Breakfast Boosts Your Bone Health

Ah Breakfast!

Some say it’s the most important meal of the day. To break-your-fast and replenish your body with what it needs to provide you with energy and vigour.

But did you know that breakfast and bone health are interconnected?

Your bones aren’t lifeless. Like your hair and nails, they constantly break down and rebuild themselves. So nourishing them with the right array and amount of nutrients will make them stronger.

How best to do that? The answer begins when you wake up!

Time to Break Your Fast – Not Your Bones!

Breakfast can make your bones strong.

This happens from what you eat in the a.m, as it will be the fuel that keeps your body moving all day.

Usually certain breakfast foods are advised because they give energy – like carbohydrate laden oatmeal or protein rich eggs, for example.

But did you know that there are at least 6 great calcium rich foods that can kickstart your day – and grow your bones dense and strong?

Your first meal is a very good opportunity to fill your tank with calcium (and other minerals) rich foods because food producers have purposely fortified some breakfast items with these very nutrients.

Let’s see what some of these items are.

But it’s important to know that you must get the roughly 1500 mg of calcium that you need per day throughout the whole day. That is because your body can only absorb about 500 mg at each meal.

So when doing your calculations based on the values above, try not to go past 500 mg of calcium per meal, because any calcium over 500 mg will not be absorbed.

We’re Halfway There

Other than eating breakfast to boost bone health, there are many things we all know we should do, like exercise more, and maybe eat less processed or refined foods.

But although we have so many good reasons to do so, many of us still fall short of our goals. Calcium consumption is one of those things most of us fall short on.

Despite being told for a generation that we need, and should get 1500 mg of calcium per day, the statistics show that the majority of Americans get only halfway to the target with the foods they eat – around 700 mg per day.

And even though the above partial list shows the foods where we can naturally get calcium, still we are deficient, because we are not eating these foods regularly.

Supplements To The Rescue

While it is best to get your vitamins and minerals from dietary sources such as fruits and vegetables, this is not always realistic.

During the hustle and bustle of most people’s busy days – we aren’t giving our body enough of what it needs.

Take for example the amount of colds, yearly flus and the chronic fatigue that many of us experience regularly – these are all signs that your body being deficient on at least one, if not many many more, vitamins and minerals.

Thankfully, supplements prove to be not just a convenient, but affordable, especially when compared to the cost of getting sick or the cost of fracturing a bone due to osteoporosis.

Sources:

1. http://www.nof.org/articles/886