1. Salt: Salt causes you to lose calcium from your bones. 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 the women who ate more salt lost more minerals from their bones.
How to do it: 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 dinners, canned foods, pizza, and fast food (such as hamburgers, french fries, and canned vegetables).
2. Soft drinks: Soft drinks are doubly harmful to your bones. The fizz in soda usually comes from carbonation, which increases the rate of calcium loss in urine. At the same time, soft drinks can fill you up, making you feel thirsty, but they don't provide any nutritional value.
How to do it: When you crave a soda, try having milk, or calcium and vitamin D-fortified orange juice, or a fruit-flavored yogurt instead. When you're thirsty, it's best to drink water and then eat a food rich in bone-strengthening nutrients.
3. Caffeine: Caffeine may not be as bad as salt in the same dose, but its effects are similar, causing you to lose calcium from your bones. For every 100 milligrams of caffeine you consume (equivalent to a small to medium cup of coffee), you lose about 6 milligrams of calcium. That doesn't sound like much, but if you frequently replace bone-healthy beverages (like milk and fortified juices) with caffeinated ones (like iced tea and coffee), it can become a problem.
How to do it: Limit yourself to one or two cups of coffee in the morning, and then drink other decaffeinated beverages. Adding milk to your coffee is also a great idea.