Osteoarthritis

In adults with overweight or obesity and knee osteoarthritis, weight-loss interventions can improve physical function. Evidence for pain improvement is stronger when dietary weight loss is combined with exercise than with diet alone.

• Evidence primarily concerns knee osteoarthritis in people with overweight or obesity.
• Diet-only interventions have not consistently reduced pain.
• Do not generalize findings to all osteoarthritis sites or all body weights.
• Do not claim weight loss repairs cartilage or cures osteoarthritis.
• Do not prescribe individualized weight-loss targets.

Symptom and function improvements are supported in the studied population. Disease modification is not established.

• Source 1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39233046/
• Source 2: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30072112/

Randomized-trial syntheses suggest some dietary interventions can improve osteoarthritis pain and physical function, with reduced-energy dietary interventions showing the clearest evidence. Evidence for specific dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean diet remains limited.

• Dietary interventions and study populations are heterogeneous.
• Mediterranean-diet evidence does not currently establish significant pain or function benefit.
• Several individual diet trials have high risk of bias.
• Do not attribute benefit to individual foods without separate evidence.
• Do not claim diet cures or reverses osteoarthritis.

Long-term structural disease modification is not established.

• Source 1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40295866/
• Source 2: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38739860/