Cooking with arthritis takes some adaptations, but it is possible.

Arthritis can make many daily activities challenging, and cooking is one of them. Working with the fingers can be painful if you have arthritis in your hands. For example, getting the tops off jars may in itself be a difficult task. Arthritis pain of other kinds can also impact cooking. It's hard to stand and stir a pot if you have arthritis knee pain, for example, and getting ingredients down from their shelves may be an issue with shoulder arthritis. However, you probably aren't interested in living off take-out food all of the time. Cooking can be fun, and it can also help you to better meet your nutritional needs and promote a healthy lifestyle. To get these benefits of cooking with less of the pain that can come along with them, check out these tips.

Use grips

Grips can help in all sorts of circumstances. You can buy a jar opener, for example, and you can switch out small knobs on drawers and cabinets for larger u-shaped ones that are easier to grab. You can even attach fabric to the door of your refrigerator so you don't need to pull as hard to get it open. Strategies such as these are limited only by your innovation and your needs. If you feel like you'd make better scrambled eggs if you could grip the spatula better, find one with handle that works for you, or apply a grip you've bought or made yourself.

Seek out arthritis-friendly tools

When your energy is low and your pain level is high, the last thing you want to do is stand over the stove for hours making dinner. Instead, stock your kitchen with appliances that will do a lot of the labor for you. If you tend to feel better in the morning, get a slow cooker - you can do prep work early in the day and have dinner waiting for you with no effort in the evening. If gripping and lifting a knife to chop food is difficult, look into a food processor instead. Anything that will remove tasks that cause you pain is a great kitchen investment, and cooking can still be fun with a few extra gadgets.

Go ahead and sit down

For many people with arthritis, the most challenging part of cooking is standing for an extended period of time. Instead, sit as much as you can. Take your ingredients to the table if you need to do a lot of prep work, and look for a stool that's at the right height for your counter and stove top so you can manage cooking from a seated position.

Embrace shortcuts

Even if you've cooked everything from scratch for as long as you can remember, it won't hurt to take a shortcut every once in a while. If pre-chopped vegetables will save you the pain of preparing them yourself, buy them. Similarly, see whether there are premade substitutes for ingredients you're used to making yourself. Even if you're opposed to cooking this way, try it out and see whether it's a good idea when you're particularly tired or your symptoms of arthritis are acting up.

For more on cooking with arthritis:

Got Rheumatoid Arthritis? Be Careful Grilling this Summer
Cooking with Arthritis
Tips & Gadgets for Cooking with Arthritis