Chewy Café

Them Bones

Bones form your body's framework and, along with your joints and muscles, help you
move. Your skeleton is made up of 206 separate bones. Although bones are hard, your
body is constantly losing bone and making new bone.

What you eat and how much you move your body greatly affect whether your body
builds strong bones.

Three important nutrients for strong bones are calcium, vitamin D and phosphorus.
About 99 percent of the calcium in your body is deposited in your bones, sort of like a
bank account. The other one percent circulates around in your blood to help with
important jobs like making your heart beat right and your blood clot when you get a cut.

If you don't get enough calcium from what you eat and drink, your body will withdraw
calcium from your bone bank to use in your blood– not a good thing for building strong
bones! If you don't get enough calcium, you could get a condition when you get older
called "osteoporosis," which means your bones are thin and weak. That's why it's
important to get enough calcium all your life—starting right now!

Lots of foods and drinks are chock-full of calcium like milk, yogurt, cheese (choose fatfree
and low-fat types most often) and calcium-fortified orange juice. But did you know
that pinto beans, almonds, oranges and even broccoli have calcium, too?

Vitamin D is like a traffic cop that directs your body to absorb the calcium you eat and
deposit it in your bones. D is called the "sunshine vitamin" because your body can make
its own vitamin D when the sun shines on your skin for a few minutes each day.

You also can get your D by drinking vitamin D-fortified milk and eating egg yolks (the
yellow part) or fish like salmon or sardines.

Phosphorus, like calcium, forms the structure of bones and teeth. Most protein foods
like milk, meats, poultry and beans have plenty of phosphorus. If you eat these foods
regularly, you're probably meeting your phosphorus needs.

When you do any activity like running, jumping rope or push-ups (called "weight-bearing"
exercise), your bones respond by storing more calcium so they'll be even stronger next
time.