Gluten, dairy, soy and corn can also trigger inflammation
Dr Blum notes that these foods can irritate and even damage the gut for some people, triggering body-wide inflammation. “In people with arthritis, the gut is damaged, so eating foods we know are hard on the gut can make things worse,” she says. Her suggestion: Cut these foods out completely for three to four weeks, then gradually reintroduce them to see whether your symptoms worsen when you have them.
Weight loss
Losing body fat – and belly fat in particular – is one of the best ways you can reduce arthritis symptoms, says Dr Blum. “Belly fat is particularly dangerous because it releases inflammatory chemicals into the body that can contribute to osteoarthritis,” she says. And of course, there’s the fact that when you lose weight, it lessens the load on joints. The impact of that is important: In a study of 640 overweight and obese people, those who lost just five per cent of their body weight over two years had lower rates of cartilage degeneration compared with stable-weight participants.
Here are 11 weight loss tricks nutritionists want you to know.
Get your fibre
You may think of arthritis as being all in your joints, but like many other conditions, there’s a big connection with your gut and the billions of bacteria that live there. “When the gut microbiome is imbalanced, it can influence inflammation,” says Dr Blum. Which is why fibre is your friend. Fibre is a prebiotic, which means it feeds good tummy bugs while also pulling inflammatory toxins out of the gut, says Dr Blum. Need more proof? People who ate 22 to 28 grams of fibre per day had a 30 to 61 per cent lower risk for OA-related knee pain, according to a recent study.