Living with rheumatoid arthritis is debilitating and annoying. You’re in constant pain, and after a while, that pain turns into depression. You can’t do everything that you once could or everything that your mind tells you that you should be able to do.

All you want is to relieve the symptoms. While you can’t get rid of the condition, you want to be able to live life in the best way possible. That leads to you looking for scientific ways to relieve the inflammation, aches, and pains.

What if there was a more natural way to reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis? What if you could use herbal remedies to minimize the effects so you can do a lot more on a daily basis? This isn’t a dream. It really is possible. You can avoid the medications and start using natural remedies through your diet.

The great thing about this is that you don’t need to make major changes to your lifestyle. You can simply add a few vegetables to your diet to start minimizing the effects of rheumatoid arthritis on your joints. Here’s a look at seven vegetables that you need to add today that has been proven to help minimize rheumatoid arthritis.

It’s All About Minimizing the Inflammation

The main reason for your pain and stiffness is inflammation. This is a perfectly normal response within the body. It’s your immune system’s response to start healing. The problem is the body can react when it really doesn’t need to. It believes that there’s a problem and sets off the inflammatory response without anything to fight.

Rather than help to improve your health, the inflammation causes pain. It has been linked to so many types of chronic pain, including rheumatoid arthritis.

What you need to do is get rid of the inflammation in the body. You need to minimize this response to help live a better, more fulfilling life. When it comes to the right diet, that action really isn’t that difficult. Each of these seven vegetables has proven to reduce inflammation.

One of the best things about reducing the inflammation is that your whole body will be healthier. You’ll experience less overall pain and can help to reduce the damage to your bodies, such as cell death and damage. Your immune system also isn’t hindering itself through the unnecessary action, so you fight off more illnesses daily. Of course, the vegetables have also proven to help other conditions.

If you’re not going to eat these vegetables for your rheumatoid arthritis, eat them to improve your overall health and happiness

Top Up Your Dark Leafy Green Intake

Of all the vegetables out there, the dark leafy greens are arguably the best. They’re excellent for getting so many nutrients that we tend to be deficient in, even if we eat plenty of healthy meats, fish, and other animal products.

Dark leafy greens like kale, spinach, and even broccoli, are full of minerals like iron, magnesium, and calcium. They’re low in calories at the same time, helping to keep the weight gain to a minimum (and even helping with weight loss) while offering the body all the nutrients it needs.

When it comes to rheumatoid arthritis, dark leafy greens has vitamin E. This is a necessary vitamin to protect against cytokines, molecules that are known for cause inflammation within the body. While there are plenty of other foods out there that have vitamin E, they’re nowhere near as good as the dark leafy greens.

If you don’t like the bitterness of spinach and kale, you could opt for other cruciferous vegetables, such as cauliflower. While not as good as dark leafy greens, the cruciferous vegetables are far better than so many other options out there.

The dark leafy and cruciferous vegetables also have plenty of phytochemicals. These fight off disease in the body, helping to boost the immune system and reduce the inflammatory response.

One of the best things about dark leafy greens is how versatile they are. You can cook them, eat them raw in salads, and you can even blend them together into green smoothies. In fact, green smoothies are considered one of the best ways to start your morning!

Add More Peppers to Your Meals

Another vegetable that you want to focus on is the pepper, and I’m not just talking about the bell peppers. Any type of pepper will offer you some anti-inflammatory benefits that will definitely help to reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.

Let’s start with the bell peppers though, since they tend to be the most popular. These colorful vegetables are full of antioxidants while being low in starch. The antioxidants are known for protecting the cells and fighting off free radicals. While we tend to associate free radicals with the likes of cancer and dementia, they are also linked to inflammation within the body. Get rid of them, and you lower the chance of inflammation occurring!

As for hot peppers such as cayenne and chili, they are full of capsaicin. This is a chemical that scientists have proven a help to reduce inflammation, as well as the pain that you feel. In fact, the chemical is usually added to the majority of anti-inflammatory creams to help get directly to the source. You can get it in your body through eating the pepper or crush it into your own homemade creams to get the benefits.

You will need to listen to your body when it comes to the use of peppers. They are from the nightshade family, which is a family of vegetables that some people are allergic or intolerant to. Doctors have been known to recommend patients with rheumatoid arthritis stay away from them. Test them to see how they work on your symptoms. If you feel they get worse, consider cutting peppers out to see if this is the cause.

It’s worth noting that there are other foods that can cause inflammation within the body and we’ll touch on this lightly at the end.

Don’t Forget about the Tomatoes

Another vegetable that you definitely want to include in your diet is the tomato. This bright coloredvegetable is another that is full of antioxidants, working in a similar way to peppers.

However, it’s the tomato juice that is the most effective because of the lycopene. These chemical has been known to reduce lung inflammation, making it easier to breathe and fight off infections. You’ll also find that more oxygen getting to your body helps to improve your immune system and reduces some of the unnecessary responses.

When you cook tomatoes you get more lycopene, so you want to opt for tomato sauces where possible. Drinking tomato juice was also proven effective when it came to rheumatoid arthritis studies.

We also can’t forget about the levels of vitamin A and C within tomatoes. These vitamins support the immune system and the muscles, fighting against damage to the joints and tissues around the area.

