2 Easy-To-Prepare Foods You Need To Try In Your Rheumatoid Arthritis Diet

If your doctor diagnoses you with rheumatoid arthritis, you may need to change your diet to help control the pain in your joints. However, you may want to try a diet that satisfies your palate and appetite during every meal. You also don't want to spend too much time or effort slicing, dicing or cutting your food. Those culinary actions may only aggravate your symptoms more. To help you get started on your rheumatoid arthritis diet, here are two easy-to-prepare foods that won't let your taste buds down.

Combine Tasty Avocados and Lentil Beans

The avocado fruit packs a punch in flavor and color. It's soft texture makes it easy to prepare and requires minimal effort on your part to slice or puree it. But you want to add something else to your avocado dishes to bring out the fruit's velvety taste. To do this, you can combine your avocado fruit with split peas.

Obtaining the health benefits of fiber is one good reason to add split peas to your avocado dishes. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition. This means that your immune system sends out its own special cells to attack the tissues it's supposed to protect from outside invaders like viruses. If it does this action repeatedly, your joints experience more inflammation and flare-ups than they need.

Fiber can stop these unnecessary attacks from happening because it may:

• Protect your weak joints from injuries: Fiber increases the thickness of your inflamed joints by encouraging the cartilage and tendons that attach to them to make more tissue-building cells. This action protects your joints from tears, strains and pulls when you walk, run or play.
• Stop your immune system's cells from attacking your joints: Fiber stops the cells of your immune system from attacking your joints by calming them down. It does this by helping your body make chemicals that encourage the cells to focus on their natural functions, instead of your arthritis.
• Ward off infection in your body: Fiber contains antioxidants that may strengthen your body against cold, flu and other viral infections that encourage your immune system to react or attack. In its efforts to fight off the germs, the immune system may attack your joints' cells. You may experience more flare-ups because of this.

Fiber isn't the only reason to combine split peas with your avocado. The peas also balance the delicate flavors of avocados. You can combine them into one delicious soup.

Make Your Soup

Split pea and avocado soup is easy to prepare. You just need a slow cooker of any size to cook your peas, a blender, and cooking pot to heat your blended peas and avocado later. Now, you may follow these steps:

• Place the slow cooker's settings on medium heat and fill the inside with 4-5 cups of cold water.
• Add your raw peas to the cooker. It may take 2-3 hours to soften the peas up enough for the next step. You want the peas to overcook so that you can blend them with your avocado in a food processor or blender.
• Add a pinch of salt and pepper for taste. You may use other seasonings to suit your taste preferences.
• Remove the peas from the slow cooker once they fall to pieces or look mushy.
• Set the peas aside and allow them to cool for 30-45 minutes.

It's time to add your avocados. You need two large, ripe avocados to make your soup. You should use a large paring knife to remove the skin and to slice up the fruit into medium-sized chunks. A smaller knife requires you to bend your fingers around the handle too much, which can cause pain in your hand's joints. You want to avoid this.

Now, place the cooled peas and avocado chunks into a blender or food processor. Turn the appliance on mix and operate on low speed until the ingredients become smooth. Although the soft peas and avocado will develop a smooth texture, there will be a few avocado chunks inside the mixture. Pour the soup into a pot and heat until hot. You can enjoy the soup with crackers or alone.

This smooth and creamy recipe is a great way to enjoy something new in your rheumatoid arthritis diet. If you want to learn more about your diet choices, contact your doctor for advice, as well as rheumatology treatment.