Partly. Sugary drinks are linked to a higher risk of gout in large cohort studies, and that link has the best evidence. For rheumatoid arthritis, two big cohorts disagree. No trial has tested cutting sugar alone for joint pain, and pooled sugar trials have looked only at CRP.
The claim
Ask around a support group for arthritis and you will hear it: sugar inflames your joints. It sounds like one idea. It is really three.
The first says sugary drinks raise your risk of gout. The second says they raise your risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the autoimmune kind, where the immune system attacks the lining of the joints. The third is the one most people care about: if you already have achy joints, cutting sugar will ease the pain.
Each version gets its own grade below.
Where it comes from
Part of it comes from real research on the body as a whole. A 2023 umbrella review in the BMJ, which pooled 73 meta-analyses, linked high sugar intake to harm in 45 health outcomes, most of them heart and metabolic. (A meta-analysis pools the results of many studies. An umbrella review pools the meta-analyses.)
Diet soft drinks were not linked to gout. Sugary ones were.From a 2008 cohort in BMJ
Part of it comes from reviews of food and arthritis. A 2025 review on diet in knee osteoarthritis wrote that diets rich in refined sugars "exacerbate systemic inflammation and contribute to cartilage degradation." That review is a narrative one, though. It did not pool trials, and it said controlled studies on carbohydrates are still needed.
And part of it comes from people's own experience. When researchers asked 217 people with long-standing RA which foods changed their symptoms, 19% said some foods made them worse. Sugary soda and desserts topped that list.
What the evidence shows
Do sugary drinks raise gout risk?
This is the strongest version. In 2008, a study followed a large group of US men for 12 years and counted 755 new cases of gout. Compared with men who had less than 1 sugary soft drink a month, those who had 2 or more a day had a relative risk of 1.85. Diet soft drinks were not linked to gout at all.
A 2019 meta-analysis pooled 3 cohort studies with 1,761 gout cases. The highest sugary drink intake came with about twice the risk (a risk ratio of 2.08), rated moderate certainty. Fruit juice was linked too, at very low certainty. Whole fruit was not. A 2025 umbrella review of 20 meta-analyses on drinks and joint health agreed: sugary drinks raised gout risk and raised blood uric acid. The BMJ umbrella review found each extra serving a week was linked to a 4% higher gout risk, on low quality evidence.
Does sugar cause inflammation in joints with rheumatoid arthritis?
Here the cohorts split. Researchers followed 79,570 women in the Nurses' Health Study and 107,330 in a second wave of that study, and counted 857 new cases of RA. Women who drank 1 or more sugary sodas a day had a 63% higher risk of seropositive RA, the form where a blood test finds RA antibodies. There was no link with seronegative RA, and none with diet soda.
Then a large French cohort study of women found 481 new RA cases and no link with sugary soft drinks. It did find a higher risk with artificially sweetened ones. Two large cohorts, two different answers.
Does cutting sugar ease joint pain?
We found no randomized trial that cut sugar alone and measured joint pain. The nearest evidence is a 2021 meta-analysis of 7 trials with 326 people with RA. Whole-diet changes such as Mediterranean or vegetarian eating lowered pain by about 9 points on a 100-point scale, compared with an ordinary diet. Every study had a high risk of bias, and the evidence was rated very low. Those diets changed many things at once, so the result cannot be pinned on sugar.
What about blood markers? CRP is a protein your liver makes when inflammation is up. A 2018 meta-analysis of 13 studies with 1,141 people found fructose was no worse for CRP than glucose. But those trials compared one sugar with another, not sugar with none, so they cannot settle this.
