Live It Articles Maintenance

Maintaining a healthy bone structure is a serious issue in our country. The Surgeon General recently announced: 

• Ten million Americans over the age of 50 have osteoporosis.
• Another 34 million have osteopenia-bone density that is lower than normal, though not quite low enough to be called osteoporosis.
• Four out of 10 women. age 50 or older. will break a hip, spine, or wrist during their lifetime.
• Nearly one in five hip fracture patients end up in a nursing home within a year.
• By 2020, half of all Americans over the age of 50 will be at risk for fractures from weak bones.

We all have learned how important calcium and proper exercise is for building and maintaining healthy bones. Research continues to support those facts. However, researchers now believe you can do more. Bess Dawson-Hughes of the USDA Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston states that bone loss can't be completely obliterated as we age, but we can mitigate it. She states, "people can cut bone loss by a third with calcium, vitamin D, and exercise. It is now known that a whole spectrum of other nutrients, such as vitamin K, potassium, Vitamin A, and even protein (when proper amounts of calcium are consumed) can be very beneficial to maintain strong bones." Eating a variety of foods as you follow the First Place Live-It will insure that you get proper nutrition.

According to Lynda Frassetto from the University of California, we need to eat more fruits and vegetables. She explains that Americans eat more food that produces acid than alkali (which buffers the acid). Too much acid is bad for the system, so the body spends a lot of time and effort to get rid of it. Fruits and vegetables, which produce alkali, save the body from having to go to the largest reservoir of stored alkali in the bones. Dawson-Hughes supports this theory stating "Eat more fruits and vegetables and you don't have the acid-load problem."

One change that has been recommended by the panel of experts to the USDA for the new Pyramid is "5 vegetable servings" a day. I think it would be great if First Place members begin to aim at five vegetable servings each day.   The dietician at our local community hospital spoke to my First Place group a couple of weeks ago. She challenged us to eat five servings of vegetables each day and even promised a weight loss for each person who completed that challenge if they were on a healthy eating plan. It works!

I challenge you to make May your "5 a Day" vegetable challenge! Let me know if this works for you.

May God Protect,

Kay
First Place Associate Director


Kay is the associate national director of First Place and has been on the First Place staff since 1987.

Kay is a popular speaker at retreats, seminars, Conferences, FOCUS Weeks and Workshops across the country. Kay is the First Place food exchange expert and writes a monthly article in the First Place E-Newsletter on nutrition. She also was a contributing writer to the Today Is the First Day devotional book. Her delightful personality and love for people endears her to everyone she meets, and they quickly become her new best friend.

Kay and her husband, Joe, live in Roscoe, TX. They have two children and five grandchildren. Two of the young grandchildren are making a name for themselves on the golf circuit. Two of the young grandchildren are making a name for themselves on the golf circuit, and the three oldest grandsons are all involved in numerous sporting events, which Kay and Joe attend as often as possible.