Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Best Foods to Get Healthy Bones!

(image credit to shutterstock)
Are you looking for best foods to get healthy bones? Well, there are two major nutrients when we are talking about how to build and get strong bones that are vitamin D and calcium. The quality of structure of teeth and bones of your body is so influenced by the intake of calcium. And vitamin D has function to improve the absorption of calcium and also important for bone growth.

So, either vitamin D intake or calcium intake is important, particularly when you were a child, but both nutrients are also still important for adults. -- You may also like to read best foods for fat burning!

One of common diseases if you get lack intake of vitamin D or calcium is osteoporosis. This disease is also so influenced by your age. Older age usually will have higher risk to get osteoporosis attack. Therefore, over than 50 years old should get more intakes of vitamin D and calcium (400-600 IUs (international units) of vitamin D and 1,200 mg of calcium). And if you are categorized for adult up to age 50, you should get 200 IUs of vitamin D and 1,000 mg of calcium -- according to a published article on Health.com.

Back to the topic, the following are best foods that can be a high source of calcium or vitamin D, which eventually will be helpful to promote good health and structure of your bones if you consume these foods regularly.

Yogurt

As well we know that a lot of vitamin D can be absorbed into your body through exposure to the sunlight (especially in the morning). But the sunlight is not single source of a high amount of vitamin D. There are certain foods that also can be used for a good source of vitamin D, like yogurt. A cup of yogurt also can be a creamy option for our daily calcium. Choose a fat-free plain yogurt for better result for healthy bones and also helpful to promote good health of your entire body.

Spinach

You might be familiar with a popular cartoon figure of ‘Popeye’! Yes-- he loves so much with spinach, and after eating spinach he will be getting stronger. This is so reasonable because spinach contains a lot of positive substances to promote good health, like vitamin A, fiber, iron and also calcium. A cup of cooked spinach can supply around 25 percent of our daily calcium requirement.

Sardine, salmon, and tuna!

Sardines can be categorized into tiny fish, but regardless their size they can be welcome option for a high source of calcium and vitamin D. Moreover, they can be found easily in your area wherever you are, because they are popular packaged into cans. We can make them for some delicious meals, like salads or pastas.

And then for salmons, they are popular with a high amount of omega 3 fatty acids, which so useful to promote good health for your heart. But they also can be good source of vitamin D. Three ounce piece of sockeye salmon can supply more than 100 percent of our daily vitamin D. So there are two big advantages that we can get from salmon, we can keep the quality & health of our bones and also our heart.

And another good fish for a high source of vitamin D is ‘tuna’. 3-ounces of canned tuna can supply around 39 percent of our daily dose of the sunshine vitamin (154 IU).

Eggs

Eggs are one of best ideas for simple and quick option to get vitamin D (although only can supply around 6 percent of our daily vitamin D requirement). The vitamin D in eggs is higher in the yolk.

Cheese

Cheese is one of popular foods that has high amount of calcium, but avoid eating or consuming it in excess! Enjoy in moderation-- just 1.5 ounces of cheddar cheese will be helpful enough to provide around 30 percent of your calcium requirement a day. But although in cheeses also can be found vitamin D, but it is not too enough to supply your daily vitamin D requirement.

Fat-free milk

Today, we can find many products of milk with a high source of calcium and vitamin D. But make sure you choose one with fat-free tag. 8-ounces of fat-free milk will be able to provide 90 calories and also high calcium & vitamin D intake. You can also blend milk into a sauce or a smoothie if you are individual who doesn’t like to drink milk daily.