A few careful decisions at the dining table can make a world of difference for frustrating and exhausting joint pain.
It starts at about the age of 30 – that’s when we all begin to hear the warnings. We’re told that our mornings will soon be full of aches and pains and that our bodies will seize up.
This dire outlook doesn’t always come true, but for many people it does. Often, as we age, pain increases. One of the main culprits is arthritis and joint pain – in Australia about one in six people have arthritis and in America the figure is more like one in four.
But these changes aren’t just an inevitable part of getting older – research shows a strong link between joint pain and chronic inflammation.
The good news is that studies have found that the choices we make about food can affect inflammation and have an impact on how much joint pain we feel.
It’s useful to include foods that are actively anti-inflammatory in your diet if you have joint pain, but it’s equally important to avoid the foods that can make inflammation worse. These are the five foods to avoid if you want to say goodbye to knee pain, hip pain, and arthritic joint pain and get on with life.
#1 – The Effects of Red meat and Joint Pain
Red meats like lamb and beef are triple threats when it comes to joint pain-inducing inflammation. Firstly, digestion of meat, particularly if it has been cooked at high heat, ultimately results in the increased bodily presence of two molecules associated with inflammation – trimethlyamine oxide and advanced glycation end products. Meat is also high in saturated fat and studies show high-fat meals can cause an immediate increase in inflammation.
#2 – Processed and Fried Foods and Joint Pain
While not always the case, most processed and fried foods are high in partially hydrogenated oils, which are also known as trans fats. These are created when hydrogen is added to unsaturated fat to give it more stability – a process that can extend shelf life and boost flavour. Lots of research, including this 2011 study examining the effect of trans fats on cells, has shown that trans fats contribute to systemic inflammation, which underlies conditions like arthritis and joint pain.
#3 – The impact of White bread and other refined grains on Ageing and Joint Pain
While whole grains can have an anti-inflammatory effect, refined grains like those found in white flour, pastry, and white bread can increase inflammation – likely by encouraging the growth of inflammatory gut bacteria. Joint pain is only one of the consequences linked to the inflammation associated with refined grains – this 2010 study also suggests diets high in refined grains could be connected with early death.
#4 – Vegetable and seed oils
When it comes to oils and inflammation, there’s good oils and bad oils. Good oils, like olive oil, are high in omega-3 fatty acids while bad oils, like corn oil and other vegetable oils, are high in omega-6 fatty acids. Both omega-3 and omega-6 are necessary to be healthy, but modern diets tend to provide us with far more omega-6 than we need, and this can cause increased inflammation that leads to joint pain. Replacing oils high in omega-6 with olive oil could produce an anti-inflammatory effect and a reduction in pain.
#5 – High-sugar foods and the negative implications on Ageing
Sugar has found its way into all kinds of products – from breakfast cereals to canned sauces – but a diet high in sugar can be incredibly harmful. It increases the risk of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and – because the consumption of sugar triggers the release of inflammatory bodies called cytokines – it also has a negative effect on joint pain. In 2014, a study looking at the links between arthritis and soft drinks sweetened with sugar established a firm association between the two.