Healthy eating doesn’t just shrink your waistline; it can ease chronic pain. A new study shows that better diet quality reduced pain severity and improved quality of life, independent of weight loss.
A healthy diet. It’s drummed into us from a young age, and backed by science, that eating healthy helps to prevent heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and, of course, obesity.
In a new study, University of South Australia (UniSA) researchers investigated whether improving diet quality through a weight loss program could reduce chronic musculoskeletal pain. They also wanted to know if losing fat or weight explained any link between diet and pain.
“Chronic musculoskeletal pain is one of the most common and debilitating conditions worldwide,” said Uni SA’s Susan Ward, the study’s lead author. “While excess weight is often thought to put stress on joints and drive pain, our study shows that what you eat may independently influence chronic pain.”
The researchers analyzed data from 104 Australian adults with overweight or obesity who’d completed a three-month dietary intervention where energy intake was restricted by 30%. In addition to measuring diet quality using the Dietary Guideline Index (DGI), they measured the presence of chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP), pain severity, and quality of life related to pain. Weight, waist circumference and body fat percentage were also measured. Statistical models and frameworks were used to test whether changes in body fat or weight explained any changes in pain that were observed.
Participants’ diets improved, with DGI scores rising by 22%, indicating better food choices (more fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and wholegrains; less alcohol and processed foods). They lost an average of 7.1 kg (15.7 lb), or about 8% of their body weight, in three months. Chronic pain improved, with CMP prevalence falling from 50% to 24%. Pain severity scores decreased, especially when comparing the same pain site before and after the diet intervention, and quality of life improved. Notably, the researchers found that improvements in pain were directly linked to better diet quality, not explained by weight or fat loss. Although a reduction in weight or body fat was associated with less pain, it didn’t fully explain the connection between diet and pain.
“While weight loss helps many people, this study suggests that improving diet quality itself also eases the severity of people’s pain,” Ward said. “This is a very hopeful finding for people living with chronic pain.”
The study has limitations. Principally, there was no control group. All participants were on some form of diet, so it’s hard to rule out placebo effects or natural changes over time. Only people with moderate overweight/obesity were included, so findings may not apply to more severe obesity or people already living with chronic pain. The researchers didn’t measure things like cytokines, inflammatory molecules known to influence pain, so mechanisms remain uncertain. Pain was self-reported, so pain may have been under- or overestimated.
Nonetheless, the study’s findings suggest that diet quality matters. Beyond weight loss, simply improving food choices – by eating more whole, nutrient-rich foods and fewer processed foods – can help reduce pain and improve overall quality of life. The findings could have broader application in the area of pain management, with the integration of nutrition counseling into treatment for CMP.
“Eating well isn’t just about long-term disease prevention – it can also have an immediate and tangible impact on how we feel day to day,” said corresponding author Alison Hill, a senior lecturer in nutrition at UniSA. “This study shows that adopting a healthier diet may lead to meaningful reductions in pain which improve overall well-being.”
The study was published in the European Journal of Nutrition.
Source: UniSA
