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The role of diet in arthritis is a controversial subject. Some doctors do not believe diet is an important factor. The American College of Rheumatology’s position is that nutritional therapy is “experimental.” But even this organization agrees that it’s worth looking into.

I remember when I started having problem with my fingertips. I drink soy milk everyday, one or two glasses a day and even pour it in my bowl of cereal for two years. My doctor recommended me to go to a specialist, so I went. I was diagnosed to have Raynaud’s disease, is a rare disorder of the blood vessels, usually in the fingers and toes. It causes the blood vessels to narrow when you are cold or feeling stressed. When this happens, blood can’t get to the surface of the skin and the affected areas turn white and blue. The day I went, I was not very happy to see most older people were in the clinic. I told myself that there’s got to be a solution for this. It’s got to be the food that I am eating, I ask my family if they have problem like mine. They all said no and my sister even told me that grandma, who used to see us, to bring us fresh fruit and vegetables, never had arthritis issue.

I narrowed everything down to what I am eating or drinking pretty much everyday. It’s soy milk, the culprit to all of my suffering and beans that are high in uric acid. I didn’t believe it at first, but after eliminating soy milk and my favorite garbanzo bean or chic peas in my diet for atleast 6 months, my Raynaud’s syndrome started disappearing and completely healed or disappeared after a year of soy free and uric acid food free.

I never thought that the food that I think is healthy for me, clearly is the culprit of my arthritis pain and Raynaud’s disease. Since then, I started looking at the ingredients of most of the food that I buy at the grocery stores to make sure that it doesn’t contain, soy, soy lecithin, soy bean oil, and other ingredients with legumes, which are high in uric acid.

Another occurrence happened when my husband started having hip pain, we thought it was our bed, so we went and bought a new mattress. But the pain is still there, so he went to a chiropractor, treated him a few times and even taught him a stretch that he has to do everyday, morning and before going to bed. The pain is still there, so I started looking and observing his diet and what food he eats everyday. He drinks his smoothies, everyday, and yes blends it with healthy frozen fruit and reach in protein peanut butter.

Peanut butter??? What is peanut butter, according to Wikipedia, it is a food paste or spread made from ground, dry-roasted peanuts. It commonly contains additional ingredients that modify the taste or texture, such as salt, sweeteners, or emulsifiers.  The first ingredient is peanuts, what is peanuts, also known as the groundnut, goober, pindar or monkey nut, and taxonomically classified as Arachis hypogaea, is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, being important to both small and large commercial producers.

Legume??? You mean peanuts that is good for you, rich in protein, good source of Vitamin B-6, Iron and Magnesium is also a culprit for my husband’s aching hips and legs? If you have arthritis, you may want to consider whether food allergies are aggravating your symptoms. After 2 or 3 days of not having peanut butter in my husband’s smoothies, his hip pain decreased and after a week, the pain completely disappeared, like it never even happened.

Go vegeterian. A number of studies seem to indicate that RA or rheumatoid arthritis symptoms improve when people change to a vegetarian diet. In one study, participants fasted for a week and then ate a carefully controlled diet for about five months.

The diet in this first phase included foods such as herbal tea, vegetable broth, garlic, and extracts from carrots, beets and celery. Later they were allowed to add foods back into their diets one at a time. But they continued to avoid meat, fish, eggs dairy products, citrus fruits, refined sugar, alcoholic beverages coffee, tee, and foods containing gluten such as wheat, oats barley and rye.

The results of this study were surprising. Pain and selling decreased, and grip strength increased. There were also improvements in the participants’ blood tests. The diet seemed very successful because after a year their symptoms were still improved.

You may also feel better when you fast. This study seems to suggest that food allergies may be a cause of rheumatoid arthritis. About half of the study participants believed they had certain food allergies. Most of them actually felt better while they were fasting, and they got worse when they started eating again.

Pay particular attention to foods you don’t digest well or that cause any unusual symptoms. But don’t fast or drastically change your diet without consulting your doctor. If you have a known food allergy, ask your doctor how it might affect your arthritis symptoms.

Fatty diets can also cause arthritic pain. A study done on mice suggests a link between osteoarthritis and diet. A group of mice was fed a diet high in saturated fat. Another group was fed a diet high in unsaturated fat. The group that ate saturated fat developed more severe cases of osteoarthritis.

It could be food poisoning. The food poisoning sickness called “Salmonella,” which is caused by bacteria, can also cause joint inflammation. But the arthritis like symptoms may not appear until after the salmonella illness is over. Doctors can diagnose it because of the presence of “antibodies,” which are produced by the body in response to an attack by a foreign organism.

It could be from the medication or prescription drug. Strangely, some prescription drugs can cause joint pain that seems like arthritis. These drugs may contain ingredients that triggers arthritis. It may be true arthritis, or it may be a drug reaction. Ask your doctor.

Despite all the controversy about diet, drugs, which food is better for your or not, you may want to include herbal remedies in your plan for dealing with arthritis. Just use caution and discuss any treatments your are considering with your doctor. You should always discuss any treatments you may take your own with your doctor, even for simple things like colds and flu.