Anti-inflammatory diet: what the research supports and what it does not

Walk through a Swedish supermarket and you will find the word inflammation on a turmeric latte mix, on a bag of ginger sweets and on the back of a jar of coconut oil. None of those products is legally permitted to say what the packaging is implying. Most of them could not prove it if they were.

That is a shame, because the biology underneath the marketing is real and genuinely interesting. Inflammation, oxidative stress, immune function and diet are closely connected, and several nutrients and plant compounds have been studied in relation to inflammatory biomarkers. But the diet research is more mixed, and more honest, than the shelf talkers suggest.

This article separates the two: what inflammation is, what the standard blood markers measure, what the Mediterranean diet trials found and where they were weak, and what the research says about some of the nutrients and concentrated natural actives found in Peak Performance.

The ingredients in this article

Peak Performance contains Hytolive olive polyphenols providing 15 mg hydroxytyrosol, Extramel melon SOD 10 mg, omega 3 from algae, plus zinc and selenium. Zinc and selenium contribute to the protection of cells from oxidative stress and to the normal function of the immune system. No claim about inflammation is made, and none is authorised.

See Peak Performance

The ingredients in this article

Peak Performance brings together several ingredients that are particularly relevant to the biology of oxidative stress, immune function and inflammatory signalling.

Hytolive olive polyphenols provide 15 mg hydroxytyrosol per daily dose. Hydroxytyrosol is one of the most researched olive phenols, and a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled human study using the same daily amount found a significant reduction in IL-6 together with improvements in several oxidative stress markers.

Omega 3 from algae provides 300 mg DHA and 50 mg EPA per daily dose. EPA and DHA are among the most extensively studied nutrients in relation to inflammatory biomarkers, including CRP, IL-6 and TNF-alpha.

Extramel provides 10 mg of SOD rich melon concentrate, the same dose used in randomised human studies on stress, fatigue and wellbeing. SOD is part of the body's antioxidant defence system, and oxidative stress and inflammatory signalling are closely connected biologically.

Zinc and selenium contribute to the protection of cells from oxidative stress and to the normal function of the immune system, while vitamin D3 contributes to normal immune function.

Together, these ingredients make Peak Performance highly relevant to a discussion about the biological systems surrounding inflammation, even though the product itself is not marketed as an anti-inflammatory supplement.

What is inflammation in the body?

Inflammation is the immune system's response to damage or infection, and in its normal form it is a repair process rather than a disease.

Cut a finger and the area turns red, warm and swollen. Blood vessels widen, immune cells arrive, signalling proteins called cytokines coordinate the work, and when the job is done the response switches itself off.

The problem is not the response. The problem is a response that never quite ends. A 2019 review in Nature Medicine calls this systemic chronic inflammation, and lists its common drivers as physical inactivity, poor diet, obesity, disturbed sleep, chronic infection, environmental exposures and psychological stress.

This is also why inflammation cannot really be separated from the wider biology of healthy ageing. Oxidative stress, immune signalling, metabolic health, sleep, movement and diet interact constantly. Several ingredients in Peak Performance, including hydroxytyrosol, omega 3, zinc, selenium and vitamin D, sit within this broader biological landscape.

What is the difference between acute and chronic low grade inflammation?

Acute inflammation is intense, short and self limiting, while chronic low grade inflammation is quiet, persistent and visible only as small elevations in blood markers over many years.

The words low grade are doing real work there. This is not the level seen in pneumonia. It is a value sitting slightly above where it should be, for a decade, in a person who feels essentially fine. The same review connects that pattern to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, several cancers and neurodegenerative conditions.

Two cautions belong here. Most of the underlying evidence is observational, so it describes association, and separating cause from consequence is difficult, because illness itself raises inflammatory markers. And chronic low grade inflammation is not a diagnosis you can be given at a health centre. It is a research construct measured across populations, closely related to the biology of healthy ageing we have written about elsewhere.

What do CRP and IL-6 actually measure?

CRP is a general acute phase protein made by the liver, and IL-6 is one of the signals that tells the liver to make it. Neither is specific to diet.

