John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

Sometimes health problems can become a sort of vicious cycle. Osteoarthritis can cause significant joint pain, which limits mobility and can reduce the ability to exercise.

Reduced mobility leads to weight gain, which further reduces mobility and adds extra stress to arthritic joints. I've seen many clients in this situation and it can be very distressing.

When someone is overweight and has arthritis in weight-bearing joints my goal with diet is initially just to create a healthier diet. If we just focus on weight loss this can create another cycle of yo-yo dieting, which has limited benefits and is a cause of psychological stress.

Every meal should be nutrient dense with anti-inflammatory fats and regular protein. A nutrient dense breakfast could be eggs or wholegrain oats with freshly ground flaxseeds, dark berries and good yoghurt. Morning tea could be a piece of fruit and some raw almonds.

Lunch could be a fish and avocado salad with olive oil and cider vinegar dressing. Afternoon tea homemade hummus and vegetable sticks. For dinner some protein, lots of raw and cooked low starch vegetables with anti-inflammatory oils such as olive, avocado or coconut.

To make a difference we need to start to break the cycle. Starting with a nutrient dense diet, which at the same time is anti-inflammatory, will during time result in weight loss. Supplements are very important and I add these like a three-legged stool. Firstly, we add antioxidants to slow the rate of cartilage loss. We then reduce inflammation with fish oils and turmeric, then add joint compounds especially chondroitin at more than 800mg daily.

These combined measures help reduce pain, reduce weight, improve mobility and the real payoff is improvements in energy and general health. Give me a call or email john@abundant.co.nz if you need more information. Join my full weekly newsletter at www.abundant.co.nz

John Arts is a qualified nutritional medicine practitioner and founder of Abundant Health. Contact John on 0800 423 559. To read more go to: www.sunlive.co.nz