Nightshades, Dairy, Sugar—Which Foods Hurt Your RA Most?

Introduction to RA Food Myths 0:00

Is your food fighting your rheumatoid arthritis or is it fighting with you? Many of the time when you go to the internet to learn about food and rheoarthritis, you will hear this rheomatoide arthritis detox. Most of this Rheumatologist detox are not based on science and they are based in marketing. As a rheometologist practicing here in Cary North Carolina and also going through all the evidence, I'm going to show you what is act and what is fiction related with this rheumatoid arthritis detox. So I'll talk about three important things on our video today.

The fasting, the detox and the elimination diet. Please stick around. And at the end of the video, I will also give you some practical tips so that you don't have to get scared with your food and you can apply these principles that will work with you lifestyle rather than being scared of your Hello all of you rheumatoid arthritis warriors, this is Dr. Anant Subedi, your rheuptoarthritis coach at The Room Doc, as well as a practicing rheumeatologist here in Empower Arthritis and Rheumatology Center in Cary, North Carolina.

Today, I'm continuing on my prior video where we talked about controversies in food and rheuma to arthritis. And if you could recall, in our previous video, we talk about four important things, including plant-based versus animal-base, gluten, dairy product, and nightshade vegetables. In the video today, we'll talk about three remaining topics. The fasting, the detox, and the elimination diet. So we will talk what is the science behind these three things and what are those controversies related with RA and food.

Now starting with the first topic of fasting. So when you have gone to the internet to learn about how you can help your rheumatoid arthritis flare an RA without adding more medications. And one of the topics you will hear is fasting. There are different forms of fasting and one common example is called intermittent fasting where you eat for certain hours and you do not eat or you starve for a few hours. And that is one of the modality of fasting that has some data suggesting that it could be helpful.

When I did some research on this topic, what I found was there was some studies suggesting there were some short-term relief with RA symptoms with fasting.

Fasting and RA Symptoms 2:12

There's one particular study when I looked into that patients were fasting for week and they followed a vegan diet after that fasting And the patient who followed this compared to the conventional diet, they did feel better with the joint pain. The activity of RA did improve during the fasting phase. And when I look further, what is the science behind that? And what I found was fasting does have some positive role in rheumatoid arthritis. One particular one is it can decrease inflammation marker in your body.

As you recall, Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory condition where your immune system is hyperactive. So by fasting, the number or amount of inflammatory markers were lower, which suggests there was a decreased inflammation. And these patients who were on that fasting regimen, they also felt better with less joint pain. There are other advantages with fasting too. consuming less calories and when you are consuming more calories you could also lose some weight. So weight loss was the other secondary benefit of fasting.

And as you remember my earlier videos where I talk about obesity and rheumatoid arthritis. Obesity is one of the risk factors that can make your RA worse and it can also cause RA flares. because the fat cells make immune markers like cytokines. So fat cell increase the immune marker like cytochines that can increase your symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Fasting indirectly help you by decreasing the weight and decrease your inflammation markers. And the third thing is the studies also shows that fasting does improve your gut microbiome.

And if you remember the microbiomes, these are all good bacteria in your guts. The type of gut bacteria you have can increase or decrease your risk of rheumatoid arthritis. So fasting has been shown to improve your gut microbiome towards good microbiomes and it helps decrease your dysbiosis where you have better bacteria than the bad bacteria. So by this mechanism, fasting is also known to decrease rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. But there's a big question mark and there is a question that we need to understand is how long can you fast?

Now I know a lot of us, all of do enjoy our food. So how you can sustain your fasting? Is it sustainable long term? That's one of the biggest question in fasting. But if you can fast for a couple of days, it could decrease your rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. But you cannot sustain those resumes for long term. So that's why you need to find some more sustainable ways of doing the fasting. For example, the intermittent fasting could be one of the ways, of decreasing your calorie intake and also decreasing inflammation.

You could try if that is sustainable or that it's applicable to your lifestyle. Fasting could also be a tool. And other important question we also need to answer or understand is the fasting causing any nutritional deficiencies. That's why I always recommend if you are planning to do fasting, always recommended seeing a nutritionist and also recommend asking your doctor to take for some of the important essential vitamins such as folate and B12. Because if your fasting you may not be consuming enough of those micronutrients.

And if you have micronutrient deficiencies, that can have some negative health consequences. That's why it's always important to consult with your doctor, with a rheumatologist, your primary care doctor and a nutritionist. They can help you guide how can you safely do the fasting without causing any other medical problems. So if are thinking about fasting, I highly recommend you talk with you rheumeatologists, you primary doctor or a nutricionist to create a good roadmap on how you can safely fasting.

