Diet taboos for patients with fractures

There are only three categories of foods that you really need to avoid 100% strictly after a fracture - all alcoholic drinks, long-term excessive intake of high-sugar and high-salt processed foods, and foods that you are clearly allergic to. 90% of the taboos that are widely circulated on the Internet, such as "You can't eat beef and mutton, you can't drink bone soup, you can't touch soy sauce, and you can't eat spicy food." They are misunderstandings that have been passed down from generation to generation, or they have extremely limited applicable scenarios, so there is no need to apply them all.

It's interesting to say that last week I met a 20-year-old girl in the clinic. Her ankle was avulsed and fractured three weeks ago. Her face turned yellow due to taboos. She said that the elderly at home said that beef, mutton, and seafood were "hairy things" and she couldn't grow bones after eating them. She didn't even dare to eat more eggs. Her hemoglobin was very low during the follow-up test, which made me angry and funny. In fact, there has been a long-standing controversy about "fat food". The taboos on hair food in traditional Chinese medicine are more aimed at allergic diseases, sores, swelling, or acute post-operative infections. There is no clear evidence that such high-protein foods will delay fracture healing. On the contrary, Western medicine has always encouraged patients with fractures to eat more high-quality foods. Protein, whether it is beef, fish, shrimp, eggs, or soy products, is a raw material for osteoblast repair. As long as you are not allergic to it, you can eat it normally. If you really care about what traditional Chinese medicine says, it is okay to eat less when the wound on the fractured head is severely swollen for a week. There is no need to avoid it for two or three months.

When it comes to things that you really can’t touch, alcohol is definitely at the top of the list. I once cared for a 40-year-old brother who had a fracture of the distal radius. He was recovering very well. He was at work at home and was bored. He drank two or three ounces of white wine every day to relieve his boredom. As a result, obvious callus appeared all around. He went to take a X-ray at six weeks, and the fracture line was still very clear, with no signs of healing at all. This is not to scare you. Alcohol will directly inhibit the activity of osteoblasts and interfere with the body's absorption of vitamin D and calcium. Long-term bed rest after a fracture is prone to disuse decalcification. Drinking alcohol will simply hinder bone healing. Not to mention liquor and beer, even fermented glutinous rice, fruit wine, and alcoholic sparkling water, it is best not to touch it.

Then there are the high-sugar and high-salt foods that many people tend to ignore. Family members always feel that broken bones need to be repaired, so they stuff them with pickled products, candied fruits, and cream cakes every time. This is called "eating something good", but in fact it is not helpful. Last month, an aunt was lying at home with a broken hip. Her son Xiaoshun bought her a whole box of imported cookies and plums. She ate them lying down when she had nothing to do. She gained five pounds in half a month, and her bone density was actually lower than when she had just broken her hip. When I asked her, I found out that she was eating more than twice the recommended amount of salt and sugar every day. Excessive salt intake will accelerate the loss of calcium in the urine. High sugar will not only make you gain weight, increase the burden on later rehabilitation exercises, but also reduce immunity. If you have diabetes, the risk of bone nonunion can be more than three times higher if your blood sugar is unstable. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t eat anything sweet or salty. Seasoning for normal cooking is absolutely fine, just don’t eat processed foods.

As for those rumors that are more evil, such as "drinking bone soup to replenish bones" and "eating soy sauce will leave scars", we can really stop. I met a young man before who had a fractured fibula. His mother made him three large meals of bone soup every day. The broth was as white as milk. Within two weeks of drinking it, he developed high uric acid levels. He suffered from gout and foot pain and couldn't even recover. There is no calcium in bone broth. 90% of what is cooked for two hours is fat and purine. If you really need to supplement calcium, drinking two cups of pure milk and eating half a pound of spinach will be more effective than drinking ten bowls of bone broth. It is also said that eating soy sauce will leave scars, which is even more unreasonable. The melanin in soy sauce will not be transferred to the skin scars at all. As long as you are not allergic to soy sauce, you can dip it in as much as you want.

Another question that people ask a lot is whether you can eat spicy food. This actually varies from person to person. If you usually don't like spicy food and have no gastrointestinal problems, eating some spicy food after a fracture is totally fine and can whet your appetite. After all, it's easy to lose your appetite after lying down for a long time. But if you rarely eat spicy food, or you have just had surgery for a broken bone, your wound is still inflamed, or you suffer from constipation, there is nothing wrong with eating less spicy food for the time being. There is no need to insist on saying that you must eat or not eat.

I have been in orthopedics for almost ten years, and I have seen too many patients who delayed their healing because of blind dietary restrictions. There is really no need to eat like a torture. The core of diet after fracture is never "what to avoid", but "what to supplement". A sufficient amount of high-quality protein, about 1000mg of calcium, sufficient vitamin D and dietary fiber every day are more effective than any mess of taboos. If you are really not sure whether something is edible or not, just ask your doctor directly. Don’t make baseless comments through text messages. It’s a mistake.