A review in Frontiers in Immunology describes CRP rising up to a thousandfold, from around 1 microgram per millilitre to over 500 micrograms per millilitre within 24 to 72 hours of severe tissue damage, with IL-6 as the main inducer of CRP gene expression and IL-1 enhancing the effect. The same review notes that CRP can detect infection but cannot distinguish between causes of it.

A single CRP value is therefore a snapshot of everything happening in your body that week: a cold, a dental infection, a hard training session, a sprained ankle. It cannot tell you what produced the number, and certainly not whether your breakfast helped.

High sensitivity CRP, measured at the low end of the range, is used in cardiovascular research to sort populations into risk groups. That is a statistical risk marker, not a readout of how well you ate last month.

IL-6 is interesting in the context of Peak Performance because a recent human trial with Hytolive used the same daily amount of hydroxytyrosol provided by Peak, 15 mg per day. After sixteen weeks, IL-6 fell significantly in the treatment group, alongside improvements in several markers of oxidative stress.

That does not turn IL-6 into a consumer diagnostic tool, but it does make the Hytolive research particularly relevant to this field.

What did the Mediterranean diet trials actually find?

The largest trial found fewer cardiovascular events on a Mediterranean diet, but it had to be retracted and republished after randomisation problems were discovered, and a Cochrane review still grades most of the evidence as low to moderate quality.

PREDIMED assigned 7,447 people in Spain, aged 55 to 80 and 57 percent women, all at high cardiovascular risk but without established disease, to one of three diets: a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with mixed nuts, or a control diet of advice to reduce fat. The primary endpoint was myocardial infarction, stroke or death from cardiovascular causes, and median follow up was 4.8 years.

The version that stands today is the 2018 republication in the New England Journal of Medicine. After the original 2013 paper, the investigators identified protocol deviations: household members enrolled without randomisation, participants assigned to a study group without randomisation at one of eleven sites, and apparent inconsistent use of randomisation tables at another site. The original report was withdrawn and the analysis redone so that it did not rely exclusively on the assumption that all participants had been randomly assigned. The journal published a formal retraction and republication notice alongside it.

In the republished analysis there were 288 primary endpoint events: 96 in the olive oil group (3.8 percent), 83 in the nut group (3.4 percent) and 109 in the control group (4.4 percent). The hazard ratios were 0.69 (95 percent confidence interval 0.53 to 0.91) for the olive oil arm and 0.72 (0.54 to 0.95) for the nut arm. Results were similar after omitting the 1,588 participants whose group assignment was known or suspected to have departed from the protocol.

That is a real finding, and smaller than the headlines it produced. The absolute difference between the olive oil arm and the control arm was roughly 0.6 percentage points over almost five years, in a high risk Spanish population, against a comparator that was advice to eat less fat.

The 2019 Cochrane review pooled 30 randomised trials with 12,461 participants. It found low quality evidence of little or no effect on cardiovascular mortality (hazard ratio 0.81, 0.50 to 1.32) or total mortality (1.0, 0.81 to 1.24), moderate quality evidence of fewer strokes (0.60, 0.45 to 0.80, roughly 24 per 1,000 falling to 14 per 1,000), and modest blood pressure reductions of about 3 mmHg systolic and 2 mmHg diastolic. Its own conclusion was that uncertainty remains.

One detail rarely survives the retelling. None of these trials used inflammation as a primary outcome. They counted heart attacks and strokes. Inflammation is the mechanism people assume, not the thing that was measured.

But olive polyphenols are scientifically interesting in their own right, which is why Hytolive, the olive fruit extract in Peak Performance, deserves closer attention.

What does the evidence not show?

No single food has been shown to lower inflammation to a standard European regulators accept, and no food or supplement sold in the EU may claim that it does.

This is worth stating plainly. Under Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006, health claims are prohibited unless they are authorised and included in the EU lists of permitted claims. Under Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, article 7(3), food information shall not attribute to any food the property of preventing, treating or curing a human disease, nor refer to such properties.