But in general, fasting had some positive health benefits, including decreasing inflammation, decreasing the weight, and also improving your gut microbiome, which in itself, directly and indirectly, could help decrease your rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. And all of you rheumatoid arthritis warriors, if you are liking the video, please like and subscribe. Please share this video to other people that you know who might have rheuma arthritis. And please also support our big goal for 2026. We are in the first week of 20 26 and we have created some big goals for the RheumDoc.

Through our channel, we want to give you the authentic scientific information related with rheoma arthritis and other topics related to autoimmune diseases. So please help us support to reach at least 100,000 RA warriors who are in confusion regarding rheumatoid arthritis and all of these controversial topics. So we want to give you science-backed information so that you understand better about what is RA and then also minimize those confusing topics, so please like, subscribe and share with loved one who might have rheuma arthritis.

And also don't forget to accept our gift for 2026 and that is a free copy, a PDF of this Holistic Rheumatoid Arthritis Guide which I wrote just for you so that you can learn more about what is RA, what are the other topics important in rheumatitis. I've tried my best to cover multiple areas including medical treatment, all the disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and also a lot of non-medical treatment. Even I have talked about all the health insurance related topics, particularly pertaining to US-based health-insurance market, as well as a lots of other lifestyle related topic that are covered in this book.

Don't forget to download a free copy. Now going to our next controversy, number six is the detox. Now this is one of the very controversial topic in RA and diet. When you go to internet, when you got to YouTube and search about the Detox, you will see a lot of people claiming that they have the best protocol.

Detox Claims Debunked 8:02

They have best product to help you cure your RA. But unfortunately, all of those are based on fiction, not on fact or science. And you can see lot of different modalities, lot different people claiming that they will treat rheumatoid arthritis with this detox techniques. But one of the most important fact, and this is very scientifically proven fact that RA is not due to any sort of toxins. And as you know, RA due your immune system being hyperactive. Your immune system is just attacking your joints.

It's attacking all the organs. So it's not due to the toxins, it is due your hyperactive immune systems. All of these detox, they are not going to help you and even some of them, might even hurt you. Another important fact is our body do have some toxins. When you consume food, we do also consume some toxins too. But we have a very important physiological mechanism in our body, particularly the liver and the kidneys. They have good mechanism to eliminate those toxins that you consumed food. So our bodies has this liver, and kidney, which typically eliminates all of those toxin.

You don't need any of that detox mechanism, to help you get rid of the toxins. So that's why be careful with those marketing scam of detox that is going to treat your rheumatoid arthritis. Now the seventh topic I call the elimination diet. This is also controversial because this is not universally applicable, but Many of my patients, they do report to me that when they eat certain food, They do get RA flares and which is real. Some of the food they are known to trigger rheumatoid arthritis flair.

But the importance is to understand what What is the real trigger? And many of the time it's very hard to find out the trigger, the culprit that is causing the RA flat. But I have some ideas and suggestions that can help you find your trigger food. And that's by doing the food journaling. What does that mean? Try to keep a journal of what are the foods you are eating and what you feel or how you will feel the next day or two after eating those foods. particularly some of those known trigger food.

And if you could recall, one of them I mentioned earlier was a dairy product, the nightshade vegetables, shortened meat, sugar sweetened beverages. So all of these are known to trigger rheumatoid arthritis for some patients. Try to eliminate those and see how you feel. That might be one of the way of understanding what is the real trigger. And that could be done by food journaling. So try to keep a note of food that you have eaten and how your feel the next day or tomorrow. If you're having an RA flare, that might mean that that's your trigger food.

Try and eliminate that trigger one by one. When you eliminate your triggered food, when you reintroduce, if you are having the same type of flare that proves that might be the trigger food for you.

Finding Trigger Foods with Elimination Diets 11:01

And I also think that food journaling is also like a map. It is a maps that is personalized to you, so having that for journalling is that personalized way of understanding what is the triggered food. Rather than universally eliminating all the food that you enjoy, try to understand what typically triggers your hour. So, do your best. If you can, create a food journal and understand what is a trigger food for you. And when I did some research on this topic, I also found some helpful apps. One of the apps that I like is called a variable, which is an app you use to track your symptoms and track food intake, and then also correlate your food in take with the triggers.

