More than 70% of all of the critical information about your health can be revealed in a blood test.  It’s important to understand your results both to stay healthy as well as treat any ailments that you may have.

Heart Health

Heart attacks and heart disease are the leading cause of death for adults in the United States, responsible for 1 in 4 deaths in this country.  Two out of every five people who have a heart attack do not survive.

Cholesterol

The term cholesterol refers to a number of special molecules known as lipoproteins, not all of which are harmful.

HDL Cholesterol

Known as the “good cholesterol”, these high-density lipoproteins keep your heart healthy.

Foods that have lots of good HDL: nuts, seeds, oatmeal and fish.

LDL Cholesterol

Known as the “bad cholesterol”, a high level of these low-density lipoproteins can lead to heart disease, hardening of the arteries and strokes.

Foods that contribute to high LDL levels: breads, pasta, sugar, cheese and fried foods.

Cholesterol Ratios

One thing your doctor will look for is the ratio between your HDL and LDL levels, as well as understanding other sub-particles like Apo-B and ILP(a).  These numbers can help your doctor assess your risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

Triglycerides:
Also known as dietary fat, high amounts of triglycerides can lead to diabetes and heart disease. Contributing factors to high triglyceride levels: being overweight, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and eating a lot of processed carbohydrates

Inflammation:
When organs and cell tissues become irritated and inflamed, this can contribute to serious illnesses like cancer, auto-immune diseases, dementia and heart disease.  Reducing inflammation is a smart way to stay healthy.  Certain proteins like hs-CRP can indicate that there is an issue with inflammation.

Foods that help reduce inflammation: oranges, green tea, blueberries, salmon, papayas, olive oil, sweet potatoes and broccoli.

Thyroid:
Experts estimate that 1 person in 8 in the United States suffers from thyroid disease, although many cases go undiagnosed.  Problems with the thyroid can lead to obesity and chronic fatigue.  A condition known as hypothyroidism is when the thyroid gland fails to make enough hormones to maintain a healthy metabolism.

Hypothyroidism can lead to: higher cholesterol levels, obesity, heart disease, greater susceptibility to colds, and low energy levels.

Vitamin D
This vitamin is absolutely critical for health and yet approximately 3 out of 4 Americans do not spend enough time outside in order to produce a sufficient level of vitamin D in their bodies.  Low vitamin D levels can lead to heart disease, cancer, bone diseases, and infections.

Consuming fish oil will help your body make more vitamin D.

The post The Big Picture of Your Health: Why it’s Critical appeared first on SmartChoiceMD.

The Short Answer

The unfair truth is that, yes, men do lose weight faster, on average, than women. A number of scientific studies have been conducted which demonstrated that men lose weight faster than women when following identical diet plans and exercise regimes.

While no one fully understands why men have an advantage over women in terms of rapidly shedding excess pounds, it is believed that testosterone plays a key factor. Both men and women naturally have testosterone, but men have far larger amounts. Furthermore, men’s bodies have a higher percentage of muscles and lower percentage of fat than do women’s bodies, giving men an additional advantage for losing weight more rapidly.

How Women Can Even the Score

Muscle mass is the single most efficient method for burning excess calories. Women who engage in strengthening and toning exercises like yoga, weightlifting, and endurance training at the gym will be able to burn fat more quickly. Intensive cardiovascular and aerobic sessions will help burn fat, but increased muscle mass will help women burn off calories around the block.

Not All Fat Is the Same

While many modern women despair over the difficulty of shedding excess weight, it is also important to remember that fat plays a vital role in women’s bodies, being necessary for functions like healthy ovulation, menstruation, and mood regulation. Starving yourself, or engaging in extreme calorie restriction diets, can have far-reaching harmful effects that definitely do not merit the temporarily ability to lose a few pounds. The key to maintaining a healthy weight is to eat a balanced and nutritious diet, and to focus on developing toned muscle mass.

Men tend to accumulate excess fat in the middle of their bodies, which has been demonstrated to lead to an increased risk of developing heart disease. Women, conversely, tend to carry excess weight below their waistline and in other areas of the body, which carries a lower risk of succumbing to a heart attack and other forms of heart disease.

