People who have fibromyalgia can experience more pain due to some of the food choices that they make. It need not necessarily be the case that all the food items can cause problems to fibromyalgia individuals.
Proper diet plan can be very helpful for a fibro body with problems like pain in muscles and tissues, stress, fatigue, depression, digestion problems, sleep problems.
Certain chemical substances in the food that you consume can be responsible for triggering sensitivity by releasing neurotransmitters that increase pain in muscle and nerves. We don’t have enough studies about the effect of food items in fibromyalgia.
However, from the studies and researches that we already have, people can implement some eating rules in their life if they are affected by fibromyalgia or chronic pain.
Below is the list of food items that an individual with fibromyalgia should avoid
Caffeine
Consumption of caffeine-rich food has become very common among people. Though some people believe that coffee, cola drinks or other food items rich in caffeine help them fight against fibromyalgia symptoms, there are also other complications that it can create.
Caffeine consumptions can increase sleep problems in fibromyalgia individuals. There are lots of studies being conducted to understand the impact of sleep problems over fibromyalgia.
As an outcome from these studies, we can clearly see that the symptoms of fibromyalgia develop if the person has sleep problems. There is also a suggestion given by some of the experts.
Since caffeine can induce sleep problems, it is advised to consume caffeine-rich foods and beverages during the first half of the day so that it will not affect your sleep during the night time. The ideal solution would be to avoid caffeine completely.
Reducing sugar-rich foods
Irrespective of being diabetic or not people should consider reducing sugar consumption. Studies say that high sugar levels in the blood can increase pain symptoms in fibromyalgia.
There are also claims that sugar that comes as part of natural fruits or fresh juices (without added sugar) are good for health and does not amplify any of the symptoms. Additive intake of lots of sugar can be of great risk to both diabetics and people with chronic pain.
Sugar is important for providing energy to the body. If people have fibromyalgia, excessive intake of sugar and carbohydrate will make them fatigued.
This can also amplify the pain they already experience. For fibromyalgia people, physical activity is also difficult compared to that of normal people.
In such cases burning calories to reduce the levels of sugar becomes difficult. The problems that become severe after excessive consumption of sugar are morning stiffness, fatigue, pain, and sleep problems.
Natural sugars are always healthy and neat. But it is necessary to make sure the sugar that you consume is 100 percent natural from fruits and plant extracts. Any additives in those products can create further side effects or complications.
Dairy products
This can be brought into confirmation only based on experiments. There are quite a lot of people who find good relief after removing dairy products from their regular food.
After consuming milk and other dairy products people feel they are fatigued and slowed down from doing their day to day activities.
People can experiment if this can be a problem for them by eliminating milk-based products in their diet plan for about a week’s time and see if there are any improvement in their symptoms of fibromyalgia.
If they really find it to be positive, they can go for alternatives for dairy products. There are some food items that provide exactly the same nutrition that any dairy product can give. With experiments, people can seek out which can be the best dairy alternative for them.
Junk food to be completely avoided
Most of the problems and symptoms in fibromyalgia are amplified if the individual consumes lots of junk food. Some of the junk food that you consume can provide you lots of calories which may not be very easy to break down.
This can lead to other complications making the person experience more pain in their body. Researchers say that obese people experience the effect of fibromyalgia more compared to that of a lean person.
Junk food can be highly responsible for gaining weight. This will also lead to unhealthy eating habits that can disturb not only the appetite of the person but it will also affect the immune system and lead to sleeplessness during night.
Some food items can even irritate your stomach and muscle region. If you have the habit of eating junk food and find it difficult to get rid of it, you can break your meals.
If you normally consume 3 meals in a day, you can increase it to 5 meals but strictly very less quantity of food in each meal.
Completely avoid aspartame
This is one of the chemical compound seen in soda and other food items and beverages. It is claimed to be sugar-free and alternative to sugar.
This is a chemical compound that belongs to a chemical group called excitotoxins. These artificial sweetening agents can create more sensitivity to the nerves that can induce or increase pain symptoms in a fibromyalgia individual.
This can be harmful to even people without fibromyalgia as in the long run it can create some side effects.
Though this is a debatable topic, there are some researches that claim aspartame to be dangerous. Instead of using aspartame, you can use natural sugar instead in very fewer quantities.
For some of the above-mentioned items, long term side effects are still unknown but it is identified that it can be responsible for increasing the pain symptoms in fibromyalgia individuals.
The above food items can be categorized in questionable food items so it is good to avoid such food even though we don’t have enough research works available to claim the harmful nature of such foods.
Some of the food items can be checked out on an experimental basis. You can visit your doctor to know more about the food items that you can avoid apart from the ones that you find out with experiments as experience with food items can vary from one person to another person.
11 Comments