Based on functional medicine principles and the research on modern dietary patterns versus ancestral health, the three most common and dangerous inflammatory foods in America today are:

1. REFINED SUGAR AND HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP
These are ubiquitous in processed foods, sodas, baked goods, and nearly everything packaged. They spike blood sugar, promote insulin resistance, create advanced glycation end products (AGEs) that damage tissues including brain tissue, feed pathogenic bacteria, and trigger systemic inflammation. The
average American consumes 150-170 pounds of sugar per year—our ancestors consumed maybe 5 pounds annually from natural sources.

2. REFINED SEED/VEGETABLE OILS (Omega-6 Industrial Oils)
Soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil—these highly processed oils are in everything from salad dressings to restaurant foods to packaged snacks. They’re pro-inflammatory due to their excessive omega-6 content, they oxidize easily creating toxic byproducts, and they completely
distort the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio that should be around 1:1 or 2:1 but in modern Americans is often 20:1 or higher. These oils didn’t exist in human history until industrial processing made them possible about 100 years ago.

3. REFINED GRAINS (especially modern wheat)
White flour, modern hybridized wheat, and other refined grains that have been stripped of nutrients and fiber. Modern wheat is dramatically different from ancient varieties—higher in gluten, higher in inflammatory compounds, and processed in ways that make it more problematic. These cause blood sugar spikes,
intestinal permeability (leaky gut), and trigger inflammatory cascades. The refining process removes the beneficial components while leaving the starchy, inflammatory portions.

THE COMMON THREAD:
All three are:
∙ Virtually absent from ancestral diets
∙ Products of modern industrial food processing
∙ Disruptive to circadian rhythms and metabolic health
∙ Major contributors to leaky gut, which leads to leaky brain
∙ Ubiquitous in the Standard American Diet (SAD)