With an adequate amount of calcium in the body, our bones remain strong for long. With increasing bone problems and osteoporosis, it is important to know about nutrients that can promote bone health among vegans. This article focuses on the relation of bone health and plant based diet.
Bone Health And Plant Based Diet
Certain plant based diets are loaded with nutrients like calcium, phosphorous, and vitamins or proteins, which are helpful for bone health.1 Let us understand this in detail.
Dairy products, including milk, are indeed rich in calcium and vitamin D, but that is not all you need. Bone health depends on various factors like your gender, age, genetics, lifestyle and is definitely influenced by your diet and exercise routine. There are several plant based diets too that can be consumed so as to improve the bone health. So, consuming certain plant-based diet, such as fruits, legumes, vegetables, one can receive not only calcium, but also several other crucial nutrients responsible for an improved bone health, such as potassium, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, copper, and vitamins, like vitamin C, K, vitamin B12.
Before we read more about the bone health and plant-based diet, let us look at some of the most effective ways to optimize our bone health.
- Exercises, like lifting weights, walking, running, and regular exercises, are some of the effective ways to maintain healthy bones and strong muscles.
- It is also essential to get exposure to the sun so that you get enough vitamin D that helps in better absorption of calcium and improves bone health.
- Consuming calcium rich diet, mainly from plant sources such as leafy green vegetables, like broccoli, cabbage, kale, along with orange juices, almonds, almond butter, beans and oranges, could help in improving bone health. This mainly supports the relation of bone health and plant based diet.
- It is also essential to have a healthy diet that helps to detoxify. Consuming fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, psuedograins like buckwheat and wild-rice. It is important to avoid processed foods, especially sodas and sugars, that promote poor bone mineralization.
Bone Health and Plant Based Diet – The Calcium Link
Almost all of the calcium in our body, is in the bones and teeth. There is a tiny amount of calcium in the bloodstream, which is responsible for crucial functions, like muscle contraction, maintenance of heartbeat, and transmission of the nerve impulses. Through urine, sweat and feces, we regularly lose calcium from our bloodstream. However, it is renewed with calcium from our bones or from the diet that we take.
Our bones are constantly broken and renewed. Up, until the age of 30, we build more bone than we actually lose. However, after 30, more bones are lost than they are build up. The loss of excessive bone calcium can result in fragile bones or osteoporosis, which is common in aging people. How fast, calcium is lost depends, in the diet we take and lifestyle we live.
As calcium is also found in plenty in a plant based diet, consuming vegan foods can also greatly help to develop bone health. In fact, plant based diet is rich in proteins, low in fats and also provides several essential nutrients, which add to your bone health.
Conclusion:
From the above explanation, it must be clear that it is important to consume enough of calcium in our diet, so as to improve the bone health; and plant-based diets such as green leafy vegetables, fruits, and legumes plays a great role in improving the calcium amount in the body and promote bone health. Apart from this, do maintain a healthy lifestyle by exercising and taking enough of vitamin D from the sun.
