Arthritis Food Choices
The Good & Bad!

Each one presents slightly differently, has different triggers and affects different people in different ways so there is no hard and fast rule on what you should or shouldn’t eat. However, many arthritis sufferers say they notice a change in their symptoms which they change their diet. 

Why Is A Healthy Diet Important?

The main considerations when looking at arthritis food choices are that you are aiming to reduce inflammation and ensure a healthy body weight.  These will help to reduce the stress and irritation of the affected joints.

Arthritis Food To Avoid

With arthritis food choices are important and there are things you should avoid to help reduce inflammation and body weight:

1. Fried Food

2. AGE’s (Advanced Glycation End Product)

AGE's tend to be found in processed food or foods cooked at high temps like BBQ or fried food.  Cutting back on foods with AGE’s or reducing cooking temperatures can help reduce inflammation.

3. Sugars

If you have arthritis food and drinks with high sugar levels should be avoid e.g. fruit juice, cakes, soft drinks and sweets/candy. They raise your blood-sugar levels which causes an inflammatory reaction in your body flaring up arthritis.

Sugars are essentially empty calories i.e. they have no nutritional value. One can of soda contains more than the recommended daily allowance of 32g sugar.

4. Fats

One of the most important types of arthritis foods to avoid are those that contain the bad fats. These fall in to three categories:

• Saturated Fats: such as full fat dairy products e.g. butter, processed foods e.g. cakes, some vegetable oils e.g. palm oil and certain meats.  They can increase inflammation around the body as well as increase your cholesterol levels
  
  
• Trans Fats: These are the worst kind of fat in arthritis food and whilst they are being used less frequently, they can sometime be found in processed food such as fried food, biscuits and sweets.  They are also associated with high cholesterol levels.  They tend to be labelled “hydrogenated oil”
  
  
• Polyunsaturated Fats:  You may have heard that Omega-3 is a useful kind of fat found in things like oily fish, but omega-6 polyunsaturated fat from things like corn, sunflower or vegetable oil increases inflammation.  It is often found in baked goods. 

5. Refined Carbohydrates

6. Alcohol

Alcohol has been linked to flare ups in arthritis, particularly gout. Also like sugar, it is empty calories.

7. Salt / Sodium

Most people consume much more salt each day than the recommended amount of less than 2,300mg. High levels of sodium are often found in processed food and can cause high blood pressure. 

Studies have recently found a link between high salt intake and auto immune response, where the body produces inflammatory cells and starts attacking itself such as rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis (arthritis of the spine).

9. Large Portions

As we get older, we need smaller portions to maintain our weight and energy levels so we need to adjust how much we put on our plate to ensure we aren’t over eating our arthritis food choices.

10. Smoking

Not technically food or drink but tobacco has been linked with an increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

Arthritis Food That Can Help

As well as there being food to avoid with arthritis, there are things that you can eat which can help.

1.  Healthy Balanced Diet

2.  Omega-3 Rich Foods

One of the best arthritis food options are things rich in omega-3.  Omega-3 can help reduce inflammation in two ways by inhibiting enzymes that trigger inflammation and decreasing the synthesis of inflammation spreading chemicals such as cytokines.  Good sources of omega-3 include oily fish e.g. salmon and sardines, walnuts, linseed, pumpkin seeds, soy beans and rapeseed (canola) oil. 

Here are some other tops tips on choosing the best arthritis food:

• Best Vegetables: leafy green vegetables e.g. spinach, broccoli, sweet potato, squash, carrots, dried beans and peas
• Best Meats: seafood and fish – especially oily fish for omega-3
• Best Snacks: popcorn

What Else Can Help?

While it is important to make good arthritis food choices and it is helpful to know what food to avoid with arthritis, diet is only one aspect of treatment.  Your choices on diet for arthritis should always be discussed with your doctor and used as an adjunct to other treatment, not as a replacement.

There are a number of other treatment options which can be more effective in reducing pain, inflammation and disability. You can find out more about these other options including exercise, supplements and injections in the Arthritis Treatment section.

You can also check out our book Knee Arthritis: Take Back Control. It is the top rated book on Knee Arthritis on Amazon with an average user review rating of 4.4/5.  It's packed full of great information from exercises to knee replacements and everything in between.  A perfect guide for anyone who is having a knee joint replacement

Please do remember, changing your diet is just one thing you can do to help reduce pain and it should be done in combination with other arthritis treatments such as exercises, supplements and injections rather than as a substitute.  

Page Last Updated: 11/01/23
Next Review Due: 11/01/25

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