Our bone density begins declining earlier than you might think. But ensuring our diet is rich in certain nutrients can help to keep our skeletons strong.
Drinking milk will help you to grow strong bones. This is some of the first health advice many of us receive. As children, many of us were encouraged to finish our milk at break time with the promise that the calcium would help us to grow a strong and healthy skeleton.
Soy
There are plenty of non-dairy food sources that help you get calcium into your diet, says Ward. One of these are soy foods, such as tofu and edamame beans – 100g (3.5oz) of tofu contains 200mg of calcium.
But though this dairy-heavy advice is often seared onto our memories from an early age, what’s less talked about in my social circles now is just how common fragile bones are later in life – and how if we don’t protect our bones when we are younger, we open ourselves up to an increased risk of fractures.