Specific Diet Changes Maintain Stronger Bones

by Kimberly Johnson March 8, 2018

written by Kimberly Johnson March 8, 2018

Specific Diet Changes Maintain Stronger Bones

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Study Shows that Specific Diet Changes Lead to Maintaining Stronger Bones

What do you eat to make your bones stronger? Specific Diet Changes Maintain Stronger Bones
You likely know diet plays a big role in your bone health. But do you know what foods provide the most support for your bones? Specific Diet Changes Maintain Stronger Bones
You may look to the “usual suspects” your bones prefer, like vitamin D, magnesium, and calcium-rich foods.
But planning your meals around one, two, or three nutrients is short-sighted. You need to consider your FULL diet… and a lot more nutrients.
Want to know what types of foods are loaded with the nutrients your bones need, so you don’t need to pour over hours of articles and studies to find out?
Let me share with you the foods proven to support the health of your bones, and quite frankly, your entire body.
Let’s look at a recent, first-of-its-kind study that made it crystal clear what we should be eating:
Researchers at Ohio State University reviewed data from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), the largest study of postmenopausal women’s health in U.S. history.
The WHI studied women aged 50-79 between 1993 to 1998. Its organizers hoped to learn more about how to prevent and control older women’s diseases.
But Tonya Orchard, the lead researcher, and her colleagues at Ohio State University drilled down deeper. They wanted to understand the relation between inflammation and bone density. So, they looked at a subset of 160,191 women and their dietary data before the study.
They ranked the women by inflammation score, a score they assigned based on 32 foods the women ate — from most to least inflammatory.
Here’s what they found:

Women with the lowest inflammatory diets lost less bone in the six-year follow-up period than those eating diets that scored higher in inflammation.
White women under 63 with lower inflammatory scores had a lower risk of hip fracture compared to those with high inflammatory scores. The women with higher scores had a 50% greater risk of fracture.
Women with lower inflammatory scores had overall lower bone density to start with, pre-study. Despite this, their higher inflammatory counterparts still lost more bone during the study.
The conclusion drawn in the study, which appeared in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research: “This suggests that a high-quality, less-inflammatory diet may be especially important in reducing hip fracture risk in younger women.”

Chronic inflammation is often referred to as a silent killer because its signs and symptoms are often subtle, but it’s constantly causing damage inside you. Chronic inflammation is now thought to be a key factor in everything from bone health and diabetes to depression, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease. That’s why preventative measures — like adding more anti-inflammatory foods to your diet — are critical to overall health. Anti-inflammatory foods, like organically grown vegetables and fruits, cold water, wild-caught fish, and fermented foods like organic full fat yogurt are a delicious, natural treatment for osteoporosis that can easily be incorporated into everyday life. Plus, while you’re keeping your bones healthy, you’ll be reducing chronic inflammation and helping to keep the whole host of age-related degenerative diseases at bay.
By Lara Pizzorno, MDIV, MA, LMT

Lara Pizzorno is the author of “Your Bones: How You Can Prevent Osteoporosis and Have Strong Bones for Life – Naturally” and a member of the American Medical Writers Association with 29 years of experience specializing in bone health. Lara is the Resident Bone Health Expert at AlgaeCal, the Editor of Longevity Medicine Review, a Senior Medical Editor for SaluGenecists Inc., and Integrative Medicine Advisors, LLC.