Them bones, them bones

Many of us spend a lot of time and money to take care of our appearance. That is not a bad thing! I know when I was a teenager the things that mattered most, that zit on my nose and how to get rid of it! Now that I’m in my fifties I am more focused on things you can’t see, one of those things is my bones. Women are more prone to Osteoporosis than men, but everyone should be taking care of their bones. Advanced Osteoporosis can have serious and devastating effects. So let’s do what we can to prevent it.

First we can exercise, most of us have heard this before, strength training builds bone density. So let’s do it and do it regularly. You can’t do it “all out” just one day, the power is in the consistency. Second let’s stay away from the top calcium stealers, soda and sugar, alcohol and smoking! Limit your intake of almonds, asparagus, beet greens, cashews, chard, rhubarb, and spinach. These foods are high in oxalic acid, which inhibits calcium absorption. Be careful not to over consume protein or salt they increase the amount of calcium excreted in the urine. You don’t want your body to need to take calcium from your bones for other important processes. Eat plenty of foods that are high in assimilable  calcium and vitamin D such as broccoli, chestnuts, clams, dandelion greens, most dark green leafy vegetables, flounder, hazelnuts, kale, kelp, molasses, oats, oysters, salmon, sardines, just to name some. Vitamin D is vital for calcium to be absorbed. Calcium and vitamin D work together to slow down or even reverse osteoporosis. Vitamin D is found in eggs, butter, fatty fish and fortified food and supplements. We know that sunlight is very important but most of us don’t get enough! Take good quality supplements to make sure you get the RDA.

More than 90% of bone mass develops before age 20, but can still be built up until the early 30’s.  Children and adolescents need to consume enough calcium to build up for the later years of their lives. How sad it makes me to think of how little real food these younger generations are eating. I hope to get this information into the hearts of young minds since they seem to be in control of so many foods choices.

This is by far not an exhaustive amount of information on the subject, but I hope it strikes a chord and motivates you to take care of your bones!

(Resources Prescription for Nutritional Healing’97, emedicinehealth.com)