Drink your milk

As women, it is especially important that we make sure we are getting enough calcium in our diets. For most of us that is hard to do. My doctor advised taking a supplement. That left me with a few questions worth addressing.

This is what I learned:

• We need calcium especially to help prevent osteoporosis. Calcium helps us to achieve maximum bone mass as well as helping to prevent the breakdown of that mass.
• According to womenshealth.org, Calcium: An Important Mineral For Women breaks down the amount of calcium we need at different hormonal times of our life.
• According to http://www.calciuminfo.com/, "Your body needs it every day not just to keep your bones and teeth strong over your lifetime, but to ensure proper functioning of muscles and nerves. It even helps your blood clot."
• It is important to utilize a supplement because we don't usually get the amount of calcium we need in our daily diets. Most of our usual 'food' resources are very fatty, which leads to other health problems. Some good, non-fatty sources of calcium include:

Broccoli, turnip greens, sardines, spinach, soy beverages, pink salmon, oatmeal, ocean perch, black strap molasses

To read more about bone health from the Surgeon General check out their report on the subject: Report

Appendix B. Food Sources Of Selected Nutrients , http://www.womenshealth.org/a/calcium_woman.htm, http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/bonehealth/