Bone Health

Hey Friends, this is Dr. Chandana Ranglani and I am practising dietitian and nutrition educator in Khar Mumbai since 8 years and today I'm going to talk about good bone health. Bones are the pillars of a body because of which we can't stand,move, dance, sit, handle all the daily activities that we do. So it is very important to each, correct and to give the fuel. Your bones need to grow and regenerate. It break, repair and recover just like your other cells in the body and you all know calcium is the most important nutrient for bone formation, bone development and if you want to have your bones to be strong and healthy.

There is certain things gives you a good amount of calcium in your daily diet like cereals Ragi jowar etc. which you can easily have. Wheat roti with ragi which is good amount of calcium, then you have your nuts and seeds which again a very rich in calcium like almonds, walnuts, cashews sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds. So why don't you put a mix diet and a handful of nuts in a day which can give a good use of calcium. Then you have pulse and sprouts which again add to your calcium intake. So you can add them as you can have them as veggies or any way you like to eat them. Green leafy vegetables have again full of calcium like spinach, kale, lettuce and also other greens which you can either have an alligator soup or Juice them or just make a vegetable out of it. Fish also is a great source of calcium, specially for non vegetarians. The two to three times a week if you want to eat fish, you can usually get a good amount of calcium in your weekly dose. Now that is it. Foods which can affect your calcium absorption or can make your own very weak like caffeine tea coffee have a high modest caffeine in and they can actually leach calcium from your bones. So make sure you don't have a excess of tea or coffee in your day.

Second is annual proteins like excess of chicken, meat etc are acidic for the body. So that neutralize the blood Ph. The body releases, calcium from the bones that makes your bones weak.

Third is soft drinks like a cola and all Aerated drinks. These drink have lot of Phosphate now, except phosphate in blood has to be balanced by calcium which again to body releases from your bones and this makes your bones very weak and the Fourth is alcohol. Alcohol affects your calcium absorption and causes are very big difference in your calcium balance in the body. So make sure you cut down these all foods in your diet, so that your bone health remains intact and you don't have too much a bone loss.

There are two more nutrients which are also very important for your strong bones:

Vitamin D-  which generally you get from sunlight in the morning between eight a.m. to 11am. So make sure you soak up some Sun because vitamin D is very important to absorb your calcium. Lot of people pop in calcium pills or supplements and still don't have stronger bone just because probably the vitamin D levels are low. So you make sure you have strong bones you need to have good amount of vitamin D levels which you very well and you really get from sunlight. So soak up some Sun in the morning to have strong and healthy bones.

Magnesium-   It is very important to absorb and retain your Calcium into your bones and you can easily get that from a daily dose of nuts, seeds, legumes, sprouts, whole grains and vegetables.

So these little three nutrients which we spoke about it are very important for good bones health and development, but there's also very one important lifestyle change that you need to make if you want to have strong and healthy bones and that is exercise. Research studies show that people who exercise like weight bearing exercises such as weight lifting resistance training at least three times a week they have stronger bones and lesser risk of fractures and osteoporosis than other people because when you exercise the body pushes more calcium from blood into your bones and helps in more bone development and formation rather than degeneration. That is why exercise is very, very important to have strong and healthy bones and to make sure that your risk of fractures are minimum, so these are the few lifestyle steps that I want you to take care if you want to have strong healthy bone.

For more information you can contact me through lybrate.com, ask me a query and get them answered. Thank you.