Nutrition: Bones need nutrients too

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Healthy bones are crucial to long-lasting wellbeing. Here's a guide to the nutrients we
need to build and maintain healthy bones throughout our lifetime.

Like skin, tissue and muscle our bones too are constantly building and rebuilding, a
resource-hungry task that demands a supply of specific nutrients.

Especially important is a diet rich calcium, protein, vitamins D, C, B6, B12, folate and
riboflavin. Supplementation may be necessary at certain life stages and if we
are under stress but the ideal is always to get our nutrients from our diet.

So here is a list of bone building foods to focus on in your diet.

Vitamin B6

Fish: Tuna, Snapper, Cod, Salmon.
Spinach, peas, avocado, baked kumara.
Chicken and turkey.

Vitamin B12

Livers, beef, lamb.
Snapper, salmon, cod, halibut.
Cows' milk, yoghurt, bolied eggs.

Vitamin C
Papaya, Feijoa, strawberries oranges, melon and kiwifruit.
Bell Peppers, broccoli, brussel sprouts.

Riboflavin
Cheese, milk, yoghurt, eggs.
Beef, chicken livers, chicken.
Salmon, crab, sardines.
Mushrooms, spinach, broccoli.
Prunes, apricot, avocado.
Almonds, cashew, walnuts.

Folate
Lentils, pinto, lima & black beans, chickpeas.
Spinach, asparagus, beets, cauliflower, green beans, peppers, celery, carrot.
Oranges.
Calves liver.

Cooking and preparation

To preserve nutrients for our richest uptake of them it is best to cook most foods
as little as possible.

Meats and seafoods need safe, fast cooking but raw is best for all the rest.

All fruit and vegetables are best eaten raw to maximise health benefits. If this makes you flinch a little, then marinade veges in vinegar, oil and use dressings to match their savoury crunch with a rounder flavour.

But if you are serious about improving your health persist with regular raw veges,
you'll be surprised how quickly your palate adapts.

I trialled the raw diet last year for a few months and was amazed how quickly I
started to find raw veges really rewarding and flavoursome.

As a part-way step there choose to steam veges, they retain their goodness and
nutrients when lightly steamed.

Click here for a delicious bone building recipe.

Lani Lopez BHSc
AdvDip NatHealth is a naturopath, author and the founder of Lanilopez.com
For raw food recipes email Lani naturopath@lanilopez.com or follow her on
facebook.com/lanilopez.com