In modern times, the ability to lose weight rapidly is often seen as a blessing. However, it should be always kept in mind that our bodies were designed for periods of both scarcity and abundance. Historically, women’s bodies were more resilient to fluctuations in food availability, giving them the advantage over men when times were leaner. When supplies of food were scarce in the past, it was men who suffered first, as they have a greater need to replenish vital body fat and calories to avoid malnutrition and starvation.

The Multiple Benefits of Getting Stronger

When women perform strength training exercises and start to develop muscle mass, this does a lot more than help burn off excess calories. Stronger muscles leads to stronger bones, and can help women prevent the development of osteoporosis, a degenerative diseases that primarily affects women.

Staying strong and eating healthy will lead to a virtuous cycle, causing you to feel more motivated and happy when you look in the mirror, which will then encourage you to stay strong and focus on your exercise and dietary goals. Then when you do over-indulge on your favorite treats, your increased muscle mass and improved physique will help make losing weight a lot easier.

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1. Think Positive – Setting aside five minutes a day to focus on the positive, giving thanks for the good things in your life, can make a tremendous difference. Re-orienting yourself towards the positive will give you a new perspective, and help attract more good things into your life.

2. Get Enough Sleep – Few people these days give enough respect for their rest, skimping on sleep in favor of catching up with work or worrying about what tomorrow will bring. When you block off a proper amount of time for sleep, you’ll attain a healthier weight, reduce stress, boost your immune system, and even get clearer skin.

3. Eat More Fruits and Vegetables – Everyone knows this is the right thing to do, but somehow good intentions seem to melt away more rapidly than the snows of winter. Start by making it a rule to eat one fruit or vegetable at every meal, and your body will thank you for it.

4. Get Active – A lot of people get gym memberships at the start of the year, go and work out a few times, and then return to their old couch potato ways. Instead of being too ambitious, vow to set aside 20 minutes every day to be active, whether it’s a walk around the block, a quick workout at the gym, or simply doing calisthenics in the privacy of your own home.

5. Drink a Glass of Water – Yes, that strange and “unpleasant” liquid forms more than 70% of our bodies, and yet many people avoid drinking water. Experts recommend that if you drink a small glass of water before every meal, you’ll be sure to stay hydrated, feel more full (and thus less prone to over-eating), and help your body perform vital functions like repairing and rejuvenating cell tissue, regulating hormones, and even burning calories.

6. Read More – Most people read emails and other texts for work, but when is the last time you read for pleasure? Even setting aside 10 minutes to read a passage from a religious text, magazine article, or book chapter will help you to relax while also stimulating your mind.

7. Learn a Foreign Language – Becoming completely fluent in a foreign language is hard work indeed, but anyone can learn one word a day. Not only will this help stimulate your brain, but it’s also a fun challenge!

8. Make a List – If life seems overwhelming, one of the best ways to get back in control is to learn how to make lists. Just the act of writing things down will help you organize your thoughts, and few things feel as good as crossing off items from your list of things to do.

9. Travel – Air travel is becoming more affordable than ever, with plenty of amazing destinations just a few short hours from where you live. Even if it’s exploring an American city that you’ve never visited, it’s always reinvigorating to go somewhere new.

10. Learn New Recipes – One of the secrets to eating healthier is learning new recipes. Many of us fall into the habit of eating the same old thing, day after day. Pick an exciting new recipe that looks appealing, and try it out. You might just surprise yourself with how tasty new ingredients and dishes can be!

11. Eat More Soup – Many of us consider soups to be relics of childhood or meals for when we’re sick, but soups are one of the healthiest dishes around. Whether you make it from scratch, or heat up pre-made soup, you’ll be getting a rich mix of vegetables and nutrients, plus ensuring that your body stays hydrated.

12. Do Something Nice – Whether it’s as grandiose as paying for the customer behind you in line, or simply leaving a nice comment for an online article, doing a positive act will recharge your spiritual batteries.

13. Tell Someone You Love Them – In this crazy, hectic world, the people whom we love mean everything to us, and yet sometimes telling them that we love them is the hardest thing of all. Even if it’s via text, reach out to the people that matter most to you and tell them unambiguously that you love them.

14. Eat Mindfully – Between blaring televisions and radios, fidgeting with our phones, and lots of conversation, we often wolf down our meals without even realizing what we’ve just eaten. Turn off the noise, and slow down, eating every bite with mindfulness. Not only will you be more grateful and conscious for your food, but you’ll also form a better connection to your body’s needs.

