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If you think that your bones are merely some sort of framework or scaffolding for all the organs in your body, you are getting the wrong impression. The truth is your bones are living tissues, and they need nutrients to make them strong just like your muscles or skin. And if you can only take a look at bones on a cellular level, you will find that these tissues are in a constant process of being worn out and being rebuilt.

As you grow older, your bones wear out faster than they are rebuilt; this gives way to a disease known as osteoporosis. The overall effect of this disease is bone loss and it can turn anybody's life into a tragedy. In fact, there are over one and a half million bone fractures in America caused by osteoporosis. But the real bad fortune that the victims of these fractures have encountered is the fact that they could have easily prevented or reversed the effects of bone loss. And the best part of it all is that you can beat osteoporosis by eating the right food.

Protein-Rich Food

Protein is important for the bone-building process in your body. And the best sources of protein are meat, fish and poultry. The body needs about two ounces of protein each day; this translates to about six ounces of fish, chicken, or red meat; and the keyword here is lean meat!

But surely you have heard about the bad things that meat can bring to your system. Well, the idea here is moderation. If you consume more than the required amount of meat protein in your diet, there is a big tendency that your body will produce acidic waste products from excess protein in your body. When this happens, your kidneys will have a hard time cleaning up your system.

And here's the rub, when your kidneys are cleaning up excess acidic protein wastes in your body, they need the help of the mineral calcium to eliminate protein byproducts. The place where your kidneys can request for more calcium is in your bones; after all, your skeletal system is the biggest calcium stockpile in your body! If you do the math in all this, excess protein will give you calcium deficit and weaker bones. So take it easy with those meat products, keep your meat consumption to no more than six ounces a day.

Calcium-Rich Food

Fighting osteoporosis means maintaining a healthy amount of calcium in your bones. Always make sure that calcium is in the black if you do not want to deal with bone loss later in your life. To do this, you need around four servings of calcium-rich vegetables and low-fat dairy products. Cheese, yoghurt, spinach and collards are some of the stuffs that are rich in calcium.

However, it is important to note that people who are in their adult years experience rising levels of lactose intolerance; this means, older people have become increasingly unable to digest most dairy products. To compensate, older people can source their calcium needs from food such as soy products, seaweeds, broccoli, salmon and several types of beans. These items can well answer for your daily calcium needs without giving you upset stomach.

Always remember that too much of a good thing can be bad. As for calcium, having large amounts of this mineral in your system, may impede or interfere with the way your body can absorb other important minerals like magnesium and zinc. Instead of attaining strong healthy bones, too much calcium may bring you weaker bones.

It is also important to remember that bone supplements can greatly help you in balancing the amounts of nutrients needed by your bones.