Arthritis: Part 2 – Foods to Avoid

As a Registered Nutritionist, I have seen dozens of clients who live constantly with Joint Pain and Arthritis. When I look at their daily diet journal, they are often eating too many of the foods that will aggravate the problem and not enough of the foods that will help alleviate the problem. In part 1 of this 2 part lens on Arthritis, I will give some suggestions on the best foods to incorporate into your diet to help reduce your daily pain.

As I explained in my other Lens about Arthritis: Part I - Foods to Eat, what you put in your body directly affects how it funs.

Here is the analogy again for those of you who missed Part I. If you own a Ferrari and you need to fill up on gas, do you get the cheapest, low octane fuel? Of course not, because you will destroy the engine. However, a Honda Civic needs that cheaper fuel and would be damaged by the high octane variety. So what is the real issue here. Is there a problem with either car? No. Is there a problem with either fuel? No. The problem is putting the wrong fuel in the wrong vehicle, or vise versa, putting the right fuel in the right vehicle.

So are you a Ferrari or a Honda? Are you putting the correct fuel in your body? Well if you have chronic pain and/or disease you already have your answer. When it comes to food, just like with engine fuel, “one size does NOT fit all”. So here are some suggested foods to avoid to help get your engine running more efficiently.

ACID PROMOTING FOODS: too much acid in the body causes inflammation which leads to pain. Avoid the following acid-promoting foods:
- red meat,
- eggs,
- saturated fats,
- fried foods,
- sugar,
- dairy products,
- refined carbohydrates,
- foods high in gluten (breads, pasta, pastries),
- alcohol
- caffeine.

NIGHTSHADE VEGETABLES: these contain a substance called solanine which can trigger allergic responses and pain in some allergy suffers. Try eliminating these foods for 6 weeks and see if there is a difference
- tomatoes,
- potatoes,
- eggplant
- peppers.