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 questionable additive ingredients? How do real customers rate and describe its effects? And which retailer sells Joint Food for the best price?
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.
We'll feature unsponsored customer reviews, and provide a cost comparison to show which retailer sells this supplement for the best price.
Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in Joint Food are shown above.
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 publishing 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.
Customers Rate Joint Food
Amazon is a better resource for unbiased customer reviews than a brand's website in our opinion.
Joint Food has been reviewed over 450 times on Amazon at the time of publishing this article, with an average review rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars.
A top positive review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named "ALESSANDRA THORNTON" who gave the product a 5/5 rating, and claims it helped to relieve pain:
"...for me took a month to see the results, but I have a very bad case or arthritis with my elbows burning in pain...Now the discomfort is minimal,but is more than a pain killer, is feeding my joints from inside out."
A top negative review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named "Storylover" who gave the product a 1/5 rating, and claims the product was ineffective:
"I faithfully took Nordic Healthy Living Joint Food with Tamasteen for a month and experienced no difference in any of my joints whatsoever. It would be worth the $60+ price if it works, but it doesn't."
Joint Food currently has a 4.4 out of 5 star rating on Google.
Can Foods Support Joint Health?
A YouTube creator named "GuerillaZen Fitness" suggests that three types of food can support joint health:
Our Clean Joint Health Picks
There are natural compounds which have been shown in clinical studies to support optimal joint health and relieve pain.
Cinnamon was shown to reduce inflammatory markers in a 2020 clinical trial. The study authors concluded that “Cinnamon could be regarded as a safe supplement to relieve pain.”
Illuminate Labs Ceylon Cinnamon Extract is our standardized cinnamon supplement, which is third-party tested for purity and potency and costs only $15 at a subscription price.
Collagen is the core structural protein in joints, and has been clinically shown to reduce arthritic pain.
Bulletproof Collagen Powder is our top collagen supplement pick because it only contains one ingredient: collagen peptides sourced from grass-fed animals.
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.
Cornbread CBD Lotion is our top CBD lotion pick, because it also contains menthol, which was shown in a 2022 clinical trial to reduce pain scores.
All of the products recommended in this section are entirely free of ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy or unsafe.
Where to Get the Best Price
Joint Food is sold at a variety of online retailers.
Here's a price breakdown for a one-time purchase at the time of publishing this article:
Brand website: $82.29 (plus $7.95 shipping, link)
Walmart: $44.59 (free shipping, third-party seller, link)
Amazon: $38.49 (free shipping, link to official Amazon listing)
Joint Food is currently over 50% cheaper on Amazon than the brand's website.
Joint Food Pros and Cons
Here are the pros and cons of Joint Food in our opinion:
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
