Can a Rheumatoid Arthritis Diet Help Me?

A rheumatoid arthritis diet may not be the total answer to the cure for this debilitating disease. But eating a healthy diet will improve any condition. RA is an autoimmune disease that causes the joints to be inflamed. Any foods that will decrease the inflammation response may help your body cope better with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

One of the best resources on diet available is a book by Hillary Tolmen who now lives pain free after being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis just a few years ago.  To learn how Hillary achieved this, you can click on this link:  Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain Free

Anti-oxidant rich foods are a beneficial addition to the rheumatoid arthritis diet (or RA diet).  These are fruits and vegetables that are rich in color. Try adding blue berries, broccoli, spinach, beets, and plums to your RA diet,  just to name a few. The richer and deeper color is indicative of the anti-oxidant value.

It is easy to add just a bit of chopped broccoli, a few deep green spinach leaves and some pickled beets to a tossed salad. That is an easy rheumatoid arthritis treatment to use, in addition to the RA treatment prescribed by your physician. Dried cranberries are a nice sweet/tangy addition to a chopped salad too.

Be inventive, try some new food combinations. Keep a journal of your body’s reaction to your new eating habits. Everyone reacts differently to standard rheumatoid arthritis treatment, and so it is with adding foods to your treatment.

Another anti-oxidant that you might try is a cup or two of white or green tea. White tea leaves are just immature tea leaves, the green tea leaves are a bit more mature, and the black tea leaves are the most mature. Both can be used in a rheumatoid arthritis diet that is high in anti-oxidants. Both care delicious hot or iced.

What about foods to avoid on a rheumatoid arthritis diet? There may be foods in your diet that actually trigger your RA to become active. Again, we are back to keeping a personal food journal. It is good to keep a journal of foods that are suspect in triggering RA flair ups in your body and then to avoid those in future.

Saturated fats in your diet may cause your body to produce prostaglandins. Prostaglandins cause inflammation. In fact, some of the medications taken are specifically targeted to decrease the prostaglandins response. So it just makes sense that decreasing your saturated fats will be a great start for your rheumatoid arthritis diet.

That brings up omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-6 fatty acids are the fats found in some vegetable oils. Omega-6 is not found in olive oil. Do not confuse omega-6 fatty acids in vegetable oil with the good omega-3 fatty acids found in cold water fish. This can all be confusing, as you start your RA diet, but it can be worth the effort to understand.

Another rhematoid arthritis diet you might want to try is the Mediterranean diet. This diet features fresh fruits and vegetables, and very little red meat. Fish and shellfish are eaten often. And of course olive oil is used instead of the other oils typically used in a non-Mediterranean diet.

Can a rheumatoid arthritis diet help you? The answer is yes. Keep a journal. See what works for you.  What foods make you feel better and worse. Eliminate any foods that trigger a flare up, and keep adding foods that are healthy for you. At the very least, you will be living a healthier life style. Eliminating known triggers may decrease your RA flair ups, and keeping the food journal will help you eliminate your specific triggers.

If you would like more specific and detailed guidance on this matter, I recommend Hillary Tolmen’s book which you can find at www.RheumatoidArthritisPainFree.com.