Common Diet Myths and Arthritis

Rebecca Evans May 29, 2018 Arthritis, Eat Well, Health

So you have arthritis and you’ve heard that if you eat golden raisins soaked in gin you’ll get cured? Patients tell this to doctors all the time. But there is not even the smallest piece of scientific evidence to support that. None at all. It just doesn’t work. If you enjoy the flavor of golden raisins in gin as a dessert, then go for it, just do not expect to help with your condition at all. Be honest.

There’s a lot of nonsense going around recently about foods that can cure arthritis. Here’s the thing, arthritis cannot be cured. If you eat right, it will be a lot easier to manage but eating right is not about going for magic or silver bullets but about eating healthily. Eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts. Avoid processed foods, refined carbohydrates and other foods that promote inflammation. Just be smart and don’t fall for fantasies.

Recently the Dong diet became popular. It’s about eliminating fruits, red meats, and dairy foods. There is just no scientific evidence that supports this approach but it could actually be very harmful. Fruits are one of the nutritional elements you need most as an arthritic patient. They’re full of micronutrients, vitamin c, fiber and they are low in calories. Getting rid of such important nutritional elements will endanger users. They could become deficient in very relevant nutrients that would be helping them otherwise. This kind of diet (elimination diet) has its fans. And they’re not all bad, but they should be used only after consulting with a good, registered dietician. Eating according to fashion does not help with ailments. Proper eating does.

There’s another diet that goes for avoiding all dairy products. Some people say dairy products actually worsen arthritis. The problem with this view is that dairy products are rich in calcium and vitamin d, which is desperately needed by arthritic patients and keeping them away from this nutritional resource is more likely to harm them than to help them. Calcium and vitamin d help bone strength so if you just get rid of them you will just weaken your bones which is at the heart of the arthritis problem.

Another myth that’s been going around for years is that if you just stop eating nightshade vegetables like peppers, eggplant, potatoes, and tomatoes everything will get better. The notion behind this is that arthritis is caused by a toxin produced by this vegetables. This has never been backed up by scientific studies at all. In fact, it’s just ridiculous. Tomatoes are rich in potassium and peppers are richer than citrus fruits in vitamin C, which are both critical nutrients for everybody (let alone arthritic patients). This nightshade vegetables (except for the starchy potato) are low in calories, rich in micronutrients and fiver and good for everybody.

Photo: Woman slicing tomatoes, Daria Shevtsova, Pexels, ©

Then there’s the “tonic.” If you combine vinegar and honey your joint pain will go away. Well, it doesn’t. There’s never been any scientific evidence at all to support this claim, and while eating vinegar and honey together can’t possibly harm you, if you expect it will help your health conditions you’ll be bitterly disappointed.

So again, just remember there is no cure for arthritis. Yes, eating correctly will help you a lot but there is no silver bullet. Next time you hear some of these myths, research them thoroughly (and you’ll probably find nothing to make you believe them).

If you have this condition, get a reputable rheumatologist to help you. Get a reputable dietician too. Don’t just experiment on your own because of information you randomly found on the internet or in a junk email you never asked for. There is no doubt that eating right will help you. But eating right means just that, as opposed to following a crazy diet that asks for you to leave out some of the things that can help you most.

Superfoods do exist. For instance, turmeric and raw garlic have such amazing anti-inflammatory properties that eating them will help with your pain for sure. But the thing about those superfoods is that they’re backed by scientific studies and not just by a mythical diet that has become fashionable.

To know how to eat to fight inflammation please read the following article: Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis – What Is the Best Diet to Reduce Inflammation?

Author

Rebecca Evans

Rebecca Evans is a long-standing geriatric nurse whose passion is the dissemination of practical and helpful medical information. As the old commercials always said, "the more you know...," and that's a motto she's very much taken to heart at geriatricnursing.org.