Every day when you wake up, you feel aches all over your body. Your sides hurt, your back hurts, and nothing you do seems to make your body feel better. What could be worse than waking up to never-ending joint pain? But did you know that certain foods can actually heal your joint pain? The five foods we’re going to tell you about are known for healing joint pain—in fact, experts vouch for these foods all the time!
Top five foods to heal joint pain:
1. Yogurt:
This great breakfast food contains probiotics, bacteria that are actually good for us, helping in disease prevention. But here’s another thing it does: it can help build stronger bones, according to one study done by U.S. researchers.
Keeping your bones strong and healthy will lower your risk of osteoporosis, a disease that causes weakened bones and joint pain.
2. Grains:
Finnish researchers recently found an interesting connection between artery blockages and back pain. According to their study, people with severe back pain were more likely to also have clogged arteries, and that the worse the artery blockage, the worse the degeneration of the disks that lead to back pain.
That’s why they say that the best healing foods for joint pain are ones that will help you lower your risk of clogged arteries. For that, you should look at the Japanese diet (Japanese-Americans have significantly lower cardiovascular problems than Caucasian Americans) which is low in fat. In particular, it’s rich in grains, like rice and bean products, and lower in meat products.
3. Green tea:
Quercetin is a compound found in green tea. It’s a source of polyphenols, which can reduce inflammation, like that caused by joint pain.
4. Citrus fruits:
Also a source of polyphenols, which lowers inflammation in your body. These healing foods are definitely ones to add to your list!
5. Grapes or wine:
These healing foods contain resveratrol, well-known for its heart-healthy effects, but it can also lower inflammation.
Sources:
McCabe, L., et al., “Probiotic use decreases intestinal inflammation and increases bone density in healthy male but not female mice,” Journal of Cellular Physiology published online February 6, 2013.
Barnard, N., Foods that Fight Pain (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998).
Chacko, S., et al., “Beneficial effects of green tea: A literature review,” Chinese Medicine 2010; 5(13):1-9.