Our verdict
We built this table from the studies above. Each row is one version of the claim, the best evidence we found for it, and the grade we gave it.
| Version of the claim | Best evidence | What it found | Our grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sugary drinks raise gout risk | Meta-analysis of 3 cohorts, 1,761 cases | Risk ratio 2.08, highest vs lowest intake | Moderate |
| Sugary soda raises RA risk | 2 large cohorts of women | 63% higher risk of seropositive RA in one, no link in the other | Early |
| Cutting sugar eases joint pain | No sugar-only trial; 7 whole-diet trials, 326 people | Pain about 9 points lower on 100, very low certainty | Early |
| Sugar inflames the body in general | 13 sugar trials, 1,141 people | Fructose no worse than glucose for CRP; no sugar-free comparison | Not graded here |
Put together: the case against sugary drinks for gout is fair, and it is the reason this article sits at Emerging rather than Early. The case against sugar for RA and for everyday joint pain is still a hunch with some data behind it. Not a finding.
What to do with this
Tick what you'll try this week. Your picks stay on this device.
you have gout, RA or another inflammatory arthritis and are thinking about changing your treatment; keep taking your medicine as prescribed. Also ask first if you have diabetes and use insulin or other medicines that lower blood sugar, or if you have kidney disease.
One tap. Results appear once 50 readers have voted, and the count is always real.
Why the myth sticks
It sticks because it is partly true. Sugary drinks do show up next to gout again and again in big studies. People with RA say sugary soda and desserts make them feel worse. So "sugar inflames joints" feels settled.
But the evidence is strongest for one drink, one disease, and one kind of study. Cut the soda for your joints. Just know that is the part the science backs.
Reader stories
What happened for you?
Studies tell us what works on average. You know what happened in your own body. Share it here, and the next person who reads this page gets something no study can give them.
A reader who shared their story here sent you this article. When you're ready, add yours.
Ask the Research Desk
Heard something about inflammation you want checked? The best questions become articles, credited by first name only if you say yes.
How this article was made
Researched and written from 11 peer-reviewed papers. Our automated check matched every claim against the exact words of its source, confirmed every paper exists in PubMed, and found none retracted. Checked November 5, 2026. Not individually reviewed by a doctor. Photos are illustrative; the people in them are not patients or readers.
Grades run Strong, Moderate, Emerging, Early and Not supported, and the grade decides the words we may use. How we grade evidence · Medical disclaimer
Sources
- Umbrella reviewBeverage consumption on bone and joint disorders: an umbrella review.Tan H, Tang P, Chai H et al. J Glob Health, 2025.PubMedFull paper
- Meta-analysisImportant food sources of fructose-containing sugars and incident gout: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.Ayoub-Charette S, Liu Q, Khan TA et al. BMJ Open, 2019.PubMedFull paper
- CohortSoft drinks, fructose consumption, and the risk of gout in men: prospective cohort study.Choi HK, Curhan G BMJ, 2008.PubMedFull paper
- CohortSugar-sweetened soda consumption and risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis in women.Hu Y, Costenbader KH, Gao X et al. Am J Clin Nutr, 2014.PubMedFull paper
- CohortAssociation between beverage consumption and risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a prospective study from the French E3N Cohort.Ascione S, Barde F, Artaud F et al. Rheumatology (Oxford), 2023.PubMedFull paper
- Meta-analysisEffect of Anti-Inflammatory Diets on Pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Schönenberger KA, Schüpfer AC, Gloy VL et al. Nutrients, 2021.PubMedFull paper
- StudyDiet and Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms: Survey Results From a Rheumatoid Arthritis Registry.Tedeschi SK, Frits M, Cui J et al. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken), 2017.PubMedFull paper
- Umbrella reviewDietary sugar consumption and health: umbrella review.Huang Y, Chen Z, Chen B et al. BMJ, 2023.PubMedFull paper
- ReviewDiet in Knee Osteoarthritis-Myths and Facts.Kasprzyk N, Nandy S, Grygiel-Górniak B Nutrients, 2025.PubMedFull paper
- Meta-analysisEffect of Dietary Sugar Intake on Biomarkers of Subclinical Inflammation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Intervention Studies.Della Corte KW, Perrar I, Penczynski KJ et al. Nutrients, 2018.PubMedFull paper
- Guideline2022 American College of Rheumatology Guideline for Exercise, Rehabilitation, Diet, and Additional Integrative Interventions for Rheumatoid Arthritis.England BR, Smith BJ, Baker NA et al. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken), 2023.PubMedFull paper
