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

process that is tailored to your unique needs. The foundations of the Eat To Beat Arthritis Diet are:

      

Finding the right balance of foods for your body.

      

Knowing how to tell when a specific food is making the symptoms of arthritis worse.

      The initial programme spans seven weeks. In the first week you keep a diary of your pain and stiffness and also record your intake of food and drink. You then learn to eliminate the specific foods that aggravate (or even cause) a flare-up of arthritis, and how to make this a diet you can use for life. You will also be encouraged to try new foods that you may have otherwise passed by.

      While you remain on the Eat to Beat Arthritis Diet you will notice that you feel better. Depending on the severity of your condition you will find that pain will disappear, or diminish in severity. These are not the only exciting benefits you will enjoy from changing your eating habits. Selecting the right foods strengthens your body and enhances its metabolic activities. You will begin enjoying improved general health, stronger nails and hair and younger-looking skin. You will suffer from fewer colds and other infections. You may even find that you lose some of the excess weight that may be contributing to your joint pain and stiffness.

      Rediscovering the way to eat

      You are now ready to focus your attention on one of life’s great pleasures: food. What comes next will change your life forever. Previous sections of this book have covered three main topics:

      

The causes and symptoms of several forms of arthritis.

      

The links between good nutrition and healing.

      

The role plant and other natural substances play in controlling pain and inflammation.

      Armed with this knowledge, read the remainder of this book before you begin the diet. As you read, keep these principles in mind:

      THERE ARE NO QUICK FIXES

      If you follow this diet exactly, you will begin to feel better within days, but the full extent of healing will take longer. Diets promising remarkable cures often disappoint. If you really want to change the way you feel, and improve your health, you must be patient and give your body time to heal.

      THIS IS A DIET FOR LIFE

      A diet must be both practical and flexible, or you will find it boring and impossible. Once you have gone through a full seven-week cycle of the diet plan, you can occasionally bend the rules a little. In the chapter that follows, Marguerite discusses her flexible approach to the diet.

      WHILE YOU ARE ON THIS DIET, ENJOY EATING

      A partial list of the foods and ingredients you can incorporate into meals appears here. I call it a partial list because it cannot include every fruit, vegetable and fish from around the world. When you begin your new eating plan, take time to taste new varieties of fresh food. Have you tried the sweet, orange flesh of Sharon fruit? For a fantastic dessert, scoop out the flesh of chilled, ripe Sharon fruit and serve in small glass bowls. No sugar needed for this treat! On the more substantial side, have you enjoyed the delicate flavour of firm-textured steaks of escolar (mock sea bass), caught off the coast of South America? Or tasted barracuda fillets? If not, a treat or two awaits you.

      The culinary arts are based on a rich palate of fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, nuts, grains, seeds, herbs and spices. Combined in different ways by different cultures, these ingredients produce dishes with an endless variety of flavours and textures. The Eat to Beat Arthritis Diet actually sets very few restrictions on your enjoyment of this wonderful diversity.

      THERE ARE CERTAIN FOODS AND DRINKS YOU MUST ABANDON

      These are listed here. Don’t let this put you off. Give your body a chance. Following the diet carefully for at least seven weeks should reduce the symptoms of arthritis and improve your general health, so it will be worth the sacrifice.

      THERE ARE CERTAIN FOODS YOU MUST EAT

      These are listed here. Be faithful to these foods: they contain the healing nutrients your body needs. Include raw fruits and vegetables in your diet as often as possible.

      THERE ARE CERTAIN DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS YOU MUST TAKE

      Many of you will already be using supplements containing fish oil and vitamin E. The Eat to Beat Arthritis Diet also includes black treacle (molasses), brewers’ yeast, and further suggests that you use supplements containing the mineral selenium (see here) and glucosamine, a naturally occurring substance that forms part of normal joint cartilage (see here).

      DRINK WATER

      This sounds simple enough, but you would be surprised how many people fail to drink enough water to fully flush waste products from their bodies. You need 1½–2 litres/2½–3 pints/1½–2 quarts, drunk in small amounts throughout the day. This can include fruit juice and milk, but no caffeine drinks. Filtered water and fresh tap water are recommended, or still bottled water (not carbonated).