15. Spend More Time with Animals – Even if your lifestyle can’t accommodate adopting a pet, people simply feel better when they’re around animals. Go to a zoo, ride a horse, visit a wildlife sanctuary, or volunteer at your local animal shelter, and you’ll feel more relaxed, happy, and connected to the important things in life.

16. Kiss AND Tell – Sometimes, it seems as though once we’ve found a romantic partner, we soon slide into lazy habits of taking them for granted. Take the time to write down or say aloud to your partner all of the reasons why you cherish their presence in your life, and how happy you are that they’ve agreed to share their life with you.

17. The Bucket List – Write out a list of the things you want to do before you die, and then vow to do at least one in the next 30 days. Whether it’s as exotic as skydiving or as mundane as visiting the ocean for the first time, don’t let work and the grind of daily life keep you from fulfilling your life’s ambitions.

No matter what you decide to do for 2016, make sure that you invest your time, energy, love, and money on making your life the best it can be!

The post 16 Healthy Habits for 2016 appeared first on SmartChoiceMD.

Salmon

While it may not feature in too many holiday dishes, salmon is a wonderful source of healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, shown to significantly reduce stress. If you’re a vegetarian, you can get a similar boost of healthy Omega-3 fatty acids from consuming (raw) walnuts.

Turkey Breast

There’s a good reason why people feel so relaxed after consuming a big Thanksgiving dinner featuring turkey. Known as tryptophan, many meats, especially turkey breast, contain large amounts of this amino acid, which has been proven to have a calming effect on people. Low in fat, and reasonably priced, turkey breast is a great go-to meat for the holidays. If you’re a vegetarian, try eating tofu, beans, or seeds, as these foods also contain significant quantities of tryptophan.

Cashews

These delicious nuts are packed full of essential vitamins and minerals needed to maintain good health. Cashews, in particular, are also bursting with plenty of zinc, which has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress. Not only are cashews a delicious, fun snack, but they are also high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids and proteins, making them a smart choice any time of the year.

Dark Chocolate

Although we call a wide variety of foods “chocolate”, only dark chocolate has a good concentration of the cocoa plant, which is widely considered by health experts to be a “superfood” due to its high levels of essential vitamins and minerals. Dark chocolate that is at least 70% cocoa will help you to relax, lowering stress hormone levels, and helping to improve blood circulation. Oh yeah, and it tastes good too!

Blood Oranges

Once a favorite to fill stockings hung by the chimney with care, blood oranges are still an excellent holiday food to help reduce anxiety and stress. With even more Vitamin C than other varieties of oranges, blood oranges have been shown to reduce blood pressure levels and the stress hormone cortisol.

Green Leafy Vegetables

While it may be tempting to head straight to the desserts during the holiday season, don’t neglect to eat your vegetables! Adding a simple salad filled with lots of green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, or rucola will help tremendously in lowering your anxiety and stress levels. Green leafy vegetables are high in folate, which has been shown to help people feel more calm, happy, and energetic.

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The 80/20 Rule

This famous equation works equally well during the holidays. Give yourself permission to indulge in your favorite treats 20% of the time, while remembering to stick to your healthy diet and exercise regime the other 80% of the time. Many people celebrate the holidays by staying on their regular track during the weekdays, and then give themselves permission to indulge during the weekends.

Managed Indulgence

Saying no to your favorite holiday drinks and goodies can be almost impossible. But when you decide to give in and sample some of those delicious sugary foods, do so without a guilty conscience, but don’t let it get out of control. If you order a holiday drink at your favorite coffee shop, order a standard size, not the huge one. And if your coworker brings in a fresh batch of cookies, eat one or two, don’t bring a handful back to your desk.

Just a Taste

If a coworker or loved one is pressuring you to eat some wicked holiday treats, it can be hard to say no. Go ahead and put a little on your plate, but be sure to stay on track by filling the rest of your plate with vegetables and other healthy fare. If the pressure to eat every sugary, high-fat dish becomes overwhelming, try a polite excuse like, “Yes, I will try it later,” or “I’d love to eat more, but I filled up earlier.”

