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what do we need to eat for good bone healing?

Good bone healing is important at many times of our lives, whether its during childhood, after a fracture, after an osteoporosis diagnosis or post menopausal we need to look after our bones. Of course, there are things to eat to promote good bones that we need lots of in our diet and there is also something that makes bone health worse. So lets go through the things to eat more of first:

1. Get non dairy sources of calcium in your diet. They are more easily absorbed by the body than dairy sources – you can find calcium in green leafy vegetables like kale and bok choy, almonds, sesame seeds, tahini, tinned sardines and salmon when you eat the bones
2. Calcium needs magnesium to be absorbed into the bones, if you are low on magnesium you wont be able to use the calcium as effectively – get more by eating green leafy vegetables, almonds and pumpkin seeds
3. Vitamin D is also required in abundance to absorb calcium. We get the majority of our vitamin D from the sun and in the UK, particularly in the north we do not get enough sunshine especially during the winter. You can get some from mushrooms but from october through to march its best to supplement. You do need to be careful though with vitamin D, it is a fat soluble vitamin and can reach toxic levels if you take too much. You can get a test online for around £30 to determine your levels so you can supplement safely
4. Finally, you need vitamin K for good calcium absorption – you can get more in those green leafy vegetables already mentioned plus broccoli, spinach and sprouts

There is one thing though that you absolutely need to avoid if you are needing to promote good bone health and thats fizzy drinks. Fizzy drinks contain phosphorus, high phosphorus causes significant damage to the body. So, in an attempt to protect you from the damage the body actually removes calcium from your bones to bind to the phosphorus so it cant harm you. Thus, bone density decreases with fizzy drinks. Your body will prioritise reducing the phosphorus over you having strong bones because weak bones doesnt threaten your life, high phosphorus does!

So, if you’re healing from a fracture, are osteoporotic or post menopausal get the fizzy drinks out, get the green leafy vegetables in (3-4 times a week) and get your 10 minutes of sunshine a day.

If you need any extra advice feel free to call The Food Physio on 07958 686018.

*Please note – seek medical advice if you have sarcoidosis as supplementing Vitamin D is contraindicated