Arthritis and Bad Nutrition

Do you know that a healthy eating plan can reduce (dramatically) your arthritic symptoms? You may think it’s not possible, as you may have suffered from arthritis for years—but it’s true! All it takes is the knowledge of what to do to change your diet in a way that helps your arthritis.

According to the National Institute of Health, arthritis affects one in five people. The majority of these people don’t realise how nutrition plays a big part in the development or treatment of arthritis. Keep in mind that arthritis is an inflammatory condition. If you focus on a diet that helps to reduce inflammation, you can positively affect your arthritis. So, to help your arthritis you need to eat foods that work against inflammation, not help create it.

The first consideration is the amount of food you consume. To start your diet, you need to avoid eating too much. If you consume more calories than you need, you are in danger of gaining weight. Gaining weight puts stress on the body, especially the joints.

The second consideration is your food selection. Let’s start with what foods you should avoid.

To start with, avoid fast food, junk food and confectionary. High sugar content, as well as highly processed and refined foods are pro-inflammatory and aggravate arthritis.

Avoid saturated fats. Saturated fats cause tissue inflammation. The fats to stay away from are  animal products like beef or pork. You should also avoid the skin of chicken or turkey.

Other foods to avoid are those that contain palm oil and palm kernel oil. Foods that contain these oils can include biscuits, snack bars, non-dairy creamers and packaged goods.

Also avoid trans fat. Trans fat was artificially created in a lab to give baked goods a longer shelf life. Since trans fat is artificial, the body can’t do anything with it, so stores it as fat.

Other foods to stay away from are simple and refined carbs, like processed sugar, white flour, white rice, bread and crackers.

If you stay away from bad nutrition, your body will like you and you’ll find your arthritis will be better for it too!

Dr Marcus Chacos

Chiropractor and Founder of the Natural Treatment of Arthritis Institute

Author of The Arthritis Soluiton

www.natural-treatment-of-arthritis-institute.com.au