Being Different Makes You Stronger

While it may look like everyone around you is gorging themselves on unlimited holiday goodies, it is possible to stay strong by choosing to be different. Remember that in a few weeks that those people are going to feel stuffed, sickened, and force to vow to change their ways on New Years’ Day. If you can remain committed and on track during the holidays, transitioning to the new year will be a breeze. By remaining committed to a healthy diet and exercise routine, you might just inspire those around you to employ a little self-control.

Party With a Full Belly

Office and other holiday parties can be a real blast, but if you arrive with an empty stomach, it’ll be almost impossible not to overindulge on fat-packed goodies and sugary treats. Eat a healthy meal at home first, or bring your own lunch to work, and then you’ll have the power to resist all those tempting goodies. After the party is over, and the other guests are groaning and moaning, you’ll be glad you ate a healthy meal beforehand.

The post How to Enjoy the Holidays Without Packing on the Pounds appeared first on SmartChoiceMD.

7 EASY TIPS

No Evening Meals

Nighttime and your sleep period is when your body repairs and restores vital functions. Although you might be tempted to snack before bed, experts recommend going to bed a bit hungry and then enjoying a full breakfast. When you eat four hours or less before going to sleep, your body will have to work to digest that food and will spend less time burning fat.

Take a Break from Alcohol

While many people enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or sharing a beer with friends, alcohol and weight loss do not a good combination make. Beer, especially, is roughly the equivalent of bread, and overloading your body with carbohydrates won’t help you shed those unwanted pounds.

Health experts recommend slowly re-introducing alcohol back into your diet (think Turkey day!) once you’ve attained your desired weight and have ingrained healthy dietary and exercise habits.

Drink Lots and Lots of Water

It seems strange, but many people in wealthy nations are actually dehydrated even though they drink plenty of liquids. Drinks other than plain water can often serve as a diuretic, forcing your body to use more water to process it than any hydration gained from drinking the beverage.

Drinking lots of water also helps your body’s systems operate more smoothly and efficiently, much like how clean oil in a car helps the motor and other vital parts running better. If you can’t stomach drinking another glass of water, try eating more watery foods, such as thin (more broth) soups and juicy vegetables and fruits.

Get Enough Sleep

Probably the greatest open secret about losing weight is that getting enough rest is a key part of losing weight. During the night, as you sleep, your body’s hormone balance and other key functions are reset and restored, helping maintain a healthy metabolic function.

Caffeine

Experts agree that drinking too much coffee or other sources of caffeine isn’t good, a little caffeine in your blood stream will help curb your appetite while simultaneously removing free fatty acids, helping you to lose weight.

Protein and Fiber – At Every Meal

Fiber in our foods has no nutritional value, but it does serve as an important part of our digestive system, essentially acting a cleanser, removing toxins, dead cells, and other waste from our bodies. Fiber also helps you feel full, triggering your brain’s sense of satisfaction, which will help keep you from reaching for an unhealthy treat. In the morning, you can enjoy a healthy whole grain breakfast, but to achieve the best results, it’s important to eat a source of fiber with every meal and snack.

Likewise, a good source of protein with every meal helps your body burn fat and build muscles, which leads to a righteous cycle as more muscles burn more fat, helping you to steadily lose unwanted weight. Vegetarians can enjoy protein-rich foods such as beans, peanuts, and pulses, while omnivores can add low-fat meats like chicken and turkey to every meal in order to maintain a well-balanced diet.

These handful of easy and helpful tips will help you ease into the holiday season a bit lighter, as well as your clothes!

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If you do decide that eating meat is the right choice for you and your family, it is absolutely essential that you understand the entire farm-to-fork process that results in the meat on your dinner table.

Ethics

Probably the most important consideration for most people is the ethical implication of how their meat is sourced. Regardless of any other factor, it is indisputable that raising animals in unnatural, confined, and hostile environments adds an unnecessary layer of cruelty to the entire process. Even if scientists could not prove that stressed animals produce hormones that get passed on to the human consumer, provoking chronic inflammatory responses and other illnesses, it is self-evident that an unhappy animal will not produce healthy, quality meat.

While few of us will ever be able to acquire all of our meat from the hunting of wild animals, it is possible to buy meat sourced from animals raised with care and compassion in a humane environment. Commercial feedlots and other industrial farming operations are the complete opposite of a natural environment for animals, and the resulting meats and other animal products reflect that in their taste, reduced vitamin and protein content, and increased levels of parasitic bacteria, stress hormones, and other inflammatory substances.

