Bone Health and Calcium Rich Foods

Learn about the proper ways to maintain bone health and hear some advice about the best foods containing calcium for proper bone formation.

It is common knowledge to everyone how bones in the body are renewed by calcium. The question that needs to be answered more is: from what foods do we get this calcium, and what other factors affect calcium intake? Suite101 interviews Dr. Raoul Cañonero -- Orthopedic Surgeon and member of the Fellow Philippine Orthopedic Association (FPPOA) and the Fellow Philippine College of Surgeons (FPCS) – to get expert advice on bone health.
Regular Exercise for Bone Health

Cañonero stresses the importance of exercising as one of the ways to improve the health of peoples’ bones. He says that in the modern world, everyone needs to find opportunities for regular exercises. He advised daily exercise wherein the body is required to move and exert itself more than usual.

Cañonero explains, “the incidents of osteoporosis or getting fractures from such small accidents is becoming more common and is happening to younger and younger people. One factor is that people don’t move as much as before. There is less manual work now as everything is automated. People walk less and exert less so this leads to less bone formation.” He says that this is one of the causes of people getting fractures just by coughing or from a simple fall.

Calcium Intake and Meat

Although many doctors don’t tell their patients to limit their meat intake. Cañonero believes this is important to lessen the amount of acidic food in the body. He says, “meat is acidic and our body is alkaline. So if meat is eaten, the tendency of the body is to leech calcium from the bone to buffer the acid.”

Cañonero then goes on to explain how it is common for doctors to just prescribe calcium pills to supplement the high meat intake. But Cañonero feels this does not solve the problem, and may actually heighten it. He explains, “firstly, if 500mg of calcium is prescribed per day, only 100 or 200mg will get absorbed by the body. Then, if your meat intake is high, you could lose even more calcium because of the meat. So with a 500mg calcium pill, and with meat intake causing 800mg calcium loss, how much calcium is going into the body? It has leeched more than what the pill gave.”
Proper Diet from Natural Calcium-rich Food

“No amount of supplementation can replace the natural calcium coming from plants and other calcium rich foods,” insists Cañonero. He shares how trends are seen in places wherein fast-food restaurants are ubiquitous and cases of osteoporosis have simultaneously risen. He says, “the lack of a proper diet with people eating fast-food and carbonated drinks is a big factor leading to less bone formation, alongside the lack of exercise.”

Cañonero advises a high intake of leafy green vegetables and other natural foods which are easily digested. He also dispels the myth that cow’s milk is a good calcium source. He says, “cow’s milk is acidic, has high protein content, and can actually cause osteoporosis. The idea that people need to drink a lot of milk came from advertising and media of big milk companies. It’s all marketing.”

Bone health has become a bigger and bigger concern over the years. All in all, it is important that people do their research and be cautious about what foods they are taking and what they are doing as these affect their health and their future.

First published Jul 21, 2010 Anna Teresa Slater
http://nutrition.suite101.com/article.cfm/bone-health-and-calcium-rich-foods