Читать книгу Arthritis: Over 60 Recipes and a Self-Treatment Plan to Transform Your Life - Marguerite O.B.E. Patten - Страница 10

Extra pounds place excess wear and tear on joints and ligaments. Hundreds of diet plans exist to help you lose weight: ignore them all. The healthiest and most important step towards eliminating unnecessary fat from your body is to eat a balanced diet in moderation, and become more active. Using the Eat to Beat Arthritis Diet as your guide, choose foods that suit you best and enjoy them in small portions until your weight has reached an ideal level.

Serve yourself whenever possible (other people always give you more than you need), and only put on your plate what you intend to eat. Do not have second helpings. If you would usually take two tablespoons of peas, take only one. If you usually enjoy a full bowl of soup, ladle out half a bowl as your diet portion. For the good health of your heart and vascular system, cut the amount of butter and animal fat in your diet to the smallest possible amounts, and use only half the oil you would usually use on salads and in cooking. Eat smaller portions and eat more slowly to enjoy the full flavour of your food. There are two exceptions to the rule on eating less. Among the foods you will enjoy on the Eat to Beat Arthritis Diet are liver and a nutritious Health Drink. Do not reduce your intake of either of these foods. (Gout sufferers must eliminate the liver, however. See here.)

If you are trying to lose weight, it is essential to add some extra exercise to your daily routine to burn off unwanted calories. Housework and walking to the shops are not enough.

If you smoke, try to stop. The health evidence against smoking tobacco is overwhelming. Smokers dislike hearing people drone on about this, but the effects of smoke on your body are worth keeping in mind when you are committed to improving your health. As all those massively expensive anti-smoking campaigns tell us, the link between smoking and certain forms of cancer is obvious, but smoking causes other damage as well. There is evidence that the damaging levels of free radicals released in the body by cigarette smoke increases inflammation, and thus increases the level of pain associated with arthritis.