yoga
Breathwork or intentional slow deep breathing (try 4-7-8 or box breathing)
Vagal tone practices like humming, gargling, or cold exposure
Journaling, EFT tapping, or guided meditation
Time outside in nature, sunlight, grounding, or simply being off screens, taking time to slow down and not feel like you have to be productive.
Stress doesn’t have to go away completely (that’s not realistic), and is a natural part of life. It’s when stress becomes chronic where we can run into problems. Finding ways to regularly regulate your nervous system helps signal safety to your body and immune system, which can help reduce inflammation over time.
Prioritise enough, good quality sleep
Sleep is one of the most powerful tools we have to regulate inflammation, blood sugar, immune function, and gut repair. But it’s often overlooked.
To support better sleep:
Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep most nights with consistency in bedtime and wake time.
Create an evening routine that helps signal to your body it’s time to wind down.
Limit screens, caffeine, and large meals close to bedtime - these can all delay melatonin release and affect sleep quality.
Try to finish your last meal 2-3 hours before bed, and aim for a 12-hour overnight fast if you can. This makes it easier to fall asleep, gives your digestive system a break, and supports your circadian rhythm and metabolic health.
Move your body in a way that feels good for you
Movement helps reduce inflammation, support detox pathways, regulate blood sugar, and improve mood. But if you're over-training, under-recovering, or doing workouts that leave you feeling depleted, the opposite can happen.
Focus on movement that you enjoy, feels nourishing, and matches your energy levels:
Daily walks, especially after meals, can help regulate blood sugar, support digestion, and lower systemic inflammation.
Strength training 2–3 times per week supports muscle mass, metabolic health, and reduces inflammatory markers over time.
Gentle movement like yoga, Pilates, or stretching helps calm the nervous system and improves circulation.
Including regular movement, however that may look for you based on your symptoms and mobility, is great for the body and mind.
If you are able to do more intense movement like running, enjoy it, and recover well, that’s great! With medium intensity cardio important for cardiovascular health. Nothing’s off limits, it just depends what supports you best for whatever stage you are in with your symptoms and health journey.
Focus on nourishing and balanced meals throughout the day
Blood sugar dysregulation is another contributor to inflammation. Having balanced meals with enough protein and fibre can make a real difference to energy and mood over the day.
Try to:
Eat within an hour of waking. While longer length fasting can be a helpful tool when used intentionally and in the right context, starting your day with a balanced meal can better support your nervous system, regulate your circadian rhythm, help stabilise blood sugar and cortisol levels, setting a calmer, more resilient tone for the rest of the day.
Include protein, fibre, and fat at each meal
Keep snacks balanced (e.g. nuts and fruit, hummus and crackers), rather than quick carbs when possible
Avoid skipping meals or running on caffeine
Final Thoughts: Reducing inflammation and Healing is Possible
Chronic inflammation doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t heal overnight either. But with the right support, your body can shift out of survival mode and into repair.
If you're living with an autoimmune condition, gut issues, or chronic symptoms, it’s easy to feel discouraged or like you have to do everything perfectly to feel better.
But reducing inflammation isn’t about perfection. It’s about learning to work with your body, taking small steps and choosing what helps you to feel well most of the time.
Whether you’re navigating autoimmune symptoms, gut health challenges, or just want to feel more calm, clear, and resilient in your body, reducing inflammation is about consistency, individualisation, nervous system safety, and having a full lifestyle approach.
This isn’t about cutting out everything or chasing a “perfect” anti-inflammatory lifestyle. It’s about gently reducing the things that add to your body’s stress load, and building up the things that support healing, capacity, resilience over time and learning what you need to feel well.
What You Can Do Next
Start with one area that feels manageable, maybe that’s adding more fibre-rich (always add fibre gradually), anti-inflammatory foods, moving more, supporting your nervous system, or improving your sleep habits.
Pay attention to how your body responds, not just in symptoms, but in mood, energy, digestion, and mental clarity.
And if you’re feeling stuck or unsure where to begin, know that you don’t have to figure it out alone.
Ready for Support?
If you’re dealing with gut issues, autoimmune disease, or inflammation that feels hard to shift on your own, I’m here to help.
I work with clients 1:1 through online consults and programs to create a personalised plan that meets you where you’re at. We’ll focus on strategies to support your gut health, lower inflammation, ease symptoms, and help you feel grounded and well again - step by step, in a way that works for you.
🖥️ All consults are online, so we can work together wherever you are.
👉 Click here to learn more about working with me or book your free 15 minute wellness investigation to plan your next best step now.
