Did you know that what you put on your plate can affect your chronic pain? What you eat can either increase or decrease the pain that stems from osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, bursitis, and migraines and can even potentially impact chronic lower back pain. What you eat and drink can either lower inflammation or make it even worse. In fact, changing your diet can even affect how much medication you have to take, for better or worse. But don’t worry, even a small change in your diet can make the difference in your health.
The Diet And Pain Connection
How it all works isn’t completely understood yet. However, it’s generally believed that a poor diet high in saturated fats, sugars, and highly processed foods low in nutrients can negatively affect your immune system. Eating a plant-based diet is not a quick fix or a cure-all for chronic pain, but it can help, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt.
To Reduce Inflammation
Eat More
- Whole Grains:
Anything that is whole grain is great to integrate into your diet. You could try bread, oats, brown rice, quinoa, couscous, or polenta.
- Beans, Nuts, and Seeds:
This category includes basically any plant foods that have a pod. You could try black beans, chickpeas, humus, walnuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, peas, or soybeans.
- Fruits:
The best fruits to help with chronic pain are berries, pomegranates, and cherries. These dark colored fruits are the best at reducing inflammation. While they’re are great for you, though, avoid fruit juice.
- Yellow, Red, and Orange Vegetables:
While most vegetables are good for your diet, these are the best for chronic pain. Try peppers, dark leafy greens, cucumbers, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, radishes, and onions.
- Fish:
For chronic pain, choose fish that live in cold water. This includes salmon (but not farmed salmon because it’s high in antibiotics), herring, anchovies, sardines, and mackerel.
- Eggs, Cheese, And Yogurt:
This includes plain and low-fat yogurt, natural cheese (so no American cheese or spreads), and any type of eggs.
- Spices:
Cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, rosemary, cayenne pepper, and garlic are great spices to utilize because they all have anti-inflammatory properties.
- Dark Chocolate:
Eating one to two ounces of dark chocolate a day is the perfect amount to see positive results without indulging too much.
Eat Less
- Fruit Juice:
It’s best to avoid fruit juice because while fruit can be good for you, fruit juice has a high sugar content, which can actually make inflammation worse.
- Sugar-Sweetened Sodas:
Like fruit juice, most sodas have high sugar content, so they should be avoided. If you still want to drink soda, try a sugar-free option or some other carbonated beverage.
- Red Meat:
Red meat has been shown to increase inflammation levels, making it bad for anyone trying to reduce chronic pain. If you do like eating beef, try only to eat it on special occasions. Grass-fed beef is the best for you, but it’s also hard to get and expensive.
- Oils And Fats:
Most oils and fats, such as margarine, shortening, lard, corn oil, and soybean oil, should be avoided.
- Fried Foods:
It’s never a good idea to eat fried foods on a regular basis, but especially not if you’re trying to reduce chronic pain. Fried foods increase inflammation and are high in fatty oils.
Integrating some of these foods into your diet and removing others can be very beneficial to your overall health and have been proven to reduce chronic pain. Before making any big changes to your diet, make sure to consult your doctor to see what meal plan is right for you.
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