So it could be a useful app that you could use track symptoms, track elimination food. Let me quickly summarize what I talked in our video today and our earlier video last time. So we talked about some of the food and RA controversies and we touched on seven topics that included plant-based versus animal- based diet, gluten-containing diet dairy products, night set vegetables, fasting, detox and elimination diet. So we talk about some of the fact and fiction related with this controversial topic in rheumatoid arthritis and diet and I hope it has given you some clarity and then I'm hoping that it will help you eliminate some your trigger food, it'll help create a food journal so that you can personalize your diet intake.

You can personalise your lifestyle rather than doing universal elimination of dairy or some other food that could be the trigger of rheumatoid arthritis. And before I depart, let me give you something I promised in the beginning. So this is your practical tips. These are all the important tips that you can apply in your day-to-day practice so that, you minimize rheuma arthritis flare and manage your RA effectively without overhauling your whole lifestyle. And the number one, the most important one is your manage your plate.

So let me explain to you what does that mean? How do you manage a plate? And I have an easy formula for you. Divide your plates into three pieces. The first half of your place will be full of all of those colorful vegetables and fruits. And if you could recall from our earlier videos, all of these colorful fruits and vegetables, they have natural anti-inflammatory compounds and they help you fight rheumatoid arthritis and the flares. So if can add, fill your half of your plate with green colorful vegetables and fruits.

They are your ally to fight against rheuma arthritis flair. Now the other one fourth of your plate should contain whole grains and that will help you minimize highly processed grains like white bread. So if you can replace whitebread with whole grain that'll give you a lot of fibers and fiber is your friend to fight against rheumatoid arthritis. and then the other one-fourth of your plate should include a lean protein and the lean-protein it could be plant-based such as lentils or it would be animal-base such-as fish and chicken but in general rheumatoid arthritis patients do better on plant based diet so try to be more predominantly plant base but you

Practical Anti-Inflammatory Eating Tips 14:07

don't have to vegan there are some healthy meat that you can add including fish, which has a lot of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid, and the chicken. So if you can add those lean protein, that can help create a good plate, as a anti inflammatory plate. Now the second one is addition of olive oil and try to replace all the butter, the vegetable oils and marzenines with olive. Olive oil has lot natural anti inflammation that will help fight RA and RA flares. If you add some extra olive, your RA will thank you, your joints will think you so that you don't have those RA flares.

And the third one is at least try to add one anti-inflammatory protein in your diet that includes oily fish and legumes or lentils. So this is a good source of protein for you and also they are anti inflammatory so they'll help you fight RA more naturally without needing to have more medications. And the fourth one is at least add one fermented food that includes yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut or kimchi. And how that helps you is they have a lot of natural good bacterias. They have no probiotics that help you maintain a good gut lining and that will help your fight against flares.

So try your best to add one anti-inflammatory fermented food. And the last is hydrate, hydate, and that is with water. So water is your friend, not those sugar-sweetened beverages. That was my first food that I asked you to avoid in my earlier videos. All those sugars, sweetened beverage that has high sucrose, high proctose, that are triggering rheumatoid arthritis flares. So try to minimize those and replace them with water. Water is your best friend. It will hydrate you, your joints will thank you.

Always hydate with the water rather than all of those sugar sweetened beverages. All of you RA warriors, I hope these five practical tips will help help you fight your RA, fight RA flare without needing extra medications. Now, if you need medication, your rheumatologist will be there to help, but even before you go on escalating your medication make sure you follow at least some of these practical tips. But with the holistic way of helping rheumeatologists with medication and these lifestyle changes, we can safely and effectively manage your Rheumatoid Heart Fighters.

Now, all of you rheumatoid arthritis warriors, thank you so much for watching this video and I hope these videos are helpful to bust some of those myths related with controversies in RA and food. If you like this videos, please like and subscribe our channel so that you can get similar content in the future and also comment us. What other content do you want to hear from us? What are the things that are you are confused about rheumiatoide arthritis? One other thing that could help you fight better against rheuma arthritis so we can move you from confusion to clarity and pain to the possibilities of fighting against rheumatoid arthritis and you can have a fulfilling life and just reminding you our NASCAR and that is a vehicle that there to help you go in this healthy journey that includes your nutrition that's what we covered today and all the topic included exercise, sleep management, stress management You're checking in with your doctors, avoiding the risky substances, some of them what we talked today, including alcohol and smoking, and then also creating a positive relation with you family and yourself so that you don't blame when you're having a flare.

Don't blam yourself. Create a positively thankful relation to yourself to fight against rheumatoid arthritis. So I hope you like this video and I'll see you in the next video. Bye bye and take care.