While growing up, most of our parents often stress the importance of building healthy bones by pouring us a glass of milk at breakfast or sneaking some leafy veggies into our lunch boxes.
Many of us have adapted to this lifestyle of loading our body with foods that maintain strong bones but haven't considered avoiding foods that eat away at our bones.
Calcium is needed by the body to build strong bones, so any food that reduced the body's ability to absorb calcium will only degenerate and weaken your bones.
Here Are Seven Foods That Weaken Your Bones
1. Soft Drinks
Drinking a fizzy can of soda may be doing more damage to your bones than you think. Soft drinks are loaded with phosphoric acid, which increases blood's acidity levels. As a result, the body pulls calcium out of our bones to bring the acidity levels back to normal.
2. Coffee
Just like soft drinks, coffees can also decrease your body's ability to absorb calcium, hence weakening you. Limit your intake of caffeinated drinks and you should be fine.
3. Beef Liver
The liver is known to be the greatest source of animal-derived vitamin A, also known as retinol, which can clear up acne, boost eye health and increase the body's immunity.
However, experts suggest that excessive intake of beef liver can wreak havoc on the bones. "High intakes of the beef liver—greater than three ounces—could stimulate osteoclast activity or bone break down" - nutrition and dietetics expert says
4. Sodium-Rich Foods
As you age, eating a high-sodium diet causes your bones to degenerate. According to research, for every 2,300mg of sodium you consume, you lose about 40mg of calcium.
The best ways to reduce consumption of sodium is by skipping processed foods as much as possible, keeping salt shakers from the kitchen table, quit adding too much salt to meals while cooking.
5. Alcohol
This is another bone weakener. Alcohol prevents osteoblasts (bone-building cells) from absorbing any bone-friendly minerals, like calcium, which in turn slows down a broken bone's healing process and weakens the bones overall.
6 Carrots and Sweet Potatoes
Carrots and sweet potatoes are loaded with vitamin A which is known to remove calcium from the body. These healthy veggies can make bones weak when consumed in very high quantities.
According to calculations, this excess is about 4 potatoes per day and about 10-11 cups of raw carrots daily for a long period.
7. Hydrogenated Oils
Hydrogenated oils are man-made fats produced by contaminating vegetable oils with hydrogen gas under super-high pressure—which creates artery-blocking trans fats.
The process of hydrogenation destroys any naturally-occurring vitamin K, which helps to develop strong bones.
Avoid foods with trans fats which reduce your intake of vitamin K