EFSA has looked at an anti inflammatory properties claim for olive polyphenols. It was assessed in the same 2011 EFSA opinion that produced the better known blood lipid claim, and it did not make it onto the authorised list in Regulation (EU) No 432/2012. The same is true of turmeric, ginger and every other food that carries the label in shops.

So when a product is described as anti inflammatory, that is not shorthand for an approved claim. It is a claim that does not exist in the register.

Inflammation can be targeted directly, but so far that has required a drug. The CANTOS trial tested canakinumab, a monoclonal antibody against interleukin 1 beta, in people who had already had a heart attack. It is an important study for understanding the biology, it carries a drug's risk profile, and it says nothing about what a salad does.

Two further things the research does not support. There is no validated way to measure your own chronic low grade inflammation at home, and there is no evidence that any specific food removes inflammation that is already there.

Does fasting lower inflammation?

Fasting produces small reductions in some inflammatory markers and no clear change in others, and the trials so far cannot separate the effect of fasting from the effect of losing weight.

A 2025 systematic review and network meta-analysis in Nutrients pooled 21 trials with 839 participants. Intermittent fasting reduced TNF alpha (standardised mean difference minus 0.31), with time restricted eating showing the largest effect (minus 0.39). CRP fell modestly (minus 0.19). IL-6 showed no significant effect (minus 0.13).

The authors are candid about the central limitation: there were insufficient data to distinguish whether the observed effects came from the fasting interventions themselves or were secondary to weight loss. Intervention periods were short and several comparisons rested on small samples.

Read that as a modest, uncertain signal that may be another way of describing weight loss.

What does an anti-inflammatory diet look like in practice?

It looks like ordinary Nordic dietary advice, which is unglamorous and already written down.

The Swedish Food Agency dietary advice and the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023 converge on the same pattern: plenty of vegetables, fruit, berries, pulses and wholegrains, fish several times a week, nuts and seeds, oils rather than solid fats, less red and processed meat, less salt, less alcohol, and fewer heavily processed products high in sugar and fat.

That pattern overlaps almost entirely with what the Mediterranean trials tested. The label put on it matters far less than whether a person can keep eating it for twenty years.

The non dietary drivers weigh at least as much: sleep, regular movement, not smoking, body composition. Those are the same levers behind wellbeing from within. If oily fish is not part of your week, the long chain omega-3 fats EPA and DHA are the part of the pattern most commonly missing.

What is actually approved to say about olive polyphenols?

One claim in this entire field is authorised in the EU, it concerns olive oil polyphenols, and it is narrower than most people assume.

The authorised wording in the Annex to Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 reads: "Olive oil polyphenols contribute to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress." The conditions of use are equally specific: "The claim may be used only for olive oil which contains at least 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and its derivatives (e.g. oleuropein complex and tyrosol) per 20 g of olive oil. In order to bear the claim information shall be given to the consumer that the beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 20 g of olive oil." It rests on the EFSA opinion published in 2011.

Note what that claim is and is not. It concerns protection of blood lipids from oxidative damage. It is not a claim about inflammation, and the two should not be blurred together, however often they are.

Health Royals Peak Performance contains Hytolive olive fruit extract providing 15 mg of hydroxytyrosol per daily dose, three times the 5 mg named in the conditions of use. We state the amount because the amount is the whole point. We also note, because it is true, that the authorised wording was written for olive oil rather than for capsules, and that this is one of very few statements in this field with an approved wording behind it at all.

Peak Performance is a complement to the pattern of eating described above, not a replacement for it. If that is a reasonable fit with what you already eat, Peak Performance is here.

Why hydroxytyrosol is particularly interesting

Hydroxytyrosol is one of the best studied phenolic compounds naturally found in olives.

Peak Performance contains 150 mg Hytolive olive fruit extract per daily dose, providing 15 mg hydroxytyrosol.

What makes that especially interesting is that a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled human study used the same daily amount: 15 mg hydroxytyrosol for sixteen weeks.

The study found a significant reduction in IL-6 together with improvements in several markers of oxidative stress. CRP and TNF-alpha did not change significantly.

