Diet taboos for orthopedic patients

Don’t rely on thick bone soup to supplement calcium, don’t blindly eat foods high in oil and sugar during the early stages of recovery, and avoid irritating foods that affect bone metabolism and wound healing. There are no "100% untouchable" ingredients. The core is to adjust based on the recovery stage and personal basic diseases.

Speaking of which, the first and most controversial thing is bone soup. Last year, I treated an aunt who had a fractured wrist. She drank tube bone soup for three weeks after she was discharged from the hospital. During the review, the bone callus did not grow much, but the uric acid spiked to 580. The older generation always thinks that "the shape complements the shape", and the milky white bone soup is all the essence. In traditional Chinese medicine diet, it is indeed said that people should drink Eucommia bone soup and ox knee bone soup in the middle and late stages of fracture. However, there are two prerequisites: first, the oil must be skimmed off, and second, it is only suitable for patients in the recovery period (more than 4 weeks after the injury) and who do not have high uric acid or high blood lipids. Modern nutritional testing is more direct: the calcium content in 100ml of thick bone broth is less than 10mg, which is less than one-tenth of half a carton of milk. The milky white layer is all emulsified fat. Drinking it early will increase blood lipids and delay the absorption of hematoma. You see, both factions are actually right. What is wrong is that they drink blindly without distinguishing between stages or groups of people. Speaking of which, I also suffered an avulsion and fracture two years ago when I was playing basketball. At that time, my mother was carrying a thermos bucket and was about to give me bone broth. I quickly stopped her and asked her to bring me two boxes of skim milk and a portion of stir-fried broccoli. At that time, I did recover much faster than the young man in the same ward.

When many people are injured, their first reaction is to take supplements, such as ginseng, astragalus, and abalone. Last time, a young man broke his ankle. His mother made him stewed old hens and red ginseng on the first day. As a result, the young man was in pain and stayed up all night, and the wound was even more swollen than when he was first injured. In fact, in the first 1-2 weeks after the injury, the body is in a state of stress, and the gastrointestinal function is already weak. Warm food high in oil, sugar, and tonic will increase the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, dilate blood vessels, and aggravate local swelling. There is also a different point of view here: some veteran Chinese medicine practitioners who specialize in bone injuries will suggest that patients who are particularly weak in qi and blood can drink a small amount of clear tonic such as Codonopsis pilosula and millet porridge in the early stage. It is not that it cannot be supplemented at all, but it should not be too strong and too oily.

There is another question that people ask the most: Can "Fawu" be eaten? Such as seafood, beef, mutton? This is even more controversial. There is indeed a saying in traditional Chinese medicine that "eat less fat during the wound recovery period", which refers to ingredients that can easily cause allergies and aggravate inflammatory reactions. However, if you are not allergic to seafood and beef, these are sources of high-quality protein, which is much better than drinking bone broth. I usually tell patients that as long as you don't feel any discomfort after eating it, it is perfectly fine to eat it, and it will supplement nutrition. If you are allergic, or have an open wound that is still inflamed, there is nothing wrong with avoiding it first.

The rest are the things that should be avoided at almost all stages: smoking and alcohol are certain pitfalls. I have seen too many patients who smoke, and the probability of bone nonunion is more than three times higher than that of non-smokers. Alcohol inhibits the activity of osteoblasts, and drinking it once will delay the healing speed for at least 3 days. What many people don’t know is that excessive coffee and milk tea are not good. If you drink more than 3 cups of iced Americano a day, caffeine will accelerate the loss of calcium. I once had a coffee lover patient who had a fractured clavicle. He couldn’t stop 4 cups of iced Americano every day. The callus that was supposed to grow in 8 weeks only showed signs of healing at 12 weeks. Oh, by the way, if you have diabetes, you must control your sugar. A high-sugar environment will directly reduce the activity of osteoblasts and make wounds prone to infection.

Don’t be too conceited. For example, you usually like spicy food, but after being injured, you can’t touch spicy food at all? No, if you don’t have a wound, but just a closed fracture, you won’t get angry or constipated if you eat spicy food. It’s perfectly fine to eat a small amount of spicy food to whet your appetite. On the contrary, it’s better to force yourself to eat tasteless tonic soup, and you’ll get better quickly if your nutrition keeps up.

In a word: don’t believe in any unified list of taboos. It’s better to do it in stages and according to your own physical condition. In the first two weeks after the injury, I mainly eat light food to facilitate digestion. Drink more milk, eggs and dark green vegetables. In the middle and later stages, increase the intake of protein and calcium appropriately. This is more effective than any other folk remedy.