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disease, juvenile diabetes, vitiligo and other autoimmune diseases is a shared tissue type that is also common to those who have celiac disease (sprue). These illnesses may share an allergic reaction to the gluten and gliadin found in wheat, oats, barley, rye and other grains, though not corn or rice. Wright's lupus patients improved after eliminating most grains and all dairy products from their diets.
According to Sobel and Klein, authors of Arthritis: What Works, the most common offenders in rheumatoid and osteoarthritis are beef and other red meats, sugar and other sweets, fat and fried foods, refined table salt, caffeine, dairy products, nightshade vegetables, smoked or processed meats, pork, alcohol, junk food, refined starches such as white flour, additives, preservatives, acid foods, chocolate andespecially for gout patientspurines, which are substances that break down into uric acid in the body. Purines are found in organ meats, beef and other meats, mussels and other shellfish, herring, sardines, mackerel, fish roe and anchovies, all of which should be avoided by the gout patient. It is ironic that these same fatty cold-water fish bring relief to other forms of arthritis.
Research on the food-arthritis connection is still an open field, and every expert seems to have a different list of "most offending" foods. The lists are more than confusing; they are sometimes contradictory and always overwhelming, for they seem to contain every food most people eat every day. Restrictive diets are never easy, especially when they deviate from the social norm. Experimenting to find the foods your

 
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