Daily Archive

Broken toe by dearanxiety on Flickr

On New Year’s Day, I broke a toe on my right foot. I break toes often. I don’t know if I’m naturally clumsy or if my corrected eyesight doesn’t judge distance well, but at least once a year I will run into a piece of furniture or a wall hard enough to break a toe. It’s a painful for four weeks before I can walk comfortably and takes six weeks to heal. This year’s exercise goals have been put off until February.

Winter is a great time to break something (if there can be a good season for such a thing) because a lot of the foods that help bones heal are in season! The following vitamins, minerals and amino acids are very important to bone healing: (Keep in mind there are other food sources that might be better for some nutrients, but we are trying to stick to as much local and seasonal food as possible.)

• Calcium – I upped my intake of raw milk slightly, and tried to fit either leafy greens or cheese into two meals each day
• Lysine – Also available in milk and cheese, and in good quantities in the pastured red meat, wild caught fish and pastured eggs we eat regularly.
• Vitamin C – Oranges, Brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, broccoli and leafy greens are all in season and good sources of vitamin C.
• Vitamin K – More leafy greens here with spinach, chard, broccoli and kale leading the pack.
• Boron – Adding crispy almonds, crispy hazelnuts, dried apricots and raisins to my diet was a cinch.
• Silica – Wild caught fish is a great source of silica, as are brown rice and root vegetables.
• Zinc – Alaskan king crab, pork, cashews and almonds are good sources of zinc. I wish I was brave enough to eat oysters, because they are a zinc powerhouse, but, I’m chicken.
• Collagen also helps mend bone tissue, and that is plentiful and easily absorbed from my bone broth. And with the root veggies, leafy greens and rice to cook, I am using more of it than I ever have.

I have a comfrey ointment that I put on my toe a couple times a day. It has comfrey for its bone healing properties and arnica for inflammation.

Next up, nutritional therapy for chicken pox.