Another healthy tip courtesy of Drs. Mira and Jayson Calton

“Make a Perfect Plate to Oust Osteoporosis! Try having organic Greek yogurt and a few dried prunes for breakfast, Salad with canned salmon and gouda cheese, avocado and sunflower seeds for lunch and Steak with sautéed onions and sweet potato for Dinner,” says, Mira and Jayson Calton, PhD from their latest book, Rich Food, Poor Food: readers get a unique Grocery Purchasing System (GPS) to navigate the grocery store aisles with ease, identifying micronutrient-Rich Foods (those that contain higher amounts of the vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids that the body needs to perform all the functions of healthy living.), while avoiding over 150 Poor Food ingredients such as pesticides, carcinogens, hormones, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Here’s why:

Breakfast: Yogurt and Dried Prunes.

Your bones require many micronutrients to stay strong. And you can’t absorb micronutrients without good strong gut bacteria. Start with an organic Greek yogurt and a few dried prunes. The yogurt gives you healthy bacteria to keep your gut ready to absorb vitamins and minerals. Purchase organic to ensure the dairy cows were not treated with rGBH (synthetic hormones). A Florida State University study proved that eating a serving of prunes every day stopped bone loss and increased bone density in post-menopausal women. The high fiber content in these wrinkled wonders also reduced hunger in study participants. Osteoporosis is the pits. To reduce your risk for it, enjoy these pitted delights.

Lunch: Salad with canned salmon and gouda cheese, avocado and sunflower seeds.

Don’t choose a spinach salad. Spinach has too much oxalic acid, which depletes magnesium and calcium. Opt for romaine and load it up with an array of brightly colored vegetables. Then add Gouda cheese to the top. This cheese of Dutch origin is the third-highest source of the elusive vitamin K2. Only natto, a Japanese fermented soybean dish, and goose liver pate surpass it. There are two natural forms of vitamin K—K1, which comes from plants and is essential for blood clotting, and K2, which comes from bacterial/animal sources and may reduce the risk of osteoporosis, arterial calcification, rheumatoid arthritis, and even certain types of cancer. Chop up 3 ounces to be eaten over the day or dice into your salad here.

Add salmon: This fatty fish is a delicious source of vitamin D, which helps the body metabolize and absorb the calcium in food. Vitamin D is converted to its active form in the kidneys, enabling it to help with calcium absorption. Additionally, omega-3 in the salmon also helps absorb and retain calcium. The bones in the canned salmon are nearly impossible to see or taste but they add in a large dose of calcium to your meal.

The sunflower seeds and avocado are loaded with healthy fats, and also vitamin E, which aids in the utilization of that elusive vitamin K.

Dinner: Steak with sautéed onions and sweet potato

Beef: Don’t be cared of earlier reports that protein is bad for your bones. According to a systematic review including 61 studies from the past three decades published in Amer. Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicates that despite common misconceptions protein doesn’t negatively impact bone health. Choose your meat wisely. Purchase grass-fed organic beef for its higher levels of healthy fats like CLA and omega-3, and lower amounts of omega-6 and saturated fat than grain-fed cows.

Onions are loaded with numerous bone-building compounds. First, they contain something called F-L-glutamyl-trans- S-1-propenyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide that may inhibit the activity of cells responsible for breaking down bones. Onions also contain quercetin and kaempferol, two phytochemicals that may increase bone density. These white bone builders also promote bone health because they contain inulin, a plant fiber that has been shown to increase calcium absorption by 33 percent. So serving onions in a cream sauce may be a prescription for an osteoporosis free future. These numerous nutrients may help to explain why the women of Turkey, who have the highest consumption of onions in the world, also have the lowest osteoporosis fracture rate in Europe.

Sweet potato: Sweet potatoes are a fabulous source of potassium, which research suggests may boost bone health. Studies have found that people whose diet contains plenty of potassium have denser bones. They also lose less calcium in their urine.

- Mira and Jayson Calton, PhD