Eat Green Veggies for Strong Bones

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Eat your greens! They're chock full of vitamin K. Dark green vegetables, like spinach and kale, may be the secret to healthy bones in women. Deficiency of vitamin K can lead to osteoporosis.

Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Nursing in Ann Arbor report healthy bone growth depends on adequate consumption of vitamin K. Most young women don't get enough of the vitamin to build strong bones and ultimately prevent osteoporosis.
Vitamin K is essential to make the bone protein osteocalcin fully functional. With adequate vitamin K, osteocalcin binds to calcium, strengthening bones. When estrogen levels decline during menopause, women experience an impairment in the function of vitamin K.
Researchers studied the bone density, diet, and blood tests of healthy middle-aged and young-adult women. The study reveals women are not getting enough vitamin K to maintain bone health before menopause.

They report women should try to strengthen their bones before menopause when declining production of estrogen causes bone density loss. Weight-bearing exercises can help young women protect their bones. All women should try to boost their intake of vitamin K, write the researchers.

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Note: As explained in The Milk Imperative, dairy milk contains little vitamin K. Worse still, the antibiotics in pasteurized milk virtually cancel out many of the vitamins contained in the milk consumed. Research shows that vitamin K in dairy milk hardly gets absorbed or used by the body because of antibiotics. For more information go to http://www.milkimperative.com/.