Fruits And Vegetables Help Build Strong Bones For Your Child

Will a glass of orange juice, a crunchy salad, or a bowl of vegetarian chili help grow strong bones?
 Absolutely. Increasingly, research is pointing to diets  rich in fruits and vegetables for promoting bone health. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that higher intakes of fruits and vegetables throughout the teen years improve bone density in adulthood.  An array of nutrients—vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, and magnesium—found abundantly in fruits, vegetables, and other plant foods, have been shown to promote bone health.

-Vitamin C from citrus fruits, tomatoes, peppers, and other fruits and vegetables is essential for making collagen, the connective tissue that minerals cling to when bone is formed.

-Vitamin K is thought to stimulate bone formation. It is found most abundantly in dark leafy greens like kale and spinach, but is also readily available in beans, soy products, and some fruits and vegetables.

-Potassium decreases the loss of calcium from the body and increases the rate of bone building. Oranges, bananas, potatoes, and many other fruits, vegetables, and beans are all rich sources of potassium.

-Magnesium, like calcium, is an important bone mineral. Studies have shown higher magnesium intakes to be associated with stronger bones. “Beans and greens”—legumes and green leafy vegetables—are excellent sources of magnesium.

Fruits and vegetables are also important for what they don't do. Some foods—especially cheeses, meats, fish, and some grains—make the blood more acidic when digested and metabolized.  These foods add to the body's “acid load.” When this happens, bone minerals, especially calcium, are often pulled from the bones to neutralize these acids.
Diets high in fruits and vegetables actually tip the acid-base scales in the opposite direction and make it easier for bones to hold onto their calcium.

-Vitamin D is a hormone produced by sunlight on the skin.
It controls your body's use of calcium and is an important player in bone building.  A lack of adequate vitamin D results in rickets, a serious childhood bone problem.  Avoiding rickets is as easy as getting  a short daylight walk on most days or having a bowl of cereal with fortified soy or rice milk for breakfast.
 About 15 minutes of sunlight each day normally produces all the vitamin D your child needs. If your family gets little or no sun exposure, you can include any common multivitamin or a serving of a vitamin D-fortified food in your daily routine.
Consuming too much causes problems, so be sure not to overdo it.

-Calcium from Plant Sources

Children and adults lose calcium from the body every day, so we need to replenish it.
Healthful calcium sources are “beans and greens.” Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collards, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, and others are loaded with highly absorbable calcium and a host of other important nutrients. While these foods have a smaller amount of calcium per serving compared to dairy products, they have more calcium per calorie, and the calcium they contain is absorbed nearly twice as well as the calcium in cow's milk.
One cup of cooked kale, for example, has the same amount of absorbable calcium (100 milligrams) as one cup of cow's milk with less than half the calories.
Beans are a good source of calcium, too. Choose from baked beans, chickpeas, tofu, or other bean products, and you will find a taste to please every palate. Just a few ounces of tofu, a bowl of vegetable chili or creamy Broccoli Potato Soup  will provide your child with another healthful helping of absorbable calcium.
If you are looking for a concentrated calcium source, calcium-fortified orange
and apple juices as well as enriched soy and rice milks contain 300 milligrams or more of calcium per cup in a highly absorbable form. Your child only needs two-thirds of a cup of fortified orange juice, one cup of fortified soymilk, or one-third cup of Total Plus cereal to get the same amount of absorbable calcium as a small carton of cow's milk. Children readily enjoy tasty and healthy treats made with these calcium-rich foods, such as Orange  Power Pops  or cereal topped with berries and rice milk.

Recommended Calcium-Rich Foods

AVOIDING EXCESS BONE LOSS

A normal part of the bone-recycling process is the breakdown and release of calcium and other minerals into the bloodstream. These minerals are filtered through the kidneys and lost through the urine. Minimizing this loss is a smart strategy for protecting bones.

Here are important steps you and your child can take to avoid excess bone loss:

• Limit salty foods.

• Avoid protein from animal sources.

• Keep children away from smoking.

• Avoid caffeine.

-Salt

Researchers have known for a long time that higher salt (sodium) intake leaches calcium from the bones.

The kidneys have the job of filtering excess salt into the urine. When they let the sodium pass out of the body, calcium flows out with it. This means the more salt your children consum the more calcium they lose, and the more they need in their diets to replace the calcium that is leaving. Lowering salt intake will reduce bone breakdown and calcium loss. To do this, you may want to eliminate salty snack foods and canned goods with added sodium, and reduce or eliminate salt use on the stove and at the table.

-Protein from Animal Sources

In 1992, a researcher from Yale University studying animal protein intake and hip fracture rates in 16 countries around the world found that those with the highest meat, fish, egg, and dairy product consumption had the most fractures. They speculated that protein from animal products might stimulate bone breakdown and encourage calcium loss from the body.
Since then, other researchers have confirmed this observation.  As you will recall, animal protein-dense foods make the blood more acidic. The body responds by pulling calcium and other minerals out of bones to neutralize the acid and sending it out in the urine.
Building your child's diet from fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes is a good way to reduce this excess calcium loss and protect bones.

-Smoking

You already know that smoking increases susceptibility to colds and other respiratory illnesses and increases the risk of heart attacks and cancer.
But did you know that smokers excrete more calcium than non-smokers? A study of identical twins showed that if one twin was a long-time smoker and the other was not, the smoker had a 40-percent higher risk of a fracture.

-Caffeine

It may surprise you to learn that the caffeine in sodas, coffee, and other beverages and foods slightly increases the loss of calcium from the body.  
Try to get in the habit of serving water with meals. You may also want to keep little bottles in the refrigerator for kids on the go.
It makes good parenting sense to offer water first and nutritious juices, soy, or rice milks second.

Source : PCRM Parents Guide

Got the facts on Milk?
The Milk Documentary (2011)
Watch The DVD

To learn more about bone health foods here some recommended books:

Building Bone Vitality: A Revolutionary Diet Plan to Prevent Bone Loss and Reverse Osteoporosis--Without Dairy Foods, Calcium, Estrogen, or Drugs

For years, doctors have been telling us to drink milk, eat dairy products, and take calcium pills to improve our bone vitality. The problem is, they’re wrong. This groundbreaking guide uses the latest clinical studies and the most upto- date medical information to help you strengthen your bones, reduce the risk of fractures, and prevent osteoporosis. You’ll learn why there’s no proof of calcium’s effectiveness, despite what doctors say, and why a low-acid diet is the only effective way to prevent bone loss.

Whitewash: The Disturbing Truth About Cow's Milk and Your Health

Milk is good for us. We have been throughly brainwashed or "whitewashed" to think this by all the "Got Milk" ads and the multi-billion dollar milk industry.
Isn't milk supposed to be good for us and doesn't it make our bones healthy? Joseph Keon sites a multitude of articles and peer-reviewed medical journals and certain points of the book it is daunting to see the risks of milk. The sheer amount of research and overwhelming documentation against the benefits of milk and the risks and complications with drinking milk is disturbing. It's a milk fallacy that we have all grown up believing that we need to drink milk to be healthy. We are the only animals that drink milk after infancy.
Whitewash is an excellent, well-researched book. Read it and don't drink your milk!

Devil in the Milk: Illness, Health and the Politics of A1 and A2 Milk

This groundbreaking work is the first internationally published book to examine the link between a protein in the milk we drink and a range of serious illnesses, including heart disease, Type 1 diabetes, autism, and schizophrenia.