Diet in rheumatoid arthritis

[simba91]

I really want to change my diet for my RA. Does anyone have s list of good and bad RA foods? Of anything they've noticed.... or is it different for everyone?

[Mmrr]

Diet and RD is a huge topic, with lots of posts and some heated comments on the forum ! If you do a search you will find lots to read.

NRAS reccomend a Mediterranean type diet and have advice on their website.

There is little scientific evidence that any commercial/ expensive diet plan works. Take care with adverts, trying to get you to purchase whatever diet....

Eating healthy, with fresh food, avoiding any particular foods that upset you is probably the best option. Since becoming unwell sugar has ulcerated my mouth. Strange. I don't have a particularly sweet tooth, so it is not a big problem to avoid it.

[helixhelix]

I agree with Mmrr, avoid getting involved in things that require you to pay. There is endless, sometimes conflicting advice, but the best approach is to keep things simple as she says.

My big change was cutting out all heavily processed foods. Sounds easy? It isn’t! But doing that pushes you to completely clean up your diet! Every time you go shopping look at every item of processed food you buy and think about whether you could replace it with something else..... I still buy cheese, but not much apart from that.

[JFlay]

I've had to cut out fizzy drinks as they seem to 'set me off'. I still like the odd G&T (Slimline) but even that can cause problems 😕 must be because the tonic is carbonated.

[AgedCrone]

Look on the NRAS website for dietary suggestions... I feel any so called fresh, healthy food that you enjoy eating is good for you.

Nothing has ever been clinically proven that diet affects RA.

You will find many discussions on this site ....eating everything under the sun - most of it completely unpalatable ....which to me would just make my RA worse .... if I were miserably forcing myself to eat food I didn’t enjoy just because somebody had told me it was “good for me”...

Most of which advice is withdrawn when those suggesting it realise doesn’t have any effect on their RA at all!

So eat sensibly & just hope you find the right meds for you....I can personally vouch that does help RA.

[Agoodlife]

You could have have a look at Agoodlife last post on different carbs and their beneficial and bad effects on our metabolism this goes as well for RA.

[mjrminor]

From what I've read there's not been enough research into how/if food affects RA, but like others have said, the Mediterranean diet is a good base for healthy living in general.

If you think a certain food may be affecting your RA, a good way to test is to cut it from your diet for a couple of weeks then reintroduce it to see if there's any difference. You could also keep a food diary and note down everything you eat in a day, along with any RA symptoms you're having, then look for patterns.

This is how I discovered that refined/processed sugar flares my RA (goodbye chocolate and ice cream) but natural sugars (like fruit and honey) are ok for me to eat.

But it seems like there's no one answer for everyone and what might affect one person might be fine for another.

[ketiv74]

Hi Simba91, I have been following or rather try to follow Ayurvedic diet specific to my temperament and based on my disease and symptoms. This has helped me immensely. I am also taking Mtx 15 mg/wk ( inj) for almost a year now and in remission. I feel this approach has worked best for me. I hope to reduce my medication at some point and may be able to get off one day ( fingers crossed!) . I am also following a healthy lifestyle advised by ayurveda which includes diet, yoga and daily exercise, deep breathing techniques( known as Pranayama) etc, . You can google ayurvedic diet according to your body type if that interests you, but discuss with your physician before you decide to try.

But simple tips that many above have mentioned are a good starting point, I found that whatever food gives me bloated feeling aren't good, that included dairy products, Beans like chickpeas, Bread especially white bread etc. And also noticed eating sugary foods gives me aches & pains. I can eat very small amount of these foods without any noticeable effect but in general I stay away from these. I hope this helps.

[Susie22]

I went gluten free a couple of years ago ( based on a nutritionist's advice) and I do seem to have been managing my ra very well since then with only the odd flare up and low doses of meds. I also find that too much sugar in my diet makes me feel worse. This is very personal however and is not scientifically proven. I was also advised to avoid too much tomatoes, red peppers etc as they are also inflammatory to the body. I think more research should be done into this area. Good luck!

[Hidden]

I think you are right in that it's different for everyone. I was vegetarian for years (& eat really healthily) when I then developed RA following an infection. I only achieved remission about a year later (Apr 19) after doing Veganuary. Although I had already chopped gluten before this which had probably lessened the symptoms by 30% already. I do now eat dairy again (twice a week) & have retained remission.

I also introduced intermittant fasting (I try to go 12-14 hrs overnight with no food - so for me this is typically eating between 7am-7pm. I love food too much to go whole days without it like some strict diets/programmes advocate) & experimented with probiotics. I now take a vegan probiotic twice a day (is the cost of a prescription a month).

1 of the things I liked about diet & fasting is that they are free & you can tweak to suit what fits you.