Severity ranges from mildly painful, chronic activity to drastic, disabling or life-threatening disease. Simple allergic arthritis is a definite entity that is often not recognized as a food allergy . Typically, a dramatic, acute, and painful swelling develops in one or more joints asymmetrically. The joint inflammation is usually brought on by eating a food, either an unusual food eaten for the first time or sometimes a regular food eaten in excess. This presentation is similar to and often confused with gout.
Any food can cause allergic arthritis.
Coffee, beef, pork, milk, eggs, and wheat are the most common food triggers. A wheat gluten-triggered mechanism has been studied in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Wheat ingestion is followed within hours by increased joint swelling and pain.