Promoting Lifelong Bone Health: Promoting Bone Building

Bones are a matrix of collagen (the same material used for building joints), water, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and other minerals.

How to keep these bone–building cells busy:

Get moving! Be active and exercise every day. Exercise gives bones a reason to live. When bones are put to work, especially in weight–bearing activities such as running, basketball, gardening, and weightlifting, they respond by becoming stronger and denser.

In a study of women 45 years and older, those who exercised four or more times per week as teenagers were only one–fourth as likely to fracture a hip as those who exercised once or not at all per week.⁴

Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Bone health is promoted by an array of nutrients—vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, and magnesium—found abundantly in fruits, vegetables, and other plant foods. This is yet another good reason to load up on fruits and vegetables.^5–7

Fruits and vegetables are also important for what they don’t do. Some foods—especially cheeses, meats, and fish—make the blood more acidic when digested and broken down.⁸ 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.⁹ Fruits and vegetables actually tip the acid–base scales in the opposite direction and make it easier for bones to hold onto their calcium.⁸

Get vitamin D from the sun or from supplements. Vitamin D is a hormone produced by sunlight on the skin. It controls your body’s use of calcium and is important for bone building.¹⁰ Getting enough vitamin D is as easy as taking a short daylight walk on most days or having a bowl of cereal with fortified soy or rice milk for breakfast.

Get calcium from plant foods and fortified products. (See Healthful calcium sources for more details)