Diet for joint complaints

For joint complaints, Chinese medicine distinguishes four forms of the so-called Bi syndrome. Depending on the cause, different foods are good for you.

Wind Bi

Strengthen your blood, and inner wind will have less of a chance. Eat regular, mainly cooked meals and use ingredients that nourish the blood, such as raisins, eggs, lentils, beetroot, green vegetables and parsley. Pay attention to your digestion, which applies to all causes. Cut down on hot spices and coffee.

Cold Bi

Ideally eat three cooked meals a day and avoid cold and raw food as well as cold drinks. Use warming spices such as cardamom, caraway and dried herbs. If you have no signs of heat, you can also use cinnamon and ginger, which are even more warming.

Damp Bi

Avoid foods and drinks that create a lot of dampness, such as sugar, white flour, fried food, cow’s milk, yoghurt and oranges or orange juice. Eat regular, mainly cooked meals with ingredients that drain dampness: rice, millet, polenta, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, lentils, chickpeas.

Heat Bi

Avoid heating ingredients such as hot spices, cinnamon, ginger, spiced teas, grilled, seared or fried meat, sausage, preservatives and alcohol, and cut down on coffee. Add some seasonal raw vegetables to your regular cooked meals to cool yourself gently, for example a small green salad or a few fresh sprouts (which also move the Qi). Use ingredients that are thermally neutral or gently cooling, such as broccoli, courgette, mushrooms, apple, pear, millet and rice, as well as cooling teas like peppermint, lemon balm or orange blossom.

Recipe: soup for wind, damp and cold Bi

• Cut 100 g lean lamb, chicken or beef into small pieces: warming
• Add spring onion rings: warm and move
• Simmer in 500 ml water for about 30 minutes
• Towards the end, season to taste with lovage, nutmeg, chilli or pepper, cinnamon and turmeric (turmeric is particularly good for shoulder pain), and finish with a dash of sherry: warm and move
• Optionally add 100 g diced potatoes to strengthen your Qi

These ingredients also suit the soup, as they nourish the blood and stimulate circulation:

• 5 to 10 g toasted black sesame (Sesami indici Semen nigrum, hei zhi ma): nourishes the blood
• Goji berries (Lycii Fructus, gou qi zi): nourish the blood
• Chinese dates (Jujubae Fructus, da zao): strengthen Qi and blood
• 10 g red sage root (Salviae miltiorrhizae Radix, dan shen): moves and nourishes the blood