Seignalet Diet

Hello LisaKesterDodgson,

Thank you for you posting to the forum.

There is a lot of confusing and conflicting information on diet and arthritis. Changing your diet may improve symptoms although it will not cure it. The general consensus is to eat more fruit and vegetables, eat less of foods high in saturated fat, reduce our intake of sugar and salt, and substitute white meat (turkey or chicken) or fish for red meat (game, pork and beef).

Some studies have shown that people who eat a lot of red meat (omega -6 fatty acids) seem to have a higher risk of developing inflammatory types of arthritis.
We know that certain foods and supplements can help people with inflammatory arthritis. You may already be aware of these points:
• taking fish body oil (not fish liver oil) supplements (omega-3 fatty acids). Fish oils act slowly so best to take for 3 months to check if it has benefits for you
• eating more oily fish such as sardines, mackerel, salmon, fresh tuna (not tinned), trout, herring. It is thought that eating a lot of omega-3 (such as oily fish) can produce free radicals. To combat this it is important to eat these fats with foods rich in antioxidants and vitamin E. Antioxidants are found in brightly coloured fruits, vegetables and leafy green vegetables and are thought to help protect the joints by mopping up the free radicals in the body. Vitamin E is a good antioxidant for omega-3 fatty acids, especially those in fish oil. Vitamin E rich foods include sunflower seeds, almonds, pine nuts, cooked spinach and avocados
• saturated fats (eg. animal fat) can increase the pain and inflammation in the body; monounsaturated fats (eg. olive and rapeseed oils) are considered neutral fats so do not worsen inflammation; polyunsaturated fats (eg. corn or sunflower oils) can increase inflammation as these are rich in omega-6

Some people can improve their symptoms by cutting out particular foods but reasons for this are yet unclear. The best way to check is to undergo an elimination diet under the direction of a registered dietitian.

Keeping a healthy weight for our height can also reduce the strain on our joints, reduce our risk of osteoarthritis and it can also reduce inflammation as having too much body fat may increase inflammation in the body, making joints more painful.

I am including a link for Arthritis Care booklets: http://www.arthritiscare.org.uk/PublicationsandResources/Listedbytype/Booklets where you download our booklets on ‘Coping with pain’ and ‘Healthy eating and arthritis’, which you may find useful. On page 4 we have a body mass index chart to check your healthy weight.

If you would like to talk anything through, informally and in confidence, please give us a call on our Helplines (Monday-Friday 10am-4pm).

Kind regards,

Ümral