For healthy bones, eat right

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New Delhi: When you are young your bones are strong, but as you grow older your bones become soft and lose density resulting in conditions like osteoporosis, arthritis, and it also becomes easy prey to fractures.

However, with the right diet you can prevent this from happening to you.

And when it comes to bone health calcium tops the chart. But how much calcium do you take to keep your bones healthy?

Experts say that infants need up to six months 300-400 mg of calcium a day, which means at least one-and-half glass of milk daily.

During adolescents your body requires at least 1300 mg of calcium daily so you can incorporate 100 gm of fish and 100 gm of mint.

Women undergoing menopause require 1000 mg daily calcium intake to avoid osteoporosis.

“Often, Indians are lactose intolerant therefore they can’t tolerate milk so they can have dahi, yogurt and soya milk. But lactose intolerance is no reason to ultimately avoid milk products depriving yourself of calcium,” says president, ISBMR, Dr Ambrish Mithal.

Also, sun’s rays are a good source of vitamin D that plays an important role in the health of bones. It helps the body to absorb all that calcium to take daily.

“Researches done at All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Sanjay Gandhi PJ, Lucknow, at Apollo hospital and at Tirupathi Institute have shown that 80 per cent of urban Indians are significantly vitamin D deficient,” says Dr Mithal.

However, you can cover this deficiency by taking supplements. You also have to watch out for alcohol. More than 60 ml of alcohol a day can damage your skeleton as it dissolves your bone.

And green leafy vegetables may be good for you in other ways, but oxalates in spinach for example can inhibit the body's absorption of calcium.

Caffeine intake can also result in a decreased absorption of calcium.

So if you remember to eat right and get some exercise, the bones will stay in good health.

RISK FACTORS

There are a number of other risk factors associated with osteoporosis:

A close family member diagnosed with osteoporosis

Chronic disorders including anorexia nervosa, malabsorption syndromes including celiac disease and Crohn’s disease, chronic liver disease, primary hyperparathyroidism, post-transplantation, chronic renal failure, hyperthyroidism Cushing’s syndrome and arthritis.

MORE FACTS ON OSTEOPOROSIS

Approximately 1.6 million hip fractures occur worldwide each year; by 2050 this number could reach anywhere between 4.5 million and 6.3 million

• In women over 45, osteoporosis accounts for more days spent in hospital than many other diseases, including diabetes, myocardial infarction and breast cancer.
• It is estimated that only one out of three vertebral fractures come to clinical attention.

HOW TO PREVENT OSTEOPOROSIS

A balanced diet rich in calcium, vitamin D and protein

Weight bearing exercise

A healthy lifestyle with no smoking or excessive alcohol use

Bone density testing and medications, when appropriate

CALCIUM IN YOUR DIET

Some seasonings and flavoring agents are high in Calcium, but are generally used in a small quantity. Regular use of these following ingredients in food preparation will, in the long run, increase the calcium content in the diet:

Arrowroot Flour

Gingili Seeds (til)

Curry Leaves (curry patta)

Mustard Seed (rai/sarson)

Cumin Seeds (jeera)

Coriander (dhania powder)

Cloves (laung)

Cardamom (elaichi)

Lime Peel

Poppy Seeds (khus-khus)

Sunflower Seeds

Safflower Seeds

Fennel Seeds (saunf)

Jaggery (gud)

If you do not like the taste of milk, you can use the following tips:

• Use milk to cook porridge, oatmeal.
• Add a flavoring to the milk such as rose syrup, cardamom (elaichi) flavoring or even coffee.
• Make cream-type soups- cream of tomato, cream of mushroom or cream of broccoli instead of plain vegetable soups.
• Add powdered milk to your foods as it is very high in calcium.
• Prepare milk-based desserts such as different types of kheer, custard or pudding.
• Make a smoothie in a mixer with fruits in milk.
• Use dairy products in the diet other than milk like cheese, paneer or curds or yogurt.

If you cannot digest milk well, you may take some of these steps:

• Eat smaller portions of dairy products. Slowly you might gain tolerance to them.
• Combine dairy foods with other foods (meal or solid foods).
• Non-dairy milk products do not interfere with digestion; you may increase the intake of paneer and yogurt.
• Have Soya Milk instead.
• Have lactose-free milk which does not compromise the content of calcium and protein.
• If needed, you may opt for the commercial lactase preparation.

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