Diet taboos for osteoarthritis

Currently, there are only three types of diets that have been confirmed by clinical research and that patients with osteoarthritis need to avoid first priority - highly processed sweets with a large amount of refined fructose, excessive intake of high-purine animal offal/seafood at one time, and repeated high-temperature fried/hydrogenated processed foods containing a large amount of trans fatty acids. As for the "don't touch hairy food" and "don't eat cold food" that are so popular on the Internet, there is no unified taboo standard. You can adjust it according to your own body's reaction. There is no need to make one-size-fits-all hunger pangs.

I just met a 62-year-old Aunt Zhang in the clinic last week. She was diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis half a year ago. She posted a short video saying that arthritis should avoid all hair products. She stopped eggs, milk, beef, fish and shrimp. She only ate boiled vegetables and rice every day. She lost 8 pounds in three months, but her knee pain became worse and worse, and it was difficult to even go downstairs. The serum albumin was found to be ridiculously low, and there were not even enough raw materials for joint cartilage repair, so it would be getting worse as time went by.

In fact, Chinese and Western medicine have always had different judgments about "fading things": Traditional Chinese medicine believes that if there is obvious redness, swelling and pain in the acute stage of arthritis, you should try to avoid spicy, warm and dry foods such as beef, mutton and seafood to avoid aggravating the inflammatory reaction.； However, a large number of evidence-based studies in modern orthopedics and rheumatology and immunology have shown that as long as you are not allergic to these foods, regular amounts of poultry, eggs, milk, and deep-sea fish will not aggravate symptoms. The high-quality protein and Omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids in them can actually help cartilage repair and inhibit chronic inflammation, which is beneficial to the condition. There is absolutely no need to listen to the wind and dare not eat anything even if it rains. If you are really unsure, observe it for 24 hours after eating. If there is no obvious increase in joint swelling and pain, eat what you should.

Compared with these controversial "taboos", the following types of foods have been verified by countless clinical cases and can actually aggravate arthritis. Eat them as little as possible.

There used to be a 28-year-old programmer who weighed 180 pounds and had early-stage knee arthritis. He usually didn't enjoy milk tea. Last month, he was working on a project and had a cup of full-sugar iced milk tea every day for a week. One morning, his knees were so swollen that he couldn't even bend them. When he came for a blood test, the inflammatory factor C-reactive protein was 30% higher than three months ago. In fact, the principle is simple. After refined fructose enters the body, it will promote the release of inflammatory factors. Osteoarthritis itself is a chronic inflammatory process. Isn’t this equivalent to "delivering fuel" to inflammation? Moreover, if you eat too much sugar, you will gain weight. For every 1 pound of weight gain, your knees will bear an additional 3 pounds of pressure when walking, which will wear down the joints faster.

Then there are the high-purine foods that many people confuse. Not all seafood cannot be eaten. I had an old patient, Lao Chen, who suffered from osteoarthritis and high uric acid. At the last class reunion, he ate two kilograms of crayfish with three bottles of cold beer. His knees were so swollen that he couldn't get out of bed that night. I thought it was an old problem, but when he checked, his uric acid spiked to 620 μmol/L, indicating an acute attack of gout combined with osteoarthritis. Let’s be clear here: If your uric acid is normal, it’s perfectly fine to occasionally eat seafood and some pork liver. But if you have high uric acid, you need to control your intake of high-purine foods. Don’t show off half a pound of pork liver or ten hairy crabs at one meal. Otherwise, uric acid crystals will be deposited in the joints, which will double-attack your articular cartilage. On the contrary, eating more of low-purine deep-sea fish such as salmon and anchovies can also fight inflammation, which is good for the condition.

There is another type of food that people tend to overlook, which is food containing trans fatty acids, such as fried dough sticks, fried skewers on the street, cakes made of margarine, and bulk potato chips. There used to be a 22-year-old young man who suffered from shoulder arthritis and couldn't get better even after taking medicine. When I asked him, I found out that he ordered takeout every day and added fried skewers every time. Later, he was asked to stop frying skewers. Within half a month, his shoulder pain was relieved by more than half. Trans fatty acids will aggravate the chronic inflammation of the whole body, not just the joints, but are not good for blood vessels and skin. Eat as little as possible.

By the way, many people believe in "drinking bone soup to replenish joints." Don't be stupid. 90% of a bowl of bone soup is fat, and the calcium content is not as good as half a cup of milk. Drinking too much will make you gain weight and put a burden on your joints. Of course, there are some elderly people who feel comfortable drinking it, so it’s okay to drink half a bowl of it, just don’t point it at it to treat illnesses.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the diet for osteoarthritis is not as strict as everyone thinks. The core is not to burden the inflammation or put pressure on the joints. Balanced nutrition is the most important. Don’t treat your mouth badly for unwarranted taboos, and don’t eat recklessly just because you’re young. After all, your joints are yours, and only you know best whether they’re comfortable or not, right?