Osteoporosis is a disease that makes your bones weaker and easily broken. Anyone can have osteoporosis, but the disease is most popular to women at old ages. You can prevent osteoporosis by observing a healthy diet that is rich in calcium. Your body loses calcium every day through normal physical activities like hair and nail growing. If you don’t receive enough calcium from your diet, the calcium will be taken from bones.
Calcium and vitamin D
Adults who are under 50 years old should absorb 1000mg of calcium daily.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends adults who are under 50 years old should absorb 1,000 mg of calcium daily. People who are over 50 years old are 1,200 mg. If you receive enough calcium from foods, you don’t need to take calcium supplements. If you choose to take calcium supplements, you should limit the daily calcium absorptions with 2,500 mg in maximum. Vitamin D helps the body use calcium. People who are under 50 years old should absorb 400 to 800 IU a day. People who are older than 50 years old should have 800-1,000 IU vitamins a day. Although you don’t need to take calcium supplements, you can still provide yourself with vitamin D supplements. There’re ideas supporting that you can only absorb 500 mg calcium at a time, so you should have foods that provide you with calcium.
Recommended foods
Calcium-rich dairy foods include yogurt, milk, cheese, cream and pudding.
Dairy foods are rich in calcium, you should choose low-fat milk. If intolerable to lactose, you can choose non-lactose milk or enzyme pills like Lactaid. Calcium-rich dairy foods include yogurt, milk, cheese, cream and pudding. Choose foods that are provided with calcium, such as cereal, orange juice and calcium-added soy milk. Vegetables that are rich in calcium include collard, turnip greens, bok choy, broccoli and kale. Tofu that is made with calcium sulfate is a rich source of calcium.
Increase calcium in your diet by adding a spoon of milk powder in foods. Prepare soup based on chowder and tomato cream. Serve breakfast made up of milk like frozen yogurt, milk shake, pudding and cream. Make yourself sweets for light meals by combining frozen berries with milk.
Foods to avoid
Rhubarbs prevent the body from absorbing the calcium it contains.
Some foods can interfere with calcium absorption and should be used moderately. They are caffeine drinks, sodium, alcohol, oxalate, phytate and rich-protein foods. Lessen the sodium absorption to 2,400 mg/day to prevent the fact that calcium is excreted through urinary tracts. Foods that have oxalate include rhubarbs, beet green and spinach. Those foods prevent the body from absorbing calcium they contain, but barely show the same effects on the calcium absorption of other foods.
Pinto bean, pea, navy bean and wheat bran are rich in phytate. Before cooking beans or legumes, soak the bean in water for hours, then remove the water and cook the bean with clean water. By doing that, you can reduce the amount of phytate in beans. Wheat bran is one of foods that reduce the probability of calcium absorption in other foods that are eaten at the same time. If you have milk with wheat bran, you may not be able to absorb calcium from milk.