Diet for Osteoarthritis

Do you know somebody who has been told that he or she has osteoarthritis? Proper nutrition can be a big issue in this disease. Learn how to use food to your advantage by planning a proper osteoarthritis diet.

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease. In simple terms, it is a disease that slowly wears down cartilages in our bodies. Cartilages are essential for movement of joints. So, people who suffer from osteoarthritis will have difficulties for proper joint movement. This cartilage loss also causes a lot of pain.

There is an old saying that states that we are what we eat. And this is especially true for people with osteoarthritis since food can slow this disease progression. A diet for osteoarthritis is not that different from other healthy diets. This article will discuss some tips for a having a proper diet if you suffer from osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is an inflammatory disease. A diet for osteoarthritis will need to remove all foods known to cause inflammation. Removing inflammatory foods from the diet will cause symptoms (specially pain) derived from the disease to be reduced (even can be eliminated) and the progression of the disease is also slowed. Products derived from wheat, milk, green peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes are some of the most known inflammatory foods and need to be definitely be removed from the diet.

So what can you eat if you have osteoarthritis? There is plenty of food for a osteoarthritis diet. Here are some of them:

*avocado

*beans

*carrots

*green vegetables

*fruits

*very lean meats

*poultry

*fish

You need to explore what foods are good or bad for you if you have this degenerative disease. First eliminate inflammatory foods. Then, if you suspect that any food is doing no good to you. For example, you may feel that your symptoms increase after a certain meal. Examine what you ate. Discard those food known not to cause inflammation. If you suspect of any of them, eliminate it from your diet for a month and see if you feel better. Then you will know you have to limit ingestion of that particular food

Sources:

Coping with osteoarthritis: sound, compassionate advice for people dealing with the challenges of osteoarthritis. By Phillips, R (2002). Avery. ISBN 9781583330906