By correlating the intake of 39 predefined food items with the levels of inflammatory markers measured in the NHS, the Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Index (EDII) was developed in a non-RA cohort to identify a dietary pattern most predictive of increased values of interleukin 6, C-reactive protein (CRP) and tumor necrosis factor alpha receptor 2 [11]. The gene discussed is CRP; the disease is rheumatoid arthritis.