Useful and harmful foods for joints and cartilage

Joints provide mobility of the body. Bending, rotation, movement, gestures are available if all components of the joint are normal. Injuries and other unfavorable factors negatively affect their work. It is no coincidence that joint pain bothers about 85% of people after 35 years. Do joint products affect these organs, and which ones?

Healthy foods for joints

Joints suffer for various reasons: due to hormonal and age-related changes, injuries and excess weight, uncomfortable shoes. Joint products can help restore damaged tissues and organ functions.

Healthy foods for joints contain substances necessary for their functioning and health. Approximate list:

• Red meat and tongue are rich in iron, which removes excess phosphorus.
• Cartilage, jellied meat, aspic, gelatin are enriched with mucopolysaccharides, including hyaluronic acid, and their composition is similar to that of synovial fluid.
• Eggs and yolks are a source of protein, healthy fat, and vitamin D.
• Sea fish, cabbage, liver are rich in organic phosphorus and vitamin D.
• Dairy products, including ice cream, are a source of calcium and healthy fats.
• Citrus fruits and rose hips are a source of vitamin C, which is responsible for the nutrition of joints.
• Green vegetables contain magnesium and vitamins.
• Dried fruits are rich in magnesium, which is necessary for the functioning of nerves in the joint area.
• Buckwheat honey and bran are a source of magnesium.
• Beetroot – contains silicon.

Products for bones and joints

Those products that contain the following substances and microelements are useful for bones and joints:

• mucopolysaccharides;
• sulfur, selenium;
• iron;
• magnesium;
• proteins.

Mucopolysaccharides are found in jelly-like foods: aspic, broths, jellied meat, jelly desserts, marmalade. They contain a lot of collagen, which is necessary for cartilage. Seafood and apple peels help prevent inflammation and other joint disorders.

Sulfur and selenium restore cartilage and stimulate the production of synovial fluid. Contained in shrimp, sea bass, mussels, chicken, eggs, gooseberries, radishes, onions, garlic, bread.

Iron has a positive effect on the functional abilities of joints. It is found in red meat, apples, greens, and liver.

Magnesium affects local innervation. To replenish reserves, oatmeal, bran, greens, apricots, soy, and dried plums are introduced into the menu.

Proteins are needed for the formation and renewal of cartilage. Dairy products, meat, fresh peas, fish, and dates are rich in them.

It is worth mentioning vitamins and especially important microelements separately.

• Calcium strengthens bones, vitamin D promotes its absorption.
• C – stimulates tissue nutrition.
• F – reduces inflammation inside the joints.
• E – antioxidant.

These components are present in the above-mentioned products for joints, as well as in a vegetable and fruit diet with a predominance of orange colors.

Products for joints and ligaments

The benefits of joint and ligament products are to maintain their strength and functionality. List of joint products that strengthen ligaments and tendons:

• Fish and seafood are rich in organic phosphorus, which is essential for these organs.
• Red meat and eggs replenish iron reserves, which remove inorganic phosphorus.
• Dried fruits and greens provide magnesium for joint innervation.
• Ice cream and milk are a source of healthy fats and calcium.
• Gelatin – normalizes work due to mucopolysaccharides. Present in kelp, scallops, tendons.
• Herring, olive oil – with the help of vitamin F provide an anti-inflammatory effect.
• Broccoli, carrots, beets, and celery contain vitamin E, which prevents the breakdown of cartilage by enzymes.
• Vitamin C promotes nutrition. It is found in tomatoes, cabbage, citrus fruits, currants.
• Vitamin D prevents calcium elimination. It comes from dairy products, yolks, and fish liver.

Harmful products for joints and ligaments are carbonated drinks, cheeses, crab sticks, smoked and pickled foods, sorrel, chocolate, lentils, radishes, fatty pork.

Products for strengthening joints

Essential products for strengthening joints are considered to be those enriched with vitamins, manganese, and beneficial acids.

• Vitamin E is found in broccoli, peanuts, greens, sea buckthorn, nuts, pumpkin seeds, yolks, beets, bread, and garlic. The substance prevents enzymatic breakdown of cartilage.
• Vitamin C is present in tomatoes, fresh peas, citrus fruits, peppers, kiwi, cabbage.
• Seafood, scallops, egg yolks, cheese, yeast, and soy are rich in vitamin B12.
• Beta-carotene is found in carrots, melons, tomatoes, greens, and sweet potatoes.

Nuts, garlic, beets, pasta, cucumbers, mushrooms, potatoes, asparagus, rye flour, plums, dates, cranberries, oatmeal, and cranberries are rich in manganese.

Omega-3 acids are rich in nuts (except almonds), sea salmon and lake trout, tofu, seaweed, legumes, cabbage, and green vegetables.

