Keeping your bones strong is essential to bone health especially later in life. Peak bone mass is reached in our twenties, after that we need to work on maintaining our bone mass as to prevent Osteoporosis in the future.
3 ways to help you maintain strong bones include:
- Getting sufficient calcium each day
- Doing weight bearing exercises
- Getting enough vitamin D each day
Getting Sufficient Calcium
Calcium in found in many foods. The easiest way to get enough each day is by including dairy foods in your diet. In general depending on age, adults need 1000-1300mg calcium each day. To achieve this you need to include 3-4 serves of dairy foods e.g. 1 cup milk + 1 tub yoghurt + 2 slices cheese + 1/2 cup ricotta. If you don’t consume dairy, it can be a little more difficult achieving this but not impossible. Look out for calcium fortified non-dairy milks & yoghurts, and also include foods like canned salmon with edible bones, tofu, spinach, bok chuy, almonds, chia seeds, oranges etc
Weight Bearing Exercises
Exercising regularly is essential to help you maintain bone strength. Weight bearing exercises help to strength your bones, some include tennis, jogging, dancing, netball, basketball. Resistance training (weight lifting) is another great way to maintain strong bones. For more information about these types of exercises, visit the Healthy Bones Australia website here.
Vitamin D
The body needs vitamin D to absorb calcium. Without enough vitamin D, one can’t form enough of the hormone calcitriol, which leads to insufficient calcium absorption from the diet. The body then will take calcium from its stores in the skeleton, which weakens existing bone and prevents the formation of strong, new bone.
The easiest way to get vitamin D is from the sun. All you need is a few minutes of sun exposure each day, with a total of about 2-3 hours per week of safe sun exposure.
For more information on getting healthy stronger bones, visit this the healthy bones website.
