The food you eat plays a crucial role in providing the nutrients you need for strong bones. However, some foods can cause bones to lose minerals and even impair their ability to regenerate. Here are the six most bone-damaging foods.
1. Caffeine
While caffeine might not be as bad as salt in the same dosage, its effects are similar, causing calcium to be leached from bones. For every 100 milligrams of caffeine consumed (equivalent to a small to medium cup of coffee), about 6 milligrams of calcium are lost. This might not seem like a lot, but it becomes a problem if you frequently replace bone-healthy beverages (like milk and fortified juices) with caffeinated drinks (such as iced tea and coffee).
What to do: Limit yourself to one or two cups of coffee in the morning and drink other caffeine-free beverages. Adding milk to your coffee is also a good idea.
2. Salt
Salt causes bones to lose calcium. Nutritionists say that for every 2,300 milligrams of salt you consume, you lose 40 milligrams of calcium. One study compared postmenopausal women on high-salt and low-salt diets and found that those who ate more salt lost more minerals from their bones.
How to do: The quickest and most effective way is to reduce your salt intake and eat fewer processed foods. Research shows that 75% of the salt consumed by most Americans comes from processed foods. Foods to cut back on include processed meats, frozen meals, canned foods, pizza, and fast food (like hamburgers, french fries, and canned vegetables).
3. Soft Drinks
Soft drinks are doubly harmful to bones. The carbonation in soda, usually from carbonic acid, increases the rate of calcium loss in urine. At the same time, soft drinks can make you feel full and quench your thirst, but they provide no nutritional value.
What to do: When you crave a cola, try drinking milk, or calcium and vitamin D-fortified orange juice, or flavored yogurt. When thirsty, it's best to drink water and then eat a food rich in bone-healthy nutrients.
4. Vitamin A
Recent research has found that people may be over-consuming good nutrients, such as vitamin A (found in eggs, full-fat dairy products, liver, and fortified foods). Vitamins are important for vision and the immune system. However, the American diet is typically rich in vitamin A, so it's easy to consume too much, even exceeding the daily recommended amount (5,000 International Units). Postmenopausal women, in particular, are sensitive to vitamin overdose. Studies have found that women who consume more than 5,000 IU of vitamin A per day have twice the risk of fractures as those who consume less than 1,600 IU per day.
What to do: Eat low-fat or non-fat dairy products and only eat the egg whites (since all the vitamins are in the yolk). Check if your multivitamin supplements are high in vitamin A, and if so, switch to another one.
5. Alcohol
Alcohol can be considered a calcium blocker, as it interferes with your body's ability to absorb the minerals needed to build bones. Excessive drinking can also disrupt the bone remodeling process. Therefore, alcohol not only weakens bones but can also impair your healing ability after a fracture.
What to do: Limit yourself to one drink per day, whether it's wine, beer, or spirits.
6. Hydrogenated Oil
Recent research has found that the hydrogenation process (which turns liquid vegetable oil into a solid) destroys the naturally occurring vitamin K in the oil. Vitamin K is essential for strong bones, and vegetable oils (such as canola and olive oil) are the second-largest source of vitamin K after green leafy vegetables. Even so, we get very little vitamin K from them; for example, one tablespoon of canola oil contains about 20 micrograms of vitamin K, one tablespoon of olive oil contains 6 micrograms, while a serving of spinach contains 120 micrograms.
What to do: If you regularly eat green leafy vegetables, you don't need to worry about this. If you're a fan of muffins and cookies, try to make them with canola oil. Learn to read labels and try to avoid foods containing hydrogenated oils.