Genetics

Much of the meat on sale today at our local supermarket comes from animals that our grandparents would not even recognize. Chicken, and other forms of poultry in particular, are now being genetically bred and engineered in laboratories, resulting in animals that bear little to no resemblance to their wild, natural ancestors. Many of the animals raised and bred for meat today are crippled by genetic problems to the point that they would be completely unable to survive on their own in a natural environment.

Diet

Many people are deeply horrified to learn that a lot of animals being farmed today are being fed unnatural diets that bear absolutely no relation to their biological dietary requirements. Cows and other ruminants are herbivores, meaning that they are designed to eat only plants and only plants, but commercial farmers have been given permission by governmental regulatory agencies to feed them animal waste and even the meat of other animals. Unable to choose their own feed, today’s farmed animals are unwillingly consuming completely unnatural foods, resulting in a host of strange and disturbing illnesses such as Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease, more commonly known as “mad cow disease”.

Pollution

Animals naturally produce waste as part of their life cycle. When animals are raised in a healthy and sustainable way, their waste is recycled as fertilizer, helping to grow the next generation of grasses and other plants that form the basis of their diet. Unfortunately, in the United States and many other developed countries, animals are now being farmed in gigantic industrial feedlots, known by the acronym CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations).

The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that spillage and large-scale environmental pollution caused by CAFO has already caused hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of damage to the environment. The liquid overflow from CAFO lagoons is an extremely toxic substance, leading to the mass killing of fish and other wildlife in the area, to say nothing of the permanent poisoning of lakes, rivers, and underground water reservoirs. Although the use of CAFO farming techniques has led to a temporary financial profit in the short run, the long-term cost to the environment is incalculable, and will be something that our children, and children’s children, will be paying for in the decades to come.

Flavor

If you have been eating meat produced in commercial farming operations your entire life, and have never tasted natural, healthy meat produced by animals consuming a proper diet, you don’t know what you’re missing. Once you’ve tasted free-range meat produced from animals that were eating a proper diet, and raised in a natural, healthy way, you will instantly sense the difference, as every bite will be more flavorful, savory, and delicious. Because the industrial farming process completely deadens the flavor, all major fast-food and restaurant chains have to rely on artificial flavoring and food additives in order to make their flavorless industrial meat simulate the natural deliciousness of healthy, free-range meat produced from animals that consumed a proper, natural diet.

Conclusion

While it is certainly tempting to buy the most affordable cuts of meat at your local supermarket, ultimately there is no such thing as cheap meat. The meager immediate cost savings of commercial CAFO farm operations will ultimately blow back on all of us in the form of a polluted environment, stressed out animals passing on sicknesses and diseases to their human consumers, and the incalculable ethical price of adding unnecessary cruelty to the raising and production of meat for human consumption.

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THE THREE PILLARS OF CLEAN EATING

Pillar 1 – The most important step in clean eating is to avoid consuming chemicals, additives, preservatives, artificial substances, and genetically-engineered organisms (GMO). While many of these products are legally able to tout their “natural” origin, or “healthy” benefits, we all know that the clean, pure foods found in nature have absolutely nothing in common with these poisonous industrial products.

While many people are understandably focused on the results of eating clean, such as losing weight, having clearer skin and complexions, and healing from illnesses, even an otherwise healthy person will force their body to work overtime if they consume chemicals and artificial additives in their foods and beverages. Before we can begin to achieve maximum health, the first step is to quit taxing our bodies with toxic substances.

Pillar 2 – After moving towards a diet that is free from chemicals and preservatives, the next area to be aware of is understanding the source of the fruits, vegetables, grains, and even meats that we eat. A tomato grown with tender loving care in a small garden is a vastly different plant than what results from large-scale commercial growing enterprises. Secondly, food is always cleaner when it is acquired in its purest, most natural state, meaning fresh from the vine, bush, tree, or plant instead of being boiled, canned, diced, and otherwise processed.

While some advocates of clean eating avoid the consumption of meats, others feel comfortable with it. Whenever possible, it is best to buy meat in its natural, whole state from a local butcher, instead of processed meats like hamburgers and sausages, mass-produced by robotic industrial machines on a commercial scale. Consuming meat in its cleanest state starts with buying large joints or natural cuts of meat, and then cutting them and processing them at home yourself, rather than relying on industrial machines to serve up pre-packaged fillets and steaks.

