Among grains, barley is a good choice for an anti-inflammatory diet

Dear Monica,

I'm enjoying learning about anti-inflammatory foods - an anti-inflammatory diet sounds very promising for my particular concerns.  I'm a bit confused, though--I downloaded a pocket guide to IF ratings from About.com, and it appears to be based on your book.  But the IF data doesn't correspond with what's on NutritionData.com.  For example, NutritionData lists Barley as moderately to strongly anti-inflammatory (depending on whether it's hulled or pearled) and the pocket guide lists Barley as one of the best anti-inflammatory grains. Which guide should I trust most?  Thanks for your guidance.

Sarah

Dear Sarah,

The pocket guide on About.com is indeed based on my book The Inflammation Free Diet Plan. Since these were published, some modifications have been made to the formula--specifically in the way that the effect of carbohydrates is weighted.  The new formula does produce minor changes in some IF Ratings...and the ratings here on NutritionData.com represent the most up-to-date listings.

Nonetheless, barley is still a good choice for an anti-inflammatory diet.  Keep in mind that virtually all grains are considered inflammatory because they are high in carbohydrates and relatively low in antioxidants and other anti-inflammatory nutrients. So you're not going to find any grains with positive IF ratings.  But compare the IF Rating of barley with the IF rating of rice and you'll see that barley is much LESS inflammatory than rice. 

Keep in mind as well that the IF Rating depends on serving size. While 1 cup of cooked pearled barley has an IF rating of -127 (moderately inflammatory), a half cup has an IF Rating of -64 (mildly inflammatory).    As you'll read in the book, the idea is not to eliminate all foods with negative ratings from your diet--simply to balance the effects with postively rated foods.

Finally, when comparing the IF Ratings for grains, be sure that you're comparing cooked to cooked (or raw to raw). For example, the listing for hulled barley is for uncooked grains.

Here's another post with answers to lots of questions about the IF Rating and anti-inflammatory diets.