Fresh red meat without fat, tongue contain iron and remove excess phosphorus. Products for joints enriched with magnesium also work: all kinds of dried fruits, buckwheat, nuts, oatmeal, cocoa, dark chocolate, cherries, figs, greens, yolks.

Beneficial phosphorus is found in fresh fish, fermented milk drinks and low-fat cheeses.

Products for joints and cartilage

Incomplete food, without products for joints and cartilage, sooner or later leads to loss of organ functionality, and then to tissue destruction. To prevent this from happening, ideally, you should exclude everything harmful and include everything useful.

• Sweet products that are good for joints include natural marmalade, fruit jelly, fresh juices, fruit drinks, and compotes – instead of baked sweets and fizzy drinks.

To enrich the diet with magnesium, include legumes, whole grains, cereals, as well as dried apricots, prunes, nuts, and chocolate.

Natural phosphorus and calcium strengthen joints. Fish and dairy foods are rich in them – stewed fish, seafood, fermented milk drinks, hard cheese.

By the way, fish heads, bird feet, and animal bones are also useful, so they should not be thrown away. The peeled ingredients make excellent food for cartilage tissue – rich fish soup and broths.

• Vitamins for tissue restoration are needed in combination. There are many of them in fresh and pickled vegetables, fish, various berries and fruits. Fish is useful frozen or lightly salted. Vegetable salads are recommended to be seasoned with vegetable oils, vegetables should be pickled rather than marinated, berries should be frozen rather than preserved.

Vitamin D plays a special role, since it is needed by bones, cartilage, and joints in large quantities. The substance prevents calcium from being washed out of tissues. Butter, sour milk, cottage cheese, yolks, and fish liver enrich the body with this vitamin.

Products for joints and spine

Diseases of the joints and spine often occur due to a lack of nutritional components in the body. A balanced diet should include special products for joints and spine, i.e. containing collagen and mucopolysaccharides.

This substance is an analogue of hyaluronic acid, and collagen is the protein base of connective tissues. It is responsible for the strength of joints, elasticity of ligaments, and other organs of the musculoskeletal system. Microelements and vitamins are also necessary for the health of these organs.

Essential products for joints and spine:

• aspic, jellied meat;
• jellied fish;
• rich broth;
• fruit jelly;
• milk and fermented milk products;
• fish, seafood;
• cabbage;
• liver of sea fish;
• natural oil.

The menu should include raw fruits, berries and vegetables daily: apples, melon, citrus fruits, strawberries, carrots, garlic, pumpkin, tomatoes, parsley, beans, greens, dried fruits.

A separate line should be said about such microelements as selenium and sulfur. Without sulfur, the body's own mucopolysaccharides and collagen are not synthesized in joint tissues; without selenium, sulfur is not deposited in cartilage.

Products containing collagen for joints

Collagen is necessary for skin elasticity, joint mobility, ligament strength and other organs consisting of connective tissue. It is a protein by nature. Products containing collagen for joints are only of animal origin. This is how the substance differs from elastin, which is also present in some plant products for joints.

The main component for maintaining collagen levels in the body is food gelatin - jelly desserts and jellied dishes. Jelly is made from fruits, jellied dishes - from fish or meat.

• Salmon fish contains the most collagen.

Plant-based seafood is beneficial due to the presence of healthy salts and iodine, which stimulate collagen production.

The leader among meat products for joints is turkey. When this dietary meat is consumed, a substance is formed in the body that stabilizes natural collagen. It is also rich in complete proteins. Stable collagen is found in beef, the most unstable is found in pork.

Food with collagen requires amino acids, minerals, and vitamins for absorption. To do this, vegetables, leafy greens, berries, and fruits are introduced into the diet:

• tomatoes, carrots;
• cabbage, lettuce, pepper;
• dill, parsley;
• sea buckthorn, blueberries;
• persimmon;
• apricot, peach;
• citrus fruits;
• wheat sprouts.

Products containing collagen for joints will also benefit a person's appearance. After all, collagen is a magical cosmetic ingredient with an anti-aging effect that improves the condition of the skin and hair.

Beekeeping products for joints

Beekeeping products for joints are usually used for their diseases: bruises, hematomas, arthritis, arthrosis. In recipes for internal and external use, various products for joints obtained from hard-working insects are used - honey, propolis, bee venom and dead bees.

Pure honey is used for applications, ointments, lotions, rubs, tinctures. It is mixed with alcohol, fats, apple cider vinegar, herbs and other ingredients - depending on the problem. Usually a liquid consistency is required, to achieve which honey is heated, but the temperature should not exceed 40 degrees. Otherwise, not only are the beneficial properties lost, but the product becomes harmful.

