Rheumatoid dietary taboos

There is no dietary blacklist that is 100% universal for the entire population. Currently, there are only two categories that have clear evidence that must be avoided, namely "foods that are clearly known to cause allergies" and "foods that are clearly prohibited by the rheumatology drugs you are taking."； Eat a lot of high-sugar, saturated fat, trans-fat, and high-purine foods during the acute phase and try to eat them as little as possible ； As for the seafood, dairy products, and nightshade vegetables that everyone is asking about, whether they should be avoided or not depends entirely on personal reactions. Don’t blindly follow the trend of one-size-fits-all.

I have met hundreds of rheumatoid patients, and I have seen too many detours on dietary taboos: Some people heard relatives say that "seafood is a hairy thing" and they have not touched fish or shrimp for a whole year. They have lost 12 pounds in weight. Their immunity is so weak that they often catch colds. On the contrary, their inflammation indicators fluctuate high and low.； There is someone who refuses to eat milk tea with fried chicken. His erythrocyte sedimentation rate jumped from 18 to 42 during the three-month follow-up visit. Even his morning stiffness increased from 10 minutes to 1 hour. He suffered a lot.

Let’s talk about the most easily pitted high-sugar foods first. Don’t think that only milk tea, cakes, and ice cream are included. Candied fruits, eight-treasure porridge with a lot of sugar, and even many flavored yogurts that are advertised as “healthy” are all in the minefield. Several long-term follow-up cohort studies at home and abroad have confirmed that excessive refined sugar will increase the level of TNF-α in the body - this is one of the core inflammatory factors that causes redness, swelling and pain in your joints. I met a 27-year-old girl before. She took medicine very regularly and her indicators were always stable. She ordered a cup of full-sugar pearl milk tea every day. After drinking it for three months, her erythrocyte sedimentation rate rose to 39. After stopping the milk tea for a month, it dropped back to 22. Even the stiffness of her joints when she woke up in the morning was much lighter. Oh, by the way, we are not asking you to completely cut out sugar. Many scholars believe that as long as the amount of added sugar is controlled within 25g per day, it will basically have no impact on inflammation levels. In fact, it’s okay to eat a couple of small cakes if you are greedy. Just don’t show off every day.

Let’s talk about fatty meats, fried foods, and desserts made with vegetable butter. Why is it not recommended to eat more? It’s really not a metaphysics of “fat building”. When the saturated fat and trans fat in these foods are metabolized, mediators that promote inflammatory reactions will be produced. If you are in the acute stage and your joints are so swollen that you can’t bend, and you eat braised pork and fried skewers, the swelling and pain relief will be much slower. Of course, the stabilization period doesn’t need to be so harsh. I went to eat fried pork ribs with my friends last month. As long as we don’t eat it every day, it basically doesn’t have any impact.

Many people confuse the taboos for rheumatoid arthritis and gout, and exclude all seafood and animal offal. This is really unnecessary. Only rheumatoid patients with high uric acid or gout need to strictly control purine. Simple rheumatoid patients can eat normally as long as their joint pain does not worsen after eating. Omega-3 in deep-sea fish such as salmon and saury also has an auxiliary anti-inflammatory effect. If you don't touch it in one bite, you will lose money.

As for the three types of controversial foods that people ask about most, there are currently very different opinions between academic circles and the public. I will explain them clearly for you, so you don’t have to get entangled:

Let’s start with eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and other nightshade vegetables. The older generation always says that eating them will aggravate joint pain. The mainstream view of Western medicine is that there is currently no large-scale evidence-based evidence to support this statement. Unless eating them is really uncomfortable, there is no need to avoid them at all. About 10% of the patients I come into contact with do suffer from joint pain after eating Solanaceae. The remaining 90% have no problem even if they eat tomato scrambled eggs and hot and sour shredded potatoes every day. They don't dare to eat it without listening to what others say. If you try it for two or three days in a row, your body's reaction will be the most honest.

Let’s talk about dairy products. Some niche studies believe that certain proteins in milk may trigger autoimmune reactions and aggravate inflammation. However, more research supports that rheumatoid patients drink more milk. After all, we are prone to osteoporosis if we take hormones for a long time, and the calcium and vitamin D in milk are the easiest to absorb. My suggestion is that as long as you don’t experience any discomfort such as diarrhea, joint pain, or acne after drinking milk, just drink it normally. If you really avoid milk due to the rumors that it will disappear, you will need to take extra calcium supplements, which is not worth the loss.

There is also seafood, which is really a taboo area. Many patients have never touched shrimps and crabs after being diagnosed. It is really unnecessary. As long as you are not allergic and have no joint discomfort after eating, you can eat without worry. The high-quality protein in seafood is better than any supplement. It can actually help you improve your immunity. It is better than eating vegetables every day and not keeping up with the nutrition.

Oh, by the way, there is another priority that is higher than all dietary taboos, which is drug-related taboos: patients who are taking methotrexate must not drink alcohol, not even beer, fruit wine, or rice wine, which will greatly increase the risk of liver damage.； Patients taking warfarin should pay attention to keeping their vitamin K intake as stable as possible, and do not eat spinach or broccoli all of a sudden, otherwise it will affect the efficacy of the medicine. You must listen to your own doctor's advice on this, and don't take it seriously.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there are no "comprehensive" taboos. Everyone's physique, condition, and reaction to food are different. If someone else touches a food that hurts, it may not be the case for you. The most reliable way is to keep a simple food diary. If your joints feel uncomfortable after eating something on any day, just write it down and avoid it next time. There is really no need to set a lot of rules for yourself. Being sick is enough to worry about, so why should you wrong yourself if you can eat something you like and your body allows it?