In short, you want to get tomatoes into your diet. It really doesn’t matter how, although cooked is better.

Throw in Some Beets Now and Then

Beets tend to be avoided in the diet. We don’t always know how to use them, and they do look a little strange. Why would you even want to add something bright purple to your diet?

Well, it’s time to think about using them for all the health benefits they give. Like bell peppers and tomatoes, beets have a lot of antioxidants. We already know why antioxidants are important, but that’s not the only reason you need to eat more beets.

Beets have been linked to fighting against a range of diseases, including heart disease and cancer. They’re full of fiber, which has also been linked to reducing inflammation. Around 80% of your immune system is in the gut. When you get more fiber, you give your gut the best fuel. Fiber pushes through the waste and reduces bloating and some gut diseases.

When the gut isn’t in good shape, it sends off a message to the rest of your body that you’re ill. The inflammation reaches your back, your arms, and all your joints. You end up suffering in areas that you wouldn’t even consider are directly linked to your digestive system!

You don’t need to eat beets on their own. They work well with salads, but you can also drink beet juice. They are delicious with some green vegetables.

Get the Aroma of Onion and Garlic Daily

Yes, this is two vegetables in one, but they’re both from the same family. They both offer many of the same benefits, so it’s worth including them together. There are still two more to go after this!

The pungent vegetables have long been used for health remedies. They are still used today in many circles, especially garlic. When you’re ill, you may hear a few people suggest that you make some garlic tea or chew on raw pieces of garlic to fight off infections.

While the two vegetables will give you bad breath, they are also full of anti-inflammatory properties. They’re the most effective of the lot, with garlic especially being proven to work just as well as over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications! The properties within the vegetables shut off that pathway from the brain that tells the body it’s in pain and inflammation.

Onions include more allicin than garlic (although both effective) to break down the free radicals within the body. These free radicals are known for causing inflammation. When you get rid of the reason, you get rid of the actual inflammation. This isn’t just about treating a symptom but getting to the root of the cause.

Step Up Your Soy Intake

Soy is traditionally used in a vegetarian or vegan diet. However, it could be one of the best additions to a normal meat eater’s diet because of the benefits. And we’re not just considering soy milk, but the vegetables that the soy comes from—soy beans. We’re talking about all soy products, including edamame and tofu.

Soy is full of fiber, which we’ve already seen with beets that it’s good for you. It’s also full of compounds that are very like estrogen, which is extremely beneficial to women. More estrogen can help to lower the levels of inflammation within the body. While reducing inflammation, the compounds work on repairing damage to the heart and bones because of it.

You will want to only take in the healthy types of soy. Those heavily processed options will likely have removed the majority of the health benefits and replaced them with preservatives and additives that can make your rheumatoid arthritis worse. Look out for soy milk and edamame in your diet.

Add Nuts If You’re Not Allergic

Nuts are a debated food group. Some consider them as fruits and others consider them as vegetables. For the sake of this, we’re going to include them as a vegetable. They’re too beneficial to overlook.

If you’re not allergic to nuts, then they are certainly worth adding to your rheumatoid arthritis-struggling body. They’re rich in vitamin E and fiber, which we’ve already considered. However, they’re also full of omega 3 fatty acids.

You’ll usually hear of omega 3 when talking about oily fish. Sure enough, oily fish is something that you want to add to your diet regularly, but you can get too much fish. With nuts, you just need a handful a day, and you will get some super benefits.

Omega 3 fatty acids have been proven to reduce inflammation considerably. They work extremely well within the brain, helping to take some of the pressure off the pain receptors. Your body doesn’t get the same type of pain messages that they have in the past. It’s possible to reduce the inflammation within 6 weeks by adding nuts in regularly.

Reduce Your Sugar Intake and Up Your Exercise

It’s not just about getting the right vegetables in your diet. You also need to look at the foods that are possibly causing your rheumatoid arthritis and consider other ways to help improve your health.

One of the main food groups that you want to avoid is added sugar. Unnatural sugar processes in the body differently to natural sugar, since most natural sugar includes plenty of fiber. The refined sugar goes straight to the bloodstream and sets off the insulin response. The body must combat that, and it can lead to the immune system setting off the inflammatory response. Even if you have a healthy diet in other ways, too much sugar is going to make your rheumatoid arthritis worse.

And while the diet can be beneficial, it isn’t a magic cure. You will still need to improve your overall lifestyle. Adding more exercise, reducing your alcohol intake, and quitting smoking are three things that you can do. Exercise is one of the most beneficial as it helps to boost the blood flow around your system. When you have better blood flow, you reduce the amount of pain that you feel. You also improve the release of happy hormones, which include the body’s natural painkillers.

Focus on a Healthier Way of Live with the Best 7 Vegetables

Make a change to your diet to help overcome your rheumatoid arthritis. The right vegetables will help to limit the number of pharmaceutical products you take, meaning that you can reduce the amount of money you spend on your health in the long term. You will also feel better within yourself, knowing that you’re not relying on medication that you don’t really know the ingredients of.

The seven vegetables above have all been proven to lessen the effects of rheumatoid arthritis. You’ll be able to live a more fulfilling life, not dealing with the stiffness and pain in your joints.