As kids, our parents often stressed the importance of building healthy bones by pouring us a glass of milk at breakfast or sneaking some leafy greens into our lunchboxes. And as we grew up, many of us learned to adopt those habits to maintain a strong skeleton. But even though it's easy to load up on bone-friendly foods, it's just as easy to consume foods that, well, eats away at your bones. That's why we've consulted some of the leading nutritionists and diet experts in hopes of understanding which foods are bad news for our bones.
Why is Calcium necessary for bone health?
Characterized by decrease of bone mass, Osteoporosis is a silent disease commonly affecting elderlies; signifying the importance of calcium nutrition and bone health in the elderly. Getting optimum calcium intake for bone health is important not just for older folks but for the younger ones as well. Our bodies continue building bone mass until mid-20s. No matter your age, taking care of your bones should be at the top of our list.
Going the Extra Mile in Bone Care
So, you might be religiously eating calcium-rich foods, and maybe even taking up a doctor’s prescribed calcium supplement. But those practices might not be good enough. Some of the things you chew on or drink influence how much calcium seeps into your bones, and how much (literally) gets flushed away.
To get the balances tip in your favor, here’s a short run down of calcium-depleting foods.
1. Salt
Salt from the bag of chips you ate, to that can of corned beef in your pantry, to that dash you added while cooking tops our list. Yes, it gets flushed out of your body. But it does its best to drag down calcium with it as you pee. As you age, eating a high-sodium diet causes your bones to degenerate—even while you're still a spring chicken! In fact, for every 2,300 milligrams of sodium you consume, you lose approximately 40 milligrams of calcium. The USDA currently recommends limiting your daily sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg, which is no easy feat considering salt hides in many American diet staples like bread, deli meats, canned soups, and fast food. The best way to avoid extra sodium from seeping into your bones is to skip processed foods as often as possible, keep the salt shaker away from the kitchen table, and turn a cold shoulder to both the usual suspects and the sneaky salt sources
2. Sodas
Reaching for a fizzy can of soda may be doing more damage to your bones than you think. Soft drinks are packed with phosphoric acid, which causes an increase in the blood's acidity levels. As a result, the body pulls calcium out of our bones in order to bring the acidity levels back to normal. Yikes! As if that's not bad enough, people who drink soda (including diet sodas!) are more likely to have a "soda belly," which is similar to a beer belly.
3. Caffeine
Just like soda, this caffeinated drink can also decrease your body's ability to absorb calcium, resulting in a weaker you. Limit your intake to less than three cups of java a day, and you should be fine. But if your early mornings call for an extra few shots of espresso, try reaching for an apple instead. Some experts swear that apples provide more energy than a cup o' Joe, due to their high abundance of simple carbs.
4. Alcohol
Alcohol consumption doesn’t only affect your liver. Osteoblasts, your body’s bone building cells, are prevented from doing their job whenever you drink booze. It’s literally a bone breaker as it blocks all the calcium nutrients that’s supposed to be in your body. Besides sending you into a frenzy of hungover regret, throwing back shots of alcohol can also weaken your bones in the long run. Alcohol prevents osteoblasts (bone-building cells) from absorbing any bone-friendly minerals, like calcium, which in turn slows down a broken bone's healing process and weakens the bones overall. For more reasons to ditch the booze
5. Sugar
Sugary snacks are always the easiest thing to grab whenever your tummy grumbles. There are really no proven links to sugar and bone health but whenever you get heightened sugar intake, it’s possible overlook on getting enough nutrient-rich food that you need.
6. Hydrogenated Oils
Hydrogenated oils are man-made fats produced by contaminating vegetable oils with hydrogen gas under super high pressure—which creates artery-blocking trans fats. This process destroys any naturally-occurring vitamin K in the veggie oils. And since vitamin K is essential for strong bones, we recommend forgoing any foods that contain trans fats completely (think fast food, frozen food, pastries, and some coffee creamers). To ensure your foods aren't contaminated by these foul fats, check the ingredient list (even if the label reads trans fat free!) for any "hydrogenated oils" or "partially hydrogenated oils." Those phrases are synonyms for trans fats and are likely to be snuck into your food.
7. Carrots and Sweet Potatoes
Since carrots and sweet potatoes are teeming with calcium-leaching vitamin A, these healthy veggies are hypothesized to weaken your bones if consumed in significant and consistent excess. And by large quantities, we mean way more carrots and orange spuds you'd ever want to eat in a day. "Based on my calculations, that's about 4 sweet potatoes daily—and likely for a long period of time," Mirchandani explains. "For carrots, it's roughly about 10-11 cups of raw carrots daily—and also likely for a long period of time." Seems like it's safe to say the majority of us aren't munching on the orange veggies that much. Whew.
8. Beef Liver
Beef liver happens to be the greatest source of animal-derived vitamin A, also known as retinol. And while vitamin A can clear up acne, boost eye health, and even amp up your immunity, too much of it can wreak havoc on your bones. "High intakes of beef liver—greater than three ounces—could stimulate osteoclast activity or bone breakdown," explains Anita Mirchandani, MS, RD, CDN and spokesperson for the New York State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
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