Eating for Arthritis

It is National Arthritis Month. One in three Americans suffers from arthritis.  Is your family prone to arthritis?  Do you want to decrease your risk, regardless of family history?  Now is a good time look at your eating habits to prevent it. 

Let's focus on just one aspect this week:  Prevent inflammation in the body through what you put in your mouth.  (We'll talk about exercise for arthritis next week.)

• Eating fish?  Make sure it is WILD caught and not FARM raised.  In general, wild caught lowers inflammation.  Farm-raised increases it.
• Control your blood sugar.  Eat carbohydrates that digest slowly (vegetables, beans, old-fashioned oatmeal, etc.) vs. carbohydrates that digest quickly (processed cereal, white flour, etc.)
• Increase your use of garlic and warming spices, like chili pepper.
• Increase your anti-oxidant intake with more vegetables and berries (Hmmm...that seems to be a theme in all "eating healthier" research.)
• Increase your healthy oils, such as extra virgin olive oil and walnuts.
• So, dinner tonight is wild-caught salmon with a garlic and chili pepper rub, a salad with lemon-infused extra virgin olive oil, spiced garbanzo beans and spiced walnuts, then a warm berry compote for dessert.  Right? 

For detailed resources check out the Arthritis Foundation website, www.arthritis.org and the book Inflammation Nation by Floyd H. Chilton, Ph.D.