Consuming whole grains and fiber, as opposed to processed white flour, is an important part of eating clean. In this area, a careful examination of the label is very important. While it’s fashionable and convenient to put the word “whole grains” on products, a careful examination of the label often reveals that while yes, the food was made from whole grains, it was also made with ordinary processed white flour as well, completely negating the benefit of eating clean.

Last, but not least, a good way to ensure that you are eating clean is to count the number of ingredients in the foods that you are eating. The old rule of thumb of five or less ingredients is incredibly useful. Almost anything for sale in a supermarket that has more than five ingredients is probably heavily processed and full of chemicals, preservatives, or additives.

Pillar 3:  The third pillar of clean eating is regulating your meals.

Nutritional science now understands that the human body does best when we eat small meals more often, rather than the traditional three large meals during the day. A number of hormones and other natural chemicals are produced during the digestive process, and keeping our bodies fueled and hydrated throughout the day helps keep those hormones at steady levels. When we go from large meals to periods of not consuming anything, the insulin in our blood spikes and falls, and adds a lot of stress to our bodies.

Nighttime and the sleep period is when our bodies rest and repair from the stresses of the day. When we are active and alert, it is generally a good idea to keep our bodies in a steady state of processing and digestion, converting the clean foods and beverages we consume into a healthy source of reliable energy.

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Medical researchers have conclusively proven that working to rid excess weight is the absolutely best step anyone suffering from osteoarthritis can take to help reduce pain and swelling of the joints. Simply put, obesity adds extra strain on the entire body, including the joints.

Working together with a trusted healthcare professional, it is possible to enjoy a healthy and balanced diet that will rid the body of excess weight, and help reduce the stress load on inflamed joints.

Foods to Avoid

Increasingly, the world is becoming aware of the dangers of consuming an overly-processed diet that is heavy in such foods as bread, white rice, and pasta. These refined cereal products can work to further inflame the sensitive areas of the body, including the tender joints in the hips, knees, back, hands, wrists, and other areas susceptible to developing osteoarthritis.

Trans fats, as well as an overconsumption of saturated fats, particularly in fried foods, can also work against your body’s natural ability to reduce inflammation and swelling in the joints.

Cold Water Fish

Research has shown that a diet containing rich sources of cold water fish is an excellent way to obtain protein and give your body the necessary ingredients to help reduce swelling and pain in tender joints afflicted with osteoarthritis. Species such as salmon, halibut, mackerel, herring, and tuna are all cold water fish, and contain a great balance of Omega 3 fatty acids and other healthy nutrients.

Fruits and Vegetables

It’s no surprise that a diet containing plentiful amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables is also effective in reducing the symptoms of osteoarthritis. Best are organic fruits and vegetables, free of pesticides, insecticides and other chemicals, preferably consumed in their whole – or as close as possible – state. In many cases, flash frozen vegetables are a great alternative when fresh vegetables are not available. Less ideal are canned fruits and vegetables, or heavily processed vegetarian food products.

Different government agencies around the world have varying recommendations, but a simple rule of thumb is that adults should consume about two cups of fruits per day, and three cups of vegetables. A mix of different-colored fruits and vegetables is recommended, both as a way to ensure a broad spectrum of full nutrition as well as to add variety and excitement to your diet.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are natural sources of antioxidants, which science has shown can drastically reduce inflammation in the joints.

Nuts, Seeds and Beans

Nuts, seeds, and beans are nature’s way of preparing all of the necessary ingredients for a new cycle of plant life. Consuming nuts, seeds, and beans is a great way to get vital minerals, as well as a surprising amount of protein.

When eating seeds and nuts, it is critical to eat them in their raw, uncooked state, as most nuts sold in grocery stores are actually fried and heavily salted.

Beans, on the other hand, are usually not safe to eat raw, and must be thoroughly cooked. Other similar plants called pulses are great for reducing inflammation, including chickpeas and lentils. It is really simple to make delicious and healthy soups mixing beans/pulses with vegetables, and it will simultaneously work to give your body what it needs to reduce the pain and swelling of osteoarthritis.

Dairy

For osteoarthritis sufferers who choose to consume dairy products, it is important to choose fresh, whole products like yogurt and soft cheeses over heavily processed items like hard cheeses and cheese-based snacks.

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