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Home > Nutrition > 9 Tips to Keep Your Bones Strong and Healthy

9 Tips to Keep Your Bones Strong and Healthy

December 19, 2022
5 min read
By Shiza Khan, M.Sc. – Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics | Dietitian/Nutritionist

Your skeletal system provides structural and integral support to the entire body, and it is essential to maintain bone health through nutrition and exercise.

tips to keep your bones strong and healthy

This article provides some beneficial tips to take care of your bones and prevent bone diseases such as osteoporosis or osteoarthritis. (1) 

Tips to Keep Your Bones Strong and Healthy

Here are some practices you should follow for optimum bone health.

1. Maintain a healthy weight

Although body mass index (BMI) is not a holistic measurement of health, maintaining a healthy weight within the range of a normal BMI can protect your bones from damage.

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Being overweight can put additional strain on your bones and cause damage in the long run. Conversely, being underweight is linked to many nutritional deficiencies that can also be detrimental to your bones. (2)

2. Eat a balanced diet

consume a healthy diet to preserve bone health

Nutritional deficiencies are the root cause of weak bones in most people. Try to consume a balanced diet that contains the recommended amount of protein, carbs, calcium, iron, etc., to avoid this problem.

Calcium and vitamin D are the two most important nutrients for your bones. They help increase bone strength and density. (3)

3. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco

Harmful habits such as smoking or alcohol consumption can be severely detrimental to your bone health in the long term.

Some studies also suggest that coffee can increase the risk of osteoporosis, although not all studies support these results. Therefore, it is important to limit the number of caffeinated drinks, such as tea or coffee, you consume in a day. (4)

Tobacco smoke can weaken bones by causing loss of bone mass and increasing free radicals in the body. Studies have found cessation of smoking to reverse these negative effects and improve bone health. Therefore, it is better to quit smoking for better bone health. (5)(6)

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4. Eat high-calcium foods

Most people do not get enough calcium in their diet. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for calcium varies is 1,000 mg–1,300 mg based on individual needs.

Try to get your calcium requirement from food instead of supplements as excessive intake of calcium supplements has been linked to an increased chance of heart disease. (7)(8)

5. Get plenty of vitamins D and K

get adequate vitamin D and K intake to ensure bone health

Vitamins D and K are widely linked to strong bones. Vitamin D helps your body absorb more calcium from the food you consume, while vitamin K helps prevent calcium and mineral loss from bone. (9)

Some vitamin D-rich foods include milk, meat, and bone broth. Sunlight exposure also helps increase vitamin D levels in your body.

Vitamin K2 is mostly found in cheese, meat, milk, etc.

6. Eat foods high in magnesium and zinc

Magnesium helps bind vitamin D to calcium and helps the body absorb calcium from food. Zinc helps prevent bone decay by preventing mineral loss. Common sources of zinc include spinach, fish, nuts, and seeds.

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7. Eat foods high in omega-3 fatty acids

Omega-3 fatty acids have potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. They can help fight bone infections and inflammatory bone conditions such as osteoarthritis.

8. Cut back on soft drinks

cut back on intake of soda drinks to preserve bone health

Carbonated beverages contain phosphoric acid, which is linked to bone decay and calcium depletion from the body, thus increasing the overall risk of fractures. It may be in your best interest to avoid soft drinks altogether. (10)

9. Stay active

Strength training is linked to strong bones and muscles. Recent studies indicate that putting positive stress on bones, such as in strength training exercises, may help increase the bone-forming capacity of cells as well as overall bone strength. (11)

Final Word

Many people assume that bone health is something they don’t have to worry about until they become senior citizens. This is an ill-informed view and needs to be eradicated.

Start taking care of your bones today so they can take care of your body when you are older.

References
  1. Clynes MA, Harvey NC, Curtis EM, Fuggle NR, Dennison EM, Cooper C. The epidemiology of osteoporosis. Br Med Bull. 2020;133(1):105-117. doi:10.1093/bmb/ldaa005.
  2. Hedges WP, Bukhari M. Increasing body fat mass reverses bone loss in osteopenia as detected by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans. Eur J Rheumatol. 2016;3(1):1-4. doi:10.5152/eurjrheum.2015.0025.
  3. Price CT, Langford JR, Liporace FA. Essential Nutrients for Bone Health and a Review of their Availability in the Average North American Diet. Open Orthop J. 2012;6:143-149. doi:10.2174/1874325001206010143.
  4. MH; BNKHSCBNP. The effects of caffeine on bone mineral density and fracture risk. Osteoporosis international: a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34981132.
  5. Chang HC, Hsieh CF, Lin YC, et al. Does coffee drinking have beneficial effects on bone health of Taiwanese adults? A longitudinal study. BMC Public Health. 2018;18(1):1273. Published 2018 Nov 20. doi:10.1186/s12889-018-6168-0.
  6. Al-Bashaireh AM, Haddad LG, Weaver M, Chengguo X, Kelly DL, Yoon S. The Effect of Tobacco Smoking on Bone Mass: An Overview of Pathophysiologic Mechanisms. J Osteoporos. 2018;2018:1206235. Published 2018 Dec 2. doi:10.1155/2018/1206235.
  7. Cormick G, Belizán JM. Calcium Intake and Health. Nutrients. 2019;11(7):1606. Published 2019 Jul 15. doi:10.3390/nu11071606.
  8. Myung SK, Kim HB, Lee YJ, Choi YJ, Oh SW. Calcium Supplements and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: A Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials. Nutrients. 2021;13(2):368. Published 2021 Jan 26. doi:10.3390/nu13020368.
  9. Maresz K. Proper Calcium Use: Vitamin K2 as a Promoter of Bone and Cardiovascular Health. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2015;14(1):34-39.
  10. Chen L, Liu R, Zhao Y, Shi Z. High Consumption of Soft Drinks Is Associated with an Increased Risk of Fracture: A 7-Year Follow-Up Study. Nutrients. 2020;12(2):530. Published 2020 Feb 19. doi:10.3390/nu12020530.
  11. Benedetti MG, Furlini G, Zati A, Letizia Mauro G. The Effectiveness of Physical Exercise on Bone Density in Osteoporotic Patients. Biomed Res Int. 2018;2018:4840531. Published 2018 Dec 23. doi:10.1155/2018/4840531.
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