Rheumatoid Arthritis Diet

ChrisUK70
ChrisUK70 Posts: 54 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi,

I read on the web that meat can make the condition a lot worse so I have decided to cut meat out of my diet for a couple of weeks which is tough as meat is something I eat a lot of and helps fill full up.

Has anyone got RA and if so have they adjusted their diet to reduce the inflamation?


Chris

Replies

  • tbkumar
    tbkumar Posts: 1
    Hi Chris,
    I do not have RA but my wife does. She did eliminate ALL meat and poultry from her diet for some time and it made a huge difference for her. She is back to eating some. Apparently, red meat is far more inflammatory than the lean white So she avoids beef, pork and lamb, except on rare occasions. She does take chicken and turkey breast meat about once a week. Salmon and other fish end up for dinner quite often. Ginger, garlic, and tumeric are known to be anti inflammatory and so they get used a lot in the cooking around here. She has had RA now for Six years, and the first year was pretty painful. Now she has very few flare ups and the stiffness and pain is minimal. She feels strongly that being careful with diet is extremely important. Eliminating sugar is even more important than limiting meat. Sugar is very very inflammatory.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    A diet with Omega 3 will bring down the inflammation:
    Foods with Omega 3's;
    Salmon, Grass Fed Beef, Omega 3 enriched eggs, Endamame,
    Wilde Rice (it is biologically a grass), Walnuts and Walnut oil, Flax, Black beans (some other beans have less Omega 3)
    Some people get rid of or greatly reduce bread/ pasta/ gluten.

    Agree aout the ginger, garlic, and turmeric. Also vitamin C.
  • Mondoweft
    Mondoweft Posts: 49 Member
    I have had a lot of success with removing dairy for RA. It made the difference between being able to dress myself and not. I did a full exclusion diet, and found that was a big trigger. Meat didn't make much difference.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    There's been some research into a link between red meat consumption and developing arthritis. Since you already have it I'm not sure how relevant that is. There does seem to be support for an effect on inflammation for those with heart disease.

    Here's a study about reducing the CRP through adhering to the Mediterranean diet, however it is talking about cardiovascular disease and not RA, so I'm not sure how well it translates:

    http://content.onlinejacc.org/article.aspx?articleid=1135724&issueno=1


    Like most research, it gets warped and carried away by people trying to sell diet books and the like. The rheumatologists I have seen have all said that trying to treat arthritis with food is mostly bunk-- just to get plenty of vegetables and exercise.

    Here are some reads for you, written by doctors and research scientists:

    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/magic-diet-not-so-much/

    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/inflammation-both-friend-and-foe/


    Personally I've never tried meat free, but I have tried some of the other foods that are supposed to make arthritis worse and none of them have had any effect. The best thing I've ever done for my AI condition (which was lupus, not RA) was to lose weight and start lifting weights. I'm in remission now. YMMV

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