Overview

• In a University of South Australia study of 104 adults with overweight or obesity, participants reported less joint and muscle pain after a three-month dietary program.
• The intervention followed the Australian Dietary Guidelines and reduced average energy intake by about 30%, from roughly 9,100 to 5,800 kilojoules per day.
• Diet quality improved by 22%, chronic musculoskeletal pain prevalence fell from 50% to 24%, and pain-related quality of life scores improved.
• Participants lost around seven kilograms on average and saw reductions in waist circumference and body fat, yet mediation analysis tied pain severity improvements directly to diet quality.
• Findings are published in the European Journal of Nutrition, with researchers calling for larger and longer trials to confirm and extend the results.