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Educate your patients on the importance of 3-A-Day of Dairy: Here's
a great
tool (PDF: 618k) to show families how to get their 3-A-Day of Dairy
every day for stronger bones.
Developed in conjunction with The American Academy of Family
Physicians, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Dietetic
Association, and The National Medical Association.
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Dairy Council Digest Archives
Preventing Osteoporosis: Starting In Childhood
Summary
Osteoporosis (porous bones) is a debilitating disease affecting primarily older adults. Yet, its prevention begins in childhood and adolescence by optimizing genetically determined peak bone mass during growth or skeletal development. A logical attempt to reduce future susceptibility to osteoporosis is to follow dietary and other behavioral practices such as exercise that maximize skeletal health beginning in childhood.
A dietary calcium intake of 800mg/day is recommended for children ages 4 through 8 years. For children and adolescents 9 through 18 years, 1,300mg of dietary calcium/day is recommended to maximize calcium retention and increase bone mass. Unfortunately, dietary calcium intake is low for many children and, in particular, adolescents. Low intake of milk and other dairy foods is a major contributor to the dietary calcium shortage among children and adolescents.
A variety of factors, including food choices, attitudes, and knowledge affect children's dairy food and calcium intakes. Skipping breakfast, not choosing milk at lunch, and/or selecting alternative beverages to milk (e.g., soft drinks, juices, fruit drinks) can jeopardize children's calcium intake. Concern about dietary fat intake and body weight may also limit dairy food and calcium intake. Children and adolescents need to become aware that calcium intake can be increased to recommended levels with dairy foods without increasing total calorie or fat intake, percent body fat, or adversely affecting blood lipid levels.
Increasing children's knowledge of how much calcium is needed and dietary sources of this nutrient can increase calcium intake. If their peers and parents (particularly mothers) consume dairy foods, children are more likely to consume these calcium-rich foods. Participating in child nutrition programs such as the school breakfast and lunch programs can increase children's intake of dairy foods and calcium. In contrast, eating-away-from-home at restaurants and fast food establishments is associated with low calcium intake.
Accumulating scientific findings indicate that increasing dietary calcium intake during childhood and adolescence to at least recommended intake levels improves bone health. Increasing intake of calcium through dairy foods benefits the overall nutritional quality of children's and adolescents' diets. Research links higher reported intakes of dairy foods such as milk during childhood and/or adolescence with greater bone mineral density and content in young adulthood and in later years. New findings also indicate that drinking milk in the early years may set the stage for similar habits of milk intake later in life.
It is never too early to adopt lifestyle behaviors including increasing dietary calcium intake through calcium-rich foods, regularly participating in physical activity, and avoiding cigarette smoking to optimize skeletal health and reduce future risk of osteoporosis.
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