I have been studying a lot about nutrition and health lately. My current interests are sugar and whole grains. Also, my husband, oldest daughter and I are eating a mainly vegetarian diet so I have been researching how to make sure we get everything we need. In all the reading I have done I have run across many very interesting facts that I think most people are not aware of. One that really stuck me the other day that I feel compelled to tell as many people as I can is about Osteoporosis. The book was saying that one of the nation's leading authorities on Osteoporosis said that calcium can help maintain the bones but does not add mass to the bones after 20-21 years of age. The book went on to explain that you can only prevent Osteoporosis at an early age. Calcium is what your body uses to build bones and add mass to bones. Your body only does this at a certain rate for a certain amount of years and then it stops around age 20-21. At that point your body only maintains the bone and it either looses or recycles the calcium you consume. So, to build the strongest bones with the most mass for the best chances against Osteoporosis you need to get a lot of calcium when you are younger. If your daughter does not like milk or other calcium rich foods like broccoli she will have less bone mass when she starts aging and has a much higher chance to get Osteoporosis. A doctor was quoted to say that Osteoporosis is a "pediatric disease with geriatric consequences."

Interesting. I did not know that.