Joy Onuorah
A healthy balanced diet will help you build healthy bones from an early age and maintain them throughout your life.
Below are best foods to build and maintain healthy bones:
Calcium
Adults need 700mg of calcium a day. You should be able to get all the calcium you need by eating a varied and balanced diet.
Good sources of calcium include:
- milk, cheese and other dairy foods
- green leafy vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage and okra, but not spinach
- soya beans
- tofu
- plant-based drinks (such as soya drink) with added calcium
- nuts
- bread and anything made with fortified flour
- fish where you eat the bones, such as sardines and pilchards
Vitamin D
Adults need 10 micrograms (400 International Units or IU) of vitamin D a day.
It’s difficult to get all the vitamin D we need from our diet and we get most of our vitamin D from the action of the sun on our skin.
Good sources of Vitamin D are:
- oily fish, such as salmon, sardines and mackerel
- egg yolks
- fortified foods, such as some fat spreads and breakfast cereals
Sources of calcium for vegans
- fortified soya, rice and oat drinks
- soya beans
- calcium-set tofu
- sesame seeds and tahini
- pulses
- brown and white bread (in the UK calcium is added to white and brown flour by law)
- dried fruit such as raisins, prunes, figs and dried apricots
Sources of Vitamin D for vegans
- fortified fat spreads, breakfast cereals and plant-based drinks such as soya drink (with vitamin D added)
- vitamin D supplements