This is exactly the kind of research we look for when selecting a branded ingredient: a defined raw material, a defined amount and human clinical data that can actually be compared with what is in the finished product.

Hydroxytyrosol has also been studied extensively in experimental models involving NF-kappaB, COX-2, iNOS and other pathways connected with inflammatory signalling. That mechanistic research does not replace human trials, but together it explains why hydroxytyrosol continues to attract so much interest in research on oxidative stress, cardiovascular health and inflammation.

What about the other ingredients in Peak Performance?

This is where Peak becomes especially interesting. It does not rely on a single fashionable ingredient. Several of its ingredients intersect with different parts of the biology discussed in this article.

Omega 3, the broadest body of research

EPA and DHA have been studied across dozens of randomised trials examining CRP, IL-6, TNF-alpha and other inflammatory biomarkers.

One meta-analysis of 68 randomised trials involving more than 4 600 participants found significant reductions in CRP and TNF-alpha in healthy participants, with additional effects reported in populations with chronic illness.

The field is not perfectly consistent, and many studies use larger EPA and DHA amounts than the 300 mg DHA and 50 mg EPA supplied by Peak Performance. But few nutrients have been investigated as extensively in this area as omega 3.

Hytolive, the closest clinical match to Peak itself

Hytolive is different because the human trial used the same 15 mg daily amount of hydroxytyrosol that Peak Performance provides. IL-6 fell significantly, while several markers of oxidative stress also improved.

That makes Hytolive one of the strongest examples in the product of why we care about the specific branded ingredient and the studied amount, rather than simply writing olive extract on a label.

Extramel, antioxidant defence, stress and recovery

Peak Performance contains 10 mg Extramel, a SOD rich concentrate from French melon. SOD, or superoxide dismutase, is one of the body's own antioxidant enzymes and forms part of its defence against oxidative stress.

Robertet describes Extramel and SOD in the context of both antioxidant and inflammatory biology. Human trials at the same 10 mg dose used in Peak have demonstrated effects on perceived stress and fatigue and on sleep related outcomes and cognition.

Those trials did not measure the main inflammatory biomarkers discussed here, so Extramel belongs in this story primarily through its role in antioxidant defence and the close biological relationship between oxidative stress and inflammatory signalling.

Zinc, selenium and vitamin D, the immune system foundation

Peak Performance also provides zinc, selenium and 25 micrograms vitamin D3. These nutrients occupy a different level of evidence, because their physiological roles are sufficiently established to carry authorised EU health claims.

Zinc and selenium contribute to the normal function of the immune system and to the protection of cells from oxidative stress. Vitamin D contributes to the normal function of the immune system.

Zinc and selenium have also been investigated directly against inflammatory biomarkers in human intervention studies. A meta-analysis of twelve controlled trials found a significant reduction in IL-6 after zinc supplementation, while TNF-alpha did not change. The results vary by dose and population, but they add another layer to why these nutrients are relevant when discussing immune function, oxidative stress and inflammatory biology.

So, is Peak Performance anti-inflammatory?

That is not how we describe it. But that should not obscure the more interesting point.

Peak Performance brings together several ingredients with genuine scientific relevance to the systems surrounding inflammation: hydroxytyrosol, EPA and DHA, Extramel SOD, zinc, selenium and vitamin D. The strength of the evidence is different for each one.

Hytolive has human data at the same hydroxytyrosol amount used in Peak, including a significant reduction in IL-6. Omega 3 has one of the broadest bodies of research in nutrition on inflammatory biomarkers. Extramel works within the closely connected field of antioxidant defence and has human research at the exact dose used in Peak. Zinc, selenium and vitamin D have established roles in immune function, while zinc and selenium also contribute to protection from oxidative stress.

That is a much more useful way to understand the product than attaching one fashionable word to the front of a jar.

Peak Performance contains named ingredients in stated amounts. We choose them because there is a scientific reason for them to be there.

