Some simple advices about diet to reduce rheumatism

Inflammation is a major component in most Rheumatic pain conditions or rheumatic diseases, therefore it is adviceable to eat a good amount of food that reduces inflammation and reduce the consumption of food that contains inflammatory agents. A definition of rheumatism can be found at the last section of this page. Here are some simple dietary advices that may help reduce rheumatic conditions:

Food you should eat to reduce inflammation and rheumatism

The fat types called omega-3-poly-unsaturated fat and omega-9-mono-unsaturated fat reduce inflammatory processes and thereby also ameliorate rheumatic ailments. Good sources of omega-3-fatty acids are: fat fish, seafood, flax seeds, perilla, seal meat and oils made from these sources. Seal oil has shown to have an especially beneficial effect by rheumatic conditions. You should eat fat fish at least 2 times a week, and have a meal made of fish or seafood at least every second day. You should use some oils from this group in your dishes in order to get enough omega-6, or take a couple of tablespoons of such oils each day as a medication. These oils should not be used for frying or warm cooking, they should also be stored cool, and locked. They easily oxidize and react chemically in many ways by exposure to heat and oxygen, and thereby convert to harmful substances. Good sources of omega-9-fat are: olive, canola, rape, almonds, peanuts, cashew pecan, hickory, hazel nuts, pistachio, macadamia, filbert, avocado and oils made from these sources. These oils can be used for gentle frying and hot cooking, since they are more robust for chemical alternations than omega-3-oils. You should also use some of these oil types in your cooking, and especially olive oil of extra virgin quality. However, when you add these types of oils to your diet, you should reduce the intake of other types of fat, so that you do not get too much fat. You should also eat much vegetables, since also these contribute to a body chemistry that reduces inflammation. 5 pieced of vegetable a day is recomended.

Food you should not eat too much of

Do not consume much oils with a high content of omega-6 poly-unsaturated fatty acids, like soy oil, corn oil, or oils made from the following sources: sunflower, safflower, grape seed, cotton seed, walnut, sesame and wheat germ. Omega-6 poly-unsaturated fat in these types of oil trigger inflammation. However, you need some fat of this type, so you must eat some food containing this type of fat. Most food you buy that is ready to eat from a factory or restaurant, contain these types of fat in great amounts. You should therefore reduce the consumption of food you do not cook yourself. Also saturated fat as found in fat red meat and fat diery products tend to trigger inflammation and theraby worsen rheumatic conditions. You should therefore use

lean meat and cut away visible fat from it and you should not consume too much fat diery products. Bread, cereals and products made of corn or cereals also increase the inflammation response, especially if they contain wheat. Wheat causes a special type of inflammation in the intestines called celiac disease in some individuals, but may also trigger inflammation of non-celiac type. However, full-corn cereals and fullcorn bread are valuable types of food, so you should not stop eating them. But if you eat bread or corn products at every meal, you should reduce your intake of these and eat more potatoes, beans and peas.

Things you should ideally not eat at all

You should absolutely not consume fat that has been chemically altered to give it another consistence. This type of fat has a very negative effect on the health and may be very potent inflamatory agents. The alimentary industry use to transform poly-unsaturated fat from plants into more saturated types by adding hydrogen to the fatty acid chains in a chemical process. When doing so, you do not only get more saturated fat that is harder than the original unsaturated fat. You also get a great amount of unsaturated fatty acid chains that have another physical shape than those found in the nature. These altered unsaturated fat types also have a harder consistency. They also do not work properly in the body, and cause a lot of disturbing physiological processes. Margarine, snacks, fast food and ready made cakes or cookies often contain this kind of fat. Unfortunately this type of fat is also often added to bread. A good idea could be to bake your bread yourself.

Radical diet regimes for rheumatism

There exist several radical diet cures for rheumatism. These vary, but typically they are like this: First 2 - 4 days of fasting where one only consume fruit and or vegetable juice. The fasting is often combined with enemas to clean out the bowel. Then up to 14 days where one only eats vegetables and fruit, either raw or gently cooked. After this period one attains a vegetable diet where the need for grains and carbohydrates comes from nuts, sunflower, whole corn cereals or grains. Many regimes also allow diery products. Experiences tell that such cures indeed help against many cases of severe rheumatism. But the restriction on food types will allways weaken the body in some ways ofter some time, especially if the fasting and period of consuming only fruit and vegetabeles last long. The forbiddance of eating food componenets from the animal kingdom, such as fish and seafood will also make it difficult to get proteins of full value and getting those fatty aids that are especially good against rheumatism. Most of these cures are therefore probably not working optimally for their purpose. It may still be worth trying such a regime, provided one makes some adjustments. The fasting and diet on only fruit and vegetables must not last too long. After that period one should have a balanced diet thet also contains fish, especially fat fish and seafood in addition to the vegetable components usually contained in these regimes.

About the ballance in the food

Many althernative dieticians are proponents for a ballanced food according to the eastern yin-yang-principles. According to eastern traditions the energies in the body have a polarity or charge called yin and yang and the diverse kinde of food are loaded with energy of either the yin or yang polarity. In orther to stay healthy and ballanced one must daily consume a mixture of food so that there is a ballance between yin and yang. The difficulty is to get enough yang and not too much Yin. Vegetables are yang-loaden, so are fruits. Cereals are ballanced yin and yang. Meat and fish are yin. Alcohol, tea, koffee and refined sugar or carbohydrates are heavily yin. When food is processed and altered it gets more yin-loaded. Another theory are about bace-producing and acid-producing food. The principle sais that one should eat a ballanced diet of acid-producing and base producing food. The principle have nothing to do with the food being basic or acidic when you eat it, but how much basic and acidic substances they make produce when methabolized. Practiaclly Bace-producing food is more or less the same as yangloaded food and acid-producing food more or less the same as yin-loaded food. There is a belief that the body is too much yin-loaded and too much acidic by rheumatic conditions, and that a diet that is more yang and basic that yin and acidic should be attended. Experience tell that ballanceing the diet in a yang and basic direction really helps by rheumatism. It is however difficult in a heavily yang-basic-diet to get enough protein, so on should not exagerate the use of these principles.

Some more tips for food and spices especially good against rheumatism
The common weed stinging nettle is a good remdy ageinst rheumatic symptoms and other chronic inflammatory conditions. You must use young sprouts or the soft tops of the plants. You should however be cautious with plants with flowers or plants that have been in plossom, since they can be irritating for the urinary system. You must cook it and then you can use it as a vegetable at your dishes. You should not spill the water after the cooking, but use it as a tea, as the base for a soup or otherwise, since it will contain a lot of valuable nutrients. Raw potatoes or the juice of raw potatoes have a good effect against rheumatic conditions. Raw potatoes are also good for the digestion. Roubarb is good against rheumatism. Oner uses the chopped green stalks and blends it with some sweetening ingredients. Cellery can be used against rheumatic conditions. Cellery seeds are even more powerful. 5-10 drops of celery seed extract blended in water or other drinks is a way to get the benefit from this plant. Bitter gourd or juice of bitter gourd is good against rheumatism. A coup of juice mixed with some sweetener like honey is recommanded. Walnuts is a good diet component by rheumatic conditions. They should be chewed well to get all the nutrition absorbed. The spice cayenne has an anti-rheumatic effect. It is also stimulating for the blood circulation in the tissues and for tissue repair and regeneration. The spice ginger has anti-inflammatory and anti-rheumatic effects. It helps to decrease pain and swelling by rheumatic diseas, includng arthritis.