Just wanted to resurrect this thread and make an observation on this subject. I believe diet has a huge effect on inflammation and pain from chronic arthritis like I have in my ankle. Normally I’m pretty careful about what I eat. I try to minimize refined starches and sugar, fried food, processed food, saturated fat, and eat lots of nuts, fish, and vegetables.
I just got back from four days in Birmingham visiting my brother and his wife. We watched a lot of football and ate out a lot, zero physical activity. Which should ease the pain in an arthritic ankle. But my diet was just about 180 degrees from what I’m used to. I’m not bagging on southern cooking; I grew up with it and love it. My favorite meal on this trip was at SAW’s barbecue, named after the proprietor, “sorry ass Wilson.” It was called pork and greens, but was much more than that. A base layer of cheese grits, with a layer of collards on top (complete with fatback), a layer of pulled pork on top of that, and a layer of fried onion rings on top of everything. We ate out at least once a day, and we ate hard. Lots of fried stuff, lots of starch, lots of sugary deserts and saturated fat.
When I got home on Sunday evening my ankle hurt worse than it has in months, after four days of sitting on my ass watching TV. I’m convinced diet had a lot to do with that.
