While we often associate bone problems with old people, we forget that we’ll get there one day too. Your skeleton is (surprise, surprise), the support system as well as the armour for your entire body. When that breaks down in the form of bone-thinning diseases like osteoporosis, or severe back pains, or even kyphosis (a bulge at your upper back), life is really going to suck.
Our bodies are constantly building up our bones in a process called “remodelling”. This goes on throughout our lifespan. However, when you hit age 30, your bone mineral density would typically have reached its peak. From then on, the remodelling goes on, but you’ll be losing more bone mass than you’re gaining.
This is why it’s important to achieve your peak bone mass when you can (typically before age 30). However, if your body lacks important nutrients (calcium) needed to fortify your bone tissues, you disrupt the entire bone building process. By not having enough calcium, you risk not ever reaching the peak of your bone mass. This means when you’re older, you’ll be taking away from your already low bone mass, compared to someone who’s subtracting from the optimum bone mass. And that’ll quickly lead to numerous bone-related problems.
The good news is, you can avoid all that by starting to take good care of your bones now. Making sure you have enough calcium in your diet helps your bone mineral density hit its peak.
Here are a few foods that help to fortify your bones:
1. Dairy products
Cheese, yogurt, fortified milk from cows, goats, soybean, almond, rice, oat, or hemp
2. Calcium-fortified products
Cereal, juices, and breads
3. Animal sources
Salmon, sardines, and mackerel canned with bones
4. Vegetables
Collard greens, broccoli, turnip greens, kangkung, kailan, pak choy, seaweed, and other dark leafy greens.
5. Nuts and seeds
Almonds, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds.
6. Beans and bean products
Tofu, chickpeas, white beans, pinto beans, tempeh and baked beans.
Your diet isn’t the only game changer here. Studies have shown that active people are less prone to bone-related illnesses. Weight-training is a great way to start building stronger bones. It’s great for losing weight too!
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How are you keeping your bones healthy? Are you taking any supplements or doing any special exercises? Share it with us in the comments below or on our Facebook page!
With exercise alone is it enough to strengthen our bone? because sometime in my hectic day I can not fulfill the recommended calcium intake ><
Hi LR!
Thanks for visiting! 🙂 Aww, we understand how it is like to have a hectic day. Well, building strong bones requires a combination of good nutrition and weight-bearing exercise!
Just like building a house, our bones can’t build themselves unless they have plenty of raw materials 🙂 Weight-bearing exercise (ie: lifting weights) stimulates bone formation and keep calcium in the bones that are bearing the load. When the muscles pull against the bones, it stimulates the bone-building process. If you find it hard to find food rich with calcium, you can try taking calcium supplements!
Once a while, do remember to get out and enjoy the sun. Sunlight contains vitamin Ds that helps absorb calcium. You don’t want your hard earned calcium to go wasted! 🙂
Hope this helps! Let us know if you would like to know more 🙂
Have a good week ahead LR!