NUTRITIONS FOR BONE HEALTH

 INTRODUCTION

The importance of bone health. We all know that bone health is important for various reasons now. But it protects our vital organs from injury. You know, it supports us, and allows us to move, and do what we would like. But it's also really our storage system. So, it stores minerals like calcium and phosphorus that are released when we need them when blood levels drop.

NUTRITIONS FOR BONE HEALTH

So peak bone mass age again, just as a reminder, it's about up to the age of 30 in women, and about 75% to 85% of our skeleton is built during adolescence. And then we lose calcium as adults. So, another reason to look forward to being 30. We do need sufficient bone nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, and really to build the best strongest bone, but also to maintain that bone.

So, keeping bones healthy-- there's a whole slew of things here-- healthy food choices, a well-balanced diet is seemingly very easy to say that-- eating foods rich in calcium and vitamin D, your vitamin and mineral supplementation if and when needed, exercise, physical activity, and good health and habits.

So, the nutrition part is really, part of it is trying to hit all the food groups, making sure you get all of these crucial nutrients from food. That's what food gave us years ago. As hydration, gives us fiber, gives us vitamins, and minerals that we might not be getting anywhere else. Your good nutrition is also going to help maintain and support good healthy weight and your soft tissue, which is really protecting your bones. It's not useful to focus on just a few nutrients. 

So, it could be arthritis. It could be osteoporosis. And one of the main things is always general good nutrition. And so, this is sort of if anyone's ever seen this, I don't know if you have years ago, a lot of people might remember the food guide pyramid. And then it was replaced with something that looked like a crazy pie chart, which every healthcare professional kind of rioted about. And then they switched it to this. This is more user-friendly. It is ideal and not necessarily super realistic. But what it does show is one, eating color.

Two, trying to get all the food groups as much as possible every time you eat. And I'm not going to necessarily say meals, because if you're more of a grazer, fine. So, bone healthy foods, simply, it's sort of dairy, canned fish with bones, fatty fish. Those are unfortunately the three kinds of major food groups. And if you, unfortunately, don't eat them if you're vegan, then you have to figure out other way.

So, your bone healthy foods, I mean, this is sort of just kind of more in detail sort of your dark green leaves. There's a lot of colors here, your fruit, you know, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas-- you know, everything here has specific nutrients, your calcium, your sort of minerals, and so food first. It is the preferred, again, source of nutrients for the body. And it's vitamins and minerals. And typically, it does help with dietary patterns. So, if people are typically eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, and they have some dairy, and they have some beans, and low-fat protein foods, then typically they're usually in a good place. And nutrient density just means that foods that you were eating are pretty nutritious regularly.

So, the overall message regarding food is real variety in moderation. You know, trying to vary your daily intake. Most of us are creatures of habit, and we usually, if you think about yourself, most people tend to have about four to five different meals from a lunch perspective and a dinner perspective. And even if you're going out to dinner or going to certain restaurants, you tend to go for a specific meal. Most people haven't gone and tried everything on the menu.

CONCLUSION

So, you want to try to work on varying your intake as possible and trying to hit all the food groups if you can and having calcium rich foods as they are available and as you can fit them into your diet. It's always diet, diet, diet. That's how we promote any nutrient first.