5 foods you should NOT eat if you have stiff joints

Winter is here and the season is painful for people suffering from bone health issues and stiff joints. But simply avoiding some foods can help improve your condition.

Winter can trigger the trouble of people suffering from stiff joints. While massaging the joints and doing appropriate physical activity can also help a great deal, it's also important to focus on diet and pay attention to what you consume on a daily basis.

Here are some symptoms of joint stiffness and foods you must avoid to tackle it.

Joint stiffness is the sensation of difficulty in moving a joint or loss of range of motion of a joint. It's often accompanied by joint pain or swelling. Depending on the cause of the joint stiffness, joint redness, tenderness, warmth, tingling and numbness of the affected area of the body might also happen. Joint stiffness can be caused by injury or disease of the joint and is a common finding in arthritis conditions.

5 foods to avoid to relieve joint pain during winter

As per the Arthritis Foundation, lowering salt intake can help reduce the loss of calcium in the body, thereby reducing osteoporosis and fracture risk. Salt also causes fluid retention that can trigger the swelling of tissues and thus lead to joint pain.

Bakery items like cola, sweets, artificial juice, bread and other foods must be avoided. A spike in the blood glucose levels in the body can worsen the condition of rheumatoid arthritis and trigger tissue inflammation and joint pain.

Red meat like goat meat, mutton, lamb and others contain high levels of saturated fat and omega-6 fatty acids. Both these are directly linked to inflammation in the body and can trigger joint stiffness, which can worsen joint pain.

Gluten is found in rye, wheat and barley. For people who suffer from a gluten allergy, having gluten can trigger inflammation in their bodies. These people must avoid gluten food to keep the joint pain in check.

Alcohol can worsen symptoms of arthritis. A study of 278 people found that alcohol intake can increase spinal structural damage. Chronic alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of osteoarthritis.