Not a rival list — a way to measure whether you're actually following one.
If you've searched "anti-inflammatory diet" expecting a single official plan, it's worth knowing upfront: there isn't one universally standardised version. It's more of a general category — popularised by various books, doctors and wellness sites — built around similar core ideas (more vegetables and fish, less sugar and processed food) with some variation in the specifics between sources.
| Dimension | The "Anti-Inflammatory Diet" | THE FAD |
|---|---|---|
| What it usually means | A general eating pattern (often popularised by books and wellness sites) emphasising vegetables, fish, olive oil and spices while limiting sugar and processed food — not one single official diet | A daily score built from that same general pattern, plus sleep, alcohol, exercise and stress |
| Consistency | Definitions vary somewhat between sources — there's no single regulatory or clinical standard | One consistent, transparent weighting model, documented on our Methodology page |
| Overlap | Heavily overlaps with Mediterranean-style eating specifically | Directly measures and scores that same overlap |
THE FAD isn't a rival version of "the anti-inflammatory diet" — it's closer to a measurement tool for it. Rather than prescribing one more version of the same general list, THE FAD scores your actual daily choices against the underlying signals (sugar, processing level, fibre, omega-3 balance) that most anti-inflammatory diet resources are already pointing at.
There are dozens of "anti-inflammatory diet" food lists already available. What was missing was a way to see, day to day, whether you're actually following any of them — that's the gap THE FAD is built to fill.
The best way to understand the difference is to see what a real day scores.
Try the calculator