Can arthritis be controlled on the basis of the foods that you eat? Is it possible that your diet can increase the damage caused by this crippling disease? These are the most commonly asked questions about arthritis when it comes to controlling it naturally. The symptoms for this disease vary from day to day, which causes one to wonder how far is an individual's diet responsible for the advancement in the condition and what can be done to stop it from growing further.

Scientifically speaking, the kind of foods that you eat may invariably affect different types of arthritis. Given the type of nutrition being consumed, gaining excessive weight can dramatically worsen the condition and aggravate the pain. When an arthritis patient chooses to eat healthy and maintains a balanced diet, it not only works in alleviating the symptoms but also promotes overall health, which in turn works in bringing down the severity of the disease to a high extent.

Arthritis diet that has been proven to give good result is usually high in carbohydrates and low in protein. Extensive studies have been done in this area and reports show that such a diet indeed helps in controlling the arthritis pain. Along with taking sufficient carbs, a good source of nutrition for arthritis patients is fruits and vegetables. Since these food groups are known to be high in vitamins and give a boost to the immune system's functioning, they're highly recommended. Many people suffering from arthritis have reported good results by extracting and drinking juice from green leafy vegetables. For added benefit, you can also mix in some beetroot or carrot juice. The reason why such raw juices work so well is that, when you consume them, an alkaline reaction is triggered in the body, which works on eliminating any negative deposits that get collected around the joints.

Apart from vegetable juices, fruit juices are also highly recommended for arthritis patients, especially pineapple juice. Pineapple contains a unique substance called bromelain, which directly works on bringing down the inflammation caused due to arthritis. Other kinds of fruits that are known to combat arthritis effectively are bananas, melons, apples, citrus and apricots.

Coming to different type of foods, garlic is also known to be a highly effective anti-inflammatory agent, which can be easily included in the daily diet. It can be either taken raw or in capsule form. Garlic helps arthritis patients control not only the inflammation but also the infection. It also has some amazing analgesic properties also, which is an added benefit when fighting such a condition.

There are also foods that arthritis patients should avoid at all costs. These include milk, all diary products, flour, chocolate and sugar. Apart from these, white potatoes, caffeine, red peppers, wheat products, red meat and salt intake also needs to be avoided. This is because such foods don't help in any way and instead cause inflammation in the joints by triggering the symptoms immediately. Hence, it's necessary to exclude such foods from the regular diet.