Serving up Bone Strength

Today is World Osteoporosis Day.  Of course, this doesn’t mean it is celebration time, because lets face it, nobody wants to actually have osteoporosis. Quite a few do though and its a pretty common disease with over 1 million Australians affected.  Osteoporosis makes bones become brittle leading to a higher risk of breaks than normal bone.  It occurs when bones loses minerals, like calcium, more quickly than the body can replace them, causing a loss of bone thickness (bone density or mass). The reason we even have this marker on the global calendar, is to remind everybody that getting enough calcium is crucial to our wellbeing. Data at the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that calcium is the number one nutrient of concern in the Australian diet, with more than half of the population not getting enough. Dairy foods are the richest source of calcium in the diet and depending on your age and whether you are male or female, the Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend between 2.5 to 4 serves each day.  If you love dairy like I do, the size of a recommended serve is super easy to consume and you can choose a combination of 1 cup milk (250ml), 200g yoghurt or 40g of cheese.  If you have an intolerance or allergy to dairy, just make sure that you choose alternative products that are calcium fortified. Many of the alternatives either contain very little or no calcium naturally. Our current state of play of in life often means rushing around like the ball in a pinball machine and this means that planning and preparing nutritious, healthy meals can be a little (or a lot) testing. I love a good recipe book to flick through and I often get asked to share my favourite healthy recipes.  Imagine going one step further and having the delicious healthy recipes all planned out for you in a format that requires no calculation or fancy footwork on your part? You wish has been granted by Dairy Australia, who have developed some amazing seasonal five-day meal planners (complete with recipes), which are all rich in calcium, will boost bone strength and healthy goodness and quite frankly are just the ticket. You can choose from General Wellness and Fitness, Food for Kids, Family Food or Nutrition Over the Age of 50. All you need to do is sign-up HERE and they will be delivered straight to your inbox completely free. They all rock! Start building those bones people.