Ways to women’s health life’s good | calcium intake
bone health and calcium
Maintaining strong and healthy bones is so important for girls and women, as hormonal changes may significantly impact our bone health as we age. Let’s unpack how our bone health changes as we progress through life, and how we can best support it through diet and lifestyle.
Link between calcium and bone health
Just like protein acts as the building blocks for our muscles, calcium acts as the building blocks for our bones. It gives our bones and teeth structure and strength, by combining with other important minerals to form hard crystals. Calcium also helps regulate our muscle and heart function. If we aren’t consuming enough calcium in our diet, then our body will draw out the calcium stored in our bones to be used for these other functions. This puts our bones at risk of becoming weak and brittle, and can lead to osteoporosis later in life.
Bone health through the life stages
Our bones grow at their fastest rate when we’re in childhood and early adolescence. This changes as we reach our late 20s to early 30s, where our bones start to bulk out rather than stretch up and achieve peak bone mass. Peak bone mass is the maximum density and strength that our bones will achieve throughout our life span. Once we reach menopause, we start to lose this bone mass and our risk of developing osteoporosis increases. It's important we adapt our calcium intake to support our bone health throughout these life stages.
Calcium requirements
Girls aged 1-8 years need between 500-700mg calcium every day to help support bone growth. This amount increases as we age, with girls aged 9-11 years needing 1000mg every day. Adolescents aged 13-18 years require 1300mg every day, though this decreases back to 1000mg between the ages of 19-50 years. Once we reach menopause (at around 50 years old), our daily calcium needs increase back to 1300mg per day to reduce the risk of osteoporosis. Here are our top food sources of calcium.
Calcium rich smoothie inspiration
Try our delicious smoothie recipes for inspiration to boost your calcium intake! You can tailor these to suit dairy free diets by swapping the milk and/or yoghurt for a calcium fortified milk alternative (such as soy milk).
Banana Berry Smoothies
Bircher Muesli Smoothies
Mango & Passionfruit Smoothie
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Content prepared by Nutrition Australia for healthylife
This page is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. If you have any concerns or questions about your health you should consult with a health professional.