DIET AND ARTHRITIS
Other Foods

Besides the foods listed in the four basic groups which supply essential nutrients you need to function well, other familiar foods can be included in meals to make them more enjoyable. With these other extra foods, moderation is the guiding word. Their principal use is to make meals taste better and to give a sense of satisfaction.

Fats and Oils include butter and margarine which are rich in Vitamin A. Use some every day but go easy on them, especially in cooking.

Other familiar foods in this group are mayonnaise, salad dressings, lard, other shortenings, meat drippings and salad oils. !

Sugars and Sweets include any kind of sugar, molasses, honey, all sweet syrups, jams, jellies, preserves and candies. If you eat too many of them, you will build up a store of unused calories which turn into body fat. Too much weight puts an extra burden on your bones and joints which can aggravate arthritis and endanger your physical resistance and general health. Don't add to your problems by putting on unwanted weight.

If your doctor permits you and you want it, you may enjoy a cocktail or glass of wine before or with your meals. But don't deceive yourself. There are calories in every ounce.

ARTHRITIS AND OVERWEIGHT

Many arthritis patients face the threat of overweight.

Because of the inflammation and crippling of joints caused by arthritis, the patient often finds physical activity difficult, usually painful. He therefore may avoid activity as much as possible. Because of this restricted activity, he may require fewer high calorie foods. As a consequence, if he does not limit his use of these high calorie foods to the amount he

needs to maintain his curtailed physical activity, the unused calories will turn into body fat. The patient's overweight problem is usually as simple as that: more fuel than his body requires makes him overweight. Physical therapy and exercise, which the physician may prescribe, however, will help use up calories.

Because overweight may put such a burden on your joints, usually causing greater inflammation and pain, you must face the possible need to get rid of damaging excess pounds.

However, all experts know !

that it is difficult to stick with a reducing diet. It is even more difficult for anyone suffering from rheumatic disorders. Yet it can be done.

Your doctor, or the nutritionist or dietitian to whom he refers you, is the best advisor on the diet you should follow. Listen to him and not to well-meaning but unqualified friends and relatives, nor to

food cranks, or self-styled experts totally inexperienced in modern nutrition.

Let's be realistic about getting rid of those pounds that cause trouble. You can starve yourself or you can decide to lose weight steadily and keep it lost and still live a normal life. But you have to accept this scientific fact: any weight control program that will have reasonable chances of being successful and followed regularly must do three things for you:

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