Inflammation is part of your body’s response to nearly any type of physical injury. It’s one of the ways that your body protects itself, and begins its repair process.
The IF (Inflammation Factor) Rating™ estimates the inflammatory or anti-inflammatory potential of individual foods or combinations of foods by calculating the net effect of different nutritional factors, such as fatty acids, antioxidants, and glycemic impact.
Nutrition Data provides IF Ratings for most foods in its database. IF Ratings appear on Nutrition Facts pages and have a format similar to the example below.
Photo: Self Nutrition Data
The IF Rating™ provides an estimate of this food’s effect on inflammation. A negative IF Rating™ means that the food is considered to be inflammatory (i.e. increases inflammation), and a positive IF Rating™ indicates that the food is considered to be anti-inflammatory (i.e. reduces inflammation). There is no upper or lower limit for the IF Ratings, so you’ll see a wide range of values reported. IF Ratings are also dependent on serving size, so you’ll see the IF Rating™ value change if you change the serving size in the Serving Size drop-down at the top of the Nutrition Facts page.
How to interpret the values: Foods with positive IF Ratings are considered anti-inflammatory, and those with negative IF Ratings are considered inflammatory. The higher the number, the stronger the effect. The goal is to balance negative foods with positive foods so that the combined rating for all foods eaten in a single day is positive.
IF Positives
This food contains known anti-inflammatory nutrients, including monounsaturated fat, selenium, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and folate.
IF Negatives
This food contains known inflammatory nutrients, including arachidonic acid and saturated fat.
For more GREAT nutritional information, try this website: http://nutritiondata.self.com/help/inflammation