An interesting study was published this summer, in the European Journal of Nutrition, showing that people with chronic musculoskeletal pain felt less pain symptoms when they added more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats to their diets – while reducing sweets, soft drinks, and alcohol.
“Pain-related quality of life improved, and pain severity lessened.”(1) How much less pain did they feel, after just three months of these dietary changes? That’s what was most surprising to me – even as someone who already follows a mostly anti-inflammatory and plant-based diet because of my rare chronic pain condition!
The pain levels of the individuals who changed their diets in this way dropped from 50% to 24%. That’s a huge difference!
“A higher quality diet tends to be rich in anti-inflammatory nutrients, and lower in pro-inflammatory foods, like refined carbohydrates, saturated fats, added sugars, and alcohol… This shift may help reduce chronic low-grade inflammation that contributes to pain.” (2)
One key point noted was that the improvements in pain symptoms weren’t correlated with weight loss. In other words, even if weight stayed the same, the people respecting these dietary changes felt less pain.
As I’ve written before, about my own efforts to eat a mostly anti-inflammatory diet for my own pain, the evidence is accumulating that eating for pain relief means limiting highly processed foods, and focusing instead on legumes, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and fruits (particularly berries, which I often buy on sale – in season or frozen). It’s often also suggested to limit dairy products, fish, and meat; all of which can raise cholesterol levels, which is another health concern.
This particular study was small, with only 104 participants, so the researchers themselves noted that: “Future mediation analyses assessing the relationship between improvements in diet quality and pain outcomes should comprise of larger sample sizes to include a control group, be conducted in participants across a greater BMI range, as well as in specific chronic pain conditions.”(1)
That said, taken in combination with previous research it does show that certain types of pain can be improved somewhat – for some people – by making dietary changes.
As always, thanks for stopping by! For comments, please reach out on Twitter or BlueSky, as the Comments here have been disabled due to ridiculous amounts of spam; too much to deal with, due to my rare-disease related Mild Cognitive Impairment.
Keep well, and stay safe!
References:
(1) Ward, S.J., Coates, A.M., Carter, S. et al. Exploring the role of diet quality and adiposity in the pain experience: a mediation analysis. Eur J Nutr, vol 64, art 266. 23 Aug 2025:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-025-03772-0
(2) Brown, S. Healthy Diet Offers Pain Relief, Not From Weight Loss Alone. Medscape Medical News. ePubl 07 Oct 2025 (subscription required):
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/healthy-diet-offers-pain-relief-not-weight-loss-alone-2025a1000qvx
