What’s food got to do with back pain?

BACK PAIN AFFECTS MORE THAN YOUR BACK. | PART 2 OF 3

Eating well starts long before the first mouthful. There is the shopping list, the journey, the bags to unpack, the chopping and the washing up afterwards. When your back hurts, an ordinary meal can become a series of jobs to get through.

That makes food a useful subject for a conversation about back pain, whether you are living with it or supporting someone in clinic. Alongside questions about nutrition, there is a very practical one: when someone is having a difficult day, how manageable are shopping, cooking and eating well?

Why BackCare is talking about food

BackCare’s booklet, Eating to Ease Back Pain, was written by nutritionist Yinka Thomas. The charity describes its focus as dietary changes, inflammation and the potential to reduce pain. You can find it through BackCare’s introduction to the booklet.

That is an invitation to explore the subject, rather than a promise that a particular food will treat someone’s back problem. A claim about an “anti-inflammatory” ingredient still needs context: what was studied, in whom, and did it make a meaningful difference to pain or everyday life?

BackCare also takes a broader view in its information on self-management courses. It describes healthy eating alongside coping with pain, fatigue and the emotional effects of a long-term condition. Food belongs in that wider picture. Advice about what to eat is more useful when it also considers what someone can realistically manage.

The work hidden inside a food shop

“Can you do your shopping?” sounds like one question. It may actually mean several. Can you get there? Walk around the aisles? Wait at the checkout? Get the bags home and put everything away? Someone might manage the supermarket but find they have little energy left to cook.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn pain management team’s household tasks leaflet suggests practical changes such as ordering a list around a familiar shop’s layout, using a shallow trolley and avoiding overfilled bags. It also suggests smaller shops or online shopping as options.

The useful choice depends on the person. More frequent trips may be awkward without transport; delivery charges or minimum orders may rule out online shopping. Asking which stage is hardest gives the conversation somewhere specific to go. Help getting the bags into the kitchen may matter more than another recipe.

Cooking does not have to happen in one stretch

A recipe’s cooking time rarely includes finding the ingredients, clearing a surface or tidying up. Before recommending a “quick” meal, it is worth looking at the whole task.

Cambridge University Hospitals’ guidance on pacing recommends planning activity and breaks, rather than carrying on until pain forces a stop. It also advises spreading demanding jobs out. In the kitchen, that could mean separating preparation, cooking and clearing away instead of treating them as one uninterrupted job.

A workable routine will vary. There is no universal number of minutes someone should stand at a worktop. A therapist can help identify a manageable starting point and a pattern that is reasonably consistent, instead of saving every job for a better day and trying to catch up at once.

The King’s Lynn leaflet also suggests keeping frequently used items within easy reach, using prepared vegetables and spreading preparation through the day. Sitting for suitable tasks may help; an occupational therapist can advise on whether a perching stool or changes to the kitchen setup would suit the person.

These changes can be very ordinary. If peeling is the sticking point, buying vegetables already prepared may make a familiar meal possible. If clearing up is the difficult part, sharing that job could be the most useful offer of help.

What could eating well look like on a difficult day?

The NHS Eatwell Guide describes balance across a day or week, so every meal does not have to get everything right. Its food groups include fruit and vegetables, starchy foods, protein foods, dairy or alternatives, and small amounts of unsaturated oils. Frozen and tinned fruit and vegetables count too.

That leaves room for meals with fewer steps. These are everyday examples to adapt to someone’s tastes, dietary needs and budget:

• A jacket potato with beans: add vegetables that are easy to prepare, such as frozen peas cooked according to the packet.
• Wholegrain toast with eggs and tomatoes: a familiar meal without a long ingredient list.
• A sandwich with hummus and ready-washed salad: an option when using the hob feels like too much work.
• A ready meal with a convenient side of vegetables: a practical option to consider as part of the overall eating pattern.

A fallback meal is most useful when it is something the person actually likes and can afford to keep available. A cupboard full of ingredients for meals they never want to eat will not solve the problem. Neither will a plan that assumes spare freezer space, expensive equipment or somebody always being there to help.

If preparing an extra portion is manageable, the King’s Lynn leaflet suggests freezing food for days with less energy. This should make a future meal easier, rather than turn today’s cooking into an exhausting project.

A more useful conversation in clinic

For a physiotherapist, sports therapist or occupational therapist, food can reveal something that a general question about daily activities misses. Start with a meal the person enjoys and ask them to talk through what happens before and after it.

• Which part takes the most effort: shopping, preparing, cooking, sitting to eat or clearing up?
• What do they tend to eat when that part becomes difficult?
• What have they already found helpful?
• Would a change to the task, practical help or specialist advice make the biggest difference?

The answer might be a smaller shopping trip, a different place to prepare food or someone taking care of the washing up. Agreeing one change to try gives the next conversation something concrete to return to: did it make that meal easier?

When more support would help

The Eatwell Guide recommends advice from a registered dietitian for people with particular dietary or medical needs. If someone is regularly struggling to get enough food, raise that with their healthcare team rather than leaving them with general meal ideas.

Keep the conversation free of blame. Someone should not come away feeling responsible for “eating their pain away”, or pressured to buy supplements or remove whole food groups. The aim is to make nourishment and everyday life more manageable.

Part of a bigger picture

Monday’s article asked what pain gets in the way of. A meal adds another everyday answer: choosing food, preparing something you enjoy and having enough energy left to sit down with it. Those are worthwhile things to ask about.

On Friday, we will bring the week back to what people most want to do again. BackCare’s 2026 awareness page also introduces its latest booklet, Chronic Back Pain: Relief and Prevention, and links to resources from previous awareness weeks.

Meglio has made a donation to BackCare to support their work. This article is part of our series exploring how back pain can affect more than your back.

Earlier in this series

• A sore back. A smaller world: the everyday impact of back pain

General information. For symptoms that need medical attention, see NHS advice on when to get help or contact your local healthcare service.