Diet that cures pain and inflammation, devised by experts: Constant sickness and aching joints are the first signs of problems that left unchecked can turn deadly. Now new research has the life-changing answers

You might not be aware that low-grade inflammation is building up in your body, but there may be subtle signs – such as feeling constantly tired, joints and muscles that ache without an obvious cause, or if you regularly experience headaches that are hard to shift.

It is different from the acute, short-term inflammation that causes the ­redness and swelling after an injury, and which is an important part of healing as it brings extra blood and nutrients to the area.

With low-grade inflammation, by contrast, the immune system can release inflammatory molecules into the body’s tissue even when there’s no clear injury or infection to tackle.

This process can be kickstarted by everyday factors including long-term stress, disrupted sleep, obesity and a poor diet.

It leads to a persistent inflammatory response, which can slow the body’s ability to recover from everyday strains, injuries and illnesses.

It’s also thought to contribute to pain and stiffness, because the inflammatory molecules can sensitise nerves and irritate surrounding tissues.

It may partly explain why chronic pain (defined as pain that lasts more than three months) is so common – between a third and half of adults in the UK live with chronic pain, according to a major 2016 review published in BMJ Open.

What’s more, long-term chronic inflammation is linked to serious conditions from depression to cancer and dementia.

Some of the factors driving low-grade inflammation, such as stress, are hard to control – but tweaking your diet may help reduce flare-ups of pain and smooth your recovery. 

One contributing factor is the trillions of microscopic organisms that make up the gut microbiome – they help break down fibre from food (found in beans, wholegrains, fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds), making short-chain fatty acids, such as butyrate – which interact with immune cells and help to dial down inflammatory responses.

This could be one reason that a study of more than 23,000 adults in the US found that those who ate the most fibre had a 34 per cent lower risk of raised inflammatory markers than people who ate the least, reported the American Journal of Medicine in 2013.

More recently, a review of previous studies, published in Frontiers in Immunology in 2024, showed that chronic pain can be linked with an unbalanced microbiome – in other words, having lower microbial diversity and fewer bacteria that produce butyrate.

It may be that beneficial bacteria alter the signals sent from the gut to the brain – potentially affecting how pain is ­perceived (although we can’t yet rule out the possibility that the microbiome changes in response to the pain and inflammation).

Eating more fermented foods may help, by introducing new microbes to the gut microbiome.

People who ate more fermented foods such as yoghurt, kefir and kimchi over ten weeks ­experienced a boost in their gut microbiome diversity and lower levels of inflammation, according to a 2021 study published in the journal Cell.

Overall, the Mediterranean diet is the eating pattern with the most consistent evidence linked to lower inflammation.

A 2025 review, published in the journal Nutrition Reviews, which pooled results across 33 studies, found that following a Mediterranean style of eating – i.e. a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, beans, fish and nuts, and using extra-virgin olive oil as the main fat – significantly lowered levels of several key inflammatory molecules. It suggests that this approach may help calm some of the underlying biological processes driving inflammation.

There is not one single magic ingredient in the diet, it is the overall pattern of eating that is so beneficial.

That said, some of the foods that feature heavily in the Mediterranean diet contain compounds that scientists think may help explain some of its anti-inflammatory effects.

For instance, extra-virgin olive oil – made by crushing olives and mechanically extracting the oil at low temperature without chemicals – contains oleocanthal, a natural compound formed when olives are crushed and extracted, and that works in a similar way to the painkiller ibuprofen.

Ibuprofen blocks enzymes that make prostaglandins, chemicals released in response to injury or irritation which help trigger pain, swelling and tenderness. They’re a key reason for the pain of sore joints, strained muscles and headaches.

The pain they cause is essentially a biological alarm system designed to protect damaged tissue.

Oleocanthal helps block the same enzymes that ibuprofen does, but the amounts in olive oil are much smaller.

That means while it won’t act like an immediate painkiller, in theory, if consumed daily, it may help gently lower low-grade inflammation over time.

Consuming around 50g of extra-virgin olive oil a day could provide up to about 9mg of oleocanthal, according to a study published in the journal Nature in 2005 – that’s roughly equivalent to 10 per cent of the amount in a typical dose of ibuprofen.

A simple way to tell if an extra-virgin olive oil is rich in oleocanthal is by taste.

Oils that have a peppery kick or a slight sting at the back of the throat tend to contain more of it and the stronger the sting, the higher the oleocanthal content.

Other foods in the Mediterranean-style diet are known to contribute to anti-inflammatory effects – such as tomatoes and leafy greens, as well as omega-3 fatty acids in oily fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines.

These omega-3 fats may help to dampen inflammatory signals in the body that drive pain and stiffness.

Taking omega-3 supplements, around 1g per day – roughly equivalent to eating two portions of oily fish a week – led to a meaningful reduction in chronic pain overall, within a month and with even more noticeable improvements by six months, according to a large review of studies, published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine in 2025.

The greatest benefits were seen in conditions where inflammation plays a role, such as rheumatoid arthritis and migraine (the results were less convincing for osteoarthritis – where pain is linked to gradual joint damage as well as inflammation).

Even if you aren’t affected by recurrent aches and pains, sticking to this way of eating means you’ll be supporting your health in the future too.

Finally, try to keep highly processed foods to a minimum as diets high in ultra-processed foods have been linked to higher levels of inflammation.

Ask Emily 

I’ve heard that you shouldn’t eat milk and fruit together as it can cause stomach problems. What about fruit and yoghurt, or apple crumble with custard?

Dr Emily Leeming replies: The theory behind this is that as fruit digests quickly and milk more slowly, eating them together delays the breakdown of the fruit, leaving it sitting in the stomach – where it may ferment and cause bloating or discomfort.

But that’s not how digestion works.

Your stomach doesn’t deal with foods separately – everything you eat gets mixed together and broken down by stomach acid and enzymes, whether it’s fruit, dairy, grains or meat.

Our digestive system is actually very good at handling mixed meals, which is just as well, because almost everything we eat is mixed in some way.

If it wasn’t good at this, foods such as fruit yoghurt, smoothies, apple crumble with custard, or berries and cream would regularly cause stomach issues – and for most people (unless they have a food allergy or intolerance), they don’t.

That said, everyone’s gut is different. Some people do notice bloating or discomfort after certain foods, which may be due to intolerances (for example, lactose in dairy or certain sugars in fruit), rather than the combination of foods.

So unless this has been diagnosed as a problem by your doctor or dietitian, it’s not something to avoid.

• If you have a question for Emily, send it to dremily@dailymail.co.uk or write to Good Health, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY. Replies should be taken in a general context; consult your GP with health concerns.