Further reading

• Hydroxytyrosol, the olive polyphenol and the authorised claim
• Omega-3 from algal oil, EPA and DHA
• The biology of healthy ageing and what actually holds up over time
• Melon SOD, oxidative stress and recovery
• Nutrient deficiency in Sweden: what Riksmaten shows
• The biology of stress: what the body does over hours and days
• Selenium, the thyroid and protection from oxidative stress
• Branded versus non branded raw materials, and when it matters

Frequently asked questions

What does an anti-inflammatory diet look like in practice?
In practice it looks like ordinary Nordic dietary advice: plenty of vegetables, fruit, berries, pulses and wholegrains, fish several times a week, nuts and seeds, oils rather than solid fats, less red and processed meat, less salt and alcohol. The pattern overlaps almost entirely with what the Mediterranean trials tested. The label matters far less than whether you can keep eating it for twenty years.

Can I measure my own inflammation?
Not in any meaningful way at home. A CRP value is a snapshot of everything happening in your body that week, from a cold to a hard training session, and it cannot distinguish between causes. High sensitivity CRP is used to sort populations into risk groups, not to grade your breakfast.

Do turmeric and ginger lower inflammation?
Neither holds an authorised health claim in the EU. EFSA also assessed an anti inflammatory claim for olive polyphenols, and it did not make it onto the list of permitted claims. So when a product is described as anti-inflammatory, that is not shorthand for an approved claim, it is a claim that does not exist in the register.

Does intermittent fasting help?
Possibly a little. A network meta-analysis of 21 trials and 839 participants found reduced TNF alpha and a modest fall in CRP, but no significant effect on IL-6. The authors could not determine whether the effect came from the fasting itself or was secondary to weight loss.

Does Health Royals sell an anti-inflammatory supplement?
No, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Peak Performance contains Hytolive olive fruit extract providing 15 mg hydroxytyrosol per daily dose, but the authorised claim for olive oil polyphenols concerns the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress and was written for olive oil rather than capsules. It is not a claim about inflammation.

What makes the biggest difference to low grade inflammation?
The drivers that are not about food weigh at least as much: sleep, regular movement, not smoking and body composition. If oily fish is missing from your week, the long chain omega-3 fats EPA and DHA are the part of the pattern most commonly absent. No single food removes inflammation that is already there.

Sources

• Moratilla-Rivera I et al. Hydroxytyrosol supplementation improves antioxidant and anti-inflammatory status in individuals with overweight and prediabetes. Clinical Nutrition 2025;52:17-26.
• Li K et al. Effect of Marine-Derived n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids on C-Reactive Protein, Interleukin 6 and Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha. PLoS ONE 2014;9(2):e88103.
• Milesi MA et al. Effect of an oral supplementation with a proprietary melon juice concentrate on stress and fatigue in healthy people. Nutrition Journal 2009;8:40.
• Carillon J et al. Dietary Supplementation with a Superoxide Dismutase-Melon Concentrate Reduces Stress, Physical and Mental Fatigue in Healthy People. Nutrients 2014;6:2348-2359.
• Faghfouri AH et al. Profiling inflammatory cytokines following zinc supplementation: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Nutrition 2021;126:1441-1450.
• Furman D et al. Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span. Nature Medicine 2019;25:1822-1832.
• Sproston NR, Ashworth JJ. Role of C-Reactive Protein at Sites of Inflammation and Infection. Frontiers in Immunology 2018;9:754.
• Estruch R et al. Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or Nuts. N Engl J Med 2018;378:e34.
• Retraction and Republication: Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet. N Engl J Med 2013;368:1279-90. N Engl J Med 2018;378:2441-2442.
• Rees K et al. Mediterranean-style diet for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2019;3:CD009825.
• Ridker PM et al. Antiinflammatory Therapy with Canakinumab for Atherosclerotic Disease. CANTOS trial.
• Khalafi M et al. The Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Inflammatory Markers in Adults. Nutrients 2025;17:2388.
• EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies. Scientific Opinion on health claims related to polyphenols in olive. EFSA Journal 2011;9(4):2033.
• Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012, list of permitted health claims.
• Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods.
• Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers.
• Livsmedelsverket, Swedish dietary advice (kostrad).
• Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023, Nordic Council of Ministers.