
Last month I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I am now building up medication. Are there foods that I should avoid? I heard, for example, that tomatoes would not be good for rheumatism. Or is that a myth?
Joris Bartstra, journalist with medical diploma
We can be brief about that. Rheumatoid arthritis It is caused by an inflammatory response in which the immune system targets the joints. This has nothing to do with food. These kinds of myths, because they indeed are, come into the world because people often experiment with their food at times when things are going badly for them. If their situation improves afterwards, it seems to be due to changes in diet. But after a bad period there usually follows a time when things get better, and this quickly gives the impression that what you are doing is actually having an effect. It is an understandable mechanism, but well-conducted research into the relationship between diet and rheumatism has actually never yielded anything.
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