My husband (70) is starting to show signs of rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. We are upping his intake of our homemade curcumin and ginger capsules and his intake of greens. Has anyone heard of anything specifically for RA? We don’t want to start any medication regimes. So far, he has minimal pain and we’d like to keep it that way!
There’s no harm in adding healthier eating habits–veggies, fruits, whole grains, whole foods as opposed to processed foods. If it were me, I would seek a doctor’s advice, perhaps one also incorporates a holistic approach, since that’s what you’re seeking. If it’s RA and not age-related arthritis, you want to treat it early to prevent heart damage. I have a friend who has had RA since long before any good treatments were available–she has serious heart damage and spinal damage from it. Osteoarthritis–the normal age related stuff–I have no idea. edited to add–I don’t mean that to sound as harsh as it might read. Honestly don’t know remedies for osteoarthritis. Best of luck!!
He has osteo in his knee which he is treating holistically. Osteoarthritis is usually more of a wear and tear ailment. RA tends to come up suddenly, which is the case here. We are very much WFPB so very few processed foods enter our shopping basket. Our doctor is a meds and prescription fellow and we don’t have the option of changing doctors - our community doesn’t have enough doctors so with people on a waiting list for a family doctor our request for a more holistic doctor was denied.
@annekepoot Ugh, sorry to hear that. I will ask my friend with RA if she knows of anything
A lot of people have said that avoiding gluten helps with RA. I think that Dr Goldhamer from True North Clinic mentioned that as well but I can’t remember where I saw it. If I find it I’ll let you know. There is a lot of reliable, science backed info on RA at this link:
https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/rheumatoid-arthritis/
Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon has a lot of really good recipes in it. One of my favorites is the chickpea, sweet potato & tomato soup plus some popovers.
I am definitely a big fan of whole food, but the nature & severity of the health issues I have has meant that I’ve had to add some animal foods back into my diet. I have certainly heard both perspectives for health…many people do well on whole food, plant based while others have had health issues cured with carnivore.
There are people who find relief from certain things by adding in meat or even doing high meat and fat keto. But since those food groups are absolutely proven to worsten and increase the diseases that kill most people, I think it’s usually short sighted. I don’t debate those who make their own choices however and I know a lot of people who do very well and individuals improve their overall health as well as specific conditions eating loads of fresh whole foods while also keeping some non veg foods in their diet. Personally I still eat some sea food from time to time but not regularly. My problem over the last couple of very rough years in my personal life has been staying away from the processed junk even if it’s vegetarian. In my opinion, the preservatives and chemicals in processed food and fast food should be the FIRST thing people striving for better health should eliminate. Kick the chemicals and eat some dang fresh produce! If everyone did that alone we would see huge improvements!
There is a virtual summit coming up regarding whole food, plant based diets and it is FREEEEEE! It has TONS of amazing speakers including almost every expert in the field that I admire. I always especially look forward to Dr. Lisle and Dr. Goldhamer and Dr. Fuhrman and Dr. Montgomery and Chef A.J. and and AND… I really need the motivation and the reminders while I get myself back on track so the timing couldn’t be more perfect for me. It’s called The Truth About Weight Loss but it’s about so much more than just weight loss. It’s about health and mental well-being and creating habits and there are cooking demos! You can watch just the ones you really want to or you can watch all of them. You can buy DVDs and transcripts or just watch them the day they are presented for free. This will be going on during the week of my birthday which kind of makes me feel like the universe is giving me a special gift. Just thought I would share in case anyone else wants to catch them.
Hope this link actually makes a link. If not, just copy/paste.
https://thetruthaboutweightloss.org/
On the Let Food Be Thy Medicine - dietary support group for reversing disease FB page there is a recipe for Mushroom Stew which I made today in the slow cooker - it was delicious. I would probably tweak it with a bit of honey (horrors!) to cut the tomato a little bit - something I always do with anything tomato based but otherwise it was a keeper.
Awesome, thanks!
I think that was Kathy wasn’t it? She has a website with lots of great recipes. I’ll have to try that one. Sounds perfect for a winter dinner and would probably freeze well too.
Yes, that’s Kathy’s recipe on a website she mentioned near the beginning of this thread. Lots of good information. I’m really searching for easy, similar to meat-based recipes, without the meat of course. I find that some of these vegan cookbooks go for all kinds of weird tastes and textures and staples that I don’t normally carry. This reminded me of my old standby beef stew in the “before” era and had basically the same ingredients with the meat swapped out with mushrooms and nutritional yeast. We were not big meat eaters before (2-3 times a week and small portions) and it makes it simpler to switch to WFPB if the taste is similar to what we were used to before.
@annekepoot You should really check out brandnewvegan.com He is a Texas guy who went vegan for his health and his whole jam is making comfort foods WFPB with little to no added oil or sugar. He has recipes that still make you feel like you’re eating at mama’s table but supoprt your health and the planet at the same time. And they are easily doable even for a total non-cook like me.
Thanks for the tip - I have it bookmarked to check out.
Forgot about that site–thanks for the reminder. I had a long talk with myh dentist today–he is trying to eat meat only once a week and not eat junk (and his daughter is vegan, so that helps). I’ll recommend that site to him too
Picking your brains. I remember a documentary about teaching how to eat WFPB - the group went to towns and gathered people who were interested and they were shown how to prepare the food and then given the actual meals for the week or however long the session was. One of the groups that stuck out for me was from a black church and the enthusiasm from the pulpit of parishioners who had gone through the course. I’d like to see it again but have no idea how to search for it, or what group was actually putting these courses on although I’m pretty sure it was in the US. Saw it a few years ago so it’s not something recent.
Was it with T Colin Campbell and his son? Was that Plant Pure Nation? Is been a while since I saw it but I think that was it.
Plant Pure Nation is available to watch free on YouTube.
Oh, I’ll have to check that out. I just finished What the Health for the second time last night. I just remember it ended with a big group in an outdoor forum - I’ll do that today.
Yup that sounds like Plant Pure Nation. The beaurocracy bull hockey that they encountered in the KY legislature was what really stood out to me.