Nutrition provides the building blocks of all the cells in our body. Our health,
on every level, depends upon vitamins and minerals to function — and to function
well.
When it comes to bone health, your diet is one of the simplest, most powerful tools
you have for protecting and strengthening your bones. And yet many women who follow
a “healthy” diet get osteoporosis anyway. So what kind of potential
does your diet have for protecting your bones, and how do you make the most of it?
Your diet may not be as nutritious as you think
Your skeleton is the most altruistic of your organs (yes, the skeleton is an organ,
just like your heart, skin, or spleen). When nutrition is in short supply, the bones
allow other organs to meet their needs first. Like many of women, their own needs
come after the needs of those around them.
Unfortunately, most women’s diets leave their bones shortchanged. The American
diet tends to be low in vegetables and fruit and high in fat, sugar, refined grains
and processed food. This means our food just doesn’t supply us with all the
nutrients we need. On top of that, too many of the foods we do eat are acid-forming,
and can actually increase our bodies’ need for nutrients, like calcium, to
help buffer those excess acids.
And even when we try to make healthy food choices we are at a disadvantage. Modern
food production has depleted our soils of minerals, causing food grown in those
soils to have fewer nutrients. Vegetables and fruit are usually harvested when unripe
and allowed to ripen while being shipped over long distances, meaning those foods
have less time to draw nutrients from the sun and soil as they are growing. As a
result, insufficient nutrition is the norm, and our bone health suffers.
What about calcium?
Ironically, one nutrient that Americans get more of than most other countries is
calcium, and yet bone fractures are more common in American women than women in
other cultures.
Our over-reliance on calcium to support bone health disguises the fact that bones
require a range of nutrients — at least 20 that research has identified —
for optimal health. Some of these nutrients, like vitamins D and K, work by helping
the body use calcium, and others work independently of calcium.
Nutritional supplements help fill the gaps
Consuming nutritious, alkalizing foods will go a long way toward providing your
bones with the nutrients they need, but even the best diet usually falls short of
the level of nutrition needed for optimal bone health. High-quality nutritional
supplements can help fill those gaps.
Take care when choosing your bone health supplement. Few supplements provide the
right range and ratios of all the bone-building nutrients you need in sufficient
amounts to optimize bone health. Choose supplements that are bioavailable and made
to the highest manufacturing standards. We recommend supplements that are designed
specifically for bone health, with balanced, therapeutic levels of bone-building
nutrients.
Healthy nutrition for healthy bones
Sufficient, balanced nutrition really is a cornerstone of bone health. And happily,
nutritional support is one of the easiest components of our Better Bones Program
to incorporate into their lives. Simple dietary changes like those outlined in our
Diet and Lifestyle eGuide will improve the level of nutrition available to your
bones, and medical-grade nutritional supplements can fill any gaps.
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