Foods That Fight Pain: Revolutionary New Strategies for Maximum Pain Relief

1. Choose pain-safe foods. Reduce inflammation by avoiding foods that may be causing or aggravating your pain.

2. Add soothing foods that ease pain. Different foods may improve blood flow, relieve inflammation, or balance hormones.

3. Use supplements if needed. Herbs, extracts, and vitamins can relieve pain.

Barnard explores a variety of medical conditions, such as migraines, arthritis, digestive problems, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, diabetes, herpes, sickle-cell anemia, kidney stones, urinary infections, and back, chest, breast, menstrual, and cancer pain. For each, Barnard explains the causes of the pain and what dietary changes are likely to alleviate it, with exercise and lifestyle recommendations. Barnard backs up his points with 30 pages of research citations.

Most of the recipes are quick to prepare, and include an elimination diet to avoid trigger foods. A nutritional breakdown (calories, fat, protein, carbohydrate, and sodium) accompanies each recipe. Following the advice in this book will not only relieve your pain, but increase your overall health. Highly recommended. --Joan Price

Product Description
Did you know that ginger can prevent migraines and that coffee sometimes cures them? Did you know that rice can calm your digestion, that sugar can make you more sensitive to pain, that evening primrose can ease the symptoms of arthritis?

Drawing on new and little-known research from prestigious medical centers around the world, Neal Barnard, M.D., author of Eat Right, Live Longer and Food for Life, shows readers how they can soothe everyday ailments and cure chronic pain by using common foods, traditional supplements, and herbs.

Dr. Barnard reveals which foods regularly contribute to pain and how to avoid them. He guides the reader to specific pain-safe foods that are high in nutrition but don't upset the body's natural balance, as well as foods that actively soothe pain by improving blood circulation, relieving inflammation, and balancing hormones. Complete with delicious recipes, Foods That Fight Pain is a revolutionary approach to healing that will transform your life.

I think the book is a wonderful addition to the growing library of information about how foods affect our health.

Top recommendations from this Amazon customer!


Excellent, timely litany on whats wrong with a Western diet   June 24, 1998
Jerry W. Vlasak, MD, FACS (jwvlasak@pol.net) (Santa Monica, California)
52 out of 53 found this review helpful

Dr. Barnard comes through again with an common sensical explanation of how the typical American diet is destroyning the lives of so many people. He notes with simple clarity that eating foods that humans have never eaten during their 3 million years of evolution results in illness and disability. By eliminating these foods like dairy products, animal flesh and certain other items, it becomes possible to restore our bodies to health and become free of chronic pain.

I have prescribed a similar diet for my patients for many years, and like Dr. Barnard, the most frequent response I get, after often dramatic results, is "Why? Why didn't any doctor ever give me this information before?"

I know why; its because too much money is being made by the pharmaceutical companies, the meat and dairy industries, and yes, the medical profession by keeping people dependent on their products. If you or someone you love suffers from arthritis, severe menstrual pain, migraines or any other chronic pain, you could do nothing better than to read this book and heed its advice.

Jerry Vlasak, M.D., F.A.C.S.


Everyone should read & heed the advice in this book!   December 3, 1998
36 out of 36 found this review helpful

It's been only about 10 days since I read this book. I cut dairy and most meat from my diet immediately. I had been eating 2 cups of yogurt a day and often cheese at night. And every joint in my body was aching all the time! By just eliminating mostly dairy, my back pain was better in just 2 days!! I'm still experimenting with the different trigger foods, herbs, and ALA & GLA oils, but I feel SO ENLIGHTENED. Nothing I have ever read before has explained so convincingly why we should all be "vegans." I'm optimistic that my joints will now start to repair themselves. I've been telling EVERYBODY about this miracle. I want everybody to know about it. And it was so easy! I wish I had had this information years ago. It would have spared me a lot of pain. I just can't say enough good things about this book. Thank you, Dr. Barnard; you have changed my life!


A great Book   June 29, 1998
38 out of 39 found this review helpful

The last thing I expected to hear was that my back pain could be related to food. I understand how you can eat bad stuff and it can lead to heart attacks and cancer which you hear on the news alot. But I never heard of food causing back pain until I read Dr. Bernards book.

I have had back pain for several years and sometimes take a pain killer to help me sleep. My regular doctor sent me to another doctor who did lots of expensive tests, but the result was no relief in the pain except when I take pills. I decided to give Dr. Bernards plan a try to take out all the trigger foods and then add them back one at a time. You know what I found out? Corn! It was the corn that made my back hurt! The same day I started eating corn again my back went into spazm. I stopped the corn and the pain was gone again in a couple days. Just to be sure I ate corn again and the pain was back! I will tell you that it is a lot easier to make sure I do not eat corn or corn products than it is to have that pain come back. I would have paid a lot of money to get rid of that pain but I did it just by reading a book. Thank you Doctor Bernard. I recommend it to everyone.


Easy to read, informative, valuable   March 19, 1999
horsedancers@webtv.net (washington, usa)
31 out of 32 found this review helpful

This book contains all of the information you will need to learn about controlling pain through diet, including how brain chemistry influences sensitivities, sleep disorders, and chronic pain conditions. Organized according to illness, solutions are presented in an easy to follow program of eliminating potentially harmful foods. The book is chock full of delicious recipies that even the novice cook can prepare. As a sufferer of fibromyalgia, I followed the diet suggestions to the letter, and am now in full remission three months later. I now wake up pain free for the first time in over a year! The program should be followed to the letter, however, to obtain optimum results. Excellent book, well written and researched, Dr. Barnard should be commended for helping to change and better the lives of many suffering from chronic pain disorders.