What Is The Best Diet For Arthritis?

Generally, the best diet for arthritis management is "less food and more exercise". It's as simple and as complex as that. But there isn't just one official diet for arthritis patients. Since everyone's arthritis is different, the best diet for arthritis for each person will also be different.

But one thing is the same for everybody, no matter what kind of arthritis you have. You need to see your doctor in order to get a proper diagnosis and help. There are over 100 kinds of arthritis, so you need to know what kind you have before attempting to treat the problem.

This Will Sound Familiar

There's isn’t any radical new information about what makes up the best diet for arthritis sufferers. It's basically the same diet that doctors, nutritionists and alternative therapists have been telling people to follow. You need to eat more fresh, low-fat food and less processed high fat foods. If you are already on a low glycemic index diet, then use that as your best diet for arthritis management.

You need to drink more water and green tea and less sugary or highly caffeinated drinks. You need to eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat and candy. You can still snack, but you need to keep to your allowed portion sizes and substitute lower-calorie and lower fat snacks for what you usually graze on.

Any Foods To Avoid?

There are some clinical trials which strongly suggest that the best diet for rheumatoid arthritis patients has the barest minimum of vegetables from the nightshade family. This includes such popular items as tomatoes, eggplants, green peppers and potatoes. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, it's going to be next to impossible to eliminate these from your diet. However, you can experiment and keep a food journal to see how much you can eat from the nightshade family.

There are also some arthritis patients who have discovered that they can no longer drink decaffeinated coffee. This is thought to be due to something in the decaffeination process, but so far, the cause is mainly unknown. You need to keep track of how you feel after drinking decaffeinated coffee.

Fried foods are to be avoided, as foods heavily coated in salt or cooked in lard. It's preferable to eat things bakes, broiled or steamed rather than fried. Depending on your health history and current medical conditions, the best diet for arthritis management may be to east several small meals throughout the day instead of just the traditional three square meals per day.