Healthful eating can improve your overall well-being and help you reach and maintain a healthy weight, which can reduce inflammation and take stress off painful spots. This section looks at how to eat for optimum health.
Losing Weight, Losing Pain
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Weight loss: If you have extra pounds, especially on weight-bearing joints like knees or hips, shedding pounds can lessen pain and allow you to move better.
Ease Pain With Pain-Fighting Foods
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Many naturally occurring proteins, fats and antioxidants can help you treat pain. Some super foods help fend off degenerative diseases and cancers.
Your Move: Lose Weight
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Losing weight is a top priority for us all. More than an exercise in vanity, it has many health benefits, including a lower risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses. For you, shedding a few pounds can ease joint pain and decrease inflammation. A 2005 study found that each lost pound translates to […]
Medical Food
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According to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Orphan Drug Act, a “medical food” is one that is “formulated to be consumed or administered enterically under the supervision of a physician and [that] is intended for the specific dietary management of a disorder or condition for which distinctive nutritional requirements, based on recognized scientific principles, […]
The Lowdown on Sodium
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Sodium is an indispensable mineral that comes from the earth, and despite its rather simple terrestrial origin, it is essential to life. In Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky described sodium as “the only rock that we eat.” It’s found both inside and outside the body’s cells, and it plays key roles in the processes […]
Navigating Nutrition Information
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A trip to the supermarket can be overwhelming, particularly when you are trying to fill your cart with healthful foods. Food package labels are loaded with information, much of which pertains to nutrition. How can you sort through it all? The good news is that you don’t need to. You can learn to use tools […]
The Mediterranean Diet
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After experiencing some foot problems, Minnesota resident Linda Appelgren was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in the mid-1990s. As a registered dietitian, she had always been conscious of good nutrition. But now the focus of following a healthy diet that also helped reduce inflammation became top priority for her eating style. It also became the cornerstone […]
Antioxidants
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Substances that protect against free radicals, molecules occurring naturally in the body that can damage healthy cells. Some antioxidants are found naturally in the body, whereas others must be consumed in food. Some of the more commonly known dietary antioxidants include vitamin C, vitamin E, and carotenoids, such as beta-carotene and lycopene. Vitamin C is […]
Fish Oil: Benefits for Arthritis
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Could what’s good for your heart also be good for the pain and inflammation of arthritis? Put another way, are there dietary changes you can make to benefit your joints, similar to the ways prudent dietary habits can aid heart health? Scientific research points to fish oil, and the omega-3 fatty acids it contains, as […]
Mindful Eating: Focus on Food
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Have you ever experienced what I like to call the “cheesecake adventure”? It goes like this. You’re at home watching a movie while you slide your fork into a slice of your favorite chocolate chip cheesecake. It’s the one with the to-die-for crunchy dark chocolate crust and the perfect chocolate slivers swirled throughout the creamy, […]
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