Why People With Arthritis Should Avoid Nightshade Vegetables.

I know I have posted about this before, but I am posting about it again because I have received several emails from JRA families who are inquiring as to what steps we have taken with Mia to improve her quality of life. Besides gluten, dairy and eggs, we also eliminated the "nightshade family" vegetables from her diet, which include:

• potatoes (not sweet potatoes)
• tomatoes
• eggplant
• sweet and hot peppers (including paprika, cayenne pepper and Tabasco sauce)
• ground cherries
• tomatillos and tamarillos
• garden huckleberry and naranjillas
• pepinos and pimentos

Nightshade vegetables are among the foods that some people feel can trigger arthritis flares.

In the next several posts, I will also share the protocols that have helped our daughter, in the hopes these protocols will help other children out there who are suffering from JRA. Children should have a happy, healthy, pain-free childhood. They shouldn't have to wait until they are in their teens to see if they are of the 82% who outgrow their JRA.

No child should wake up in the morning and be in excruciating pain as soon as their feet hit the floor. No child should be on steriods and NSAIDS for a prolonged period of time. And no child should be robbed of a healthy childhood.

Children were designed to live happy, non-restricted lives. They were designed to climb trees, do cartwheels all over their backyard and be in gymnastics and ballet recitals. For this very reason, we decided to go the natural route for our daughter. We were desperate and willing to try anything to help her. And this has worked for us. Granted, everyone's arthritis is different, but isn't it at least worth a try? I think it is.