Dealing With Osteoporosis: 5 Drinks You Should Avoid To Improve Bone Health

Because of osteoporosis, one in two women and one in four men are likely to break a bone in their lifetime.

To put that into perspective, the condition is higher for women compared to their risk of experiencing "heart attack, stroke, and breast cancer combined," Eat This, Not That! report specified.

Osteoporosis, a disease that makes the bones weaker and more likely to break, affects 10 million Americans.

Meanwhile, 44 million Americans suffer from low bone density, which means they risk osteoporosis.

5 Beverages to Avoid for Healthy Bones

Regarding bone disease prevention, experts say an individual's lifestyle, including what's in his diet and how frequently he does strength training exercises if he is smoking or drinking alcohol, plays a vital role.

They warn, in particular, that certain beverages and habits increase their risk of osteoporosis and must be avoided at any cost.

Below are five beverages and drinking habits to avoid to achieve healthier bones, according to registered dietitians:

1. Alcoholic Beverage

If there's a single habit dietitians want people to change to prevent or avoid osteoporosis, it is excessively drinking alcohol, which means eight or more drinks each week for women or 15 or more drinks a week for men.

Bones depend on certain key nutrients, like vitamin D and calcium, to keep their strength. Essentially, alcohol increases how much calcium is excreted in the urine while interfering with vitamin D production, explained Samantha Cassetty, MS, RD, co-author of Sugar Shock.

2. Soda

One more substance that can increase calcium excretion through urine is phosphoric acid, according to Michele Rauch, RDN.

Unfortunately, soda happens to be loaded with this ingredient, giving drinks their tangy taste and stopping the growth of molds.

Aside from that, the caffeine from a soda can also interfere with the absorption of soda and result in bone loss.

3. Sports Drink

Commercial sports drinks contain 100 and 300 milligrams of sodium per serving. This means that to guarantee that the body is holding onto adequate calcium, an individual is better off drinking plain water to stay hydrated.

4. Sweetened Juices

A study published in Nutrition Journal showed that drinking more sugar-sweetened drinks can adversely affect adult bone mineral density.

Another research published in Missouri Medicine specified that over-consuming sugar increases the risk of osteoporosis in many ways.

For one, it raises the amount of calcium and magnesium, which are both bone-strengthening nutrients that are excreted through the urine.

Aside from that, it also lessens how much calcium the body can absorb by lowering the levels of active vitamin D in the system.

5. Some Types of Milk

Whether a person is buying cow's mil, oat mil, or almond milk, not searching for fortified products can be a huge mistake as far as supporting bone health is concerned. This is due to the fact that fortified milk contains an extra boost of vitamin D and calcium.

Related information about how to improve bone health is shown on Health Digest's YouTube video below:

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