The use of dead bees is based on the fact that the chitinous cover of insects is an immunostimulant. Steam and tincture of dead bees can eliminate inflammation and prevent sclerotic changes.

• To prepare the steam, about 100 g of dead bees are poured with hot (but not boiling) water so as to cover a layer of bees. The squeezed mass is wrapped in gauze, applied to the sore spot and covered with polyethylene. The compress, secured with a bandage, is kept until it cools; the mass retains its healing power for only one procedure.

Treatment with poison – apitherapy. Apitoxin is a complex sterile substance, consisting of more than 50 active components. Treatment of joints with bites is carried out according to a special scheme and lasts for months.

Not as effective, but a more gentle method is rubbing in ointment with bee venom. Rub up to 3 g into the sore area, warmed up with a compress, with massaging movements.

• Pure propolis is a bitter-tasting, poorly soluble, viscous substance that is inconvenient to use. Therefore, ointments, tinctures, compresses, lotions, and rubs are prepared on its basis. One of the popular preparations is an alcohol tincture (phytoconcentrate), which has all the beneficial properties of a natural bee product. It is used internally and externally.

Beekeeping products for joints are a good alternative to medications. Often, improvement is noticeable after just a few procedures, but full recovery usually occurs later. For example, treatment with propolis lasts at least two weeks. Due to the allergenicity of the products, treatment can only be started after making sure there are no contraindications.

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Chondroprotective products for joints

The mission of joint products is to prevent diseases of these organs, accompanied by pain, limited mobility and other problems. A diet with the inclusion of chondroprotector products for joints can restore performance and functions.

The most popular products for joints are those containing gelatin, i.e. partially hydrolyzed collagen of animal origin. This is the main protein of connective tissues.

• Among meat dishes, jellied meats, aspic dishes, and hot meat broths are useful.

It has been proven that these substances are especially active when they are found in dishes made from shark, stingray, and red sea fish. Rich broths obtained by long cooking or half-raw fish (but not fried) are useful.

Avocado is a plant chondroprotector. The fruits are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are also excellent antioxidants.

Soy in the form of tofu, oil, sprouted beans is a real storehouse of protein, while being low in calories.

• A separate group of cartilage-protecting products are berries (strawberries, lingonberries, cranberries, raspberries), herbal teas from knotweed, lingonberry and laurel leaves, and succession. They boost immunity and regulate metabolism.

Plants containing salicylates have an anti-inflammatory effect: oak bark, willow, alder, peony root, raspberry and birch leaves.

Dandelion (root and grass), meadowsweet, and ginger (raw, tea, ointment) can stop degenerative processes and increase regeneration.

A pleasant tasting chondroprotector is honey with cinnamon. They are used to make tea or add to sweets.

Harmful products for joints

Harmful products for joints are dangerous because they lead to diseases accompanied by pain and decreased mobility. Modern man is exposed to all sorts of chemicals, which are stuffed into food products - refined, high-calorie, often not the first freshness. They create an acidic environment that negatively affects the body, including the joints.

Even natural food can be turned into something harmful by generously seasoning it with ketchup and mayonnaise, washing it down with surrogate drinks. Unfortunately, this does not make the food healthy for the body.

• Carbonated drinks cause osteoporosis and joint stiffness due to the abundance of inorganic phosphates. It is better to give preference to fresh juices, compotes, and kissels.
• White bread, baking powder, crab sticks, and processed cheeses contain phosphates.
• Pickled and smoked foods are oversaturated with salts, which irritate and deform joints.
• Tea, coffee, and chocolate contain purines, which provoke gout and disrupt processes in the joint capsule.
• Fatty pork, liver, and lentils are harmful due to the excess of purines.
• Condensed milk and concentrates contain a harmful stabilizer – phosphorus.
• Sorrel, radish, and spinach are harmful because of oxalic acid, which has a negative effect on nerves and organ nutrition.

The content of inorganic phosphates and other salts, as well as purines and oxalic acid in these harmful products for joints causes irritation and changes in the joint capsule, nerves, and nutritional disorders. Which is fraught with inflammation, deformation, gout, and other pathologies.

As an alternative, natural products and drinks enriched with useful substances should be introduced into the diet. After all, the thesis that “a person is what he eats” is more relevant today than ever before – due to the saturation of the market with surrogates and refined food products. In the process of processing and refining, they often turn into tasty, but practically useless food.

In all cases, it is important to avoid stale, spicy, fried, fatty, sweet food. Steaming, stewing and baking dishes is much healthier and no less tasty.

A balanced diet with healthy foods for joints can significantly affect their condition. Especially since many dishes in the daily menu are healthy for the musculoskeletal system and the body as a whole. By alternating such food, we feed the joints, saturate them with useful components and extend their service to our health.