Foods for Healthy Joints

Having healthy joints can sometimes be a great benefit that is oftentimes overlooked. Considering how important joints are for the activities we carry out every day, keeping them healthy can prove highly beneficial in improving our physical performance, avoiding injuries, protecting our bones, and allowing us to move different body parts more freely and comfortably.

Having healthy joints is a good sign of physical health, in the same way working on improving their condition requires doing so from different aspects, including our nutrition.

Many conditions that affect the joints have symptoms such as inflammation, stiffness, and pain, therefore, it could be helpful to include certain foods on our diet that can give a boost to our body to deal with these issues more efficiently. Some nutrients you should try to incorporate are vitamins D, C, E, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, fatty acids, and others.

Here we recommend some good options of foods with these and more nutrients that will be greatly useful for getting healthy joints:

• Collagen is the protein that plays the main role in structuring the joints. It is one of the most abundant proteins in our body, but with ageing, the body starts to reduce its production. For this reason, it is important that we include nutrients that help our body create and process collagen. Some of these include fruits such as lemons, kiwis, and oranges. These are rich in Vitamin C which is key in the production of collagen. Also, Vitamin A is involved in the formation and synthesis of collagen, this vitamin can be found in carrots, liver, bell peppers and others. The other key part to boosting our body’s collagen production is amino acids, these are the molecules that precede the formation of proteins. Some of the amino acids that form collagen are proline, glycine, and lysine. Ingesting foods rich in these amino acids will therefore help our body produce more collagen. Some examples of these foods are for the case of proline are dairy, eggs, cabbage, mushrooms. Containing glycine there are foods such as nuts, meat, bone broth, gelatin, and others. Lastly, lysine can be obtained from cheese, nuts, seeds, beans, some fish, and other foods rich in protein.
• Calcium is another key nutrient; this one is mainly important for the formation of bones along with phosphorus. These minerals are primarily found in dairy products, nuts, and leafy greens such as spinach and kale. Just like in the case of collagen, there are some nutrients that work in the absorption of calcium and phosphorus. These are Vitamin D and Magnesium, the first one can be found in eggs, fish, beans, and meat, while the latter can be found in cereals, legumes, nuts, and seeds. These also participate in the regeneration of the osseous structure.
• Some other key nutrients to boost the health of joints are Omega-3, found in salmon, nuts, eggs spinach and others. Zinc can be found in cereals, legumes, and meat. Finally, copper is found in meat, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

It is also possible to take supplements, even though it is better to ingest these nutrients by keeping a balanced diet. Remember it is also crucial to complement good nutrition with physical activity.

Orthopedic Corner | Leon Mead MD Orthopedic Doctor | 730 Goodlette Road North, Suite 201  Naples Florida 34102 | Phone: (239) 262-1119