Joint Food is a supplement used to support optimal joint health, manufactured by a company called Nordic Healthy Living. Some consumers use this supplement to relieve joint pain.

But does Joint Food contain research-backed ingredients for pain relief? Does it contain any unhealthy ingredients? Is it proven to work? And is it better or worse than other popular joint health supplements like collagen?

In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Joint Food to give our take on whether or not it's likely to be effective for joint health and pain relief, and whether or not it's healthy.

We'll also share our concerns about some of the clinical claims made by Nordic Healthy Living, and compare Joint Food to other popular joint health supplements to pick our winners.

Key takeaways:

• Research-backed active ingredients for pain relief
• Unclear inactive ingredients
• We do not currently recommend Joint Food

Ingredient Analysis

The ingredients in Joint Food are shown below:

Vitamin C is clinically shown to reduce arthritic pain, although we haven't come across any studies showing it to be effective at as low a dose as exists in Joint Food.

Tamarindus indica seed extract was shown to relieve knee pain by around 50% after 56 days in a clinical trial published in the Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine journal.

Type II collagen is clinically shown to relieve pain at lower doses than other types of collagen, as we documented in our Arthrozene reviews article.

Boswellia serrata extract has been studied for its effects on pain, but may be underdosed in this formuation. 

A medical review published in the BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies journal reported that Boswellia extract is effective for pain relief at a dosing range between 100 milligrams (mg) and 250 mg.

However, the average ingredient dose in Joint Food's proprietary blend is only aroudn 62 mg.

Overall, we consider Joint Food likely to be effective for pain relief and joint health support. From an efficacy perspective, this is a highly impressive formulation.

We don't currently recommend this supplement because there is no inactive ingredient list on the Supplement Facts panel.

Perhaps there are no inactive ingredients in this supplement, but given that it's a capsule supplement, that would be highly unusual. Inactive ingredients include excipients like the capsule material, any filler material, stabilizers, etc.

We urge Nordic Healthy Living to clarify whether or not there are inactive ingredients in this formulation, and if there are, to publish them on the Supplement Facts panel.

Is Joint Food Proven to Work?

The Joint Food website claims that the supplement contains a "clinically-proven 'secret'":

The manufacturer claims that the Tamasteen proprietary blend has been clinically tested and shown to be effective for joint stiffness (among other health outcomes), as shown in the graph above.

However, Nordic Healthy Living fails to cite the full clinical trial in the research section of their site at the time of updating this article, and we can't find any clinical trials on Tamasteen published in peer-reviewed journals.  

As we've mentioned in many Illuminate Health articles, we recommend that consumers disregard clinical claims of efficacy if they're published by companies that fail to cite an accessible clinical trial backing those claims.

Publishing graphs to argue a product's efficacy without publishing the full data set is a marketing practice we disagree with ethically.

It's also notable that even if Tamasteen is clinically shown to be effective, it does not necessarily follow that Joint Food will be effective, because Tamasteen is only one blend within Joint Food.

Overall, we're underwhelmed by the clinical backing for Joint Food, given how much of the brand's marketing is centered on this supposed clinical backing.

We urge Nordic Healthy Living to clearly cite the full clinical trial on the section of their website where they make these clinical claims.

Can Foods Support Joint Health?

A YouTube creator named "GuerillaZen Fitness" suggests that three types of food can support joint health:

Joint Food vs. Popular Joint Health Supps 

Here's how Joint Food compares to other popular joint health supplements in terms of potential effectiveness and healthiness, in our opinion:

Collagen

One of the most widely-used joint health supplements, collagen is clinically shown to relieve joint pain.

Look for brands where the only active ingredient is collagen peptides sourced from pastured animals.

Winner: Collagen

Osteo Bi-Flex

Contains three active ingredients with research backing for pain relief.

The company recently improved the healthiness of their formulation by removing an inactive ingredient banned in the EU, as we documented in our Osteo Bi Flex reviews article.

No ingredients we consider unhealthy, and no ingredient disclosure issues.

Winner: Osteo Bi-Flex

Kailo

Metal patches that are applied to the skin.

While we don't currently recommend Kailo, we consider it to be a better option from a safety perspective than Joint Food due to the ingredient disclosure issues.

Winner: Kailo

Our Clean Joint Health Picks

Illuminate Labs Ceylon Cinnamon Extract is our our top joint health supplement.

A 2020 clinical trial concluded that “Cinnamon could be regarded as a safe supplement to relieve pain.”

Cornbread CBD Lotion is our top joint health skin lotion.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is clinically shown to be effectively absorbed through the skin, and CBD caused "significant improvements in pain" when applied topically in a 2020 clinical trial.

Both of the products recommended in this section are free of ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.

Joint Food Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Contains clinically studied blend
• Many research-backed active ingredients
• Should relieve joint pain
• Should support joint health
• Highly positive customer reviews on Google

Cons:

• We can't find full clinical study on Tamasteen published anywhere
• Unclear if supplement contains inactive ingredients
• Expensive
• Brand website charges for shipping
• Brand uses proprietary blends
• Vitamin C may be underdosed

Conclusion

Joint Food is a better-than-average joint support supplement.

Its formulation is impressive from an efficacy perspective, as many of the active ingredients in Joint Food are clinically shown to relieve joint pain or support joint health.

Most of the active ingredients in this supplement are included in proprietary blends that fail to disclose each ingredient's dose. We consider this a net negative for consumers.

We're also unclear on whether this supplement contains inactive ingredients, because none are currently published on the Supplement Facts panel, but capsule formulations typically contain inactive ingredients.

The manufacturer of Joint Food claims that one of its proprietary blends is clinically shown to be effective, but fails to cite the full clinical trial, and we can't locate the full clinical trial in any peer-reviewed journals.

We consider Joint Food to be an inferior option to collagen, Osteo Bi-Flex and Kailo for joint health.