Featured topic and speakers
Looking for an easy, delicious meal that's packed with anti-inflammatory ingredients? This sheet pan salmon recipe delivers:
- Omega-3 rich salmon
- Fiber-packed vegetables
- Antioxidant-rich herbs
In this video, Nate Wood, MD, MHS, explains how simple food choices can help support overall health and reduce chronic inflammation, while showing how to make a flavorful sheet pan dinner that's perfect for busy weeknights.
Try it for yourself and let us know what you think.
Sheet Pan Salmon
Ingredients
- 2 salmon fillets
- 1½ cups cubed potatoes
- 5-8 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 6-8 broccoli florets
- 2 lemon slices
- Olive oil
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Line a sheet pan with foil.
- Add potatoes, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
- Roast potatoes for 20 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and broccoli. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Return to oven for 20 minutes.
- Add salmon and top with lemon slices and fresh dill.
- Bake for 20 minutes more, until the salmon is flaky, the potatoes and broccoli are browned, and the tomatoes are soft.
This meal is packed with anti-inflammatory ingredients like omega-3-rich salmon, fiber-filled vegetables, fresh herbs, and extra virgin olive oil.
- Sign up for our free weekly newsletter, "What Doctors Want Patients To Know™
- Subscribe to @americanmedicalassociation on YouTube.
- Sign up for Morning Rounds and free daily newsletters from the AMA.
- Follow #AMA on social media.
Speakers
- Nate Wood, MD, MHS, obesity medicine physician, internal medicine; director, culinary medicine, Yale University School of Medicine
Transcript
Dr. Wood: Inflammation is one of those words that we're hearing everywhere on social media, right now, right? But what would a diet that lowers inflammation look like, an anti-inflammatory diet? Well, I can tell you this—it doesn't have to be complicated, but it's also not as simple as eating just one food to bust inflammation.
Inflammation can be good. If you get a cut, you want some inflammation, that immune system, to come in and help repair that cut. That's called acute inflammation. That's good.
But what we really don't want are chronic low levels of inflammation. When we have low levels of chronic inflammation for a long time, which can be really impacted by the way that we eat and other lifestyle factors, that low level of chronic inflammation can drive diseases, things like Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes.
We're going to be making a sheet-pan salmon. So what's great, here, about salmon is that it has lots of healthy omega-3s. And when we're thinking about lowering inflammation, omega-3s are really important. These omega-3s are going to be so much healthier for our heart, for our brain.
The reason that we really like fiber is that fiber feeds the healthy gut bacteria in our colons. When we eat fiber, which we can only get from plants, that fiber goes down to our colon. It feeds those healthy gut bacteria, and then they produce something called butyrate. Butyrate is really, really good at lowering inflammation.
When it comes to plants, it's not just about the fiber. It's also about antioxidants. All of these vegetables contain antioxidants, and different color vegetables contain different antioxidants. And you noticed, I tossed all of this in a really healthy dose of some extra virgin olive oil. And extra virgin olive oil has something in it called polyphenols, and polyphenols are really good at lowering inflammation.
Do you think about herbs as being a plant? Herbs, just like every other green vegetable, are going to have lots of delicious antioxidants in them. You can use any combination of herbs that you like. This sheet-pan meal really shows us that eating an anti-inflammatory diet can be easy, but it can also be familiar and pleasurable.
This meal here is a perfect example of how anti-inflammatory eating can be simple, approachable, familiar and delicious. Oh, this salmon, mmm. Tender, absolutely delicious. We'll put the recipe in the comments below so you can try this at home.
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the participants and/or do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.
