According to a recent study, what you eat may significantly increase your risk of suffering from arthritis. This collection of over 150 different conditions affects your joints, making it challenging to perform even basic everyday tasks sometimes. Although there is no perfect diet, having an overall healthy diet will help you lose weight and avoid the unwanted symptoms of arthritis.
Why Eating Healthy Is Important When You Have Arthritis
A healthy diet and weight loss go hand-in-hand. Your body will perform at its peak health when you are providing it with a steady diet of balanced meals. Healthy foods will come loaded with plenty of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that your joints require to be free from discomfort.
A balanced diet combined with getting enough fluids will boost your energy levels and improve your weight. You will find yourself feeling better overall, in addition to seeing those unwanted arthritis symptoms reduced.
How Weight Affects Arthritis
There is a direct correlation between eating a healthy diet and weight loss. If you are obese, or even just a little overweight, you will be placing additional weight on joints that are not designed to carry so much weight. This could make arthritis symptoms exacerbated, especially in your hip, knee, foot, and spine joints. If you want to avoid or reduce the symptoms of arthritis, you will want to work on losing weight.
In order to drop some of the weight you are carrying, you are going to need to stay quite active. A sedentary lifestyle, combined with a poor diet, will make your arthritis symptoms worse. You can talk with your doctor or a dietitian about what the best diet for you would be given your unique situation.
Foods to Add to Your Diet
There are several foods you can add to your diet that will improve your arthritis symptoms and maybe even eliminate them. Foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids are especially helpful in reducing inflammation. If you have rheumatoid arthritis, you will especially find omega-3 fatty acids helpful.
Some of the best foods to add to your diet with omega-3 are the following:
- Fatty fish like salmon and sardines
- Walnuts
- Fish oil
- Canola oil
What Is Gout?
Gout is a bit different than osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Gout flares up when there is too much uric acid within your blood, leading to crystals forming in your joints. The big toe is usually the most affected by gout. As you can expect, there is a significant amount of discomfort and inflammation when someone has gout.
Eating a healthy diet and weight loss are both especially important for those who have gout, given that gout usually affects those who are obese. To give yourself the best chance of beating gout, you should make the following dietary changes:
- Avoid alcohol or significantly reduce it
- Avoid or significantly reduce shellfish and seafood like sardines, herring, and mackerel
- Drink large quantities of water
- Eat sizable portions of fruits and vegetables
- Refrain from fasting or sudden extreme diets
- Avoid overheating
These will help reduce your gout symptoms, although they may not be enough, so talk with your doctor about what you should do in concordance with dietary changes.
Take a Joint Supplement
The food we eat today does not always have everything we need to stay healthy. Research has uncovered that organic food contains more nutrients than conventionally grown food, as an example. Soil depletion and the use of fertilizer containing only three nutrients for plants has led to significant reductions in necessary nutrients. This means supplementation has become necessary in many cases.
JointFuel360 is a joint supplement that was developed with arthritis sufferers in mind. With this all-natural supplement, you receive a whole host of nutrients that promote healthy joints. These include anti-inflammatory compounds like black pepper extra and turmeric, antioxidants like resveratrol, and other ingredients that include type II collagen and hyaluronic acid. Taking a JointFuel360 supplement on a daily basis will help improve your diet, especially when it comes to what your joints need.
How to Improve Your Diet While Having Arthritis
There are certain foods that will magnify the unwanted symptoms of arthritis you are suffering from. These include the following:
- Highly acidic foods like lemons and tomatoes
- Nightshade-type foods like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplant
- Dairy products
Now that you know what foods you should eat and which ones to avoid, here are some additional tips for maintaining a healthy diet and weight and arthritis mitigation:
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains and nuts
- Get enough omega-3 fatty acids from fatty fish and walnuts
- Stay hydrated, especially by drinking plenty of water
- Get enough calcium and eat foods that come fortified with it
- Maintain a healthy weight range to avoid placing excessive strain on your joints
- Maintain a food log to identify what foods make your arthritis worse and which ones improve it
- Confirm with your doctor whether a certain food you eat has indeed helped improve or worsen your arthritis
Conclusion
You now know the importance of maintaining a healthy diet and weight with arthritis. There is a direct correlation between being overweight and obese and having arthritis aches and stiffness. If you want to see your arthritis symptoms reduced, or even eliminated, you will have to improve your diet.
There are plenty of easy ways to fix your diet, as mentioned above. Taking a joint supplement like JointFuel360 can help out tremendously, especially since it can be challenging to get all of the vital nutrients your joints need to be healthy. Now that you understand the direct relationship between diet and weight when it comes to arthritis, you can get started on your path to a life that is free from the discomfort you are likely suffering.
