A diet free from animal foods improves arthritis.*

I learned this in my nutrition classes years ago, that animal foods worsen arthritis. The thinking is that proteins in animal foods resemble proteins in our body which cause our immune system to attack both those foreign proteins and our own. It wasn’t fringe or extreme back then, it was accepted knowledge taught out of textbooks in universities. But it has become fringe today. That’s because the meat and dairy industries worked hard to bury this knowledge. Their members lobbied Congress and the USDA, got jobs in government, marketed their wares doggedly and effectively. And … it worked.

* Research:
Meat-Induced Joint Attacks, or Meat Attacks the Joint, Nutrition in Clinical Practice, 2010

Dietary Risk Factors For The Development Of Inflammatory Polyarthritis: Evidence For A Role Of High Level Of Red Meat Consumption, Arthritis and Rheumatism, 2004

Fasting Followed By Vegetarian Diet In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review, Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology, 2001

The Role Of Meat In The Expression Of Rheumatoid Arthritis, British Journal of Nutrition, 2000

Vegetarian Diet For Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis–Status: Two Years After Introduction Of The Diet, Clinical Rheumatology, 1994

Controlled Trial Of Fasting And One-year Vegetarian Diet In Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lancet, 1991

Food-Induced (Allergic) Arthritis. Inflammatory Arthritis Exacerbated By Milk, Arthritis and Rheumatism, 1986