Want strong bones? Look beyond calcium supplements

It's exciting to see so many blogs on the importance of eating more (lots more!) fruits and vegetables. It has been a huge blind spot in my industry (fitness) for years and in other fields as well. As I educate about the difference between eating whole foods/adding a whole food supplements and the more familiar isolated vitamin supplements, the question that almost always comes up is: "What about calcium?"

There is an excellent article in the January 16, 2006 issue of Newsweek magazine that identifies what it labels "the Calcium Conundrum". The conundrum is simply that in spite of everything you have been told about the importance of high dairy consumption to achieve a high calcium intake so that you will have "strong, healthy bones", one does not in fact lead to the other. It is intersting to note that the highest fracture rates in the world belong to populations eating large amounts of dairy products with correspondingly high calcium intakes while the lowest fracture rates belong to populations consuming little to no dairy and a mostly vegetarian diet with comparatively low calcium intakes. Hmmm...

So, what is the Good News that you need to know today to get and maintain strong, health bones?

1) Consume a diet high in raw fruits and vegetables especially dark, leafy greens. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/83/6/1254) Fruits and vegetables provide essential micronutrients (including highly absorbable calcium), enzymes and assist in alkalizing the body.

2) If you are not getting enough fruits and vegetables (9 - 15 servings everyday), strongly consider adding a clinically validated, whole food supplement to your diet if you have not done so already.

3) Limit or better yet eliminate your intake of processed foods especially processed carbohydrates and consider moderating your intake of animal protein.

4) Get some sun exposure - yes, that's right - sun exposure. Dermatologists cringe at the thought (you might say they have a "vitamin D dilemma" to go with the "calcium conundrum") but the conventional wisdom that all sun exposure is bad for you, indeed deadly, is simply not backed up by the research. And it's not just bone health that is positively affected by reasonable sun exposure (no one is silly enough to go back to baby oil on the beach - right?!), but there is substantial documentation of lower rates of many cancers, depression, even pain associated with frequent, sensible sun exposure sans sunscreen. Go figure!

5) For times when sun exposure is limited or unavailable, choose a high quality cod liver oil as your Omega 3 source of choice. Supplementing Omega 3's is essential for so many reasons and choosing cod liver oil is a great way to up your intake of natural, absorbable vitamin D.

6) Get daily, weight bearing, vigorous exercise. Osteoblasts (bone cells responsible for making new bone) must be stimulated to lay down new bone. If you eat all the right stuff but sit on your duff 90% of the time, your bone density will decrease. "Use it or lose it!"

7) If you choose to take a calcium supplement in addition to the above recommendations, then make sure you are getting the right supplement for the job. Most nutritionists and my favorite reference, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, recommend calcium citrate as the most absorbable form of calcium. Combine with magnesium citrate for mineral balance. You can purchase them together in a 2 calcium to 1 magnesium ratio available at your local health food store.

Imagine that you are building a house and your contractor tells you to buy wood. Yes, wood is an essential component of your house and perhaps the most important in terms of the integrity of the structure, but you will need more than wood to build a house. "Just wood", your contractor says, "the rest is not that important." So you buy wood and then more wood and more wood and still your house can not get built. Any sensible person would by now have fired their contractor for someone who actually understood that building a house is a complex process that requires synergy between thousands of components. It is so obvious and simple! So is building strong, healthy bones.

Don't become a statistic of the "calcium conundrum". We DO know how to build a healthy body complete with healthy bones - simply hire the right "contractor" and apply the seven step above.

(For an excellent article on the complexities of osteoporosis and the dangers the of drugs used to treat them visit www.mywomantowoman.com/bonehealth/osteoporosis.aspx)